Could this Hawks season be different?

Lead by Cam Thomas’ 20 points in the 4th quarter, the Nets tried to keep the game close last night, but the Hawks prevailed to start the season 1-0.

Trae Young lead the team with 30-12-5 while Okongwu had a great game with a career high of 28 points.

Even after trading Murray over the summer, the Hawks reminded me a lot of the Hawks team last year.

This team was top 5 in almost every offensive category last year - and towards the bottom in almost every defensive metric.

Any team lead by Trae Young is going to be dynamic offensively and have weakness in defense, and they showed the same thing last night.

While true, getting Dyson Daniels in the Murray trade this summer feels big. He had 15 points last night and had 5 steals.

Daniels looks like he’s going to be a nice addition to help the teams’ overall defense which is much needed.

Paying Jalen Johnson what we paid him before the season reminds me of how we paid everyone after the great 2021 postseason run.

Players like John Collins did not live up to the big contract he got and the team did not get better as they matured like we expected.

This team needs players like Hunter, Johnson, and Trae to play above expectations if we want anything more than getting into the play-in to happen.

I still think the Hawks need to make a big trade to get a more physical center to compete with the likes of Giannis, Embiid, and Jokic.

As much as I like Okongwu and Capela, the only people they’re going to be bullying is players like Ben Simmons last night.

The Hawks got the season off to a good start last night, but is this season going to be any different than last year?

We’re going to find out soon enough.