The Hawks may have done plenty of work this summer, but the road back to the playoffs looks a lot steeper now than it did at the end of last season.
Atlanta is dealing with a roster crunch - the team has 16 players on the roster - while also trying to sort out the bigger picture after bringing back its own guys, hitting on the draft, and making a couple of trades. The problem is that the rest of the East has not stood still.
Last season, the Hawks finished as a top-six team, but that no longer feels like a safe expectation. The conference around them has gotten stronger, and if LeBron James were to choose Cleveland, Miami, or Philadelphia, that would make the climb even tougher.
New York, the defending champions, are expected to run it back. The Knicks will be without Mitchell Robinson, and that could hurt them in the postseason, but they still look like a team that should finish near the top of the conference.
Philadelphia has added Jaylen Brown to a group that already includes Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, and VJ Edgecombe. Toronto went out and traded for Kawhi Leonard.
Miami made what might have been the biggest swing of the offseason by trading for Giannis Antetokounmpo. The 76ers and Heat both finished behind Atlanta in the standings last year, and the Hawks will have to keep them behind them again if they want to stay in the upper tier.
Indiana is another team that finished behind Atlanta and now looks dangerous again. The Pacers are getting Tyrese Haliburton back and added Ivica Zubac at the trade deadline in February. After reaching the Finals last summer, they should be right back in the mix.
Detroit, which finished as the No. 1 seed in the East last season, had a quiet offseason, but the talent is still there and they should be in the fight again. Cleveland, Boston, and Orlando are also in the group of teams pushing for playoff spots, and Charlotte and Washington are part of the picture too.
That’s the reality for Atlanta: there won’t be many easy nights.
The Hawks are counting on internal growth from Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, Onyeka Okongwu, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker. They’ll also need depth from Kingston Flemings, Aaron Wiggins, Jock Landale, and the rest of the roster to hold up over the season.
So yes, Atlanta still has a path to the playoffs. But the margin for error is smaller now, and the Eastern Conference looks loaded heading into next season.
By 2026-2027, the case can even be made that Milwaukee, Chicago, and Brooklyn are the only teams in the conference that are not likely to make the postseason. That would leave 12 teams fighting for eight spots.
The Hawks are still in the conversation. They just won’t have much room to breathe.
In Other News...
Ranking The Hawks Moves That Could Define This Front Office
The Hawks spent the offseason trying to thread a tricky needle: get better now without losing sight of what comes next. That meant swinging big for Aaron Wiggins from Oklahoma City at the cost of two first-round picks, then turning around and adding three rookies with the No. 8, No. 23 and No. 57 selections while also keeping familiar veterans around on one-year deals to stabilize the rotation.
There is a clear logic to the mix, even if the front office is still waiting to see how it all fits together. CJ McCollum gives Atlanta another proven shot creator, Jock Landale adds insurance behind Onyeka Okongwu, and Mouhamed Gueyes option keeps a developmental piece in place, but the move that may say the most about where the Hawks are headed is the one for Devin Carter, a former lottery pick whose defensive upside could make him another useful layer in the bench picture. [Read more 🡒]
What The Hawks Really Preserved In The Jock Landale Deal
The Hawks move for Jock Landale came with more than just a new big man on the roster. As part of the broader contract picture around the deal, Landale, Jordan Clarkson and Charles Bassey all agreed to waive the implicit no-trade protection in their contracts, a small but meaningful detail that gives teams more flexibility down the road. For Atlanta, that kind of cleanup matters almost as much as the player acquisition itself, especially when every roster move has to be weighed against future cap maneuvering.
Landales agreement also fits into a wider league-wide run of contract housekeeping, with details emerging on players such as Trey Lyles, Jaylen Clark, Marcus Smart, Norman Powell, Ousmane Dieng, Jaxson Hayes, Josh Okogie and Jusuf Nurkic. One of the more interesting side notes for the Hawks is how little room the deal leaves in their non-taxpayer mid-level exception, which is the sort of constraint that can shape the rest of a teams offseason just as much as the headline move. [Read more 🡒]
Mouhamed Gueye Suddenly Faces A Real Hawks Rotation Threat
Mouhamed Gueye has given the Hawks something to like on the defensive end, where his length and activity have helped him carve out a place on the roster conversation. Atlanta also recently picked up his one-year team option, a sign that the organization still sees value in keeping him around, even as the bigger question remains whether his game can grow enough on the other side of the floor to make him more than a situational piece.
Now the pressure is coming from a different direction, with rookies Zuby Ejiofor and Henri Veesaar turning heads in summer league and adding more bodies to a frontcourt mix that is starting to feel crowded. For Gueye, the path forward is pretty clear: keep defending, cut down the mistakes, and show enough offensive progress to stay ahead of the newcomers, because if that part of his game stalls, Atlanta may start looking at its options sooner rather than later. [Read more 🡒]