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Five games into the young season and the Atlanta Hawks are sitting at 3-3 after beating the Portland Trail Blazers 95-87 last night. With loses to two of the better teams in the league in the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Clippers recently, experts are putting the Hawks in the middle of pack when it comes to ranking them amongst their NBA counterparts.
SB Nation's own Seth Rosenthal put the Hawks 18th in his latest power rankings. Rosenthal notes the team may just need time to mesh and find a comfortable line-up after Joe Johnson's departure.
No matter the unit, the offense has been fairly effective despite not getting nearly enough looks at the rim or trips to the free throw line for a team with a decent mix of floor-spreaders and interior finishers. That may just be a matter of chemistry at this point.
Over at ESPN, Marc Stein thinks a little more of the Hawks, putting them at 12th in his power rankings. But this comes just a week after Stein had them ranked in the top 10 at eighth. So why the sudden drop? The Lakers coaching change.
No matter how many times Danny Ferry insists he's not in a rush to bring in Mike Brown as his next coach or trade Josh Smith for Pau Gasol, speculation will surely keep coming up.
The Hawks continue their West Coast road trip with a game against the Golden State Warriors tomorrow night followed by a Friday night tilt with the Sacramento Kings.