Atlanta Hawks' polarizing offseason decision among 'most impactful' in 2024

The Atlanta Hawks are ready to prove their doubters wrong this coming season.

An eventful offseason has left outside opinions trending more towards another disappointing season coming for the Hawks in 2024-25. However, they undoubtedly made one of the most consequential moves of the offseason

An argument can also be made that the Hawks made the right choice with their offseason makeover.

“The Dejounte Murray trade materially altered the course of two franchises. And contrary to most deals, it says more about the selling side,” Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale wrote on September 25. “Reorienting the roster around Trae Young is probably the smart call by the Atlanta Hawks. It may also be the only one.

“He is better equipped to spearhead an offensive identity than Murray, and moving him has limited upside when you don't control your next three first-round picks. Incentive dwindles even further when there's no obvious team that'll fork over The Godfather Special for his services. Good luck saving face at the next presser if you ship out Young for less than the Brooklyn Nets received in the Mikal Bridges blockbuster.

“Who are the Hawks now? Trae Young's team. Which is to say, we don't have any idea.”

The Hawks acquired Cody Zeller, Dyson Daniels, E.J. Liddell – since traded to the Phoenix Suns – and Larry Nance Jr. and a pair of potentially highly-valuable first-round draft picks for Murray.

Still, most of those assets offer more promise for the future than they appear to raise the current Hawks’ ceiling.

The Hawks are not ready to fold.

Hawks’ Trae Young ‘ready to … beat expectations’

“I want to get back to where I've been,” Young said on the “Million Dollars Worth of Game” podcast episode that aired on September 8. “A lot of people look at our roster and don't have a lot of high expectations, so that's sometimes good for a player like me who's been built on beating expectations his whole life. So I'm just ready to play and beat expectations and whatever that ends up being, I'm going to be ready for it and excited for it.”

Young is not alone in his optimism.

Nance – who has drawn trade interest since his arrival – is also on board with the Hawks trying to surprise some folks in the NBA world.

“If you look at the East, we got a number amount of teams that aren't looking to make the playoffs or care more about their draft stock than wins, and we're not one of those teams,” Nance said on “The Hoop Collective” on September 12. “So, hopefully, if we do what we're supposed to do, we'll snag an 8-seed, snag a 7-seed, surprise some people.”

How far the Hawks can climb remains uncertain, with up to eight of the nine teams that finished the 2023-24 regular season ahead of them in the standings returning the bulk of their players if not upgraded rosters.

Favale notes that the motivations for the trade are clearer for the Pelicans.

However, they too face questions about the rest of the roster as a result, including the future of Brandon Ingram and their lack of depth at center.