ATLANTA — I’m confident that Trae Young and Dejonte Murray will make it work sharing the ball as Hawks backcourt partners. The Hawks already know how to score. Young and Murray will work out the details on the best way for them to keep the Hawks humming as co-lead guards.
I’m more interested in whether the Hawks can dramatically improve their defense in 2022-23. The Hawks always were at least solid on defense, and often great, during their run of 10 consecutive postseason appearances. They’ve been bad at getting stops since then. Murray is among the new players expected to help change that.
Murray spent six seasons in San Antonio, where coach Gregg Popovich built a defensive machine over 20-plus years. The Spurs had a lot of good defensive players over that time. They also had an expectation that all players, even the not-so-good defenders, would do their best on that end of the floor.
