If you missed Game 6 the other night, keep it that way.
It was a disaster rolled into a catastrophe, then deep fried and dipped in calamity. And unfortunately, the Hawks (46-36) just need to own it until training camp rolls around in September.
After losing by 11, then 16, then 29 points in this series alone, surely the Hawks would compose themselves to fight to the bitter end.
Yeah…no.
One thing is abundantly clear: these Hawks were not ready for the big stage. A lot of work remains if they organization
is to achieve something higher than “flatly embarrassed on national TV in an elimination game.”
At one point in the second half of the regular season, the Hawks mired in 10th place in the Eastern Conference. But the 20-6 stretch after the All-Star break had a lot of us (myself included) thinking they had found something special from within.
And then the Knicks gave them a painful reminder of how far they still need to go.
That’s not to say that there is nothing to take away from the post-All-Star break surge — or from the season at large. Jalen Johnson grew (offensively at least) into an elite, ‘first name on the team scouting report’ player. But his limitations were on full display in the New York series.
“It sucks,” Johnson had to say on media day about the crushing Game 6 defeat. “It’s a terrible feeling. It’s not the way you want the series to end, of course. A lot of fuel going into next season. A lot of fuel going into the offseason for everybody. We’re gonna make sure this never happens again, we never get this type of feeling again. Just a sick feeling to our stomachs.”
Nickeil Alexander-Walker was maybe the single biggest feel-good story of the season. He somehow doubled his scoring output while shooting more efficiently on a much bigger team role than the year previous, winning the Most Improved Player award.
He then shot just 9-for-28 (32%) from two in the playoff series.
The Hawks couldn’t get handle the ball nor create advantages well enough for playoff-level ball pressure. In the first half of Game 6 alone, the Hawks coughed the ball up an astounding 14 times and gave the Knicks 20 points off those turnovers.
They couldn’t deal with Mitchell Robinson physical presence off the glass (14 rebounds per 36 minutes in this series) or above the rim (11 dunks in 83 minutes). They had no answer for Karl-Anthony Towns (20 points per game on 74% true shooting) or OG Anunoby (17 points per game on 75% true shooting).
They lost their composure when things weren’t going their way on Thursday — to understate things mildly.
The whole team got beat in all facets by a clearly better team.
Game. Series.
But these humbling experiences will ultimately players individually and the team going forward. Neither Johnson nor Alexander-Walker nor Dyson Daniels had ever started for a playoff team, and clearly none were quite ready for the intensity and physicality at this level.
Still, the core of the team largely is 25 years of age or younger. This was one of the youngest teams in the league.
Additionally, the Hawks lost their starting point guard and center — both guys former All-Stars and possibly still All-Star-caliber when healthy — midway through the season, and the roster was essentially in a jumbled state starting from game 5.
What began as a promising season quickly turned into a transition year just two weeks in. You just can’t plan for these unforeseen circumstances.
Having said that, it calls into question whether the main options on offense have been extended too far — thrust into roles too large for their skillsets. Maybe Johnson isn’t a championship-level primary option and maybe Alexander-Walker as your number two scoring option isn’t quite it.
As we turn to the offseason, it’s extremely fortunate that the Hawks maintained a level of financial flexibility and draft asset accumulation that will benefit them greatly in the long run — maybe as soon as May 10th’s NBA Draft Lottery results.
“We’re not one player away from this,” general manager Onsi Saleh remarked about what the future holds at exit interviews. “The best iteration of this team is through development and our players currently getting better. We’re really excited about the future and what holds there. From the draft to the flexibility moving forward, all that stuff. We’re in a good position set up moving forward.”
This offseason will be a major test to see how the team builds upon a mixed but overall successful campaign. They have to keep looking for ways to win around the edges to both improve that talent level and fit on this roster. It won’t happen overnight.
It’s frustrating to be told to continue to have patience — believe me, I know. It’s been a lot of years since the Hawks were bona fide ‘contenders.’
Maybe the perfect series of events lines up this offseason to vault the team into that elite status in the NBA. But the results of their brief postseason journey left no question that there’s no running this one back.
