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'It Wasn't The Same': What Split Up The Hawks' Famous Starting Five

...flashback to Co-Eastern Conference Players of the Month from January 2015, when Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver, DeMarre Carroll, Paul Millsap and Al Horford quite literally dominated the NBA. Atlanta’s perfect 17–0 slate set a record for the most prolific month in league history.

As the Hawks soared to the top of the Eastern Conference standings, Horford, Millsap, Teague and Korver all earned All-Star nods, with Budenholzer on the bench. “We all knew that it was because of the team that we were all there and that made it really special,” Korver said.

It was over before it ever began. In the blink of an eye, a world-beater starting lineup can be dispersed across an entire conference. Carroll departed to Toronto in free agency that July. “I don’t think the Hawks have been the same since,” said Teague.

Teague asked former teammate Horford why he departed the only professional city he had ever known. “The group wasn’t there,” Horford whispered. “It wasn’t the same.”

A member of that 60-win team will likely represent the East in the Finals, emerging from at least one battle against a former ally. The stage will be bright. The history will stand forever. The taste of the title, however, can disappear the moment it hits your lips.

tundraknight wrote:So the answer to the "How?" is that they left in free agency? Isn't that common sense?

"Why?" would be the better question.

Wasn't this during the time when the Hawks got Swept twice in the row by the Cavaliers?

Jamaaliver wrote:Hard to believe only two guys remain from that record-setting group...less than 2 years later.

I have to think it will play a part in whether Millsap stays or goes this summer.

Jamaaliver wrote:

tundraknight wrote:So the answer to the "How?" is that they left in free agency? Isn't that common sense?

"Why?" would be the better question.

Wasn't this during the time when the Hawks got Swept twice in the row by the Cavaliers?

LOL

Touché.

Perhaps the thread is mistitled. It appears that Demarre's departure and Dennis's emergence were the impetus for the others departing.


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tbhawksfan1 wrote:We need to be talking about how to pick up the shattered pieces. The fact that they are keeping the FO in place suggests more band-aids and more diminishing returns.

Bad usage of draft assets. Bad FA choices.

Yungsta404 wrote:Whoever misses that team should watch the 15 Cleveland series on repeat.

It was an aging low ceiling core that had a 2 month peak.

pughead wrote:I don't mind a rebuild, but how are they letting guys just walk away for nothing?! Other franchises get criticized for what they got in return. Not the Hawks! They just let everyone go and get nothing in return.

pughead wrote:I don't mind a rebuild, but how are they letting guys just walk away for nothing?! Other franchises get criticized for what they got in return. Not the Hawks! They just let everyone go and get nothing in return.

The Life Cycle of Eastern Conference Contenders in the Age of LeBron
The Bulls, Pacers, and Hawks all rose to the top of the East before falling apart. Can the Celtics avoid a similar fate?

The Hawks: In 2014–15, they won 60 games, a number that typically signifies a great team rather than a good one. Only 75 teams in history have managed 60 wins.

LeBron helped sweep them in the 2015 playoffs, and again in 2016. On Sunday, Atlanta lost the fifth and final member of its 2014–15 starting lineup when Paul Millsap decided to sign with the Nuggets. The Hawks built something great, witnessed firsthand the greatness of the significantly greater thing they were supposed to compete with, and then ditched their approach as quickly as possible.

They were like a pack of vicious dogs moving in for a kill that suddenly heard fireworks and scattered in the presence of a force they could barely understand, let alone defeat.


Atlanta Hawks (2014–15)

...the Hawks had a unit so cohesive that their entire starting five won Player of the Month honors after a 17–0 January. (This happened two years ago. I swear.) Al Horford, Paul Millsap, Jeff Teague, DeMarre Carroll, and Kyle Korver complemented one another perfectly in head coach Mike Budenholzer’s offense. There was no reason to expect them to thrive as they did — they had gone 38–44 the year before — and it did not continue, as they dropped to 48 wins the next season. They had just one moment when they seemed on the brink of challenging LeBron, and even then they clearly were not good enough: The Cavs swept Atlanta in the 2015 Eastern Conference finals. A year later, Cleveland swept the no. 4 seed Hawks out of the playoffs again.

Some of the subsequent deconstruction of that roster was self-induced: The Hawks didn’t need to trade Teague to the Pacers; they unwittingly chased Horford [away] by signing Dwight Howard in 2016; and they apparently didn’t extend a contract offer to re-sign Millsap this offseason. They even traded Korver to LeBron’s team last season, allowing their best shooter to chase a title with the Cavs. Regardless, Horford and Millsap presumably left town knowing Atlanta wasn’t going to get over the LeBron hump.