Dyson Daniels on film: Why Hawks' All-Defense contender is NBA's sneakiest pickpocket

New York Times

15-04-2025

Larry Nance Jr. is editing old tweets.
The news of a trade that would send him from New Orleans to Atlanta last summer was still incomplete when it hit the public. Nance saw the post on X (formerly Twitter), where a reporter wrote that the Hawks were sending All-Star point guard Dejounte Murray to the Pelicans for Nance and a couple of draft picks.
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'Now, I'm sitting here like, 'Probably should've mentioned the other guy,'' Nance joked in a recent conversation with The Athletic.
'The other guy' is Dyson Daniels, a first-rounder who couldn't find a comfort zone in Louisiana. All he needed was a change of scenery.
Now, with the 2024-25 regular season done, Daniels is on the shortlist for Most Improved Player. Various awards voters say they plan to choose him for Defensive Player of the Year. He is a shoo-in for All-Defensive First Team, the league's leader in steals (229) and deflections (443) — the first player to reach this many takeaways in a season since Gary Payton 29 years ago.
The Great Barrier Thief, as they call the Australian guard, did not float to the top by accident.
Daniels is the protagonist in any heist movie, the one so confident in his preparation that he will make the steal, then walk right out the front door without anyone being the wiser.
He copies moves from his favorite defenders, memorizes each team's playbook and can recall what all 10 guys on the court did during random plays from months-old games. He turns himself into an expert on an upcoming opponent's five most-used plays, along with all the riffs the offense could include from there.
'That's where I'm able to pick apart when I can gamble,' Daniels said. 'You love the game; you've got to study it.'
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What might seem like a risky decision isn't one, if only because Daniels can often predict what's coming next.
'I watch so much basketball,' he said, almost as if he were confessing he had a problem.
The Hawks take on the Orlando Magic to open the Play-In Tournament on Tuesday. The winner receives the No. 7 seed. The loser plays for No. 8 later in the week. And for Atlanta to stand a chance, Daniels will have to shut down scorers — and maybe grab some pick-sixes in the process.
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Earlier this month, the 22-year-old sat down with The Athletic for a film session, watching two of his best steals from the season and breaking down his transformation into the league's most sly pickpocket.
Here are his secrets:
The nerdiest subplot to Tuesday's Hawks-Magic game is whether Orlando runs the above play.
The Magic will go into this set every so often, sending a couple of screeners up high with the hopes of getting Wendell Carter Jr. to the elbow. During this early-February match, Daniels didn't just mangle the basketball away from Carter. He also tore a go-to action straight out of Orlando's playbook.
Ten days later, the Hawks and Magic met again. And the Magic didn't try this play once with Daniels on the court.
'I get a lot of steals like this,' Daniels said. 'That's one of the things that when I study teams, I look at. I see if they do that. If they put their big on the elbow, then I can come from behind.'
This is one of Daniels' most common thefts: sneaking up on a player who prepares to field an entry pass, back turned to the defense, only for a rogue hand to rip away the rock.
It's a calculated risk. On this play, Daniels' primary assignment was Magic guard Cole Anthony. If he didn't end up with the ball, there was a strong possibility Anthony would. Look at how open the lane to the basket could have been had Carter caught the pass cleanly.
But it's no accident he didn't.
When Daniels launches himself toward passes like such, he gives himself two seconds before a cutter can burn him. He rarely needs that much time. Look above at when he takes off for Carter, abandoning Anthony as the pass is still far from the Magic center.
'They have two, three seconds to get together before they see it,' Daniels said. 'If you go straight away — like, he just caught the ball. He's still trying to gather it. I'm there on the catch, so it's gonna be a lot harder. If you hesitate, that's when you usually get caught. If you're gonna go, you gotta go.'
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And Daniels goes.
He's given up a backdoor cut on these types of plays only a few times this season, rare for a defender who gambles as often as he does. If he's late, he'll detonate an opponent before allowing a dime for an easy layup, beelining straight into him for a hard foul if he knows he doesn't have the steal.
'I know I'm not supposed to talk about gambling, but I feel like Dyson knows when to double down,' Hawks head coach Quin Snyder said. 'He doesn't hit on 18. He counts cards in some respects.'
This is the Daniels Zone, the narrow area between the half-court line and just in front of it. Few people turn half court into a foreboding boundary like Daniels does. The same way coaches teach young players to use the baseline as a sixth defender — that's what Daniels does with midcourt.
'Once he crosses the halfway line, he can't go back there,' Daniels said. 'That's why I like to go up there, because if they take that backwards dribble, then I'm able to really corner them. I can really get into his body and am able to poke it loose.'
Per usual, Daniels could pull off a potentially perilous step because he knew what was coming.
As Reaves dribbled up the court, Lakers coach JJ Redick called out the same play Los Angeles had scored on two possessions earlier. Fool Daniels once, shame on him. But the expression ends there. So instead of conceding ground to Reaves, Daniels jolted toward him.
'It's gonna be hard for him to cross over (after he goes left), because if he crosses, I can get my left hand in there,' Daniels said.
Most defenders open up their feet in situations like this, sliding them along with Reaves, hoping to keep the ball away from the middle. But Daniels thrusted forward and squared to the dribbler, a skill he learned while watching the Golden State Warriors' Gary Payton II.
'(Payton) is able to hold his arm on the hip and he's able to poke the ball loose,' Daniels said.
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The move works for Daniels, too, in part because of how he angles his hands.
Most defenders go for steals either with a side or overhand swipe. But Daniels and fellow Defensive Player of the Year candidate Amen Thompson have branded a special type of robbery, an underhand pokeaway, like this one on Reaves.
Guarding Jenny Finch-style is far more difficult. It limits a defender's reach, since he doesn't stick his arm all the way out, which also means he has to inch closer to the dribbler, opening up the chance for a blow-by.
But Daniels is quick enough to stay in front of playmakers. His hands are quicker than a three-card monte hustler's, which he attributes to playing Australian rules football as a kid. And guarding underhanded gives him another advantage.
'In the NBA today, you see so many guards now trying to draw fouls, and that comes from overhand swipes. I think that sweeping through, swiping at the ball, that's a killer,' Daniels said. 'You're putting a guy on the foul line just from silly mistakes like that. So I think for me, I'm reaching under.'
He has three reasons he won't swipe down.
First, dribblers aren't usually expecting it from that underhanded angle. Second, it helps him avoid obvious fouls. But the third bullet point might be the most important one.
'You get away with a lot of stuff,' Daniels said. 'You tap them on their underarm, the refs don't see that as much.'