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After a rough start with a loss at home, the Hawks seem to be headed in the right direction after winning three straight. So let's take a look at where the Hawks rank after one week of play in this new season.
John Schuhmann of NBA.com starts things off for us by dropping the Hawks to No. 10.
The Hawks are still getting beat up on the boards, ranking 28th in defensive rebounding percentage (though the numbers are much better with Tiago Splitter on the floor). After shooting 2-for-9 in the first two games, Kent Bazemore totaled 39 total points a weekend home-and-home against the Hornets. With both Kyle Korver and Thabo Sefolosha getting rest days, the Hawks need Bazemore on both ends of the floor.
Marc Stein of ESPN.com keeps the Hawks in the top 10 but drops them to No. 9.
Early features of the Hawks' season: Two narrow wins over Charlotte after Atlanta dropped its fourth successive season opener, lots of 3-point attempts from increasingly long-range-minded big man Al Horford and slight game-to-game improvement from Kent Bazemore as the successor to DeMarre Carroll at small forward.
Next, Matt Moore of CBSSports.com moves the Hawks to No. 11 in his latest ranking.
The Hawks righted themselves after the disappointing opening loss to Detroit, but there are some serious issues defensively for Atlanta right now, especially when they don't have Tiago Splitter in. Their smallball lineups have been shredded.
Kurt Helin of NBC's ProBasketballTalk.com also puts the Hawks at No. 11
Kent Bazemore doesn’t do everything DeMarre Carroll did on defense, but he is scoring for them — 19.5 points a game in the last two and shooting 53.8 percent from three for the season — plus using his length on defense. Rebounding remains an issue in Atlanta.
That does it for the ranking this week and we see that the Hawks have dropped across the board. The upcoming schedule will be difficult but with a strong week, we can expect to see the Hawks move up in the standing. As always let me know your thoughts in the comments.