With the frenzy of NBA free agency continuing day to day, a multitude of franchises have new looks, and the Atlanta Hawks were no exception. The Hawks experienced a very bitter ending to the best regular season in franchise history when the Cleveland Cavaliers swept them out of the Eastern Conference Finals. With such a deep venture in the playoffs this past season; fans and the franchise itself have optimistic hopes.

“Our most important thing is keeping our team together, so the more time I have to spend time with Paul (Millsap) and DeMarre (Carroll) and our players, I welcome that,” head coach, now team president Mike Budenholzer told the Associated Press shortly before the start of free agency.

As we learned last week, those sentiments ultimately failed, as the Hawks were only able to land only one of their primary targets. This may at first seem like the Hawks are losing the core and gel, which led them to 60 wins last year, but they picked the right one.

Paul Millsap will be returning to ATL, for at least two more years with a third year player option. The three-year deal is reported to be around $59 million and with the signing, the Hawks are in perfect position to serve as a top contender in the league’s lesser known little brother, the Eastern Conference.

Although the contract pushes Atlanta over the salary cap, furthering them from any other additions in free agency unless acquiring pieces on minimum deals, the team is ready to stride forward after just three offseason moves.

The first of the moves the franchise made was dealing away the first round draft pick, to bring NBA great Tim Hardaway’s (Tim Hardaway Jr.) son down to Atlanta from the New York Knicks. This is where in a sense the writing was ultimately on the wall that the franchise expected to lose a piece of their core.

During the first day of free agency DeMarre Carroll inked a four-year $60 million deal with the Toronto Raptors. Retaining the Junkyard Dog as stated by Coach Bud, was a top priority for the franchise, but it was a move that couldn’t be done due to financial reasons.

It’s hard to believe that Carroll was the only one out of the starting five for the Atlanta Hawks to not be named an All-Star, especially by looking at playoff performances (where Kyle Korver pulled a Harry Houdini disappearing act). Carroll’s emergence as a player last season was undoubtedly a testament to his extreme work ethic, but also the franchise’s player development program/system. The latter is why the franchise felt they could lose Carroll and still succeed in the future.

It hurts for the Hawks to see him walk and leave a gaping hole at small forward, but there wasn’t much they could do. Plus the team is even thinner at power forward, and Millsap did so much for the offense. Offensively Carroll won’t be missed, due to the addition of Tim Hardaway Jr.’s ability to score at will. What will be missed is Carroll’s ability to guard quicker forwards in the league, and his overall defensive presence. This is where again the Hawks fully trust their player development system.

The Hawks’ addition of 6’5 stretch guard Kent Bazemore in last season’s free agency, was a move that went overlooked. That move now, is one of extreme interest. The Hawks need Bazemore to step into a more demanding role, and step into it fast.

Bazemore is a young athletic player who plays with a full head of steam at all times, but his talents are ultimately still very raw. At times you see Bazemore overthink plays while he’s on the floor, which leads to untimely mistakes. On the other hand you see flashes of Bazemore’s talent on the floor which makes you think that he could be very special in the Hawks’ un-selfish system. This type of play was due to Bazemore’s limited role that he had with last year’s core. With a heavier role I would expect to see Bazemore develop into a very valuable player for the franchise.

Also filling in for Carroll’s defensive void, the Hawks hope for a promising return to health for forward Thabo Sefolosha. It’s been a while since the Hawks have actually seen the Swiss born player in a uniform, as during the tail end of the season he and former teammate Pero Antic faced legal issues following a New York club incident, which led to Sefolosha breaking his leg. Sefolosha has always been known as a defensive specialist, going back to his days spent with Oklahoma City. If he can return healthy from the very bizarre injury, the Hawks should be fine on the defensive side of the ball. Not to mention the walking emoji Mike Scott is still active on the roster.

An issue where the Hawks fell short in last year’s season was their ability to rebound, both on the offensive and defensive glass. The Hawks as a franchise clearly saw this as an issue, and doing their due diligence went out and grabbed versatile center Thiago Splitter from the San Antonio Spurs.

Splitter is the type of player who fits very well into the Hawks’ system. Splitter comes in as a very serviceable big body on the floor (at a pretty cheap rate of $8.5 mil per yr.) who you can count on for productive minutes. Although Splitter could be a potential starting center for the Hawks, I see Coach Bud utilizing Splitter as a role player coming off the bench averaging anywhere between 25 and 30 mins. per game. That’s all the Hawks need from Splitter. They don’t value him as a player who comes in and adds immediate point production, but as a player who is going to grab boards and fill up the lanes in the process. That’s simply the type of player Splitter is, and it fits the Hawks’ needs smoothly.

Not to mention bringing in Splitter allows for Coach Bud to tamper with the lineup, and bring in a tall/lengthy five on the court which hasn’t been seen in Atlanta in recent years. Bud now has the option to run a lineup of Teague, Korver, Millsap, move Horford to his natural four position and have Splitter at the five. This lineup presents extreme length, which the Hawks have never seen in Coach Bud’s time while also having five players on the floor who have the ability to not only score, but all have qualities to pass well.

With the roster that Coach Bud is presented with now going into this season, there is absolutely no reason to panic. The Hawks trust and believe in their system which over the past couple years has shown to be successful, so at the moment it should be hard to doubt the franchise’s moves. Plus as mentioned earlier it’s not as if the Hawks have flipped into the much more competitive Western Conference, they still find themselves in the struggling East where other teams haven’t made any major strives at improvement either, so the Hawks will be just fine.