NBA Today: Atlanta’s Ascension

This week, the Doc Rivers era is over in Milwaukee; Cooper Flagg’s tremendous rookie season ended a bit early as an ankle injury forced him out of the finale; and Kawhi Leonard (wrist/ankle) missed the final game to rest up for the play-in tournament. Other Fantasy basketball stories we’re tracking include…

Buddy Hield Turns Back the Clock

At the All-Star break last season, we noted how the Atlanta Hawks had made some nice progress, although they were unable to nab the No. 8 seed in the play-in tournament.

This season, Atlanta made an even bigger leap, winning 46 games (its highest since 2015-16), topping the Southeast division and earning the No. 6 seed in the East for its first playoff appearance in three years. No, the Hawks are not among the top championship contenders, but getting back in the dance has to be considered a nice win.

With Atlanta resting most of its starters in the finale (which ultimately cost the team the fifth seed), we got to witness a turn-back-the-clock effort from veteran Buddy Hield, who poured in a game-high 31 points and seven treys — including his first as a Hawk — in just 21 minutes off the bench. His role has diminished in recent seasons but has really dropped off since being acquired from Golden State in early February.

In fact, Hield had only played 25 total minutes with Atlanta before going off on Sunday for his best game of the season. Even before landing on the Hawks, he was only playing 17.5 MPG, so not really enough to provide consistent Fantasy value, but when he played just five minutes in his Atlanta debut, the writing was on the wall: he’s not Fantasy relevant anymore.

Coming out of Oklahoma, Hield was lauded as a leader with a fantastic jump shot, but was not considered the most athletic or strong prospect around. We think he still has a future as a three-point specialist off the bench, but that run he had in Sacramento from 2018 to 2020 is ancient history.

Cleveland Takes a Step Back

When we last checked in on the Cleveland Cavaliers in late-February 2025, they were enjoying the best season in their history. Well, they slowed down a bit over the last couple of months, falling short of matching the 2008-09 team record of 66 wins and wound up getting knocked out in the Conference semi-finals, but it was still an amazingly successful season.

This season, Cleveland finished strong, but wasn’t nearly as dominant, ultimately falling a game short of New York for the No. 3 seed in the East. Can the Cavs finally get back to the Conference Finals or even beyond? Well, given that Donovan Mitchell has the sixth-best odds to be named the NBA Finals MVP (+1600 as per FanDuel), there’s definitely a chance.

Last season, he shook off an early slump and overcame some inconsistent shooting, but still regressed for a second straight season as he didn’t play as much, so his secondary stats suffered after career-best showings in rebounds and assists the season before.

This season, Mitchell missed some time (including the final two games with an ankle woe), but wound up seeing more PT and getting more touches when active, responding with the second-best scoring effort of his career. His minutes were up when he played in April, and he was especially productive in his final two games (34.5 PPG). Overall, Mitchell finished sixth in the NBA in total scoring this season.

From a Fantasy perspective, he was gold, finishing as the SG3 and only once recording more Fantasy points per game than he did this season. Thanks to his scoring, defending and distribution, not to mention his very strong FT shooting, he was a top 10 player overall in 2025-26.

Waiver Wire Pick of the Week

Cameron Johnson, SF/PF, Denver Nuggets (ESPN: 31.6 per cent; CBS: 53 per cent): Johnson has always been injury prone over his career, and while he’s taken a slightly lesser role in his first campaign in Denver, he looked very strong down the stretch, scoring 17 or more points in each of his last four games with some solid peripheral stats sprinkled in. Since the beginning of March, his shooting has been splendid, and he’s been a nice source of treys over this final stretch. After seeing more action than ever last season, he didn’t play quite as much for the Nuggets, but enjoyed the finest shooting effort of his career. The former Tar Heel also had his best three-point shooting performance since his Phoenix days.

RotoRob Tune of the Day

Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs were a Tex-Mex rock band which got its start in 1961 in Dallas. The band had a couple of big hits and a minor one in 1965 with “Ring Dang Doo.”