Michael Cunningham: Hawks fought hard for season, but for Trae Young, it's still a 'failure'

Michael Cunningham, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Apr 19, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

ATLANTA — The Hawks aren’t going to the NBA playoffs after their play-In tournament loss to the Miami Heat on Friday night at State Farm Arena. There’s a case to be made that they had a successful season, anyway.

Injuries were a persistent problem. The Hawks relied on several young players, some of them with only a toe in the NBA. The Hawks still managed to finish eighth in the Eastern Conference. That would have been good enough to make the playoffs before 2021, when the NBA started the play-in for teams in seventh through 10th place.

The Hawks couldn’t make it out of the tournament for the second consecutive season. The way All-Star guard Trae Young sees it, the 123-114 loss to the Heat means the season can’t be considered a success.

“For me, personally, not making the playoffs is a failure for me,” he said. “No matter who’s out there, no matter how much adversity we faced, I still feel like we’ve got a good enough group to make the playoffs and at least go in there and compete.”

The Hawks almost did it.

They trailed the Heat by 13 points with 16 minutes to go. A furious rally fueled by their fans got the Hawks the lead with less than eight minutes left in regulation. The Hawks still had the lead with six minutes to go. The Heat regained the lead, then Young forced overtime with a tough finish on a drive with 1.3 seconds to go.

Then the Heat opened the overtime scoring with Tyler Herro’s 3-pointer and never gave back the lead. Just like that, Miami advanced to face Cleveland in the playoffs, while the Hawks are at home during the postseason. They haven’t been to the playoffs since 2023, when the Heat easily handled them in the first round.

Given their limitations, the Hawks probably would have had a similar fate in a series against top-seeded Cleveland. Maybe things would have gone differently for the Hawks this season if not for all the injuries.

Jalen Johnson had shoulder surgery in January. He’s their most important player because of his all-around skills as a big combo forward. The Hawks didn’t have much quality size in the frontcourt once Clint Capela and Larry Nance went on the injured list. Big man Onyeka Okongwu logged 50 minutes against the Heat and had 28 points and 12 rebounds while making it tough on Miami star Bam Adebayo at the other end.

The “what ifs” didn’t matter much to Young in the immediate aftermath of another season that ended with no playoffs. He noted that “nobody looks at us a title contender.” Young said team officials told him before the season to place emphasis on helping his younger teammates improve. The Hawks got promising play from several of them: Johnson, Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher, Mouhamed Gueye.

Still, there’s that bottom line of no playoffs.

“People know how much I care about winning,” Young said. “If you really, really know me that’s all I care about. So, for me, I’ve had to focus more on the younger guys and making sure we’ve gotten better each and every day, and I feel like we’ve done that. ...

“There’s a lot of things we went through, but we still fought. Found a way to get to the eighth seed and just didn’t finish the job. For me, I felt like we could have made the playoffs, so it’s a failure for me.”

It’s not clear where the Hawks and Young will go from here. The team controls Young’s contract for next season, but he holds a player option for 2026-27. Hawks general manager Landry Fields could decide that the Young era has run its course and try to get what he can for him in a trade. Young might conclude that’s for the best, too.

The other option is to keep building with Young, Johnson, Daniels, Risacher and Okongwu as the team’s core. The Hawks will have room under the luxury tax this summer to add good, veteran players. San Antonio owns their first-round pick, but the Hawks will receive what likely will be the No. 13 overall pick from Sacramento. The Lakers also owe them a pick in the 20s.

Fields did good salvage work after the ill-advised trade for Dejounte Murray in summer 2022. He sent away Murray last summer and got back the Lakers pick and Daniels, who is a better fit than Murray and might be the better player. Maybe improvement from Johnson and the other young players, plus better health, will be enough to get the Hawks to the playoffs next season.

This season, the Hawks couldn’t make it even though they showed growth.

Said Young: “The goal is to always win, of course, but when have the kind of team that we have you know there is going to be bumps and bruises. It’s not easy for me. Hopefully next year can focus on winning.”

It’s been a long time since the Hawks won anything of note. The current streak of two consecutive years with no playoffs was preceded by first-round losses in back-to-back years. The run to the 2021 Eastern Conference finals feels like it’s from another time now. It’s the best the Hawks have been able to do since they stopped tanking for picks and started trying to win.

The Hawks fought hard for their season Friday night at State Farm Arena. They weren’t quite good enough to save it. As far as Young is concerned, that makes the season a failure.

____