The Hawks haven’t exactly been a model of consistency to open the 2026-27 season, but the rest of the Southeast Division has made sure Atlanta can breathe a little easier.
At 7-5, the Hawks are sitting on top of the division, and the gap is already working in their favor. They’ve had stretches that look sharp and others that look messy, yet the bigger story is how uneven the East has been around them.
That matters. In a division this shaky, staying above .500 can go a long way.
Miami was supposed to be the team that pushed Atlanta hardest. Instead, the Heat are only 4-6 after a brutal 0-4 start, even with the offseason shakeup that brought two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo to South Beach. They’ve started to steady themselves, but they’re still the most obvious threat to the Hawks in the division race.
Charlotte and Washington are tied for third, and both have already given Atlanta some breathing room. The Hawks made that crystal clear when they met the Hornets for the second game of the season and rolled to a 47-point win, the biggest margin of victory in franchise history. Since then, the post-LaMelo Ball Hornets have kept sliding.
Washington has been the more intriguing case. The Wizards came into the year with real uncertainty, but also real expectations.
They had traded for Trae Young in January, and Anthony Davis entered the season healthy after being acquired before last season’s trade deadline. Add in a roster mixing veterans and young talent, with this summer’s first-overall pick AJ Dybantsa at the center of it, and the range of outcomes was wide.
They were either going to be very good or a disaster.
So far, it’s been closer to the latter.
Orlando hasn’t helped the chase, either. At 2-7, the Magic have been a non-factor and are still a long way from making this a real race.
The Hawks have plenty to clean up on their own end, but the division around them has been so disappointing that Atlanta’s uneven start hasn’t cost it much ground. That could keep working in their favor if the teams behind them don’t start climbing soon.
In Other News...
Hawks Let A Big Opportunity Slip Against The Lakers
Atlanta had an early opening against the Lakers, building an eight-point lead in the first quarter before the game tilted sharply the other way. Los Angeles settled in, took control and stretched the margin to as many as 20, with Luka Doncic steering the charge and coming close to a triple-double while the Hawks spent much of the night chasing the game.
For Atlanta, the frustration came from familiar trouble spots: turnovers and defensive breakdowns that made it hard to sustain any momentum. CJ McCollum was one of the few bright spots, giving the Hawks a lift off the bench with 21 points and crossing 17,000 career points, but it was not enough to keep a promising start from slipping away. [Read more 🡒]
Hawks Strong Start Is Fueling A Trade Debate Fans Can't Ignore
Atlantas 7-5 start has the Hawks sitting in a spot that naturally invites bigger-picture thinking, especially with a young core that already includes Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Onyeka Okongwu, Kingston Flemings and Zuby Ejiofor. A No. 4 seed in the East is a nice place to be this early, but it also tends to sharpen the question every front office has to answer: is this group ready to grow together, or is it close enough to contention that a more established piece should be added?
Around the league, the names being attached to that conversation are the usual mix of veterans and fit-first options, the kind of players teams monitor when they believe the window is opening. Nothing has moved yet, but the Hawks strong start has made the debate harder to ignore, because the better they look now, the more pressure there is to decide whether patience is the right play or whether the time has come to turn a promising start into something more aggressive. [Read more 🡒]