Hawks close the preseason in Dallas: one more tune-up, a Bezhanishvili flyer, and a rotation already pointed at Orlando

Turns out the Hawks weren't actually done. Monday's win over Oklahoma City looked like the last exhibition, but there's one more tune-up — Friday night in Dallas against the Mavericks — and the Hawks have treated it like the afterthought it is. They signed forward Giorgi Bezhanishvili ahead of it, requested waivers on Isaac McKneely the day before, and are all but waving the white flag when it comes to playing the main rotation. A 3-1 preseason is in the books. This last one is about depth looks and staying healthy for the real thing next week.

The flyer says everything about finality

Bezhanishvili, an Exhibit 10 signing announced the day before the finale, is the tell. Signing a camp guy that late — just so he can see minutes in Dallas and then likely head to College Park with the Skyhawks — means Atlanta believes it has seen everything it needs from the guys who'll actually play in October. When a team doesn't even need to audition its real rotation this late, it's confidence, not neglect. The Hawks are running back mostly the same group from last year with a few bench upgrades, and this finale is squarely in "don't get anybody hurt" territory.

The bench depth that fixed the preseason

Monday's win was the second-unit story that has become the arc of this whole exhibition slate — Jock Landale steadying the backup center job, Kobe Johnson and Zuby Ejiofor making the roster crunch genuinely hard. After the bench got wrecked in the Memphis opener, it outscored San Antonio's reserves by nearly 30 the game after and has been the reason the Hawks are 3-1. Against Dallas, with the starters expected to sit more than they'd like, that group likely gets the run one final time — a last chance to make the coaching staff's decision an uncomfortable one.

The roster crunch gets real now

Friday is the last chance to settle the margins before the real season tips off next week. The 17-to-15 squeeze is almost done sorting itself: McKneely's already out the door, and the Exhibit 10 guys like Kobe Johnson, Cameron Corhen and now Bezhanishvili are pointed squarely at the Skyhawks. Every minute in Dallas is a final argument for the guys on the edge of that 15-man roster. It's the boring part of the calendar, but it's the part that decides who's in the video room in December.

What's left before Orlando

After Dallas, it's real. The Hawks debut on the road next week to open the regular season, with Lu Dort, Trae Young, Jalen Johnson and the whole defensive pivot finally in it for keeps. Preseason numbers are noise — but the habits aren't, and the one habit this month actually proved is that the bench is no longer the leak it looked like in early October. Landale looks settled, the young wings keep pushing, and both are reasons to feel better about the coming season than the 3-1 record alone.

Bird Gang bottom line

Nobody's crowing over a 3-1 exhibition slate, and Friday in Dallas is genuinely not worth emotional investment. What is: the bench fixing itself, Landale locking down the backup spot, and a rebuild that's now actually built — all pointing toward next week. The best thing the Hawks can do Friday is walk out healthy. Basketball won't be on the pick'em board, but the countdown to the real season is close enough to start getting loud.

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