The 'unusual' Dyson Daniels stat helping Hawks' defense
11/09/2024 08:20 PM
One of the biggest acquisitions for the Atlanta Hawks this season was Dyson Daniels, a young defensive menace that can affect the game in many ways. So far this season, he’s made his impact felt on that side of the ball, guarding the opposing team’s best player and picking them up 94 feet.
What Daniels is doing on defense is being recognized, and he leads the league in deflections and is averaging 7.4 per game. He also leads the league with 3.0 steals per game and just had a career-high with seven against the Detroit Pistons on Friday night.
Before their game against the Chicago Bulls, head coach Quin Snyder spoke about Daniels’ impact on defense, and what his play has done for the Hawks.
“Deflections are reflective of his activity,” Snyder said. “The thing that's impressive to me about that, usually when you get that many steals it's because you're gambling and you're taking yourself out of the play. Rarely is he taking himself out of the play. He may not steal the ball, but he's in position. He's calculated with that and he's so focused. It's unusual and you don't take it from granted. He brings it every night.”
The single-season record for deflections is 315 by Robert Covington, and with the pace that Daniels is playing, there’s a good chance that he could break that record.
Dyson Daniels has big defensive goals this season
During Media Day, Dyson Daniels mentioned that he has big goals for this season with the Hawks.
"I have a big goal of trying to make the first-team All-Defense," Daniels said.
Daniels has been a great pairing next to Trae Young, and they’ve been able to work well next to each other. Throughout the season, both have talked about how it’s been playing next to each other.
"Being that kind of that backbone for guys like Trae [Young], being able to switch things one through four, defend bigger people, defend smaller guards so just being everywhere on the floor," Daniels said.
"I see one of the best defenders in the league," Young said. "Every time he’s on the ball, he’s pressuring the ball. It helps our defense, it kills time off the clock. That’s what teams try to do versus us. They try to pick me up full court, try to get the ball out of my hand, and try to make me use clock before we get past halfcourt. We got one of those guys now, and he’s going to help us a lot throughout this season."
At this rate, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Daniels on one of the All-Defensive teams at the end of the season.
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