season recaps

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The 10 Best Tiago Splitter Photos From His First Hawks Season

Tiago Splitter gave the Hawks all that he could for as long as he could.

Unfortunately, Splitter dealt with injuries for much of the season. In February, after visits to multiple specialists, Splitter elected to have surgery on his right hip. The procedure and its subsequent rehabilitation ended his 2015-16 season early.

Splitter performed well when he was able to play, and the stats that best support that claim up are the ones taken from the scoreboard. The Hawks routinely outscored their opponents when he was in the game. For the season, the team scored 103.5 points per 100 possessions with Splitter on the floor while yielding just 94.2 points per 100 possessions on the defensive end.

Even as he dealt with the injuries that hampered him, Splitter played some brilliant basketball. There were times that the Hawks tried some aggressive ball-hawking defensive schemes with Splitter on the floor, knowing they could pressure on the perimeter with Tiago nearby as a safety net to protect the paint. For the season, when Splitter defended shots taken within 5 feet of the rim, opponents only scored on 47.4 percent of them, a very low mark.

Splitter also brought a lot to the offensive end. His passing blended in seamlessly in an offense based on ball movement, and he converted 52.3 percent of his field goal attempts. He set great screens for his teammates, and if he comes back at full health next season, he'll be an even bigger threat to finish and score at the rim.

Splitter had hoped to play for Brazil in the 2016 Olympic Games, but because of his rehabilitation from the surgery, that won't happen. He will still attend the Games as a TV commentator for Brazilian TV as he tests his skills behind a microphone.

In the meantime, he will continue to rehab, train and get stronger. If it all goes to plan, he will have the chance to put together a season that lives up to the expectations brought on by his strong play in his first go-round with the Hawks.

Story by KL ChouinardTwitter: @KLChouinard

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Splitter Hoping For Healthy Second Go With Hawks

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Lamar Patterson's Rookie Season In Photos

Mike Scott took his talents to both ends of the floor and compiled a massively-productive 2015-16 season.

Scott was one of the Hawks' most valuable three-point shooting weapons this season, making a career-high 39.2 percent of his attempts. Whenever Head Coach Mike Budenholzer needed floor spacing from his bench, Scott was a prime option. He also made 8 of 16 threes in the playoffs.

Scott grew as a passer this season, especially on short roll situations. Whenever opponents tried to aggressively challenge Hawks point guards in the pick-and-roll, Scott rolled to the middle of the floor, caught the pass, and made a quick and steady decision to keep the ball moving to an open teammate. His work as a release valve on such plays helped him set a career high in assists.

Scott made the biggest strides on the defensive end. He posted the best defensive rating in the Eastern Conference among defenders who played 70 or more games (95.3). He took an aggressive approach, engaging physical contact away from the ball instead of waiting for the contact to come to him. Opponents made just 47.6 percent of their shots within 5 feet of the rim when Scott was defending them -- and a lot of that work was done in establishing a physical presence before the ball arrived. For all these efforts and improvements, he earned a vote for the NBA's All-Defensive Teams. 

The lineup of Scott, Al Horford, Tim Hardaway Jr., Dennis Schröder and Thabo Sefolosha locked opponents down. In 178 minutes together, they allowed just 86.7 points per 100 possessions. No other Eastern Conference five-man unit with 100 or more minutes had a better rating. In rebounding situations, both he and Budenholzer noted that his job was to be physical, box out and create opportunities for his teammates to rebound. 

Scott got to the point when discussing how he and his teammates could improve this summer. "(I want to) have a great summer, prepare and get better individually and as a group," he said. "I think that's how teams get better during the summer, so I'll go at it."

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Numbers Back Up Scott's Improved Defensive Season

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11 Photos of the High-Flying Mike Scott

Thabo Sefolosha's mother is a painter. His father is a musician.

Sefolosha was once asked if it was remarkable that the basketball-playing son of two artists thrived on the defensive end. Shouldn't the child of two virtuosos master a skill with a more captivating aesthetic, like passing or shooting? 

