It's Time for the Atlanta Hawks to Hit the Reset Button, but What Will That Look Like?
The Hawks had high hopes coming into the season. With so much reshuffling going on around the rest of the Eastern Conference, one could make the case for the Hawks having the talent to be among the top four or five teams in the East. They had one of the league's best point guards and playmakers in Trae Young, Dejounte Murray was going to have a better season in his second season alongside Young, De'Andre Hunter and Jalen Johnson were primed for steps forward, and Atlanta still had one of the NBA's top center duos in Clint Capela and Onyeka Okongwu.
Perhaps the biggest reason for optimism though was head coach Quin Snyder. Snyder took over late last season, but did enough to get the Hawks into the play-in tournament, beat the Miami Heat, and challenge the No. 1 seed Boston Celtics in the first round. Because of their finish and potential to be even better with a full offseason to work with Snyder, you could make the case for the Hawks to be pretty good. I know I certainly did
Last night was rock bottom though and just added to what has been an unpleasant season in Atlanta.
Clint Capela vs the Wizards
The Hawks were at home facing the 6-31 Washington Wizards (a team they had already beaten three times this season) and looked lifeless and disinterested almost the entire way through. Washington is an even worse defensive team than the Hawks, yet Atlanta could not score on them and trailed by 28 points going into the fourth quarter.
Three of the last four games have been disasters for Atlanta. They gave up 150 points and 50 assists to the Pacers on the road last Friday, they were blown out again by Indiana two days ago, but this time Indiana was without their super star Tyrese Haliburton. Last night was the proverbial cherry on top. At home against a bad team and the Hawks just looked lifeless the entire time.
Trae Young spoke to the media after the game and had some interesting comments regarding Snyder and buying into what he is doing with the team:
There have been trade rumors surrounding this team for weeks and they are not going to slow down after last night.
This team lacks an identity and I don't see that changing anytime soon. They are arguably the worst defense in the NBA and their offense is good, not great. Atlanta can't win games unless their offense is scoring 120 points or more and that is a problem. High-level teams have to be able to win in multiple ways and the Hawks can't do that.
So what happens now and how did the Hawks get here?
It does not seem that long ago that the Atlanta Hawks were two wins away from making their first-ever appearance in the NBA Finals. The Hawks could argue they were a Trae Young injury away from beating the Milwaukee Bucks and possibly the Phoenix Suns in the Finals. It seemed that after that series, this was a team on the rise with a superstar point guard leading the way.
The season after losing to the Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals, Atlanta did not do a ton to tweak its roster, other than drafting Jalen Johnson in the first round of the NBA Draft. Atlanta did trade Cam Reddish, the former top-ten pick to the New York Knicks, but Reddish did not play much during the run to the Conference Finals. The Hawks went from being a top-four seed in the East to the play-in tournament, where they had to defeat the Charlotte Hornets and then the Cleveland Cavaliers in order to get to the No. 8 seed and a matchup with the Miami Heat.
To this day, the Heat present Atlanta and Trae Young with challenges and they embarrassed the Hawks, beating them in five games and Young had the only bad playoffs performance of his career. It was clear that the Hawks needed to add another ball handler and another offensive piece in order to take some of the pressure off Young.
So that summer, that is what the Hawks did.
Dejounte Murray vs the 76ers
Atlanta traded for Spurs All-Star guard Dejounte Murray, sending out a ton of future draft capital in the process. Murray was supposed to work next to Young and improve the Hawks's perimeter defense, as well as give Atlanta another playmaking ball-handler. That summer, Landry Fields was promoted from assistant general manager to general manager. Former president of basketball operations Travis Schlenk (now with the Wizards) stepped down from his role in December of that year.
Former Head coach Nate McMillan was fired and current head coach Quin Snyder accepted the job with only a few months left in the season. Snyder was one of the winningest coaches in the NBA while with the Utah Jazz and he was tasked with making the Hawks better on the fly. Atlanta was once again the eighth seed and had to face the Boston Celtics. They gave the Celtics a tougher series than anyone thought, taking them to six games and almost making it seven.
The thought during this offseason was that Snyder now had a full offseason to implement what he wanted to do and this team would make strides and show they could win as they are currently constructed.
