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Hawks Team Report

Updated: May 27, 2012 05:30 EST

The summer of uncertainty began officially for Hawks the moment they walked off that floor in Boston in Game 6, losers in a win-or-go-home playoff game that they knew would signal the end of an era.

Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Al Horford and Marvin Williams form the nucleus of a team that was good enough to make the playoffs five straight years, good enough to make the second round three straight years, but not quite good enough to advance beyond that point during their time together.

Now everyone is in limbo. General manager Rick Sund and his staff have contracts that expire at the end of this season, head coach Larry Drew and his staff have the same. More than half of the roster, including almost all of the reserves that helped the Hawks survive this injury-plagued season, were on one-year deals. And the ownership situation remains a bit murky, a potential sale last summer coming undone and new prospects still not clear.

The futures of Smith, Williams and perhaps even Johnson could be in flux during what could be a tumultuous summer for the Hawks as they figure out who stays and who goes on a team that is clearly in need of revamping.

Jeff Teague is the point guard the Hawks have been looking for the past few years. Horford, when healthy, is a franchise pillar, he's as good on the court as he is stable in the locker room and reliable off the court.

But beyond those two pieces, the Hawks have some hard choices to make about what to do with everyone else.

Smith asked for a trade this season, only to have his demands ignored by management and ownership, knowing that they couldn't lose their best player and top attraction in a year when Horford missed all but 11 regular season games with a torn pectoral muscle.

"I'm under contract one more year with the Hawks," Smith said, not exactly a ringing endorsement for the team's longest tenured player and hometown hero. But his words might as well be the mantra for all involved.

Sund's name has surfaced in connection with the open general manager's job in Portland. Drew could be on short lists in Charlotte, he has a long relationship with Bobcats owner Michael Jordan, and elsewhere.

Johnson made his displeasure with the way things are run clear when he complained about not getting enough shots before Game 5 of the Celtics series and then promptly laid down in Game 6 as Smith and Horford did all the heavy lifting down the stretch, only to see the Hawks come up short in the end, yet again.

Uncertainty reigns supreme for these Hawks. July 1 and the start of free agency and the official kickoff of the offseason can't get here soon enough.

SEASON HIGHLIGHT: The Hawks earned home-court advantage in their first round series against the Celtics, a nod to the hard work they did throughout the course of a season that did not include Al Horford playing past the first 11 games due to that torn pectoral muscle. All year long, coach Larry Drew was able to push just enough of the right buttons to get this team into a position to dictate their own playoff future.

TURNING POINT: That Game 2 loss to the Celtics at home, the one Celtics All-Star point guard Rajon Rondo had to sit out because of suspension, changed the entire tone of this season around for the Hawks. With Derrick Rose going down and the Sixers knocking off the Bulls, the Hawks could have hosted their next series and charted a course to the Eastern Conference finals. Instead, they lost home court and, ultimately, control of the series to the Celtics in one brutal night.

--Al Horford came back for the last three playoff games, but he will continue to rehab his surgically-repaired pectoral muscle.

He wasn't completely healthy when he came back, though he played valiantly.

"I'm very limited," Horford said. "I made a lot of progress in two weeks but I'm about 50 or 60 percent strength."

Horford wasn't in game condition when he returned but he knew the season was on the line and didn't want to have any regrets about what he could have done to help.

"I knew I had a ways to go. Even when I came back, I felt limited," he said. "I gave it all I had for the team and for the city. Our city had big expectations for us. It was unfortunate we had a number of injuries and couldn't do what we wanted."

--It's hard to sum up a team's season in one play, but the Hawks did have a crucial offensive set in Game 6 that captures things as well as any one play could.

With seven seconds on the shot clock and the chance to salt the game away with one solid possession, things went haywire. The play had been designed for Joe Johnson, but he wasn't open and nobody else knew what to do.

"We didn't execute the play," coach Larry Drew said a day after it was over. "Guys did not go to the right spots."

Josh Smith ended up launching a 20-footer that wasn't close, this after a crossover dribble and drive for a dunk exhibited the good of his game.

"I was upset," Al Horford said when asked about that sequence. "I thought it was a really tough shot."

A tough shot he knows Smith should never have had to take.

"We've seen Josh make tough shots," he said, defending his frontcourt partner in crime.

But it's always the same story for these Hawks, close but still an inch or two too far.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "When a coach tells you, 'No excuses,' he holds you responsible as a player. It shouldn't be any other way. You know your job." -- Marvin Williams, putting the onus for the Hawks' failed season at the feet of the men he believes to be responsible for the abrupt finish... the players.

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: In a season where players around the league dropped like flies with injuries, Josh Smith proved to be a bit of an iron man. He played all 66 regular season games and turned in big numbers across the board with Al Horford out most of the year with an injury. Smith should have been on the All-Star team, and wasn't, and should be on the third team All-NBA squad, but probably won't be, based on his work from start to finish this season. Smith averaged 18.8 points, 9.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.7 blocks and 1.4 steals. If he'd ever lay off the jump-shooting fetish of his, Smith would be downright devastating.

MOST DISAPPOINTING PLAYER: Marvin Williams continues to make Hawks fans cringe with his inability to live up to his draft position. Operating as the Hawks' sixth man for most of the season, he turned in an average year for a role player, averaging 10.2 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists. His scoring averaging hasn't risen above 10.4 points in any of the past three seasons. This, at a time when Williams should be coming into his prime.

BIGGEST NEEDS: The Hawks still need another lengthier option in the low post. Horford and Smith were both undersized to deal with Kevin Garnett in the playoffs. They need a better option than Erick Dampier and Jason Collins (or even Zaza Pachulia, when healthy).

FREE AGENT FOCUS: The Hawks don't have any internal free agents they have to worry about as much as they need to figure out what free agent pieces elsewhere fit well into what they are trying to do. But that would require a clear plan on behalf of whoever will be running the organization. And right now, there is no clear-cut answer to that question either. Guys like Willie Green, Jannero Pargo, Tracy McGrady and Ivan Johnson could all be a part of the Hawks' future plans. But right now, there is just no one around to answer those tough questions. Hawks general manager Rick Sund has not yet spoken to the media, and given his contract situation, might not bother.

PLAYER NOTES:

--G Jeff Teague made some major strides this season, finally coming into his own as the starting point guard. He gives the Hawks a solid, young building block at that position for the first time in years.

"He has some rough edges to his game that still must be ironed out, but he came along this season and really helped us," Drew said. "What he has to do this summer is go back and watch his own film and see where he can get better at attacking and knowing when to facilitate for others. But there's a lot of positives to build on for him. He has to continue to work at it and strive to become a better point guard."

--G Joe Johnson had an interesting year, earning his sixth All-Star bid but also confounding observers once again with a weak showing in the playoffs. Johnson will never shake loose from the hassles of his contract; he'll be the league's highest paid player in his last season. But he also has to find a way to sleep at night (and play during the games) without the added pressure of worrying about what people are saying about him and his contract. The Hawks already know Johnson is not going to lead them the way a man of his pay grade is supposed to, but they still need consistent production out of him.

--C Zaza Pachulia was the Hawks' forgotten man during the playoffs. Who knows what they might have looked like with Pachulia healthy and playing the way he had all season in place of Al Horford?

"I don't like playing that 'what if' game," Josh Smith said. "But we missed Zaza, and really Al for the few games, something terrible."

MEDICAL WATCH:

--Zaza Pachulia missed the end of the regular season and the entire postseason with that foot injury that now has time to heal before the start of the 2012-13 season.