Final 2014-15 Season Grades for Every Atlanta Hawks Player
Throughout the 2014-15 NBA campaign, fans and media members alike praised the Atlanta Hawks for achieving regular-season domination despite lacking elite talent. The coaching staff and its offensive and defensive systems got much of the credit rather than the players.
While people were right to give Atlanta's men on the sidelines their due, Hawks players did a fantastic job of executing the team's plan all year.
Atlanta's season didn't end well, with an Eastern Conference Finals sweep at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers. However, jumping from the East's No. 8 seed to the No. 1 in one year isn't easy to do and required career-best campaigns from several members of the rotation.
We will grade each member of the Hawks based on his expected level of the play coming into the season. For example, if Al Horford had averaged 10 points and eight rebounds this season, he probably would have received around a "D," but if Mike Muscala had done the same, he would have earned an "A."
Players who saw less than 15 minutes of court time per game will be combined on the next slide, while everyone else will have his own individual slide with statistical profiles. We will take into account regular-season and postseason play equally.
The Non-Rotation Guys
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Elton Brand: C
The 36-year-old Brand's physical skills have continued to wither. He averaged just 2.7 points and 2.8 rebounds per game this year, and he's now received a playing-time decrease in four consecutive seasons.
There's no reason to think that trend will change, whether the Hawks re-sign him this summer or another team picks him up. If Atlanta does bring him back, it'll be because of his selfless leadership off the court.
Austin Daye: Incomplete
Daye played a total of just 76 minutes with the Hawks this season, mostly in garbage time. It's hard to assess such a small sample size, but he did earn a multiyear deal with the team in April, so the stretch 4 evidently fits in well with Atlanta's reserves.
John Jenkins: C
It's time for Jenkins to move on from the Hawks this summer in free agency. Atlanta's 2012 first-round draft pick has been an utter disappointment. His uneven defensive effort and almost non-existent playmaking abilities (1.6 assists per 36 minutes this season) have overshadowed his pure shooting stroke. Another team can offer Jenkins more minutes and money, an opportunity he surely won't pass up.
Mike Muscala: B+
Muscala was a third-stringer basically the entire regular season, but he entered the rotation in the second round of the playoffs. The second-year big man accumulated solid numbers most nights he stepped foot on the court, so Muscala and his well-rounded game should get more burn next year.
Pero Antic
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| 2014-15 Per-Game Stats | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | PER | WS/48 |
| Regular Season | 5.7 | 3.0 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 9.5 | 0.070 |
| Playoffs | 4.2 | 2.9 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 8.4 | 0.093 |
Pero Antic was a lightning rod for criticism this year. Search his name on Twitter, and the majority of the tweets are complaints about him being on the court or cracks about his lack of basketball skills.
Unfortunately for the Hawks, most of the critiques against the Macedonian center were fair.
Antic's best offensive skill is three-point shooting, but he drained just 30.1 percent of his looks from behind the arc in the regular season despite launching 2.0 long-distance heaves per game. In the playoffs, his percentage from downtown improved to 34.4, but he only nailed 27.8 percent of his two-point attempts.
His worst portion of the season was a six-week period from Jan. 28 and March 11, in which he shot 9-of-55 (16.4 percent) from the field and 4-of-31 from three-point range (12.9 percent). He scored just 43 points in that stretch, despite playing 184 minutes spread over 14 games. The 6'11" big man also recorded a whopping two blocks during the same period.
That's bad. Really, really bad.
There's one aspect of Antic's season that prevents his grade from being an "F," and that's his defensive smarts. Although he's a terrible rim-protector, the 32-year-old knows the tricks of the trade down low. Opposing centers shot just 44 percent against him during the regular season.
Final Grade: D-
Kent Bazemore
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| 2014-15 Per-Game Stats | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | PER | WS/48 |
| Regular Season | 5.2 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 9.7 | 0.057 |
| Playoffs | 5.4 | 3.3 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 10.4 | 0.072 |
Ever the fan favorite, Kent Bazemore endeared himself to the Hawks faithful in his first campaign with the team. The 25-year-old shooting guard was known mainly for his bench celebrations before this season, but he provided several highlight plays in 2014-15.
However, his overall performance this season was still disappointing.
The former Old Dominion standout showed a whole bunch of offensive potential in his 23-game stint with the Los Angeles Lakers a year ago. His 16.9 points and 4.0 assists per 36 minutes during that stretch hinted he might become Atlanta's sixth-man extraordinaire to replace the departed Louis Williams.
