Jeff Teague, the engine of the relentless Hawks
By James Herbert | NBA writer
January 17, 2015 11:10 am ET
TORONTO — Mike Budenholzer doesn't talk to
Jeff Teague about
Tony Parker. According to Teague, at least, the
Atlanta Hawks head coach isn't constantly spilling
San Antonio Spurs stories. If that's hard to believe, it's because the Hawks, winners of 25 of their last 27 games, are rarely discussed without referencing their stylistic similarities to the Spurs. Budenholzer spent 19 years with that organization before leaving Gregg Popovich for his first NBA head-coaching job in Atlanta. In the last season and a half, he's built his own purist-pleasing powerhouse.
To watch the Hawks is to watch offensive elegance and execution unmatched outside of San Antonio. Teague's job as the point guard is to attack, force the defense to collapse, then make the proper play.
Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey called him a young Parker. Budenholzer said it's not like the two of them are identical twins, pointing to Teague's unique combination of speed, strength and skill.
“He just wants us to be us,” Teague said. “I mean, he talks about coach Pop more than he talks about any individual player.”
Budenholzer said Teague knows how important he is to what the team is trying to do. He's in the midst of a career year, with 20-point-and-10-assist nights becoming commonplace, but his coach will keep pushing him for more, holding him accountable, pointing out his mistakes. If you understand Teague, you understand that Atlanta is the perfect place for him.
One thing about the Hawks: They're aggressively team-first. Plenty of players claim to ignore individual accomplishments, but for these guys it sounds like a religion. They think and talk and live and breathe and play unselfishly. Prompted to say something about facing
Kyle Lowry on Friday, Teague complimented the Raptors star but refused to call it any sort of personal test.
“It's a team game,” he said. “We don't get into individual matchups on this team.”
Growing up, Teague's favorite player was Jason Williams, the flashy and fearless point guard whose court vision and pull-up 3s captivated fans as the
Sacramento Kings regained relevance in the late 1990s and rose to prominence in the early 2000s. Teague loved those Kings.
“They really shared the ball,” Teague said. “They were fun to watch. [Williams] was an exciting player. You never knew what you were going to get from him, other than he was going to get you a highlight or something to make you say ‘wow' every time he was on the floor. As a kid, that excited me.
“I always wanted to be in a system where they passed and moved the ball,” Teague continued. “They had the whole team throwing behind-the-back passes and stuff like that. I thought that was cool. That was always how I wanted to play basketball.”
Last Sunday, in a 120-89 blowout win over the
Washington Wizards, sharpshooter
Kyle Korver threw a mid-air behind-the-back pass to
DeMarre Carroll on a fast break. If these Hawks are those old Kings and Teague is Williams — or if he's Mike Bibby, who replaced Williams in Sacramento in 2001 and mentored a rookie Teague in Atlanta eight years later — then Korver is Peja Stojakovic. That would mean the heady and versatile
Paul Millsap and
Al Horford are Chris Webber and Vlade Divac, utility guy Carroll is Doug Christie, and ball-of-fire backup point guard Dennis Schröder is Bobby Jackson. It's not a flawless comparison, but it works well enough.
Like in Sacramento's corner offense under Rick Adelman, every Hawk is engaged with or without the ball. The front office has exclusively acquired high-IQ players, with Budenholzer empowering them to make decisions. The vast majority of the time, they're able to find open shots. This is quite the change from the isolation basketball that was played at Philips Arena under Mike Woodson and Larry Drew. Teague couldn't be happier.
“It's probably like 25 percent of the time he calls a play,” Teague said. “It's kind of we just know what we're going to do. Everything is reads.
“I've been on teams where every play's been called for certain people, or the coach calls every play down,” he continued. “Having the opportunity to just play free is pretty fun.”
One thing about the Hawks: They tend to deflect praise. Teague enjoys that he's on a roster that, aside from Horford and veteran big man
Elton Brand, is entirely composed of players who were mid-first-round picks at best. He believes that they approach things as if they're out to prove people wrong, and way they've developed is a testament to the coaching staff and the organization. Korver's a teammate, but his exploits can still put Teague in fan mode.
“I'm amazed every time,” Teague said. “Some of the shots he makes in the game, how far he shoots it, contested shots. I know he's the best shooter I've ever seen, but I think he's probably one of the best shooters to ever step on the basketball court.”
Teague credits Budenholzer and his philosophy for much of his own improvement. He knew when the coach arrived that the Hawks would be more fast-paced and motion-based. Everything's easier now.
“He just gave me an opportunity to be myself,” Teague said. “Not to say that nobody else did, but I guess he believed in me a little more. He put the ball in my hands and gave me an opportunity. And I think he did that for every player in here. I think he puts so much confidence in you and he builds your confidence up so high that you have no choice but to go out there and give it your all.”
This season, Teague is scoring 17.5 points per game, which leads his team but not by much. His averages of 7.2 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game are all career highs, as is his 60 percent true shooting percentage. While he, of course, doesn't want to focus on it, he's a legitimate All-Star candidate. The only potential problem is that Millsap, Horford and Korver are, too.
Brand remembers playing in the 2006 All-Star Game when the coaches selected theDetroit Pistons' Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace. Four teammates made also made it as reserves in 2011, when the Boston Celtics were represented by Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo. No Atlanta player is going to be a starter, but Brand thinks it's time for history to repeat itself.
“These guys shouldn't be slighted,” Brand said. “I think four guys definitely deserve it on my team.”
One thing about the Hawks: They care about defense. They're not a team of
Tony Allens or
Roy Hibberts, but they make few mistakes and cause turnovers. Teague said everyone just takes pride in it. He's pored over film to try to improve. He attributes Atlanta's recent success to being more active, getting deflections and steals.
Over this 25-2 stretch, the Hawks are the No. 1 team in the league in defensive efficiency. The trust and timing and smarts that are obvious offensively are just as evident on the other side. The two aren't unrelated, either.
“Sharing it like that, it translates to defense,” Brand said. “Moving the ball, everybody's touching it, now you're on defense, you're trying to get stops and it's fun to play like that.
“If you're watching one guy dominate the ball or dribble the ball, massage the ball, take all the shots, it kind of deflates you a little bit. But when you're touching it, even if you're not shooting it, if you're touching it and you're running and you feel a part of that offense, it makes you want to be a part of that defense.”
Budenholzer called Teague “our engine” and said he's embraced everything that's important to the team. That means creating for himself and others and pushing the pace, but it also means defending with intelligence and intensity. He's guarding a great player almost every night, and he's more than holding his own.
ne thing about the Hawks: They can pile up points quickly. With less than five minutes left in the first half in Toronto, the Hawks held just a five-point lead. Teague took an inbounds pass, hit Lowry with a spin move and dunked on the baseline. Soon afterward he found Carroll for an open 3 in transition. Next came a coast-to-coast dunk after stealing the ball from Raptors big man
Amir Johnson. Before the end of the period, he also found Korver for an open jumper and made a tricky floater over
Terrence Ross. Atlanta suddenly led by 14 at halftime, and Teague made the margin 17 with a 3-pointer to open the third quarter. That was the game — the final score was 110-89.
Guard
Lou Williams, the Atlanta native who the Hawks traded to Toronto last summer, acknowledged how difficult it is trying to keep up with a team that zips the ball around like that. He also said he's happy for Teague after watching him and then sharing a locker room. Teague is making the most of this situation, and there's no sign of him or his team slowing down.
“I had the privilege of watching him put in work and see how he takes the game seriously, how he approaches the game,” Williams said. “And it's paying off.”
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but seeing we still BEATIN ASS
