ATLANTA — Two years after a playoff run that ended just two wins shy of securing the franchise’s first NBA Finals appearance in more than a half-century, the Atlanta Hawks had their sights set on being a championship contender this season.
Instead, they sank back to the middle of the league.
Not a good spot.
“The middle is the toughest place to be,” Hawks forward John Collins said. “When you’re up super high or down super low, you have a clearer vision of what you want to accomplish. When you’re just maintaining in that middle, it takes a little bit more self-reflection to just keep going.”
The 2022-23 version of the Hawks can’t keep going. Their season wrapped up with Thursday night’s 128-120 home loss to the second-seeded Boston Celtics, who closed out a 4-2 victory in the best-of-seven series in the Eastern Conference’s opening round and will face the third-seeded Philadelphia 76ers next week.
The Hawks face some major questions. Will Collins return after his worst season since 2017-18, when he was a rookie? Does center Clint Capela fit into Atlanta’s long-term plans? Will Trae Young and Dejounte Murray develop into the truly dynamic backcourt the team envisioned?
One thing is certain: Quin Snyder, who took over as coach in late February after the firing of Nate McMillan, will have wide latitude and authority to remake the roster to fit his vision. The Hawks — most notably Young, who at age 24 and after five pro seasons already is gaining the reputation as a coach killer — seem eager to follow Snyder’s lead.
“Quin is the future,” Young said. “I believe as we’re sitting here, this city is going to win a championship. It’s just about bringing in the right pieces for him.”
The Hawks showed no real improvement after Snyder took over, going 10-11 over the final 21 games of the regular season to complete a maddeningly mediocre campaign at 41-41. They earned the East’s No. 7 seed for the playoffs with a play-in victory against the host Miami Heat, only to exit in the first round for the second year in a row.
(The Heat, meanwhile, bounced back to beat the Chicago Bulls and reach the playoffs as a No. 8 seed, then knocked the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks out in the first round, 4-1.)
Even with Snyder on their sideline, the Hawks looked pretty much like the team that lingered around .500 nearly the entire season, never gaining any real momentum.
“Win a game, lose a game, win a game, lose a game, up, down, up, down,” Collins said.
The Hawks were certainly competitive in the playoffs against a talented team that reached the NBA Finals last summer and again has championship aspirations. They rallied to win Game 5 in Boston on Tuesday, then went toe to toe with the Celtics in a thrilling, back-and-forth series finale.
“We were right there,” Snyder said.
In the end, though, Atlanta headed into the summer in roughly the same spot as a year earlier: a middle-of-the-pack team that is good enough to make the playoffs but not really a serious contender for a title.
Young is desperate to take the next step, especially in a city that suddenly has shown an affection for its local NBA team.
After years of struggling to fill the seats — and with the visiting team often being the draw in Atlanta — the Hawks averaged a team-record 17,555 per game and sold out State Farm Arena for nearly every contest. However, the home team rarely gave its fans a lot to cheer about.
“I want to be looked at as a team that should come in and win a championship, not just be in the picture, not just be in the running,” Young said. “I want to come into the season as a team that people look at it and say they can win, they’ve got a chance. That’s my whole focus and my whole mindset.”
Throughout the season, the Hawks were plagued by plenty of backstage drama that certainly didn’t help their on-court performance.
Travis Schlenk stepped down from his role as president of basketball operations in late December to take on an adviser’s position, which appeared to be a forced move. Young clearly had a rocky relationship with McMillan, whose tenure as head coach started with him leading the team to its playoff run two years ago while serving on an interim basis. And there were plenty of questions about owner Tony Ressler’s 27-year-old son, Nick, having far greater influence on basketball operations than his experience should allow.
“It could’ve been worse,” Young said. “But we’ve got to focus on the future now. We can’t worry about the past, what all went on all throughout the season, all that, all the nonsense and stuff. We’ve got to focus on the future and what we’ve got going.”
With Snyder firmly in control and heading toward his full first season in Atlanta, Young is confident the Hawks can recapture the form they demonstrated during that magical playoff run in 2021.
“I think we showed strides,” he said. “I think we showed moments of what we could do with Quin as our coach. So I’m excited for the future.”