There’s not much to say about the actual playoffs. The Hawks are a good team. They are not a great team. The Knicks showed them the difference, they were much better. I was (un)fortunate enough to watch the historic Game 6 bludgeoning from the first 10 rows with the most active commenter at www.muttrox.com. Still, there is reason to be optimistic!
Going into this year, Muttrox said:
- If Porzingis is healthy and Trae Young plays defense, this is a very good team.
- If just one of those is true, this is a good team.
- If neither one is true, this is a sub-.500 team.
Well, Porzingis wasn’t healthy. And Trae Young didn’t play defense. But they got rid of Trae Young (finally!). As soon as Trae was gone, the team started improving. We had one of the two criteria. The Hawks were, as I predicted, a pretty good team. “Pretty good” is a huge jump for the Hawks!
The Hawks have not been a good team for a long time. Here are The Hawks wins by season:
- 2017-2018: 24
- 2018: 29
- 2019: 20
- 2020: 41 (shortened season)
- 2021: 43
- 2022: 41
- 2023: 36
- 2024: 40
- 2025: 46
They were over .500 in the weird pandemic year and they were barely above .500 in 2021. That’s it. The 46 wins this year is a significant uptick, the best in a decade. It can be somewhat discounted because every team that wasn’t tanking got more wins off of the tanking teams. But in the second half of the season, after trading Trae Young, they were 20-6, including an 11 game winning streak. That is an elite record and can’t be easily written off. They had reason to feel optimistic going into the playoffs.
Looking ahead to next year:
- Jalen Johnson is a borderline All-star. I expect to him to incrementally improve next year.
- Nickeal-Alexander-Walker justly won the most improved player year. Found money.
- CJ McCollum is occasionally unstoppable. Found money.
- More decent players. Dyson Daniels, Okongwu. Kaminga.
- They have the #7 pick (thank you New Orleans and Chief Chump Joe Dumars), and their own #22 pick in a very rich draft.
- They have cap space. They are currently $36 million below the luxury tax, which is far below the first or second aprons.
- Their new ownership is much smarter, and haven’t made any big unforced errors.
They do need a real center. Who doesn’t? They were not able to replace Porzingis. In the playoffs, KAT and Mitchell both destroyed them, there were no answers.
Unlike The Celtics, The Hawks are not a championship contender. But they did improved significantly last season. They will likely improve more next season. I look for the Hawks to get 50+ wins next year and be in the playoff picture all year.
(This entire post may be motivated reasoning. I have season tickets and they are much more valuable if the team is good.)