Hawks Revival Points to Elite Standout; Watch for New Champions!

After years mired in the NBA’s middle, you could understand the calls for the Atlanta Hawks to choose a direction — to make a big, bold swing, one way or the other. Especially as they headed into 2026, yet again, a few games under . 500 , puttering around in the play-in picture, with the NBA’s 15th-ranked offense and 17th-ranked defense — still, in spite of all the offseason praise and roster reconfiguration, aggressively and seemingly inexorably mid.

Trading Trae Young represented the Hawks picking a side … but so did not consummating their long-rumored interest of being the team to swing a deal for Anthony Davis. (Who, as luck would have it, wound up pairing with Young, but not in Atlanta. ) [ Enter Yahoo Fantasy Bracket Mayhem now for your shot at $50K ] With an interesting young core locked in for the next three seasons , lots of room to maneuver under the aprons in the years to come, and plenty of draft capital in the coffers, general manager Onsi Saleh and Co.

decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Rather than careening toward the extremes of blowing it up or going all-in, the Hawks made just the one big change, and decided to see where that might take them. The answer, it turns out, might be “the playoffs.

” Behind the Hawks’ turnaround The Hawks are 19-10 since trading the former face of their franchise, with the NBA’s 10th-best net rating in that span, according to Cleaning the Glass . After concluding the rest of their comparatively more minor trade-deadline movement — swapping Kristaps Porziņģis for Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield , dealing Luke Kennard for Gabe Vincent , sending Vit Krecji to Portland for draft picks , scooping up Jock Landale for cash — the Hawks have gone an East-best 12-4, ranking seventh on offense and. And now, after a commanding and convincing 124-112 win over the Orlando Magic on Monday night, the Hawks have won 10 games in a row — the longest active streak in the NBA, one of just four double-digit streaks in the NBA this season (joining the defending champion Thunder, East-leading Pistons and those alien-employing Spurs) and the franchise’s longest streak since the “We’re All The Eastern Conference Player of the Month” Hawks ripped off 19 in a row all the way back in 2014-15.