While Nobody Was Looking, the Hawks Became the Best Franchise in Atlanta

On Sunday, the Atlanta Hawks played their first game in the Eastern Conference semifinals since 2016 and won their first game in the same round for the first time since 2015. Coming into the 2020-21 season, it had been three years since the Hawks had even taken the floor in a playoff game.

And yet, on June 7, 2021, it's entirely possible Atlanta's best professional sports franchise is its basketball team.

The Atlanta Braves are just a little over seven months removed from a 3-1 lead in the NLCS over the Dodgers, but we all remember how that turned out. And save a series win over that same team this past weekend, they're in a state which could reasonably be described as "free fall." Freddie Freeman is still hitting .229, Mike Soroka does not appear to be coming back this season, Marcell Ozuna is a scumbag who might go to prison and if it weren't for a bit of underachieving by the Mets, Atlanta could easily be seven or eight games back of the division lead by now.

And on the same day the Hawks were busy getting their biggest win in five years, the Falcons traded Julio Jones to the Tennessee Titans.

The Falcons haven't really been in the conversation for the best team in Atlanta since the Braves overtook them following the Super Bowl debacle anyway, but it was fitting that getting rid of one of the best players in franchise history came on such an important day for the Hawks.

So did the Hawks really sneak up in the dead of night and overtake the Braves as the best franchise in the city? It was only March 1 that the Hawks were 14-20 and fired head coach Lloyd Pierce. And all they've done under Nate McMillan is finish the season 27-11 to end up as the No. 5 seed in the East, dispatch the Knicks with ease and now find themselves up 1-0 on the top-seed 76ers.

But the sudden turnaround was only possible after a gradual building process. Trae Young, who looks like the best player in the NBA Playoffs right now, has been getting better in each of his first three seasons. John Collins is finally getting the recognition he deserves as one of the most versatile forwards in the NBA. Clint Capela was an invaluable pick-up. DeAndre Hunter looks like he could turn into a pretty special player. And Bogdan Bogdanović may have been the steal of last offseason.

So all of this has culminated in where the Hawks find themselves now. Regardless of the result of this series against Philadelphia, the Hawks will go into next season as one of the most dangerous teams in the NBA. And if the Braves don't figure something out soon, I think it's pretty safe to say they've been overthrown.