Atlanta Hawks: Month-By-Month Review of 2018-19 Season

October

Record: 2-5

Best Win: v. Dallas

Worst Loss: @ Cleveland

The season began with cautious optimism. Trae Young was coming off a solid preseason that shook some of his summer league baggage but John Collins, who was one of, if not the  best players on the Hawks last year, was out indefinitely.

After an 0-2 start, the Hawks legitimately had two of their best games of the season back-to-back to pull back to .500. First was a blowout victory over the newly LeBron-less Cavs in Cleveland, wherein the Hawks made 22 threes and Trae made 6.

The most satisfying win however was the home opener, where the Hawks battled back from a 25-point deficit to defeat the Mavericks. Kent Bazemore had what ended up being a season-high in points with 32.

Unfortunately, after that game the Hawks won just one of their next 15 games, including a downer loss on the last day of October, when the Cavs manhandled them in a rematch, this time beating Atlanta by  22.

In October, the young Hawks averaged 108.4 points per contest, shooting an upstart 37.6 threes a game, a number they wouldn’t surpass until much later on in the season. Trae Young led all scorers with 19.1 a game, punctuated by the 35 he got in Cleveland in game three. He also led the team in minutes and assists in his first professional month.

If you come back to this month after the rest, it’s easy to see that this team hadn’t found their footing just yet, which is to be expected for a young team with a first-year head coach.