(All stats and records through Jan. 14; for report cards for all 30 teams click here.)
Offense: 104.2, 19th Overall
Defense: 108.1, 26th Overall
W-L | Pct. | GB
11-31 | .262 | 22
Conf.: 6-20
Div.: 3-4
Home: 7-12
Road: 4-19
FRONTCOURT: D-
When healthy, Dewayne Dedmon has been a force. Ersan Ilaysova has had his moments and Taurean Prince has made strides, as expected in his second season in the program.
BACKCOURT: C-
Dennis Schroder is the best player on the roster and has performed at a high level, when focused on and off the floor. Kent Bazemore’s bounce back last season’s subpart effort hasn’t provided the boost you might expect with the talent and experience drain on this roster the past few seasons.
DEFENSE: F
The bedrock of any Mike Budenholzer coached team, the Hawks have shown the energy to compete a high level, but only in flashes here and there. They don’t have anyone to anchor the defense the way they did with All-Star front courts in the recent past.
BENCH: D
Marco Belinelli has shown his value as a shooter and veteran presence, something that should increase the buzz surrounding his name with the trade deadline looming. Rookie John Collins has the makings of a future staple in the starting lineup. But youngsters and journeymen fill out the rest of the rotation.
COACHING: B
Budenholzer hasn’t changed his stripes. And his team still fights and claws every night, just without the requisite talent and experience that made them one of the Eastern Conference’s best teams the past three seasons. The Hawks aren’t better than their record indicates but they don’t go quietly on a nightly basis.
OVERALL GRADE: D-
The Hawks made a conscious decision to disassemble an Eastern Conference finals team from two seasons ago and are living through that painful process with a roster lean on seasoned, elite-level NBA talent. As painful as rebuilding can be, it’s even tougher to stomach when the All-Stars who headlined your roster for years are playing on contenders within the conference and playoff teams outside of the conference.
New general manager Travis Schlenk will need time to shape and mold the roster into the image he has for the Hawks in the future, which means building a grind-it-out culture with the players they have in the fold now, knowing full well that most of them won’t be a part of the team’s long-term future. They have keepers in Prince, Collins and perhaps DeAndre Bembry.
Sekou Smith is a veteran NBA reporter and NBA TV analyst. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter.
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