{"id":560485,"date":"2026-01-25T20:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T20:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/560485\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T20:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T20:22:14","slug":"hawks-quiet-win-streak-proves-they-almost-wasted-this-season-for-zero-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/560485\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawks’ quiet win streak proves they almost wasted this season for zero reason"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta Hawks almost wasted this season, seemingly for no reason, by not signing a proven third-string center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their hesitance to find a third big with real NBA experience was mind-boggling at the time<\/a> and remains my biggest criticism of Onsi Saleh\u2019s brief tenure as lead executive. The Hawks\u2019 center rotation consisted of Kristaps Porzingis, the league\u2019s most injury-prone player, and Onyeka Okongwu, the league\u2019s shortest center. While both players are excellent options at the five, their respective limitations make it necessary to bring in a third big to stabilize the rotation.<\/p>\n

Atlanta technically signed N\u2019Faly Dante to back up Porzingis and Okongwu, but Dante had played just four NBA games in his career. Two months into the season, Dante tore his ACL. When paired with a series of absences from Kristaps Porzingis, Atlanta was left with a hopeless lineup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you recall, the Hawks were a massive success story at the beginning of the season. Despite losing Trae Young in just their fifth game, Atlanta peaked as high as third in the East. There isn\u2019t one area to credit for this rise \u2013 the team was just playing beautiful basketball. The ball was zipping on offense. Bodies were hustling on defense. Most importantly, the Hawks\u2019 youthful rotation was outhustling their opponents.<\/p>\n

After cruising to an 11-8 record, Porzingis\u2019s health hit a wall. He would play in just six of the next 28 games, and the Hawks predictably floundered, going 11-17 over this stretch.<\/p>\n

All it took to reverse Atlanta\u2019s fortune was a legitimate center<\/p>\n

Make no mistake \u2013 Porzingis is an excellent player whose absence significantly alters this team\u2019s outlook. Still, the team\u2019s record has dropped by 19% over the past 28 games. This isn\u2019t all Porzingis\u2019s doing; part of the problem is that Atlanta just needed a center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asa Newell and Mo Gueye split backup center duties from December to mid-January, with limited success from both players. Newell particularly struggled as a 20-year-old rookie who hasn\u2019t quite grown into his body yet. After months of watching, Saleh finally took action by signing Christian Koloko off the waivers.<\/p>\n

Koloko is a good player whose career was tragically derailed by blood clots that forced the Cameroonian big man to prioritize his health. He isn\u2019t some superstar, however \u2013 in fact, he was already waived twice this season. He specializes in the basics: boxing out, setting hard screens, filling the paint, and applying vertical contests at the rim.<\/p>\n

Still, in Koloko\u2019s two-game tenure, the Hawks are 2-0. While this is a small sample size, Atlanta\u2019s biggest problems immediately solved themselves by just playing a real center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This instant impact makes you wonder, however, if Atlanta\u2019s struggles this season could have been avoided. Why didn\u2019t Saleh sign another center in free agency? They had an empty roster spot and plenty of cap space via exceptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Would the Hawks have gone on their infamous seven-game losing streak if they had a center ready to play when Porzingis missed time? Would vibes have cratered as badly as they did, leading to a players-only meeting in December? Would they have felt forced to trade Trae Young for scraps if the team had a winning record?\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll never know the answer to these questions, but we have learned one thing: Saleh\u2019s refusal to sign a third center was the first mistake of his young career.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Hawks almost wasted this season, seemingly for no reason, by not signing a proven third-string center.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3776],"tags":[676,208,3874,7,677,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-560485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-atlantahawks","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-hawks","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}