The Hawks kinda remind me of the McGrady/Yao led Rockets. They have just enough talent to always be considered 'dark horse' but just don't have what it takes to ever get past the first round. Their future is our present.
Yao/ Mac is way better than what Atlanta ever had atleast Yao was a true difference maker on both sides of the ball and Mac was Johnson on steroids in comparison. Those rocket teams would have made some deep runs if they played in the east and people on this board would probably view that era a little different.
Hawks send Joe Johnson + future unprotected first rounder Jazz send Al Harrington + Raja Bell + CJ Miles Valuewise, Hawks win out, but have to take risk by giving an unprotected 1st round pick. Jazz, they're desperate for a SG who can shoot, and they want to develop Favors & Kanter (thus dumping Jefferson while still giving good production & value). The Jazz salary situation is also quite favorable to absorb Johnson's remaining contract, and no serious FA wants to play there, so they just have to roll a dice if they want to get better.
they need to go the denver route. you can't get a top 5 player to lead you to the finals, get all 5 starters to be top 10 at their position. with a good coach and some nice role players they could compete. there's no way the hawks are getting out of jj's contract so "blowing it up" isn't a real option.
Not really. T-Mac and Yao were superstars. They had no supporting cast. 0 B level players. The Hawks have 3 B+ players and then some solid players like Jeff Teague. They have no A level players.
