The Is NOT The Same Atlanta Hawks…

The Is NOT The Same Atlanta Hawks…

The Atlanta Hawks have been kind of the darlings of the NBA offseason. They’ve made a bunch of smart moves. Pretty much everybody likes the Hawks off seasonason, but what’s actually going to happen on the floor this year? It’s cool to make a couple of nice trades and feel good about the team in the offseason, but what’s actually going to happen once we start playing basketball? Let’s talk about the lineup and the rotations for Atlanta. For me, there’s obviously three guys that are 100% going to start. It’s going to be Trey Young, Dyson Daniels, and Jaylen Johnson. The other two spots are a little bit more up in the air. If I had to guess what Atlanta would like to do at the start of their season, it would be Zachary Rishet and Enyaka Akong Wu in that starting lineup. That gives them that development piece and Rishch after a solid season after being the first overall pick. And then Akong Wu gives them that defensive identity and although they did trade for Chris Porzingis, my assumption is that Atlanta is going to try and play him like 25 minutes a game during the regular season, play him and Aong Wu together at times, but make sure that he is healthy for the postseason. and he is like the ultimate X factor for the Hawks season if he is healthy because if he’s not healthy all of a sudden they don’t really have another big on the roster outside of a Kong Woo and I would expect him to be the starter and then maybe once we get into the postseason you can change the lineups around a little bit maybe KP is the starter maybe play both bigs whatever the case may be but I would guess that at the beginning of the season they wanted to be Rishet and a Kungwu which gives you then Luke Canard Nquille Alexander Walker and Chris Porzingis primarily off the bench now I could see a scenario during the here if Rishcha struggles where Nquille Alexander Walker is actually the guy that starts instead of Rishchet. But like I said, from a development perspective, I think they’d prefer that it be Rishet in the starting lineup. The problem with that starting group is it’s definitely light on shooting. Unless Risha is going to become an outstanding three-point shooter enough to kind of carry that starting group. Obviously, we know that Trey can shoot. His percentages are never really all that great because he takes tough shots, but we know that he is a floor spacer just on his own. Dyson Daniels is always going to be up and down. Rish is going to be up and down. Jaylen Johnson isn’t really like this great offball spacer kind of guy. He’s an interesting player and does a lot of great stuff, but I wouldn’t count him as like a highle spacer. And then a Kung Woo, although he tries to shoot threes and corner threes on occasion, that’s mostly out of necessity because they wanted to try and play him alongside of another big. So, they’re definitely light on shooting in that starting group. And so, I could see some scenarios where like if Dyson Daniels gets hurt, Luke Canard plays for a game and all of a sudden their offense takes a big leap. But obviously Daniels has to start and play a ton alongside Trey Young because of how good he is defensively and how good that pairing is together. But that would be my main number one concern for Atlanta. Outside of health, Jaylen Johnson missed a bunch of time last year. You’re always worried about Chris Porzingis getting hurt. Outside of health, my number one concern for them certainly would be shooting with that starting group. I think overall they’re going to have plenty of spacing when you think about Nikil Alexander Walker, Christoph Porzingis, and Luke Canard off the bench. But in Canard’s case, he’s a complete nothing on defense. And in KP’s case, you’re worried about kind of the style of defense you’d have to play with, you know, Trey Young and Christoff Porzingis guarding the same ball screen. There’s definitely some concerns there in terms of Porzingis can be a good defender, but you have to kind of play a specific kind of defense to make him usable. And it’s a kind of defense that doesn’t really work with the way that you would want Trey Young to, or at least you want to try and hide Trey Young defensively. So, there’s some concerns there. And so there’s shooting that can mitigate some of the concerns I have with the starting group, but those bring with them other concerns like injuries and lack of defensive infrastructure with guys like Canard and Porzingis, which makes me think that there’s a scenario here when Akquil Alexander Walker becomes extremely important to this group. And of course, that’s one of the reasons why everybody really liked that move in the offseason. Which brings me to another concern I have with Atlanta this year, and that’s just their overall depth. When you just look at the names on paper, you think, “Oh, this is this is a deep roster.” You’ve got that starting group, then those three bench guys I talked about. Then you got Asa Newell, you got Kobe Buffkin, you got Mogay, you got all these different guys that I think could be even someone like V crazy like these are are usable pieces, but you look at it in, you know, KP misses 20 games, you don’t really have a a backup big on the roster. If someone like Canard and Nil Alexander Walker has a tough shooting stretch, you don’t really have other floor spacers off the bench on the perimeter. You don’t really have another initiator and a creator off the bench unless you really are in love with what Kobe Buffkin can be. And if Jaylen Johnson can’t, you know, pick up the slack when Trey’s off the floor, this offense could be really, really bad without Trey out there. I love Jaylen Johnson, but that’s a lot of relying on him to be the other creator when it’s literally just Trey Young and nobody else. So, they have depth in terms of actual guys. But in terms of how the pieces fit together and specifically at the one and at the five, I definitely have some concerns overall for Atlanta. But having said that, this is a really, really good roster. And when you compare it to some of these other teams in the Eastern Conference, I don’t think it’s crazy to think that Atlanta could