Hawks Season Re- and Preview

[Flaming Homer]

Due to lack of time, I will put both in one article and try to get my own head around where we stand right now.

It may sound weird to call a 25-win season a success, but that’s the way I see it. We added 5 more wins compared to the season before, which I didn’t think possible after trading some vets in Beasley, Anderson and Randle. We added some other vets during the season, maybe the reason we didn’t totally implode.

Obviously wins are not the top priority in Atlanta, not last season and not this season. The team still needs to find the core player and it decided that the main source should be the draft. Last season’s #2 pick Isaac Okoro had an expected rocky start in his career. Coming into the league this raw is no fun. We tried to hide him mostly with bench units but his lacking ratings made it tough. #9 pick Asbjorn Midtgaard, much more developed already, went quickly in the spotlight as the top rookie on the roster. Good rebounding and blocking, paired with solid shooting makes him a candidate to take over the Hawks starting C job soon.

The team also traded for Coby White, a seasoned vet even if only 24 years old but with his own set of problems, namely shooting efficiency. We are still working on him and hope he can get the guy getting the offense organized.

The goal during this year’s draft was to complement these 3 players with fitting players and hopefully get this franchise player on board. If Okoro ever can be that is questionable with the rough start but he has still plenty of time to develop.

We were lucky and got the #2 pick again, with an additional pick at 10 (pretty similar to last year). During the scouting over the year the little Antetokounmpo brother and Josh Giddey stood out to us. As a long time fan of tall playmakers with good overall skills, I had Giddey at 1 in my mock all year. With Alex looking to have more upside it would have been a tough choice though, if we had pick 1.
Didn’t happen and we drafted for pass first PG with good overall ratings to run the show. That makes the role of Coby White a bit questionable, but we intend to work that out.
With the number 10 pick we lucked out and got a hard nosed low post player in Reggie Perry, who we thought would be long gone by then. He is not a shiny part of the rotation but should be a valuable hard worker.

Later in the draft we decided to switch a future 2nd into the draft right of Tadas Vaiciunas, a player our scouting staff liked.

Now, the goal in FA was to add some veteran players on not too long contracts to help growing the youngsters and make the team somewhat competitive next year. We had a hard time to interest any of the better veterans … no surprise here! But in the end, with some money left to spend, we were able to add Joel Embiid to the mix. He will be the starting center at the start of the season, alongside some of the other more experienced player, and we will go from there.
Main focus of the season is to develop the young core of Giddy, Okoro, Midtgaard and Perry. Adding a few more wins, would be even better.

Overall I feel very comfortable with the setup of the team and even more with the long-term outlook for what we try to accomplish.

[rh0xxy]

Not a fan of Embiid starting instead of Midtgaard. I'd prefer the young core getting the most minutes to see who really excels or not because just like us, i think we're still far from making an impact this season.

[hardenwithnod]

This team is slowly shaping up into a nice young core. It's going to take some time, and patience, but you are doing a good job rebuilding this team from scratch.

[Vann_the_Red]

I see value in starting and closing with Embiid until someone takes that from him. That also leaves big stretches for youth mid-game possibly against backups to play and develop. I love the potential of Giddy. But, then, long point guards are my kryptonite.

[Flaming Homer]

Not a fan of Embiid starting instead of Midtgaard. I'd prefer the young core getting the most minutes to see who really excels or not because just like us, i think we're still far from making an impact this season.

Yeah I understand that. But I'm a firm believer in - a rookie has to earn his spot and can learn in the beginning from the vets. Not that I think the game is smart enough to honor that haha.

Asbjorn deserved more time with his play last season for sure and I see him starting after maybe 20-30 games.

[Flaming Homer]

I see value in starting and closing with Embiid until someone takes that from him. That also leaves big stretches for youth mid-game possibly against backups to play and develop. I love the potential of Giddy. But, then, long point guards are my kryptonite.

100% agreed

[blackice]

The slow rebuild is something I admire because I just don't have the patience to do it. Anyway I view this team as the baby bucks. Similar to Manu, I think you have the smarts to keep building around your young core and using your caproom wisely. Very nice draft.

[Stockton12]

i loved your draft and that was a good signing of embiid ...rookies got to earn it first

[cb4raptorscb4]

I will always pay close attention to the Hawks due to Coby White. Sorry to see he shot even worse for you at 34% than he did for us. Maybe it was just a bad year, but I think the transition really killed him which is why we traded him. All that work for a couple seasons to get him from 34% to 47% and now back to 34% lol, sorry!

Maybe we'll even see White and Giddey playing together at PG/SG

[Flaming Homer]

Maybe we'll even see White and Giddey playing together at PG/SG

That is one of the ideas I will try, a big playmaking guard combo is something I never rolled out.
And as long as Coby knows not to shoot too much, I'm actually not the opinion that every player on your team has to shoot >50% to be valuable. But time will tell.

[Parm]

Sweet Alt Jersey with Hawks not Eagles

My Gift to you....lets try that again. Take 2.

[mgtr81]

Interesting young core. Still early to have an opinion on Giddey and Perry, but White and Mitdtgaard are solid pieces. The key here seems to be if Okoro can become efficient on offense. Adding more young talent in the upcoming drafts is the way to go, I think.

[Flaming Homer]

Agreed. Still some more pieces needed.
I feel optimistic about Perry, good TC in the rookie season is always a good sign. Giddey looks solid but you need more than solid out of a #2 pick. Same for Okoro, he did look much better in preseason which hopefully is a good sign.