Atlanta Hawks: What We’ve Learned From An Eventful Few Days

Familiarity Valued Highly, Potentially Limiting The Ceiling

With one foot in the present and another in the future, and having failed to execute a blockbuster trade, the Hawks may have offered another brief glimpse into what their overall team-building philosophy is.

Having taken a big swing and a miss, the Hawks left the deadline with two roster spots and the opportunity to explore the market of free agents who had recently been bought out, or to give intriguing D-League prospects a chance.

Instead, the Hawks acted immediately and went for the tried and tested instead.

Only a matter of hours after the deadline, Atlanta inked Ryan Kelly and Lamar Patterson to multi-year contracts, after both players had spent spells with the Hawks at earlier junctures in the season.

More from Hoops Habit

• 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
• Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
• Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
• Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
• NBA Trades: The Lakers bolster their frontcourt in this deal with the Pacers

Patterson would be waived days later due to personal reasons, but the point stands that rather than looking for something different that could have helped to close the gap at the top, the Hawks’ preference was to return to fringe players who they’ve already established a familiarity with.

In keeping with the bold strategy we saw at the deadline that seems to be Plan A under the current ownership, Plan B seems to solely consist of returning the same group of players.

That was the case in the summer, as on top of the big splash of adding Dwight Howard, Kent Bazemore was re-signed, Dennis Schröder was extended and the Hawks even remained committed to bringing back Al Horford.

The trend looks set to continue into this summer too, as general manager Wes Wilcox indicated to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical that the plan was to re-sign Paul Millsap.

While there’s something to be admired in being consistently good, it’s not impossible for the Hawks to maintain that level while also exploring new directions from time to time.

Next: Power Rankings: Raptors, Pelicans Jump In Week 19

The Hawks showed one flash of adventure this week, but whether there’s a path for that to prevail long-term certainly remains uncertain.