Atlanta Hawks: Top 3 individual performances from the 2018-19 NBA season

The Atlanta Hawks had a tough 2018-19 season. Head coach Lloyd Pierce lead this franchise through a 29-53 season which was 12th best in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. They showed improvement from their 2017-18 season where they finished last in the East with a record of 24-58. Their draft day trade with the Dallas Mavericks is to thank for the Hawks' 5 game improvement.

The Hawks actually drafted Luka Doncic with the 3rd pick, who is likely to be the rookie of the year. However, they sent Doncic to the Dallas Mavericks for Dallas’ 5th pick, Trae Young, and a future protected 1st round pick. Along with power forward John Collins who averaged a near double-double with 19.5ppg and 9.8rpg, the Hawks have a decent young core to build around. Even if Doncic is the Rookie of the Year in 2019, Trae Young had some brilliant moments in this season and is a prolific scoring guard who will provide the Atlanta Hawks fan base with outstanding memories over the next few years.

In this article, we will take a look at three of the best individual performance by Atlanta Hawks’ players in the 2018-19 season.

Trae Young October 21st, 2018 vs Cleveland Cavaliers:

The Cleveland Cavaliers were the Eastern Conference Champions for four consecutive years. However, when the 2018-19 season started, the Cavaliers were without superstar LeBron James who had defected from Cleveland to sign as a free agent with the Los Angeles Lakers. Cleveland still had an Eastern Conference title to defend but it became apparent early they were not the same team.

In Atlanta's third game of the season, Trae Young showed Cleveland and the NBA just how good he could be. Young shot 13/23 from the field, scored 35 points and distributed 11 assists for a double-double, outdueling his rookie counterpart Collin Sexton. Atlanta won the game by 22 points 133-111. Young was also a +19 in that contest. It was the first double-double performance of Young’s young career and a showcase of what he is capable of.

John Collins February 2nd, 2019 vs The Phoenix Suns:

John Collins is a second-year power forward with the Atlanta Hawks. In his rookie season, he averaged 10.5ppg and 7.3rpg and he made great strides in his sophomore season where he averaged a near double-double in 2018-19 with 19.5ppg and 9.8rpg. Collins increased his offensive output while managing to shoot at almost the same efficiency rate. Collins shot 57.6% from the field in 2018 and 56% in 2019, which is very impressive.

Collins recorded a career-best 35 points in a victory over the Chicago Bulls on January 23rd, 2019. He recorded a double-double on April 10th, 2019 with 20 points and a career-best 25 rebounds. However, on February 2nd, 2019, the Atlanta Hawks had a 6 point victory over the Phoenix Suns. In that contest, JohnCollins had a splendid outing scoring 35 points and recording 16 rebounds, 10 of which were offensive.

Trae Young March 1st, 2019 vs Chicago Bulls:

Trae Young’s extraordinary rookie season had its ups and downs. The negatives were a 41% field goal average overall and a 32.4% 3-point shooting percentage. It could also be said he was somewhat of a volume shooter. However, Atlanta’s roster relied on this rookie for a lot of their offense.

Young did average 19.1ppg and 8.1apg and was the 2nd best rookie all season long. He reaffirmed that notion on March 1st, 2019, when in a losing effort that took 4 overtime periods to resolve, Young produced 49 points and 16 assists in a 168-161 loss to the Bulls. No one can fault Young for the loss that night as he went 17/33 for 51.5% shooting. He shot 6/13 from behind the 3-point arc and made 9/11 free throws. Young was also 2 rebounds shy of a triple-double with 8. It was a masterful performance from the Atlanta Hawks rookie.

Young's performance was countered by Zach Lavine from the Bulls, who finished with 47 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists.