What should we expect from the Hawks next season?
No one expected the Atlanta Hawks to be as good as they were last season.
The Hawks have been the poster child of good-but-not-good-enough in the Eastern Conferece over the last decade. They've consistently won 40-45 games and had competitive showings in the playoffs, but they were never legitimate threats to the East's elite.
That all changed last season, when the Hawks raced out to a 43-11 record before the All-Star break, before finishing the regular season 60-22 (17-11 post-All-Star break) and then being swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals.
So, which Hawks team should we expect to see next season? The pre-All-Star break juggernaut that had all five starters win Player of the Month in January? Or the team that semi-collapsed after the All-Star break and couldn't steal even one game against the Cavs?
Well, as Tim Cato of SB Nation writes, that depends on your perspective.
One can use the loss of DeMarre Caroll and the second-half plateau as evidence that the league has figured out the Hawks, and the Cavs, Chicago Bulls, Washington Wizards and Miami Heat will surpass them next season.
One can also claim that their first-half surge is sustainable, and that this season's squad is actually deeper and will have better chemistry.
Either way, no one should be writing the Hawks off yet, as Cato writes:
"The Hawks will be fine. They may not have another month where they don't lose, but they essentially have the same team back. Carroll was important, but Kent Bazemore has shown he's ready for an increased role and Splitter makes the defense even tougher. While the defense worsened slightly after the All Star break, it wasn't nearly as drastic, allowing about one more point per 100 possessions.
"The playoff run wasn't as pretty as the Hawks might have hoped, but they still made it to the conference finals. Last year, they weren't supposed to be that good. This year, everyone's overlooking them, but we've already seen that the Hawks don't like giving into expectations."
(h/t SB Nation)
