What can hypothetical future contenders like the Hawks, Bulls, Spurs and Pelicans learn from this year’s conference finalists? In the penultimate episode of The Good Place, Chidi Anagonye offers a Buddhist perspective on death: “Picture a wave. In the ocean. You can see it, measure it, its height, the way the sunlight refracts when it
Atlanta Hawks
Josh Smith is still on the Detroit Pistons’ payroll. Near the end of Detroit Pistons legend Joe Dumars’ tenure as GM in 2013, he made one last desperate swing for the fences by acquiring Josh Smith from the Atlanta Hawks. While Smith was coming off of a season in which he averaged 17.5 points per
Shaquille O’Neal. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images) Shaquille O’Neal absolutely trolled Vince Carter over a Zoom call. Shaquille O’Neal is a man of many talents, as he’s a better interior gardener than Vince Carter. “The Big Aristotle” took out a water bottle and poured it possibly over his crotch to try to prove a point.
Trae Young, Atlanta Hawks. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images) The Atlanta Falcons and the Atlanta Hawks swapped uniforms in this concept. Birds of a feather flock together in The ATL forever and always. The Atlanta Falcons and the Atlanta Hawks have had long and frustrating histories of not bringing home league championships to the Dirty
As Basketball Insiders has continued its “Looking Back” series, it was only a matter of time until we crossed the double digits. Now that time has come. Today we are taking a look at how all of the tenth overall picks since 2009 have fared in the NBA. As you probably know, as the lottery
If you’ve been tuning in, Basketball Insiders has been looking into how each lottery pick has fared in the league since 2009. We’ve categorized each player as a hit, miss, in between or a role player. We started at the top with the first overall pick and we’ve been making our way down since. At
Welcome back to Basketball Insiders’ “Looking Back” series! We’ve already gone over how the first and second overall pick have fared since 2009, so naturally, the next pick up is the third overall pick. Like with the first two, we categorize these players by if they are hits, misses, in the middle, or role players.
As many as a dozen players could make strong cases they belong on this year’s ballot for Most Improved, but these seven stood out from the pack. The beauty of an award like Most Improved Player is in how wide a net it casts across the NBA. The more glamorous MVP and Rookie of the
To grasp how one can be underrated, the definition for rated must be first observed, obviously. Taking a page out of the apathetic/lazy/Jeff Winger best man speech how-to guide and textbook, Webster’s Dictionary states that rate (and its many tenses) is to “assign a standard or value to (something) according to a particular scale.” In
Basketball is back! Well, technically – 16 NBA players will be playing basketball. Online. In a video game. Hey, that still counts, right? Along with a few shining moments of optimism, the sporting world is slightly less of a barren hellscape than it was a week ago – even though the rest of the planet
To say the events of the past three or so weeks were irregular would be the understatement of the year. And during an already tragic year for the NBA, the league made the tough choice to postpone the season, prior to government intervention, on Wednesday, Mar. 11. In the two-plus weeks since the COVID-19 outbreak
LeBron James dominated the Eastern Conference for almost a decade, making eight straight NBA Finals. Here are the five best teams who could never topple The King. When LeBron James joined the Miami Heat a decade ago, he and his new teammates, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh promised five or more NBA titles. They never quite
The Stretch Run. With 20-odd games remaining on the schedule, it’s officially make-or-break time for the majority of the league — unless your franchise rhymes with Los Shamjealous or Hillmockie, of course. With tantalizing lottery picks for those that bottom out or home-court postseason revenue for teams that push forward, the post-All-Star break jockeying is
The Philadelphia 76ers are the NBA’s greatest enigma. At home, the Sixers are a powerhouse. Their 25-2 record speaks for itself, but that number still fails to encapsulate their impressiveness in their own arena. The 20-point drubbings of the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers, the teams with the best record in each conference, add
They had the time, and now the time has passed. The earthquake that is the NBA Trade Deadline has passed over. With only the aftershock that is buyout season left, it’s only fair to look into who came out as the winners and losers at the deadline. Drew Maresca’s already dove into who the winners
