ATHENS — The Hawks have needed more vocal leaders with many young players on their roster. With a few practices under his belt, recently acquired Hawks big man Larry Nance has emerged as a loud and positive voice in the fray.
Last season, the Hawks leaned on veteran guard Wes Matthews, who fans often could see interacting with his teammates throughout games. During timeouts, if fans took a peek over at the huddle, they would see Matthews hyping up the team or off to the side providing a little bit of coaching.
With several new voices in the locker room, Nance has provided a steady one as the team buckles down on its on-court communication.
“He’s done a great job,” Hawks forward Dominick Barlow said. “He’s a new guy, but he’s been in a bunch of different situations throughout his career, so he kind of understands, how this works. And I think he’s kind of stepped in and taken that role.”
It’s helped lead to day-two practice filled with better communication.
“Much better today than yesterday,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “I think some of it is knowing what to say, and then there’s certain situations that we’re going to be demanding about those guys talking to each other. Because if you don’t usually, something really bad happens.”
For Nance, pushing his teammates and helping to unify them can come in different forms. Following Wednesday’s practice, Hawks guard Dyson Daniels shared how much Nance helped them find more of a groove as they learn each other and build chemistry.
What began as praise of Nance’s communication, quickly spilled into some trash talk as they recounted the intensity of the morning’s practice session.
“It’s definitely something that we need,” Daniels said. “We need a lot of communication. We’ve got guys here like Larry, who’d be communicating. Some of the vets trying to bring us together.”
“He tried to dunk on me, and I sent his shot back to Australia,” Nance said quickly jumping in.
“He tried to dunk on me, too,” Daniels said. “And I sent it, too. I got him back today.”
They continued to go back and forth, debating whether Nance drew a charge on Daniels’ dunk. But Daniels said the referee did not call a foul, and he converted his block on Nance on the other end with a transition dunk.
“Yeah, we got great communicators on this team, and we got a young group,” Daniels said. “So, it’s about being vocal, being loud, being constructive with the talk, and holding people accountable, as well. It all goes into one. It’s something we need to continue to build on, but I think that we are looking good in that area.”
Though Nance has surfaced as the Hawks’ more vocal leader, Snyder reiterated Daniels’ point of everyone speaking up. He pointed out that Nance has had the benefit of being a part of several teams that consistently had purposeful and intentional communication.
Some of that intentionality includes calling out pick-and-roll coverages or calling out when a player is open to encourage more passing and clarify when a shot is available.
“So, there’s so many different ways that teams can talk, and there’s some guys that are naturally more introverted or extroverted than others, and guys can pull each other along, and you get to a point where that communication is collective,” Snyder said.
