Coming off their run to the Eastern Conference Finals last season, the Atlanta Hawks entered the 2021-22 NBA season with high expectations and many believed that they could be a Top-4 team in the conference.
We are only a quarter of the way through the season, so there is still time for the Hawks to crack the Top-4 in the East, but they are currently 11-10 and have a lot of problems to sort out.
While they are currently ranked 3rd in the league in offensive rating, the Hawks rank just 23rd in the NBA in defensive rating. All of their problems have been defensively this season and they have been two different teams at home and on the road.
In Atlanta this season, the Hawks are 8-2, but they are just 3-8 on the road. At home, the Hawks are outscoring their opponents by +95, but on the road, they are being outscored by -40. Figuring out their identity is going to be key for this team moving forward, but this is also going to be a challenge given all of their injuries.
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Second-year big man Onyeka Okongwu has not played yet this season due to offseason shoulder surgery, De’Andre Hunter underwent wrist surgery recently and is out indefinitely, and now both Bogdan Bogdanovic and Cam Reddish are hurt.
Bogdanovic is out at least two weeks with a right ankle sprain and Reddish is dealing with a left wrist sprain that has left him day-to-day at this point. While he could play through this injury, it is expected that the Hawks will be cautious with their approach to their young forward.
The Hawks are missing four key secondary talents right now and while they still have Trae Young, John Collins and Clint Capela out on the floor, this team could wind up running into some major problems over the next few weeks in terms of finding scoring from their bench.
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Solomon Hill, Tomothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and maybe even rookie Jalen Johnson will see their minutes increase, which is why Atlanta could look to strengthen their roster via trade. Being well over the salary cap and just about $2M under the tax line for this season, Atlanta does not have much “wiggle room,” but there are still some moves that they can make.
Do the Hawks have the ability to make some big trades ahead of this season’s trade deadline? Let’s take a look at three players Atlanta could target, as proposed by Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley, and evaluate whether or not the Hawks should “pass or pursue” said trade targets.
