There is no way to start an Atlanta Hawks article without wanting to rip your hair out. We have been caught in the great Hawks tradition of over promising and under delivering. The preseason hoopla Hawks fans saw by trading for Dejounte Murray, drafting AJ Griffin and spending in free-agency was seemingly all for nothing.
State of the Union
Atlanta sits eighth in the Eastern Conference with a 25-25 record, trailing the New York Knicks and Miami Heat by two and three games. The Hawks look to make a great run to end the first half of the season with an easy schedule coming up before All-Star weekend.
The Hawks are finally starting to see the roster come back to full strength which is encouraging. Atlanta is a full team with few holes, possessing Trae Young and Murray in the backcourt with Clint Capela, John Collins, and De’Andre Hunter in the frontcourt. Now that the Hawks have a complete roster and have an easy stretch coming up, you could see a potential 7-5 finish coming up to All-Star Weekend.
The team has been subject to drama and that is never a winning recipe looking at their season so far. Hawks star player Young and head coach Nate McMillan are butting heads which makes this even more dangerous. With a defensive rating of 114 and a turnover rate at 11.4, you can see that it is not careless mistakes losing the Hawks games. Young is second in the league with 9.9 assists per game leading this roster to play efficient basketball.
Look To The Future
The Hawks have a tough schedule coming up, facing an increasingly difficult Eastern Conference. The current makeup of the roster objectively makes winning the division out of the question for the Hawks, but the team is teetering on earning a playoff berth via the Play-In Tournament similar to the year prior.
This Hawks team is quite a bit better compared to last year and the stats demonstrate with continued production out of their guys that the postseason is a realistic outcome. The Hawks could possibly could even finish with the fifth or sixth seed in this writers opinion.
