The Atlanta Hawks Have A Massive Rebounding Problem

In the modern NBA, rebounding is an especially important trait for a team to have. The 2024-25 Oklahoma City Thunder and the 2022-23 Denver Nuggets are the only championship teams to not finish as a top-10 rebounding team since the 2018-19 Toronto Raptors. That didn't matter in the playoffs because Oklahoma City had a devestatingly effective double-big lineup with Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein to fight for rebounds. Denver was able to work past that worrying indicator because they have two great rebounders at their position in their frontcourt - Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic. Even so, both teams still finished in the top half of the playoff bracket for rebounds per game. It's almost impossible for dreadful rebounding teams to win a championship in the current iteration of the NBA. Unfortunately, the Hawks are currently a dreadful rebounding team.

To be clear, this is an aberration for Atlanta. Despite heavily relying on a 6'1 point guard on the floor who offers practically nothing as a rebounder, the Hawks have actually been a top-15 rebounding team for most of Trae Young's career. A season-by-season breakdown shows in five of the seven seasons where Young was at the helm, the Hawks finished as an average or above-average rebounding team.

2018-19 season: 12th in rebounds (4th in OREB, 18th in DREB)

2019-20 season: 22nd in rebounds (19th in OREB, 23rd in DREB)

2020-21 season: 5th in rebounds (7th in OREB, 10th in DREB)

2021-22 season: 20th in rebounds (17th in OREB, 17th in DREB)

2022-23 season: 10th in rebounds (9th in OREB, 12th in DREB)

2023-24 season: 6th in rebounds (3rd in OREB, 22nd in DREB)

2024-25 season: 14th in rebounds (9th in OREB, 23rd in DREB)

So far, this season has been their worst rebounding season in the entirety of the Trae Young era. They are currently 25th in total rebounds while being 27th in OREB and 21st in DREB. Unsurprisingly, they don't get a lot of second chance points and they're 23rd in that area. For further elaboration, they're one of three teams that rank 20th or worse in both OREB% and DREB%. The other two teams are the Sacramento Kings and the Washington Wizards - that's not great company to be in right now.

If their offensive rebounding mark holds, it would be their first season since 2017-18 where they were 20th or worse in offensive rebounds per game. This version of the Hawks just lacks the hustle that previous iterations showed when it comes to getting extra possessions and giving opposing offenses less chances to beat them. It also lacks former starting center Clint Capela, who excelled on the offensive glass as a Hawk and continues to excel in that area for the Rockets.

However, their defensive rebounding being this poor is a worrying trend. This is their third straight season being in the bottom third of the league for defensive rebounding and therefore ending possessions. That puts more stress on an already suspect defense to hold up for even longer while demanding a level of defensive engagement that the 2025-26 Atlanta Hawks don't seem capable of giving.

How Do They Fix It?

Fixing these rebounding issues is a complicated problem. The Hawks do have some players who are good rebounders. However, they don't have a lot of players who create extra chances on offense. Dyson Daniels and Asa Newell are the exceptions. Newell leads the team in OREB% as a rookie, grabbing 7.2% of shots that Atlanta misses. Daniels is the most productive rebounder on the team relative to his position. He's in the 93rd percentile for OREB% among all guards, grabbing 6.8% of missed Hawks shots. However, Zaccharie Risacher is the only other Hawk who ranks above the 50th percentile for OREB% relative to their position.

Things are a little bit better on the defensive rebounding side. Despite his puzzling lack of defensive engagement, Jalen Johnson actually has a case for being the best defensive rebounder among forwards when assessing by DREB%. His DREB% of 22.4% is in the 100th - yes, 100th - percentile among all forwards. That means of all the field goals that opponents miss against Atlanta, Jalen Johnson grabs a mind-boggling 22.4% percent of them by himself. He's about as good as a center when it comes to defensive rebounds since he's the only forward in the NBA who has a DREB% above 21%. Daniels and Okongwu are also statistically fine defensive rebounders. Both have an above-average DREB% above the 60th percentile.

The problem is that the Hawks are functionally a team with one center and one bench player who does the dirty work on the boards. They don't bring in any real rebounding off the bench because that bench player (Newell) is below average on the glass relative to his position. The lack of Porzingis in the rebounding battle does hurt purely because he's massive, but he isn't a good rebounder relative to his position. This is unfortunately an issue that can only be solved if everyone on the Hawks turns their motor up to 11 on the boards - or they bring in some rebounding via trade acquisition.

The second solution seems a lot more plausible and sustainiable. Solving the offensive rebounding problem likely has to be done by bringing in an additional center. The number of great backcourt/wing rebounders isn't high and teams tends to keep those players unless the Hawks want to snag Russell Westbroook off the Kings. That being said, Tyrese Martin of the Nets is an interesting name to keep an eye on if the Hawks want cheap, avaliable offensive rebounding help in the backcourt. He's got an OREB% of 4.3%, which is in the 90th percentile among all guards. As a wing target, a name like Gary Payton II (OREB of 9.5% - 99th percentile among all wings) would be amazing on the offensive glass if the Hawks could get him from Golden State.

76ers center Andre Drummond might make sense as center help for Okongwu on both ends of the rebounding battle. He's been a great rebounder for almost his entire career and he's brought that effort on the glass regardless of whether he's starting or in a bench role. His DREB% is even better - he's at a 98th-percentile mark of 26.8%. Philadelphia quietly has a lot of rebounding and may want to move Drummond in order to dodge the luxury tax.

Solving the defensive rebounding problem could be accomplished in a variety of different ways. A wing like Nets star Michael Porter Jr (DREB% of 19.3% - 99th percentile) would be a big help on that end, but he won't be cheap to acquire. Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski and Vince Williams of the Memphis Grizzlies are both intriguing guard targets if the Hawks want to add more guards who can get defensive boards.

If Anthony Davis is indeed a target for the Hawks, his OREB% of 11.7% is good for the 76th percentile among all centers. Davis would be a massive help in this area. His DREB% of 22,7% is in the 88th percentile relative to his position and it's his first season under the 90th percentile in this metric since the 2021-22 season. The combination of this dip in production and his injury hi there's some concern over how much he'd really be able to improve a team's rebounding.

Simply put, the performance of the Atlanta Hawks isn't good enough for the playoffs right now. They need to improve in several areas if they want to be a legitimate threat in a wide open East. However, they can start by rebounding from their poor performance on the glass thus far.