Analyst Gives Two Words To Describe the Atlanta Hawks Heading Into The Next Part of The Season

The NBA All-Star Break is coming to an end this week and the final push for the playoffs is going to commence. The Atlanta Hawks are one of several teams that are vying for a top six seed in the Eastern Conference and to avoid the play-in tournament. Heading into Thursday's matchup vs the Orlando Magic, the Hawks are four games out of 5th place (Milwaukee Bucks), three games out of 6th place (Detroit), and a half game out of 7th place (Orlando). The Hawks have a very important four game stretch to open the next part of the season. They face Orlando on Thursday, Detroit on Sunday, and then two matchups with the Miami Heat. Atlanta would love to come out of that stretch either 3-1 or 4-0 and put themselves in good position when it comes to playoff positioning.

What would be the best way to describe the Hawks as they head into the next part of this season? Bleacher Reports Zach Buckley described the Hawks as "Temporarily Trapped":

There's an alternate universe in which Atlanta might be leading the tanking race. There might be another in which the Hawks have fully catered toward Trae Young and are doing everything in their power to construct a contender around him.

"In our reality, though, Atlanta has simply accepted that treading water is the only option available. Tanking is off the table, because the Hawks ceded control of their next three first-round picks. Contending isn't doable either because of an overall lack of high-end talent. At least the front office isn't sacrificing long-term assets for minor but ultimately meaningless present upgrades.

The Hawks do have more of a future-focused feel to them, thanks to a budding young core (sadly missing Jalen Johnson for this season's remainder) and some financially driven deadline dealing. They won't fully shift things forward until they figure out what to do with Young, though. There's probably a Trae-for-assets trade coming at some point, but since Atlanta wouldn't benefit from bottoming out, there's no reason to rush such a significant move."

This Hawks season was always about the future and seeing how the pieces of Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher, and Onyeka Okongwu fit around Trae Young. Johnson's season-ending injury is not changing that. I don't think "temporarily trapped" is quite how I would describe the Hawks heading into the final two months of the season for that exact reason.

What should be encouraging for the Hawks is how Daniels and Risacher are playing right now. Risacher is having the best month of his career, shooting 55% from the field, 41% from three, and he has had six double-digit scoring games and he has only shot below 50% from the field once this month. Maybe even more impressive for Risacher is that he is taking care of the basketball. In seven games this season, Risacher has only two turnovers.

Daniels has been one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA all season long, but he has been playing well on the other end as well. He is averaging 17.1 PPG, 6.1 RPG, and 5.7 APG on 53% shooting from the field and 64% from three. He still has things to improve upon but this has been a bright spot for the Hawks.

Most have written the Hawks off since the Johnson injury, but the improved play of Daniels and Risacher to go along with the additions of Caris LeVert, Georges Niang, and Terance Mann have Atlanta set up for a potentially sneaky run to the playoffs.

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