"Not really," Sefolosha said. "If you look at my mom's painting and listen to my dad's music, there's a lot of energy to it. it's not really neat and everything like that. I picked up that energy from them. It's who I am, and the style of basketball that I was raised playing." 

In his 10th NBA season, Sefolosha continued to create masterpieces on the defensive end as the Hawks' top wing off the bench. Head Coach Mike Budenholzer routinely opted for Sefolosha in those frequent circumstances where he needed a long, capable defender to shut down a top opponent.

Sefolosha did not disappoint. According to NBA.com/Stats, Sefolosha held opponents to 29.8 percent shooting on shots of 15 feet or longer this season. Similarly, he smothered them into shooting just 28.0 percent on threes. And Sefolosha produced as well as he did while guarding opposing teams' best scorers and dealing with the aftereffects of offseason leg surgery.

"Overall I felt great," Sefolosha said of his health this season. "The recovery went really well, and I was happy that I was able to play so many games this season."

Sefolosha did things on the offensive end too. He made over 50 percent of his shots for the first time in his 10-year NBA career, and he demonstrated a superbly-deft touch around the rim, converting 64.0 percent of his shot attempts within 8 feet of the basket.

Sefolosha also showed productive progress on his jump shot, especially from the midrange. 219 NBA players took 50 or more attempts between 16 and 24 feet from the basket. Two Hawks were among the top-20 most accurate midrange marksmen of those 219 players: Al Horford (49.2 percent) and Sefolosha (48.0 percent).

Sefolosha shot very well on corner threes this season (43.8 percent), and one gets that sense that if he continues to work on his jumper, he will extend his range a couple of extra feet to the point where he's uncannily accurate on all types of three-point shots. 

In fact, Sefolosha said that shooting would be one of his points of emphasis for this summer.

"I'm going to keep working on different aspects of (my game)." he said. "Shooting is definitely a big emphasis, and working on getting stronger because it's a physical league.”

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Sefolosha's Shooting On Upward Trend In 2015-16

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A Slick Reverse Jam, and 7 Other Great Plays From Thabo Sefolosha's Season

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Jeff Teague put together a remarkable 2015-16 campaign, one that showcased his development into an all-around playmaking threat at point guard.

At one point in his career, Teague was the fireballer, the basketball version of a young baseball pitcher who overpowers hitters with a 98-mile-per-hour fastball and not much else. Now he has matured into the equivalent of a pitcher who has command of every type of pitch: fastballs, curveballs, sinkers, changeups. Part of what makes 27-year-old's game effective is that defenders have no idea what pitch is coming. His versatility keeps opponents off balance.

For starters, Teague gets the Hawks' offense in gear with his drives to the basket. According to NBA.com/Stats, Teague amassed the third-highest number of drives in the NBA this season: 875. He shot well on those drives (47.5 percent), but more importantly, his dribble penetration was the weapon that got opposing defenses off-kilter. The Hawks thrived on ball movement and finding the open man, but to have an open man, some player had to make the move that forced defenses to help and react. For the Hawks, that player was usually Teague.

Teague used a breathtaking variety of moves to set up those drives too. Hesitation steps, in-and-out dribbles, pump fakes; if there is a move that players use to get defenders moving the wrong way, chances are that Teague already has it in his catalog of maneuvers. To go back to the analogy, the 98-mile-per-hour fastball is twice as nice when hitters can't anticipate its arrival.

Teague also led the team in three-point shooting percentage, making 40.1 percent of his attempts. Perhaps more impressively, he converted an incredible number of his catch-and-shoot threes: 49.6 percent. No one who attempted more than 100 threes this season – not Steph Curry, not J.J. Redick, not Kawhi Leonard – made a higher percentage of their catch-and-shoot attempts. Considering that 2015-16 was The Year of the Three-Point Shot (at least, that is, until next year), Teague's feat is even that much more impressive.

In his exit interview at the end of the season, Teague said that he planned to return home to Indiana for some rest and recovery. If he returns to Atlanta refreshed enough to duplicate his feats next season, the Hawks will be in great shape for the 2016-17 season.