Written by Paul Newberry at Augusta Chronicle.com
The Atlanta Hawks are struggling to figure out what happened to the team that won 60 games just two seasons ago.
A ballyhooed makeover has quickly bogged down. The offense looks stagnant and confused. The defense is struggling to stop anyone.
The Hawks have faded back into NBA purgatory.
Since a 9-2 start raised hopes of another strong run in the Eastern Conference, Atlanta has lost seven straight games – its longest skid since February 2014 – and 10 of the last 11. More troubling, the Hawks haven’t been competitive in many of those games.
The plummet includes six double-digit defeats, including a 36-point rout at home by Detroit and a 44-point embarrassment at Toronto in back-to-back games.
No wonder the Hawks took a bit of hope from their latest setback, a more respectable 102-99 loss to Oklahoma City.
“A step in the right direction,” coach Mike Budenholzer said Tuesday, even while acknowledging “this is a little bit of uncharted waters.”
Budenholzer has already juggled the lineup, making Thabo Sefolosha a starter and benching Kyle Korver. But there are plenty of troubling issues beyond an aging 3-point specialist – from new center Dwight Howard acclimating to an offense built on motion and making the extra pass, to Kent Bazemore struggling to live up to the huge contract he received this past summer, to Dennis Schroder’s up-and-down play in his first season as the starting point guard.
“We started out the season with the right attitude, the right mindset,” said Paul Millsap, who is battling a sore hip. “Somewhere down the line, we lost track of who we are.”
Budenholzer was the toast of the league in 2014-15, molding the Hawks into a cohesive unit that was greater than its individual parts. Atlanta ripped off a 19-game winning streak and all five starters shared player of the month, an unprecedented honor.
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