Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present our pre-2021-22 revision of our top 50 Atlanta Hawks

As for all of our top 50 players in basketball we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the NBA. 

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Please note, that this is our first revision in three years, and as such, there are two significant debuts, that would not be so drastic had we did these the last two years.

As always, we present our top five immediately, though nothing has changed in this upper-tier.

1. Bob Pettit

2. Dominique Wilkins

3. Cliff Hagan

4. John Drew

5. Mookie Blaylock

You can find the entire list here.

The two new entries are stars of the past few years, and led Atlanta to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Power Forward and four-year veteran, John Collins enters at #28, and star three-year Guard, Trae Young, debuts at #29.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.

At the 2018 Draft, the biggest moment was when the Dallas Mavericks traded Trae Young for Luka Doncic to Atlanta, players who both teams just drafted, and were both hopeful that they both landed the man who would take them to the promised land.  With the two linked together in perpetuity, Young will always be compared to Doncic, which may not be fair, but Young showed his share of scoring skills

Young was an immediate star, earning First Team All-Rookie honors with a 19.1 PPG and 8.1 APG.  There was no sophomore slump for the Point Guard, who went to his first All-Star Game, and increased his production to 29.6 Points and 9.4 Assists per Game, with his PER rocketing to 23.9.  2020/21 saw Young’s numbers slightly decrease, but he had more help, and brought the Hawks to an Eastern Conference Final.  2021/22 was a disappointing one for the Hawks, as they regressed overall, but Young was outstanding, going back to the All-Star Game on his way to a 28.4 PPG  Season, and a career-high PER of 25.4.  

In 2022-23, Young was not able to make the All-Star Game, but still led the Hawks to the playoffs, and had a 26.2 PPG, the fourth year in a row that he averaged over 25 Points per Game.  Last season, Young did make the All-Star (albeit as a replacement) and again averaged over 25 Points per Game (25.7).

Young's future with the Hawks might be on shaky ground, but the potent scorer can still carry Atlanta and steal wins.  

John Collins showed huge progress at Wake Forest, so much so, that he earned a First Round Pick (19^th Overall) in 2017 by Atlanta.

The Power Forward was a Second Team All-Rookie Selection, starting 26 of his 74 Games, and averaging 10.5 Points per Game.  He shot that number up as a sophomore to 19.5 Points, and was now in the starting five.  Collins continued his upward trajectory, posting a PER over 20 over three years in a row (2018-19 to 2020-21)

Collins was less featured in his last two seasons, and his PPG in 2022-23 (13.1) was his lowest since his rokkie year.  The Hawks traded Collins to Utah in 2023, thus ending his run with Atlanta.

Regular visitors of Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB.  Once that is done, we intend to look at how each team honor their past players, coaches and executives.  As such, it is news to us that Middle Tennessee State has announced six new members of their Hall of Fame.

The Class will be formally introduced on October 2, before their home game against Marshall

The new members are:

Rawley Bishop, Baseball, Class of 2009:  Bishop was a two-time All-Sun Belt Selection and is the school’s all-time leader in RBIs, Runs Scored and Total Bases.  He is also second in Home Runs. 

Nathaniel Claybrooks, Football, Class of 1995.  Claybrooks was a First Team All-American in 1995, and was a two-time All-Ohio Valley Conference Selection at Linebacker.  He had 270 career Tackles.

Jason Millard, Golf, Class of 2011.  Millard was a two-time All-American.

Patrick Simpson, Men’s Wrestling, Class of 1979.  Simpson becomes the first Blue Raider to make the MTSU Hall of Fame, and he was also the first to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, which he did in 1979.

Jamie Thornatis, Women’s Basketball, Class of 2001.  Thornatis became the first women’s basketball player in school history to make All-Conference in two different regions (OVC and Sun Belt).  She had 1,971 career Points.

Desmond “Boogie” Yates, Men’s Basketball, Class of 2010.  Yates was the first (and to date only) men’s player in school basketball history to be a three-time All-Conference Selection.  Yates is the all-time Blue Raider leader in Points (1,775).  

We would like to congratulate the newest members of Middle Tennessee State Athletic Hall of Fame for earning this prestigious honor.