Since coach Lloyd Pierce declared the Hawks a 2020 playoff team way back in early March, several players have followed suit, echoing Pierce’s claims that they’re nearing the end of their rebuild.
If they achieve that goal, going from a 20-47 team (19-44 at the time of Pierce’s comments) to the postseason the very next year, it would certainly embody a remarkable turnaround. Ultimately, they’ll have to prove it come Dec. 22, when the season finally starts after a delay due to the coronavirus.
Even before last season, though, there was talk of the Hawks, a young and energetic team, perhaps sneaking up and nabbing the No. 8 seed in the East. Outside of the team’s Core Five players (Trae Young, John Collins, Kevin Huerter, Cam Reddish, De’Andre Hunter), who combined for a pretty competitive group, a dreadful start exposed a shallow roster that wasn’t built to win, chock-full of guys who clearly wouldn’t be there long-term.
This year, though, the approach to roster construction will be different, with an eye on taking a step forward as a franchise. Regardless of whether the Hawks can actually make the playoffs (or contend for a spot), the time has come for them to start improving, for their focus to turn from acquiring assets and future picks to acquiring players who can help the team right now, per general manager Travis Schlenk.
“We’ve always looked to take advantage of our cap space; we’ve been doing that ever since I got here,” Schlenk said Monday, meeting with the media to discuss Wednesday’s NBA Draft. "I think the difference is, in the past, we’ve taken on quote-unquote dead money to gain assets, and this year we’re going to go out there and look to sign guys that we think mesh or blend well with our guys, so it’s turning the corner a little bit from asset accumulation to hopefully talent accumulation.
“I think we saw that the first step of that was last year at the trade deadline with Clint (Capela). We went out and used a draft pick to get Clint and really, we can say he’s going to be like a free agent, because we never saw him play at all last year, with our guys.”
Indeed, that was one of the first signs of the Hawks taking steps to improve the roster by adding a player who would immediately make them more competitive, though Capela wasn’t able to make his debut due to a nagging heel injury (he’s fully healed now and figures to give the team a major boost at center).
So in free agency or through trades, look for the Hawks to go after talented players who can help the team win next season, or for seasons to come, as opposed to acquiring assets for the future. They will have a little more than $43 million in cap space, the most in the league.
“We certainly are going to try to add to the talent, the depth of our roster in free agency… Depth is a big factor, especially, you know, you’re talking about a season where we’re going into it in the middle of a pandemic,” Schlenk said. “As we’ve seen, this disease is extremely contagious and so if that hits your team, you need to have good, solid depth. So we’re going to look to do the best we can to fill our your roster.”
Schlenk won’t go as far as saying the team will make the playoffs (pointing out the Hawks still have an exceptionally young team), but he did say that’s obviously a goal and that he’s optimistic for the 2020-21 season.
“I think the big thing for us is just to continue to see growth,” Schlenk said. “I would never put the pressure on. There’s been others that have said, you know, playoffs, and that’s certainly a goal. We won’t run from that. It’s what we’re going to try to achieve. But the fact remains that we still have six guys who are 22 or younger on our roster and there’s going to be a learning curve, but we feel very good about our young core that we have and we feel good about the work that they put in this summer, and they’re continuing to put in, getting ready for training camp here in a few weeks, so we’re very optimistic about the upcoming season.”
Since beginning their rebuild in 2017, this is the first time the Hawks enter a season with expectations, some in place because of Pierce’s and players' comments about making the playoffs, some because the Hawks have now had a few years to compile a talented young core and position themselves to hopefully make a run in the East.
Although Schlenk has made it clear this is not a “playoffs-or-bust” year, which makes sense given the leap they’ll have to take to get there, the approach is certainly different this time around.
“We are definitely taking a different approach this year than we have in the past,” Schlenk said. “In the past, with our cap space, we’ve done a few deals before the draft to take on contracts to get more picks in that draft. We haven’t done that this year, so it’s going to make things a little more hectic come this weekend, there in free agency, but we feel good about the spot we’re in with our space.”
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