How can the Atlanta Hawks win an NBA championship?
By Tom Atkinson
The Atlanta Hawks have never won a championship in Georgia. What can they do to finally take that next step to the top?
It is the end of an era for the Atlanta Hawks. Al Horford and Jeff Teague, two players who had led the team to some of its highest peaks, are gone and, after a 60-win season saw the Hawks swept in the conference finals two years ago, we are all wondering how the team can end its 58-year title drought, which is currently the second-longest in the NBA.
What will it take, though, for this team to win an NBA Championship and finally add to the ring acquired back in St. Louis.
Where is the team at?
The Atlanta Hawks are in NBA limbo, not good enough to truly contend and not bad enough to rebuild. For years they have been a really solid player in the picture that is the NBA’s Eastern Conference with great consistency.
Whether with Josh Smith and Joe Johnson or with Teague, Horford, and Paul Millsap, the Hawks have made the playoffs for nine consecutive years. Despite that, the franchise has not made a trip to the NBA Finals since 1961. Ouch.
The team is now in a unique and difficult position, being both steady and in transition because of its recent losses and new arrivals.
We can expect Millsap to continue to be the consistently brilliant but understated power forward that has been the team’s best player on both ends, but his front court partner is a different story. Dwight Howard is looking to restore his reputation in a system that, at first glance, seems like a strange fit, but he could ultimately address its biggest weakness, rebounding. Together, they could be one of the NBA’s best front courts but the team cannot boast such potential strength elsewhere.
At the point guard position, for example, we are still waiting to see what we can expect from Dennis Schroeder going forward. “Schröder has flashed enough potential to show a higher ceiling than Teague but at 22 years of age is still an unfinished product,” said Kris Willis of SB Nation’s Peachtree Hoops. It seems no one is really sure what Schroeder’s potential is, with some saying star and some saying starter, but the Philadelphia 76ers were willing to part with a “ton of assets” for him, so there is definitely something there. Either way, the experienced Jarret Jack should offer a fall back option to steady the ship should the German point guard struggle.
At the two, Atlanta will probably still start the three-pointers of Kyle Korver over the improving defense of Tim Hardaway Jr. However, Korver may or may not be on the tail-end of a three-point barrage of a career and THJ is probably not up to the task of starting just yet. At small forward, we have the beloved Kent Bazemore, who recently stayed on with the Hawks and showed a delightful amount of joy at doing so. Bazemore is a terrific character and an improving player and, with defensive grinder Thabo Sefolosha behind him, the wing is relatively solid, though both players could arguably be shooting guards.
Other names in the rotation, like Tiago Splitter, Mike Scott and Kris Humphries, give the Hawks acceptable, if not remarkable, depth while there is a certain amount of intrigue surrounding rookies Taurean Prince and DeAndre Bembry and what kind of role they can play this early.
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In reality, Atlanta is a team that is some way short of the standard necessary to be a contender. Their front court is the only area of their roster that is proven in the upper echelons of the association and, although Schroeder has shown glimpses and Bazemore leapt forward last year, nothing else is certain. In the weaker Eastern Conference, however, the Hawks should still be a team that makes the playoffs one way or another. With a huge slice of luck, some clutch playoff performances and a proper break out from Schroeder, the Hawks might do something but that is unlikely. Looking at the situation objectively, this is a team that is in no position to contend. Perhaps, the championship-window of the recent Atlanta core has closed. Perhaps, it was never open.
What is the next step?
After losing Horford and Teague in the off-season, we might have been forgiven for thinking a rebuild was on the way. With two key players out the door and Millsap possibly just a year away, in fact, a rebuild might have been the easiest option. Ultimately, it did not happen. In a move that should please the fanbase, which has grown in these recent successful years, Atlanta committed to competing for wins for the near future. In a league where so many teams tank instead of settling for middle-of-the-road finishes and playoff streaks, the Hawks said no and stayed on their current course in basketball limbo.
Bazemore says that Atlanta has a “good team all round” and that it is “going to be a good year,” according to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. He says the management are taking the team in a “new direction” but it seems rather optimistic. Admittedly, it is hard to say what this ‘new direction’ is, let alone how it could lift them above the pinnacle that was the 2014-15 season.
It is admirable and nice to see among the fiasco that tanking has become (I’m looking at you Philadelphia), but it might end up being the wrong call. The current roster is unlikely to be able to compete with the Cleveland Cavaliers or the best of the West and so a championship remains out of reach. What the team might need is a rebuild. They may need to give up on their current plans and press the reset button while ensuring they do a better job at the draft than they have in recent years.
To prove the need for better drafting, ten of the twelve Finals MVPs since 2005 have been with their team since their rookie season. Thanks to the current CBA, today’s best teams all have rosters led mostly by players grown from the draft. The Warriors have Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. The Cavaliers have LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. The San Antonio Spurs have Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard. Even the Clippers have CP3, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. In today’s NBA, great teams come about from the draft and that is the direction the Hawks’ should be looking.
What then is the answer?
Perhaps then, as much as it hurts and as much as it might lead to a few joyless years, the Atlanta Hawks need to start again to finally end that indigestible drought. There has been a lot of talk about whether a team can win without a superstar and, whether the Hawks acquire a star or a team of semi-stars, it is entirely more likely to happen through the draft rather than by free agency or trade.
Unless the Hawks can retain Paul Millsap (the doubt about which makes him a viable trade option) while performing some miraculously shrewd moves, finding sleeping stars in the draft like Green and Jimmy Butler, Atlanta might have to get worse to get better.
As much as it pains me to say it, if the coming season and current unit does not go to plan, the franchise should trade Millsap for an array of picks or prospects to provide a foundation for starting over. The already-wavering fanbase might not like it, but to chase the title that would reinvigorate them, Budenholzer and co. need to accept where the team is at. It will become apparent that the current unit cannot get to the top and that should spark the rebuild, which seems like the best course of action for Atlanta to get their hands on the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
The Teague-Horford-Millsap era has been fun, but ultimately unsuccessful. That drought will go on. As long as it is a sensible rebuild (props to the Timberwolves) and not a mindless grab of the best players regardless of position (again Philadelphia- I am sorry you had to go through ‘the process’), pressing the reset button is the quickest and best way to contend again.
If everything goes ideally, the Atlanta Hawks could be among the Conference’s best again, but the title will probably remain out of reach, awaiting the rebuild.