The Atlanta Hawks finished their season with a 43-39 record and will play as the ninth seed in the NBA postseason. Despite finishing outside of the top eight, they'll have their chance at the playoffs in the play-in tournament against the Charlotte Hornets.
While the Hawks have won three more games this season than the last, they have also played 10 more games, diminishing the improvement to a certain level. Those extra games showed the Hawks' regression from their 2020-2021 season where they went 41-31.
Even with the regression, Hawks point guard Trae Young achieved the milestone of being the only player in basketball history to lead both the NCAA and NBA in points and assists, according to Sports Illustrated. Young had 28.4 points and 9.7 assists on the season.
Unfortunately, Young's incredible season wasn't enough to keep the Hawks in the top six. While Young averaged 28.4 points, John Collins was his nearest scoring partner averaging 16.2 points. Worse still, Collins played only 54 games after playing through a myriad of injuries. In fact, Collins's status for the play-in game is unclear, according to CBSsports.
Without Collins, the Hawks will have to rely on the likes of Bogdan Bogdanović, De'Andre Hunter, Onyeka Okongwu, Kevin Huerter and Clint Capela to plug the offensive and defensive hole left by Collins.
The Hawks will take on the Hornets at home Wednesday to attempt to keep their season alive.
Keith Holmes Jr. ‘22 is a journalism and creative writing double major who has worked with The Cluster as general staff since his Sophomore year. Keith has received Best in SNO awards for his sports articles along with years of work at Mercer’s ESPN3 branch. Keith spends his free time playing video games and writing fiction around campus.
