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How The Atlanta Hawks Became The East’s Hottest Team



As the early March NBA All-Star break approached, the Atlanta Hawks sat at 14-20 and sat at the bottom of the playoff picture, a far cry from where expectations had been set in the offseason after some big spending in free agency. The Hawks are 15-5 since a mid-season coaching change, and while some of that is the result of a soft schedule early in his tenure, the recent results prove this is more than a team taking advantage of lesser opponents. Atlanta has won 7 of their last 10 to climb to fourth in the East, a half game clear of the division rival Heat for homecourt advantage in a first round series.

The answer to “how are the Hawks doing this?” isn’t one thing, but the combination of a lot of players finally being healthy, comfortable in their roles, and playing their best basketball.

Getting healthier has been the biggest difference, with Bogdanovic providing a significant lift over the last few weeks. Their other big signing, Danilo Gallinari, has also come to life over the last two months. After a dreadful February, the veteran forward has likewise morphed back into a lethal offensive weapon (16.1 points per game on 46/43.4/93.5 shooting since March 1), and the Hawks are bludgeoning opponents when he’s on the floor.

Maybe most importantly, the improved play of their veterans — which also must include other less-heralded offseason additions like Tony Snell (the NBA’s best three-point shooter this season at 57.1 percent) and Solomon Hill — has allowed the Hawks to succeed even when Young doesn’t play, something that hasn’t been the case since the third-year guard arrived in Atlanta.

However, no one has had a bigger impact on the Hawks recent run than Clint Capela, who has been nothing short of sensational for the Hawks all season. He has been the defensive anchor for the Hawks all season, and the way he elevates lineups loaded with offensive talent into being not just passable bout downright good defensive lineups is incredible. Capela is, simply put, putting forth a sensational defensive effort this season, leading the team with 2.2 blocks per game. However, he’s not just lording over the paint on the defensive end, but giving the Hawks terrific two-way play as well. On offense, the vertical spacing he provides as a roll man and lob threat fits perfectly with the Hawks perimeter options.

Since March 1, the Hawks have a +16.2 net rating in the fourth quarter, a dramatic turnaround from the -8.2 net rating they had in the first half of the season. That improvement is, in part, because in the fourth quarters of the last 20 games, Atlanta is shooting 42 percent from three-point range, up from 34.8 percent from deep in the fourth quarter over the first 34 games. Their hot shooting late in games understandably garners the most interest, but they have the second best fourth quarter defense since March 1 (103.6 DRtg), trailing only the Sixers.

4 reasons why Trae Young and the Hawks are finally tapping into their potential

Two months ago, the Atlanta Hawks were lost and seemed about to endure another eye-rolling season. At 14-20, they parted ways with head coach Lloyd Pierce. Since that decision, the Hawks have turned a corner.

Currently 29-25, they’re the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference and one of the hottest teams in the NBA. Here are four reasons why the Atlanta Hawks have been able to embark on the 180.

Trae Young’s offensive heroics are translating into wins for Hawks

The first two years of Young’s career featured glimpses of greatness. He was scoring in a multitude of ways and averaged 29.6 points per game last season. The issue was his play wasn’t resulting in victories. This season Young spearheads an efficient and well-oiled Hawks offense.

The likes of Young, Collins, Cam Reddish, Danilo Gallinari and Bogdan Bogdanovic have all chipped in to considerable degrees. Prior to his knee injury, De’Andre Hunter was doing the same. As a collective whole, they’re scoring from isolation and the perimeter on a consistent basis, which is helping the Hawks close out games.

The Hawks have improved drastically from distance this season, as they entered Monday 11th in the NBA in three-point shooting percentage (37.2 percent) compared to 30th last season (33.3 percent). Everyone is thriving in their role with Young scoring and performing at a high clip.

The Hawks have an inside presence in Clint Capela

The Hawks acquired Capela at last season’s NBA trade deadline to be their inside threat, and he has been precisely that. Capela has returned to being the prominent center he was with the Houston Rockets. This season the big man is averaging 15.3 points, an NBA-best 14.1 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game. He’s finishing inside with ease, hitting the boards at an elite level and serving as the team’s rim protector. Capela has been the Hawks’ fiercest inside player on both ends of the floor since Dwight Howard.

The big man’s presence allows the Hawks’ bevy of speedsters to play to their strengths. Young runs the offense with Collins serving as an athletic scorer, Kevin Huerter sticking the long ball and veterans like Gallinari and Bogdanovic supplementing their efforts. Capela clogs up the paint and does the dirty work inside. He has become a mainstay for this team.

Additionally, Capela’s interior presence has been a key ingredient to the Hawks’ improved defense.

