THE ATHLETIC DATE: 11/22/2020

Kirschner: Long live the Hawks’ rebuilding process; Atlanta is ready to win

By: Chris Kirschner https://theathletic.com/2214382/2020/11/22/atlanta-hawks-nba-free-agency/

Gone are the days when Damian Jones missed another defensive assignment. Gone are the days when DeAndre’ Bembry wildly drove into the lane in crunch time. Gone are the days when 43-year-old Vince Carter played 15 minutes per game because he had to play. Gone are the days when Allen Crabbe, Chandler Parsons and Evan Turner collected checks so the Hawks could try to flip them for a draft pick at a later date.

Tyrone Wallace. . Tyler Zeller. Remember them?

And, most important, gone are the days when the Hawks’ rookies played 25 to 30 minutes per night when it’s clear they just weren’t ready to be thrown into the fire. But because , John Collins, , and De’Andre Hunter panned out and proved themselves to be valuable NBA players, the Hawks were able to have the free-agency weekend they just had.

The Hawks went into the weekend with the most cap space and spent every dollar to upgrade their roster, and now they have one of the deepest teams in the league. General manager signed to a three-year, $61.5 million deal. Gallinari is one of the league’s best 3-point shooters and has shot better than 40 percent from 3 in each of the past two seasons. Schlenk traded Dewayne Dedmon and turned him into , who will provide wing depth and good shooting.

Schlenk signed Kris Dunn to one of the best value contracts of the weekend at two years, $9.77 million. Dunn is one of the best defensive guards in the NBA and made my All-Defense second team last season. He should help a team that allowed 119 points per game last season. The Hawks added two-time NBA champion Rajon Rondo who they hope is the veteran leader in the locker room and a mentor for Young.

And because they were able to use the room exception for Dunn and preserve their cap space, they had enough money to offer Sacramento guard Bogdan Bogdanovic a four-year, $72 million offer sheet. The Kings have 48 hours to match and keep Bogdanovic, but sources are led to believe they will not match and that Bogdanovic will join the Hawks on Tuesday.

Depth has been an issue for the Hawks in the two years Lloyd Pierce has coached the team. Now, he has options at every position on the roster. Here’s a look at what the depth chart could look like on opening night:

Potential Hawks depth chart POIN SHOOTING SMALL POWER CENTER GUARD GUARD FORWARD FORWARD

Bogdan Starter Trae Young Cam Reddish John Collins Bogdanovic

Rajon De'Andre Danilo Onyeka Bench Kevin Huerter Rondo Hunter Gallinari Okongwu

Brandon Bruno Bench Kris Dunn Tony Snell Goodwin Fernando

Nathan Knight Bench (two-way)

The Hawks went into the offseason needing to improve their defense and shooting, and they accomplished both tasks. I’m still curious to see how Pierce is going to piece together rotations because a starting lineup of Young-Bogdanovic-Reddish-Collins-Capela is still not elite defensively. And if the Hawks did start Gallinari at the three, which I would not endorse, it’s potentially disastrous defensively, so how Pierce combines the shooting needed on the floor with the defensive intensity needed still remains to be seen.

If Pierce decides to go with Gallinari at the three instead of Reddish, the offense is going to be so high- powered with four elite shooters on the floor that perhaps defense won’t matter as much. But come playoff time, it’ll have to be sorted out.

What’s readily apparent after this weekend is the Hawks made it clear to their rising star that they are ready to build a roster around him that can make the playoffs and make noise in the league. In a conversation with The Athletic before the start of free agency, Young spoke about what last season was like for him. He made the All-Star Game and nearly averaged 30 points and 10 assists per game, but there’s still some chatter that he’s not a player the Hawks should be building around.

“It’s definitely tough. It’s definitely tough. Whenever you’re ‘successful’ individually but it’s not showing up in the win column, it’s tough because you build a narrative for yourself that you don’t want,” Young said. “It’s something that I have taken personally, and I don’t believe that’s me. For me, it’s all about changing the narrative that I can’t win. Next year, if I’m averaging 30 and 10 and we’re winning, the whole narrative changes. It’s all about winning. It’s never been about stats for me. Those come naturally. It’s all about trying to win now. “I trust the front office and Travis and Tony (Ressler) and what we do this week. I know it’s a big week for us. I’m sitting back comfortably and trust they’re going to make the right moves. They’ve given me the ability to play in this city, and I trust them.”

If everyone can stay healthy this season, which is a big if because we’re still in a raging pandemic, there’s no reason this deep roster can’t make the playoffs. It remains to be seen if Atlanta can be a top-six seed in a front-loaded Eastern Conference with teams like Boston, Brooklyn, Miami, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Toronto and possibly Indiana, but the Hawks now have the depth to compete with those teams.

Since March, Pierce and the Hawks have said they expect to make the playoffs in the coming season. Pierce’s playoff comments came at an unexpected time because Memphis had just beaten the Hawks by nearly 40 points in one of the worst games I’ve seen, but after two years covering the Hawks, I fully anticipate I’ll be covering my first playoff game soon.

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