It’s Year 8 of the Trae Young era, and the Atlanta Hawks are on their third general manager and third coach. Since making the conference finals in 2021, they’ve won between 36 and 43 games every season, with a cumulative record of 160-168. There is a sense of optimism around and about the team, though, after a series of moves that might have given Young the best supporting cast he’s ever had.
The Hawks have size and length across the positional spectrum and they have dogged defenders at the point of attack. They’ve surrounded Young with playmakers and shooters, including one particularly big offseason addition: Kristaps Porziņģis, one of the stretchiest 5s in NBA history. In theory, it should be tougher to stop Young, more dangerous to blitz him and harder to exploit him defensively.
There’s a lot to be excited about in Atlanta. On the other hand, there’s a fair bit of uncertainty. Young, Porziņģis and Dyson Daniels are all eligible for contract extensions, and it’s possible that the front office, now led by Onsi Saleh, will not make a deal with any of them before the season starts. Beyond that, the franchise is betting on continued improvement from 23-year-old forward Jalen Johnson, 20-year-old wing Zaccharie Risacher and Daniels, who is 22 and won Most Improved Player last season but still derives the vast majority of his value from his work on one end of the floor.
This could be one of the best teams in the East, but the Hawks have to prove that they’re ready for primetime.
The State of Play
Last year: With Young and Johnson on the floor, the Hawks outscored opponents by 4.3 points per 100 possessions. They shared the floor for only 924 minutes in 34 games, though, because Johnson had a season-ending shoulder injury in January. Other positives: Daniels’ big breakout, Risacher’s strong finish (after a slow start) and the late-season production of Onyeka Okongwu and Mo Gueye. At the trade deadline, Atlanta sold high on De’Andre Hunter, sending him to Cleveland for Caris LeVert, Georges Niang, two-second round picks and two pick-swaps. It also sent Bogdan Bogdanovic and three second-round picks to the Clippers for Terance Mann. In the end, the Hawks finished the regular season 40-42 and then lost play-in games against Orlando and Miami.
The offseason: Shortly after the overtime loss against the Heat, the Hawks fired GM Landry Fields and promoted Saleh. And Saleh hit a home run extremely early in his tenure: On draft night, they traded down from No. 13 to No. 23 and picked up the Pelicans’ unprotected 2026 first-round pick (with swap rights on the Bucks’ 2026 pick!) in the process. At No. 23, they picked big man Asa Newell. They also traded the No. 22 pick (along with Mann, Niang and a 2031 second-round pick) for Porziņģis and a 2026 second-round pick. LeVert left for the Pistons, but Atlanta acquired Nickeil Alexander-Walker in a sign-and-trade (4 years, $60.6 million, player option), sending Minnesota a 2027 second-round pick. It also signed Luke Kennard (one year, $11 million), signed N’Faly Dante to a two-year minimum contract and signed Caleb Houstan to an Exhibit 10 contract. Clint Capela went back to Houston in a sign-and-trade, Larry Nance Jr. left for the Cavs, Garrison Mathews left for the Knicks and, sadly, Atlanta dumped Kobe Bufkin, the No. 15 pick in the 2023 draft, to the Nets.
Las Vegas over/under: 46.5 wins, per FanDuel Sportsbook
The Conversation
Hawks believer: Ca-caw! I couldn’t be more pumped about the Hawks, and, when I look back at the 2023-24 roster, I’m blown away. Trae Young, Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu are still core players, obviously, but Vit Krejčí and Mo Gueye are the only other guys who have stuck around. Getting Dyson Daniels in the Dejounte Murray trade in the summer of 2024 was brilliant, and now that they have Kristaps Porziņģis and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, they’re legit. Please remember that Johnson was playing like an All-Star before his injury and that Zaccharie Risacher was the league’s best rookie for the last couple of months of the 2024-25 season. I’m thrilled for Quin Snyder, but I also sort of feel bad for him — with seven starting-caliber players, how is he going to determine who starts and finishes from night to night?
