Dyson Daniels shot 18.8% from 3 last season and said confidence became a major issue as he worked through the worst shooting year of his career.
Dyson Daniels made 22 of his 117 3-point attempts for the Atlanta Hawks in 2025-26, an 18.8% mark across 76 games.
His season ended April 30, when the New York Knicks closed out their first-round series with a 140-89 win at State Farm Arena. Daniels had been benched late in the series. He played 36 minutes in Game 1 and 25 in Game 5.
Some NBA scouts question Daniels' long-term offensive viability if his 3-point shot never comes around.
How the Shot Fell Off
Two seasons ago, Daniels shot a career-best 34.0% from 3, going 80-of-235 on 3.1 attempts per game. He won Most Improved Player that year, made the All-Defensive First Team, and finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting after leading the league with 229 steals. Atlanta signed him to a four-year, $100 million rookie extension on Oct. 20, 2025.
Last season, his attempts fell to 1.5 per game. After a 112-110 home loss on Jan. 19, Daniels was 7-of-64 from 3 on the season, or 10.9%.
Midway through the year, Daniels started working with shooting coach Joey Burton. He had not made more than one 3-pointer in any of his first 66 games.
On March 21, he went 2-of-5 from 3 and scored a season-high 28 points in a 126-110 home win over the Golden State Warriors. He shot 12-of-17 from the field and scored 15 of his points in the first quarter.
"Every night is kind of the same for me," Daniels said after the game. "I'm trying to come in and do my job. Tonight I was wide open with the threes. I made them."
Two days later, he went 2-of-3 from 3 in a 146-107 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. On March 30, he went 2-of-3 again and scored 18 points in a 112-102 win over the Boston Celtics.
Over his last 10 regular-season games, Daniels made 10 out of 24 three-pointers, compared to 12 out of 93 before that stretch.
Late in the season, he got to a place where he could let the 3 fly and trust himself more.
"I think it's all mental," Daniels explained. "I've never really been challenged this way in my whole career, and it was the first time I've ever been through something like that. I've been working with one of our shooting coaches out here that I think has really helped with my technique. It's just about being confident in myself to go out there and take it."
"I know my shooting workouts, they're fine," Daniels added. "I can shoot the ball 70%, 75% on my own. But when it comes to the pressure environments, it's a lot different, and that's when you got to trust your work, you got to trust yourself."
"I'm not gonna lie, you go out there, and when you're struggling in front of 15,000 people every night, it's a lot different to shoot on your own," Daniels detailed. "But I'm glad that I was challenged that way, because there's a lot of mental barriers that I overcome that I can take with me heading into next season."
The rest of his line held up. He averaged 11.9 points, a career-high 6.8 rebounds, and 5.9 assists while shooting 51.7% from the field. His 2.0 steals per game tied Oklahoma City's Cason Wallace for the league lead, and he made the All-Defensive Second Team in May.
Daniels moved from shooting guard to point guard after Trae Young was injured on Oct. 30, 2025. In January, Atlanta traded Young to the Washington Wizards for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert.
Against New York, Daniels went 4-of-14 from 3 over six games. In Game 1, he had 4 points on 2-of-7 shooting and 11 assists in 36 minutes. His only playoff game with more than one made 3 was Game 5 at Madison Square Garden, where he went 2-of-4 from deep and scored 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting in a 126-97 loss. He averaged 7.3 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 5.0 assists in the series.
The Offseason
At his end-of-season press conference, Daniels said he planned to spend a couple of weeks at home in Australia and then most of the summer in Los Angeles. He said he could either work out by himself or find people to work out with and play 1-on-1 against, and that he wanted to put himself in pressure environments. He also said he would set a plan with his agent.
Footage from his summer has mostly shown him shooting in empty gyms and playing 1-on-1 against defenders who are not in the NBA. It is unclear whether he kept working with Burton.
Daniels was disappointed with his season and considers this a big summer for him.
"It's not just the shooting thing," Daniels said. "It's going to be about becoming more versatile, different counters, trying to develop a little mid-range game, just being able to be a bigger guy, get to my spot and rise up over people, and becoming stronger as well. I think that's a big thing."
"So not being knocked off my line when I'm driving and being able to go through contact," Daniels noted. "There's a lot of aspects that I need to work on. I'll have a good plan to come in this summer and work on those things."
Atlanta added guards and wings around him. The Hawks drafted Kingston Flemings eighth overall. They traded two second-round picks to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Aaron Wiggins. On July 19, they acquired Luguentz Dort from Oklahoma City and Ryan Nembhard from the Dallas Mavericks in a three-team trade that sent Zaccharie Risacher to Dallas. McCollum returned on a one-year, $21 million deal. Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who won Most Improved Player last season, is also back.
Dort shot 41.2% from 3 for Oklahoma City in 2024-25.
One NBA scout told Hawks Roundtable that when opponents do not have to guard Daniels on the perimeter, they can cross-match a big onto him or hide a weak defender there.
"Dyson is very impactful defensively," the scout said. "He really gets into the ball, picks up early, very physical. But if you don't have to guard him on the perimeter and can get away with cross-matching a big on him, or hiding a weak defender, it really hurts the offense."
"He has to be able to make open shots," the scout continued. "If he doesn't, you have to sit him in big moments in the playoffs, and that's a real concern for a guy making $100 million. Dort had a better shooting year last year, but the bar isn't high."
Daniels' extension takes effect this season and runs through 2029-30.
