Ranting about yet another lost season.
Who gets the biggest piece of the blame pie? This is a safe space.
The Hawks’ season has not gone as planned. With Jalen Johnson going down midseason and the Hawks moving off De’Andre Hunter and Bogdan Bogdandovic for pieces in Georges Niang, Caris LeVert and Terance Mann they’ve had a lot of turnover with their roster.
The NBA has so many unspoken rules — the biggest one, however, is that losing games falls at the feet of the best player on the team before anyone else in the organization. For this Hawks team, their best player is Trae Young, an offensive system unto himself and arguably the best passer in basketball — and to be frank the past few seasons…that just hasn’t been enough.
The Hawks are on pace for their second straight losing season and the seventh place spot in the Eastern Conference which guarantees them a Play-In spot with at least two opportunities to make the Playoffs and it begs the question, why?
The injuries to the Hawks roster the past few seasons have left them battered. The loss of potential backup point guard Kobe Bufkin has effectively made him a loss for the team, and since being chosen in the first round by the Atlanta Hawks he’s played in just 27 games. So effectively, the past two years the Hawks have had no point guard depth outside of rising backup Vit Krejci while simultaneously dealing with Jalen Johnson and his unfortunate injury luck dating back as far as his rookie season (and further than that if you want to get dark about it) before he eventually tore his labrum this season, creating instability in the frontcourt as well.
Whose fault is it? Simple answer? Blame God. The Hawks being the 7-seed this season almost seems like an accomplishment.
I’ve often criticized the Hawks ownership and front office and have always felt wholly justified in doing so, but when you look at the team as its currently constructed in March of 2025, I’m not sure what more could have been done to prevent this outcome. Trae Young, for all his positives and all the heavy lifting he does, is not a guy you can rely on to get you 25 efficient points a night.
And that’s perfectly fine.
I believe the level of playmaking ability he brings to a game makes up for his inefficient stretches. I’d even go as far to say that after the Hawks made moves to get Hunter and ‘Bogi’ into new scenery, they actually improved and created depth.
What does our front court rotation look like healthy? What does our guard rotation look like when healthy? We have no idea. To lay the blame at the feet of any one player would seem careless.
I understand this is coming recently after one of the worst losses of the season against the Clippers where the Hawks lost a quarter 35-8 and that projecting a light at the end of the tunnel isn’t what fans want to hear. But I’m sorry, I see the light breaking through all this muck.
Jalen Johnson is real. We need to see him make it through a complete season as a starter but there are no doubts, he’s real. That has to be nurtured the next few seasons. Chances are the team will never be better at the starting point guard position unless you bring in a MVP-level talent which would be nearly impossible, meaning looking to move on from Trae in the short term will only hold back what Jalen Johnson will be offensively.
Unless you’re the type of fan that’d want to see Jalen as the primary ball handler AKA a basketball terrorist.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Atlanta Hawks future is bright. The pieces they got back in those deadline trades look like smart moves that could be turned into great ones.
Before losing Jalen Johnson the Hawks had gone 22-19, and they have gone 11-16 since then. So, there is no question as to why the season began to break down.
My question to fans is this: if Jalen Johnson is this important to team success as the no. 2 option, how good is your team?