- 18 hours ago
Atlanta Hawks head coach Quin Snyder previews the upcoming NBA season. Coach Snyder discusses the team's identity, playing with pace, attacking the rim, and relying on elite perimeter defense from Lu Dort, Dyson Daniels, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker. Plus, he breaks down the growth of Jalen Johnson, integrating new veterans, and expectations for rookies Kingston Flemings and Zuby Ejiofor.
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00:00Coach, how was the offseason from a basketball and non-basketball standpoint?
00:05Let the listeners know how you're doing.
00:07I'm good.
00:09This time of year, it's actually busier than you even would think
00:15because you're trying to get everything in, and there's never enough time.
00:19We've all experienced that in one way, shape, or form.
00:24You feel like you're signing off for your kids and family for a little bit.
00:30I always try to work on that, but I've got a group of guys that you can't help
00:34but be excited about, both just as teammates and guys that I get to coach
00:42and also the potential that you look at
00:45and hope that we have an opportunity to really grow.
00:48I heard you talking about some of those teams in the East, and you're right.
00:52Hopefully, we can climb in there and compete and battle and get better.
00:58Quinn Snyder with us, head coach of the Atlanta Hawks.
01:01I know the answer, but I'll ask, and you can give me the proverbial response.
01:05But I would imagine you have next to no time to be worried about where the Jalen Browns
01:13and LeBron James and Giannis' end up.
01:15You have your basketball team that had a phenomenal run on the back half of the year.
01:19You've got a lot of pieces that are going to play that are new.
01:22So as much as the fans are excited with all the offseason stuff,
01:27you've got to focus on your team and getting them ready.
01:30Yeah, it's a good point.
01:33My focus has been, like on Sunday, getting to the flag football game that my little guy had,
01:39and that was fun.
01:40And so Jalen Brown, we know who he is, and we know where he is.
01:46And really, the focus dials in on some of those players that you mentioned,
01:52the Giannis' when you play those teams.
01:54But to your point's sake, I think we're really trying to develop,
01:59to build on the continuity we had and to figure out how to integrate some of these guys that we
02:05added.
02:07And we feel like that focus right now.
02:10And then really, as you know, we're going to find out a lot more as we start playing.
02:15And that process keeps going.
02:18And I told our guys the other day, like really, for us to become the best version of ourselves,
02:25I think if we can really stay focused on that,
02:28we see a team that will continue to get better and to really be able to compete.
02:33Getting better, something your staff has been brilliant at, back-to-back,
02:38most improved players of the year, guys that are coming into their own.
02:42And Jalen Johnson, just another guy that has started to get to superstar status.
02:48So what about the core?
02:50Dyson and Jalen and Nikhil and Emeka and, you know, that group.
02:58How big is the ceiling for this group of players?
03:01You know what, it's interesting you mentioned the improvement.
03:05I think all those guys, as much as they feel like and we feel like they've taken steps,
03:12I think we've got to be hungry for more.
03:16The steps now are harder to find.
03:19It's not just on Jalen and Jalen shooting threes, but maybe it's shooting more threes.
03:25Maybe it's defending in a different situation, running, playing through.
03:30The incremental gains are harder to come in one area.
03:34And it kind of goes with the second part of that state,
03:37is those guys all making each other better.
03:40I think that's what we started to feel at the end of the last year.
03:43And that's always, when we have more people involved in the offense,
03:47more people involved, there's more margin for error in other places.
03:52And that's something that we have to really be focused on collectively
03:56because we need to help each other.
03:59And we need the whole to be greater than the sum of the parts.
04:01And that doesn't mean the parts aren't really, really good.
04:05And we're excited about those guys that you just mentioned
04:09and feel like they can continue.
04:11It's hard to win most improved player two years in a row,
04:14but that doesn't mean that Nikhil can't take real steps with his game.
04:18And I'd say the same thing about the other guys, too.
04:21How much, and being a guy that is an NBA historian a little bit
04:27for my whole lifetime, the pattern is you've got to learn in the playoffs
04:32and then you get to the next step.
04:34How much learning do you think happened in the last three games of that Knicks series
04:37and how does that make all those guys better, hungrier, stronger
04:41as we continue to evolve?
