Teague's Next Step - Moving without the ball.

[Guest]

Teague still has to overcome some habits instilled in him when he broke into the NBA with the Hawks seven years ago. Then, he directed an isolation-oriented offense. Over the past two seasons he has adapted to the antithesis under head coach Mike Budenholzer. The next step is for Teague to be one of those moving parts when he doesn’t have the ball.

“Offensively, at times he can play with more energy when he is off the ball when we talk about some habits that need to break,” Budenholzer said. “I think when the ball is in his hands, he has gotten to where he does everything we expect and need him to do. I think sometimes off the ball he can grow. He can screen and cut better. He can do more things where he is more active and maybe the ball comes back to him. That is an area of improvement. I do think the ball will come back to him if he is more active and doing more things when he is off of it.”

Teague understands. There are more opportunities for him if he is the one slashing to the basket. When the Hawks talk about getting to the second and third levels of their offensive during a possession, he can become an option after his initial facilitation.

“Running the lanes, cutting without the ball when other people have it, when the ball is in the post slashing a little more, things like that,” Teague said. “I’ll probably get a lot more easier baskets if I cut without the ball, move to the open space, I can get more open looks.

“It’s the way we play. We play with a lot of movement. Previous teams I was on, it was more stay in space and let guys work.”

http://www.myajc.com/news/sports/basketball/moving-without-ball-is-next-step-for-teague/nnr7F/?icmp=ajc_internallink_referralbox_free-to-premium-referral

 

[LucastheThird]

Basically Bud telling Teague to step up and take a chunk of the 10-12 points left by DMC

[AUhawksfan]

Glad to see we aren't staying pat and want to continue to build on things from last year.  Let's take a step forward, not back.

[aali34]

In my opinion, the things holding teague back are Off ball offense, and a mid range jumper.

[benhillboy]

Teague doesn't strike me as a willing screener. Not the biggest target to find for a quick pass in traffic either. I expect all of our new tweener wings to provide more of that than Jeff. That's a means to get into the flow of the game, Jeff's quickness WITH the ball dictates the flow.

I hate to be instigator, but I also read into Bud's quote that Jeff has to be more willing to play off of Dennis controlling. Something he likely isn't crazy about.

[cam1218]

I hate to be instigator, but I also read into Bud's quote that Jeff has to be more willing to play off of Dennis controlling. Something he likely isn't crazy about.

Yeah, I had a similar thought too. Bud seems to like that lineup but a lot of the time Teague would just stand in a corner as he watched Dennis do his thing. Of the two, Jeff would be the guy you would figure could play better off the ball. He did it at Wake Forest a lot..

Either way, the term "playoff Teague" came from him being aggressive with the ball. I think Bud wants that mentality to be there when he isn't controlling the ball.

[BigDog90]

In my opinion, the things holding teague back are Off ball offense, and a mid range jumper.

His lack of consistent aggressiveness is a killer too. When he plays aggressive he looks like a top 5 PG in the NBA.

[LucastheThird]

Let's not turn this into another Teague vs Dennis thread.

[JTB]

Yeah, I had a similar thought too. Bud seems to like that lineup but a lot of the time Teague would just stand in a corner as he watched Dennis do his thing. Of the two, Jeff would be the guy you would figure could play better off the ball. He did it at Wake Forest a lot..

Either way, the term "playoff Teague" came from him being aggressive with the ball. I think Bud wants that mentality to be there when he isn't controlling the ball.

Yup probably so....I believe Teague can do it and be damn near elite at it with his speed and all as long as he isn't worried about contact that comes along with it...All in all I think this is awesome and will only make the offense better!

Doing things like making Teague and Dennis run off the ball more to get open is just having more of our players initiate the offense.

[rd79]

Let's not turn this into another Teague vs Dennis thread.

Yeah, let's make this a Teague & Dennis thread!

[DrReality]

Spurs system runs like clockwork cuz they've done it for so long. We can only get better in the third season running it

[CrazyEye]

Teague doesn't strike me as a willing screener. Not the biggest target to find for a quick pass in traffic either. I expect all of our new tweener wings to provide more of that than Jeff. That's a means to get into the flow of the game, Jeff's quickness WITH the ball dictates the flow.

I hate to be instigator, but I also read into Bud's quote that Jeff has to be more willing to play off of Dennis controlling. Something he likely isn't crazy about.

 

I think even without Dennis on the court the game of the hawks was fluid if jeff passes to a team mate, and doesn't look to bring the ball back to jeff so that he can restart the offense.

And yes the off ball game is more important for the wings, and jeff small frame makes it harder to pass to him but off ball offense isn't measured in points alone. If you move well without the ball, the defense had to follow you and while doing this, the defense will most likely make bad decision which could be punished not necessarily by Jeff. Off ball offense is often like blocking out on a rebound, a player mosten get more rebound if he goes hard for the board, but if he puts efforts in blocking out his team will get more rebound ... And Jeff speed, is also a nightmare for a defence even without the ball.

