Progress Reports for Atlanta Hawks' Newcomers

Moving to a new team is always a difficult adjustment, and the newcomers for the Atlanta Hawks in 2014-15 have been no exception to that rule.

The Hawks' Thabo Sefolosha, Kent Bazemore and Adreian Payne have all arrived from different squads and endured their fair share of ups and downs in the team's first nine games. 

For Sefolosha, he's had to acclimate himself to an entirely different offensive scheme than the one he was used to in Oklahoma City with the Thunder. Bazemore has rarely seen any court time, and Payne's struggles with plantar fasciitis have kept him completely out of commission.

Let's analyze how the new Hawks have performed in the early season and then give out grades to each of them.

Thabo Sefolosha

The differences between the 2013-14 Thunder and the 2014-15 Hawks are many.

Last year's Thunder were intensely reliant on their two now-injured superstar scorers (Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook), using an isolation offense much of the time. Sefolosha's old team rarely got him the ball.

This year's Hawks, however, emphasize passing and getting everyone involved, as evidenced by their No. 7-ranked 25.1 assists per game. According to NBA.com's player tracking data, the 30-year-old Sefolosha is averaging 37.7 touches in 22.4 minutes per contest (1.68 touches per minute) in Atlanta's offense, compared to 27.7 touches in 26.0 minutes per game (1.07 touches per minute) last season in Oklahoma City. 

The stark uptick in offensive involvement has created mixed results for the 6'7" swingman.

The main problem right now is with Sefolosha's jump shot. He's shooting 16-of-25 (64 percent) at the basket and 4-of-28 (14.3 percent) from everywhere else. That second number is concerning, especially since Sefolosha's just two years removed from converting 41.9 percent of his tries from downtown.

But if you look past the bad jump-shooting, Sefolosha's early performance has been encouraging.

He's averaging a career-high 7.5 rebounds per 36 minutes, he's wreaking havoc on defense (1.0 steals and 0.9 blocks per game) and he's improved his play greatly in the last few games. 

On the note of Sefolosha's recent improvement, take a look at the below table illustrating how much he's stepped up his play in his past three contests. Sefolosha started at small forward in each of them due to a DeMarre Carroll groin injury.

	Minutes	Points	Rebounds	Steals	Fouls	FG%
First six games	18.8	3.7	4.3	0.8	2.5	25.0
Last three games	29.7	10.7	5.3	1.3	1.3	52.0

Sefolosha started the season badly, and he still can't buy a jump shot, but he's coming along.

Grade: B

Kent Bazemore

Before the season started, I predicted that Bazemore would blossom into the Hawks' sixth man in 2014-15.

That prognosis wasn't completely unfounded—the 25-year-old shooting guard was coming off of a promising 23-game stint with the Los Angeles Lakers in which he averaged 13.1 points in 28 minutes per game. The scoring ability he showed was quite impressive, as the below YouTube video demonstrates.

The 6'5" Bazemore has actually turned out to be the team's 11th man so far in terms of total minutes played (73).

His field-goal percentage of 27.8 is dreadful, but not nearly as atrocious as his player efficiency rating (0.1) and win shares per 48 minutes (-0.134). His defense, the main reason Atlanta signed him, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Chris Vivlamore, hasn't been fantastic, either. Per 82games.com, Bazemore is letting opposing shooting guards average a 23.3 PER against him (15 is the league average).

We'll give Bazemore a barely passing grade, because his inconsistent playing time has undoubtedly interfered with his rhythm on the court. But 5.4 points per 36 minutes isn't going to cut it.

Grade: D-

Adreian Payne

As mentioned earlier, Payne's plantar fasciitis in his left foot has prevented him from seeing any regular-season court time so far.

The Hawks did activate the rookie from Michigan State for one game against the Jazz on November 12, according to Soaring Down South's David Menze, but head coach Mike Budenholzer decided not to play him. 

According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Chris Vivlamore, the 23-year-old Payne isn't too worried about the injury impacting him long term. Payne said:

"

It’s good. We are just resting out. It’s something I’ve had before. It’s really not a big issue. It’s something that the coaching staff and training staff is trying to manage before it gets bad. I could play right now but we are being careful.

"

Once Payne is 100 percent healthy, expect him to compete for a spot on the 13-man active roster. His game draws similarities to second-string center Pero Antic—both are spot-up shooting big men with solid fundamentals. However, the 6'10" Payne's athleticism and potential are much better than the 32-year-old Antic's, so he may end up stealing some minutes in the frontcourt rotation.

But since he doesn't have any regular-season playing time under his belt, Payne can't receive an actual grade here.

Grade: Incomplete

Conclusion

Early returns on the new Hawks have been varied. 

Sefolosha has been OK overall but very good as of late. Bazemore has been terrible, and Payne hasn't seen the court yet.

Fortunately, the Hawks can afford some more transition time for the three. None of them is a regular starter, and anything more than modest contributions from any of them this season will be a bonus.

Note: All statistics are from Sports-Reference.com unless otherwise indicated. Season stats are updated through all November 15 games.

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