The Atlanta Hawks have done an excellent job building up their roster in the last few NBA offseasons. After missing the postseason for three straight seasons, they returned with a bang in 2021.
Atlanta just missed out on earning home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, finishing in the 5th spot in the Eastern Conference. They had the same record as the fourth-seeded New York Knicks but lost the tiebreaker.
It ended up not mattering much, as the Hawks defeated the Knicks in five games in the first round. They then defeated the Philadelphia 76ers in seven games in Round Two before falling to the eventual NBA Champion Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Having turned things around so quickly, the Hawks are going to have some tough decisions to make. They will have to decide which players they want to retain as part of their core going forward, and that could get very expensive.
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Atlanta has numerous players that are deserving of an extension, but they cannot afford to keep everyone. What if they consolidated some of those players and put them into a trade package for someone such as Brandon Ingram.
What could trade between the New Orleans Pelicans and Hawks look like? Let’s take a look at this hypothetical deal.