BDL 25: Can the Atlanta Hawks do *that* again?

[Jamaaliver]

One of my favorite reads this summer about my favorite team.

The BDL 25 takes stock of, uh, 25 key storylines to get you up to speed on where the most fascinating teams, players, and people stand on the brink of 2015-16.

There wasn't a single team whose 2014-15 outlook we got more completely wrong than the Atlanta Hawks...

the Hawks looked to me less like a team about to put the league on notice than one content to settle in the middle of the pack and putter to a lower-reaches postseason berth that didn't last past the first week of May.

One month into the season, that assessment seemed sound enough — the Hawks sat at 8-6, in fifth place in the East, ranking in the top eight in offensive efficiency but the bottom six on the other side of the ball. And then, all hell broke loose: Atlanta won 35 of its next 40 games, rocketing to the top of the conference behind tightened-up, five-men-on-a-string defense, a ball- and player-movement-heavy half-court offense, and a combination of smart passing and capable shooting at every position.

The Hawks won 19 straight games between late December and early February; their entire starting five was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Month of January; 80 percent of that unit (Al Horford, Paul Millsap, Kyle Korver and Jeff Teague) made the Eastern Conference All-Star team. Mike Budenholzer won Coach of the Year honors for leading Atlanta to its first-ever 60-win season, and the Hawks made the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in franchise history...

And yet, when tasked with figuring out which Eastern Conference club seems poised to mount the most serious challenge to LeBron and the Cavaliers when 2015-16 action starts up, none of us here pointed toward the A, and I don't think we're alone.

So, what gives?

...are we justified in thinking that our pre-playoff questions about whether the Hawks could be trusted were proven valid by the uneven postseason run, and in needing to see Atlanta do it again amid some important changes before we pencil them in for 55 wins and a top-four slot? And let's be clear: there have been some important changes.

[DeMarre Carroll's] now gone and the respected veteran's combination of defensive acumen, offensive rebounding, positional versatility, competent-enough shooting and capacity to contribute without the ball figures to be awfully difficult to replace. Atlanta's best chance of doing so lies in Thabo Sefolosha working his way back from the season-ending broken right fibula...The Hawks need Sefolosha to not only return at 100 percent, but also to take enough of an offensive step forward (just 41.6 percent from the field and 31.7 percent from 3-point land over the past two seasons) to remain a playable postseason option on the wing, which he wasn't in his last days in Oklahoma City. If he can't come through on both accounts, the Hawks' hole on the wing could be glaring.

[Jamaaliver]

though, Atlanta looks awfully strong elsewhere. Teague and birthday boy Dennis Schröder give the Hawks arguably the league's most dynamic point-guard pairing, and neither the 27-year-old Teague and the 22-year-old Schröder profile as finished products; both have room to improve as they grow more familiar with Bud's offense and with their teammates' capabilities within it.

Horford and the re-upped Millsap have become one of the game's most polished and complete front lines, and the trade for former San Antonio Spurs big man Tiago Splitter adds another smart, versatile, multitalented player capable of both locking down the paint and functioning smoothly in the whirring offensive system Budenholzer brought over from San Antonio. If Bud redistributes the minutes of Mike Scott to postseason contributor Mike Muscala and mammoth 2014 draft pick Walter "Edy" Tavares, Atlanta could have its biggest and deepest frontcourt mix in years.

[Jamaaliver]

If Atlanta can make up for Carroll's absence on the defensive end, and find enough shooting to keep the floor from getting condensed and the offensive flow from becoming disrupted, the Hawks could well rank among the best (or, at least, second-best) that the East has to offer.

"We're not satisfied," Budenholzer said after Atlanta's elimination back in May. "We want more."

And yet, given how much went brilliantly and beautifully right for the Hawks during their unforgettable year in the sun, and how violently the plates Bud spent all season spinning came crashing down in May, you wonder:

How much more can this group really get?

[Jamaaliver]

The way I see it, the two biggest factors to us being a top team next season:

-Health

-One of our young wings emerging

We gotta have Horford, Splitter, Thabo and KK healthy for most of the regular season. And we need Bazemore, Holliday or THJ to come through as the next coming of Danny Green.