Five players remain on the roster who were part of the Atlanta Hawks’ surprise run to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2020-21.
The Hawks finished fifth in the Eastern Conference standings that season, a result that was sparked by a difficult finish to the season following the head coaching change from Lloyd Pierce to Nate McMillan. They finished ninth, eighth and tenth in the three seasons that followed.
Their ranking in 2024-25 will depend largely on how their changes are received.
“The Atlanta Hawks could once again find themselves in NBA Purgatory “After the 2024-25 season concludes,” Bleacher Report’s Joseph Zucker wrote on Aug. 15, “the Hawks have resigned themselves to being the party pooper this year and not much else.”
“It will be difficult for Atlanta to do better than 36 wins, because they have taken a step back. A little lower, around 35, remains a reasonable target.”
Zucker predicts the Hawks will finish 35-47 in 2024-25.
He cites the Toronto Raptors as the Hawks’ biggest threat to a play-in berth. But the withdrawals of the teams ahead of them could even things out, or even allow the Hawks to make a surprising comeback in the standings.
Indeed, the Chicago Bulls actively made their situation worse, trading Alex Caruso and DeMar DeRozan during the offseason.
Chicago was ninth in the East standings in 2023-24.
The Hawks have 11 more wins than the Raptors in the regular season and are just three behind the Bulls’ mark despite Trae Young playing just 54 games, a career-low. If their roster shakeup works as planned, it makes sense that they could overtake the Bulls in the standings.
Young helped propel the Hawks to three straight 40-plus win seasons and playoff appearances heading into 2023-24.
Prediction: A 40-win season and a ninth-place finish are not far-fetched predictions and could even be probable.
The top of the East is set, although the order of the teams occupying it changes. The Philadelphia 76ers should move up after signing Paul George in free agency, so the fifth [Orlando Magic] The 10th-11th positions are expected to be equally volatile in 2024-25.
That could make it difficult for the Hawks to climb the standings despite a potentially better record.
The Miami Heat finished in 8th place with 46 wins, potentially setting the bar high for the Hawks.
The Hawks lost some offensive players in trading Dejounte Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans. But the stats with him and Trae Young on the court suggested specific combinations were needed to make it work.
The Hawks’ offense is less dynamic without Murray.
“Beyond the lack of a true star beyond Young, Atlanta’s roster construction is a bit odd,” Zucker wrote.
“Bufkin is poised to become Young’s backup after making just 17 appearances as a rookie. Daniels is a 31.2 percent three-point shooter in two years, so he doesn’t help solve that problem. was a problem “They’re sometimes valuable to the team. Then you get to the frontcourt, where Clint Capela, Onyeka Okongwu and Larry Nance Jr. are all centers that don’t complement each other very well.”
Zucker notes that Capela, Nance and Bogdan Bogdanovic could all be trade candidates.
However, the fit between Young and the flexibility of the current roster provided by head coach Quin Snyder could help the group be better than the sum of its parts.
