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Atlanta Hawks: Slightly Lowered Expectations in 2015-16?

By John Buhler

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I don’t care if I talk about it ad nauseam, last season for the Atlanta Hawks was the best I’ve ever seen in my lifetime.  60 wins, 4 All-Stars, NBA Coach of the Year, and the franchises first ever trip to the Eastern Conference Finals.  But that was last year.

As much as I want to relive the beautiful ride of the 2014-15 Atlanta Hawks, it’s now just a memory, a fantastically positive one at that.  This is the first time for many of us that we are eagerly anticipating the return of Atlanta Hawks basketball in October.  We were part of a culture change.  The City of Atlanta and its NBA franchise are better because of it.

-= Jeff Teague Assists Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta =-

But if you honestly think that the Atlanta Hawks are going to win 60 games again and go 33-3 in a 36 game stretch, perhaps you need your head checked.  Unless you’re the 1996 Chicago Bulls (72-10), you don’t go on a scalding lava hot stretch like that.  That 19-game winning streak will go down in Atlanta lore like the 14 straight division titles of the Atlanta Braves.  I have no doubt about that.

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    • However, you can’t go into an NBA season and assume your team will win close to 75% of its games.  Those are unreasonable expectations for even a LeBron James-led team.  Only the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors accomplished that high mark.  All I’m asking is to lower the demands of your 2015-16 Atlanta Hawks just slightly.

    I still see the Atlanta Hawks as the clear-cut favorite to repeat as Champions of the Southeast Division, though I do expect Miami and Washington to contend as well with Charlotte and Orlando on the upswing.  Atlanta will likely finish next season as a Top 4 seed in the Eastern Conference, with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Atlantic Division winner (Boston or Toronto), and another heavy-hitter coming out of the East with over 50 wins.

    So where do we need to set the bar for the 2015-16 Atlanta Hawks to not come away massively disappointed when next year’s season ends?  Expect Atlanta to have around 50-55+ wins and earn the number two or three seed in the East behind Cleveland for sure and possibly somebody like the Chicago Bulls or potentially the Milwaukee Bucks if they learn to shoot.

    -= Mike Scott Arrested on Felony Drug Charges =-

    Atlanta should get out of the first round easily as the two seed, but need to hope that a 3-6 matchup with Milwaukee doesn’t happen.  As it was with last year’s team, the Eastern Conference Semifinals is all about matchups.  Atlanta had a slight edge over the Washington Wizards and were able to advance.  Getting the Bulls, the Bucks, or even the Heat or Wizards in Round Two wouldn’t be a breeze in 2016.

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    And until somebody in the East can dethrone LeBron James, his team will continue as the presumed favorites to go back to the NBA Finals.  Demanding that the 2015-16 Atlanta Hawks achieve the same success as the 2014-15 squad is a little ungrateful as so many things went the Hawks way last year.  Getting to a Conference Finals is an incredible accomplishment given the perceived lack of parity in the NBA, though it is improving under new Commissioner Adam Silver.

    So in the third year of Head Coach Mike Budenholzer’s tenure in Atlanta, our beloved Atlanta Hawks need to win 50 games and play in the Eastern Conference Semifinals to have a satisfactory season.  I would equate playing in the ECSF like playing in the NLCS in Major League Baseball or in the Divisional Round of the NFC Playoffs.  It means that you’re in the mix as a possible title contender and for a city so unbelievably starved for a champion, cursed with hapless luck, that’s not bad company by any means.

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