04:43Yeah, I will, having had enough conversations with you,
04:47I will give you a nod on the history of the league.
04:52And you're right.
04:54Usually you don't see teams jump, take huge jumps in just one year.
05:01And the reason being, you find out competitively where you are.
05:07It's a litmus test.
05:09And particularly, you know, we saw a team that was competing on a very high level
05:13and then suddenly was not.
05:16So you address that a lot of ways.
05:18I think you're explicit about it.
05:20You can talk about it.
05:21And then I think everybody has a sense that burns deep down in your bones.
05:27And, you know, there's a long way to get there.
05:31But I think that motivation needs to start for us from the beginning.
05:35As you've mentioned, there just aren't, there's, everybody's trying to win games.
05:41And everybody seems like they've gotten better in the East.
05:45And so there's a little bit of an unknown.
05:47And your hope is that that urgency, you know, starts immediately.
05:53And you can't wait until you get back to the playoffs to have that opportunity.
05:57You've got to get to the playoffs, you know.
05:58And to get to the playoffs, you've got to get better.
06:01And that's why I keep hitting on all that.
06:03Because I think that's a crucial thing for us.
06:05Because we have still such a young group and new guys that, you know, we need to take steps.
06:12Talking to Quinn Snyder, head coach of the Hawks, getting ready to start their season tomorrow.
06:15Busy week, obviously, for Atlanta.
06:17They're home on Saturday night, which should be awesome, against the Rockets in the home opener.
06:21Other than that, they've got Orlando and Charlotte coming up this week.
06:24Let's talk about some of the new guys.
06:25We've got about a few minutes left.
06:26Let's start with two guys with NBA championship rings, Lou Dort and Aaron Wiggins.
06:32What do these guys give us, particularly Lou Dort, a guy we're more familiar with?
06:37How does that fit into what we're trying to do?
06:41Yeah, you know, Lou has been just what kind of we anticipated as far as his presence defensively.
06:50Really encouraging him to shoot open threes.
06:53I think no hesitation in those situations.
06:56Because not only can he make them, but we can rebound them.
07:00A little bit of a change for him is, I think, playing faster.
07:06We're also asking Lou to play multiple positions, which I think is tough.
07:10Particularly when you haven't been.
07:12When you've had continuity in Oklahoma City like he had for so long.
07:16But his versatility really, he can guard so many bigger guys.
07:22He's guarded everybody from Giannis to Jason Tatum.
07:25I think he even guarded Jokic at certain points in the playoffs.
07:30Aaron Wiggins.
07:32Wiggs is a very, very good basketball player.
07:37He's got a unique feel for the game.
07:39You'll see that when you watch him play.
07:42A feel and an intelligence.
07:45And has a knack for putting the ball in the basket.
07:47I think the good thing about those guys and all the individual qualities I just named is they know what
07:53it's about being on a winning team.
07:54And they know what it means to do those intangible things that help you win.
08:01And I'm going to transition into Kingston because I know we're coming next on him.
08:07Absolutely.
08:08You know, unfortunately, Henry Vitar, you know, hurt his knee and it's going to be out right now.
08:13But the two other young guys that we have, it's been fun to see them play to their strengths.
08:19You know, we met for a little while in Kingston yesterday and just talked about his development in this short,
08:25you know, short beginning of the season.
08:28And his catch and shoot threes, he's getting in the rim.
08:32I think he's figuring out how aggressive to be defensively.
08:36One of the thing that you don't really, you just can't experience until you're around him a lot is just
08:43the intangibles, the intelligence, the feel for his teammates.
08:49Here's a guy that has a knack for kind of looking at a bigger picture and being someone that is
08:55thinking about someone else on the court.
08:56And it sounds simplistic, but it's such a rare thing, particularly for a guy that has the ball in his
09:03hands.
09:04And Zuby makes a play every, you know, so often, whether it's two in a day or one every other
09:10day,
09:11where he just does something that you kind of look at the guy next to you and say, did he
09:15just do that?
09:17Because they're dynamic plays.
09:19And so that's been fun to see.
09:21And he's going to keep getting better.
09:23I think Zuby right now won't have the opportunities that Kingston will early in the season.
09:31But I think sometimes, Jake, as you know, we rush to judgment on players.
09:36And it's like the worst thing that you can do, particularly with a younger player.
