Showtime in the ATL
Most NBA teams average somewhere between 23 and 26 assists per game. The very best offenses might sniff 28. Crossing 30 is rare. Living above it is almost unheard of. And yet, 49 games into the season, the Atlanta Hawks are averaging 31.0 assists per game. That number is not just high. It is historically rare. Atlanta is operating at a level no team has sustained since the Showtime Lakers, who averaged 31.4 in 1984–85.
Historical Context
The championship San Antonio Spurs teams that still get cited as the gold standard for ball movement lived in the high 20s in assists per game. The dynasty Golden State Warriors, despite how fluid they looked, rarely pushed past 29 as shooting gravity replaced passing volume. Last season’s Indiana Pacers hovered around 30 assists per game, which was considered extreme by modern standards. The Denver Nuggets reached 31.0 assists per game in 2024–25, built around one of the best passing hubs the league has ever seen.
What makes this even more unusual is the direction the modern NBA has taken. Over the last decade, offenses have simplified. An elite creator bends the defense, spacing stretches the floor, and everyone else reacts. Even teams that preach ball movement usually land there once possessions tighten. Atlanta has not.
The underlying profile makes that result easier to understand. Atlanta leads the league with 1,456 total assists, and they sit at or near the top across every major passing efficiency measure. They rank first in assist percentage, meaning a higher share of their made baskets are created for someone else. They also rank first in assist ratio, which captures how often assists are generated per possession, not just per game. On top of that, they are tied for second in assist to turnover ratio.
Atlanta is pairing the highest passing volume in the league with elite efficiency and ball security.
Atlanta’s pace places them among the league’s fastest teams, turning rebounds, steals, and dead-ball situations into early actions and quick decisions. Those possessions don’t require a single creator to bend the defense. The advantage already exists.
That movement is also showing up in the shot profile. Atlanta ranks fourth in three-point percentage while sitting just tenth in attempts, a combination that points to shot quality rather than volume. They’re fifth in total threes made and seventh in points per game. If the ball is moving, shots are coming early, and the group still scores efficiently, it becomes harder to justify structuring the entire system around a single decision-maker. Eventually, that reality leads back to the player the offense has revolved around. For Atlanta, that was Trae Young.
Inflection Point
Trae Young’s exit was never about dismissing what he accomplished. His place in Hawks history is secure. He leaves Atlanta as the franchise leader in assists, playoff points, and three-pointers made, while ranking third in average points per game across his tenure. The production was real. So were the moments. New York made that clear. The “F— Trae Young” chants inside Madison Square Garden were loud enough but hearing them spill into the streets and pop up even on nights when the Hawks were not playing said something deeper. That only happens when a player truly gets under a city’s skin. Trae leaned into it. Knicks fans have a long memory for villains. Reggie Miller owned that role in the 1990s. Tyrese Haliburton touched it briefly during Indiana’s playoff run last spring. Trae’s version felt louder and more personal. Being hated like that in New York is a strange compliment. The city doesn’t waste that kind of energy on average players.
The question Atlanta had to answer was not whether Trae was talented enough. It was whether the direction the team was moving still aligned with an offense that needed to be centralized around one player. Trae’s game is built on pick-and-rolls, high usage, deep pull-ups, and late-clock problem solving. That has real value. At the same time, Atlanta’s offense was starting to move in a different direction, with more guys involved and decisions happening earlier in the possession.
Last season, Atlanta’s offense was the league’s most pick-and-roll–heavy system, built to initiate through Trae Young against a set defense. The Hawks ranked first in pick-and-roll possessions, first in frequency, first in field-goal attempts generated out of pick-and-roll, and first in points scored from those actions. This season, that footprint has nearly vanished. Atlanta now sits in the lower quartile league-wide across those same pick-and-roll metrics, a clear signal that the offense is no longer built to initiate through one handler against a set defense.
That tension only really got tested when Young was sidelined.
