The Trae Young Era Ends: Hawks Emerge Stronger
The Hawks didn’t trade Trae Young for a bundle of future picks or a blue-chip prospect. They traded him for right now. And right now looks dangerous.
Atlanta is coming off a 46-36 season, sixth in the East, and a first-round exit that still lingers because of what it almost was. Up 2-1 on the New York Knicks, the eventual champions, Quin Snyder’s team had a contender wobbling. Then the door slammed shut.
Instead of retreating into a rebuild, the Hawks doubled down on being a nightmare to play against.
A New Identity: Deep, Mean, and Perimeter-Loaded
This roster is thick with guards and wings who can hound the ball and stretch the floor. Dyson Daniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Luguentz Dort give Atlanta a perimeter trio that can turn a routine possession into a wrestling match.
Snyder wants chaos. He wants turnovers, deflections, long arms in passing lanes, and a running game that flows straight into a barrage of 3s. Nearly 40 attempts from deep per night is the target. Not a guideline. A mandate.
The backbone of it all is Jalen Johnson. Last season he stopped being a “breakout candidate” and started being a franchise pillar. All-Star. All-NBA. A stat line that reads like a video game save file: 22.5 points, 10.3 rebounds, 7.9 assists, 1.2 steals. He does a bit of everything and often all at once.
Next to him, Alexander-Walker exploded. The Most Improved Player averaged 20.8 points, 3.7 assists and 3.4 rebounds with elite shooting splits — 45.9% from the field, 39.9% from 3, 90.2% at the line. He went from rotation guy to 20-a-night scorer and did it efficiently.
Then there’s CJ McCollum, the veteran who quietly changed everything. He averaged 18.7 points, stabilized the offense, and brought a calm, professional edge to a team that used to live on Young’s volatility. With McCollum, Alexander-Walker and Johnson, the Hawks now have three players hovering around that 20-point mark. On any given night, any of them can be the primary scorer.
Onyeka Okongwu rounds out the likely starting five, coming off a season of 15.2 points, 7.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists. He gives them vertical spacing, playmaking from the middle of the floor, and enough mobility to anchor the kind of aggressive defense Snyder craves.
If Snyder opens with McCollum, Alexander-Walker, Daniels, Johnson and Okongwu, the bench is still loaded: Dort, Aaron Wiggins, Jock Landale, Zuby Ejiofor, Kingston Flemings, Asa Newell, Buddy Hield, Corey Kispert and Ryan Nembhard. That’s not just depth; that’s flexibility. Snyder can go big, small, switchy, shooting-heavy, or defense-first depending on the matchup.
The Numbers Say This Is Real
Atlanta finished last season 14th in offensive efficiency and 10th on defense. Solid. Not spectacular.
But the story changes after the All-Star break.
The Hawks were 11.0 points per 100 possessions better after the break than before — the biggest post-break jump by any team in the last 27 years. Before the break, they sat at minus-1.3 (19th). After it, they ripped through opponents at plus-9.7, fourth in the league.
The common thread: McCollum. With him in the lineup, Atlanta went 27-14 and climbed from ninth to sixth in the East over the final two months of the regular season. The schedule helped — only eight of their 20 post-break wins came against teams that finished with winning records — but the leap was too large to dismiss as a quirk.
And when the games really mattered, they didn’t flinch. The Hawks won two playoff games against the Knicks. New York’s other three opponents combined for just one win. That’s a data point every contender in the East should file away.
Breakout Watch: Aaron Wiggins
If there’s a player who could tilt this season from “dangerous” to “problem,” it might be Aaron Wiggins.
He arrives with championship scars and credibility. Wiggins was a valuable contributor to Oklahoma City’s 2025 title run and their 2026 Western Conference Finals appearance. Yet in five seasons with the Thunder, he never logged more than 24.2 minutes per game, and that was back in his rookie year. Only once did he average double figures in scoring — 12.0 points in 2024-25.
The efficiency has always been there: 48.7% from the field, 38% from 3 for his career. What he hasn’t had is a consistent, expanded role.
Atlanta’s depth means he won’t be handed anything. But if Snyder carves out real minutes for him, Wiggins is positioned to give the Hawks exactly what they need: another reliable scorer and shooter to push their 3-point efficiency higher. This was already a good shooting team. It just needed to be sharper. Wiggins fits that brief.
The Trae Trade and the Turning Point
The Young trade could have signaled a reset. No young cornerstone coming back. No pile of future firsts. Instead, the Hawks chose clarity: build a tougher, more balanced group around Johnson and a collective of two-way wings.
McCollum’s arrival made them better immediately. The record with him in uniform proves it. The style of play does, too. Less heliocentric, more democratic. Less drama, more structure.
They still have ground to cover. The East is unforgiving, and Atlanta sits in a Southeast Division where at least four teams believe they’re playoff material. Last season, the top four in the division were separated by just three games. There’s no margin for drifting.
Circle These Dates
Some nights on the calendar already feel heavier than others:
- Oct. 21: Hawks vs. Magic — Last season’s top two in the Southeast meet again. Orlando and Atlanta both think they’re ready to own the division. This is an early temperature check.
- Nov. 29: Hawks vs. Knicks — The playoff rematch. Atlanta led that 2026 first-round series 1-0 and 2-1, and for a moment the Knicks did not look like future champions. Then New York took three straight and lost only once more the rest of the postseason. The Hawks won’t have forgotten.
- Feb. 1: Wizards vs. Hawks — Trae Young’s first game back in Atlanta since the trade. Emotions, noise, and a fan base forced to measure what they lost against what they’ve gained.
- Feb. 8: Heat vs. Hawks — Two teams eyeing the top of the division, meeting just days before the Feb. 11 trade deadline. A statement game, and maybe a preview of who blinks first in the market.
- April 4: Hawks vs. 76ers — Eighth road game in an 11-game stretch, against a star-studded Philadelphia team, with the regular season winding down. This is the kind of night that decides seeding — and maybe whether the Hawks avoid another brutal first-round matchup.
Preseason Questions, Regular-Season Stakes
For all the optimism, Snyder still has work to do before opening night.
He has to pick a starting five and, just as important, figure out who thrives coming off the bench. Last season, the lineup of McCollum, Alexander-Walker, Daniels, Johnson and Okongwu went 20-10 with a staggering plus-20.3 net rating. That group worked. Now he has to decide how much to lean on it with Dort and Wiggins in the mix.
Kingston Flemings, the lottery pick, will be under the preseason microscope. How quickly can he learn from McCollum? How ready is he to handle real minutes on a team that expects to win now, not later?
Behind Johnson, the backup power forward spot is a live battle. Mouhamed Gueye, Asa Newell and rookie Zuby Ejiofor are all chasing that role. Whoever wins it will be asked to do the dirty work on a second unit that could overwhelm opponents with energy and length.
The Hawks are not a mystery team anymore. They’re not a rebuilding project, not a one-star show, not a plucky underdog. They’re something harder to categorize — and harder to prepare for.
They’ve already shown they can push the eventual champions to the edge. The question now is simple: in a stacked Eastern Conference, is this the year Atlanta stops pushing and finally breaks through?
