2022-23 Hawks Season Previews

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

ATLANTA HAWKS

2021-22 record: 43-39

Key additions: Maurice Harkless, Justin Holiday & Dejounte Murray (trade), Aaron Holiday & Frank Kaminsky (free agency), A.J. Griffin (2022 draft)

Key subtractions: Kevin Huerter & Danilo Gallinari (trade), Delon Wright, Kevin Knox & Gorgui Dieng (free agency)

Last season: The growth chart hit a snag as the young Hawks, one year removed from an appearance in the Eastern Conference finals, suffered from far too many defensive lapses and underperforming rotational players. Only Trae Young, who led the league in total points and assists, kept moving in the right direction and was an All-NBA third team member. John Collins, De’Andre Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanovic dealt with injuries. Ultimately, the Hawks emerged victorious in the Play-In Tournament, but were first-round fodder and lost in five to the Miami Heat.

Summer summary: The search for the ideal co-star for Young led to a logical candidate when Atlanta pulled off perhaps the most convenient transaction of the NBA offseason by getting Murray from the San Antonio Spurs. Essentially, he checks all the boxes: A defensive demon who can handle the ball and who is just touching his prime.

Pairing Young with Murray just seems like peanut butter and jelly and you couldn’t sketch a more perfectly balanced backcourt on paper. They cover each other’s weaknesses. They bring shareable skills. They can play off the ball when necessary. And they seem to like each other personally.

Almost instantly, Young-Murray becomes one of the league’s most watchable backcourts — if not one of the better ones. Travis Schlenk, the Hawks’ VP, couldn’t have targeted a more convenient (and surprisingly available) player to get Atlanta back on track.

Murray just turned 26 and is coming off a season where he became a balanced guard. An ace defender by trade, Murray’s shot selection and court vision sharpened all while averaging 21.1 points, 8.3 rebounds and 9.2 assists per game. He’s a career 33% shooter on 3-pointers, but that’s OK because of what Young can do from deep. Just the same, Young is a weak on-ball defender, so Murray will get all the tough assignments.

 

[JayBirdHawk]

Atlanta Hawks offseason recap: Grades, preseason tier, changes, end of 2022-23 goal

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Changes to Atlanta's Lead Guards

LEAD GUARDS	2021-22 PLAYERS	2022-23 PLAYERS
1	Trae Young	Trae Young
2	Bogdan Bogdanovic	Dejounte Murray
3	Delon Wright	Aaron Holiday
4	Sharife Cooper	x

(Lead guards are just considered the main initiators from the backcourt position.)

Transactions: Traded for Dejounte Murray | Signed Aaron Holiday (one year, $1.9 million) | Waived Sharife Cooper.

Did Atlanta improve here? Absolutely. Also to be clear, the Hawks didn’t lose Bogdan Bogdanović here. I just think he’s moving from more of an initiator when Young isn’t on the floor to more of a full-time wing player, going much more off the ball. The trade for Murray is to give them a great defensive presence to disrupt their opponents and give Young more of a breather. Maybe that means playing off the ball like so many hope he’ll do more. Or maybe it just means needing to play him fewer minutes so he’s fresher for the postseason. Either way, massive upgrade. I also really like the Holiday signing as a third string lead guard.

 

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Changes to Atlanta's Wings

 

WINGS	2021-22 PLAYERS	2022-23 PLAYERS
1	Kevin Huerter	Bogdan Bogdanovic
2	De'Andre Hunter	De'Andre Hunter
3	Kevin Knox	Maurice Harkless
4	Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot	Justin Holiday
5	Skylar Mays	AJ Griffin
6	Chaundee Brown	Tyrese Martin
7	x	Jarrett Culver
8	x	Trent Forrest

Transactions: Traded Kevin Huerter to Sacramento for Maurice Harkless and Justin Holiday | Drafted AJ Griffin with 16th pick | Drafted Tyrese Martin with 51st pick | Signed Trent Forrest to two-way | Waived Chaundee Brown | Signed Jarrett Culver to two-way

Did Atlanta improve here? That’s a good question. And a tough one. Losing Huerter is a hit to the wing position. He’s a pretty good player at the two. De’Andre Hunter has tremendous effectiveness, but he missed nearly 30 games last season. Bringing in Harkless and Holiday gives them the depth to absorb an injury to their wings. Drafting Griffin was a great pickup in the mid-first round. They took a chance on seeing if there’s anything there with lottery pick Culver. Ultimately, they lost a really good wing but made up for it with depth. The depth is probably better for them, especially with the Murray pickup.

