Hawks shooting concerns ahead of the 2022/23 season

 With the loss of Danilo Gallinari and Kevin Huerter, and without the addition of a high volume efficient three point shooter other than maybe Justin Holiday, shooting has become a topic of concern for the Hawks ahead of the 2022/23 NBA season. 

Here are some of the the things we know about this topic:

• Dejounte Murray's addition to the Hawks makes them better in every area of the game except for one that has become of the utmost importance in today's game: three point shooting. Especially when comparing him to the player he is replacing in Kevin Huerter who shot over 40% from three on really good volume last season. 

• Bogdan Bogdanovic's knee issues have plagued the Hawks both of the two seasons that he's been part of the team. Because of this it remains something to be mindful of, especially considering the loss of depth in terms of shooting with the roster as presently constructed.

• Other than John Collins, the Hawks do not have a player that can stretch the floor from the power forward position. The only option to solve this as of right now, is going smaller with Hunter playing the 4 position.

• The lack of shooting from the two centers the Hawks have in the rotation, even when talking about midrange shooting puts even more pressure on the positions 1 through 4 to provide a lot of shooting, because otherwise the spacing becomes really problematic and teams would just be able to just crowd the paint against the Hawks.

• Finally, the inconsistency of DeAndre Hunter makes the Hawks hard to read in terms of what kind of performance you will see from the team. One could say that Hunter has become the X factor of this team, for better or for worse.

All that being said, the Hawks may very well overcome these issues. When we consider the added playmaking and drible penetration provided by Murray that will result in an increased amount of open shots, a fully healthy John Collins that could even play the center position to have more shooting on the floor, Trae's really high catch and shoot efficiency which in theory should also increase in volume and DeAndre Hunter's improvements as a three point shooter, the Hawks could be perfectly fine with this current roster. 

At the end of the day, as of now what's clear is that shooting has become a question mark for the team, it was the price to pay in order to improve both in playmaking and defense. Whether this goes from just a concern to a real problem remains to be seen, and we'll only have our answer once we get to see how what's on paper translates to the actual games.