Trae Young gonna miss at least a month with an MCL injury.
I had Atlanta as a 6 seed but that was also with the idea of KP + Trae playing a "good enough" amount of the season (even if it was just around 60-70%). Now idk. KP has already missed a few games with some "illness" and doesn't have the kind of "durable" health history to begin with either.
Atlanta won the other night without Trae (7min only). They played
G: NAW, Keaton Wallace
G: D Daniels
F: Z Risacher, L Kennard
F: Jalen Johnson, Okongwu
C: Porzingis, Mo Gueye
Tha was their 9 man rotation without Trae.
An interesting starting unit with NAW in there. Light on offensive creativty but heavy on defense. That is a fantastic defensive backcourt with NAW and Dyson Daniels. Good defensive forward combo. Highly athletic and long 1-4. With a long shot blocking center in Porzingis. They will be a difficult team to play against.
I don't know much about Keaton Wallace. He is an unknown. They will need 20mpg out of him. If he can be solid for them, that is a fine 9 man rotation. If he cannot give them solid minutes, that team looks like it could fall apart whenever the starters go off the floor. Just not enough guard depth.
Risacher is athletic enough to play SG minutes. Let Okongwu play more PF minutes and give Mo Gueye more minutes. Let Jalen Johnson shift down to SF at times. That is another way to work around the lack of quality bench guards.
Jalen Johnson was already their primary ball-handler when Trae was off the floor last year. He usually ran the 2nd unit as the PG. Then they played guards who were more off-ball guys. So his ball-handling and passing ability at PF gives them a major asset in working around the lack of offensive creativity in the backcourt (NAW, D Daniels).
They might be able to still play at a .500 level with Trae. If those guys commit. Play hard D. Use their athleticism.
