This offseason, the Atlanta Hawks have certainly put their best foot forward with the hopes of creating a contending team around their star point guard, Trae Young. In addition to all the internal improvements they're hoping for from their young core, they brought in reinforcements such as Kristaps Porzingis, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Luke Kennard — giving them more pieces to help them in their push for an outright playoff spot.

This Hawks squad is clearly hungry, and they showed last season that they can up their game to match even the best teams in the association. They should be raring to prove something, especially after their strong start to the 2024-25 campaign was derailed by injuries, and one way for them to announce their arrival is to go deep into the NBA Cup — the first

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