The Atlanta Hawks are OFFICIALLY Contenders

The Atlanta Hawks are OFFICIALLY Contenders

The Atlanta Hawks are finally contenders again. Let’s go Hawks fans. We finally made it. I’ve probably only been excited for a season like twice in the last eight years. And the two times were one after our playoff run when we decided to do nothing. But I was fine with running it back. And then not only did we get her hit with injuries, but also COVID. And while every other team with COVID was delaying their games so that they could play them fairly, the Atlanta Hawks were starting a guy, Chandi Brown, and just decided, hey, we’re just going to sign two-way guys to be in the key rotation so that we can play our games as fast as we can, I guess. Cuz Chandi Brown, a guy we started a couple games that was his only NBA season ever, and he was a starter for us. So, that was the 2022 season. And then after that, we traded for Deontay Murray and I was excited again. I had my hopes up again. I was hoping, hey, he’s the key to our problems. And then he wasn’t that good of a defender. He wasn’t a good shooter. wasn’t a good fit. We sucked after that, too. So, ever since the Trey Young era has started, I’ve never been excited for a season that actually worked out for the Hawks until hopefully now. So far, the Hawks this off seasonason, they’ve gotten Kristoff Sportzing. They’ve gotten a future valuable first round pick for next year. You know, the best pick between the Bucks and the Pelicans. They signed to kill Alexander Walker, and then they signed Luke Canard. I want to talk about each of these transactions separately, but first off, Anzie Salai, I I I don’t know how to say our new GM’s name, but he is a hero. Apparently, he was behind the Dyson Daniels trade as well as the Reese J draft pick. I think I mean, we can never really confirm this, but apparently he was making some moves over Landry Fields last year. And now that he’s officially the GM, we know that he’s definitely under these moves. And these moves have been amazing. I mean, the fact that we’re likely going to be a really good team in the East while not giving up any young pieces while getting better young pieces in the future is absolutely crazy to me. That pick I’m really hoping is valuable. I’m recording this during day two of free agency, so you never know what more moves the Bucks make or moves the Pells make, but they’re they’re both looking pretty bad. I mean, Miles Turner is a good center and an upgrade on Brook Lopez, but all the Bucks did besides that was bring back everyone who sucked last year. You know, thinking back, this is like the first time ever that Trey Young actually has a team constructed to fit him. There’s only two bad defenders on the entire roster and that is Trey Young who is one of the best offensive engines you could ever ask for. And then Luke Canard, a guy who, yes, he is a cone, but he shot 44% from three last season and is overall throughout his career. I believe a 40% three-point shooter. And if he’s not, he’s definitely guarded like one, which will definitely help the spacing. Also, there was a report saying that Trey Young and the Atlanta Hawks front office are not done making moves. Um, but I’m just going to assume that every any move we make after this isn’t going to be something drastic where all of a sudden we’re Eastern Conference favorites or all of a sudden we’re going to be way worse. Um, unless it’s a Giannis trade, which I just I don’t see happening. But we are right now the current betty favorite to get Giannis if he is traded. And I would give credit to the Hawks front office for letting Trey Young make, you know, or have a have a big impact on some of the moves that have been made this off seasonason because apparently that’s what has been happening with Nikil Alexander Walker with Luke Canard. But I’m pretty sure a couple years ago Trey Young wanted Deontay Murray. So, uh, I I don’t want Trey Young being our GM, but knowing that our star player has signed off on a lot of these moves is definitely a plus. Our first move was Christoff Porzingis coming to Atlanta for Terrence Man, George’s Niang, and that 23rd, no, 22nd overall pick that we had. And Porzingis, I think he’s going to add so much to the Hawks as long as he stays healthy. I mean, his offensive skill set might be like the best Trey Young’s ever played with. I mean, maybe hopefully Jaylen Johnson in the future, but if we talk about a 7 foot3 guy who can shoot the ball from 27 28 feet out, a guy who in the past on the Knicks has been more of a post guy, can take advantage of mismatches. Overall, like he’s like probably the tallest guy the Hawks have employed since like who Dembe I love on, don’t get me wrong, and Capella I did love at a certain point, but those were shorter centers. Like I feel like the only tall center the Hawks had in the Trey Young era so far was Dwayne Deadman who uh I mean it’s Dwayne Deadmond come on. But yeah, Porzingis is going to play very different on the Hawks than he did on the Celtics. The Celtics really were like a five out kind of team versus I think he’ll now be a legitimate pick and roller or pick and per guy next to Trey Young. I think Trey’s going to elevate him just like Luca did. And let’s just hope that it doesn’t