emeans

I know it is pre-season. But what you expect in pre-season is to get some of the kinks out of the armor. One of the main problems with last years teams was 4th quarter collapses. So far ALL of the preseason game losses are resembling the same old story from last year.....Play pretty good to excellent in quarters 1 thru 3 and collapse majorly in the 4th. You want to see improvement in that area in pre-season!! Also, I was finally able to see Curry on television tonight. I am now wishing we had taken a chance and signed Curry like New York did. He is a flatout beast (He almost kind of reminded me of Shaq in a subtle way). He and Zsa Zsa would have been a force in the middle. He will help New York out tremendously if his health holds up.

These 4th quarter lapses is really starting to rear its ugly head.....AGAIN. How in the hell do you lose a game that you are up by 8 points with 30 seconds left in the game and you have the ball????? Could someone please tell me this. If we continue to colapse in the 4th quarter all year with the talent that we have assembled I am going to start pointing the finger directly at Woodson. This was the Hawks achilles tendon last year. We should have at least won 20 or more games. What a screwed up loss!!!

Diesel...I have to agree with you on this one. I think we should think about signing Al to an extension too. I think he is more valuable to this team than many people think. He is a proven scorer and he is kind of the backbone of this club until JJ , Chillz and Marvin take this position. But right now Al is the face of the Hawks and a proven commodity.

I would trade Ivey in a heartbeat. He is a 3rd tier backup guard and he will see little time this year behind Lue, Delk, Salim and JJ. Salim has taken his spot and he hasn't even played in a real NBA game. Ivey is definately trade bate or even cut. With the Hawks lack of big men, I wonder if he will even take a roster spot. We have 4 guards, all of which can switch from SG to PG.

Even though we won and we shot good from 3 point range, I am still concerned about 4th quarter collapses. This was a plague last year and it hurt hurt our final win total (13). We could have easily won at least 20 games if it weren't for these 4th quarter lapses. I am seeing signs of the same problem in the preseason. No lead is big enough for this team yet. Woodson has to figure this problem out!!

I am not sure it was sleep apnea. He told his wife he wasn't feeling well, therefore he wasn't sleep when all of this happened. It seemed like he was conscious when all of this took place. However, cumulative effects of sleep apnea can lead to right or left heart failure, but I am not sure if that failure would happen when you are conscious. I have a feeling they will find out that he had some type of heart ailment that was undetected. Tragic either way!!

I am still speechless on this tragedy. This really puts basketball in perspective.

Well the facts are the facts. We only won 13 games and no one on this team has/had any position locked up. The only proven player (Al Harrington) was rumored to be traded. The jury is still out on Chillz and Smoove. Both are not guaranteed locks to be very good players in the NBA. The draft is never and will never be as simple as TRUST them if they are 1st round picks...historically you should know that. You HOPE that they live up to 1st round expectations but more often then not they don't live up to those expectations. So with these facts with the roster we were at that time still in the middle of getting the best talent possible. Quote: Now 2005... The Marvin Pick says... Well, we didn't get the job done in 2004... This is not true. The Marvin picks says we don't know exactly what we have (we may have gotten the job done in 2004, but it is too early to tell) and we have to continue to get as much talent as possible and let the chips fall as they may. Again ask yourself what positions did we truly have proven locked NBA talent at?? The answer is no position. I expect positions and things to shake out much more this year. We will know where Chillz and Smoove stand with this team. We will know if we need to trade Al for a big man. Last year was not the time to be nick picking for certain positions; we didn't have enough talent at any position to do that. This year and next year we SHOULD be able to define specific positions of need rather than "Best available talent". This is a PROCESS not an overnight solution.

The problem with this logic is the fact that WE NEEDED EVERYTHING!! There was not a position on the Hawks squad that we didn't need.....YES including SF and PF. We saw a lot of potentially good talent in Chillz and Smooth, but that was it. Now that we are starting to bring in some TRUE talent and depth, the 2006 and 2007 draft will be more of the time to start picking and choosing based on specific needs. Last year we NEEDED everything, so you go with he best available talent.

