How Bruno Fernando's short stint should change the thinking of the Atlanta Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks (24-32) had an unlikely savior on offense in the first half against the Toronto Raptors. Trae Young and Bogdan Bogdanovic were shooting poorly, and the team looked like it was going through the motions. The Raptors were taking advantage of this until an unlikely offensive savior presented himself.

This pretty much sums up the season for the Atlanta Hawks, They are not doing what we all thought that they could and find themselves fighting for the final play-in berth ... again. This must be incredibly frustrating for the playing group, the front office and most importantly, the fans. So we are here again, looking at what the Hawks can do to actually fix this situation.

As I have alluded to in the title, the Hawks need to look to what happened in the first half when Bruno Fernando was at his explosive, offensive best. That was a difficult sentence to write, so I can imagine how difficult it is to read. Yes, Bruno Fernando was the offensive spark that helped get the Atlanta Hawks back into the game.

What should the Bruno Fernando offensive onslaught should mean for the Atlanta Hawks

In 6:40 Fernando scored 10 points. I will let that sink in for a few seconds. One of the most offensively inept players on the Hawks roster scored 10 points to help the Hawks get back into it. The thing is hough, it was not the points that he scored that made the biggest impact on the team, it was his energy.

This is the thing with the Hawks is that they look flat quite often and this is when the rest of the league takes advantage. The NBA grind is real and most of these players have been grinding without much success for a few years on the trot. This can make it hard to get motivated, even as a professional athlete.

Injecting young players into the lineup when the veterans are flat means that there is an energy burst which in infectious. It is hard not to go with an athlete who is bringing energy to the court, particularly when you are a super-competitive person yourself.

The Hawks are missing this opportunity with all of their younger guys. AJ Griffin is assigned to the G League, Seth Lundy is also playing with the College Park Skyhawks. The Hawks also used all of Trent Forrest's availability up and now have to decide what they are going to do in the future with this two-way slot.

There have been so many times where the Hawks could have inserted any of them into the game and had the potential for a momentum swing. This would also aid in their development meaning that the Hawks have greater possibility to use them further on into the season and they are more ready.

This has been an issue with the Hawks for so many years and it could be a reason that they are very rarely contending for championships. Maybe they need to have a complete organizational rethink to sort these issues out.