end like that Maverick’s tenure where Porzingis just kept getting hurt come playoff time. And yeah, getting rid of that 22 overall pick kind of sucked. But, you know, because of this next trade I’m about to talk about, it wasn’t that big of a deal. And Terrence Van was a bad contract. George Niang wasn’t a bad contract, but he was that dude was a cone sometimes. Like, I I think anyone could have scored on him. There’s a reason his nickname is the minivan. I mean, look at look at the way he’s built. So, overall, I love that trade, especially because Porzingis is on an expiring contract. So, if he does play bad or if he does get hurt, then we can either just let him go in the offseason next year or we can sign him back. So, that’s just some flexibility that we have. then trading back from pick 13 to23 to get an unprotected first round pick for 2026. I love it because this team still is young. I mean, Trey Young isn’t that young, but we have Jaylen Johnson, we have Reza Jay, we have Tyson Daniels, we could use a really good prospect next year and if somehow the Bucks or the Pelicans pick wins the lottery and we could get like a Dona, we can get a Camboozer. I know there’s a third guy who’s like really good. I for I think it’s Darren Peterson, but that would really help the core. And then we drafted Assa Newell who I mean I’m a Georgia fan so I like him and I do love his fit next to Trey Young. I don’t think he was like the best prospect ever um because his shooting is very questionable and just his offensive skill set in general but um I mean let’s hope he could be kind of like a John Collins. I mean I think he will be a better defender no matter what. But yeah, if he can get the shot going, get the feel, maybe get some playmaking, then he could be really good. And I think the only prospect that I really wanted that we missed out on was Carter Bryant. Well, also I’m super high on Derek Queen, but I think of him as a four. And I I I actually already I love Moay already, which might sound stupid because offensively he is not good, but if you if he ever gets the offense going, he’s already one of the best like three or four defenders on the Hawks. So, another win. And then we were going into free agency. And I was just thinking, man, I understand we have this trade exception, but I do not want to overpay anyone. And if we were going to overpay someone, I wanted him to have like a super high potential. Maybe like a Trey man, maybe like a Quinton Grimes or something. But the fact that we got Nquille Alexander Walker who is an elite defender for only$16 million a year over four years I think is amazing cuz I was really like if we had to pay him $2 million a year if we paid him the whole trade exception I would have been pretty pissed but 16 million a year is nothing if he ends up not being that good. You can trade $16 million and I think he will be pretty good. Uh I think he’s a very inconsistent offensive player but he can cut and he can shoot and that’s kind of like all he can do. Um but he is a good secondary playmaker. He’s not a point guard in my opinion. Even though I think he came into the NBA as a point guard, but he’s definitely like a two or three guy. Um, decent playmaker, but overall just a good defender and that’s what we need around Trey. Hopefully he’s not a fake defender like DeJonte was, but he is, you know, just a bench piece and he should be a better catch and shooter than Dejonte Murray, even though in the playoffs he was very wishy-washy. Like some games going 0 for six, some games going five for six. So, we we’ll see. Maybe Trey Young I mean Trey Young is a better playmaker than Ant and we’ll get him more open probably. So, we’ll see how that goes. But when we signed Alexander Walker, I texted my friends and I’m like, “Dude, if Trey Young leads this team to a top 10 offense, then he’s just like the best point guard in the league because we had like no offensive guys.” But then we signed Luke Canard, who was, you know, an elite elite shooter. And I’m not saying like he’s not going to play that many minutes. He might play, you know, 17, 18 minutes a night, maybe, maybe even less. Um, but overall having someone who’s that good of a shooter, that much of a threat, it’s only going to help Trey, especially if Trey goes down with an injury for a couple games. Um, if we didn’t have Lucard, we’d have like zero super positive shooters outside of Borzingis. Yeah, the only problem with the roster right now is we don’t have a backup small forward because right now I have the depth chart, projected depth chart being Trey Young starting at the one, Dyson at the two, Reys Jay at the three, Jaylen Johnson at the four, Christoff Sportzing at the five, and then backups. Buffkin at the one, Nquille Alexander Walker at the two, Vicy at the three, Mo Gay at the four, and then obviously Akong Wu at the backup five. And um a couple things with this Austin Newell’s not in this. I do think he will be in the G- League the entire the entirety of the season, which for the most part for the Hawks has really worked out. Now, I don’t the only time it didn’t work out, you know, having our rookie play in the G- League the whole year was Jaylen Johnson’s rookie year in my opinion because if Jaylen Johnson played his