Atlanta Hawks, a shot at the championship title?
Are the Hawks a dark-horse candidate? Or are they dead-and-gone?
One year.
Is that the shortest, most impressive championship contending window in history?
A historic season with a team-record 60 wins; going 17–0 in January to the break the record for most wins in a single month; a record tying 4 players in the all-star game; a coach of the year in coach Bud; and an Eastern Conference finals run.
Seriously, who saw that coming? Who thought that the 30+ Kyle Korver would be such a force? To be honest, who thought that they would be anything higher than a 7th or 8th seed?
That 2014–15 season was amazing for the Hawks and what most agreed on, solidified their position as a top team in the East.
Fast-forward to today, mid-way through the 2015–16 season, it’s almost as if the Hawks 15 minutes of fame has come to a lackluster end. Although a top 5 team in the East, and arguably top 10 team in the league, they are leaps and bounds to where they should be or where I personally expected to see them.
In the course of a single season, they’ve fallen back into the realm of above-average. With less than half the wins as last year, the Hawks have already tied the amount of loses they had in the entirety of the 2014–15 season.
Why the drop? What happened? Did the crushing 4–0 sweep at the hands of the Cavs crush the hopes for the Hawks? Did losing Carroll completely throw the team dynamic and strategy off-whack? It’s just so intriguing, as there is no way that legendary season could’ve just been a stroke of luck. Still, half way through this 2015–16 season, and they’ve already almost completely fallen out of the conversation.
There’s a chance
What they did last season is both a blessing a curse for the Atlanta Hawks.
A blessing because they showed everyone that they deserve to be considered as a top franchise in the league. A curse because now the pressure to continue that winning rhythm is seriously on, and playing under that pressure, for a team that has no true superstar, is a difficult thing to accomplish.
So, why the chance? If they haven’t stepped up so far, how could they every step-up like they did last season?
For one real reason: They have that almost perfect dark-horse formula compared to any other Eastern team.
Sure, they’ve fallen, but still deep-down in the hearts of other teams in the NBA, they understand how this team can seriously go off. They know that there’s no way a full-season of dominating almost every single night was just a fluke.
That fear still exists, it’s way too soon to write-off the Atlanta Hawks.
Even with an underwhelming play-off run was last year, and a mediocre season so far, almost every weapon and component of that unstoppable 14–15 Atlanta Hawks still exists. They still have the most underrated front-court in the league in Millsap and Horford, a Coach of the Year who understands how to execute that Spurs-like style of gameplay and a back-court that have the potential to take-down any other duo in the league (if they show-up to play).
The Hawks still have these weapons, it’s not like they’ve gone anywhere. All they need to do is find that groove once more and carry it into the playoffs. Sure, a lofty thing to ask from a team, but that’s what defines a dark-horse.
Roster, an interesting case for the Hawks
4 former all-stars, yet no true superstar?
Last season, people argued that Teague would emerge as the teams leading star, but now that he has somewhat fallen off, the only other real option is Paul Millsap.
Some say a team could win the title without a true superstar, especially under the pass-first mentality of the Hawks, but personally, I think it’s tremendously unlikely.
Think of any other team chasing for the title:
Spurs: Leonard
Warriors: Curry
Cavs: James
Clippers: Paul
OKC: Durant/Westbrook
Raps: Lowry
The list goes on and on. Many of which, have arguably two stars leading the charge.
When a team, like the Hawks, don’t have that superstar who shows up night-in and night-on what happens is the feared trait of inconsistency.
Instead of one or two guys acting as that catalysts for scoring buckets, in flipping scoring streaks on defense and in leading the rest of their team to close-off a game, it takes the whole roster to do it. Every player, especially starting five, need to be able to take on the responsibilities that typically comes from a true elite.
As a result, either the complete roster steps up together, as the Hawks amazingly did last season, or more commonly, a variety of players end up sporadically saving the day time-to-time (think Carroll in the playoffs last year). Again, the issue is inconsistency.
We’re seeing this now in the backcourt of the Hawks. Korver has almost vanished, showing signs that his season last year was just an unbelievable streak, while Teague is currently in the midst of trade rumors.
No matter how good Millsap and Horford are, it’ll be impossible to win unless they get back that consistency in the backcourt. What it takes, whether it is shipping-off Teague or bringing in someone to put a little competitive spark under Korver and Teague, is difficult to say. Either way, this back-court does have the talent to be all-stars, as they proved last year, the challenge is trying to get that back-out in them.
How they can pull it off & prediction
The Hawks need their backcourt to step-up. Most importantly, they need Korver to nail 3’s like he did last season. His ability to make it rain from beyond the arc was nothing less than spectacular last season.
Having that weapon back in the Hawks arsenal is the most important thing that could happen. When the lights-out Korver is on the court, everything about the opposing defense changes. Guards, at all times, need to watch Korver on and off the ball, lanes clear up for Teague, the front-court has far less pressure to get buckets and more energy playing defense, and a player like Bazemore could easily be left alone to light it up himself on various nights.
Outside of this, what is needed to win for the Hawks is that spark. As corny as it sounds, this team needs to believe again that they are the best team in the East. They need that confidence, as we obviously saw last season, they barely had it against the Wizards while not having it at all against the Cavs.
Both individually and as a team, this team needs that confidence, energy and swagger back. It’s an interesting case, as this team is the one roster that’s all-in on playing 100% team ball.
With all that said, when playoffs do roll around, a lot of how far they’ll get is down to where they end up in the standings. If 3rd or 6th, I could see them facing the Bulls or Celtics round one, most likely Raptors round two, then Cavs in the eastern finals.
If 4th or 5th, they would see the Cavs in the semis.
It all comes down to their ability to find that rhythm again. If they don’t choke in the playoffs, and live-up to that dark-horse hype, then I could see them going as far as the finals again (if all the chips fall in place).
Honestly, it all depends on how good that backcourt can play.