Hawks’ Losing Streak Even Worse Than It Looks?

[Jamaaliver]

Underlying metrics paint a depressing picture for Atlanta

The Atlanta Hawks have lost four consecutive games and have almost uniformly looked bad in the process.

The statistical outlook over the last 10 games is less than encouraging with the team struggling on both ends of the floor and slipping from its lofty defensive numbers.

Over that span, the Hawks have the league’s 19th-best defense, falling from a borderline-elite level to somewhere a little below average. The team’s offense has stayed mostly static over the same timeframe (25th in the league over the last 10).

A slipping defensive presence, combined with a poor offense have combined to produce several rough performances for the team.

PeachTree Hoops

Hawks struggling offense an ongoing concern

Atlanta has the third-worst offense in the league since the All-Star break, and are ranked 25th since Jan. 1. How are the Hawks going to create enough offense in a playoff series to take down the kind of firepower they're going to face in either a 4-5 or 3-6 matchup?

CBS Power Rankings

Playoff Projections

• The Hawks are now four back in the loss column from the Raptors and just one up on the Pacers. It’s not inconceivable that they fall all the way down to seventh or eighth.
  
• They’re without Paul Millsap and Kent Bazemore, two of their best players, and have only five more home games, They have two late-season games vs. the Cavs, and whether Cleveland rests players could determine where the Hawks land.
• SportsLine thinks they finish fourth, but interestingly, they have a 49 percent chance of winning the first round.

CBS Sports

[tbhawksfan1]

Unfortunately, it looks about right.

[simon24]

Underlying metrics paint a depressing picture for Atlanta

The Atlanta Hawks have lost four consecutive games and have almost uniformly looked bad in the process.

The statistical outlook over the last 10 games is less than encouraging with the team struggling on both ends of the floor and slipping from its lofty defensive numbers.

Over that span, the Hawks have the league’s 19th-best defense, falling from a borderline-elite level to somewhere a little below average. The team’s offense has stayed mostly static over the same timeframe (25th in the league over the last 10).

A slipping defensive presence, combined with a poor offense have combined to produce several rough performances for the team.

PeachTree Hoops

Hawks struggling offense an ongoing concern

Atlanta has the third-worst offense in the league since the All-Star break, and are ranked 25th since Jan. 1. How are the Hawks going to create enough offense in a playoff series to take down the kind of firepower they're going to face in either a 4-5 or 3-6 matchup?

CBS Power Rankings

Playoff Projections

• The Hawks are now four back in the loss column from the Raptors and just one up on the Pacers. It’s not inconceivable that they fall all the way down to seventh or eighth.
  
• They’re without Paul Millsap and Kent Bazemore, two of their best players, and have only five more home games, They have two late-season games vs. the Cavs, and whether Cleveland rests players could determine where the Hawks land.
• SportsLine thinks they finish fourth, but interestingly, they have a 49 percent chance of winning the first round.

CBS Sports

If the Hawks want to win they can't start Baze and Dwight. They need to come off the bench.

[D21]

Is it possible that they realized they aren't able to catch the 2nd and 3rd spot, so they decided to try to get the 6th or even 7th instead of battling for 4th or 5th and get CLE in the second round ?

[Jamaaliver]

Is it possible that they realized they aren't able to catch the 2nd and 3rd spot, so they decided to try to get the 6th or even 7th instead of battling for 4th or 5th and get CLE in the second round ?

The thought has crossed my mind. But it's a real gamble. I have to believe we'd rather face a wounded TOR team than a healthy WAS or CLE.

(Cause BOS is making a legit run at the top seed.)

The Celtics moved into a virtual tie with the Cleveland Cavaliers atop the Eastern Conference standings Sunday. FiveThirtyEight's prediction model gives the Celtics a 66 percent chance at landing the No. 1 seed but Boston is simply focused on continuing to play good basketball. Said Isaiah Thomas: "We can't really worry about what Cleveland's doing … we control our own destiny at this point."

[D21]

Is it possible that they realized they aren't able to catch the 2nd and 3rd spot, so they decided to try to get the 6th or even 7th instead of battling for 4th or 5th and get CLE in the second round ?