be the third or the fourth best team in the entire Eastern Conference this upcoming season if things go well. New York and Cleveland on paper are absolutely better than Atlanta. After that, I’m not sure you can find another team in the conference that is undoubtedly better than this Hawks roster on paper if you don’t account for injuries and things like that. Obviously, I’m putting Philly to the side. Philly is a complete wild card. Paul George already had to have another surgery. There’s the NBA stuff. I’m putting Philly to the side. If you think about Milwaukee who has Giannis, Kyle Kosma, that’s like their second best player. Miles Turner, like they just don’t have a lot of like good NBA players. Then you’re looking at, you know, Orlando. Is that a team that’s going to be able to make a leap? I think it’s probably them or Atlanta. If you’re fighting for that third or fourth spot, at least right now on paper, Miami is not better than Atlanta. You go down the list, Detroit, these teams are not marketkedly better than this Hawks team. They could have a punchers chance at making the NBA finals this year. I don’t think that’s a crazy statement to make. And just like for every other team in the conference, that’s going to require uh health luck. That’s going to require a bunch of other things. And I certainly wouldn’t say that it’s it’s a huge possibility, but given where Atlanta was a couple of years ago, trying to figure out what they’re going to do with the Dejonte Murray, Trey Young back court, having traded away future picks, to turn things around so quickly is really impressive. And it certainly was a great offseason for them. And in an interesting way, even though there’s obviously a lot of Hawks optimism out there, and I think understandably so, and I think I’d even put myself in that category a little bit, maybe not going as far as other people, but I’m certainly optimistic about them this season. It’s also kind of a weird like referendum season for Trey Young in terms of what a team built around Trey Young can really do and accomplish. Obviously, we’ve seen them make the conference finals before, but this is about as good as that roster that made the conference finals a couple of years ago, and it’s about as good of a roster as you could have realistically expected the Hawks to put around Trey Young given where they were a few seasons ago. And you’ve got defenders and length on the wing like Dyson Daniels and Zachary Reese. You’ve got a secondary playmaker in Jaylen Johnson. You got a lap threat and a Kongu. We’ve got a floor spacing five and Christophis. You’ve got spacing off the bench and Nikil Alexander Walker, Luke Canard. This is a Trey Young built team. It’s a team built around Trey Young is going to be our engine. He’s going to be our everything. And we are going to protect him defensively. Give him shooters, give him spacers, give him guys that can roll to the rim. And this is going to be kind of a determining factor of what really his future is in Atlanta. He’s a he’s a free agent this upcoming offseason is the opportunity to leave via a player option. They haven’t signed him to an extension as of this recording. And if they don’t really reach the expectations that I think the front office has clearly set for this team given how well they did in the offseason, I think there’s definitely going to be more questions than answers about what Trey Young can actually accomplish as a focal point. He’s an incredible offensive player, but this is in a weird way like obviously a positive that Atlanta has put together this great group, but it also puts a ton of pressure on them as well as Trey Young specifically. It also puts a lot of pressure on some of the young guys to continue to develop. Risha is someone that I think everybody including myself really is just putting to the side as a he’s going to be a good role player kind of player like if Zachary Rishet is I mean this is a in a complimentary way by the way if Zachary Rishet is like auto porter in a couple of years which I know that’s like doesn’t sound complimentary but it is auto Porter was a really really good shooter could guard a little bit and was a nice complimentary piece for the Wizards. Yes, he was overpaid at times but as a player he was good. I think if Rish could be that I think the Hawks would be relatively happy with that. There is maybe a ceiling for a lot more than that depending on how optimistic you are about him. But for me, I see complimentary player. I see role players. Best path forward to me is to just be an unbelievable shooter. If that happens, if that develops, it’s a great piece to have alongside Trey Young. Jaylen Johnson has already developed a ton over his first couple of seasons in the league and his continued development. There’s a lot of pressure on that as well. Like I said, with him being this other creator and playmaker alongside of Trey Young, really the only other guy on the roster that’s qualified to be that level of player. And there’s just a lot of pressure on those guys along with the fact that they still have some future assets. Zachary could be the center of like some big-time trade down the road. This might not be the team. This Hawks team right now might not be the Hawks team that we see at the deadline depending on, you know, if players ask out if someone becomes available all of a sudden. They could make their version of a Pascal Seakum trade that obviously helped the Indiana Pacers a ton. And the Hawks are just one of the most intriguing teams of the entire season to me because they’ve clearly improved. There’s clearly a scenario here where they are in the conference finals, but there’s also a scenario where we kind of learn what we need to learn about a Trey Young team, about this version of the Hawks, and that tells us a lot about where the team goes moving forward. And I cannot wait to see what this team actually looks like on the floor. Even though they had a great offseason, I want to see like the actual basketball part of it,

The Atlanta Hawks and Trae Young were big winners of the 2025 NBA offseason… but what does that actually look like on the court?

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