Onsi Saleh’s Hawks plan not only makes sense, it has already delivered

What the Hawks are doing feels like progress.

After starting last season with the attempted pairing of franchise face Trae Young and Kristaps Porzingis and then jettisoning both to rebuild the roster around Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, the Hawks finally got out of the play-in tournament before losing to the eventual NBA champion Knicks in the first round of the playoffs.

In the offseason, they took steps to keep building and adding pieces to build a roster that will be deeper, more physical and better.

“Last season was a foundational season, and we’re building off of that,” Saleh said Friday at a media availability at State Farm Arena before the team opens its training camp next week. “You look at the transactions we made, guys that are returning, we really do feel like we got better. And I know the East got a lot better, too, but we’re going to be a very competitive team this season. That’s the expectation.”

What builds confidence in the Hawks’ direction under Saleh and coach Quin Snyder is their clear plan. Specifically in this offseason, the strategy was to raise the team’s level of physicality, a shortcoming that was exposed in the humbling playoff drubbing to the Knicks.

The Hawks were bullied and couldn’t handle it, culminating in a 140-89 Game 6 home court loss that ushered in the offseason.

Saleh was willing to ship former No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher to Dallas in a three-team trade that brought in 2025 All-Defensive team first-teamer Lu Dort, a 6-foot-4 guard coming from the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Hawks also used their Nos. 8 and 23 draft picks on guard Kingston Flemings and forward/center Zuby Ejiofor, respectively, whom Saleh said were rated by the team as the two most physical players in the draft.

“We saw the physicality in the playoffs and we needed to up that a little bit,” Saleh said. In Dort, “we’re talking about a guy that has guarded some of the best players in the NBA, (and) is arguably one of, if not the best isolation defender in the league.”

In acquiring Dort, who is built like an NFL running back and is nicknamed the Dorture Chamber, Saleh didn’t just bring in a player who will improve the team by raising the team’s intensity level every minute he’s on the floor. Dort and guard Aaron Wiggins, also acquired from the Thunder in exchange for two future second-round picks, bring the experience and habits of an NBA championship team.

“Sometimes your (player development) program is often relying heavily on the players you bring in,” Saleh said. “When a guy like Jalen Johnson goes against a guy like Lu Dort in practice, Jalen’s going to get a lot better.”

It is not difficult to listen to Saleh, now in his second full season overseeing the roster, and understand his shared vision with Snyder and see how it can work, especially when they’ve delivered results.

In Daniels and Alexander-Walker, the Hawks became the first team in NBA history to develop back-to-back Most Improved Players. (Daniels was acquired in a trade by Saleh’s predecessor, Landry Fields.) The versatile Johnson earned All-NBA honors for the first time in his career.

The Hawks led the NBA in assists and broke the club single-season record. After a slew of trades that included the departure of Young, the franchise face, the Hawks were 20-6 after the All-Star break.

And now a next step is to become tougher and more physical. It isn’t only the addition of Dort, but the physical development of returnees like Johnson.

Fans should see a team that’s more willing and able to fight through screens, handle defensive switches, establish position and initiate and absorb contact.

“But in every one of those situations, I think physicality is a key to success in a lot of ways in how the playoffs have been playing out and really, like, the latter part of the season, too,” Saleh said. “I feel like (if) you don’t have that, it’s just really hard to win because you can’t get into your sets and you can’t really get a lot of stops based on how the game’s being called today.”

In a stronger Eastern Conference, the growth this season may be incremental as the core matures. But there’s reason to hold confidence that it will happen.

For this franchise, whose tastes of glory since moving to Atlanta in 1968 can be measured by the sip, that alone is an improvement.