Hawks are rebuilding without telling you they're rebuilding

Atlanta Hawks General Manager Landry Fields spoke with the media yesterday ahead of the NBA Summer League starting, and one of the things he talked about is how development is crucial in this new cap environment, and earlier today The Morning Shift came to the conclusion that when he was talking about that he basically was telling Hawks fans the team is rebuilding without saying it directly.

“Development is crucial I think in a new cap environment right now when you have limitations on how you’re gonna be able to roster build, that leaves you with the option of changing your roster through development, so that’s a strong emphasis for us, and you know our expectations for our players is really in that same vein like grow, develop, learn, put the work in, and let the results be what they are.”

Translation, we are going to play our young guys, see what they can do, and when it comes to wins and losses whatever happens, happens. When Beau Morgan heard Fields say this it reminded him of what another local team’s General Manager and former Head Coach said a few years ago.

“You know what he just said? He just said what Terry Fontenot and Arthur Smith said in 2021. We’re not gonna call this a rebuild, but we’re gonna be competitive while re-tooling our team.”

That statement by Fields also made it sound like the Hawks aren’t making any other significant moves this offseason, so while the Hawks may still try to be “competitive” next season the Hawks’ 2024-25 season will more than likely be much of what we saw last season which is inconsistent play that ends in the NBA Play-In Tournament.