Hawks are prepared to open wallet to improve

ATLANTA — The prinicipal owner of the Atlanta Hawks has no intention of repeating the mistake of complacency he believes set the stage for a disappointing 2021-22 season, which was capped by a first-round exit from the NBA playoffs.

Tony Ressler said the Hawks won’t stand pat this offseason — even if that means paying a salary tax.

The Hawks returned a young core led by point guard Trae Young and forward John Collins from the team that made a surprising postseason run last summer before falling to the Milwaukee Bucks, who went on to win the NBA title.

This year the Hawks had to win back-to-back play-in games just to earn the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 seed, and then they lost to the Miami Heat in five games in the opening round of the playoffs.

“We thought we’d be better this season,” Ressler said Thursday. “We plan to get better this offseason.”

Ressler, who led the group that purchased the Hawks in 2015, said too much stock was placed on last year’s run. General manager Travis Schlenk’s only significant deal during the season was trading forward Cam Reddish to the New York Knicks for Kevin Knox, who rarely played, and a protected first-round draft pick.

“I think if you asked our front office, they would say that we thought based on last season’s visit to the Eastern Conference finals that we could bring back predominantly the same team and get better and expect it to be better,” Ressler said. “I don’t think that worked out the way we thought.

“So yes, I think we should have tried to get better rather than bring back what we had. That won’t happen again, by the way. It was a mistake, in my opinion.”