The on/off splits show that Atlanta’s offense did not collapse when Trae Young left the floor. Without Young, the Hawks are getting out, running, and playing faster, with the ball moving quickly to create advantages before the defense can set. That shift is clearest in the three-point profile: threes are now overwhelmingly assisted, while unassisted attempts have nearly disappeared. The offense is no longer built on late-clock self-creation, but on pace, movement, and shared advantage creation. The record reflected the same story: 2–8 with Young, 18–14 without him. For a front office, that combination is impossible to ignore.
The New Cornerstone
And that’s where the emergence of fourth-year forward Jalen Johnson enters the picture. He is no longer flying under the radar. A first-time All-Star, Johnson is producing like a primary engine, averaging roughly 24 points, 10 rebounds, and over 8 assists per game while defending multiple positions and carrying real creation responsibility. He leads Atlanta in points, rebounds, and assists, a combination almost no forwards in the league can match and one that only a handful of players in NBA history have ever sustained. He also ranks top five league-wide in assists per game, underscoring how central he has become to everything Atlanta does. This is star-level impact.
Atlanta recognized that early. In October 2024, the Hawks signed Johnson to a five-year, $150 million extension, locking him in through the 2029–30 season at roughly $30 million annually. Given his trajectory and how the deal is structured relative to the cap, it already looks like a steal. Atlanta now has a cornerstone who fits how they want to play and provides real stability moving forward.
Making Sense of the Cap
There is also a structural reason these rumors keep coming back. Newly acquired CJ McCollum’s contract expires at the end of the season, which quietly matters a lot for Atlanta. His money coming off the books gives the Hawks real flexibility. Depending on how aggressive they choose to be, league analysts have projected Atlanta could open anywhere from roughly $25 to $40 million in usable cap space this summer. That range depends on roster charges, cap holds, and whether the team elects to renounce certain contracts or operate closer to the cap.
Atlanta is positioned to be a legitimate player in free agency, to absorb salary in trades without sending much back, or to combine cap space with exceptions to add talent in layers. If they operate below the cap, they will also retain access to the Room Exception, projected around $9.4 million, giving them another tool beyond pure space. This is less about chasing one move and more about optionality. Moving Trae before his one-year player option north of $40 million came due allowed Atlanta to reset the calendar on its own terms. Instead of waiting on an opt-in or negotiating under free-agency pressure, the front office kept control of its timeline and aligned the cap sheet with the way the team plays.
“What’s going on in Atlanta?” – Brian Windhorst, probably.
This newfound financial flexibility is what allows the Anthony Davis conversations to brew, and it may not be as far-fetched as it sounds. Atlanta’s defensive profile post-Trae has been built on activity and disruption, with steals, pressure, and transition scoring driving the identity. The numbers at the rim tell a different story. Opponents have continued to finish efficiently inside, and Atlanta’s block rate ranks just 16th at 4.7 per game. The defense has become more functional, not imposing. That context explains why Davis rumors have gained traction. Post Trae, Atlanta’s clearest upgrade path is in the frontcourt. A team built on passing does not need another ball-dominant engine. It needs finishing, rim protection, and a backline presence capable of erasing mistakes behind aggressive point-of-attack defenders like Dyson Daniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
Here is some fun contract math when you notice Porziņģis, Kennard, and Risacher all listed out recently.
Whether a deal like that ever materializes isn’t really the point. What matters is that Atlanta is finally in a position where those conversations make sense. They’re evaluating options from a place of understanding, with a clear sense of who they are and how they want to play. The assist numbers aren’t just beautiful basketball.
They explain why Atlanta grew comfortable leaning into an uncomfortable direction. And it’s why Trae Young, the face of the franchise and the best player Atlanta has had since Dominique Wilkins in 1994, is now on the Washington Wizards.
All statistics are sourced from publicly available NBA.com, StatMuse, Basketball-Reference, and Spotrac data through the 2025–26 season.