Post-Mortem: 2021-22 Atlanta Hawks

[ElectricMayhem]

When you find the regular season boring but you're only in the playoffs for a handful of games, it's not the best of years. The Atlanta Hawks were dismissed by the top seed Miami Heat. We shall now cut them open and see what's inside...

Here is the data from last year's Post-Mortems:
Post-Mortem Results I: GM Confidence Meter
Post-Mortem Results II: Coaching Confidence Meter
Post-Mortem Results III: Performance Compared to Expectations
Post-Mortem Results IV: Rising/Treadmill/Waning

Team Name: Atlanta Hawks
Record at Time of Death: 43-39 (.524)
GM: Travis Schlenk (2019-)
Coach: Nate McMillan (2021-)

Offensive Rating: 2nd
Defensive Rating: 26th
Rebound %: 14th
Turnover %: 1st

GM: Change or keep?
Coach: Change or keep?
Relative to expectations, how did they fare this year?
Rising, falling, or treadmill?
If you were in charge, what would you do this offseason?

Notes:
Players under contract next year:
Trae Young ($30m)
John Collins ($24m)
Danilo Gallinari ($22m) (Partially Guaranteed)
Clint Capela ($18m)
Bogdan Bogdanovic ($18m)
Kevin Huerter ($15m)
De'Andre Hunter ($10m)
Onyeka Okongwu ($6m)
Jalen Johnson ($3m)

Team Options:

Player Options:

Free Agents:
Delon Wright
Lou Williams
Gorgui Dieng
Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot
Skylar Mays
Sharife Cooper
Chaundee Brown Jr.

Dead Money:

Previous Post-Mortems:
30. Orlando Magic
29. Detroit Pistons
28. Houston Rockets
27. Indiana Pacers
26. Oklahoma City Thunder
25. Washington Wizards
24. New York Knicks
23. Portland Trailblazers
22. Sacramento Kings
21. Los Angeles Lakers
20. Charlotte Hornets
19. San Antonio Spurs
18. Cleveland Cavaliers
17. Los Angeles Clippers
16. Brooklyn Nets
15. Atlanta Hawks

[Statlanta]

GM: Change or keep?
Keep

Coach: Change or keep?
Change

Relative to expectations, how did they fare this year?
Below expectations

Rising, falling, or treadmill?
Falling

If you were in charge, what would you do this offseason?
Resign Delon

[Threezus]

I've got

keep the GM
Fire the coach maybe if we can find better
Performed worse than expected
Rising or Treadmill.

The last one i put both depending on what we do this offseason. If we find another star to pair with Trae then i will say rising team. If we stick with the same ole thing and run it back without adding a legit 2nd star then i think we will start treadmilling.

[hugepatsfan]

I thought last year's run was fool's gold. So I'm not surprised with their overall outcome as a play-in team and 1st round loss.

Their roster construction is terrible. But the silver lining is that it's not terrible roster construction in terms of being contracted with terrible players... it's constructed with a bunch of good player who just don't compliment each other. They should be the most active team in the NBA this offseason.

Jerami Grant via trade would be a good target. If Utah makes moves they should try to jump in on a trade involving Royce O'Neale. There are stronger defensive teams that could benefit more from a Huerter or Bogi compared to ATL who needs more defense. Gary Harris would be an awesome MLE target or even S&T if the numbers work. Bruce Brown if they can open up the full MLE... maybe that gets him way from BRK.

[Rapaz]

They just need a bit more rest.

[CP War Hawks]

GM: Schlenk stays
Coach: McMillian goes
Relative to expectations, how did they fare this year? slightly underachieved, the East was good as it's been in a good while.
Rising, falling, or treadmill? Treadmill until changes made

If you were in charge, what would you do this offseason?

Use the MLE on TJ Warren. Draft the best wing/perimeter defender. Find a new coach. Trade Collins sometime during the season. Move one of Huerter/Bogi this summer. Still need a decent backup pg, maybe can get one via trade.

[ropjhk]

They may need to make a swing for the fences trade to avoid becoming a treadmill team. The East will be super competitive again next year and the Hawks will be in the play in again if they don't make any changes.

[jfs1000d]

Need better defense and scheme, need another scorer to augment Trae.

They have an all-star, and a lot of really good talent. I love their quality depth and shooting, but they need one more scorer. A guy like Jaylen Brown level, too 39 caliber player.


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[shangrila]

It's interesting because I think the Hawks struggle to answer the same question the Grizzlies do; when your star PG (Trae/Ja) is off, who are you turning to to generate offence?

The Hawks are basically Trae and a bunch of finishers. Which is nice when it works, and especially in the regular season, but they need more if they're ever going to make noise in the playoffs.

And part of that falls on Trae. For all the crap Luka gets for being ball dominant, Trae is just as bad. If he can work on his off ball skillset, assuming they can add someone else to help generate offence alongside him, then they should be a much more dangerous team.

As for the questions, keep the GM, fire the Coach (this was entirely predictable, btw), performed about how I expected and as of now they're a treadmill team.

[madcatz]

It's interesting because I think the Hawks struggle to answer the same question the Grizzlies do; when your star PG (Trae/Ja) is off, who are you turning to to generate offence?

Isn't the Grizzlies winning games without Ja playing? I remember having a thread about that here.

[Exp0sed]

I've got

keep the GM
Fire the coach maybe if we can find better
Performed worse than expected
Rising or Treadmill.

The last one i put both depending on what we do this offseason. If we find another star to pair with Trae then i will say rising team. If we stick with the same ole thing and run it back without adding a legit 2nd star then i think we will start treadmilling.

2nd star? whose the first one?

[shangrila]

It's interesting because I think the Hawks struggle to answer the same question the Grizzlies do; when your star PG (Trae/Ja) is off, who are you turning to to generate offence?

Isn't the Grizzlies winning games without Ja playing? I remember having a thread about that here.

By "off" I mean having a bad game not off as in not playing.

It's another similarity between the two; they both dominate the ball so much that the offence warps to accomodate that. When they're out entirely the team is forced to play more team focused with lots of ball movement. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Hawks do something similar if Trae went out with injury for a decent amount of time.

[ElectricMayhem]

Atlanta had the 2nd best offense in the league, but one of the worst defenses. When you have a guy who can generate his own offense like Trae but is a sieve on defense, you need to surround him with guys who make up for that. You can't out-offense everyone when your defense is that bad. Get that fixed and a Trae-led offense will take care of itself.

[madcatz]

It's interesting because I think the Hawks struggle to answer the same question the Grizzlies do; when your star PG (Trae/Ja) is off, who are you turning to to generate offence?

Isn't the Grizzlies winning games without Ja playing? I remember having a thread about that here.

By "off" I mean having a bad game not off as in not playing.

Ah got it, I agree with this then.

[John Murdoch]

They need a shakeup just like Utah...not enough defense collectively around Trae to seriously compete for a title.

[jbk1234]

They need a better defender at PF. Collins and Trae are too much to overcome collectively.

[Ray Donovan]

Guess people who say Mavs & Hawks came out even on trade may need to revisit their thoughts...Heat shut Young down

[Ice Trae]

Keep
Keep? idk yet
Below expectations
Rising or treadmill

First and foremost resign Delon cause i'm a sucker for effort guys off the bench. Trade JC & Huerter for more defense and/or some disgruntled wing who can consistenly create as a secondary ball handler

[ChuckChilly]

Blow it up

[Exp0sed]

Trade Trae. that's the best move they can make
Idk what his value is rn after this historically awful series, but out of 29 teams,there must be at least one sucker out there, right?

Schlenk needs to get to work and find that sucker