The Hawks officially put a wrap on their season Friday when players met with coaches and the front office to reflect on the season. They along with Hawks general manager Landry Fields and coach Quin Snyder shared with media members some of those reflections and what the team’s next steps look like.
Here are 10 things we learned from the Hawks’ exit interviews Friday.
1. Young wants to be here … but he also wants to win
With the Hawks likely to make some major changes this summer, rumors have begun to swirl about whether the team may trade Trae Young. In February, Young acknowledged that trade rumors come with a career in the NBA.
But Young has not made it a secret that he wants to win a championship, and he’s said before that he would want to do so in Atlanta. He had a similar sentiment Friday.
“Every year teams are different,” Young said. “I mean, obviously, I want to be here. I want to be here, but I want to win, too. I’ve said that since I’ve been here. I want to be here. I want to win championships here and do that. But I want to win. So, that’s pretty much all it is for me. That’s my motto, and that’s been me from the beginning.”
2. Young open to not being the main option
When asked about what he may tell a potential free agent looking to sign with the Hawks, Young said he wanted to set the record straight. He’s OK with not being the main focus.
“People may think that I have to feel like I’m the best player on the team or 1A or first option,” Young said. “I mean, I’m not that way. I’ve never been that way. So I’m just a guy that’s trying to get everybody involved and win the game, and I know when we win, everybody eats.”
3. Hawks focused on the team, not just their star backcourt
As the Hawks head into the offseason, plenty of questions have arisen as far as what their backcourt tandem could look like in the future. But both Fields and Snyder said their focus was on the whole team and not only guards Dejounte Murray and Young.
“Well, first, they’re both excellent players,” Snyder said. “And I think anytime you’re looking at a group and analyzing the group, it’s important to not focus on any one, two people that it is a team, and it’s collective, and that’s the way that I look at it. I really love having the opportunity to coach both of those guys.”
4. Injuries plagued the team
The players pointed to injuries stunting the rotation and on-court flow.
This season, the Hawks battled injuries to several key players, including forward Jalen Johnson, who missed 14 games early in the season with a wrist fracture. He also battled ankle injuries down the stretch of the season all while the Hawks did not have Young (torn ligament in left fifth finger), Onyeka Okongwu (left big toe sprain) and Saddiq Bey (torn ACL; right knee).
“You build chemistry and that’s where the consistency comes from,” Murray said. “When there’s new lineups is just hard to build chemistry that way. So, at the end of the day, like I said, I’m not somebody to make excuses. So, whoever’s healthy who’s ever out there ready to compete at a high level is who you go out and practice with and get ready for games with. Obviously, in this league win at a high level I feel like you have to be healthy and you have to be consistent.”
5. Johnson ready to build on breakout season
Johnson took a big step forward and leaned into his expanded role in the lineup. But injuries hampered him in a year he created a case for the NBA’s Most Improved Player award.
But Johnson is more concerned about building his strength for next season so that he can stay on the court to help the Hawks.
“This summer is going to be another big summer for me just as far as development because everybody thinks it was a good year,” Johnson said. “I think it can be better for sure. So that’s my mindset going into the summer. It’s constantly trying to get better at everything and then polish everything.”
6. Locker-room chemistry did not translate
Throughout the day, players reflected on how much they liked the team and that they had a good locker room. While they all liked and enjoyed each other’s company, they noted that the off-court chemistry never transitioned to the game.
“When we play a game that we can’t allow always the best player to have the best nights and just let it happen,” Hawks center Clint Capela said. “At some point as a team we need to show character or just, I don’t know one elbow or something. Just that, ‘OK, he’s not just gonna come in here and have a nice night.’”
7. Hawks still working on selflessness
For some players, on-court selfishness played a role in their inability to build consistent chemistry during games. So, as the team looks to build out the roster this summer, they’ll try to look for a sense of selflessness in the players they target at the NBA draft, through trades and during free agency. It’s part of how they’ll build a championship-caliber team the right way.
“It’s things that I think I’ve emphasized since I got here,” Snyder said. “I want to see us play really unselfishly. I want to see a group that is connected and you see that on the floor. I want to see a group that competes through everything and the resilience that you have to have to do all those things, there’s a component of just perseverance that’s required.
“In this business, it’s important to when things aren’t going a way because that is sure as we know, that’s the one thing we can count on. So, you have to be able to persevere and really continue to commit to those other things, being unselfishly competing and being a connected group.”
8. Roster change is on the horizon
The Hawks understand that one of the ways to improve the team is through some personnel changes.
“Well, I am just really appreciative of this group, and what they put in and the growth that did occur,” Snyder said. “And when you you look at that, you’re always trying to get better. You’re always trying to improve whatever, you know, small changes can occur larger changes, some of that stuff. It’s not things for me right now to try to focus on and figure out. When I come back, we’ll look more and more and try to figure out how to get better. Really, it’s that simple.”
9. Two players did not participate in media availability
Bey and De’Andre Hunter did not conduct exit interviews with the media. Hunter was not at the Hawks’ practice facility Friday, and the team did not provide a reason for his absence.
The Hawks did not indicate whether Bey was at the practice facility, but Bey has been away from the team since his injury March 10. Injured players do not have to speak to reporters, and Bey has been recovering from surgery to repair a torn ACL in his left knee.
10. Internal development sparks pride
“I was really proud of our guys this year,” Snyder said. “The way they competed, just appreciate the work that they did day in and day out to improve.”
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