The 2023 NBA season is still very young and trying to determine the identity of a team may be a difficult task as most only have about 10 or so games under their belts and as in the case of the Atlanta Hawks, after 11 games completed, sit at 6-5 on the season. Now while the Hawks dropped their first two games of the season, they would then run off four straight wins to open up at 4-2 but have since exchanged wins and losses their past few games, with their most recent game on Wednesday resulting in a 116-114 loss to the Knicks.
On Thursday, during The Steakhouse on 92-9 The Game, Steak Shapiro shared with co-host, Sandra Golden, that he had an opportunity to observe some of Wednesday night’s game and after watching the game, “came to an unfortunate realization. Shapiro would go to explain that while it is good to see players like Jalen Johnson having better performances and Trae Young appearing to be more “engaged” with Quin Snyder and giving the Hawks better play on the defensive end of the court, he is unsure if the Hawks could find themselves in the top four teams in the conference at any point this season.
“I don’t see that this not going to be a nice team that just can’t compete at the top level of the Eastern Conference at all,” Shapiro said as he expressed his thoughts on the Hawks with Golden. As he continued, Shapiro explained that the reasoning behind his stance on Atlanta is that he does not view the team as having the personnel to propel themselves ahead of teams such as the Celtics, Sixers, Pacers, Bucks and the Heat. “Can you go on a nine game winning streak? Can you be the three seed, can you be the two seed, can you be the four seed? I don’t really see it,” Shapiro told Golden.
Click link above to hear Steak and Sandra’s conversation on the Hawks in its entirety:
