As Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels enters the Benjamin E. Mays High School gym on a surprisingly hot early summer day in Atlanta, GA, he is greeted by hundreds of young hoopers chanting his name over and over. The energy of the kids at the adidas camp is infectious, and it clearly catches the normally laid-back Dyson off guard, but in a good way.

The Bendigo, Australia, native is generous with his time, taking pics with each of the campers and soaking in the atmosphere before slipping off into the school’s library for a quiet place to conduct part two of our interview.

As we sit down, it is just over one year since the Hawks acquired Daniels alongside EJ Liddell, Cody Zeller, Larry Nance Jr. and a couple of first-round draft picks in a trade with the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for guard Dejounte Murray. What a difference 12 months and a change of scenery can make.

Selected eighth overall in the 2022 NBA draft by the Pelicans, the 6-7 guard showed brief flashes of what we see now during his first two seasons in the League, but no one could have possibly predicted the leap he made in year three.

“I feel like, looking back on it now, I went in there and I kind of took a backseat role to the stars there, and I kind of let them be themselves and then try to fit into my role there. And I think that wasn’t the right way to do it,” Daniels says of his time with the Pelicans. “After my second year, I kind of really reflected on my season, sat down with my agent for a while, and I just told him, That’s not me. That’s not who I am. I’m going to come back in my third year and be a much different player, much different version of myself.”

Daniels showed out as he promised his agent he would. During the 2024-25 season, he achieved career-highs in points, steals and rebounds per game, while starting 76 contests.

“I was able to kind of get a fresh start with Atlanta. Coach Q [Quin Snyder] gave me a really good role playing alongside Trae [Young], that starting position at the 2-guard spot, and I just came in with a full face of confidence, got a good summer of work in,” says Daniels. “I was confident in my abilities, being able to shoot the ball, defend, get downhill, playmake, do a little bit of everything. And as the season went on and I grew into my role, I just got better and better with each game.”

Daniels’ impact on the defensive end was immediate, and he won Eastern Conference Defensive Player of the Month for November (and again in March). Where his presence was most felt was in the steals category, moving the Hawks from 16th to 2nd in the League.

He led the League with 3.01 spg, becoming the first player to average over 3 steals since Alvin Robertson did it for the Bucks in the 1990-91 season. He had a season-high of eight steals last season. He also had two seven-steal games and an impressive five or more steals in 14 games.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Any real hooper or fan of the game knows that steals are not always an indicator of a great defender.

Dyson doesn’t just play passing lanes; he legitimately locks guys down—without fouling. In one matchup vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder, he held the soon-to-be reigning regular-season and Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to 8-19 shooting. Dyson also held superstars Jayson Tatum and Donovan Mitchell to 37 percent shooting or below in head-to-head matchups.

“The superstar guards, they’re always trying to search for hands, and whenever you reach in, they’re searching for that to get that call, because that’s an easy way for them to get to the free-throw line. I’ve trained myself that there are certain times when I can reach, and there are certain times when I can’t,” Daniels says, describing his style of defense. “Like, whenever someone picks up the ball is a time when you can’t reach, because that’s when they’re searching for hands, they’re looking for that reach-in to get that easy call. Whereas, if they’re out on the floor, like, close to halfway is when I can be a little more physical, I can get into their body more, I can swipe at the ball and stuff.”

Daniels’ dogged dedication to defense has earned him respect from players and media around the League. During the offseason, he racked up awards and recognition his team hasn’t seen in decades.

He was the first Atlanta Hawk to earn First Team All-Defense honors since the late, great Dikembe Mutombo in 1997-98. Although Daniels didn’t win Defensive Player of the Year, he did get 25 first-place votes, second only to winner Evan Mobley.

When we initially spoke, before the winners were announced, Daniels said that winning the Defensive Player of the Year award would be like an MVP to him, in a way. Although he didn’t win, the list of recognitions he received this offseason is not lost on him in the least bit.

“Coming second in that is, I mean, you can kind of look at it like you’re the second-best defender in the world. Like, it’s kind of crazy to think about,” he says.

While the DPOY race was highly competitive, Daniels ran away with the Most Improved Player award, racking up 44 first-place votes and a total of 332 points.

“It’s very special. It didn’t really hit me until I got my trophy for the Most Improved,” he says. “I set my bar high, so to be second in the Defensive Player of the Year, First Team All-Defense,
Most Improved Player, I think it just is a testimony to the work that I put in in the offseason, the years leading up to this, getting the opportunity at Atlanta really helped [as well].”

It’s highly likely that Daniels will be a big part of this team for years to come. Dyson certainly wants that to be the case, so much so that he is building what sounds like a forever home in Atlanta, equipped with a few features that align with his non-hoop passions. According to Daniels, his home will include a golf simulator, DJ room (Daniels moonlights as a house music DJ from time to time), a theater, a poker room and a pool.

“The city really embraced me. I found a lot of hobbies to do out here,” he says. “It’s beautiful. So it’s somewhere that I want to be for the rest of my career.”

Although he considers Atlanta his home away from home, Daniels always puts on for his native Australia, too. In addition to holding camps and working with fellow Aussie NBA players, he also opened a large-scale business in Melbourne this summer.

In July, he and fellow Aussie and Chicago Bulls guard Josh Giddey opened CourtSide, a 10,000-square-foot one-stop shop for hoopers, complete with basketball courts, recovery facilities and adidas, Nike and Under Armour stores-in-store, as well as the first Vouseti store—Daniels’ own clothing brand.

In addition to opening businesses and spinning at Summer League parties, Daniels has spent the bulk of his offseason working on his game. After resting for a couple of weeks in Australia, the Great Barrier Thief spent several weeks of his offseason in Los Angeles working with legendary trainer and coach Phil Handy.

“I’m working on different pivots, trying to get a midrange game going, working on the handle. The in-between game is what I’ve really been honing in on the last two months now,” he says. “The timing of things and working on quick pull-ups, counter moves, off-pivots and stuff like bump finishes. A lot of the in-between game is what we’ve been working on.”

After his award-winning offseason, Daniels won’t be sneaking up on the League again, and he knows it. When we spoke, he had already added five pounds of muscle, with the goal of adding a few more. With a summer focused on being a better offensive player and developing into a true two-way threat, the 22-year-old could equal scary hours for the rest of the NBA and lots of postseasons for the Hawks, for years and years to come.

“Hopefully,” he says, “I can be here for as long as I can.”

---

Photos via Getty Images.