Back then I guess it would have sounded a touch more optimistic
The Hawks off-season was centered around trade talks with Sacramento for Otto Porter. The team was after him for the longest time and after the successful last season the management felt we should go all in with this team.
We traded the unfortunately injured Goerge DePaula and surrendered some more future picks but were able to iron out a deal to bring Porter on board. He is looking forward to his last few good seasons and the team’s window to succeed is short (2, best case 3 years). That we could at least bring in Justin Anderson in the same trade made the loss of GDP a bit more bearable. He is one of the best PG in the game, but with his year long injury it was just not matching up with the window we are looking at. Atlanta is an aging roster and we have to get the best out of it now.
After that move it was pretty much clear that we had to let go KCP and Ish Smith in free agency. There was no question we wanted to extend RFA White and Collins and that brought us too close to the hard cap. Even more important we have a good defender like Justin Anderson to fill in for KCP.
We do have a big hole at point guard now. All guards are able to play some spot minutes as PG but are more suited as combo guards. It worked during the most part of last season, but our recent slide shows that this is something we may have to address.
At least we were able to re-sign White and Collins to contracts we think are fair for both sides. The numbers were calculated on both getting around 10Mil/year. Which in the end was pretty much on point. Both have to step up this year if we want to have a chance to make some noise in the playoffs. But making the playoffs in this year’s Eastern conference is the first problem. The conference is stacked with talented teams and it will not be easy.
We started the season nice with a win over Miami (one team I think will fight for the #1 spot) at home. We picked up some minor injuries right there but were able to win 3 more games before the wheels fell off. Not sure if the team got overconfident, plain lazy or the start was just pure luck …
We will have to figure that out quick or this playoff ship could have sailed without the Hawks on board.
We will also look in all options to improve the team via trade. We have this 2-3 year window and are willing to put everything on the line.