That potential, unfortunately, didn't turn into much.
Bazemore's points and assists per 36 minutes dipped all the way down to 10.6 and 2.1 this season. He used his elite athleticism to defend ball-handlers quite well, but he's still not the smartest or most dependable on that end.
If an NBA draft entrant had Bazemore's current athleticism and raw skill set, we'd be talking about him as a surefire lottery pick. But the swingman is 25 and has three years of experience under his belt.
With Thabo Sefolosha back, Bazemore must make some strides in the mental aspect of the game to remain a key member of the Hawks' rotation next season.
Final Grade: C-
DeMarre Carroll
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| 2014-15 Per-Game Stats | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | PER | WS/48 |
| Regular Season | 12.6 | 5.3 | 1.7 | 1.3 | 0.2 | 15.9 | 0.154 |
| Playoffs | 14.6 | 6.1 | 2.0 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 16.7 | 0.157 |
DeMarre Carroll continued to amaze fans with his offensive improvement in year No. 2 as a Hawks starter.
Before coming to Atlanta in the summer of 2013, The Junkyard Dog had made just 27 three-pointers in four NBA seasons. He converted on 97 during last season alone, and in 2014-15, he continued his upward swing with 120 made long balls.
His improved shooting stroke has pushed him into above-average-starter territory, but he's also a strong defender and can get to the rim with well-timed cuts and solid straight-line dribbling ability.
Although Atlanta's playoff run wasn't the team's finest hour, Carroll had a coming-out party in Rounds 1 and 2.
Before Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, when the 28-year-old small forward sprained his knee and lost a lot of mobility for the remainder of that series, he was averaging 17.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game on 52.4 percent shooting from the field in the postseason.
Add in his consistent defensive effort, and Carroll was hands-down the Hawks' best player of the first two rounds. Remember, he was the only non-All-Star in Atlanta's starting lineup this season.
As The Junkyard Dog enters unrestricted free agency this summer, the league will be his oyster. He'll get several eight-figure offers from teams around the NBA and will have to make a difficult decision.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Chris Vivlamore, loyalty will play a part in Carroll's choice, but it isn't the only factor.
He said, “Atlanta has been true to me. The fans have been true to me. It would be the ideal situation (to re-sign) but [there are] a lot of things going into the factor."
Overall Grade: A
Al Horford
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| 2014-15 Per-Game Stats | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | PER | WS/48 |
| Regular Season | 15.2 | 7.2 | 3.2 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 21.4 | 0.179 |
| Playoffs | 14.4 | 8.6 | 3.7 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 19.7 | 0.141 |
Atlanta' longest-tenured player was also its most consistent this year. Al Horford made a successful comeback from 2013-14's season-ending pectoral injury, making his third All-Star team and playing the role of leader for a rising Eastern Conference power.
Horford's bread and butter has long been the mid-range jump shot, and this year was no different. In the regular season, the versatile center knocked down 49.4 percent of his looks from 16 feet to the three-point line while attempting approximately 4.5 of those shots per game.
But Big Al was rock-solid in pretty much every other aspect of the game.
He defended at a high level, rebounded, passed and finished at the rim. Best of all, he remained the team-first player he's always been.
After he made a game-winning layup in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series, Horford said the following: "More importantly, we won and we all get to celebrate. It's about our team."
The big man also played through a dislocated pinky suffered in Game 1 of the first-round series. The injury clearly affected his mid-range jumper, but he found other ways to score and contribute.
Keep doing you, Al.
Final Grade: B+
Kyle Korver
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| 2014-15 Per-Game Stats | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | PER | WS/48 |
| Regular Season | 12.1 | 4.1 | 2.6 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 14.8 | 0.148 |
| Playoffs | 11.1 | 5.0 | 2.4 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 11.3 | 0.078 |
Kyle Korver ended a good season prematurely, suffering a severe high ankle sprain in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. He had surgery last Wednesday on the injury and should be out approximately three months, according to the Hawks' official Twitter account.
The sharpshooter's campaign wasn't smooth sailing, despite earning his first All-Star appearance in February.
Korver led the league with a 49.2 three-point shooting percentage in the regular season and then inexplicably saw that rate drop to 35.5 percent in the postseason. During the playoffs, he shot just 24-of-60 (40 percent) on open or wide-open long-distance attempts, compared to 159-of-304 (52.3 percent) on the same type of shots in the regular season.
