The Boston Celtics will be the team to beat next season, and clubs around the Eastern Conference have been spending the offseason positioning themselves to compete with the defending champions and punch their own ticket to next year’s NBA finals.
Here at Celtics Wire, we’ve been ranking the teams in the East by how much of a threat they pose to Boston next year. Organizations like the Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards are already hunkering down to tank for a better shot at the top pick in the 2025 draft. At the same time, there’s another class of opponent that doesn’t have the roster to really make much of a splash regardless of their stated goals. At No. 9 on our list is a team that not too long ago made it to the conference finals and appears desperate to remain in the playoff picture next season. Whether or not the Atlanta Hawks can recover from a disappointing 2023-24 season is unclear, however, and it’s unlikely the Hawks will ever really give the Celtics a run for their money.
Regardless, Atlanta could prove to be friskier than you think. Let’s discuss.
The Hawks had the No. 1 overall pick during the 2024 NBA Draft, and selected French forward Zaccharie Risacher. The 19-year-old has lots of scoring upside, but isn’t yet ready to help Atlanta climb the ladder in the Eastern Conference hierarchy.
The roster did get a bit deeper this summer by trading Dejounte Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans for Dyson Daniels and Larry Nance Jr. The Hawks also got E.J. Liddell, Cody Zeller, and two first-round picks in the deal.
As a result, Atlanta enters the season with more roster balance and a number of avenues for getting better. But they probably still lack the type of top-end talent necessary for any sort of deep postseason run.
Trae Young remains one of the NBA’s most prolific scoring weapons, and the former All-Star should be as productive as ever. The pairing with Murray never really made sense, and Young appeared most comfortable as the obvious No. 1 option last season.
Bogdan Bogdanovic is another reliable weapon for the Hawks, and if Young is an effective playmaker, Atlanta may have a pretty solid offensive package next season. It won’t be among the best, but it will command the respect of opposing defenses.
One wildcard for the Hawks here is 22-year-old Jalen Johnson. He was a defensive stud last year, and at times showed off great scoring potential. He could become a…
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