The Hawks have been rumored to want to reconstruct its roster around Trae Young and breakout star Jalen Johnson, who are reportedly the only untouchable players on the roster. Should that be the case? I would argue yes.
Young has his limitations on defense certainly, but he can be surrounded by enough talent to hide those limitations. Johnson looks like one of those pieces, but nobody else on the roster should be untouchable.
Murray has not been the defensive stalwart Atlanta hoped for when they traded for him and he has been the Hawk that has been in the trade rumors the most.
When appearing on ESPN's NBA Today last week, NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski had this to say about the Hawks's efforts to try and trade Murray:
"Atlanta is ready to trade Dejounte Murray. They have given some time to the Trae Young and Dejounte Murray backcourt, but they are ready to move on from it. Dejounte Murray is the player they are engaged in around the league with. They have talked with the Lakers and exchanged some ideas on a potential trade, but they are engaged with a lot of teams.
They gave up a lot for Dejounte Murray. Two of their own firsts, pick swap and a third first round pick they had control of. They wanna get some value back for him. You look at that Lakers roster and you see what of value that they have that could compete in the market place. I think that there are a lot of teams interested in him, the question is how much do they want to give up for Murray. When you are this far out from the trade deadline, usually, you are not getting people's best yet. I think the Lakers are going to be in this, but there are a number of teams. I do think the chances of him moving before the deadline are very, very high."
In a recent report from NBA insider Jake Fischer, he says that Murray is the all-star that is most likely to be dealt and that the five teams he named to watch were the Lakers, Heat, Knicks, 76ers, and Pistons. In previous reports, the Lakers, 76ers, and Knicks have been linked to Murray the most.
Here is what Fischer had to say about Murray.
"That leaves us with Murray, a 27-year-old, 6-foot-5 combo guard posting career numbers, before a four-year, $114 million extension kicks in for the 2024-25 campaign. His defensive reputation may have proven overstated since coming out of San Antonio, but Murray is still valued as a true plus on that end of the floor. Combine all of his production with the looming new ramifications of a harsher second luxury-tax apron, and Murray’s longterm number is considered relatively modest for his talents.
That’s left Atlanta in a good transaction position as the Hawks have floundered outside of the play-in picture for much of this first full season under head coach Quin Snyder. This roster hasn’t brought the juice Atlanta anticipated, particularly the Murray-Trae Young partnership the Hawks splurged to create two summers ago. But Atlanta, upon further review, still has the goal of moving Murray — and possibly moving other veterans like Clint Capela or De’Andre Hunter — to reshuffle its deck for a postseason hunt this spring, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Murray has generated a substantial market during preliminary conversations around the league. The Hawks have been considered one of the more aggressive front offices this season, sources said, in terms of teams that have been willing to approach rival executives with actual trade concepts as opposed to general interest in specific players. And at this juncture, to varying degrees, the Lakers, Knicks, Sixers, Heat and Pistons are five suitors expected to engage Atlanta about acquiring Murray over the coming days and weeks before Feb 8."
You can read the full story at Yahoo Sports here.
De'Andre Hunter was supposed to be a perimeter defender the Hawks could count on and early on in his career, Hunter looked like he could be emerging as a reliable player in the and potentially a star. At the time, it seemed like Hunter's injury in the 2020-2021 season prevented the Hawks from making the Finals.
Clint Capela has been a great addition for Atlanta since coming over in a trade from the Houston Rockets, but he is not quite the same defender and rim protector he has been. Because the Hawks lack a lot of perimeter defense, they have to rely on Capela to affect shots at the rim and that is not a good way to construct a defense.
It is a bit of a mystery as to what the Hawks can get back in a trade for some of these players, but last night should be the final straw. This team is going nowhere and continues to trend downward. Could they trade for pieces to help them compete this year or do they trade for assets, hope they get a high pick in the lottery (in a draft that most analysts don't like by the way), and try to reconstruct this roster around Young and Johnson this summer? That is the question owner Tony Ressler, general manager Landry Fields, head coach Quin Snyder, and assistant general manager Kyle Korver have to answer and perhaps answer very soon.
Stay tuned.
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