The shooting guard did somewhat make up for his broken three-point stroke with superb defensive effort. He stole the ball 1.4 times and swatted away 1.0 shot per game during the postseason, both excellent totals for a 34-year-old shooting guard with mediocre athleticism.
Overall, it was a positive year for Korver. Hopefully, he can use the offseason to recuperate from his injury and regain his legendary three-point touch in time for the beginning of the 2015-16 regular season.
Final Grade: B+
Shelvin Mack
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| 2014-15 Per-Game Stats | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | PER | WS/48 |
| Regular Season | 5.4 | 1.4 | 2.8 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 13.2 | 0.075 |
| Playoffs | 3.9 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 14.6 | 0.093 |
Shelvin Mack is proof you can be a steady player while not being a particularly valuable one.
He blossomed in last year's first-round series against the Indiana Pacers (8.1 points and 3.6 assists in 16.9 assists per game) and looked like the perfect floor-spacing, heady guard for Mike Budenhozer's second unit moving forward. He didn't get rattled and was a master of dictating pace when slotted in as the floor general.
However, the 21-year-old Dennis Schroder showed a ton of improvement early on in 2014-15, and offseason additions Sefolosha and Bazemore more than replaced the departed Louis Williams' minutes.
As a result, Mack quickly became the odd man out in the Hawks' perimeter rotation.
His minutes were uneven, and he lost his rhythm, as evidenced by his regular-season shooting slash of .401/.315/.806, compared to .417/.337/.865 in 2013-14. He ended the season scoring 10 points in 21.7 minutes per game during the Eastern Conference Finals, with Korver's ankle injury making Mack the primary backup shooting guard.
However, Mack suffered a Grade 5 shoulder separation in the final game of the sweep. He'll have surgery Tuesday and will be out three to four months, per Vivlamore.
Even if he returns at 100 percent, he probably won't factor heavily into the rotation next season. Despite his even-keeled temperament, his shooting stroke comes and goes, while his 6'3" size and mediocre foot speed make him a tough player to slot on defense.
Final Grade: C-
Paul Millsap
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| 2014-15 Per-Game Stats | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | PER | WS/48 |
| Regular Season | 16.7 | 7.8 | 3.1 | 1.8 | 0.9 | 20.0 | 0.166 |
| Playoffs | 15.2 | 8.7 | 3.4 | 1.6 | 0.9 | 16.3 | 0.108 |
Add Paul Millsap to the list of Hawks who played hurt during the playoffs.
The All-Star forward pushed through a nagging shoulder injury he originally suffered April 4 in a regular-season contest against the Brooklyn Nets. There were some rumblings early last week that he might need surgery this summer, according to Bleacher Report's Howard Beck, but Millsap said last Friday a procedure won't be necessary, via Vivlamore.
The injury slightly affected the Louisiana Tech standout's postseason productivity, as the above statistics show. But before getting hurt, he was having arguably the best season of his career.
Millsap continued the transformation of his game from inside bruiser to do-it-all combo forward in 2014-15, taking 23.2 percent of his field-goal attempts from behind the three-point line. Before joining the Hawks in the summer of 2013, that number had never gone above 4.5 percent in a season.
His expanded range helped open up the floor for the penetration of Atlanta's guards and ultimately got the team better shots.
On the other end of the floor, Millsap posted the best defensive rating of his career (99.2), which was also the lowest mark on his team. His 1.8 steals per game were also first among post players.
Although he'll demand a significant raise from the two-year, $19 million contract he signed in 2013, the Hawks should attempt to bring Millsap back.
Overall Grade: B+
Dennis Schroder
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| 2014-15 Per-Game Stats | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | PER | WS/48 |
| Regular Season | 10.0 | 2.1 | 4.1 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 15.7 | 0.080 |
| Playoffs | 9.0 | 1.8 | 3.9 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 13.2 | 0.009 |
A bit of perspective is needed to evaluate Dennis Schroder's season.
By the end of the Hawks' playoff run, you probably had grown tired of his daring dishes and perilous penetrations. He used too many of Atlanta's possessions and ended with the league's sixth-highest usage rate (28.9) in the postseason, higher than superstars such as Anthony Davis, LaMarcus Aldridge, Blake Griffin and John Wall.
Overall, he accumulated more shots (145) than points (144) in the Hawks' three-round run.
But when you realize he had all that confidence because of a fantastic sophomore regular season, it's difficult to get too down on the 21-year-old.
Schroder was the second unit's floor general throughout the campaign, greasing the group's offensive wheels as its only capable shot-creator. Coach Bud gave him more freedom, which helped him develop a swagger that was totally absent during his rookie year.