09:40To me, sometimes I forget that guys are 19 when they come into the league.
09:43And I'm thinking it's mind-boggling how prepared a lot of guys are.
09:48And then even guys that are prepared, you know, it's a longer curve for a lot of people because of
09:54circumstances.
09:55So we like our young players, and we think they're going to keep getting better.
09:59And we're going to keep working with them, and we're all going to be patient, too.
10:03But we are going to see a lot of Kingston Flemings early in the year, whether he's starting or not.
10:09But a guy that's ready to contribute is a kid coming out of the Houston program.
10:13I think you're right, Jake.
10:14I think you're right.
10:15Okay.
10:16Before we go, we turn on the TV, and you guys are all over.
10:19I guess it's Atlanta News first, over-the-air, free TV.
10:23We're turning on the Hawks all week.
10:25How do we know when we're playing Hawks basketball?
10:28What is that going to look like?
10:30To look like we did late in the year, the last 25 games,
10:33what do we have to see when we're watching the Hawks to know this train continues to roll forward?
10:40Yeah.
10:41Real quick, just congratulations to the Dream.
10:44Yeah, that was awesome.
10:45On getting it done last night.
10:48And, you know, we'll see them, whether we see them.
10:51You know, tough for us to watch on Saturday because we're playing, too.
10:54But what a fun run, and what a game that they just pedaled down.
11:01I think for us, Jake, with a couple things.
11:06I think you'll see the ball advancing down the court quickly.
11:11You know, a lot of times, hopefully with the pass, where the ball is passed ahead,
11:16for the simple reason that it's, you know, it's faster than dribbling.
11:21That's not to say that we won't push it off the court on the dribble.
11:24So I think pace is something that's important for our team.
11:28I mean, that's how we're built.
11:31We've got some guys that can really run, and we've got multiple hammers.
11:34And anybody that's seen Jalen Johnson in transition, you know, that's an advantage for us.
11:40The other thing I think you're going to see is a real, you know, tenacious defense
11:45that hopefully is balancing aggression and also discipline.
11:51You know, we don't want, if we're picking up in the backcourt, we don't want to turn those possessions
11:58into transition possessions where we're, like, where we're pressing.
12:02We just want to make people work and be disciplined, you know, and utilize the whole court
12:07and kind of make them uncomfortable, which hopefully results in some things.
12:12We want to shoot threes, Jake.
12:15One of the things about shooting threes is we really want an offensive rebound,
12:20and we want to crash and get extra possessions.
12:23That possession game, the turnovers, us taking care of the ball, you know,
12:27extra possessions on offense are huge.
12:31And I say we want to shoot threes.
12:33We have a saying we like the three.
12:35We like the rim more.
12:38So we want to break the paint.
12:40We really want to attack the rim.
12:41Does that mean that we're finishing all the time?
12:43Hopefully we can have recognition between, you know, a guy like Wemby down there
12:49or Embiid down there, you know, and other players where we have a better chance to finish.
12:55But that's a little bit of a snapshot.
12:57I hope one of the keys for us, you know, I'll leave it at this because I know you guys
13:02are going
13:03and I'm babbling a little bit, but everything I'm saying is what we're trying to do.
13:08We need to protect the paint.
13:09And without, you know, rim protection and shot blocking presence, we need to protect the rim.
13:16It's almost like rim prevention.
13:18And that means a team that's going to have to shift and connect on the perimeter and use our perimeter
13:23defense
13:25to accomplish the same thing that some other teams do with shot blockers.
13:29So I think lastly, you're going to see a team that is connected, that's competitive, that likes to play and
13:37likes to play team basketball.
13:38A lot of pieces, a lot of fun.
13:41Can't wait for the NBA season.
13:43It's the best time of year for sports.
13:44We'll see you Saturday night at State Farm Arena.
13:47Thanks for taking the time, Coach.
13:49Appreciate it, guys.
13:50See you.
13:50Take care.
13:52That's Quinn Snyder.
13:53I hope it gives you a real preview of the Atlanta Hawks.
13:56They are going to play fast.
13:57They do not have a traditional center, but they are going to play with some of the best defensive players.
14:03Nikhil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, and Lou Dort are some of the best defensive players in the entire league.
14:10No question about that.