The Hawks have had a strong start to the season, despite receiving no help from injuries or scheduling.
With a good portion of the season already in the books, the Hawks have solidified themselves as a strong presence in the East. Climbing to a 14-11 record, they still sit on the edge of the current playoff picture, but the Hawks have shown plenty of flashes to indicate that they're prepared for a playoff push.
In these first 25 games, however, Atlanta has only gotten the opportunity to play in front of their home crowd only nine of those times. Currently, they are the only team in the NBA to have played 15 road games or more thus far. Combine this with their early-season injury struggles, and we see that the Hawks' mediocre record is actually proof that they have weathered this storm surprisingly well.
In fact, Atlanta has performed better on the road than they have at home so far this season, posting records of 10-5 and 4-6, respectively. The home sample size is undoubtably small, but this comes as a shock for a team that historically struggles on the road.
The Hawks have a much easier path ahead
For such a young roster still settling into their roles, the fact that this team has managed a 14-11 record despite all of their early-season hurdles is a positive sign for the ceiling of this team.
On top of their adversity on the road, Atlanta's injury struggles have opened the door for their young guys to develop. Guys like Jalen Johnson and Asa Newell have taken over a lot of responsibility in the wake of Trae Young's absence, an indicator that stability is on the horizon once the roster gets back to their full strength.
If anything, this early season stretch for the Hawk's gives them a crash course for this potential playoff run that can follow. After all, the playoffs offer minimal home games unless you're a top seed, something that Atlanta isn't in the hunt to do just yet.
Atlanta's ability to stay above .500 despite all of these metrics working against their favor is a feat in itself. However, the Hawk's now get to play seven of their last ten games of the calendar year at State Farm Arena, so hopefully Atlanta can continue to build off of this early-season momentum with a more favorable schedule moving forward.
It's going to be interesting to see what this team looks like at full strength after coming out of the other end of this rough stretch. But this team has been battle-tested early, so expectations are for the Hawk's to continue to climb up the rankings as they get back to full health. But if the latter happens, then tough conversations may arise regarding who fits best into this Quin Snyder system.