The Atlanta Hawks are again treading water in the middle of the Eastern Conference, although we should be giving them a lot of credit.
Trae Young has been limited to just five games with a sprained right MCL, and Kristaps Porziņģis has (predictably) missed about half the season with various injuries.
Despite limited production from two of their stars, the Hawks have played above .500 basketball thanks to Jalen Johnson (23.4 points, 10.5 rebounds, 7.9 assists, 1.6 steals, 40.4 percent from three), who has leapfrogged Young as the new face of the franchise.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker (20.7 points per game) looks like one of the best pickups of the offseason and the Hawks are up to 10th in defense (113.3 rating).
We could easily see a healthy Hawks team make a run at a top-four seed by the end of the year.