Many Atlanta Hawks fans are already looking forward to the 2024-25 NBA season after seeing the team win the 2024 NBA Draft lottery despite having just a 3% chance to do it. This stroke of luck could propel the Hawks back to the top of the Eastern Conference standings next season.
For now, though, the Atlanta Hawks’ best players are still licking their wounds after a tough 2023-24 NBA season. The Hawks finished with a 36-46 record and lost to the Chicago Bulls in an NBA Playoffs play-in game. The team also finished with just a 29-54 record against the spread and didn’t put forth a great overall performance when you look at the team through the lens of betting trends and odds. Hawks fans interested in finding an app to bet on their favorite team can navigate to this detailed analysis of the DraftKings app to learn more about app features, bonuses, promos, and deposits.
The good news for the Hawks is that at least some of their 2023-24 struggles can be attributed to Trae Young playing in just 54 games. Young, who averaged a team-high 25.7 points per game, underwent hand surgery in February and missed 23 games. The other good news is that the team is currently projected to pick Alex Sarr, a 7-foot-1 center from France, as the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. It would immediately give them a big frontcourt boost.
But the Hawks will need to get better across the board to have any chance of jumping from the backend of the Eastern Conference to the top of it. In his second season with the Hawks, Dejounte Murray averaged 22.5 points. Most notably, he hit an incredible game-winning buzzer-beater against the Boston Celtics in late March to help Atlanta win an exhilarating overtime game that featured an Atlanta Hawks halftime performance by CeeLo Green. But there have been continued questions about whether or not Young and Murray can coexist on a championship-level team.
That epic game against the Celtics came on the heels of another classic game against the Celtics just a few days earlier in which another one of the Atlanta Hawks’ best players shined. De’Andre Hunter scored 24 points, including a game-clinching three-pointer, against Boston in a 120-118 win that featured the Hawks rallying from a 30-point deficit. The 2023-24 NBA season was arguably Hunter’s best season as a pro, but just like with Murray, there are questions about how he fits in within the Hawks’ current roster.
There are also more questions the Hawks have after seeing several other players develop throughout the 2023-24 season — but in a good way. For example, can Jalen Johnson, who averaged 16.0 points, grow and take on a bigger role? Can Saddiq Bey, who averaged 13.7 points before sustaining a season-ending ACL tear, bounce back from his injury and become a reliable starter? Can Kobe Bufkin, who dealt with a series of nagging injuries while playing in just 17 games during his rookie season, show why Atlanta spent a 15th overall draft pick on him?
These questions should swirl all summer long as the Hawks aim to put together a more competitive roster for the 2024-25 NBA season. But the team winning the top pick in the upcoming draft changes a lot of things and could catalyze them to take full advantage of Trae Young’s prime years.
