Why the Atlanta Hawks continue to monitor the trade market

The Atlanta Hawks (25-27) have lost two of their last three games and missed out on an opportunity to move up even more in the Eastern Conference. However, both of those losses came against a Toronto Raptors team that we thought would be a difficult matchup for the Hawks ahead of the first meeting in Atlanta.

Not only was Toronto the higher seed – they’ve moved from eighth to seventh in the two meetings – but they had won four straight coming in, seven of their last 10 games, and have the NBA’s fifth-best record since Dec 31.

Atlanta has the 12th-best record since then but the fifth-best offense so it’s not like this is a totally excusable loss with both teams on the second night of a back-to-back.

It does highlight the importance of matchups which gets highlighted in the postseason.

The Atlanta Hawks are a really good team that needs to be great every night right now

As it stands, the Hawks would be in the play-in tournament as the tenth seed if the season were to end today. In the current format, that means they would play a single-elimination game against the Charlotte Hornets. The winner would earn the right to move on against the loser of the seven-eight matchup which would be either the Raptors or Charlotte Hornets.

All of that for a shot to take on the one seed which is the Chicago Bulls who just beat the Indiana Pacers 122-115 on Friday.

The Hawks are 2-5 against those teams.

There is still “a lot” of time left but that is becoming a relative term and will soon be incorrect with the trade deadline and All-Star break fast approaching – the Hawks have just 24 games post-break but it’s the trade deadline that will shape how they spend that stretch.

Mike Conti of 92.9 The Game broke down just how dire of a situation the Hawks have put themselves in.

It’s not all their fault. COVID and injuries did quite the number on them in the heart of the first half of the season. But it is their responsibility to climb out of this hole and we saw just why, for as great as they have been over the last couple of weeks, they have continued to monitor the trade market and pursued the likes of Ben Simmons (subscription required).

They had three players score at least 22 points including John Collins and one more with 18 points in Bogdan Bogdanovic; the central pieces in reported discussions for Simmons.

Their best defensive players, Clint Capela and De’Andre Hunter struggled on that end.

Hunter at least gave it about as good as he got it as one of the 20-point scorers. Capela has been mired in a scoring slump even by his modest standards. He’s averaged just 7.9 points over the last nine games and has only managed 8.8 boards in that span.

The Hawks are at their best when they get whole-team efforts. But, as Kirk Goldsberry highlighted, even with their red-hot offense and recent surge, they are still a below-average defense. And for a team that has continued to struggle with their non-Trae Young offense on a consistent basis, that is a major problem.

Their best lineup with at least 25 minutes – which features Young, Bogdanovic, Kevin Huerter – has a plus-32.3 net rating.

Only three other teams’ most effective lineups come in lower.

Those teams are the Indiana Pacers, Washington Wizards, and, of course, the Raptors. For the record, the Hawks current starting lineup featuring De’Andre Hunter in place of Bogdanovic has a plus-10.3 net rating.

Their win over the Suns showed their ceiling. But their losses to the Raptors are examples of why they seem to be cognizant of the limitations of this roster.

They are a really good team when healthy and all things are clicking. But that is so rarely the case, especially in the postseason, they are just trying to find a consistent, happy medium. And, even though recent reports were that they were less pressed to make a move, it would seem that could still require an upgrade of some sort.