The thought has crossed my mind. But it's a real gamble. I have to believe we'd rather face a wounded TOR team than a healthy WAS or CLE.

I thought of that because without Millsap, it's hard to catch the 4th.
Now, what hurts is that they look really bad without Millsap.
The Plus/Minus confirm it, Millsap and THJ are the best, and Ilyasova seems good for a player coming in the middle of the season, but lots of other players, like Howard and Schröder are in negative, and Bazemore is the worst case.
With or without Millsap, they are in negative... and it's not a good thing.

[Jamaaliver]

Hawks search for beautiful destination at end of rocky path

Bazemore wrote a message to his teammates on the whiteboard Monday morning before the team gathered for practice.

“All terrible roads lead to beautiful destinations."

The slumping team will again be without three starters — Paul Millsap, Kent Bazemore and Thabo Sefolosha — when they host the Suns on Tuesday, the second straight game they will be so severely short-handed.

Said Dennis Schroder, one of the team’s two healthy starters: “When everybody else comes back, we are going to be in good shape. … Now, we have to change something, too. We can’t wait until they come back. Maybe it’s too late then. We have to figure it out with our group now and then when they come back, we’ll be even stronger.”

Much of the focus on the injury-plagued team has been on Schroder, who said he has spoken to coach Mike Budenholzer about what he needs to do to make himself and the team better during these difficult circumstances.

The team spent much of practice on Monday watching video to fix mistakes.

myAJC


For the record, most terrible roads...lead to awful places.

[Jamaaliver]

Read on Twitter

It's a wonder we ever managed a winning season before Paul Millsap came along.


I can't believe it took me this long to realize what our real organizational deficiency is:

Stability, structure, consistency. We have none currently. And we're all the worse because of it.


Millsap embodies these chracteristics perfectly. But this team/franchise has no [other] cornerstones to lean upon. This past Sunday we featured an entirely new starting 5 from anytime last year. Most of whom have only been with the team a few months.

There is no consistency or stability in the locker room or on the court in terms of players.

We're essentially an expansion team with a bunch of new players thrown together with little experience playing as a unit.

This summer will only get worse. Massive changes are in store. (They have to be.)

Meaning we'll get our 5th GM in a decade and yet another massive change in the starting 5.

sigh

[reazun]

yeah, it looks bad. Its gonna be real interesting this offseason to see what happens with Milsap...This Bazemore signing has not been good for us. I am just glad I unfollowed the Hawks on FB before this losing streak..I got so tired of being tempted to read the comments on my timeline and everytime we lose the annoying fair weather fans who jumped on the bandwagon 2 years ago wont stop complaining Just support the team and discuss it. Talk sports and stop the whining.

[afectar]

I can't blame people for blasting the Hawks right now. They deserve it, they suck!

Past 17 years I watched them and I haven't watch them once in a few weeks now. The team they have now is unacceptable. Awful to watch and just plain out bad. Everyone see's what they should be doing, but leave it to our team to be clueless.

[reazun]

I can't blame people for blasting the Hawks right now. They deserve it, they suck!

Past 17 years I watched them and I haven't watch them once in a few weeks now. The team they have now is unacceptable. Awful to watch and just plain out bad. Everyone see's what they should be doing, but leave it to our team to be clueless.

There is nothing wrong with letting off some steam. However, we would go on a four game winning streak then lose one game by like 5 points, and its like all the complainers come out the woodworks and just go on and on and on...I am talking about when we were playing decent, not during our recent losing streak that thankfully just ended.

[Jamaaliver]

Atlanta Hawks (39-38)

• Clinched/magic number: Magic number for a playoff spot is three.
• Strength of schedule: .531 (tough)
• Remaining games: Five: BOS, @CLE, CLE, CHA, @IND
• Trails/leads and tiebreakers: Trail Bucks by one game, have tiebreaker. Lead Bulls by one game, tiebreaker yet to be decided.
• SportsLine projection: 29.3 percent chance of winning the first round

CBS Sports

We don't look like a good team right now.