[Peoriabird]

We have a million shooting guards now..No need to run the Teague-Dennis back court anymore

[JTB]

We have a million shooting guards now..No need to run the Teague-Dennis back court anymore

I agree but unfortunately bud has already stated that we will surely see them on the court at the same time. Bud said he likes the higher tempo Teague and Dennis run when they are out on the court together.

[Guest]

Jeff Teague, the Hawks' 'engine,' is only revving up

 

The speed isn’t what turns heads. It’s the gear-shifting. The way he can lean one way, drop a dribble and leave skid marks on his way into the lane. That nasty occasional tendency to let an opponent beat him off the dribble, only to rip around and block his shot from behind.

Jeff Teague is catching the NBA sleeping.

“When I saw how many different speeds he had — he’s just so calm, and then at another second, he’ll be right by you,” Terran Petteway said. “I didn’t think he was that electric.”

You’ll have to forgive Petteway, the Hawks’ undrafted rookie who caught his first up-close look at his new teammate during September workouts with the team. Teague made his first NBA All-Star team last season, but it would have been easy to miss him among three other Hawks plus his coach, Mike Budenholzer.

Teague may be the closest thing the Hawks, coming off a banner 60-22 season and trip to the Eastern Conference finals, have to flash, but he remains understated. He’ll take a steal coast-to-coast, flip in a reverse layup on two defenders and not crack a smile or pump a fist. He ranked eighth in the NBA in assists per game but fourth in secondary assists per game, so often making the pass behind the pass for an offense that thrived on ball movement.

He’s a rare breed. Consider that his Player Efficiency Rating has risen in each of his six NBA seasons, to 20.6 last year. Consider that he has yet to miss the postseason (an eight-year Hawks streak that predates Teague). Consider that he came up with Mike Woodson’s “ISO-Joe” Hawks, a score-first, score-second point guard built for a team that thrived on individual offense and aggressive defense.

“My first two years, I was coming in, trying to get baskets,” Teague told Sporting News recently at Hawks camp in Athens, Ga. “I just thought that was always going to be my role. And (assistant coach) Nick Van Exel pulled me aside and told me I’m a 6-1 point guard. I have to get others involved. No one’s going to pay a 6-1 shooting guard.”

The talk entering this Hawks season is on the innocent verdicts for Thabo Sefolosha in a brutal incident with the New York Police Department and over a competition for DeMarre Carroll’s vacated starting small forward job. Last season, the best in Hawks history, created potentially unrealistic standards for a team that seized its moment with a 19-game winning streak and several key players in their best seasons.

Teague, 27, is the youngest presumptive starter by two years. And to hear him and others around him tell it, he is ready for another step in his evolution — and his challenge in powering one of the NBA’s most intricate and selfless offenses.

“I don’t see something that can stop his game right now,” new Hawks center Tiago Splitter said.

Teague talks about his past coaches without insult. But you can see his mind turning in this offense, which Budenholzer brought with him from the Spurs in 2013.

Under Mike Woodson and Larry Drew, he stayed comfortable. At Wake Forest, Teague played with fellow NBA point guard Ish Smith, and the offense revolved around his scoring ability as much as anything. When he had the ball, he kept it, memorably scoring 34 points in a victory against eventual NCAA champion North Carolina as a sophomore. That sixth-man mentality he describes once was viewed as a ceiling to his potential.

The roof has been blown off under Budenholzer. He has reshaped Teague in the mold of Tony Parker — still a finisher, still a penetrator, but doing it in concert with the team.

"I wouldn't say it was a challenge, more of an opportunity,” Teague said. “My game is getting in the lane, creating for others and scoring the basketball. This offense fits perfect for me. ... It's a point guard's dream when you get to have the ball most of the time and make decisions."

The Hawks’ second- and third-best ballhandlers often are center Al Horford and power forward Paul Millsap. The inverted form focuses on on- and off-ball screening and active passing. The Hawks was second in the NBA in assists and fifth in total passes last season, for good reason: They were the most efficient team in the NBA on possessions featuring shots created by passing (1.01 points per possession), while they were at the league average when they didn’t use a pass to create (0.81),according to a recent study by Nylon Calculus.

That puts inordinate pressure on Teague and backup Dennis Schröder. They lack help in the way of traditional ballhandling options, but they also know the team must stay in its sets. Old habits die hard, but Teague’s elevation last season came mostly from his commitment to the system.

“He had one of those flashbacks today,” Budenholzer said with a laugh at training camp. “But he's come a long way. And I think (he's shown) a willingness and openness to embrace playing a little bit differently. The whole team still has a way to go, and Jeff's not any different. But he's come a long way as far as being our engine and being the guy who facilitates and being the guy who makes things happen for us and balancing scoring and assists.”

The word “engine” is one of Budenholzer’s favorites in describing Teague. It’s an operative word. While “the head of the snake” is the preferred term of the Wizards’ John Wall and several other star point guards, that does not fit the mechanical precision that the Hawks require.

