Yesterday, we paid homage to the quiet achievers of the Western Conference. Today, we head east and give the quiet achievers of that conference their flowers.
De’Andre Hunter – Atlanta Hawks
At long last, the Hawks appear to have found a working formula. Trae Young has leaned into his playmaking, Jalen Johnson is the ascendant second star and Dyson Daniels — we’ll get to him — is the defensive whirlwind. Don’t forget Hunter, though, who might be the leading candidate for this season’s Sixth Man of the Year.
As Atlanta’s second-unit leader, Hunter’s 20.3 points average is a full five points higher than his previous career high, and he’s doing it on career-best efficiency. He’s achieved that by cutting longer twos out of his shot diet.
He is instead shooting both floaters and threes at a career-high rate, per Basketball Reference. His three-point shot is falling at a career-high clip, 44 percent against his previous best of 38.5 percent.
Importantly, Hunter is finally playing the sort of defense that was expected of him as a former fourth overall pick, and that fits in with this new identity that Atlanta is forging.
Tyler Herro – Miami Heat
After his third NBA season, Tyler Herro was widely expected to ascend to stardom. Instead, he somewhat plateaued as a high-volume, low-efficiency gunner. A good scorer but a defensive liability. A discount Zach LaVine, if you will.
Herro has improved defensively, though he’s still poor at that end. However, his offensive production is now able to fully offset his defensive deficiencies.
Herro is averaging a career-high 23.8 points with career-high efficiency across the board (47.1 FG%, 40.5 3PFG%, 58.3 eFG%, 61.7 TS% — all career highs). Importantly, he’s also dominating in the mid-range with 47.8 percent accuracy (again, a career-high), demonstrating that he can create off the bounce.
Herro is showing that he can be the fulcrum of a good NBA offense. In a season where the discourse around the Heat has centered on Jimmy Butler’s future and Bam Adebayo’s offensive regression, the importance of Herro’s ascension cannot be overstated.
Payton Pritchard – Boston Celtics
Another Sixth Man of the Year contender, Pritchard’s 62.9 percent effective field-goal percentage is absurd. For an undersized, perimeter-oriented, below-average athlete to score with such efficiency is almost unheard of.
He currently sits eighth in the entire NBA in that stat (amongst eligible players), trailing only big men and a downhill swingman in Josh Hart.
The reason for Pritchard’s sky-high efficiency is something that this writer has covered previously, and it’s very simple: a shot diet that consists almost solely of three-point shots.
In his 28.8 minutes on the court each night, Pritchard launches 8.7 shots from beyond the arc on average; that equates to 78.1 percent of his total shots taken. Remarkably, that number has come down since November!
The overall effect is that, less than two years after hinting that he may have to leave Boston to find a regular rotation spot, Pritchard is now posting 15.4 points per game, having never previously reached double figures.
Dyson Daniels – Atlanta Hawks
Given the coverage around the Defensive Player of the Year case for The Great Barrier Thief (the first great NBA nickname in the longest time), we may be stretching the premise of players having a “sneaky” good year here.
Still, it’s a testament to both Daniels’ rise and the good work that the Hawks have done this season that a pair of their chargers earn mentions in this piece.
Daniels, of course, was one of many pieces the Hawks obtained for Dejounte Murray this past offseason. Now, it’s fair to ask if the Hawks would surrender Daniels alone for Murray. The boy from Bendigo has more than doubled his scoring average to an even 13 per contest with barely a slip in efficiency. Even though his accuracy still needs to improve, he is launching his jumper with far more confidence than at any point in his NBA journey.
Defensively, though, is where Daniels is making his name. Leading the league at 3.1 steals a night, his current rate of larceny would be the highest in the league since the great John Stockton helped himself to 3.2 steals a game back in 1989. He is the avatar of a rapidly improving Hawks defense, versatile and dynamic.