Millsap is not fully healthy.

Dennis and Dwight are maddeningly inconsistent.

We seem destined to face off against a resurgent Raptors team this Post Season.

[ATL Boy]

Atlanta Hawks (39-38)

• Clinched/magic number: Magic number for a playoff spot is three.
• Strength of schedule: .531 (tough)
• Remaining games: Five: BOS, @CLE, CLE, CHA, @IND
• Trails/leads and tiebreakers: Trail Bucks by one game, have tiebreaker. Lead Bulls by one game, tiebreaker yet to be decided.
• SportsLine projection: 29.3 percent chance of winning the first round

CBS Sports

We don't look like a good team right now.

Millsap is not fully healthy.

Dennis and Dwight are maddeningly inconsistent.

We seem destined to face off against a resurgent Raptors team this Post Season.

I wouldn't say that about the last part, not unless we can go 2-1 against in this gauntlet of playing Boston and then the Cavs twice.

Bulls are 1 back (well, 2 with the tiebreaker) but I'd be shocked if they didn't win out looking at their schedule (5-0), while the Bucks are 1 game up on us also with an easier schedule.

If we go 2-3 (that's assuming wins against Indy and Charlotte) or even 3-2 then I think we still fall to 7th or 8th.

Call me crazy but I think we'd be better of facing Boston than we would Washington or Toronto, we could get that if we fall. The flip side is of course the catastrophe of possibly facing the Cavs and getting swept out of the first round. Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing looking at the big picture, it could finally force Ressler's hand in making some front office changes.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

[Jamaaliver]

Eastern Conference Team to Watch: Atlanta Hawks

Over the past nine seasons, the Atlanta Hawks have gone through three head coaches: Mike Woodson, Larry Drew and Mike Budenholzer. Yet the franchise has clinched a playoff spot every year in that span.

Coming into the 2016-17 season, many wondered if the Hawks would finally challenge the Cavaliers atop the East with center Dwight Howard joining the team. Through the first half of the season, the Hawks remained competitive as a higher seed.

Then, Atlanta lost seven consecutive games late March. It also came up short in the previous two games, capped with a stinker in Brooklyn.

Typically, surging teams in a tight playoff race garner the most headlines. Atlanta's poor play could open the door for the Pacers or Hornets, who've won three consecutive contests. Despite holding the No. 6 seed, the Hawks can't switch into cruise control.

Atlanta plays the Celtics once and Cavaliers twice from Thursday to Sunday. A seismic fall could drop the Hawks out of the playoff picture for the first time since the 2007 postseason.

Bleacher Report

Read on Twitter

[afectar]

I will admit, I'm still pulling for them to miss the playoffs. But If they do make it they better do enough to get matched up agains't Boston if they want a chance to advance to the 2nd round. 1st round exit would suck because we would lose out on a top 14 pick and still get beat.

[Jamaaliver]

The Atlanta Hawks had the worst offense in the entire NBA in March.

In March, their offensive rating was last. Teams like the Pistons and Magic were better on offense.

In February, the Hawks were only better than the 76ers, pre-DeMarcus Cousins Pelicans, Nets, and Magic.

They were 20th in offensive rating in January.

(When the Hawks won 60 games in 2015 and had league-wide attention for one of the only times this century, their offensive rating was sixth in the NBA.)

Soaring Down South

Paul Millsap is back after missing eight games, but his balky knee means he's relegated to bench duty until further notice. According to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, there's no indication as to when the Atlanta Hawks' best player will return to the first unit.

The urgency's mounting.

Atlanta is 3-7 since that knee caused Millsap to miss his first game on March 18, and 3-9 in its last dozen games overall. The swoon has the Hawks in real danger of slipping out of the playoffs, a stunning development for a team that was nine games over .500 two months ago.

Missing the postseason after aborting what seemed like a rebuild and keeping free-agent-to-be Millsap would be a disaster. And with the way Atlanta's been playing, the best-case scenario of a first-round out doesn't seem all that appealing either.

Bleacher Report