Atlanta Hawks: Looking at past Eastern Conference Finals runners-up
The Atlanta Hawks future is extremely bright. If you haven’t heard, they’re coming off of a renaissance season where they went from one of the worst teams in the NBA record-wise to the fifth-seed in the East and a berth in the Eastern Conference Finals. Naturally, the thought is they should be contenders for years to come.
But what does history have to say about this?
Everyone knows championship windows close faster than they probably should. That’s why it’s so important for teams to maximize the opportunity when they get there.
The Atlanta Hawks are a good young team but success is never a given in the NBA
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Taking a look at the past 20 years of Eastern Conference Finals participants, specifically the losers of the penultimate playoff series. The results tell a tale of many good teams falling by the wayside of time.
Very few of them were able to even reach the Conference Finals again, let alone make it to the NBA Finals.
Since 2001, only seven times has a team lost the ECF and gotten back the next season. Just three organizations (the 2017 and 2018 Celtics, ‘13 and ‘14 Pacers, and the Pistons who went to three straight ECF’s from ‘06 to ‘08.
The Pistons of 2004 were one of two teams to not only make it back to the ECF but to advance to the NBA Finals; which they did in back-to-back years.
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Miami’s ‘06 Heat squad was the other.
Speaking of, part of the reason some of those teams didn’t make it past the Conference Finals was his dominance over the conference from 2011-18 with the Heat and Cavaliers. That includes sweeping the Hawks in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2015; their last time making it that deep into the postseason.
He’s no longer in the East, but Giannis Antetokounmpo of the reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks is. As are Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets. And, as power rankings across the internet have tried to tell us, don’t sleep on the Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, or New York Knicks.
Two of those three teams made significant additions in the offseason one of which, Miami, is just a year removed from being in the NBA Finals themselves. Philly took the Hawks seven games. If Ben Simmons shows more aggression the series could have ended very differently.
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All of this is to say, for all of the praise this team has received over the summer for locking up Trae Young and John Collins, the draft, and free agency (and we’ve been front and center blaring the trumpets) there is still work to be done.