After making a coaching change midseason in the spring of 2023, the Hawks looked adrift amid the chaos surrounding the franchise. The Dejounte Murray trade gamble, to that point, had yet to bear much fruit, and internally there were unsettling rumors about who was really calling the shots at the top.
But after righting the ship to a degree, the Hawks rolled the Miami Heat in a critical Play-In game before giving the reigning Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics a tough six-game first-round series in the Playoffs. Growth was then expected in the 2023-24 season after an agreement was reached on a Dejounte Murray contract extension.