Hawks skeptic: The Hawks hype machine has been in full force for a while now, and you’re only putting more pressure on them! To be clear, I like the moves they made. The Porziņģis trade made sense because they didn’t want the Terance Mann and Georges Niang contracts anyway and they needed to replace the clearly declining Clint Capela. Alexander-Walker was a solid pickup and the Wolves shouldn’t have let him get away. Kennard should help the offense in the non-Young minutes. After the top eight, though, we’re talking about fringe rotation players all the way down. Do you think Asa Newell is going to be a winning player as a rookie? Are you confident in Gueye and Krejčí contributing to a “legit” team on a nightly basis? Are you going to try to sell me on N’Faly Dante and Nikola Đurišić? Caleb Houstan probably has the best track record of any of these guys, but I’m not even positive he’ll be on the opening-night roster.
Hawks believer: Actually, I do think there’s a good chance Newell can be a winning player as a rookie. With his mobility, he’ll be a solid, switchable defender right away, and he’ll be fine with being the fifth option on offense. Gueye and Krejčí are totally fine players to have in the back end of a rotation, too, and the Hawks must be encouraged by how both of them developed last season. The former was an absolute menace defensively, and the latter was effective as a shooter and a secondary playmaker. You make it sound like Atlanta has a huge depth problem, but there’s a great deal of lineup versatility here because so many of these guys can guard multiple positions.
Hawks skeptic: Let’s see how the Hawks’ second unit fares. Last season, when Young wasn’t on the court, they scored 109.9 points per 100 possessions (which roughly equates to a bottom-four offense) in non-garbage-time minutes, per Cleaning The Glass. Maybe that number will be a bit better in 2025-26, but, I’d like to drill down on what’s actually changed. They’ve effectively replaced Capela with Porziņģis (for 50-60 games, maybe), Caris LeVert with Alexander-Walker (a better defender but inferior creator), Mann with Kennard (a much better shooter but much worse defender), and Niang with Asa Newell (a project). That adds up to a good offseason, but not a franchise-changing one. I’d still like them to find a proper backup point guard, and I feel like people on the internet are a bit too high on them because people on the internet have always loved Johnson, Daniels, Okongwu and Alexander-Walker.
Hawks believer: Don’t forget that the Hawks fleeced the Pelicans on draft night. That one move made this an A+++ offseason, let alone all the other transactions that have collectively made this the best and most balanced roster Atlanta has seen since 2015. You’re not properly accounting for the effect that Porziņģis — a 7-foot-2 dude who is a real threat 30 feet from the basket — is going to have on the offense. I remember the Hawks trying to use guys like Gorgui Dieng and Dewayne Dedmon as floor spacers, and I promise you that Young has never played with anybody remotely like this. Porziņģis’ presence will be huge for Okongwu, too, not just because it will turn the 24-year-old into a Sixth Man of the Year candidate but because his still-developing 3-point shot is no longer of enormous importance. And why, exactly, must there be a conventional point guard on the second unit? Personally, I want to see Daniels and Alexander-Walker share the backcourt and create chaos on defense. I also want to give Johnson as much playmaking responsibility as he can handle. Under Snyder, the promise of this team is that, while it could simply give the ball to Young and run spread pick-and-roll every time down, it will instead empower Johnson, Risacher, Daniels, Alexander-Walker, Kennard and Krejčí to initiate actions. All of them can make quick, smart reads and keep the defense on its heels.
Hawks skeptic: The trade with New Orleans was a miracle, but, unless the Hawks trade that pick before the February deadline, it’s not helping them this season. And I think it contributed to the spread of Atlantamania, which seems to have afflicted a lot of analysts over the past few months. I’m sorry to be a downer, but the Hawks haven’t accomplished anything since their conference finals appearance in 2021, and if they win 41 to 45 games this season, it’s going to feel like a disappointment. While they have the potential to be better than that and maybe even get back to the conference finals, the sudden, dramatic increase in expectations is too much, too soon. Forget my concerns about depth; I’m not even sure what Risacher is going to be on a night-to-night basis in Year 2. And if Johnson is supposed to be the Hawks’ second star, then I don’t know if Daniels is a viable long-term starter, given that neither of them spaces the floor. The new look is intriguing, for sure, but, especially if Young, Daniels and Porziņģis don’t sign extensions, the team could look a lot different this time next year.
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