Are the Hawks finally East contenders?

Some in the media seem to think so.

Despite being eliminated in the Play-In Tournament for the second year in a row, things are looking up for this franchise. The Hawks have seized upon an opportunity to climb the ranks in the Eastern Conference, and fans and neutral observers alike are now taking notice.

After acquiring two young promising starters in the 2024 offseason in Dyson Daniels and Zaccharie Risacher, and promoting longtime backup Onyeka Okongwu — who is still just 24 years of age — to the starting lineup, the Hawks made more moves this offseason in an effort to compete going forward.

To recap, Atlanta acquired Kristaps Porzingis, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Luke Kennard as their major trade and free agency moves with, frankly, minimal on-court contributors out the door in their place. Atlanta could also see a boost from young players, Asa Newell, Kobe Bufkin, Mouhamed Gueye, and others breaking out if the cards fall the right way.

These reasons, along with last year’s East contenders suffering major injuries to their core players, have turned heads in the media to the promise and potential in the team at the moment.

With the dust largely settled in free agency, save for the major restricted free agents, let’s take a look at what prominent journalists and bloggers are saying about the Hawks’ place in the East as it relates to contending or non-contending tier placements.

First, Chris Herring of ESPN placed the Hawks in the so-called “[t]eams on the cusp after reloading” tier, the second overall tier below the Cavaliers and the Knicks:

Atlanta Hawks

In that same vein, arguably no Eastern Conference team leveled up more this offseason than the Hawks, who shored up their defense by acquiring Porzingis and versatile wing Nickeil Alexander-Walker while also picking up sharpshooter Luke Kennard. They also landed the Pelicans’ unprotected first-round pick next season while trading back only 10 draft spots — seemingly a theme this summer, given how little the Hawks surrendered to make these upgrades.

It was a heist of a summer for Atlanta, which, after finding gold last season in placing pesky wing Dyson Daniels next to Trae Young, has not only a heavily improved defensive approach but also one of the East’s best top-to-bottom rotations. Just like Orlando, the Hawks are going for it in what figures to be a wide-open race in the East.

Then, a former ESPN employee and popular podcaster, Zach Lowe, gave the Hawks serious props, placing the Hawks in his top overall tier with the likes of the Cavs, Knicks, and Magic. Lowe is a frequent backer of the Trae Young-era Hawks, with him having been burnt by a dinner wager on the Hawks finishing top-five two seasons ago — something that, uh, did not eventuate.

This year, on his podcast the Zach Lowe Show hosted by The Ringer, Lowe doubles down, saying in part:

“A lot of this is me betting on Trae Young responding to being in a contract year — potentially for the whole year — the right way which we started to see signs of last year.”

He later brought up Jalen Johnson returning from injury:

“[Johnson] is the guy I’m least worried about on the team. I think he’s going to be awesome.”

The guest on that recent episode, Michael Pina who is also a staff writer at The Ringer, did share concerns about the team as a contender, and he couldn’t quite place the Hawks as high as Lowe did. But he did break out his tiers in a similar manner and ended up placing them in the second tier alone — one called The People’s Champion.

If nothing else, these podcasters and writers and many others all agree that the Hawks will be both fun to watch this season and pose a real threat to the top dogs in the East. After years of people dismissing the Hawks as mid-conference fodder, it’s good to see the positive support for the direction of the team going forward.

What do you think? Are these tier placements for the Hawks fair to you? Please let me know in the comments below.