After reaching the Eastern Conference Finals last season, the Atlanta Hawks have a lot of issues this season. This year, they have not performed as well as they had hoped, prompting a slew of concerns from fans and their front office. They chose to trade Cam Reddish to the New York Knicks, and that was the initial response to one of the biggest questions they would confront this season.

There are plenty of other questions regarding this Hawks team, but let's look at the three most pressing ones this season.

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Hawks Questions 2022

3. Who is going to be the defender that comes in?

The most important question for this Hawks team, if they want to succeed in the second half of the season, is who they will bring in to defend at a high level at the guard position.

Trae Young is one of their guards, which makes sense given that he is one of the best scorers in the NBA and can do some extremely remarkable things on the offensive end of the floor. What he does on defense does not help this Hawks team, but they do a great job of disguising him and not letting other teams' best scorers take advantage of his bad defense.

Even if they do a great job of hiding him, they will still need to go out and find someone who can defend the ball well against guards. In the Eastern Conference, there are far too many good elite scoring guards, and unless they solve this problem, they will not have the success they expect this season.

2. Is there a possibility that they move John Collins?

There have been some recent rumors that John Collins is dissatisfied with the way he is being treated with the current Hawks team. It's difficult to argue with him since he doesn't always get the ball as often as he should, and he is reportedly annoyed that Trae Young takes some horrible shots and then doesn't go back and defend. Even though Young is one of the top scorers in the NBA, it is understandable that a player as skilled as John Collins would be annoyed by this.

Although it is doubtful that the Hawks will trade him, he may receive a big return and possibly someone with similar skillsets. It may make a lot of sense from an organizational viewpoint if they believe he isn't the man they want in the locker room.

1. Are they confident they can do what they did a season ago?

At this current moment, the Atlanta Hawks cannot be satisfied with how they have performed this season. After making an Eastern Conference playoffs a year ago and having the best record last season after they hired Nate McMillan, they have not played up to expectations. They are currently the number 12 seed in the Eastern Conference and are seven games below .500 at 18-25. With all the talent that is on this roster, it doesn't make much sense. Many of their players have not stepped up the way that they were hoping for.

Many people thought the Hawks would be able to return to where they were a year ago this season. Although it doesn't appear likely at the moment, they struggled earlier in the season last year but were able to turn their season around. Atlanta still has most of their important players from last season, so they should be able to get back on track and be one of the Eastern Conference's contenders again.

Atlanta is coming off a huge win over the reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks, in which they were able to rally in the final minutes of the fourth quarter and pull away for a 121-114 victory. This is something that should instill confidence in this squad as they enter the second half of the season and try to build on the momentum they gained on Monday.

Atlanta's roster has a number of players that have a chip on their shoulder and believe they are underdogs. It is undoubtedly something that aids this team's ability to play the way they do, and if they can maintain that underdog mindset, they will continue to be successful. Last season, they were so successful because they realized that everyone had written them off and that if they wanted to show the world wrong, they had to play their toughest basketball. This might be one of the reasons they're having trouble this season because they don't appear to have the same underdog attitude as they did last year.