Atlanta Hawks
Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks surprised everyone last season by going on a run to the Eastern Conference Finals, putting the league on notice and letting them know that the Hawks were a young team on the rise.
Well, this has seemed to be short-lived, as the Atlanta Hawks are just 31-34 this season and on the verge of missing the play-in tournament. Atlanta leads the Wizards by just 1.5 games in the Eastern Conference standings and all hope of getting back to the Eastern Conference Finals this year seems lost.
You can point to a lot of things this season in terms of “what went wrong” for the Hawks, but the underlying problem with this team is that they really do not have starpower next to Trae Young.
John Collins, Bogdan Bogdanovic, De’Andre Hunter, Kevin Huerter and Danilo Gallinari are all talented players that have the capability to score in bunches, but they are all streaky offensive talents and the Atlanta Hawks have had trouble finding consistency on their roster.
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Trae Young has had to carry this team all year long and heading into an offseason where they will have no cap space and will be needing to make a move, Atlanta could be highly engaged in trade talks on the phone.
They may not necessarily be “positioned” to make a huge move, but they do have moveable contracts and Atlanta needs to make a big move, which will lead to them switching things up in the offseason.
Bogdanovic and Gallinari are making a combined $39 million next season, making them two possible players to be on the move and Collins could even be brought up in trade discussions just one year after he signed a five-year, $125 million deal to remain in Atlanta.
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The fact of the matter here for the Atlanta Hawks is that they need another All-Star talent next to Trae Young and until they get said player, they will be nothing more than a mid-tier playoff team in the Eastern Conference.
Atlanta needs to make a blockbuster trade and it looks like they are starting to realize this with their play this season.
