In the latest annual NBA General Manager survey, executives around the association voted the Atlanta Hawks as having pulled off the best offseason in 2025. An unsurprising distinction for them to earn based on the summer they had.
What was perhaps a little more surprising was the level of consensus there was on this among General Managers. The Hawks received 53% of the total votes in the category of best offseason moves. The second highest team, the Houston Rockets, received only 27% of votes. That's obviously a major gap, and it speaks to the high view most executives have of the work Atlanta did to level up over the last five to six months.
More than half of the decision-makers in the league believing that the Hawks won the offseason speaks to the job Atlanta's front office did, and it's a strong validation of all they were able to accomplish. Making moves to bring in strong rotational players like Kristaps Porzingis, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Luke Kennard were each impressive in their own right. Pulling them all off in the span of a single offseason starts getting us into the category of positively genius team-building.
NBA GMs believe the Hawks had the best offseason
That's not even mentioning the move that they made on draft night, trading down and securing an unprotected first round pick to gain even more potential for future upside. It was arguably one of the most forward thinking moves any team made over the course of the summer, and that seems to be the opinion of not just Atlanta Hawks fans, but the national audience as a whole.
And of course, Atlanta began the offseason by replacing Landry Fields with Onsi Saleh, signaling a shift in direction and renewing their sense of urgency when it comes to building around Trae Young. There are plenty of General Managers that would begin their tenure with a new team in a more conservative manner, but Saleh clearly did not want to waste any time making margin moves. He came out swinging, and the Hawks will be better for it.
Earning this type of distinction in the General Manager survey was probably to be expected, but that doesn't mean that it's not also appreciated by fans in Atlanta. This team went from being a middle of the pack team in the Eastern Conference to basically a consensus top four team in the conference overnight. It's not a stretch at all to say the Hawks were the biggest winners of the offseason.