It felt like it was only a matter of time before the Atlanta Hawks cut ties with head coach Nate McMillan, and they finally did so on Tuesday. McMillan has had his moments as the Hawks' head coach, particularly when he led the Hawks to a 27-11 record after taking over for Lloyd Pierce in the middle of the 2020-21 season and when he led the Hawks to a surprise Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 2021.

Since then, the Hawks have not been able to replicate their success, despite growing expectations for linear improvement following the leap the franchise made in 2021. The Hawks scuffled all the way to the eighth seed last season, only making the postseason following two play-in wins over the Charlotte Hornets and Cleveland Cavaliers.

As a result, the Hawks decided to add Dejounte Murray in exchange for three first-round picks and a pick swap. However, Murray has not been able to elevate the Hawks' level of play alongside Trae Young. At the time of writing, the Hawks have a 29-30 record, which is simply not good enough for a team with their talent level, especially on offense.

With 23 games to go, and a new coach at the helm (assistant coach Joe Prunty will be taking over for McMillan on the interim), could the Hawks, against all odds, manage to wiggle their way into an outright playoff berth?

Here are three bold predictions for how the Hawks season would turn out following the All-Star break.

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3. Hawks crack top-10 in offensive rating

Trae Young and Dejounte Murray, as talented as they are, don't particularly complement each other well on the court on the offensive end. Young and Murray operate at their best with the ball in their hands; both rank in the top 20 in number of possessions per game as the pick-and-roll ballhandler, with Young second only to Ja Morant in pick-and-roll possessions.

As a result, the Hawks are the team most reliant in the NBA on pick-and-rolls; however, they score just the 14th-most points per possession on such plays.

Part of it is the Hawks' love affair with the midrange; they rank second in the league in attempts from the in-between zone. Of course, they rank second in field-goal percentage from the midrange as well, so it's not too big of a surprise that the Hawks rely heavily on such shots.

Nonetheless, it's difficult to shake off the sense that the Hawks aren't optimizing the weapons they have at their disposal. Compared to last season, the Hawks have simply fallen off, given their 14th ranked offense; during the 2021-22 season, they ranked second in offensive rating.

One major reason behind their offensive decline is their aversion to three-point shots. They're attempting and making just the third-least amount of three-point shots in the league this season.

Trae Young's shooting struggles and John Collins' total decline in three-point marksmanship certainly haven't helped matters at all. Young, in particular, has seen his true shooting percentage drop off to his worst mark since his rookie campaign.

Installing an offensive system that doesn't devolve into a your-turn, my-turn offense between Young and Murray will be a must for any coach leading the way. It's unclear if Joe Prunty is the right man for the job. But when Prunty stepped up as the Milwaukee Bucks' interim coach in 2018, the Bucks' net rating improved by 2.6 points.

Thus, a change in leadership should light a fire in the Hawks' backsides once more like it did in 2021, leading to an uptick in their offensive production.

2. Saddiq Bey plays the best basketball of his career thus far

For as much as John Collins has looked like a shell of his former self on offense, the Hawks' starting unit of Trae Young, Dejounte Murray, De'Andre Hunter, Collins, and Clint Capela has not been the problem. In fact, that five-man lineup, which has played the fourth-most minutes together despite a few injury woes here and there, has posted an incredible net rating of 12.0 points in 500 minutes.

That aforementioned lineup has scored 117.9 points and allowed just 105.9 per 100 possessions; to put those numbers in perspective, those marks are better than the Denver Nuggets' league-leading offense and the Cleveland Cavaliers' league-leading defense.

Of course, they cannot play 48 minutes together. Thus, some of the Hawks' bench players must step up to prop up the team when one of their stars, particularly Young, is resting.

Enter Saddiq Bey.

The Hawks acquired Bey from the Detroit Pistons before the trade deadline for five second-round picks; Bey, despite his reputation as a sharpshooter, isn't a particularly efficient volume marksman from deep. In 52 games with the Pistons this season, he shot just 34.5 percent from deep on 5.6 attempts per game.

Adding a willing shooter should help the Hawks' low-volume three-point shooting ways. However, is Bey equipped to take on that responsibility?

It's too early to have a definite answer to that question. But Bey is only 23 years old, and he will be playing alongside the best playmaking teammates he's ever had. This should cut down on his pull-up threes (a shot he has struggled with for his career), replacing them with easier, catch-and-shoot looks that will enable him to find his groove off the Hawks bench.

1. Hawks secure 7-seed

The Hawks are currently three and a half games behind the New York Knicks for the sixth seed. While catching the Knicks remains doable, the uncertainty with the Hawks' coaching situation could prove to be too much of a hurdle to overcome in the final 23 games.

Expect the Hawks to remain, for better or worse, as the eighth best team in the conference, record-wise. However, Trae Young and the Hawks will be motivated to take revenge on the Miami Heat, the team that knocked them out of the postseason last year.

Therefore, despite being the eighth seed, the Hawks will manage to win the first game of the play-in tournament – on the road, no less – as they set up a date with either the Milwaukee Bucks or Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the postseason.