Here's the next installment of our team-by-team season preview series on the Atlanta Hawks.

2014-15 Record: 60-22

Notable Acquisitions: Tim Hardaway Jr (Trade), Tiago Splitter (Trade)

Notable Departures: DeMarre Carroll

Temperature Check:

After rampaging through the league during the regular season, the Hawks bowed out meekly to the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals. It was a bitter end to one of the NBA’s feel-good stories. Then unfortunately for Atlanta, they were dealt another blow when one of their key contributors -- DeMarre Carroll -- signed with the Toronto Raptors. It will be up the NBA’s reigning Coach of the Year Mike Budenholzer to cover for Carroll’s loss and keep the Hawks atop the Eastern Conference.

Inside the Playbook:

Fitting with their style as “Spurs East” the Hawks have the same philosophical and aesthetically pleasing scheme as the influential franchise from the southwest. One of the staples of each team’s playbook is the early offense action “Strong.”

The basic principle of the set is a quick ball reversal to double stagger (two players screening for one) on the weakside while a big man flashes ball side into a post up. That part is generally the same every time they run it, but that doesn’t mean it always ends up the same play. Sometimes, they Hawks get shots out of it, like this Kyle Korver 3-point shot.

But more of than not, that movement is just a trigger for getting their big man to flash to the elbow. From there, the ballhandler throws it in to the big at the elbow and any number of things -- from a dribble hand-off to off-the-ball screens to pick-and-rolls -- can happen, even something as simple as pass and drive against an inattentive defender.

The beauty of this style of play is that the Hawks are essentially unscoutable. Their pet play may have a set starting point (and even that can change!), but it evolves into something new depending on the team’s strength or opponents weakness. It’s a never ending string of counters to counters designed to put the defense on their heels...something Atlanta hopes to do again this season.

Lineup to Watch:

Tiago Splitter-Al Horford-Thabo Sefolosha-Kent Bazemore-Jeff Teague

With their offense blitzing the league, it gets somewhat lost in the shuffle that Atlanta was also a very good defensive unit, ranking 6th per our RealGM data. With Splitter in the fold, a healthy Sefolosha and an improving Bazemore, the Hawks may actually have a truly stout defensive lineup at their disposal.

Splitter isn’t the long, rangy shot blocker that teams traditionally covet, but he’s had a positive defensive impact on the Spurs during his run there. Last year, he actually posted the best defensive rating of all the San Antonio big men. By pairing him with Horford in the frontcourt, a stout and versatile defender in his own right, the Hawks will have one of the league’s most reliable defensive tandems on the league.

The nice part about this group is with Horford slowly developing range out to the corner 3 and Bazemore shooting over league average for the second season in a row, this lineup may also be able to hold their own on offense as well -- at least in the regular season, where Sefolosha’s slow-release jumper won’t be as big of an issue. Finding an effective two-way lineup like this will be one way for the Hawks to keep up with the torrid pace they set last year.

The Wildcard:

Tiago Splitter

Splitter is an interesting player for a Hawks offense orchestrated by a coach with a fervent love of shooting at every position on the floor. But NBA offenses typically receive a boost when there is some type of verticality -- either a fantastic penetrating guard or explosive dive man -- slashing through the heart of the defense to open things up on the outside.

Splitter isn’t the first player you think of when hearing the term “explosive”, but he’s definitely a capable finisher in pick-and-rolls. Last year, he ranked in just the 60th percentile finishing on the roll but two seasons ago with the Spurs, Splitter was very good. He finished in the upper quarter of the league with 1.12 points per possession in all situations as a roll man that ended with a shot, foul or turnover, per Synergy data.

That’s not a world beating number, but it would have been the best mark on last year’s Hawks team by quite a bit. The reason for that is that Atlanta had a stable of bigs that chose to hang back on the pop rather than consistently dive to the rim. Splitter’s presence represents a big change in that regard.

Whether that change is good or bad, however, is what we will find out watching the Hawks this season.

Coach’s Question:

How much will Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroder play together?

From both a basketball and personnel standpoint, the Schroder-Teague dynamic will be something to keep on eye on this season. These two players represent the Hawks' best chance to win now (Teague was an All-Star after all) and their best chance to perhaps breakthrough the glass ceiling into an NBA Finals. Right now, Schroder’s potential and irrational confidence are just that. In order to develop his game, the Hawks need to play him.

The obvious solution to finding minutes for Schroder is to simply play him with Teague. But from the whole “winning games” standpoint, that may be a problem. Last year when Teague and Schroder played together, they broke even versus opponents over a 190 minute sample.

Given the Hawks as a whole outscored teams by 5.4 points per 48 minutes, this is a major downgrade. Now, 190 minutes is hardly a massive sample size, but it’s not a promising sign either. Because of their importance to both the present and the future, Teague and Schroder will play together and perhaps make that mark from last season a small sample size fluke. But if they continue to struggle together, it present a very interesting dilemma for Budenholzer to deal with as the season goes on.

Best Case Scenario:

60-22 If....

Splitter brings an added dimension to both the team’s pick-and-roll attack and defense. Millsap maintains his All-Star caliber form and the combination of Bazemore, Hardaway and a (hopefully) healthy Sefolosha fill the hole left by Carroll’s departure.

Worst Case Scenario:

51-31 If…

Carroll’s departure hurts both the team’s ability to hurt team’s beyond the arc (outside of Korver, of course) and/or Korver misses extended time. The shooting limitations of Splitter (and maybe Tavaras) throws a wrench in the Budenholzer’s all-shooting-all-the-time approach to offense. Opposing defenses start aggressively deploying switch heavy schemes and lineups in order to neutralize the team’s frenetic ball movement.

Click here for a full list of NBA Season Previews from Brett Koremenos.