The first time Dyson Daniels suited up for the Atlanta Hawks was a preseason game against the Indiana Pacers. The 21-year-old has acquitted himself well, scoring 14 points on 5-for-8 shooting with three assists in 21 minutes, and showing signs that his size, length and activity could make him an ideal complement to Trae Young – a transcendent playmaker. with the ball in his hands, but a frequent target on the other side of the floor.
“We have a defensive plan as a team, which we want to take away,” Daniels said after the preseason affair. “And every team is different. [The Pacers] I have so many good individual players, and someone like that [Pascal] Siakam, you want to take away his right hand. A man like [Tyrese] Haliburton, you want to take his step back.”
However, the chatter about the game plan and know-your-personnel details only served to eliminate and obscure the secret truth pounding in the Australian’s heart: the thing Dyson Daniels wants to take away most from any attacking player is the ball. And if we’ve learned anything in the opening month of the 2024-2025 NBA season, it’s this: He’s real, Real good at doing.
If you’re one of the masochistic sickos who’s been watching the chaos-ridden Pelicans for the past few seasons – [waves at you warmly] – you already knew the 6-foot-4 Daniels could sit down and guard. Daniels, selected eighth overall in the 2022 NBA Draft from the now-defunct G League Ignite incubator program, showed impressive flashes of destruction in New Orleans and was near the top of the NBA in steals and deflections per minute. But with Herb Jones firmly entrenched as the top stopper in the starting lineup, with Brandon Ingram, CJ McCollum and Trey Murphy III all in line for starter minutes on the perimeter, and with the Pelicans looking for a new ball handler and shot creator to of the NBA’s worst offenses, New Orleans sent Daniels – along with veteran big men Larry Nance Jr. and Cody Zeller, and two future first-round picks – to Atlanta for Dejounte Murray.
The Pels have yet to reap the expected benefits of the deal; Murray hasn’t played since breaking his left hand on opening night. However, Atlanta has seen the gem of his return pay immediate dividends. Daniels has quickly established himself not only as a starter alongside Young in the backcourt of Quin Snyder’s revamped club, but also as the NBA’s top pickpocket: ‘The Great Barrier Thief’ enters the Hawks’ Monday game with the Dallas Mavericks leading the NBA in steals and deflections. For example, by a lot.
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Daniels is averaging 3.2 steals per game, completely ahead of Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams and Houston’s Tari Eason, putting him on pace to become just the eighth player since the NBA began keeping track in 1973-74 of steals, with an average of three thefts per game – and the first to do it in 31 years.
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Daniels has recorded an obscene 102 deflections in 15 games, which not only puts him at the top of the league; are 37 more than the second-place player, De’Aaron Fox, who has played 138 more minutes than Daniels. The gap between Daniels in first place and Fox in second is the same as the gap between Fox and 76ers forward Caleb Martin… on the 99th.
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Daniels has stolen 4.4% of his opponent’s possessions and has blocked a shot on 2.7% of their offensive trips. According to Stathead, before this season, only three players had ever posted a steal rate above 4% and a block rate above 2%: Scottie Pippen and Nate McMillan in 1994-95, and Tony Allen in 2010-11. (Daniels is one of three players to do so so far this season, joining Eason and Thunder chaos agent Alex Caruso.)
Watch Daniels defend, and it’s striking how he manages to be seemingly everywhere — he’s sixth among rotation players in distance traveled on defense, and 15th in average speed on defense, according to Second Spectrum — without sacrificing sacrificing thoroughness in the service of the splash game. He sticks to the No. 1 job for any defender, keeping the ball in front by using his quick feet to mirror his goal’s movements, and the core strength in that 6-foot-4 frame to absorb bumps from attackers while still maintaining his balance. He keeps himself in position to cut off their drives, contest their shots… and, if they expose the ball for even a blink of an eye, relieve them of the burden of handling it.
It rarely feels like he’s working his way out of position like a freelancer, and yet he just shows up when the ball is in play. Incoming passes are not secure. Access passes to the post and elbow are not secure. Skips to the corner are not safe.
Crossovers are not safe, no matter how tight your handle is. Droplets of electricity in the paint are not safe, no matter how strong your hands are. Turn your back on him while you try to rob his nearby teammate? Certainly not safe.
Even dribble handoffs are not safe. Daniels blows it up and stays connected to the ballhandler as he curls around the screen and makes his way to the ball, like a lightning-quick linebacker cutting into the backfield. (He even talks about it like a football player: “For me it’s ‘See ball, get ball.'”)
What if you think you’ve blocked it, knocked it off the play, turned the corner and headed downhill to the basket? Think again: Daniels, still in hot pursuit like a heat-seeking villain from a horror movie, will close the game with his 6-foot wingspan and stick the ball out from behind.
Daniels is producing one of the most disruptive individual defensive seasons in recent memory, ranking in the 99th percentile in perimeter isolation defense, passing lane defense and defensive playmaking, according to The BBall Index game charts. And he does it without having the luxury of taking on less threatening offensive assignments so he can mess things up playing free safety: Daniels stands next to Young and routinely guards the most dangerous threat an opponent has to offer – Jayson Tatum , Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Stephen Curry, Jalen Brunson, De’Aaron Fox, Zach LaVine, et al. – and as a result has achieved the highest average matchup difficulty in the NBA to date, according to The BBall Index.
There’s still plenty to think about for Snyder and Co. in a Hawks team that enters action Monday at 7-10, comfortably ensconced in their established home within the play-in tournament spots. Daniels also has a long way to go, especially on offense, where he is shooting just 36% on jumpers this season and has missed two-thirds of his overall attempts in his last four games, with one assist. turnover to turnover ratio barely above 1 to 1. But while he is still a work in progress offensively, and while his individual play has not resulted in performances that extinguish every star you come across, he is making an impact on the area where the Hawks have long needed it most: They allow nearly five fewer points per 100 when Daniels is on the floor than when he is not.
Through the first month of the season, the difference between Atlanta defending at its usual bottom-five level and getting stops at a roughly league-average level — a rate the Hawks haven’t achieved since the surprising 2021 Eastern Conference Finals — is the 21-year-old sneaks around the perimeter, sending the theme of ‘Jaws’ running through ballhandlers’ minds. Daniels began his tenure in Atlanta by emphasizing the importance of knowing your workforce; now he has become the kind of attacking threat violations need to know, or he could ruin their entire game plan, one poke, swipe, or whack at a time.
