From New Orleans to Atlanta, Dyson Daniels found his confidence in breakout season — Andscape

ORLANDO, Fla. – The New Orleans Pelicans and their followers are in all probability questioning why Dyson Daniels didn’t play just like the NBA Defensive Participant of the Yr candidate he’s now of their uniform.

Trying again, the Atlanta Hawks guard blamed one individual for that not taking place.

“I don’t point fingers at anyone but myself,” Daniels informed Andscape previous to the eight-seeded Hawks 120-95 loss to the seventh-seeded Orlando Magic in a play-in event sport on Tuesday. “I got here in there in New Orleans and took a step again. I let the superstars be the superstars. I didn’t match into being a job participant. Coming into the NBA, you possibly can’t try this. If you wish to accept being a job participant, then you definitely’re going to be out of the league in a couple of years. So, that’s what I did in New Orleans and I do know it wasn’t me…

“It was me. It was my confidence. I was second-guessing myself and in my head too much. I came here [Atlanta] with a free mind.”

Whereas the Pelicans’ season is over with no playoffs, Daniels and his Hawks have a do-or-die probability to make it to the NBA playoffs because the Jap Convention’s eighth seed tonight.

The Hawks play the Miami Warmth tonight in Atlanta, with the winner receiving the reward of the East’s No. 8 seed and a matchup with the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers within the first spherical of the playoffs. One other massive sport by Daniels on each ends of his breakthrough season would support the Hawks’ postseason possibilities.

“On Friday we just got to come with the same mentality, same preparation,” Daniels mentioned. “These games are going to be a Game 7 type of deal. Lose, you go home. So, we’re going to leave it all out there on the floor.”

Daniels averaged profession highs of 14.1 factors, 5.9 rebounds and 4.4 assists per sport in his first season with the Hawks. However what made the Australian a extra well-known NBA title in his third season was turning into the primary participant within the league in 31 years to common at the least three steals per sport. Daniels is one among simply 15 gamers in ABA/NBA historical past to have greater than 225 steals in a season. The 6-foot-7, 199-pounder additionally had an NBA-best 443 deflections for a median of 5.8 per sport.

“People work on their offensive game. I work on my defensive game,” Daniels mentioned. “I actually examine the sport, what groups love to do, the place I can gamble, the place I can come from behind folks and poke it unfastened and stuff like that. It’s a mixture of having good hand-eye coordination, having good lateral agility after which finding out the sport as nicely. All of it goes into it.

“It’s always been something I’m good at. Now that I’ve started to play more, I’ve had the freedom to go make plays.”

In recognition of his season, Daniels is predicted to be within the working for the Most Improved Participant and Defensive Participant of the Yr awards (finalists will probably be introduced on Sunday, April 20). The late Naismith Basketball Corridor of Famer Dikembe Mutombo is the one Hawks participant to win the NBA Defensive Participant of the Yr award (1997 and 1998).

“To be in the position I am in now from last year, just have my name in that conversation is special now,” Daniels mentioned. “It simply reveals the work that I put in the summertime and this [season]. Regardless of the standards is for Defensive Participant of the Yr, I don’t know. However I really feel like I’d give myself a superb case going on the market guarding one of the best participant each evening, getting steals. My protection has improved loads during the last yr.

“It is cool to have my name in that conversation. But I’m not really the guy to try to push my case. I’m going to let my game do the talking today.”

The Pelicans had excessive hopes for Daniels after they chosen him with the eighth total choose within the 2022 NBA draft from the G League Ignite. Daniels, nevertheless, averaged 4.8 factors, 3.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.1 steals and 20.0 minutes per sport in 120 video games throughout his first two seasons. He confirmed promise as a defender, averaging 1.4 steals per sport in the course of the 2023-24 season, however Daniels mentioned that one among his points was he performed like a “shy kid” in New Orleans and within the G League and wasn’t his outgoing self off the courtroom, as nicely.

“In New Orleans I was down on myself,” Daniels mentioned. “I was going downhill a little bit. I wasn’t myself. To come here and get a fresh start was what I needed. My first two [seasons], I knew that my first year wasn’t me. I knew I had so much more to give and I could play so much better.”

The Pelicans have been swept by the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder within the first spherical of the 2024 NBA playoffs. The following day, Daniels vowed in an hour-long telephone name along with his agent Daniel Moldovan that higher days can be coming his approach in New Orleans and he was going to place within the psychological and basketball work to show it. Subsequent cease for Daniels was enjoying within the 2024 Paris Olympics for the Australian’s males’s nationwide crew. Unbeknownst to Daniels, nevertheless, was that the Pelicans have been seeking to make an improve on the guard place.

