With the Golden State Warriors punching their ticket to the NBA Finals, and the Boston Celtics just a home win away from their first trip to the NBA Finals since the 2010-11 season, are there any lessons or is there any blueprint that the Atlanta Hawks can take away from 2022 NBA Eastern and Western Conference Finals to help them build a championship caliber roster this offseason? NBA writer for CBS Sports, Brad Botkin, thinks so and he explained what those lessons are Thursday Night on The Jon Chuckery Show featuring Chris Goforth.
There is a common theme and a common denominator with all of these conference finals teams, and that is having elite two-way players. The Miami Heat, Boston Celtics, Golden State Warriors, and Dallas Mavericks all have at least one player that can defend and score at a high level. Obviously for the Miami Heat that guy is Jimmy Butler, for the Warriors, even though he may have lost a step, that guy is Klay Thompson, for the Mavericks Spencer Dinwiddie, and Reggie Bullock can at least hit three pointers at a high clip, and the Boston Celtics have a few elite two way players on their team in Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, and you can even throw in Jayson Tatum and Al Horford as the thirty-five year old Horford has found the fountain of youth in the 2022 NBA Playoffs.
Brad Botkin echoed the same sentiment on The Jon Chuckery Show Thursday night, featuring Chris Goforth, when Chris asked him what he thinks the Hawks can learn from these teams and how they are constructed saying “It’s a lot of what Travis Schlenk is doing. They’re two way teams, you’ve gotta be able to defend that's the bottom line what it comes down to. You look at all four of these teams that are still alive, they all defend at high clips, and they all have two way players they’re interchangeable in the sense offensively and defensively. They can all handle the ball, they can all shoot, they can all pass, then on defense they can guard.”
Brad continued by saying “You have to have defense, and you have to have a versatile defense that can switch and guard across positions, and then offensively you’ve got to have more than one play maker.” Brad did also add that he believes that Travis Schlenk is following this blueprint saying “Travis Schlenk has been trying to do that. He drafted De’Andre Hunter, going out and getting these guys like Kevin Huerter, and these guys that can be secondary ball handlers to Trae Young. The idea is to put multiple guys on the floor that can all shoot, pass and dribble, and you move the ball and that’s how you play offense. Defensively, obviously Atlanta has to take a step up.”
The Hawks have found one playmaker obviously in Trae Young, and one really good two-way player in De’Andre Hunter, but can De’Andre stay healthy and take the next step offensively? Can the Atlanta Hawks bring in another two way playmaker? These are questions that will soon be answered once the offseason starts, but for right now Travis Schlenk and the Atlanta Hawks just have to keep learning from the teams that are where they want to be.