Looking back to the 2010-2011 Atlanta Hawks team.
The Atlanta Hawks brought in the new decade with mostly positive results.
Larry Drew took over as head coach after the team moved on from Mike Woodson, who led the team to a 53-29 record the previous year.
Drew inherited a talented roster, with the dynamic duo of Joe Johnson and Josh Smith being joined by Al Horford after his breakout ’09-’10 campaign and a young but talented Jeff Teague.
The starting five, for the most part, looked like this:
PG – Mike Bibby
SG – Joe Johnson
SF – Josh Smith
PF – Marvin Williams
C – Al Horford
Key bench pieces included Jamaal Crawford, Kirk Hinrich, Teague, and Zaza Pachuila.
After starting the season convincingly, winning their first six, they cooled off. They were still winning more games than they lost, but were not heading back towards the 3 seed they got last year.
In fact, they limped into the playoffs, amassing a 10-17 record post-All-Star break, losing the final six on the year.
That was still good enough for the 5th seed in the weak Eastern Conference, and they were able to upset the Dwight Howard-led Magic in the first round.
Their season ended at the hands of the 62-20 Chicago Bulls in the Eastern semis, who were led by MVP Derrick Rose.
Joe Johnson led the team in scoring through the regular season, putting up 18.2 per game while shooting 44% from the field.
Al Horford, in his 4th NBA season, led the team in rebounds with 9.3 a game, while Josh Smith wasn’t too far behind with 8.5. As a team, the Hawks were one of the worst teams in the league on the boards, finishing 28th in the NBA for rebounds per game.
They were better defensively, and were one of the most mistake-free teams in the league, with only one team turning the ball over less.
Definitely not one of the most memorable or successful teams of the decade, the ’10-’11 Hawks struggled a bit adapting to a new coach and a new franchise player in Al Horford.
Whenever you’re able to win a playoff series however, the season can’t be considered a true failure.