National Basketball Association

Hawks Picked As Early Contenders Via Sir Charles In Charge

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Atlanta Hawks have had a drastic off-season in which they have over-hauled old talent for new; bringing in rookie steals Taurean Prince and DeAndre Bembry and signing center Dwight Howard. While signs have pointed from this summer that the Hawks will be good enough for the playoffs but not strong enough to truly compete for a title, the good folks here at FanSided disagrees. In an article strong enough to get picked up by FoxSports, writer Aaron Sanghera believes that our very own Hawks are contenders for this up-coming NBA season. Lets look at some of his points and deconstruct from there.

Now I know with a lot of key roster moves its probably going to take time for the team to gel, but there are still reasons to be optimistic for next season.

Last year, Kyle Korver was playing his way into form for much of the year, because of offseason ankle and elbow surgery. With the two injuries, Korver wasn’t able to get up shots for much of the summer (something that is key, especially for shooters,) so he was forced to try finding a rhythm through the season.

This offseason, Korver has been able to play basketball, making it likely that he has a comeback season, after an unusual 2015-16.

Kyle Korver isn’t the prime piece of a team as he was in the past. But, he’s still considered elite on the perimeter. His first focus? To bounce back from last season. Korver could be an integral part to the Hawks success, especially if Dwight Howard can at least return to form. Korver, had one of his more difficult seasons last year, struggling from the field shooting 43% from the floor. On the bright side, his 40% three point mark is par for the course. However, a season from previous years (47.2 percent the previous three seasons) would bring great dividends for the Hawks. But ultimately, the team’s success is going to come down to one of the best players on the roster, Dwight Howard. If Mike Budenholzer can find a way to get him to play to his strengths, it will go a long ways making the upcoming season a success.

On the Houston Rockets, 30.5 percent of Dwight Howard’s offense came off post ups, and he only scored 0.82 points per possession. That’s not ideal, especially when considering he scored 1.38 points per possession as a cutter, and 1.10 points per possession as the screener on pick and rolls.

It’s common knowledge Dwight Howard is a pick-and-roll player and the Hawks are a pick-and-roll team. It adds up perfectly, right? Sure. But the true battle for coach Mike Budenholzer is to get Howard to somewhat return to form of yesteryear. 30.5 percent won’t cut it for the Hawks, either. Howard will have to score efficiently and post-up early and often for he and the Hawks to succeed.

Yet, for some reason, Dwight insists on playing through the post. He isn’t a bad option to dump the ball down low too, but that’s not his strength as a player. He needs to stick to what get’s him easy baskets, and then he can do some of the other flashy things offensively.

Let’s not forget Howard has been hard at work on improving his jump shot. But, strategically the Hawks must limit those shots to keep Howard in-tune with being what he is, a center. Either way, it’s great that the Hawks are being considered to be contenders-especially when many say the contrary.