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The Atlanta Hawks got off to a hot start in 2024-25, winning their first two games on the schedule. They have come back down to Earth a bit since then, dropping two games in a row to fall to 2-2.
Quin Snyder and company have had to make do without one of their best scorers so far. Guard Bogdan Bogdanovic has been nursing a hamstring injury that has caused him to miss each of the first four games of the season, and now he may be looking at a longer timetable before he is able to return, according to the team.
“Bogdan Bogdanovic underwent a non-surgical procedure yesterday at the Emory Sports Medicine Complex,” the team announced in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “He will be re-evaluated in approximately four weeks and his status will be updated as appropriate.”
Losing Bogdanovic for such a long time is going to be difficult to survive for this Hawks group, which traded away Dejounte Murray this offseason. However, it may be a good thing for the Serbian sharpshooter, who had a long summer representing his country at the Olympics. Now, he can take some time and get healthy and rested before returning.
Hawks trying to break out in crowded Eastern Conference
The Atlanta Hawks are in an interesting place in an Eastern Conference that is full of some teams who are ready to compete and others who are a long ways away.
Atlanta is somewhere in the middle of the pack, but they were forced to reverse course on the Dejounte Murray move this offseason. The Hawks sent Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans for Dyson Daniels, Larry Nance Jr., Cody Zeller and draft picks. Daniels is a promising young piece who could end up being one of the centerpieces of the trade, and he has shown flashes of promise on both sides of the ball so far this season.
The Hawks have a few young players that they would like to develop this season — Daniels, Onyeka Okongwu and Jalen Johnson, among others — but they are also led by a star in Trae Young who is ready to win games and reach the heights that he did back in the 2021 playoffs, when the Hawks reached the Eastern Conference Finals.
In order to do that, Atlanta will need some of those young pieces to be quick learners. As of right now, it's unclear where the Hawks stand exactly in the Eastern Conference. There are teams that are clearly above them in the pecking order, such as the Celtics and Knicks, and there are a few teams that feel like they won't be competing for a playoff spot this season.
Atlanta is hoping to break out into that 4-6 seed range, but they will need those young players to step up in order to do so. If not, they will be battling in the play-in range once again this season.
