via Atlantamagazine.com

Rookie Class:

The Atlanta Hawks are a young, up and coming squad. They will add on to this youth movement with another 5 rookies this season. Armoni Brooks and Charlie Brown are the two that aren’t slated to make too large of an impact at this stage. However, all 3 of the other rookies drafted by the Hawks will look to make frequent and useful contributions. Bruno Fernando is a 6’10” Forward out of Maryland. His shooting from the floor improved between his freshman and sophomore year, up to 60.7%! This is more an indication of getting clean looks and being smart with shot selection. The most exciting development to his game though comes on the defensive side of the ball. He doubled his steals total and nearly doubled his blocks as well. This type of presence on the floor will be of great use to the Hawks. Believe it or not, it only gets better from here for the Hawks. They also took Cam Reddish in the first round, and I fully believe that looking back we will all question why he dropped to the 10th pick. We all know that his freshman year at Duke did not go as anticipated, but we also know that he wasn’t always used properly like he should have been. With the Atlanta Hawks, they will find a way to get him extremely involved in their lineups on a nightly basis. He will be significantly better shooting than he showed at Duke, you can count on that. The beneficiaries of the post-Lakers and Pelicans maneuvering the Atlanta Hawks also landed the 4th pick in the draft as well. This 4th pick was De’Andre Hunter. Truly the Atlanta Hawks had one of the two best drafts this year along with the Pelicans. De’Andre Hunter showed a lot of what he can bring to the table while at Virginia. His sophomore season he shot an incredibly efficient 52% from the floor and 43.8% from three-point range. For someone as involved in the offense as Hunter was, this is extremely promising. On top of that, he showed to be one of the better defenders in college as well. With this young collection of talent comes a tremendous amount of hope and I cannot way to see how this all shakes out.

Most Exciting Player:

To have a player as young as Trae Young also be the most exciting player on the roster is a testament to the positive steps the Atlanta Hawks have taken these last couple of seasons. Many, myself included, believed that trading the Luka Doncic pick to fall back and get Trae Young was a mistake. Regardless of where you stand on that trade, we all must admit that for the Atlanta Hawks, this was absolutely the right move. A big part of building a proper roster is not only about taking the best player but about taking the best player that fits your future goals. Trae Young is exactly who Travis Schlenk envisioned guiding this team in the future. His rookie campaign started out slow, but he picked it up quickly and showed exactly what we can expect to see from him going forward. With even more talent on the team, I want to see how a young Trae Young manages to keep everyone happy. It’s a tall order for a player at any stage of their career, but more so for someone as young as Trae is. I fully expect him to become an even more efficient player and utilize his high basketball IQ to keep the ball moving. Trae Young will likely be a part of the all-star weekend in the Three-Point Contest, but maybe we’ll see him playing on Sunday in Chicago at the All-Star game too.

Westgate Over/Under: 36

This number started as low as 33.5, but as the season gets closer and the lineup is fine-tuned it has crept up to 36. Going 36–46 is not considered a great, or even good, season but a young squad coming off a 29–53 season should be encouraged that there is this level of hope around their team. There will be many growing pains this season and though they will be better this year, I think they fall just short going 35–47.

Happiness is a Function of Expectations:

In a world full of hope, the Atlanta Hawks should not try to rush this rebuild along. It’s natural to want this, but they as an organization have shown more discipline than most would in this position. I’m thinking directly of a team they will be forever associated with. The Dallas Mavericks took a step forward last season, and possibly to their detriment are attempting to rush to contention now. The Hawks have a proper understanding and their expectations will be as such. This season, as many teams will be doing, the Atlanta Hawks will look to develop chemistry and work to fully build out their roster. They are likely lottery-bound again, and with their recent track record with drafting just look for them to come out with yet another steal in the draft. There’s a reason people have compared this roster construction to the Warriors, and do not be surprised if in a few seasons they are consistently in contention.