While the 2024-2025 NBA season is more than a month away from beginning, now is the time to evaluate rosters and try to see how the season might play out. There are likely no big moves coming before the start of the season and the rosters that each team has is likely the roster they will have when the season begins.

When projecting how the season might play out, there are sometimes a handful of players that if they have a big season (or a bad season), they could change their team’s trajectory. One of the more under the radar acquisitions this offseaosn was Dyson Daniels being traded to the Hawks in the Dejounte Murray deal. Daniels is already a high-level defender, but the questions for him are coming on the offensive end. He seems like a perfect backcourt pairing with Trae Young due to his defense and if he could upgrade the Hawks defense in a meaningful way, Atlanta could surprise some teams this year.

On the latest episode of the Lowe Post Podcast, NBA analysts Zach Lowe and Kevin Pelton were discussing the most intriguing players ahead of the season and Pelton named Daniels as one player to watch:

“I think the idelized version of Daniels is a really good fit in Atlanta next to Trae Young. He gives them size in the backcourt and he is terrific defending on the ball if he can shoot and that is the big question mark. He did not make really any progress, was still at 31% last season. He has been working with maybe the best at this point, shot doctor in the league and Fred Vinson with the Pelicans coaching staff. The fact that they were not convinced he could go with shooters may be a little bit of a concern for me and I think that is interesting because guys who get traded on their rookie contracts is valued, like not buy low trade, but he was hypothetically along with the pick they got, part of the value in return for Dejounte Murray. I don’t feel like the track record of those guys is that good.

Aaron Nesmith is someone you could say succeeded in this in Indiana. Nickeil Alexander-Walker eventually took a little while. But the last guy who got traded before the last year of a rookie contract who really hit big on his next team I think is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and that is obviously pie in the sky. We are not talking about that with Dyson Daniels. Whereas you can look at RJ Hampton when he was in the Aaron Gordon trade, Romeo Langford, part of the Derrick White trade, Cam Reddish going for a first round pick, Dennis Smith Jr, Landry Shamet. They don’t usually turn out that well when the other team is trading you early in your career, it is probably because they know something that the rest of the league does not. I am curious to see how that is going to play out with Dyson Daniels.”

A 2024 Panini Rising Star, Daniels recorded 1.4 steals per game during the 2023-24 campaign, the 10th-most in the NBA, and owned a .341 steal percentage last season, ranking fifth in the league (min. 50 GP). He recorded a career-high six steals at Utah on Nov. 25, becoming the only second-year player to swipe at least six steals in a single game this past season and one of only two first-or-second year players to do so, joining Victor Wembanyama. He recorded all six steals in the first half, tied for the most steals in a single half in the NBA this past season and tied for the second-most steals in a single half in New Orleans history.

Selected eighth overall in the 2022 NBA Draft by the Pelicans, the 6-7 guard owns career averages of 4.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.1 steals and 20.0 minutes in 120 games (27 starts). Prior to the Pelicans, he spent the 2021-22 season with the NBA G League Ignite, where he was named to the 2022 Clorox Rising Stars roster.

Daniels has been one of the under-discussed additions throughout the NBA this offseason, but he has a chance to make a real difference for Atlanta. That is why I think he is the most underrated player on the Hawks this season.