Atlanta Hawks: Is This The End Of An Era?

By Ti Windisch | May 26, 2015

Apr 22, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer talks with players during the fourth quarter of game two of the first round of the NBA Playoffs against the Brooklyn Nets at Philips Arena. The Hawks won 96-91. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Liles-USA TODAY Sports /

Things aren’t looking great for the Atlanta Hawks at the moment. Although they managed to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals the Hawks are currently down 3-0 to the beat-up Cleveland Cavaliers, who have powered to three consecutive wins over Atlanta in large part due to LeBron James‘ transcendent play in clutch time during the series.

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Although it’s true that the Hawks haven’t gotten blown out by the Cavaliers in any of their games (their biggest loss was by just twelve points, in Game 2), it just feels as though Cleveland is the better team right now. Or, more specifically, that LeBron is by far the best player involved in this series.

Because of Thabo Sefolosha‘s unfortunate absence due to suspected police brutality and DeMarre Carroll‘s unfortunate leg injury Atlanta has absolutely no answer to LeBron, who has obliterated the Hawks this series. James is averaging a triple-double, posting 32.7/11.7/10 (points/rebounds/assists) against Atlanta thus far.

Most of the team’s struggles can be attributed to teams keying in on what got the Hawks this far–three-point shooting being a huge part of the Hawks’ success–and doing their best to shut Atlanta down from deep. And it’s worked, especially in this Cleveland series.

Overall in the playoffs the Hawks are shooting 32.9 percent from deep, which is good enough for worst among the four teams left in the playoffs and noticeably worse than the 38 percent the team managed during the regular season. That number drops even more against Cleveland, as the Hawks are currently shooting just 31.1 percent from three-point territory.

The even-worse news for Atlanta is that the Cavaliers are shooting 42.9 percent from deep in the Eastern Conference Finals thus far, a huge part of the reason the Hawks are currently staring down a three game deficit in this series.

From all of the postseason drop-offs it may seem as though the Hawks system simply does not work in the playoffs, which would mean that the current era of Atlanta basketball has to end so the Hawks can accomplish the ultimate goal: winning a championship.

However, I’m not so sure that’s the case. You’ve got to remember, this is an injured team currently in an Eastern Conference Finals that won 60 games this season, and would’ve still won 60 games even if they played entirely against the tougher Western Conference.

To people who think ATL's 60 wins were soft because of a weak East: they went 22-8 against the West. That's a 60-win pace.
— Knickerbacker (@knickerbacker) May 25, 2015

The Atlanta Hawks are not really in need of a rebuild. This is still a great team that just happened to run into a buzzsaw powered by the best player in basketball and potentially one of the best handful of players of all time.

But the Hawks are sort of unique in that they can choose to rebuild if they think it’s the best option. This roster is not at all set in stone for next season yet, much less the future beyond it. This core has proven it can win a ton of games, and still has room to grow together.

The interesting–and pressing–question is if Mike Budenholzer will keep his Hawks squad together through the offseason. Both of Atlanta’s excellent forwards, DeMarre Carroll and Paul Millsap, will be unrestricted free agents this offseason.

Both Carroll and Millsap will draw a plethora of suitors who could use sharpshooting, playmaking forwards (the Detroit Pistons have openings at both positions and some money to spend this offseason, among other teams) and GM Bud will be tested this offseason. There isn’t much money on Atlanta’s books right now, but the Hawks will have the option to pursue other free agents if they don’t feel the price is right for either of their forwards.

Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver and Thabo Sefolosha are the only Hawks currently guaranteed any money after next season, and that’s only a combined $17 million cap hit (which is essentially nothing considering the cap projections for the 2017-18 season currently hover around $108 million). As for next season, Atlanta has just $39 million on the books before counting Millsap or Carroll re-signing.

The cap for next season is just over $67 million. That gives the Hawks space for a max deal they could hand out to any free agent they wanted, and not even exceed the salary cap, much less the luxury tax. Millsap and Carroll are great, but why not shoot for the moon? Here’s a list of players that will be likely be hitting the market this offseason.

Marc Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge, Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard, DeAndre Jordan, Draymond Green, Greg Monroe, Brandon Knight and Khris Middleton highlight the group and will all be available in some aspect (either unrestricted or restricted free agency) to Atlanta, and they have the money to pay one (or two) of these guys handsomely.

Or they could keep Millsap and Carroll, retool their bench with cheaper free agent signings and draft picks and try to make another run at the Eastern Conference title next season. As far as determining which route the Hawks take, at this point there’s only one person who gets to decide that: Mike Budenholzer.

That might just be the best-case scenario for Atlanta, as who would know better than Coach Bud if the current core is good enough at full strength to topple the Cavaliers or whoever else they run into in the postseason next year? The tough part about being a coach who also controls personnel, however, is that Bud himself probably has no idea what he’s going to do yet as he’s far too busy trying to make a series comeback.

But he will have some time to think after this series ends (barring an unbelievable comeback that gets the Hawks to the Finals, of course). It’s going to be interesting to watch how the Hawks operate this offseason, and we won’t know until the dust has settled if this is the last ride for this current Atlanta Hawks team.

Budenholzer has the ability and the opportunity to either keep this era of Atlanta basketball alive, or to scrap it and start fresh with a new one. One thing does remain certain, though: the Hawks are going to be a great team who will have a shot at the championship again.

This organization is in a somewhat-ambiguous spot concerning the future, but both routes seem to result in a strong Hawks team going forward. Keep in mind that either route most likely leaves enough room for another max contract to be awarded after next season, meaning the best things are truly yet to come in Atlanta.

Next: 25 Greatest Individual Seasons in NBA History

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