Bill Shanks: Atlanta Hawks struggling through ordinary season

It's easy to look back on last year's Atlanta Hawks team and say it had a special season. If last year was special, this season is as ordinary as you can get.

Last year, the Hawks won 60 games. They lost only 22 the entire season. Here we are approaching mid-February, and the Hawks already have 24 losses, and they are just six games above .500.

So what's been the difference? Well, DeMarre Caroll and Pero Antic are gone from last year's team. They were important pieces, but they aren't the only reason this team is 13 games worse through 54 games than they were a year ago.

Al Horford has had a weird year. His rebounds have decreased the past four years, from 10.2 per game in 2012-13 to 6.9 rebounds per game this season. Horford turns 30 in June, and he should have value. That's why trade rumors have popped up with his name the past few weeks.

Surprisingly, Horford has taken 159 3-point shots this season, making 33 percent of them. Horford shot 65 3-pointers in the first eight years of his career. Is that necessary to stretch the floor, or has it been part of the problem?

Kyle Korver has not had as good a season. He shot 49 percent from 3-point territory last season and has only shot 38 percent from the outside this year. Is Korver getting old in a hurry?

Jeff Teague has been inconsistent, which has started a number of trade rumors about the veteran point guard. Teague has one year left on his contract after this season, so if the Hawks are going to trade him now might be the time.

Orlando, Houston, Utah and Indiana reportedly have talked with the Hawks about Teague. What can Atlanta get in return? That might determine whether they pull the trigger on a deal.

But is young Dennis Schroder ready to be the primary point guard? Well, he's inconsistent, as well, so that's not an easy question to answer. At times, Schroder looks ready, but then he'll have a stretch when he looks like he needs more seasoning.

The Eastern Conference is better this season, so that's another reason the Hawks have not been as successful. But they are stuck in the middle of a tight playoff race where a bad couple of weeks could actually have them looking up at teams and out of the postseason.

A trade seems like an answer, but will it be the cure for the mediocrity the Hawks have settled into this season? Obviously shaking up a roster is always risky, but considering the point guard situation, where there is a replacement for Teague in Schroder, that might be too tempting to pass up.

This is just a very strange team to figure out. Reports say head coach and the man-in-charge Mike Budenholzer is leery of breaking up a team that only a year ago won 60 games. That's understandable, but does he really believe this roster can do anything special in the postseason?

The last thing any franchise wants to do is to go backward, but maybe the 60-win season a year ago was the best the Hawks will ever do in one year. The decisions made before the trade deadline in two weeks may dictate their chances, but they need to do something. The Hawks have gone from special to ordinary pretty quickly.

Listen to "The Bill Shanks Show" from 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WPLA Fox Sports 1670 AM in Macon and online at www.foxsports1670.com/. Follow Bill at twitter.com/BillShanks and email him at thebillshanksshow@yahoo.com.

This story was originally published February 9, 2016 at 7:58 PM with the headline "Bill Shanks: Atlanta Hawks struggling through ordinary season ."