This weekend was all about star power for Atlanta Hawks fans and the rest of the NBA world. The Hawks are set to start the "second half" of their schedule with the same roster that set them a 28-30 record. In fact, he has played around 71 percent of his schedule and the roster is virtually the same that propelled him to the Eastern Conference Finals last season.
Still, as the All-Star festivities began, culminating in the All-Star Game on Sunday night, one thing was readily apparent.
The Hawks are still short on the star power required to win a title.
There is no magic formula to determine this that requires you to be a wizard of advanced analytics. Nor should eye examination be comprehensive to identify the problem; This is not an X and OS issue.
The Atlanta Hawks Championship Will Be Hard To Come Without More Star Power
Just before the break, Devin Booker tweeted a photo of the Phoenix Suns—the 19-game winning streak that would have been broken by the Hawks. It did a good job of showing what the maximum limit is for this current group. So it would seem counterintuitive now that they are still a piece or two away from a championship.
None of the top title contenders has just one All-Star representing their team at this weekend's events.
The closest argument anyone can make is the Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers. But both Ben Simmons and Kyrie Irving have been in multiple All-Star selections, while James Harden is a former MVP at the helm of them all.
Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat is also a former All-Star.
The win over Phoenix was a peak performance for a team that has struggled with consistency this season. But how will they be able to navigate if something happens to Trey Young for an extended period of time? They are 2-3 without him this season and 9-13 all the time. It's both incredibly lucky to have remained as he is and is also playing with fire.
He is expected to be without Sons Chris Paul for the next 6-8 weeks after he is diagnosed with a fractured thumb. Phoenix is undoubtedly glad Booker is carrying the load while Paul is recovering.
They are currently six games to the West on the top-seeded Golden State Warriors.
Hawks fans will recognize the injury the same way Bogdan Bogdanovic sustained his knee last season. He too recently missed time after experiencing swelling in that knee.
Young had given himself a night in his second All-Star debut, recording 13 points and a game-high 10 double-in exhibition to join teammate Joel Embiid and Team LeBron's Giannis Antetokounmpo. There were only two players to record doubles.
He also had some good lobs for Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant.
Young did not meet his goal of catching the lob and was not particularly skilled. But it was something else he said over the weekend that drives the optics of the weekend home.
If that's what the Hawks wanted, they had better hope someone else would emerge as that other All-Star. Clint Capella and John Collins were the closest and neither especially came in 22nd and 23rd place respectively in the fan vote. Collins finished 20th in player votes while Capella finished 50th.