The Atlanta Hawks came dangerously close to letting this season slip away - and the culprit wasn’t a lack of talent or effort. It was something far simpler: a glaring hole in the frontcourt rotation that went unaddressed for far too long.
Heading into the season, the Hawks rolled the dice with a two-man center rotation: Kristaps Porzingis and Onyeka Okongwu. On paper, that duo offers plenty - Porzingis brings elite shot-blocking and floor spacing, while Okongwu is a high-motor, switchable defender with a growing offensive game.
But the issue wasn’t about talent. It was about depth - or rather, the lack of it.
Porzingis, as electric as he can be, has a well-documented injury history. Okongwu, meanwhile, is undersized for the position, often giving up several inches and pounds to traditional bigs.
So when the Hawks opted not to bring in a third center with legitimate NBA experience, it felt like a calculated risk. Two months into the season, it looked more like a miscalculation.
Atlanta did technically fill that third-center spot with N’Faly Dante, a promising but unproven big man with just four NBA games under his belt. Unfortunately, Dante tore his ACL early in the season, and with Porzingis missing extended time, the Hawks found themselves scrambling.
The result? A rotation that lacked size, rim protection, and stability in the paint - all critical components for a team trying to stay afloat in the Eastern Conference.
And here’s the frustrating part: this team was afloat - more than afloat, actually. Even after losing Trae Young just five games in, the Hawks surged to an 11-8 start and climbed as high as third in the East.
They were playing inspired basketball, moving the ball with purpose on offense and flying around on defense. The young core was clicking, and the energy was contagious.
But once Porzingis hit the injury report - playing just six of the next 28 games - the wheels started to come off. The Hawks went 11-17 over that stretch, and the drop-off was stark.
Yes, Porzingis is a major piece, but the problem wasn’t just about missing one player. It was about not having a viable plan B.
Asa Newell and Mo Gueye were tasked with filling the void, but both struggled, particularly Newell, a 20-year-old rookie still adjusting to the physicality of the league. The lack of a reliable presence in the middle exposed the Hawks on both ends - defensively, they were getting bullied in the paint, and offensively, they lacked the screening and vertical spacing that a true big provides.
Finally, in mid-January, the front office made a move, signing Christian Koloko off waivers. Koloko, a 7-footer from Cameroon, isn’t a flashy name - he’s not going to stretch the floor or rack up double-doubles - but he does the little things that matter: sets hard screens, boxes out, protects the rim, and plays within his role.
And just like that, the Hawks started winning again. Koloko’s first two games in uniform?
Both wins. Small sample size, sure, but the difference was immediate.
With a real center anchoring the paint, the rotation snapped back into place, and the team looked like itself again.
That’s what makes this stretch so frustrating in hindsight. The Hawks had an open roster spot and financial flexibility to sign a veteran big earlier in the year.
Had they done so, could they have avoided that brutal seven-game losing streak? Could they have prevented the internal tension that led to a players-only meeting in December?
Could they have kept the trade rumors surrounding Trae Young from gaining momentum?
We’ll never know for sure. But what we do know is this: waiting until January to solve a clear roster issue cost the Hawks valuable ground in a competitive Eastern Conference. And for Onsi Saleh, still early in his tenure as Atlanta’s top decision-maker, this will go down as his first real misstep.
To his credit, he eventually made the right move. But in the NBA, timing is everything - and this one came a little too late.