Tyrese Haliburton’s heartbreaking injury in Game 7 of the NBA Finals will leave the Eastern Conference wide open next season. With Haliburton, Jayson Tatum, and Damian Lillard all likely to miss the entire 2025-26 season with their Achilles tears, the Atlanta Hawks could emerge as sneaky contenders in a depleted field of intraconference foes.
Trae Young and Haliburton have wrestled for the ‘best point guard in the East’ crown over the last few years. While Indiana’s golden boy likely snatched that title for most fans with his epic postseason run, Young could snatch it back with a huge response in the 2026 playoffs.
The Pacers, Celtics, and Bucks were all top-five seeds this season, but their unfortunate injury luck could help the Hawks usurp at least one of them for a spot in the top five. At the very least, Atlanta should be gunning for a strong playoff berth and a total avoidance of the NBA Play-In Tournament.
Based on their first move of the offseason, the Hawks clearly mean business. New general manager Onsi Saleh has already honored the team's commitment to winning with Young through a win-now trade for Kristaps Porzingis. The Hawks aren't done making moves, either.
With Saleh ready to continue his aggressive approach this summer, fans should expect more exciting changes for Atlanta. Whether those additional changes primarily happen through the draft, trades, or free agency remains to be seen.
Trae Young could turn Atlanta’s season-ending ‘failure’ into a comeback story
Young averaged a career-high 11.6 assists this season, leading the league in dimes per game for the first time in his seven-year career. He also notched the most total assists in the league for a third time and helped Atlanta log the fifth-best assist percentage in basketball and the fifth-most points per game.
Despite his best efforts, he could not lift the Hawks into the playoffs as they fell short in their play-in loss to the Miami Heat. After his final game of the season, Young wasn’t shy about his disappointment in missing the playoffs for a second straight year.
“Not making the playoffs is a failure for me,” Young said. “No matter how much adversity with injury we had to face, I still feel like we had a good enough group to make the playoffs and at least go in there and compete.”
With a wide-open Eastern Conference looming ahead of them, the Hawks could smell blood in the water and take advantage of it. As a 26-year-old Young enters his prime, he and his teammates could right the wrongs of their play-in ‘failure’ in a much bigger way than expected.
Given their financial flexibility below the luxury tax and first apron, the Hawks can spend serious money on improving their roster this summer. It wouldn’t be shocking to see Saleh put the $25.2 million Traded Player Exception that came from dealing Dejounte Murray to use, and it could even happen before the draft.
Ice Trae is reportedly here to stay in Atlanta, and he could be gearing up for the best season of his career. The addition of Porzingis, a new-look front office, and injuries to some of Young’s elite Eastern Conference counterparts could pave the way for a memorable Hawks run in 2026.