LAS VEGAS — Dyson Daniels is thriving in Atlanta.
While he may miss the gumbo, Daniels is happy to be out of New Orleans and the Pelicans organization. He was honest about this when speaking to The Stein Line’s Jake Fischer.
“That organization is cursed,” Daniels told me Wednesday. “Every year there’s something new. I’m happy I’m not there anymore…
“I had like four or five ankle injuries down there as well. There’s something down in that water down there or something. They got hamstrings. They got knees. They got concussions and stuff as well. They get everything down there. I don’t know what it is. Playing hard I guess?”
That curse has continued this season with the Pelicans 5-21 and ravaged by injuries to Zion Williamson (hamstrings), Brandon Ingram (ankle), Jose Alvarado (hamstrings) and numerous other players over the course of this young season.
Daniels was shipped to Atlanta last summer as part of the Dejounte Murray trade, freeing him from a New Orleans team that had good young depth on the wing — Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones, Brandon Ingram, Naji Marshall — and putting him on a team searching for quality two-way play at the position.
While his scoring is way up with the Hawks, 13.5 points a game, his bigger impact has been on the other end of the court — Daniels has been unleashed as an elite on-ball defender. Atlanta is in Las Vegas playing for the NBA Cup largely because Daniels held Jalen Brunson in check with 14 points on 5-of-15 in the Hawks’ quarterfinals win over the Knicks. Daniels leads the NBA in steals with 73 (an average of three a game), and he has become a disruptive force on that end of the court.
“I think I have good hand-eye coordination to be able to read where the ball is going to go, being able to react in time, get my hand out there quick and just baiting offensive players into things that they wouldn’t usually do, and putting them in positions where they’re vulnerable with the ball, where I can take it from them,” Daniels said Friday of his steals.
Daniels added that when he first came to the USA and played for the G-League Ignite, he quickly realized he would not be an elite offensive scorer at the NBA level, but that defense is where he can hang his hat.
Something he didn’t get the chance to do in New Orleans, because of the curse.
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