What Should The Hawks Do Next?
The Atlanta Hawks have had a seemingly bizarre offseason so far; trading Jeff Teague for a first round pick, and essentially replacing Al Horford with Dwight Howard.
However, based on what we’ve discussed about the previous frontcourt redundancy, the latter move actually makes decent sense, despite the fact that Horford is probably a bit more effective overall than Howard at this juncture of their careers.
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Howard is still an effective rim protector and paint defender who works excellently as both an anchor on defense and as a complementary option on offense. Strangely enough, the Hawks may benefit from such a less versatile player.
Sometimes, solid role definition with less talent can be more impactful than better talent with hierarchal confusion. This only works as a net positive for the Hawks, however, if they realize they should replace Horford’s scoring and the scoring his spacing provided.
If they do, it will ideally be on the wing. Oddly enough, the Hawks may be one piece away from losing to the Warriors in the Finals if Dennis Schroder pans out into a capable Jeff Teague replacement as Hawks management expect. If the Hawks do somehow manage to trade for/sign a “star” wing player ala Paul George or Gordon Hayward over the next couple of years, they could feasibly be good enough to lose to Golden State in five games.
Having an offensively versatile player like Hayward or George be the player that Schroder passes to out of penetration (and that Millsap and Howard pass to out of double teams) would on paper result in many more completed plays than in recent years past.
Putting Gordon Hayward in Bazemore’s spots on the floor could theoretically be huge for Atlanta. Not only is he much more equipped to take advantage of a rotating defense than a player like Bazemore is, his passing ability would give Atlanta numerous opportunities to produce off of secondary actions.
Though judging by the reported sentiment that the Hawks wanted to sign Horford after signing Howard, it is difficult to tell what the Hawks’ front office is actually thinking. If the idea to go for a versatile wing player is actually the plan, it signifies that the Hawks are going towards a better direction than they have in the past several years.
Aspiring towards greatness is always more exciting than accepting mediocrity. At the very least, this mission successful or not, will most likely get more fans in the seats, which is much more than people can usually say these days (its unfortunate when the decibel level of an NBA arena can apparently be compared favorably to a library).
If not, it will at least be entertaining to watch Dwight Howard realize that he’s riding out his last remotely good years on teams that don’t get close to making it out of the first round.
must read: Ranking Every NBA Team's Bench Unit Heading Into 2016-17
Either way, Atlanta Hawks basketball should be interesting over the next couple of years. Whether that means interesting as in “good”, or interesting as in “hilarious dumpster fire”, only time will tell.