Hawks Are Done... For Now?

The last two years, the Atlanta Hawks have made some serious noise.  Last year, after aquiring Mike Bibby from the Kings for basically nothing, they made the playoffs as the eighth seed.  Besides the Warriors upsetting the Mavericks, never has an eight seed been so much fun and so dangerous.  Making the playoffs by itself was a success, but taking the eventual NBA Champion Celtics to seven games was huge.  The next year, they lost Josh Childress to overseas, but they still came back even better.  The Hawks claimed the fourth seed and beat the Heat in the first round.  Then, like the Pistons, got swept by the Cavs.

This is truly a team on the rise, well, maybe until now.  The Hawks have a lot of question marks.  First, one most note that the Hawks, although talented, were never a deep team, basically going with a eight man rotation all year long.  Those eight men became seven men when Marvin Williams went out with a wrist injury in the playoffs.  With that said, losing any pieces would be extremely hurtful at this point in time.  This is where the biggest concern is.

The Hawks are looking at a few free agents on the team as of this moment.  The biggest is Mike Bibby.  He is the man that is credited for taking a solid young team and making them a solid playoff team.  He is also coming off of a huge contract, but not getting any younger.  If Mike Bibby is willing to take a massive pay cut, he was making 14.98M last year, the Hawks would love him back.  But he is just one piece of this big puzzle.  The second piece is the restricted free agency of forward Marvin Williams.  Although Hawks fans will never forget that he was taken before Chris Paul and Deron Williams, he still has been solid these last two years and has progressed every year in the league.  He will get interest from several teams this off-season.  Will the Hawks have the cap room to bring him back?  Smaller pieces, but still important, is the two big bench players that Hawks had.  Flip Murray and Zaza Pachulia are both free agents this summer as well.  With out them, the team has no bench outside of Maurice Evans.  Lastly in the free agent side, is Josh Childress.  The Hawks still have his rights in restricted free agency and would still love him back.  He fit perfectly into what they did in Atlanta on defense and they need another solid player.

Bringing back all four pending free agents will not be easy for a few reasons.  One, as much discussed when talking about the economy and the NBA, the salary cap will most likely decrease next year.  This doesn't bode well for a team that was twenty million over it in the first place.  Second, if they are bringing Childress back, that creates even less space.  Third, the Hawks do have a 1st Round Pick that they will probably keep.  That pick will cost the Hawks another million plus.  Lastly, but most importantly, is Al Horford Joe Johnson.  The Hawks love Al Horford and Joe Johnson, as they should.  But Al is entering his third year in the NBA, meaning that in two years, the man is going to get paid.  Johnson has two years left on his deal.  If they are going to keep their best player in Johnson, he will continue to command his fifteen plus million each year.  Last year they signed Josh Smith to a nice contract worth ten million a year.  Assuming that they keep and hold onto Al Horford, they are looking at another ten to thirteen million a year.  This comes out to Johnson, Horford, and Smith taking up 35-38 million a year.  This is a lot of money when you also hope to keep Williams, Bibby, and Childress.

The Hawks have been a good team for two years now and outside of Bibby, their core is very young.  They will only continue to grow as players.  The Hawks future looks bright... if they can hold onto it.