Atlanta Hawks

After...4? 5? Long seasons of rebuilding, the Hawks have, well...not really "made it" but they did make an important step on the path to contention. With a strong week 20 that saw wins against fully healthy Indy and Cleveland, and taking a full strength Milwaukee down to the wire, the Hawks end the season with a record of 42-40, the first .500+ record in Bulldog's tenure. To go along with that, comes the first play-in berth achieved in that same time! Our reward? The 9th seed, having to beat Orlando (who's had our number all season) and one of Chicago or Charlotte if they manage to get that far. And if they get through that, what awaits them is a terror unlike any other this season: The champion favorite New York Knicks, the only team to win 60+ games this season. Sounds fun!

Honestly, we always understood this was the upper limit of how this season could play out. We certainly expected to be better than we have been, but we were under no illusions we would be some legitimate playoff team at this juncture. What is important is that we ensure we still have room to grow, and I think at this stage, that's still reasonable to expect of us. 2 rookies who are intriguing, a couple of sophs who have shown real growth, and other players who may not have a ton more upside but are still very good players.

It will be an interesting offseason no matter how this postseason plays out for us; Getting our '31 1st on the table will allow us to trade both it and our '27 1st upcoming, giving us two 1sts to trade after tapping ourselves out for Scottie Barnes. Alex Sarr and Donovan Clingan can't share the floor, what's the deal gonna be with that? Will the hawks keep payton pritchard, or is jakucionis the next man up? These are all questions that we'll have to address going forward. But for now, we're enjoying the anticipation of trying to work our way into to the playoffs for the honor of getting smoked by Smokey.