The Atlanta Hawks have practically the same roster as last year (give or take a few players), but you can expect to see a completely different team on the court.  Why?  Well, if the preseason is any indication, coach Larry Drew has the team playing differently on the offensive end.

The biggest difference that I have seen in the Hawks’ offense so far this preaseason is that there is a lot less ISO sets and a lot more movement off of the basketball.  In fact, during their game against the Wizards, the Hawks only ran an ISO for Joe Johnson twice while the starters were in (I really focused on when the starters were in for this post.  I just feel that this will give us the best indication of what they will do this season).  This is a team that ran ISO sets 17.3% of the time (and Joe Johnson himself was ISO’d 37% of his individual possessions).  The Hawks seem to want to focus more on both ball and player movement. There is no better indication of this than the fact that the Hawks are now running the flex:

The flex is the go-to motion offense that NBA teams like to use, and the reason is that if run correctly, it is really hard to defend. You have players cutting and setting screens off the ball as the ball quickly moves from side to side. You can do a lot of things off of the flex. You can get a spot up jumper off the elbow, hit a cutter, or spread the court out and get the ball into the post. That is exactly what happens in the clip above. With all that player movement, the defense gets spread out, leaving the post wide open for Horford to post up.

If Johnson isn’t being ISO’d, that gives coach Drew a lot of things he can do with him. One of those things is they could use him to initiate the offense.  It was interesting, even with two guys you could consider a PG on the court (Mike Bibby and Jordan Crawford), the Hawks started their game against the Wizards with Joe Johnson running the point to give the defense a different look:

With Joe Johnson bringing the ball up and initiating the offense, it gives the defense a different look.  Here, Johnson dribbles the ball to the wing, and it looks like he is going to take his defender one on one.  However, at the last second, Johnson hits Crawford with a dribble handoff, and Crawford knocks down the wide open jumper.

Another benefit of Johnson bringing the ball up is that you can get the ball to your ball handlers in good offensive positions.  Here, the Hawks get the ball to Mike Bibby on the wing and then execute a pick and roll.  It’s a simple pick and roll, but with it being run on the wing, it can confuse the defense.  And that is exactly what happens here as Kirk Hinrich ends up trying to defend Al Horford, picking up the foul.

Finally, after entering the ball and starting the offense, Joe Johnson himself has more options when working off the basketball.  In the clip above, Johnson cuts through the lane after entering the ball.  He could do a number of things here.  He can either post, use a screen to get to the corner, or use a double screen which is what he ends up doing and he gets a wide open jumper.

Another reason why Joe Johnson is running less ISO sets is because the Hawks are taking them away with their offensive philosophy:

Last year, this would have been a classic ISO situation for Johnson. The offense breaks down and he gets the ball on the wing with the shot clock winding down. Instead of letting Johnson working one on one with his defender, Horford comes over and sets a screen for Johnson. This forces the defense to rotate, and the Hawks wind up with a wide open three point shot.

The Hawks did this a number of times in the preseason games that I have watched. If the offense breaks down and Johnson gets the ball, Horford comes over and sets a screen for him, rather than working one on one. This tells me that this is a change in philosophy that Larry Drew made.

Limiting Joe Johnson’s ISO opportunities should actually make him a better ISO player. Joe Johnson’s height, ball handling ability, and shooting ability should make him a good ISO player. However, last year he did it so much, he was really ineffective. In ISO situations, Johnson only scored 0.85 points per possession, ranking him 110th in the NBA. With the way the Hawks are looking this preseason, you can expect that number to go up, even if Johnson’s ISO touches decrease:

With all of the movement off the basketball, the defense can’t really load up on Johnson when he is going one on one against his defender. The result in the first clip is a jumper that he knocks down. In the second clip, Johnson is able to get all the way to the rim before being met by the help defense. In fact, as he starts his attack dribble there is no help defenders even looking in Johnson’s direction (they are more worried about their man). Yes, Johnson misses the lay-up here, but if I am the Hawks, I will take that shot ten times out of ten.

In addition to all this ISO talk, the Hawks seem to be getting out in transition much more this preseason.  Despite their athletic roster, the Hawks only got out and ran 12.1% of the time.  If the Hawks are determined, they can create more running chances:

Here, the Hawks get the steal, and they are out. You have three Hawks taking off and creating a fast break opportunity. They are able to finish with a Joe Johnson dunk.

In addition to easy scoring opportunities, running can also help Hawks’ bigs establish strong post positions:

In the above clip, Al Horford runs the floor with the Hawks’ ball handler (Joe Johnson in this case). He beats his defender down the court, and is able to establish position right on the block. The ball gets entered into him, and because the defense is trying to get back and find their men, there is no opportunity to double, and Horford gets the bucket.