The Atlanta Hawks got a new pick-and-roll partner for Trae Young by trading for Clint Capela but can the new acquisition mesh well with John Collins? Now official, the four-team, 12-player trade between the Atlanta Hawks, Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets and Minnesota Timberwolves is the biggest trade in the NBA since Patrick Ewing was shipped
The 2020 NBA Trade Deadline made us wait. As always, the NBA universe held its collective breath until 3 p.m EST on Feb. 6th. Deadline day ultimately had at least its share of blockbusters and franchise-altering deals, headlined by a massive four-team, 12-player trade between Atlanta, Denver, Houston and Minnesota. Basketball Insiders will provide an
The Rockets have swung for the fences, piecing together a four-team trade that brings in Robert Covington and sends Clint Capela to the Hawks. On Wednesday, with more than 24 hours left until the trade deadline, four teams jumped ahead and finalized a massive deal. The outlines of this trade had already emerged during the
Zion Williamson and Trae Young, will be the latest case studies in player empowerment encroaching upon NBA stars’ first contracts. Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin made news this summer when he said he was “miserable” during his time building a championship team around LeBron James in Cleveland. After building something “unsustainable”
The 2020 NBA Draft is scheduled for Thursday, June 25, 2020. While a number of NBA franchises are still vying for a playoff spot, plenty of teams have already begun to shift gears, putting themselves in the best position for the draft. But there are a number of complications that hinder the approach for cellar-dwellers
Knee issues have kept Chandler Parsons off the floor a lot in recent years, but severe injuries in a car accident last week have put his NBA playing career in jeopardy. Chandler Parsons was not going to play much for the Atlanta Hawks this season after being traded to them last July, so it’s not
With the trade deadline only a few weeks away, teams are zeroing in on potential deals. Some teams hope to improve for a playoff push, while others are looking to capitalize on the urgency of contenders. Whichever side of that equation your favorite team finds itself on, they are surely weighing all of their options.
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – JANUARY 09: Jeff Teague #0 of the Minnesota Timberwolves looks on during the game against the Portland Trail Blazers at Target Center on January 9, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and
Lottery picks are viewed through rose-colored lenses in the NBA. As the draft approaches, teams, fans and the media alike increasingly overvalue top players and picks. Player comparisons provide unrealistic evaluations, and they put a ton of pressure on young players. Meanwhile, top prospects are mostly under 20-years-old and – more often than not –
In today’s NBA, the offseason is almost as exciting as the regular season and playoffs. There is Free Agency, of course, but outside of the normal player movement storylines, there is also the neverending cycle of workout videos and hype generation. Every summer brings footage of players dominating an LA Fitness gym or of a
Rookie Cam Reddish has not been shooting well. This is weird because he’s supposed to be good. I want to find out what’s up. Okay. Yeah. So, Cam Reddish is a rookie. He plays for the Atlanta Hawks. He shoots basketballs, and he’s not very good at doing it. This is a bad thing. Now
The NBA season is still very young, but some disappointing starts are just that – disappointing. Meaning that they can exist on their own without knowing the end result. Certain players and teams around the league surprised us with their unexpectedly strong play, and others have left us scratching our heads and wondering what’s went
MIAMI, FLORIDA – OCTOBER 14: Head coach Lloyd Pierce of the Atlanta Hawks talks with John Collins #20 against the Miami Heat during the first half of the preseason game at American Airlines Arena on October 14, 2019 in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using
Welcome to The Whiteboard, your daily source for the previous day’s best NBA content from around the internet, plus an original column. Catch The Whiteboard here on The Step Back, and subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Atlanta Hawks have some promising young talent on the roster right
With a pair of top-10 picks in the 2019 NBA Draft, the Hawks have a variety of options. Which players should be at the top of their draft board? The Hawks finished an exciting season, watching Trae Young emerge as a future star and validate his primacy in their rebuilding plans. Taurean Prince took another