Deep in the trenches of a franchise-altering offseason, the Atlanta Hawks are one of the NBA’s trendy picks to rise in their conference. Already weaker than its Western counterpart, the Eastern Conference is wide open heading into the 2025-26 campaign.
At the front of that line is the Boston Celtics.
The 2024 NBA champions were faced with several big decisions in the past 12 months. Wyc Grousbeck sold the team to Bill Chisholm at a $6.1 billion valuation. From a salary-cap perspective, the club chose the duck below the second apron. Had they been dead-set on keeping their core, punitive penalties in team-building would’ve followed.
The front office chose the safer option and began shedding salary.
Boston’s loss is Atlanta’s gain
Next season seems to be a bit of a gap year in Beantown. President of basketball operations Brad Stevens has already dealt a pair of veterans off of last year’s roster. Jrue Holiday was flipped to Portland for Anfernee Simons and two second-round picks. Kristaps Porzinigs is now an Atlanta Hawk after a three-team deal. Luke Kornet inked a four-year contract with San Antonio. Fellow center Al Horford is being courted by the Golden State Warriors as I write this.
As sizable as these losses are for the Celtics, they’re also major wins for the rest of the conference. Two of Boston’s superpowers during their contending window have been their bevy of two-way wings and overall depth. The latter has taken a hit.
When looking at the East at large, there are several teams with more questions than answers.
Can the Myles Turner gamble pay off for Milwaukee? Will Giannis Antetokounmpo ask out? Is Philadelphia capable of a healthy season that lives up to expectations? After changing coaches, can New York recapture last season’s magic? What will the Indiana Pacers look like without Turner and the injured Tyrese Haliburton?
Point-blank, the Hawks have questions, but it’s their time to strike. Cleveland is the consensus top seed at the moment, but there is plenty of room below them.
Oddly, the history between Boston and Atlanta is rather one-sided. Obviously the guys in green have an emphatic 18-0 difference in titles, but there’s more than that. The Celtics have been a postseason roadblock for the Hawks.
Dating back to the 1980s, Larry Bird and Boston eliminated a Dominique Wilkins-led Atlanta squad twice in the conference semifinals. In recent memory, the Hawks’ 60-win 2015 season came when the Celtics were mired in a rebuild. They’ve had their long-term playoff battles, but this might be another example of one team yo-yoing past the other.
Boston’s shortcomings are coinciding with Atlanta’s rise. We’ll see if both premises hold up once the regular season tips off in October.