By: Drayton Hogarth

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

After making a big splash in the NBA free agency market this past offseason with the signing of Dwight Howard, the Atlanta Hawks entered the season with championship aspirations, and to that affect the Hawks started the season very well, including wins over the defending world champion Cleveland Cavaliers.

Unfortunately, the team could not sustain that level of play and have fallen off of that pace of play. The good news is this team should continue to get better as the season goes along.

There are three reasons for that, team chemistry will improve the more this roster plays together, the players’ willingness to adjust is already in place, as well as the roster is setup more for the playoffs than the regular season.

With the major shakeup of the roster during the offseason, it was very likely that the team would have its’ share of struggles in becoming more and more acclimated with each other’s playing style.

The Hawks had grown stagnant with Jeff Teague and Al Horford as the leaders of the franchise. Both are solid NBA players, but neither could get the team to that next level in the NBA playoffs. Both players tended to disappear the bigger the playoff matchup; as witnessed by Horford being non-existent rebounding the basketball against the Cavs and Teague constantly looking to pass when the game was on the line.

Thus, the Hawks decided to shakeup their roster and go with the younger, but more athletic point guard in, Dennis Schröder. Additionally, the aforementioned Dwight Howard was brought in to provide a significant upgrade in rebounding and shot blocking for the Hawks.

Instead of the Hawks’ defense looking like a doughnut (get it? nothing in the middle). Now, with an enforcer in the paint the Hawks now can overplay on the wings, play passing lanes and get out into the open floor for easy buckets.

This Hawks team is turning into just that, a team. When Atlanta hit a losing streak, Coach Budenholzer went to a couple of his veterans in Kyle Korver and Thabo Sefolosha and informed them that he was making an adjustment to the playing rotation.

Instead of starting the sharp shooting Korver, Sefolosha would now be the starter and allow Korver to bring his three-point prowess off the bench. Instead of causing a team disruption, Korver and Sefolosha worked it out for the betterment of the team and Atlanta has a winning record since the move was made.

Wins over the Toronto Raptors and Oklahoma City Thunder are included, and even the losses have all been extremely competitive, so it appears that the lineup change will continue.

The Hawks have been much improved under Coach Budenholzer, now entering his fourth season as the head coach in Atlanta. Still, coming up short in the NBA playoffs has been the frustrating result of each season.

However, the moves made this offseason were made with an eye toward being more athletic and tougher for the postseason. Dwight Howard will provide the bulk of that, and of course Schröder will bring more speed and on ball defense, but the draft should make a big difference for this Hawks team come the playoffs.

Taurean Prince and DeAndre Bembry were both first round selections, and bring a great combination of size and athleticism to the forward position. It is no secret that Cleveland and Lebron have been the final obstacle in the Hawks path the last two seasons, as well as most of the NBA, but these two kids can bring some youthful exuberance, speed and size to keep up with the best athlete in the NBA; as well as twelve more fouls to take out on Lebron.

Sometimes a team has to take a step back before they can take two steps forward, and that is exactly what the Hawks need to happen. Now this team just needs to gel together and will have a legitimate shot to make a big move come this playoff season.