Dyson Daniels enters this season with the spotlight exactly where it’s been all along: on the gap between his elite defense and the one glaring hole in his game. The Atlanta Hawks are paying him like a cornerstone now, and after a second straight All-Defensive honor, the 23-year-old is stepping into the first year of a four-year, $100 million deal with plenty of eyes on what comes next.
The offseason work has been obvious. Daniels has been in the gym grinding through shooting drills, from contested jumpers to stepback threes, trying to broaden the looks he can trust once the games start counting. That matters for a Hawks team that climbed through a rocky 2025-26 regular season, reached the playoffs for the first time in three years, and then took two games from the New York Knicks.
That series also delivered a blunt message. Jalen Brunson and the Knicks repeatedly gave Daniels space from deep, and they had their reasons.
The shots weren’t falling, and it was impossible to ignore. Still, Daniels kept firing, and the hope in Atlanta is that all those reps eventually show up in a real game.
There’s real upside if they do. Daniels has already shown he can get as high as 14.1 points per game while hitting 34% from three, which is enough to make you wonder what he could look like with a steadier jumper. The key now is how Head Coach Quin Snyder folds that into the Hawks’ offense.
The tricky part is avoiding the usual trade-off. When a defensive specialist starts improving offensively, the scoring can rise while the defense slips.
Atlanta doesn’t need Daniels turning into a high-volume creator. It needs him as a spot-up threat, the kind of shooter who can punish teams for ignoring him without taking away from what makes him special.
If he can get back to 33% or better from deep, that should be enough to change the geometry of the floor. It would open things up for top scorers Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jalen Johnson, giving them more room to work. Daniels has already been useful in other ways, too, acting like a pseudo big man by setting screens, rebounding, and leaning into playmaking.
That role has fit neatly alongside Atlanta’s stretch-big looks with Onyeka Okongwu and Jock Landale, and the Hawks can now add Henri Veesaar and Zuby Ejiofor into the mix as more passing targets. Daniels’ summer assignment was clear: add a real weapon.
He’s put in the work, and by October the Hawks will find out whether that effort finally pays off. One thing feels safe to say - he’s going to shoot better than 18.8%.
In Other News...
Hawks Suddenly Have A Tough Two-Way Decision To Make
The Hawks are heading into the final stretch of the offseason with a roster that is basically spoken for, carrying 17 players on the main roster and all three two-way contract spots already filled. Jalen Wilson is the newest name in that group, but the way Atlanta has handled these slots in the past suggests nothing is truly settled once summer league evaluations are in the books.
That is where the real pressure starts to build, because the Hawks still have a few players who have made a case for themselves and could force the front office to keep reworking the back end of the roster. With preseason still ahead, Atlanta has to decide whether to stay put or keep turning over those two-way spots in search of the best mix of upside and fit. [Read more 🡒]
Hawks Suddenly Hold One Of The Summers Biggest Roster Decisions
LeBron James decision to head to Philadelphia instead of going back to Cleveland has already started to ripple through the Cavaliers offseason, and one of the more interesting dominoes lands in Atlanta. Cleveland is still hunting for ways to add Jonathan Kuminga, and the path to doing it may run through a Hawks front office that suddenly has real say in how this kind of deal gets shaped.
Atlantas position is worth watching because the Hawks are carrying 17 players for 15 regular-season spots, which gives them both pressure and leverage as teams come calling. The Cavaliers have room to work with and are exploring different trade frameworks, but the Hawks are not in a spot where they have to help unless the return makes sense for them, and that makes this one of the summers more intriguing roster decisions to track. [Read more 🡒]
LeBron Just Made The Hawks' Climb In The East Tougher
The Eastern Conference got a lot more crowded this summer, and Atlantas path suddenly looks steeper because of it. Philadelphia has pushed itself into the center of the conversation with major roster upgrades, while the Hawks have also been active, adding Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins, Kingston Flemings and more as they try to keep pace in a conference that no longer leaves much room for error.
The problem for Atlanta is that the arms race did not stop in Philadelphia. Miami and Toronto have also made notable moves, and the 76ers now look built to contend right away if the pieces hold together. Even with all the star power in place, the real question is whether Philadelphia can stay healthy enough to make this new lineup matter, and that uncertainty is part of what makes the East so unforgiving for everyone chasing the top tier. [Read more 🡒]