Playoff Prospects: Are The Atlanta Hawks For Real?

In this series, we’ll take a look at each NBA team that’s gunning for a deep playoff run. We’ll try to predict the players that will have the biggest impact, as well as the ceiling for each squad in the 2026 postseason.

For the Atlanta Hawks, there’s life before and after January 7, 2026.

On that fateful day, news broke of longtime franchise player Trae Young getting traded to the Washington Wizards. When this bombshell trade emerged on social media, Young (who was in street clothes on the Hawks bench during an Atlanta-New Orleans game) shook hands with his teammates and headed back to the locker room of State Farm Arena.

Young’s departure is a reckoning point for the Hawks this season. While the four-time All-Star has given his all for the franchise, even leading them to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2021, it was clear that the team had hit their ceiling with him. It was perhaps no coincidence, then, that the Hawks logged a 26-12 record in the 38 games following the Young trade, a sharp contrast to their 17-21 start.

Said in another way, the Hawks went from hovering in play-in territory to all but securing an outright playoff spot. Will this version of the Hawks show up in the postseason? Or will this team, for one reason or another, regress and leave the party early?

As the 2025-26 season progressed, it became increasingly clear that Young was no longer the captain of the ship. Through his performance on the court, Jalen Johnson emerged as the new main man.

After battling injuries over the past two seasons, Johnson maximized his good health this season to establish himself as a stat-stuffing athletic stud. Double-doubles and triple-doubles have become par for the course for this 24-year-old, who earned his first All-Star appearance this year.

Drafted 20th overall in the 2021 NBA Draft, Johnson is everything that the Hawks can ask for at this point: a young cornerstone that they can build around for years to come. The 2026 playoffs will be a great litmus test for Johnson’s skill set, including his leadership acumen.

If Jalen Johnson is this season’s headliner, Jonathan Kuminga may very well be the showstopper.

Kuminga is another driving force behind the Hawks’ success following the All-Star break. After several contentious months dealing with the Warriors' front office and coaching staff, Kuminga showed a different pep in his step when he donned a Hawks uniform.

At long last, the versatile scorer that Steve Kerr had been waiting for has stepped up big and drawn the admiration of ardent Atlanta fans. Johnson, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Onyeka Okongwu have kept the Hawks’ playoff aspirations afloat, but it may be Kuminga who makes the difference in the postseason.

If the Hawks secure the fifth seed, they could soon be staring down the Cleveland Cavaliers. This will be an interesting matchup, given that both teams have made significant roster tweaks.

The Hawks’ young core is a promising one, but the Cavs’ dynamic duo of Donovan Mitchell and James Harden (plus the formidable frontcourt of Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, and Jaylon Tyson) might be too much for Atlanta to overcome in the first round.