Hawks believe Lu Dort will make Jalen Johnson better, whether he likes it or not

The Hawks didn’t acquire Luguentz Dort just to make life miserable for opposing scorers. Apparently, Jalen Johnson gets to deal with him, too.

Atlanta president of basketball operations Onsi Saleh believes one of the benefits of adding Dort will come when nobody is watching, with the Hawks’ best offensive player having to deal with one of the NBA’s nastiest perimeter defenders in practice.

“When a guy like Jalen Johnson goes against a guy like Lu Dort in practice, Jalen’s going to get a lot better,” Saleh said, via Ken Sugiura of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Well, he certainly isn’t going to get many easy possessions.

The Hawks didn’t make the sort of blockbuster move that dominates an offseason, but Saleh believes they addressed something that became obvious during the playoffs.

“We saw the physicality in the playoffs and we needed to up that a little bit,” he said.

Enter Dort. Saleh called him “arguably one of, if not the best isolation defender in the league,” and Atlanta also added Aaron Wiggins. Both were members of Oklahoma City’s 2025 championship team.

That’s important to coach Quin Snyder for reasons beyond whatever shows up in the box score.

“I think first to add players with a championship-level pedigree, that’s something in and of itself is an excellent addition,” Snyder said, via Lauren Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Snyder noted that championship players tend to understand the importance of defending together. Atlanta certainly has the personnel for it. Dort joins a group that already includes Dyson Daniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

Saleh’s larger point, though, makes sense. Player development doesn’t always require another coach, another drill or another summer program.

Sometimes you just make Jalen Johnson try to score against Lu Dort every day. Good luck with that.