The Atlanta Hawks have played some better basketball recently, but this is a far cry from what people were expecting from them this season. After making a surprise run to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2021, they were a trendy team to select as an NBA Finals dark horse. But, they have fallen woefully short of that.
The Hawks are currently in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, which is the final spot in the NBA Play-In Tournament. They have a record of 27-30 on the year and are six games away from the sixth place Boston Celtics, who hold the final spot outside of the Play-In Tournament.
Atlanta has one of the most explosive offenses in the NBA led by Trae Young, but their defense leaves a lot to be desired. Young is about as bad of a defender as you can find in the NBA, but defense is a team thing. There have been plenty of teams throughout the history of basketball that have overcome a single poor defender with strong team defense.
Energy and effort are keys to playing defense. In basketball, your opponent is going to score sometimes even against the toughest defenders. But, if you consistently play hard, more times than not you will come out on top.
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That effort, especially defensively, is something that has been lacking for the Atlanta Hawks. Starting center Clint Capela recently called out the team for their approach all season long, providing a brutally honest assessment of the team when talking to The Athletic.
“Our approach the entire season, we were already thinking we were going to the playoffs,” Capela told The Athletic after Monday’s practice. “Our approach wasn’t about the next game; it was, ‘Oh, we won this. We won that.’ That’s the problem with teams that are not used to this. I’m not so shocked.”
“I feel like our approach night-to-night isn’t the same. Maybe we don’t prepare ourselves well enough for every game. It obviously affects how we’re playing our opponent every night. It hasn’t been good for us. It’s clearly an issue.”
Clint Capela knows what it takes for a team to succeed. He was on some great Houston Rockets teams earlier in his career that were perennial contenders. One or two breaks in their favor and one of those teams could have been NBA Champions.
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Based on what Clint Capela is saying, it sounds as if many players on the Hawks thought their ticket to the postseason was punched already because of the success they had last year. There are no automatic qualifiers in the NBA; you have to earn your spot in the playoffs and Atlanta is learning that the hard way.
There are very few, if any, teams that can get away with not putting in that extra preparation or coming out with a lot of energy every night. The elite of the elite teams can sometimes turn the switch on and off in games, but that is even a dangerous strategy for them.
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The Atlanta Hawks have some talent, but not nearly enough to go into games without the utmost preparation. You get out of practice and prep what you put into it, so if they’re lacking in that department on off days, it will show during game day.