“I just told [Moldovan], ‘This is not me. I’m going to be better next year. I promise you I’m going to put in good work of summer. I’m going to have a good Olympics,’ ” Daniels mentioned. “‘I’m going to come out and be a different person.’ I knew I could do that. I wouldn’t have told him that if I didn’t have confidence in myself. And then it started from there.”

On July 6, 2024, the Pelicans traded Daniels, forwards E.J. Liddell and Larry Nance Jr., middle Cody Zeller, a 2025 first-round choose and a conditional 2027 first-round choose to Atlanta in alternate for 2022 NBA All-Star guard Dejounte Murray. Daniels was shocked when he first heard of the commerce whereas again house in Australia making ready for the Olympics.

“It was like 7 a.m., Day 1 of Australian training camp for the Olympics,” Daniels mentioned. “So, it was kind of shocking. I wasn’t expecting it. I thought I was going to be back in New Orleans and then you get a call. And that’s the NBA. It is a business. The first few days I was kind of down. I wasn’t sure how to feel. I wasn’t sure if I was going to fit in Atlanta. But after the first few days, I really just said to myself, ‘This is good for me. This is a fresh start. This is what I need. I can really thrive off and kind of kick start my career again.’ ”

Daniels credit his play within the Olympics for getting his swagger again that he introduced with him to Atlanta.

Daniels opened Olympic play with 13 factors, seven rebounds, two assists and a steal in a 92-80 group section opening win over Spain, and averaged 11.3 factors, 6.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.0 steals per sport in three preliminary video games. Whereas Daniels went scoreless when Australia was eradicated within the quarterfinals by Serbia, his confidence wasn’t shaken this time earlier than heading to Atlanta.

“I went back to Australia. I had a really good six-week training camp before the Olympic campaign,” Daniels mentioned. “I came into the Olympics saying, ‘F— it, I’m going to be the best player on the floor every time I step on, I’m going to be the best defender. I’m going to make plays on the offensive end.’ And that kind just carried over through the Olympics.”

Daniels credit his personal self-awareness, confidence and Hawks head coach Quin Snyder believing in him as the first causes for his breakthrough NBA season.

Daniels mentioned he arrived at Hawks’ coaching camp a couple of days early in hopes of getting acclimated faster. Throughout that point, Daniels mentioned Snyder informed him throughout a 20-minute dialog, “to play free” on offense and protection. Snyder additionally gave Daniels a beginning backcourt position alongside Hawks star Trae Younger. Daniels appreciated the vote of confidence from Synder and made certain he didn’t remorse that call.

Daniels averaged 13.9 factors, 5.4 rebounds, 4.0 assists and three.0 steals per sport earlier than the NBA All-Star Break to solidify his standing with Atlanta.

“He saw something in me that other people didn’t,” Daniels mentioned. “They gave me the position of beginning subsequent to Trae early on in coaching camp. I used to be capable of actually thrive off of that. Me and Trae had a extremely good connection and performed nicely with one another. Our video games are actually completely different from each other, however they complement one another.

“Coach Q, he never brings you down. He always gives you confidence. He’s always going to say, ‘Shoot the ball whenever you’re open, make plays.’ He’s never going to tell you not to do anything. So, for me, that’s what I needed. And now I know that if I have a coach telling me I can’t do something or, ‘Do this or do that,’ it’s going to be more of a mindset of like, ‘No, f— that. I know how to play his game. I’m going to go out there and be myself.’ So that’s what you got to have in the NBA. And Coach Q has been the perfect guy to really kickstart my game again.”

Time will inform if Daniels receives two of the NBA’s most notable season awards. Even when he doesn’t, it’s clear that the now-confident Daniels has lastly arrived as a premier defender and all-around participant at simply 22 years outdated.

“I just couldn’t be any happier for him,” Nance Jr. mentioned. “So many guys aren’t ready to seize the opportunities given to them in this league, and he was. From watching him frustrated, healthy and sitting out games in New Orleans, to being considered for both the MIP and DPOY, no one is more deserving. The work he put in, the film he watched, and the unseen hours are now on display for everyone to see.”

Daniels mentioned: “What happens when you get it going is you gain people’s respect as well.”