 

“The thing is, Jeff has just gotten so much better every year that I've been here,” guard Kyle Korver said. “He comes back every year, and he has made significant gains in his game, significant jumps. Just watching him here in the pickup games in the past month — woo, he looks good. I think Jeff always has had the physical tools. Mentally he keeps getting stronger and better. I think he's realizing how good he could be.”

And the next step toward getting there may be the trickiest.

Teague averaged 15.9 points and 7.0 assists per game last season, even as his minutes dipped to 30.5 a game. There’s no question he has the tools to score more, to assist more, to even improve on his career-high 1.7 steals per game. But he now must do so within the confines of the Hawks’ system.

Because Atlanta’s 22-victory improvement last season scans as fluky, any changes are sure to be scrutinized. The loss of Carroll has many doubting the team’s wings again — despite the team playing better without the athletic small forward on the court last regular season. The summer emergence at EuroBasket of Schröder, whose defensive lapses and bouts of selfishness made him a liability at times last season, have only created consternation about finding time for the 22-year-old German and whether that could hurt the team in the short term.

Teague isn’t one of those question marks. Budenholzer says Teague is doing everything he asks with the ball in his hands. But there’s the operative phrase. Teague’s next move may be a full-circle one, sliding to shooting guard at times to make way for his protege.

“With Dennis' emergence and Dennis just becoming somebody that's doing so many things well for us on both ends of the court — obviously, Jeff is doing a lot of good things, too — as a coach, it's your challenge to get the players that are playing the best or having the most positive impact (on the floor),” Budenholzer said at Hawks media day. “So I do think there will be opportunities to play those two guys together. I wouldn't say it's something we're planning on a lot, but you'll see it some. And if it's working well, it's probably on us to figure out how to do it more.”

Budenholzer won’t commit because he doesn’t have to and because the pair has not practiced much together — who would guard them? But Teague and Schröder enjoyed playing together toward the end of last season.

“It’s really hard to stop for the other guys,” Schröder said, praising Teague’s guidance during his first two NBA seasons. “Two quick guys with the point guard skill sets. We can attack right off the rebound. I think it's great and hope the coach is going to let us play like that."

The Hawks brought in Tim Hardaway Jr. and Justin Holiday to compete with Korver, Sefolosha and Kent Bazemore on the wings. But none of those players offer the same upside as Schröder, and Korver is 34 and coming off the best season of his career.

Teague’s jump shot easily is overlooked. His 34.3 percent shooting on 3-pointers largely was the product of shooting off the dribble, and he made 40.4 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3s, second-best among Hawks returnees. That impressed Holiday, who spent last season with the champion Warriors and MVP Stephen Curry.

“I've guarded him and I've guarded Steph, and Jeff is just as tough to guard,” Holiday said. “Steph is Steph, but Jeff shoots his jumper a lot better than I thought he did before I got here and actually saw him and played with him a lot more. It makes a player a lot harder to guard. You're not going to be able to guard it one-on-one with Jeff. You're going to have to make sure you're guarding his jump shot and still not letting him get by you. And (laughs) he's going to get by you regardless."

That kind of praise should come with a note Budenholzer certainly would endorse: Curry’s biggest improvement last season came on defense, which is what took him from his first All-Star bid to MVP status. And while Teague can’t be expected to replicate that leap, Budenholzer hopes to see him play more physically on both ends. The next step for Teague would be cementing himself among the top six or seven point guards, a crowded field that he started to show he belonged in last season.

Korver has played with his own share of elite point guards, in Allen Iverson, Deron Williams and Derrick Rose. But he stayed away from comparisons involving the “engine” of his team, the player who gets him the ball for those open shots, the point guard who allows this unique system to function.

“I just think Jeff is really good,” Korver said, “and I'm glad he's on my team.”

 

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/story/2015-10-13/jeff-teague-hawks-atlanta-point-guard-dennis-Schröder

[hazer]

"The loss of Carroll has many doubting the team’s wings again — despite the team playing better without the athletic small forward on the court last regular season." Yeah, but he tore it up in the playoffs. Hawks can probably win 60 again, if Thabo stays healthy.

 

[AHF]

"The loss of Carroll has many doubting the team’s wings again — despite the team playing better without the athletic small forward on the court last regular season." Yeah, but he tore it up in the playoffs. Hawks can probably win 60 again, if Thabo stays healthy.

 

This is a plus/minus issue.  Thabo was a beast defensively so we looked great when Carroll came off and Thabo came on (usually with Carroll facing the opponent's starters and Thabo facing their reserves).  The issue now is that Thabo will (hopefully) be constant and we will take a big step down from Caroll to our selection of undersized potential replacement wings led by Bazemore.  The quote makes it sound like we should be looking for an upgrade with addition by subtraction but that just isn't the case unless one of our guys takes a huge leap.