Will the Atlanta Hawks be ‘exciting’ or ‘terrifying’?

Nekias Duncan and Steve Jones Jr. discuss this season’s expectations for Atlanta – with Kristaps Porzingis joining Trae Young and Jalen Johnson to form a trio that could contend for the team’s second division title in the last decade. Check out the full conversation on “The Dunker Spot and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

I am so excited about the Atlanta Hawks this year.

I am also terrified by the Atlanta Hawks this year.

Why?

You know I am a huge Trae Young fan and the scoring and playmaking blend that he provides.

I’m a huge Jalen Johnson fan, and it was very cool watching him play at an All-Star level last year before getting hurt.

They added Christos and also Kill Alexander Walker.

This is just a very talented group, and I think if you are building a team around Trae Young, you want size, you want athleticism, you want defense.

The Hawks seem to have all of that.

And so I am very ready to go all in.

I’m excited to watch the Hawks and the Magic this year.

Watch them duke it out for the top of the Southeast division.

I think the Hawks can absolutely take it.

And I’m also just like, oh, if Trae Young tweaks an ankle, or just in general, when Trae Young goes to the bench, what is this team going to look like?

Christoph Pingas is a very impactful rim protector.

We also don’t know when he’s going to play.

One of the media day quotes from Christos was like, I feel better.

I still don’t quite know what I had last year.

Jalen seems healthy, said he worked out with LeBron James this offseason.

I was impressed by the humbleness of LeBron, being able to pick his brain and things like that.

So very excited for the Hawks, but I’m also just like, am I getting excited for the Hawks to finish like 43 and 39?

Let’s see what they try to make out of it.

Do they have a system for when Trae’s not on the floor?

What lineup combinations do they put together?

Can they shoot the ball?

How do defenses treat them?

Do they just lean on switching?

Does that impact them?

There’s a lot of different things that can go into play.

I will say this about the Eastern Conference in general.

There are gonna be some teams that surprise you in the East because there are a lot of teams that have opportunity to grab this.

There’s a lot of room to navigate in the Eastern Conference right now.

And so you listen to the way Toronto’s talking, you listen to the way Detroit’s talking.

There are teams that believe they have a pretty good opportunity.

And so I’m very intrigued to see who gets off to a hot start, and what that success does to their buying and what that opens up for them because if a Toronto gets off to a hot start, what’s that look like?

Detroit gets off to a hot start, what’s that look like?

You know, the Knicks start slow.

What’s that look like?

There are different paths, so like.

The Hogs are still going to earn it.

Will the Atlanta Hawks be ‘exciting’ or ‘terrifying’?

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