3 Atlanta Hawks who definitely won’t be back next season
By Ian Levy
The Atlanta Hawks unexpectedly pushed the Celtics to six games. But a chaotic season will almost certainly be followed by an offseason of change.
Some explosive scoring performances from Trae Young helped keep the Atlanta Hawks alive deeper into the postseason than most expected, but their holes were revealed as well. The defense is still far too vulnerable to elite perimeter scorers and, despite plenty of depth, the Hawks don’t always seem prepared to respond when Young goes ice cold from the field.
Despite statements to the contrary from the front office, it seems likely they’ll at least have to consider the idea of trading Young this offseason. But if they keep building around him, they’ll have to count on a lot of internal development and improvement under new head coach Quin Snyder because they’ll have 10 players returning with guaranteed contracts.
But whether or not it’s Young, trades or free agency, there will definitely be some roster changes coming.
These Atlanta Hawks won’t be back next season:
3. Aaron Holiday
Holiday signed a one-year deal with the Hawks last offseason and appeared in 63 games this season as a deep backup point guard option. He proved to be a pesky point-of-attack defender in his limited minutes and shot 41.8 percent from beyond the 3-point arc, so there were some definite positives.
But he played just four minutes in the six games against Boston in the first round and with Dejounte Murray and Trae Young on the roster, he’s clearly just a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency option. The Hawks could conceivably offer Holiday another deal but he showed enough this season that he may be looking for more money and a larger role than the Hawks are able to offer him.