Omid Alaee
The Hawks started the season with a tough loss to the Houston Rockets at home after the newly acquired James Harden scored 45 points, overpowered the Hawks in their home opener. In the next game, they played the Oklahoma City Thunder, and they beat them in their house. With the team they have right now, the Hawks should be able to make the playoffs. These are the Hawks that lost Joe Johnson in an off-season trade to the Brooklyn Nets so he can join Deron Williams. The Hawks have been overpaying him way to long and they had to get rid of him. They got several players and a 2017 second round pick in that trade, and a key addition was Deshawn Stevenson. If the team can keep him in check and don’t let him get in trouble, he should be huge coming off the bench. The Hawks got a big pick up in the draft with John Jenkins out of Vanderbilt. He was a sharp shooter in college and hopefully that rolls over into the NBA. Speaking of shooter, we picked up Kyle Korver from the Chicago Bulls, who will be an unrestricted free agent after this season and they might be able to pick him up with same cap room space. With Jeff Teague picking his game up and keeping Josh Smith and big Al Horford healthy, this team should be able to make some magic. However, with the Hawks playing in the same division as the Miami Heat, Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks; it will be hard to get to into the playoffs let alone the Eastern Conference Finals.
