ORLANDO, Fla. – The New Orleans Pelicans and their fans are probably wondering why Dyson Daniels didn’t play like the NBA Defensive Player of the Year candidate he is now in their uniform.
Looking back, the Atlanta Hawks guard blamed one person for that not happening.
“I don’t point fingers at anyone but myself,” Daniels told Andscape prior to the eight-seeded Hawks 120-95 loss to the seventh-seeded Orlando Magic in a play-in tournament game on Tuesday. “I came in there in New Orleans and took a step back. I let the superstars be the superstars. I didn’t fit into being a role player. Coming into the NBA, you can’t do that. If you want to settle for being a role player, then you’re going to be out of the league in a few years. So, that’s what I did in New Orleans and I 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.”
While the Pelicans’ season is over with no playoffs, Daniels and his Hawks have a do-or-die chance to make it to the NBA playoffs as the Eastern Conference’s eighth seed tonight.
The Hawks play the Miami Heat 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 in the first round of the playoffs. Another big game by Daniels on both ends of his breakthrough season would aid the Hawks’ postseason chances.
“On Friday we just got to come with the same mentality, same preparation,” Daniels said. “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.”
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Daniels averaged career highs of 14.1 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game in his first season with the Hawks. But what made the Australian a more well-known NBA name in his third season was becoming the first player in the league in 31 years to average at least three steals per game. Daniels is one of just 15 players in ABA/NBA history to have more than 225 steals in a season. The 6-foot-7, 199-pounder also had an NBA-best 443 deflections for an average of 5.8 per game.
“People work on their offensive game. I work on my defensive game,” Daniels said. “I really study the game, what teams like to do, where I can gamble, where I can come from behind people and poke it loose and stuff like that. It’s a mix of having good hand-eye coordination, having good lateral agility and then studying the game as well. It all 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 expected to be in the running for the Most Improved Player and Defensive Player of the Year awards (finalists will be announced on Sunday, April 20). The late Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo is the only Hawks player to win the NBA Defensive Player of the Year 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 said. “It just shows the work that I put in the summer and this [season]. Whatever the criteria is for Defensive Player of the Year, I don’t know. But I feel like I’d give myself a good case going out there guarding the best player every night, getting steals. My defense has improved a lot over the last year.
“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 high hopes for Daniels when they selected him with the eighth overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft from the G League Ignite. Daniels, however, averaged 4.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.1 steals and 20.0 minutes per game in 120 games during his first two seasons. He showed promise as a defender, averaging 1.4 steals per game during the 2023-24 season, but Daniels said that one of his issues was he played like a “shy kid” in New Orleans and in the G League and wasn’t his outgoing self off the court, as well.
“In New Orleans I was down on myself,” Daniels said. “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.”
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The Pelicans were swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the 2024 NBA playoffs. The next day, Daniels vowed in an hour-long phone call with his agent Daniel Moldovan that better days would be coming his way in New Orleans and he was going to put in the mental and basketball work to prove it. Next stop for Daniels was playing in the 2024 Paris Olympics for the Australian’s men’s national team. Unbeknownst to Daniels, however, was that the Pelicans were looking to make an upgrade at the guard position.
“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 said. “‘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., center Cody Zeller, a 2025 first-round pick and a conditional 2027 first-round pick to Atlanta in exchange for 2022 NBA All-Star guard Dejounte Murray. Daniels was stunned when he first heard of the trade while back home in Australia preparing for the Olympics.
“It was like 7 a.m., Day 1 of Australian training camp for the Olympics,” Daniels said. “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 credits his play in the Olympics for getting his swagger back that he brought with him to Atlanta.
Daniels opened Olympic play with 13 points, seven rebounds, two assists and a steal in a 92-80 group phase opening win over Spain, and averaged 11.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.0 steals per game in three preliminary games. While Daniels went scoreless when Australia was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Serbia, his confidence wasn’t shaken this time before heading to Atlanta.
“I went back to Australia. I had a really good six-week training camp before the Olympic campaign,” Daniels said. “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.”
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Daniels credits his own self-awareness, confidence and Hawks head coach Quin Snyder believing in him as the primary reasons for his breakthrough NBA season.
Daniels said he arrived at Hawks’ training camp a few days early in hopes of getting acclimated quicker. During that time, Daniels said Snyder told him during a 20-minute conversation, “to play free” on offense and defense. Snyder also gave Daniels a starting backcourt role alongside Hawks star Trae Young. Daniels appreciated the vote of confidence from Synder and made sure he didn’t regret that decision.
Daniels averaged 13.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game before the NBA All-Star Break to solidify his standing with Atlanta.
“He saw something in me that other people didn’t,” Daniels said. “They gave me the role of starting next to Trae early on in training camp. I was able to really thrive off of that. Me and Trae had a really good connection and played well with each other. Our games are really different from one another, but they complement each other.
“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 tell if Daniels receives two of the NBA’s most notable season awards. Even if he doesn’t, it is clear that the now-confident Daniels has finally arrived as a premier defender and all-around player at just 22 years old.
“I just couldn’t be any happier for him,” Nance Jr. said. “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 said: “What happens when you get it going is you gain people’s respect as well.”