Looking At The Eastern Conference, Atlanta Has to Feel This Was A Missed chance to Not Be Higher In The Standings
Ever since making the Eastern Conference Finals in 2021, the Atlanta Hawks have turned in three disappointing seasons in a row, including this one. Now, Atlanta could get Trae Young back and make a magical run in the playoffs (very, very, very unlikely), but they are likely heading for either an exit in the play-in tournament or a beatdown at the hands of the No. 1 seeded Boston Celtics. The two years after the Hawks went to the conference finals, you saw a pretty deep Eastern Conference playoff field. This year, Atlanta has to feel that they have let an opportunity slip away to be a top-six or higher team in the East.
Now it should be noted that the Hawks have been one of the most injured teams this year. Young has not played since February and has only played 51 games this year, De'Andre Hunter has played in 54 games, Jalen Johnson has only played 55 games, Onyeka Okongwu has missed time and played 55 games, Saddiq Bey suffered a season-ending injury, and promising rookie guard Kobe Bufkin was starting to play well and earn a rotation spot, but then got injured and missed a month. The Hawks have had to navigate a ton of injuries to their best players, but when you look at the Eastern Conference Standings, you have to think of this season as a big missed opportunity for them to be among the top teams.
Boston is far and away the best team in the Eastern Conference and in terms of net rating, they are one of the best regular season teams in NBA History, trailing only the 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls and the 96-97 Bulls (according to statmuse). At this point, it would be a shock to see Boston not win the East and maybe win it going away.
The rest of the Eastern Conference is a mess.
Milwaukee is in 2nd place and has gotten another MVP-level season from Giannis Antetokounmpo, but the Bucks are not playing good basketball right now and are in danger of falling to the No. 4 and No. 5 spots in the East. It would not be surprising to see Milwaukee in the conference finals, but it also would not be a shock to see them get put out in the first round. This is the most vulnerable the Bucks have been since Antetokounmpo ascended to the superstar level he is at now.
The Cavaliers are in fifth place, but like the Bucks, they are not playing well towards the end of the season. Cleveland has also not shown they can compete in the playoffs with this roster, losing in embarrassing fashion to the Knicks in the first round last year.
The Knicks might be the most interesting team of the cluster of teams behind Boston. They did lose Julius Randle for the season but got OG Anunoby back recently and they have been a tremendous team with him this season. If things break right, the Knicks could end up being the second-best team in the conference this season.
Orlando and Indiana are the surprises of the season in the East, but there are plenty of questions about how good they might be in the playoffs. Indiana has one of the worst defenses in the NBA and Tyrese Haliburton has cooled off and not played as well since the beginning of the season. Orlando is the exact opposite, as they have one of the league's worst offenses, but have one of the best defenses.
Miami has shown they can make a run despite being a play-in team and Philadelphia just got Joel Embiid back, but they also might end up playing Boston in the first round, which is not a good matchup.
This leads me back to my original point that the Hawks missed a golden opportunity to be sitting at the top of the standings this year. It also might be pretty revealing that despite all of these weak and compromised teams in the Eastern Conference, the Hawks can't get above .500 and be a consistent team, which might point to why there could be big changes this offseason.
