Hawks Move Up in National Power Rankings

Atlanta is moving in the right direction despite a setback on Monday night.

Prior to Monday night's lifeless loss to the Grizzlies, the Hawks had been playing their best basketball of the season. Atlanta won four of their first six games after the All-Star break, including two in a row to sweep a home back-to-back. That was quite the accomplishment for a team that has struggled to bring energy on the second nights of back-to-backs, and the Hawks were favored heading into Monday evening with a chance to win three straight games for the first time all season. 

That's when the letdown came. Atlanta didn't play well at any point during Monday's contest, nor did any individual Hawk have a strong game. Still, the Hawks have a chance to close the season strong and with positive momentum. If they can recover from the debacle against Memphis and take advantage of a weaker schedule over the final 19 games, Monday's game could wind up nothing more than a quick stumble in the home stretch. 

Between the All-Star break and the end of February, the Hawks had the NBA's 22nd-most efficient defense and fourth-best offense -- both marked improvements over their season marks. Atlanta upped its pace while cutting down on turnovers and got to the foul line with even more regularity than normal. 

Monday's loss tanked some of those numbers, but most national observers seem to agree that Atlanta was trending in the right direction as the Hawks rose in most power rankings across the web. Here's how they fared in four notable lists. (These rankings came out before Monday's game, so that data point isn't taken into account here.)

Sports Illustrated: 25th

SI's Michael Shapiro (who also covers the Rockets) is least rosy on Atlanta's standing right now, slotting the Hawks 25th -- ahead of the Bulls, Cavaliers, Knicks, Timberwolves, and Warriors, and just behind the Pistons. This feels like the right general range for the Hawks, who have outplayed some of the aforementioned teams lately, but not consistently enough to definitively escape the cellar of the league. 

This list focuses mainly on John Collins' improvement and his historic month of February, and projects that growth into next season, when Atlanta should be healthier and more experienced. 

"The Wake Forest product isn’t a five despite the NBA’s small-ball trend," Shapiro writes. "He remains a shaky (at best) defender. But if Clint Capela can log a healthy season in 2020-21, the playoffs are certainly in play for the young Hawks." 

I'd push back slightly on that characterization of Collins' defense. He'll need to sustain it for more than half a season, but the big man has been solid on that end of the floor since returning from his 25-game suspension. The Hawks haven't been good on defense with Collins on the floor, but they also have several shaky defenders around Collins, who has improved his activity and timing after a poor season last year. Despite his relative lack of size for the position, Atlanta has been quite good in the aggregate with him playing center. 

NBA.com: 21st

John Schumann of NBA.com is the most bullish on the Hawks at the moment, slotting them 21st in the league, ahead of teams like the Wizards, Suns, and Hornets. That's probably the highest one could reasonably place Atlanta on a list like this; Portland and Brooklyn -- the next two teams on the list -- are clearly better teams when healthy (even though the Hawks defeated both of them last week). 

This list is also the most statistically detailed, citing Atlanta's explosive offense and Trae Young's notable assist totals over the last six games as evidence of an improving team. 

"Though Collins has missed 26 of the Hawks' 62 games, Young has 22 more assists to Collins (107) than he has to any other teammate. Young's 4.9 assists to Collins per 36 minutes on the floor together is the highest rate among combos with at least 100 total assists from one teammate to the other."

The Hawks have pushed the tempo to great effect recently, and their small lineups with Collins at center have a 120.8 offensive rating in 394 possessions this season. Lloyd Pierce has been smart to lean into those alignments now that Young, Collins, Cam Reddish, Kevin Huerter, and De'Andre Hunter are (mostly) healthy, and that look has been a big reason for the Hawks' success since the break. 

ESPN: 23rd

There isn't much detail to speak of here, but ESPN does note that Atlanta has won eight of its last 11 home games, which has helped push it closer to the top of the league's bottom tier. One could make an argument for the Hawks being higher than the Suns and Wizards, but none of these teams are exactly covering themselves in glory. 

Yahoo Sports: 24th

No surprises here. The Hawks once again fall in the morass of the bottom of the NBA in Tommy Beer's rankings -- sandwiched between Charlotte and Chicago -- a perfectly appropriate range for a 19-44 club. 

"The Hawks are trending in the right direction, having won two straight games and four of the six games they've played since the All-Star break, with Trae Young leading the way. Over the final 11 games played in February, Ice Trae averaged 33.0 points, 10.9 dimes, 3.6 made treys and 3.2 rebounds."  

With three days off between games, Atlanta will have time to recover from Monday's beatdown before visiting the Wizards and Grizzlies this weekend. If all goes well for them, the Hawks could find themselves moving up on these trivial lists with which we concern ourselves.