That swagger ultimately resulted in better basketball for most of the campaign, even if it did cause Schroder to get a bit too reliant on his own abilities in the postseason.
In 2015-16, expect the German wunderkind to remain aggressive but become a little bit more judicious with his play.
Overall Grade: A-
P.S. I'm trying to start "The Schrod Runner" as a new nickname for Dennis. Bob Rathbun, the Hawks' play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports South, likened the young point guard to The Road Runner during a Hawks game in March, and I thought I might as well combine the speedsters' names. If you're cool, you'll help me get this started.
Mike Scott
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| 2014-15 Per-Game Stats | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | PER | WS/48 |
| Regular Season | 7.8 | 2.9 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 15.1 | 0.115 |
| Playoffs | 4.5 | 4.2 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 9.6 | 0.037 |
I'm afraid Mike Scott has reached the point where he's a known commodity around the league. Most teams probably see the 26-year-old as a one-dimensional stretch 4 with minimal potential to improve.
Why is Scott's reputation around the league important? Well, because he could be trade bait this summer.
The Threegional Manager didn't build on his breakout 2013-14 campaign this season, with a slight dip in minutes per game that resulted in decreases in most statistical categories.
During the postseason, he lost his rotation spot to Mike Muscala, who is bigger and offers more of a physical presence around the rim. According to Black Sports Online's Samuel Logan, Scott didn't seem too happy about this and was sulking at his locker after Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
When asked two questions regarding his playing time, he responded to both with, "You gotta talk to coach about that."
Between Scott's apparent discontent with his role on the team and his lack of size (6'8") and big-man skills (6.4 rebounds and 0.1 blocks per 36 minutes this year), I wouldn't be surprised if the Hawks tried to move him as they look to beef up their post rotation.
Final Grade: C-
Thabo Sefolosha
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| 2014-15 Per-Game Stats | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | PER | WS/48 |
| Regular Season | 5.3 | 4.3 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 13.8 | 0.121 |
Would the Hawks be preparing for the NBA Finals right now if Sefolosha hadn't broken his leg allegedly resisting police arrest at that New York City nightclub April 8? Probably not, but they sure would have put up a better fight against the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals.
When healthy, the 31-year-old small forward was a huge difference-maker on both ends of the floor.
Sefolosha is a smart player with knowledge of what he can do on the court and, just as important, what we can't. His jump shot is somewhat inconsistent, so he doesn't hoist up a bunch of long-range attempts. His ball-handling is nothing special, so he doesn't go one-on-one against defenders often.
Once the Swiss swingman found his outside-shooting stroke around the middle of December, he was an efficient two-way force through the remainder of his season, which was broken up by an eight-week calf injury.
From Dec. 17 until he broke his leg, Sefolosha averaged 6.0 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.5 assists and just 0.8 turnovers in 18.8 minutes per game with a .471/.457/.806 shooting slash. For the entire regular season, the Hawks were 7.5 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor than when he was sitting on the bench.
Let's hope Atlanta's steadiest bench player makes a full recovery this summer and comes back as strong as ever.
Final Grade: B+
Jeff Teague
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| 2014-15 Per-Game Stats | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | PER | WS/48 |
| Regular Season | 15.9 | 2.5 | 7.0 | 1.7 | 0.4 | 20.6 | 0.166 |
| Playoffs | 16.8 | 3.2 | 6.7 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 17.6 | 0.094 |
Last year's Playoff Teague became this year's Regular-Season Teague, and it resulted in the 26-year-old point guard's first All-Star campaign.
In fact, at one point during the season (Jan. 18, to be exact), Jeff Teague was having the best year of any Eastern Conference guard, according to my all-encompassing metric. The metric is explained in this article, which also stated Teague's All-Star case.
Unfortunately, he tailed off after that point as opposing teams started to game-plan against him, but 2014-15 was still a positive year for the floor general.
Teague set career highs in myriad statistical categories, both raw and advanced. He also led the Hawks in scoring (16.8 points per game) and assists (6.7) during the playoffs, attacking the rim when the squad couldn't get any of its jump shots to fall.
Ice Teague isn't flashy, but he became one of the league's top dual-threat (scoring and passing) point guards this year.
Overall Grade: A-
All statistics are from Basketball-Reference.com, NBA.com and ESPN.com (including ESPN's Hollinger Stats) and updated through June 1 unless otherwise indicated.
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