Defensive improvement

Last season the Hawks were one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA. This season they’ve become a legitimate force. The Hawks went into Monday fifth in the NBA in opponent three-point shooting percentage (34.8 percent) and 11th in opponent points per game (111.3) and opponent field goal percentage (46.1 percent). For perspective, they were in the bottom-third of the sport in all three categories last season, low-lighted by being 30th in opponent points per game (119.7).

The Hawks have made enormous strides.

They’re no longer just a team with talented young scorers that can’t defend or string together a series of wins: they’re a two-way team. Are they perfect? Of course not, but they’ve improved their nagging weakness while maintaining their identity. That’s progress. With Capela manning the paint and the Hawks sealing the perimeter, they have a defensive attack to lean on.

Coaching change

Since taking over for Lloyd Pierce, interim head coach Nate McMillan has administered a Hawks team that is 15-5. The Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs and Charlotte Hornets are some of the teams that have fallen victim to the Hawks. Meanwhile, the Golden State Warriors and New Orleans Pelicans have lost twice apiece to the Hawks over the last two months. All of the aforementioned teams are playoff teams or ones competing to take part in the spring festivities.

McMillan’s Indiana Pacers, who he coached from 2016-20, were defensive-minded teams. They slowed the game down and got teams playing at their pace, which was assisted by collectively sound on-ball and perimeter defense. He looks to be establishing a similar mentality with the budding Hawks; McMillan was hired as an assistant for Pierce’s staff this past offseason.

The team on the floor in the present is the team that the Hawks were established to become. The talent has always been there. Young and Collins are building blocks from a talent standpoint and individuals like Reddish, Huerter and a healthy Hunter bring plenty of positive attributes to the table. Plus, they have a handful of veteran scorers, including recent trade pickup Lou Williams.

The Atlanta Hawks continue to improve. They can only continue to do as such, especially if Hunter returns to the floor. With the East stagnated, the Hawks are a team that can wreak havoc in the playoffs. The pieces are coming together at an opportune time.

Before Atlanta and Milwaukee played Thursday night on TNT, Charles Barkley said he thought the Hawks were going to be better than what they are this season and “at least be the fifth seed” in the Eastern Conference.
Little did Barkley know, the Hawks entered the game as the fourth seed — much higher than what was expected out of them this season. It’s actually remarkable the Hawks are where they are, considering the number of injuries they’ve sustained.
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What we learned is the Hawks aren’t quite there yet, and that’s OK. The Hawks lost 120-109 and dropped to 30-26 on the season. With the Celtics beating the Lakers on Thursday, Boston and Atlanta are tied for the fourth seed. Because Atlanta has beaten Boston twice in three games, the Hawks hold the tiebreaker in case they end up with the same record at the end of the season.
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Clint Capela said he thought this game was going to be a good test for the Hawks to measure where they stacked up in the Eastern Conference. What’s hard to evaluate with this team is just how good it can be when and if everyone is healthy and available. McMillan didn’t have an update on when De’Andre Hunter might be available because he hasn’t gotten in any live work in practice. We still haven’t received an update on John Collins. Danilo Gallinari has missed a few games in a row due to foot soreness. Cam Reddish is going to miss a few more weeks with Achilles soreness.

This has been the theme all season. The Hawks haven’t been healthy and we haven’t gotten a true look at what their potential can be, and it’s possible we might not know before the playoffs. Hill was asked if he felt like there was a sizable gap between the Hawks and the top three teams in the East.
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Hill said he’s one of those players who is constantly looking at the standings because it fuels him to be better. Winning against Milwaukee would have pulled Atlanta to 3 1/2 games behind with one more head-to-head matchup to go. Now they’re 5 1/2 games back and just 1 1/2 games ahead of avoiding the play-in tournament.

The Hawks know they still have to prove themselves and understand that this is going to be a close race the rest of the season. Losing a few games in a row could see the Hawks go from being the fourth seed one week to being in the play-in tournament where they’ll have to fight to officially make it into the actual playoffs.
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The Hawks entered Thursday’s game winning just 35.7 percent of their games against top-tier opponents (opponents on pace to win 50 or more games in a normal 82-game schedule) with a net rating of minus-4.3. That’s the 13th-best mark in the NBA. The Hawks have done most of their damage against bottom-tier teams this season, winning 77.8 percent of their matchups, the seventh-best mark in the NBA.

Confidence within Atlanta’s locker room is certainly high, and it should be. The Hawks are still one of the hottest teams in the league. Bogdan Bogdanovic and Capela are two of the hottest players. There’s a lot of depth on this roster when healthy. If the Hawks can pull it all together in the next few weeks, perhaps this is a team that can make a run, but as of now, there’s still work to be done....”