Atlanta Hawks are cohesive, fluid team no one wants to meet in NBA playoffs

NEW YORK — It’s annoyingly cold, a gray day after a fool’s spring, but most of the Atlanta Hawks have dispersed into the city, anyway.

The team arrived from Orlando about 3 a.m., and the 78th game of the season is tomorrow night in Brooklyn. Technically, it’s supposed to be an afternoon off.

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Yet, here in a windowless conference room on the third floor of the Ritz-Carlton NoMad, general manager Onsi Saleh and head coach Quin Snyder are busy sketching out hypothetical three-man actions on a dry erase board.

They don’t necessarily need to be doing this. There are 10 days left in the NBA regular season and the Hawks are already the hottest team in the Eastern Conference, the squad no one wants to face in the playoffs.

But this team is still somewhat new, still somewhat unresolved. And so, the architects of this revival are chasing refinements, trying to uncover some combination, some scheme that will unlock this group’s full potential.

This is, after all, a team that has traded nine players since July. It’s a team that has asked its players — young and old — to constantly reinvent themselves.

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“We like to say: they’re rookies in their roles,” Snyder says. “This is all new for them. We’re still learning about them. And they’re still learning about–”

“Each other, yeah,” Saleh cuts in, finishing the thought. “And us, honestly.”

Throughout a wide-ranging, 45-minute conversation with USA TODAY Sports, Saleh and Snyder opened up about their philosophies on roster construction and culture, on their expectations, on success.

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Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents

Oct. 26: The Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg dunks the ball past the Toronto Raptors’ Sandro Mamukelashvili at the American Airlines Center.

1 / 8

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents

Oct. 26: The Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg dunks the ball past the Toronto Raptors’ Sandro Mamukelashvili at the American Airlines Center.

2 / 8

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents

Oct. 26: The Washington…

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Publish date : 2026-04-08 18:34:00

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