The NBA's leading thief: Inside Johnson Daniels ' crazy numbers as the Hawks ' cap

One of the most problematic personal protective seasons in recent memory is being produced by the Atlanta guard.

Dyson Daniels wore a preseason game against the Indiana Pacers for the first time since the Atlanta Hawks. The 21-year-old showed promise by acquitting himself, recording 14 points on 5-for-8 shooting and three assists in 21 minutes while also demonstrating signs that his size, size, and exercise may make him a perfect match for Trae Young, a divine player with the ball in his hands but a regular target on the other end of the floor.

After the training event, Daniels stated to reporters," We have a strategy defensively as a team, and what we want to get away." " And every group's unique. ]The Pacers ] have so many good individual players, and a guy like]Pascal ] Siakam, you want to take away his right hand. A guy like]Tyrese ] Haliburton, you want to take away his step back".

The game-plan talk and know-your-personnel details, while, only served to elide and vague the secret wisdom pounding inside the Aussie's spirit: What Dyson Daniels wants to take away most, from every unpleasant player, is the game. And if we've learned anything in the opening quarter of the 2024-25 NBA year, it's this: He's really, really good at doing it.

If you're one of the hedonistic nutcases who kept pages on the chaos-racked Eagles over the past few months —]waves at you enthusiastically ] — you already knew that the 6-foot-8 Daniels may lay down and watch. Daniels, who was chosen eighth overall out of the now-defunct G League Ignite incubator program, displayed impressive displays of havoc-wreaking in New Orleans, ranking near the top of the NBA in steals and deflections per minute last year. However, New Orleans shipped Dejounte Murray to Atlanta with veteran big men Larry Nance Jr. and Cody Zeller, along with Herb Jones, who is firmly established as the top stopper in the starting lineup, Brandon Ingram, CJ McCollum, and Trey Murphy III, all in line for starters ' minutes on the perimeter.

The Pels have yet to reap the hoped-for benefits of the deal, Murray has n't played since breaking his left hand on opening night. Atlanta, however, has seen the jewel of its return pay immediate dividends. The Great Barrier Thief, who leads the NBA in steals and deflections, has quickly established himself as the Hawks ' starting lineup alongside Young in Quin Snyder's revamped team and as the NBA's top pickpocket. By, like, a lot.

Daniels is averaging 3.2 steals per game, a full steal ahead of Oklahoma City's Jalen Williams and Houston's Tari Eason, putting him on pace to be just the eighth player since the NBA started tracking steals in 1973-74 to average three thefts a game — and the first to do it in 31 years.

Daniels has logged an obscene 102 deflections in 15 games, which not only leads the league, it's 37 more than the player in second place, De'Aaron Fox, who has played 138 more minutes than Daniels. In the 99th place, the gap between first-place Caleb Martin and second-place Daniels is the same as the gap between Fox and 76ers forward Caleb Martin.

Daniels has secured a steal on 4.4 % of opponents ' possessions and has blocked a shot on 2.7 % of their offensive trips. According to Stathead, only three players had ever posted a steal rate above 4 % and a block rate above 2 % before this season: Scottie Pippen and Nate McMillan in 1994-95, and Tony Allen in 2010-11. Daniels, along with Eason and the Thunder's Alex Caruso, is one of three players who have done it this season.

Watch Daniels defend, and it's striking how he manages to appear seemingly everywhere while remaining sixth among rotation players in distance covered on defense and 15th in average speed moving on defense, according to Second Spectrum. He sticks to Job No. 1 for any defender, keeping the ball in front by using his quick feet to mirror his mark's movements, and uses the core strength in that 6-foot-8 frame to absorb bumps from attackers while still maintaining his balance. He keeps himself atop their drives, contest their shots, and relieve them of the burden of handling it if they even briefly expose the ball.

PSYCHO BANDIT 🇦 � � pic. twitter.com/iQmUy9ktEb

— Atlanta Hawks ( @ATLHawks ) November 19, 2024

It rarely feels like he's freelancing his way out of position, and yet, whenever the ball's in play, he just apparates. Inbounds passes are n't safe. Entry passes to the post and elbow are n't safe. Skips to the corner are n't safe.

Crossovers are n't safe, no matter how tight your handle is. Power dribbles in the paint are n't safe, no matter how strong your hands are. Turning your back to him as you try to mouse-in-the-house his teammate on the block? Definitely not safe.

Even dribble handoffs are n't safe. Daniels will blow those up, staying connected to the ball-handler as he curls around the screen and forcing his way to the ball, like a blitzing linebacker knifing into the backfield. ( He even talks about it like a football player:" For me, you know, it's' See ball, get ball.'" )

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And if you think you've blocked it up, been able to bump him off the play, turn the corner and get downhill to the basket? Think again: Daniels, still in pursuit like a heat-seeking horror movie villain, will close the game with his 6-foot-10.5-inch wingspan and poke the ball out from behind.

Daniels is producing one of the more 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's game charting. And he's doing it without having the luxury of taking less-threatening offensive assignments so that he can muck things up by playing free safety: Lining up next to Young, Daniels 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 posted the highest average matchup difficulty in the NBA thus far, per The BBall Index.

That marriage of degree of difficulty and possession-breaking production has sent Daniels ' stock skyrocketing in the Defensive Player of the Year race. It's unlikely he'll stick there, considering Atlanta ranks an underwhelming 20th in defensive efficiency overall, the award has long been dominated by centers, and Victor Wembanyama exists. ( Seriously: Opponents are shooting 38.1 % when Wemby's the nearest defender. Ludicrous. ) Even so: It'd be an honor just to be nominated — and something of an exciting rarity for a franchise that has n't landed a player on an All-Defensive team since Paul Millsap in 2016.

Snyder and Co. have a lot to work on for the Hawks, who are comfortably ensconced in their new home in the play-in tournament spots heading into Monday's game at 7-10. Daniels, too, still has a long way to go — especially on the offensive end, where he's shooting just 36 % on jumpers for the season and has missed two-thirds of his total attempts over his last four games, with an assist-to-turnover ratio barely above 1-to-1. But while he remains a work in progress on the offensive end, and while his individual play has n't resulted in extinguish-every-star-you-encounter performances, he's making an impact in the area where the Hawks have long needed it most: They allow nearly five fewer points-per-100 with Daniels on the floor than when he's off it.

Through the first month of the season, the difference between Atlanta defending at its customary bottom-five level and getting stops at a roughly league-average clip — a rate the Hawks have n't managed since its surprise 2021 Eastern Conference finals run — has been the 21-year-old prowling the perimeter, making the theme from" Jaws" run through ball-handlers ' heads. Daniels began his tenure in Atlanta by emphasizing the importance of knowing your personnel, now, he's become the kind of point-of-attack menace that offenses have to know, lest he wreck their entire game plan, one poke, swipe or swat at a time.