Coming NBA All-Star Weekend Exposes Atlanta Hawks Youth
By W. M. Lawson
The Atlanta Hawks (18-40) head into the NBA All-Star weekend tied for last in the entire league. But this weekend shows that all is not lost for ATL.
It goes without saying that the Atlanta Hawks aren’t exactly killing it this year. Well, they are in a manner of speaking. They’ve killed expectations. They’ve killed any hopes of drawing a big name Free Agent to Atlanta. They’ve killed season attendance. They’ve killed our uniforms. But you get the drift. This coming NBA All-Star weekend, though, while it exposes some glaring bad things for our Hawks, it also shows some promise for the future.
2006. That was the last time the Atlanta Hawks didn’t have an NBA All-Star representative. 2000 freaking 6.
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Technically speaking, it was the 2005-2006 NBA season. That year Atlanta went (26-56) on the year, finishing last the Southeast Division and 2nd to last in the Eastern Conference. Joe Johnson led the team, averaging approximately 20/PPG in scoring, and Marvin Williams was voted 2nd team All-Rookie. Sound familiar?
The results are eerily similar to this season. Dennis Schröder leads the team, averaging approximately 20/PPG in scoring, and John Collins was voted to the Rising Stars Game (equivalent to the Rookie team of 2006).
There is a little bit of difference here, though. Taurean Prince is also in the Rising Stars game, due to an injury to another player set to play. Prince has played fairly well, and we should be happy to see him recognized.
And that kind of gets us to the point. We know what happened to those 2006 Hawks. They fixed it by a mix of huge contracts (See: Joe Johnson) and drafting well (See: Al Horford and Jeff Teague).
The good news for these 2018 Hawks is that they can fix it through the NBA Draft. We’ve seen it done. And while things look bleak now, the future looks good with Collins and Prince.
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So, take heart Atlanta Hawks fans. It ain’t pretty right now. But it ain’t permanent either. If GM Travis Schlenk drafts well, it could be another 12 years before the NBA All-Star Game doesn’t feature one of our beloved Atlanta Hawks.