After a couple of rocky seasons battling injuries and Father Time, it seemed as if the career of Tracy McGrady was approaching the end. Not giving the same impact that he once did during his Orlando and Houston days, McGrady was shipped around the association numerous times before finding himself on the Atlanta Hawks in 2011.
The Hawks were coming off of a 6 game Conference Semifinal Loss to the Chicago Bulls and were looking for ways to become stronger.
They signed veteran Eric Dampier to help under the basket and signed McGrady to provide offense from the perimeter.