The Atlanta Hawks’ plight and the flight of Dwight

The Atlanta Hawks did something kind of cool this season. They reached the NBA Playoffs for the 10th straight season. Only the Texas basketball factory known as the San Antonio Spurs have reached the postseason more often in recent years than the Hawks.

The big difference is that the Spurs are playing in the 2017 Western Conference Finals, while Atlanta bowed out in the first round. Yes, Atlanta played hard in its first-round best-of-seven series with the Wizards, but Washington had John Wall and the Hawks did not. That semi-exciting series went to the Wizards in six games.

Only two years ago this franchise achieved new heights with 60 wins and an improbable Eastern Conference Finals run. Despite being told by basketball Twitter to blow it up throughout the entire fall and winter, Atlanta pressed on to a 43-39 regular season record and a first-round playoff exit.

This is Atlanta, a southeastern metropolis that almost likes to win sometimes. Though not exactly a city of champions, Atlanta is a great place to do business and watch homegrown athletes inevitably star elsewhere.

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Since the idea of giving long-time center Al Horford that fifth-year on the max was not happening last summer, the Hawks front office opted to let Horford walk in free agency to the rival Boston Celtics. Atlanta signed a declining former All-Star known as Dwight Howard to replace him.

Howard is arguably the greatest player in Orlando Magic history and will arguably be a Hall-of-Famer; man people like arguing about Dwight. However, things did not go well for him during his one year with the Los Angeles Lakers or his three with the Houston Rockets. Deemed a misfit by the rest of the league, Atlanta took a gamble signing Howard. Frankly, it wasn’t a bad move until the playoffs.

Howard embraced rebounding and catching alley-oops from new starting point guard Dennis Schroder. The Hawks had found themselves a near-All-Star center to pair alongside their elite power forward Paul Millsap. Though his jump shot is actually worse than Josh Smith’s stroke on 3-pointers, Atlanta was pleased to see its starting center actually embrace cleaning the glass on both ends of the floor.

While the Howard signing was justifiable, Hawks general manager Wes Wilcox may have made a big mistake with Chance the Rapper lookalike Kent Bazemore. After two strong years in Atlanta, Bazemore struggled mightily in 2016-17. His 3-point shooting was inconsistent and his ball control was horrendous.

Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer successfully replaced Bazemore in the aggregate in the starting lineup. Shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr. offered more consistency as a scorer and a more refined variation of athleticism. Rookie small forward Taurean Prince emerged as the muscle Atlanta has been starved for out on the wing since letting DeMarre Carroll go to Toronto two summers ago. Bazemore was paid a lot of money to not start for the Hawks this postseason.

Around the rest of the roster, Schroder seemed to be doing just fine replacing Jeff Teague at starting point guard. Though still highly inconsistent, Schroder demonstrated that his basketball ceiling is higher than Teague’s ever was. Schroder was able to at least hang with Wall in round one. Who saw that coming?

Hardaway and power forward Mike Muscala earned themselves some money with their contributions to the Hawks this season. Veterans Jose Calderon, Mike Dunleavy and Ersan Ilyasova proved that Budenholzer’s system can be learned on the fly. Millsap made his fourth-straight Eastern Conference All-Star team. He’s finally earned the recognition he deserves as a top-20 player in the league.

However, there were some things that weren’t great for the Hawks. Bazemore didn’t live up to the hype of the first year of his new contract. Center Tiago Splitter was too hurt to play for the Hawks before he was traded to Philadelphia for Ilyasova. Backup point guard was an utter disaster until Calderon arrived. Malcolm Delaney is unfortunately not an NBA player. We even saw the decline in wing Thabo Sefolosha’s game. He’s really struggling to stay healthy.

Then there was some front office issues. Trading Atlanta’s favorite 3-point shooter Kyle Korver to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Dunleavy and a future pick still hurts. While Atlanta is happy to see Korver have a shot at winning an NBA Championship, he is an Atlanta basketball legend until the end of time. Many thought that the Korver trade to Cleveland indicated a looming Hawks fire sale. Millsap looked to be on the trading block the entire winter. He ultimately stayed in Atlanta. Millsap will opt out of his deal this summer. While he has loved his time in Atlanta, he might end up signing elsewhere.

Looking up and down the roster, you have to wonder what was gained this season. If Millsap is gone, then a rebuild is coming. Howard is a stop-gap at best. Was all that blood, sweat, and tears just a year of seasoning for Prince and Schoder?

What Atlanta’s first-round playoff exit did more than anything was to force the front office into honest assessment. Apparently Budenholzer didn’t think he could be objective enough to hold both roles of head coach and president of basketball operations. It is rare to see a basketball man of Budenholzer’s caliber willingly give up power, but this is the reality we all now live in.

Joining Budenholzer in being re-assigned in the front office was Wilcox. He will stay on in the organization in some capacity, but he is no longer the Hawks general manager. While he had drafted well and made good moves on the waiver wire, free agency contracts were definitely not his forte.

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Where Atlanta chooses to find its next general manager will indicate a shift in Hawks basketball. New owner Tony Ressler is dead set on keeping Atlanta playoff viable. That’s fine, as Budenholzer, Wilcox and the Hawks players will probably be on board with that notion. However, this perennial playoff team in the East could be on the verge of a lengthy rebuild. With the way the MLB’s Atlanta Braves are going, are we sure this is what Atlanta wants? At least the Falcons are good. Maybe they won’t blow a 25-point lead in the Super Bowl this year?