Why the Atlanta Hawks May Win The 2025-26 Eastern Conference?

Why the Atlanta Hawks May Win The 2025-26 Eastern Conference?

[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Okay, going in alphabetical order, diving into some of the teams that we’re going to go up against in the Eastern Conference. Atlanta Hawks rated to be probably top three, top four team in the East, depending on how you see Orlando. We’re supposed to be top two. They’re in the top three. So, they’re close to us. They made sizable improvements to their team. They made some trades. They lost some players, but they gained some. And I think the key thing to start off with, they they gains their bigs. Having KP, he they actually add some some good depth to their to their their bigs. I don’t think any of them are on the the level of Cat, especially from a health standpoint. Yes, Cat gets nicked up. Yes, Cat gets injured. But by and large, what the Knicks have done is they’ve really added some good depth at their their center position. When you look at Yabiselli, when you look at Mitchell Robinson, it’s a nice offensive defensive mix. Whatever you think about Diara, um I think the Knicks have good depth at center and I think our centers are better, especially from a health standpoint. No one knows what the injury was or the the illness that KP had at the end of last season against in that Boston series, but he had something and no one has said that he’s fully healthy. I hope that he recovers, but in a particular matchup, I don’t really count KP as being that big of a deal, especially when it comes to the playoffs. KP in Boston’s run to the finals only played six games. in this past finals, he he didn’t play much and obviously he was a secret weapon for them. He was a big nuke, so to speak, because he could defend at the rim and also shoot threes. I really don’t count him as a threat because he’s been so inconsistent from a health standpoint. Also, the main engine for Atlanta, Trey Young. This is the biggest thing. I think that with all the losses that they they’ve had, they’ve lost Caris Levert, they’ve lost uh who else do I have here? Capella and Niang, those are the big ones that to me that played a big role. I don’t count those guys as big enough losses to to where it bothers the team. It’s all about Trey Young and Trey Young psyche. For all the the credit that he gets for the way he performed against the Knicks in the playoffs, I really don’t count him as a threat. The reason why is for as good as he’s been, he’s been averaging like 30 points per game as well as 12 assists per game doesn’t count because they haven’t made the playoffs. This is a very good team, a very deep team. They drafted well with the number one overall pick last year, Zack Reese. He has been impressive. He’s been a good shooting wing and he’s been very tough. I give that kid a lot of credit, but it didn’t make a difference. They still lost three games to us to one. Jaylen Johnson is a big part of that and Jaylen Johnson was not healthy for the three games that we played after the inseason tournament game. Jaylen Johnson is an incredible basketball player and super athletic. I think he changes a lot of things for Atlanta, but with the combination of KP, Jaylen Johnson coming back from injury. The pressure on Trey Young to perform, no one’s really mentioning this, but Trey Young is on a contract year. They chose not to pay Trey Young or not to just give up the money to Trey Young. It’s kind of a prove it or lose it year for Trey Young. He may not get the big as big of a contract as he may want and he may get traded if they don’t make it to the playoffs. We got to add those things into the mix. There’s a lot of pressure on Trey Young. I think he’ll be fine. I think he’ll perform, but you know, he may be performing for his next team. Again, Atlanta has depth, wings, and they have all the talent in the world. They should be a good to great team. I feel like I feel like they’re not as good as the Knicks, and they don’t have the experience from the young guys because the the people that were on the team during the playoff run a couple years ago against Julius Randall in 2021, they’re not here anymore. That experience is out the door. Jaylen Johnson has not been to the playoffs. He’s been in in playin games, but not playoff games. The same thing with Zack Reese. Trey Young has all the experience in the world, but he hasn’t been able to lead his team consistently to the playoffs, and he’s not giving his team reps for all that he does from a passing standpoint, dominating the ball. Jaylen Johnson was his co-creator on the team. He ran offense through him. When he got injured, it really threw off the team. I really think that he’s gonna change life for Trey Young and reduce the amount of pressure that he has on him. But what does it matter if so many people that you depend on may not be healthy? Okay, couple stats against them. We played our one of our highest pace paces. Um it was 98.6. Their field goal percentage was 51.8. Our field goal percentage was just a a hair higher at 52.45. We’ve maintained and won the rebounding rebounding battle. Another key thing here is Mitchell Robinson has been healthy and in the first game that we lost against them, he was not healthy. The Knicks at that time, which is a little bit of a seesaw, we were playing our best offense. Mitchell Robinson, we weren’t a very good defensive team, but Mitchell Robinson wasn’t healthy. And now he’s healthy, especially in the back end of the games that we played against Atlanta. We dominated those. And Mitchell Robinson is a big part of that. I don’t think Okongu could keep up with Mitchell Robinson. I don’t think that KP um actually is strong enough to handle Mitchell Robinson. And like I said, it’s an experience factor. Luc Cornet played well against Cat, but Mitchell Robinson is a different beast. I think going into the season with Yabaselli, another young or athletic big that could play like a wing, I think he can mitigate some of the things that Jaylen Johnson does or counteract it by doing some of the same things on the offensive end, you know, right back at you. So, I like what we’re we’re going to have and uh it’s going to be a hell of a matchup. Let’s see what we what we do. Let’s go Knicks. Peace. [Music]

Why the Atlanta Hawks May Win The 2025-26 Eastern Conference?

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