whole rookie year with the Hawks in the rotation and showed playmaking promise, then maybe we don’t trade Kevin Herder for Deontay Murray because, you know, the reason we lost to the Heat so bad that year was because of a lack of playmaking. But outside of that, being in the G-League your entire first year has worked out for the Hawks. So develop there. I think Mo Gay has already showed a lot of potential, especially defensively, but even offensively, you know, you’re still next to Trey Young. You’re going to get some good looks. He is still 6’11 at the power forward spot. So yeah, if you do run Trey Young and Luke Canard in a lineup, you might want to have Mo Gay at the three or at the four just strictly for defense and size. But yeah, backup small forward being Vicy. I do like Vit Ky. I wouldn’t mind if we started the season with him as the backup five. Now, I’d probably prefer to get someone better, but dude, Vic Reggie the last two seasons has been a shooter. I think he ended last season as a very good piece where I think he deserved more minutes. But, of course, we had Terrence man and George Niang and Caris Levert. I I I’m happy for their tenure that they had with the Hawks because we did step it up the second that we traded for them. But, um I’m also glad they’re gone. And also, by the way, yes, I still do believe in Kobe Buffkin. I think that two years ago he was in his rookie season when he only played like 17 games for us uh later in the year, he was our best defender. He was the best defender on the entire team. The way that he rotated, the way that he got steals, the way that he played on ball defense, point of attack defense, the way he got over screens, he was the best defender. And now we have Dyson, we have Nquille, we have all these guys where maybe you do want someone a bit more offensive minded, but if you’re playing a lot of your minutes next to Luke Canard, then we need a defensive guard. And then that’s who he is. Oh, I guess I didn’t have Canard um in that depth chart, but uh no, he’s there. So, we we we’ll see how it goes. Maybe you could put Alexander Walker at the back of three and then Canard at the back of two, Buffin at the one. I I think that would work out. Ideally, you want more size, but I I still like it. And also, Kobe Buffkin has had to deal with a lot of injuries in his career so far. Like, I don’t think he’s actually been given a proper chance to prove himself. Now, do I kind of still want another backup point guard in case he doesn’t work out? Maybe. because even though I think he deserves another chance, I’m not saying it’s a guarantee he’ll still be good. But he was my eighth best prospect in that year and I’m not some draft expert who gets everything right, but I’m still pretty confident that he in a reddraft if the injuries didn’t happen so far. He’s a top 10 prospect. I I would take him top 10. So, I still believe in him. Second Hawks video made over my last three videos. Um, so yeah, I’m talking about the Hawks a lot. They are my favorite team. I’m probably not going to make another video in for another like month or two unless we get Giannis somehow because there’s no other move that would really move me like that. And I’ll probably make a video about how all the pressure is on Trey Young because he finally has the team around him. He needs to prove himself. Uh but yeah, overall I’m projecting the Hawks to be a top five team in the East. Like bare minimum top five. I think we’re in conversations with the with the Cavaliers, with the Magic, with the Sixers, who the Sixers weren’t even good last year. So I maybe I shouldn’t be putting them in this conversation, but the talent is there. Cavs, Magic, Knicks, 76ers, Hawks. Now I’d probably project them around like number four right now. Maybe if we get a better backup three, maybe it can go up. But overall, we’re in that conversation. We have a legitimate chance to win to win the East. I I don’t know if we’ll beat the Rockets or the Thunder. But I still I still think that when there’s a chance that you make it to the finals because you’re better than all the East teams, there’s a chance you win the finals. So, so we’re contenders. I don’t care. Even though we’re definitely not better than Houston or OKC. But I am so excited not only for next year, but just for the future of the Hawks. Like, we’re now making good moves. I want to be one of those franchises where most of the moves they make are good. We’ve made a lot of bad moves in the past and uh things are changing around. So, let’s go. Trey Young, no more excuses. Lock in. It’s not some sort of failure if we don’t make the Eastern Conference Finals, but that’s what I’m rooting for realistically. I think it can be done unless obviously like some injuries happen or whatever. But as a Hawks fan, I’m due to be happy and I’m happy right now. They paid my dues. I’m I am forever grateful for this new Hawks front office. If you guys enjoyed, like, comment, subscribe, all that stuff. Or don’t. You have free will.

The Atlanta Hawks were easily the biggest winners of the 2025 NBA Offseason, and are officially NBA contenders. Trading for Porzingis, Trading for Asa Newell and a first, signing Nickeil Alexander Walker, and signing Luke Kennard were all very good moves!