 

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Changes to Atlanta's Forwards

FORWARDS	2021-22 PLAYERS	2022-23 PLAYERS
1	John Collins	John Collins
2	Danilo Gallinari	Jalen Johnson
3	Jalen Johnson	Chris Silva

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Changes to Atlanta's Bigs

BIGS	2021-22 PLAYERS	2022-23 PLAYERS
1	Clint Capela	Clint Capela
2	Onyeka Okongwu	Onyeka Okongwu
3	Gorgui Dieng	Frank Kaminsky

 

Did the team get better?

 

Absolutely. I love the Murray deal for the Hawks. I think it cures a lot of what ailed them last season, and I think it creates even more problems for opponents. We don’t know if Young will actually play off the ball. It’s an idea that’s been kicked around to make him more like Steph Curry, which was the comparison early on in his days at Oklahoma.

Team status goal by end of 2022-23: Brink of Contention

https://twitter.com/ATLHawks/status/1574742412534095874?s=20&t=XwaxXVKdiZq6qfdYFH1dNw

[macdaddy]

 My thought is that we made a big upgrade to our starting unit by adding Murray over Huerter.   And Murray kind of makes up for the loss of Delon.    The loss of Gallo is the biggest issue right now.   

[sturt]

49 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

 My thought is that we made a big upgrade to our starting unit by adding Murray over Huerter.   And Murray kind of makes up for the loss of Delon.    The loss of Gallo is the biggest issue right now.   

Yep... biggest issue in terms of roster changes.

Biggest issue overall is whether Hunter emerges as a true, consistent, go-to SF, and not just an occasional flasher.

 

During their glory years, Isaiah and Dumars had Vinnie Johnson.

During their glory years, NBA Logo and Goodrich had Pat Riley (... yes, young'uns... that same Pat Riley).

During our glory years, we need BogBog to be that same kind of asset.

[macdaddy]

JHoliday is going to be TLC x3 for Nate this year.   I'm expecting him to get tons of PT. 

[JayBirdHawk]

41 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

JHoliday is going to be TLC x3 for Nate this year.   I'm expecting him to get tons of PT. 

I think so too.

[Gray Mule]

I've been told that I'm always boosting that player deep on the bench.  So be it.  Just looking at the non-starters on our roster, I'm impressed with what we see there.

A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link.  A great NBA team cannot be great if it has no bench.  It is understood that Nate will certainly not play all Hawks.  Most teams have 15 and rotate 10.  I can see some battles here.  15 players and all wanting to be in the top 10.

[macdaddy]

20 minutes ago, Gray Mule said:

I've been told that I'm always boosting that player deep on the bench.  So be it.  Just looking at the non-starters on our roster, I'm impressed with what we see there.

A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link.  A great NBA team cannot be great if it has no bench.  It is understood that Nate will certainly not play all Hawks.  Most teams have 15 and rotate 10.  I can see some battles here.  15 players and all wanting to be in the top 10.

I agree.  Our bench has a lot of question marks

Bogi - recovering from injury

OO - will he breakout

AHoliday - will he play

JJ - Is he NBA ready

Harkless - is he still an nba rotation player

AJ - rookie with injuries

Frank - injuries

JHoliday is the only one where we pretty much know what to expect outside of just chemistry. 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[sturt]

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/atlanta-hawks-2022-23-nba-preview-trae-young-gets-help-at-both-ends-of-floor-but-there-still-are-concerns/

 

[sturt]