Hopefully the Falcons learn from the Hawks

Wall of text warning.

The Hawks are becoming a mess. Last night Dennis Schröder got benched by Budenholzer for spending an entire defensive possession arguing with Dwight Howard as the Warriors lined up a wide open three in a tight game.

A team that went 60-22 and made the ECF just 2 seasons ago is now just 5 games above .500 and arguably the most inconsistent team in the conference. Why? Because they forgot who they were.

They were a team built on consistency, offensive flexibility and a Patriots-style "Do Your Job" mentality. Then they slowly destroyed all of that for "star power" and dunks.

First they let Demarre Carroll go. Fair enough, it sucked, but we couldn't afford what Toronto was offering and Millsap was a more important piece to that puzzle. Relatively fine with that.

Then things got head-scratching. They traded away Jeff Teague, let Al Horford walk in lieu of Dwight Howard and shipped off Kyle Korver to the very team they were trying to beat, Cleveland.

Their identity is gone. Now, I'm left to wonder how much longer Budenholzer can maintain control of this bunch.

Attention Falcons: keep the identity that got you where you got. Don't overreact to one playoff moment. Don't blow things up because you lost the big game. Winners do what they do, and losers get sweaty palms and run at the first sign of trouble.

Rant over.