10 Players the Atlanta Hawks held onto for too long
By Eric Fritts
Jeff Teague
The prime of Jeff Teague’s career came in Atlanta. Most notably in the 2014-2015 season, Teague made his only All-Star appearance, the team won 60 games, and they made it to the conference finals only to be swept by LeBron James and the Cavaliers. And that arc right there perfectly describes the mid-2010s Atlanta Hawks.
With great coaching, shooting, and team basketball the Hawks made the entire league notice them. But the team always felt like it was running up against something, never able to get over the hump. To be fair, what they were running into was Lebron James, but he wasn’t an unstoppable force. An argument can be made that upgrading the point guard position, Jeff Teague’s spot, could have gotten the team over that last hump, and at least into the finals.
Over his career, and time as a Hawk, Teague peaked at 15.9 points and 7 assists. Which is fine, but only just. The team had pieces like Kyle Korver and Al Horford that were top-class in their roles, if they had a guard with a bit more to give, say 20 and 8, it could have been worth at the very least a few more playoff wins if the team was willing to shop Teague for that player.
It’s understandable why they didn’t but, the NBA is a harsh league and sometimes a team needs to be cutthroat to get past their demons.