What should the Atlanta Hawks do?

[RubioTheCruel]

The Hawks since they made that miracle run to the ECF in 2021 are 96-95 as of today and haven't made it out of the first round of the East playoffs since.

They still have a good offense(top 4 ORTG this year) but are completely abysmal defensively - 120.7 DRTG which is last place in NBA, even worse than Detroit.

They traded away a bunch of firsts for Murray so it's not like they can tank. The roster just seems odd and like they're gonna be on that mid treadmill again for the next X amount of years.

If you're the GM for the Hawks, what would you do?

 

[Rekkapryde]

Trae has to get at least passable at defense. I thought Hunter/Bey/Capella would be better on defense.

But they aren't taking a leap without getting better defensively. You don't trade Trae either IMO. Find a way to work around his defense once he gets marginal at it. Always gonna be a challenge for someone of his size to be decent defensively. But the other 4 gotta make up for it.

 

[RubioTheCruel]

Trae has to get at least passable at defense. I thought Hunter/Bey/Capella would be better on defense.

But they aren't taking a leap without getting better defensively. You don't trade Trae either IMO. Find a way to work around his defense once he gets marginal at it. Always gonna be a challenge for someone of his size to be decent defensively. But the other 4 gotta make up for it.

The strange part is looking at the defensive metrics, Trae has improved defensively. Is it even possible to make a passable defense with Trae playing so many minutes and having everyone else on the court cover his deficiencies? I think Snyder's a pretty good coach and if he's struggling to do it maybe it just can't be done

 

[Codeine Bryant]

Nothing. They won the trade, Trae is better fOr ThE cUlTuRe than Luka, and Cam Reddish is really him.

Lowkey they got a core

 

[SchoolboyC]

Hope and pray that Jalen Johnson develops into a star

 

[storyteller]

It's probably easiest/safest to try and retool around Trae/Dejounte. They have a lot of useful pieces on that roster. I'd take Hunter or Bey on the Knicks; Bodganovic is a good second-ball-handler; Jalen Johnson's a keeper.

That said, since I don't have any attachment to that team; I'd be more interested in them breaking up their big two. Turn Murray or Young into a bigger (literal not figurative) star player, hopefully one that's less ball-dominant.

 

[NoMorePie]

Thanks for the draft picks, Atlanta

 

[Professor K.]

Hope and pray that Jalen Johnson develops into a star

/thread

 

[O.iatlhawksfan]

I been a hawks fan all my life I’m so used to this now we’re like the poster child of mediocrity

I will say we still have that exception from the John Collins we can be some players in the trade market

 

[El Bombi]

They draft good.

 

[Estarossa]

We been the definition of mid since that run… this season we pretty much have the WOAT defense and almost everyone outside of Trae is wildly inconsistent except maybe Bogdonavic.

 

[AVXL]

The Hawks since they made that miracle run to the ECF in 2021 are 96-95 as of today and haven't made it out of the first round of the East playoffs since.

They still have a good offense(top 4 ORTG this year) but are completely abysmal defensively - 120.7 DRTG which is last place in NBA, even worse than Detroit.

They traded away a bunch of firsts for Murray so it's not like they can tank. The roster just seems odd and like they're gonna be on that mid treadmill again for the next X amount of years.

If you're the GM for the Hawks, what would you do?

As a Hawks fan the Hawks should tear it down and rebuild. They are the definition of incompetence and cheapness. The reality is that they probably won’t do anything because they’re unwilling to take on salary to go into the luxury tax to build a championship quality team

 

[RubioTheCruel]

As a Hawks fan the Hawks should tear it down and rebuild. They are the definition of incompetence and cheapness. The reality is that they probably won’t do anything because they’re unwilling to take on salary to go into the luxury tax to build a championship quality team

Ah so it's an ownership problem primarily. That's tough and not easy to fix

 

[AVXL]

Trae has to get at least passable at defense. I thought Hunter/Bey/Capella would be better on defense.

But they aren't taking a leap without getting better defensively. You don't trade Trae either IMO. Find a way to work around his defense once he gets marginal at it. Always gonna be a challenge for someone of his size to be decent defensively. But the other 4 gotta make up for it.

Breh respectfully if you think this roster as currently constructed has the capacity to take a “leap” I got a bridge to sell you that connects Georgia Tech to Tyrone, GA

Let’s keep it a buck, this roster wasn’t constructed to win. @O.iatlhawksfan mentioned the $25 million trade exception we got back in the John Collins trade wasn’t used and you’ve got a bunch of journeymen and washed vets on a team with Trae & DJM as the centerpieces. The truth is that isn’t a good roster and it wasn’t built to do more than compete for a play in spot

 

[Damnshow]

Do the same thing they been doing since Joe Johnson era.... Be on a treadmill.

When they have a chance to draft amazing talent, they choose guys like Marvin Williams or Trae Young.

So it's like if they tank again, they will find a way to skip a must draft guy.