The Atlanta Hawks aren’t facing the typical short-handed team in MIA
Another day another set of trade rumors and other fallout from the Atlanta Hawks worse-than-expected start to the season. At 17-22, they are two games back of their record to this point last season. Much of the goodwill built up has given way to familiar questions and narratives.
They’ve ranged from Cam Reddish trade rumors to John Collins’ frustrations with his role on offense. But, the Hawks have more tangible challenges in front of them with another tough stretch on their schedule and the trade deadline looming.
On Wednesday, they’ll host the Miami Heat in the first game of a home-and-home.
Although the Heat will be without Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, the Hawks aren’t catching a break.
The Atlanta Hawks better have a plan for the Heat and Tyler Herro
Butler has missed the last two games while dealing with an ankle injury. He’s also dealt with tailbone issues this season but is averaging 23.2 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 5.4 assists for the third-ranked Heat. But they haven’t been reliant on him as he’s missed a total of 17 games this season with his myriad ailments.
Miami has gone 11-6 in those games, including wins over the Eastern Conference-leading Chicago Bulls, the Phoenix Suns who have the best record in the NBA, as well as the reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks.
Atlanta is 1-3 against those three teams with two of the losses coming against the Bulls.
The win over the Bucks is also questionable as they were without Khris Middleton for that contest.
Adebayo hasn’t played since the end of November, suffering a thumb injury that required surgery. He’s averaging 18.7 points, 10.2 boards, 3.2 assists, and 1.1 steals but Miami has managed a 12-7 record since and has three other wins without him this year.
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Third-year guard Tyler Herro has really stepped up, averaging a career-best 20.6 points and 3.9 assists per game to go with 4.9 boards. He just dropped 33 points in their win over the Suns. Miami also still has Kyle Lowry and deadly three-point marksmen in Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, and P.J. Tucker with the trio all shooting better than 35 percent from deep.
The Heat have won two in a row and seven of their last nine contests coming into this one.
Nonetheless, this is a Hawks team that beat the Heat two out of three times last season and, as mentioned, is only getting healthier. Gorgui Dieng was the last remaining Hawks player in protocols but he joins head coach Nate McMillan in rejoining the team ahead of this challenging stretch of games.
Speaking of their improving health, the caveats to that are Clint Capela and Reddish. Both are dealing with ankle injuries with Capela not going through shootaround on Wednesday and Reddish doubtful for the game versus Miami.
This is still a minor setback for a major comeback.
It can be argued that the Hawks need to see what life would be like without Capela and/or Reddish with both sure to be involved in trade rumors until deals are made.
That can’t happen for Capela until next year. But the Hawks could already have his replacement in Onyeka Okongwu on the roster. It’s a different ball game for Reddish whose value is mostly tied to projections based on potential and no clear replacement on the team.
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Again, though, all of that is secondary to trying to find a way to lead a Heat team that is beating our projections as the Hawks have let down.