After a 60-win season and an Eastern Conference Finals appearance, the Atlanta Hawks can say they made an enormous stride as a franchise last season. The Hawks have changed a bit in terms of their roster, with DeMarre Carroll signing with Toronto in free agency and adding newcomers Tim Hardaway Jr. and Tiago Splitter.
The dynamic of the Hawks’ front court was their shooting ability. Paul Millsap and Al Horford are both respective shooting threats in the mid-range area. Contrary to the popular trend, the Hawks stuck to a two-big set as opposed to an employment of the stretch-four model. Hawks vice president Dominique Wilkins spoke in an interview about the notions of playing small ball:
“I think people get too caught up with small ball and going small. Yeah, it works on certain teams, but I’ve never been a believer in matching up with someone else. I believe in making people match up to me.
We have to go big, because when you play against bigger teams, you become small very quickly,” he said. “I think one of the reasons Cleveland lost the championship is because they tried to matchup with Golden State instead of staying big. When they stayed big, they won.”
By adding Splitter the Hawks have more bolstered size on their front line, with clearly no intentions of downsizing.The closest thing to a small ball, stretch-four look for the Hawks was when Mike Scott played minutes at the four. Splitter provides an extra paint presence the Hawks didn’t have at their disposal before, plus he comes from a championship atmosphere with the Spurs, whom the Hawks have been likened to.
Wilkins makes a fair point about dictating match ups, and going forward that still appears to be the Hawks’ goal and mentality with their traditional two-big set. It proved successful for the way they played last season, so now they’ll simply look to capitalize on what proved to work so well for them.
“Man, it’s been so much fun being a part of this team and the way these guys have been playing,” Wilkins said. “To see the city get excited about it … it was just a wonderful run this year. Now, we get a chance to build on what we did last year.”
