With massive trades like Luka Doncic to LA have gone through right as the NBA’s February trade deadline hit, the league itself has been shaken quite a bit. The Hawks themselves have traded away two veteran players in De’andre Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanovic, and Cody Zeller has left for the bright lights of Houston.
This comes among a rough stretch of games for the Hawks franchise and gives Hawk’s fans an idea of what direction general manager Landry Fields and head coach Quinn Snyder are trying to go with the franchise.
The Hawks struggled badly throughout January, having only won four of their fifteen games. The Hawks have only won one of their last five games. They are now 23-28 and hold the ninth-place position in the Eastern conference.
Atlanta’s star player Trae Young has been doing most of the heavy lifting for the team with 23.2 point per game, and 11.5 assists per game. Young has been backed up all season by Jalen Johnson, who leads the team in rebounds per game with 10. Clint Capela’s season stats stand out the most, for the wrong reasons. As the Hawks starting center Capela is only averaging one block per game, yet he leads the team in blocks per game.
With a little less than half the season left, the Hawks need to decide where they go from here. Do they try to win enough games to clinch a playoff spot or play-in spot? Or tank for a better draft pick and let the full on rebuild commence?
The trades help to answer this question. In their trade with the Clevland Cavaliers, the Hawks received forward Georges Niang and guard Carl Levert as well as three second-round draft picks and two pick swaps. In the Hawks trade with the Clippers, the Hawks received forward Terance Mann and guard Nah’shon Hyland as well as three second-round draft picks. In return the Cavaliers received De’andre Hunter and the Clippers received Bogdan Bogdonovic.
These two trades give some insight into the direction of the team. It seems that the Hawk’s are making a point of accumulating draft picks so that they can bring in young talent to develop, while at the same time trading away some veteran players. The Hawks do want a rebuild of the team where they could phase out older players and rely more on younger players with high potential. What this means for the rest of the season is unclear. The Hawks could tank for higher draft pick, but alternatively a good streak of wins would give the Hawks a shot at the postseason. Time will tell what the future for the franchise is.
