Will the Hawks cause an upset in the East?

It seems that the Hawks Franchise greatest post season success was only in Saint Louis, where the franchise won the NBA title in 1958 and were in the NBA finals 4 other times. After 1961, the franchise never went beyond the Eastern Conference semi finals in the post season.

That changed in the 2014/15 season, were the Hawks showed the power of having a united team, over a star studded line up to become the number one seed of the East, finishing with the best ever franchise record of 60-22. This included a perfect month of January, when the team went 17-0.

They broke their post season luck, and for the first time since the Hawks had moved to Atlanta, they made it past the second round of the playoffs, meeting the Cleveland Cavaliers in the finals, who swept the Hawks, 4-0.

The question is, can the Hawks maintain their momentum and really be a team that can cause serious competition in the East? Can they end the 57 year championship drought, which is currently the second longest gap in the NBA (behind Sacramento Kings)

The Hawks have been a team that’s not been one for selecting great draft players, since 1980 only 4 players who have been drafted by the Hawks have gone on to play in the NBA All-Star Game (players acquired by trade but played in an all-star game as a Hawk’s player do not count). Two of them are Jeff Teague and Al Horford who are part of the current Hawks team.

Currently, they retain two players from the Euroleague, while fairly successful there, its a whole new level of competition for these youngsters to experience in the NBA.  But so far its been good.Most of the Hawks starting members are there, with the exception of Demarre Carroll who signed for Toronto Raptors in free agency.

The biggest retention is to retain Paul Millsap, making sure 4 of the 5 starting members of the best hawks team in a long time are there. However, they made some valuable acquisitions such as Justin Holiday of the Golden State Warriors. However, most of the players signed by the Hawks, are from the Euro League which is totally different and might cause them to have adaption troubles to the more intense NBA.

In trades, they acquired Tiago Splitter of the Spurs for a future second round draft pick heading to San Anotnio and the rights of Georgios Printezis. They were in a 3 way trade with New York Knicks and the Washington Wizards, acquiring Tim Hardaway Jr from New York and two future second round draft pics from the Wizards and sending Kelly Oubre, the Hawks 2015 Draft pic to Washington.

Given the loss of Carroll, Holiday seems the more like to like replacement, or Splitter can also come into the squad, which is more likely as he is familiar with the Hawks head coach, Mike Budenholzer, who was an assistant to Greg Popovich. Splitter has been a more consistent player than Holiday overall and would be offering a more reliable performance.

So far it looks good for the Hawks ,  who will finish the preseason on a winning record. However, the last two pre season games have been heavy defeats, but it’s showing that the players are performing to their optimum, especially the members of their starting 5 for the regular season. However, its good to see the likes of Mike Scott and Kent Bazemore really stepping up,  and if they can add strong performances from the bench during the regular season (and help limiting the minutes per game to the main roster), it will help the Hawks.

Overall, the Hawks can still make it to the top 4 seeds of the Eastern Conference but as of now, are behind the Cavaliers and Bulls as the top team in the East. A repition of the 2014/15 perforamnces during the regular and post season is going to be hard to replicate, but the Hawks can spring a few surprises. Though, its not likely to happen and they should be happy with around a Top 3 seeding and 50 regular season wins, as for the post season, no one can tell but it a trip to the Eastern Finals is likely.