The Atlanta Hawks have been one of the most consistent teams in the NBA for about 3 seasons now. Priding themselves on hard-nose team basketball and even spoiling LeBron Jamesâ return to Cleveland in 2015 by taking the 1 seed in the East, then ultimately losing to them in the conference championship. They also had 4 all-stars in 2015 with their main core of Jeff Teague, Al Horford, Paul Millsap, and Kyle Korver. Now with a 32 year old Paul Millsap as the last member of that core remaining the question remains, whatâs next for the Atlanta Hawks?â¨To begin the 2016 offseason they Hawks traded Jeff Teague to the Indiana Pacers, opening the door for Dennis Schroder as the future leader of the Hawks. Then they brought Dwight Howard back home hoping that the pair of Howard and Millsap will once again lead them to the playoffs. Dwight has been exactly what the Hawks wanted when they signed him, averaging 13.5 PPG and 13.0 RPG. Paul Millsap has also had another solid year, giving him another all-star nod to add to his resume. Dennis Schroder hasnât exactly had the coming out season that the Hawks front office hoped for when they traded Jeff Teague to Indiana, averaging 17.5 PPG 2.9 RPG and 6.3 APG. Even though Schroder isnât putting up future superstar type numbers heâs still proving that he can be a starter in this league, but the one thing heâs not shown is that he can be the future of the organization, which is what the Hawks were hoping would happen. Dwight Howard turned 31 in December and Paul Millsap just turned 32 in February, unless Schroder turns into the second-coming of Magic Johnson next season, the time for the Hawks to make a championship run is coming to and end. The Hawks havenât been using their draft picks wisely either, aiming more for drafting future role players instead of future all stars. They drafted Taurean Prince with the 12th overall pick in the 2016 draft, which many scouts say is way to high considering that he wasnât suppose to go until late 1st early 2nd round. Prince has been in and out of the D-League this year, averaging 3.5 PPG 2.0 RPG and 0.6 APG and being player that gets most of his minutes during garbage time.â¨Of the other 29 NBA teams you can look at and find the player of the future for the team, the Bulls have Jimmy Butler, Bucks have Giannis and Jabari, and the Sixers have Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. Every NBA team has that player or players that have the ability to be the future face of the franchise, except the Atlanta Hawks. Yes they have Dennis Schroder but he has not proved that he can be the future leader of the team yet, and part of that reason is instead of planning for the future, they plan for next season. The team lacks a young star, which will come back and haunt them once Paul Millsap is gone. The future of the Atlanta Hawks is bleaker than most people can see, unless they start using their draft picks more wisely and signing younger players with high ceilings, itâll be a tough few years coming up









