Playoff Picture: Atlanta Hawks
By Luke Duffy
Why They’ll Fall Short
I’d worry about a couple of things. Not the deepest team in the league, although Pero Antic and Dennis Schroder provide nice pop off the bench. They haven’t had a recent deep playoff trip to prepare them for what lies ahead, and there is a kind of ‘regular-season wonders’ vibe off of them. On top of that, this season has been a massive success no matter what happens, but I guess that can work both ways.
They’re a bottom five team in rebounding (48.2 per game, only Philadelphia, New York and Dallas are worse) and when the possessions slow down and become more important, grabbing second possessions or protecting your own rim become twice as important. That being said though, they do enough other things really well on the court to compensate for this.
RT: #ATLHawks stand pat at trade deadline. But one area of concern as they open tough stretch post-break. http://t.co/KvcDuSMJ0z
— Cory McCartney (@coryjmccartney) February 20, 2015
The lack of a true star player at a time when the stars shine brightest could also be an issue. But Horford is capable of being that guy. As mentioned, it didn’t stop the Pistons in ’04 either. Think about it this way though, in a seven-game series against LeBron James in playoff mode, would you put your money on them coming out with the win?
If you thought about that one for even a moment then you know in your heart they’d probably fall short, and so I rest my case.
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