Picking five former Atlanta Hawks who would be great on the current team.
It’s an exciting time to be an Atlanta Hawks fan. There’s finally a light at the end of the rebuilding tunnel, Trae Young looks like a legit NBA superstar, and other young players like John Collins, Cam Reddish, and Kevin Huerter also look great.
The team projects to have a very successful decade ahead of them, but it would be fun to see how past players would fit on this modern-day team. Atlanta’s past is a mixed bag of results, but the team, for the most part, has been a perennial playoff contender despite the franchise not winning a championship since the 1950s.
All-time greats like Dominique Wilkins, Bob Pettit, Pete Maravich, Lou Hudson, and Dikembe Mutombo have all spent time with the Hawks, as have other superstars like Joe Johnson, Al Horford, Moses Malone, and Mookie Blaylock.
Picking just five of these players to put on the current team was tough, but not all of these players would strive in the modern NBA, even if they were dominant in their respective eras.
The five players selected are not the top-five players in Hawks history, but the five players who fit best with the modern style of play, specifically that of the ’19-’20 Atlanta Hawks.
Steve Smith
Steve Smith has become underrated as we move past the 15-year anniversary of his retirement. The 5th overall pick back in 1991 was a bit ahead of his time as a 3-and-D forward, but his overall career numbers are weighed down by a couple of rough seasons.
Smith’s career three-point average sits at just 35 percent despite shooting 39 percent or higher in five separate seasons. In ’01-’02 he shot a league-leading 47 clip from three with the Spurs.
His best seasons came in Atlanta, however, with the forward making his lone All-Star appearance in ’97-’98 with the team.
He was traded to the ATL in the middle of his fourth season in a deal that sent longtime Hawk Kevin Willis to Miami and spent a total of five seasons in Atlanta. During that time he averaged 18.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.6 assists, making 44 percent of his 14.5 field goal attempts per game.
Smith was one half of a dynamic duo that helped the Hawks make the playoffs in each of his seasons in Atlanta.
It’s easy to imagine Smith helping the modern-day Atlanta Hawks make the playoffs once again, and his offensive presence next to Trae Young would give them a very dangerous backcourt.
Bob Pettit
Bob Pettit is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished Hawks ever, suiting up 11 seasons for the franchise that moved from Milwaukee to St. Louis after his rookie season. The big man amazingly made the All-Star game in each of his 11 seasons, winning four All-Star MVPs along the way.
He won two league MVPs, lead the league in scoring twice, won the 1955 Rookie of the Year, made 11 All-NBA teams, and helped the franchise win their only championship in 1958.
Despite the astounding resume, it is a bit hard to project Pettit’s fit in the modern NBA given how different the game was during his run. The Hawks smartly moved him to power forward after drafting him as a center, and his 6’9 frame is perfect for a modern four.
His scoring would likely still be out-dated, but one thing would easily translate: rebounding. Pettit was consistently among the league-leaders in rebounds per game, with the forward averaging 16.2 per game on his career, peaking in 1961 with over 20 per contest.
The game was much faster back then, leading to more shot attempts and thus, rebound opportunities, but Pettit was a smart, unrelenting force on the boards which would be a great addition to the modern Hawks.
Celtics great Bill Russell said of Pettit: “Bob made ‘second effort’ a part of the sports vocabulary. He kept coming at you more than any man in the game. He was always battling for position, fighting you off the boards.”
Joe Johnson
Joe Johnson was never as good as the seven All-Star appearances lead you to believe, but there’s no denying ‘Iso Joe’ was one of the best scorers in the league during his prime.
Although Cam Reddish showed some potential of being that this season, the Hawks lack a true slashing wing that can get their own bucket whenever they want. That’s led to more double-teams on Trae than there should be.
Johnson would help alleviate pressure and while his isolation was sometimes ball-stopping during his seven seasons in Atlanta, he would give the ’19-’20 Hawks a new dimension on that side of the court.
He averaged over 20 points per game during his Hawks career while shooting nearly 45 percent from the field. Just like Steve Smith, he would make a deadly guard duo with Young that would strike fear into any opposing backcourts.
Pete Maravich
“Pistol” Pete Maravich may be more widely remembered as a member of the Jazz, but he did spend four seasons with the Hawks after they drafted him third overall in the 1970 draft.
Two of those seasons, he made the All-Star team, averaging over 26 points per game in each of his final two years with the team.
Despite retiring one year after the NBA added the three-point line, Maravich had a reputation of firing from deep, possessing range, not unlike Trae Young’s today. He retired with 15,948 points and it’d be interesting to see how much more that would be if he played his entire career with an arch.
He was more than just long hair and a jump shot, as Pistol had great ball-handling skills as well. The flashy passer averaged 5.6 assists per game during his time in Atlanta and with long-form post-play nearly erased from the modern NBA, those numbers would easily be higher today.
Maravich helped redefine the point guard position to what it is today, and he might have found even more success in this era.
Dominique Wilkins
You knew Dominque would be on this list, right? The human highlight film doesn’t need much introduction and is probably the greatest the Atlanta Hawk of all time.
If Wilkins was put in the modern NBA, he might even be more dominant, as the rim-hunter constantly had to battle with huge defensive centers that never left the paint. Those types of rim-protectors are few and far between in the era of spacing, giving Wilkins more open lanes to drive into.
If there is one knock on the Hall-of-Famer, however, it’s his outside shooting which he would have to work on to be a true star in today’s game.
The nine-time All-Star was a true athletic freak that would give the current Hawks a fun wrinkle and would give John Collins a run for the title of best dunker on the team.
What legends would you add to the modern-day Atlanta Hawks?