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Atlanta Hawks: How to Get Back to the ECF

By John Buhler

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The Atlanta Hawks are coming off their best season in City history, winning 60 games and playing in their first Eastern Conference Finals in 2015.

The hardest part about being successful is sustaining it. I don’t think anybody believes that the Atlanta Hawks will go on a 33-3 run during the regular season and win 60 games in 2015-16. Is 60 wins impossible next year? No, but I feel that 50 to 55 is more likely for our Atlanta Hawks this winter.

-= Related: Where Can Mike Budenholzer Improve in 2016? =-

Will that be enough to get the Atlanta Hawks back to the Eastern Conference Finals with another date with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers? Potentially. Was is it going to take to get our club back into the Championship mix in 2016?

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The first thing the Atlanta Hawks need to do is to repeat as Southeast Division Champions in 2015-16. Though it isn’t as important for home court advantage since the NBA adopted overall record to decide playoff seeding, having a better record that both the Miami Heat and the Washington Wizards would bode well for HC Mike Budenholzer’s team.

Atlanta would need to finish as a Top 3 seed in the East so that they will not have to face the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Semis. Until it happens, LeBron James’ team will make it to the Eastern Conference Finals annually. Keep in mind that Cleveland will have a presumably healthy Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love during next year’s playoff run.

With the Eastern Conference’s complexion entering 2015-16, I feel that should the Atlanta Hawks win 55 games and the Southeast Division, that should stand as enough of a cushion to earn a Top 3 seed. I don’t think the Atlantic will have a Top 4 team this season but the Central has some great basketball teams in it with the Cavs, Chicago Bulls, and the Milwaukee Bucks.

Outside of regular season record for strategic purposes, Atlanta will need to have developed strong 10, 9, and 8-man bench rotations during the regular season. Bud likes to use his entire bench during the regular season, a strength of the Hawks. However, in the NBA Playoffs when the game slows down, Atlanta will need to know which handful of guys it can lean on it a high-octane playoff environment.

Lastly, Atlanta will need to either out hustle every playoff team they face in transition or factor in the offensive rebounding game. Atlanta could counterbalance with a great deal of fast break buckets, but corralling second-chance opportunities might seem more advantageous for the Atlanta Hawks in a playoff environment.

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    • Bud emphasizes playing with pace, which I’ve assumed means that he wants to go fast like Ricky Bobby. On the contrary, I think it should apply to owning the pace of the game and dictate the tempo, whether that’s fast, moderate, or slow. I see that if last year’s deep playoff run taught the Atlanta Hawks anything is that pace is all relative, that a team can win a game playing at any tempo they wish, so long as the own it.

    The Atlanta Hawks will definitely have the target on their backs this year after surprising many in the NBA with their unprecedented success last year. The Hawks are bringing a championship contending culture to a city known for choking in the meaningful playoff games for decades.

    Though the Atlanta Hawks were promptly swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the ECF, we all know that the better team won last year. Atlanta ran out of gas in unfamiliar territory, which happens sometimes. I see the Atlanta Hawks striving to contend for an NBA Championship again in 2016. This first step in getting there is getting back to the ECF. Let’s Go Hawks!

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