Ditto!! I totally agree!! It is waaaaaaay too early to make any educated conclusions about anything this early.

Dude....Marvin is going to do as well if not better than any rookie YOU wanted us to draft this year, including Paul and Deron who are older and more experienced than him. Marvin Williams will be an awesome player in this league. Just give him some time to develop more physically and get comfortable with the NBA. He will develop similar to Kobe Bryant and Garnett...i.e. it will take about 2 to 3 years before you will see the superstardom, but it is definately there. He will be a flatout stud on the court. He has all the tools!!!

Marvin will be fine. This will turnout to be a very good pick. I am actually optimistically excited about what occured in the game last night. It sounds as if this team will be good once they learn each other more. The talent is definately there and they seem to be very deep except at the Center position. Mike Woodson will be judged a little better this year. He has some pieces to win. It is going to be up to him to get some chemistry and pull out games in the 4th quarter. Will Royal Ivey and Donte Smith make the team??

This dude is clueless again. I think he meant to say Josh Smith instead of Josh Childress. Smith is the Josh that jumps to the moon and both Joshes can play good defense. Childress handles and passes the ball pretty good. Again this dude doesn't even know who the hell he is trying to describe!!

Some of your points are true, however I think the Hawks have much better depth this year than last year on the bench. First off the Joshes are 1 year removed from being a rookies. They are stronger and should be better. Secondly, you have starters from last years squad coming off the bench this year...that is a good thing. Lue, Collier, Delk, one of the Joshes will all probably come off the bench. They were at one time all starters last year. Plus you add in arguebly the most potentially talented rookie in Marvin Williams and a sharp shooter name Salim off the bench. AGAIN this is a much deeper talented team than last year. Never discount experience as an improving factor even if it is one year. I see 26 wins.

I have to agree even though I think the MAJOR rebuilding process ends next year because we will still have a lot of money to spend and will probably pick up 1 more big FA next year. Now I think it is more about tinkering, getting experience, developing chemistry and maybe looking to continue upgrading the Center position. But other than that I think we are just about done with this total rebuilding process. Now the focus turns to MIKE WOODSON. Can he get the best out of this team as it stands. Will he turn out to be a good coach or a terrible coach. I think the pressure mounts on Mike Woodson.

Realistically, if we can double our win total this is a successful season in my eyes. The year after this year if we get to 40 - 50 games then BK has done a masterful job of rebuilding this team.

Yeah that move actually made them a much better team. Antonio and Curry will help out tremendously....if Curry is healthy. Good move for the Knicks and yes they will make the playoffs with this roster AND LARRY BROWN!!

That's fair......Realistically Daly and Chandler are not going to be traded. However I like Darko, Nene and Magloire. I am not sure I would trade Al for Wilcox straight up.

What big man out there would you trade Al for? I thought Curry for Al trade would have been a done deal, but after further review I am glad we didn't pull that move. Curry was the most potentially talented big out there. Who else would you trade Al for?

Whether people believe it or not WE NEED Al Harrington!! He is and probably will continue to be our best player. Is he a superstar that can carry a team all by himself? NO.....but he is very important to the success of this team. Also this is a very very young team. Al is our only true veteran.

Hell No!!! Will you critics please let the man play a full year or two or three, before you start calling him a bust, etc. The man hasn't step one foot on an NBA court yet and people are trying to trade him. And no Marvin will not be a bust. This kid has tremendous potential that will be realized in years to come. I wouldn't even remotedly think about trading him until 4 to 5 years from now.

I agree. I think Salim will eventually be better than JT primarily because Salim would NOT have those very questionable MENTAL lapses JT had during crunch time in a games. Dribbling the ball off his leg for no reason, not guarding a three point shooter when you are down by 3 (Dallas playoffs this year) and on and on. While he is a talented player he would kill me during crucial situations in games with Atlanta and it reared its ugly head in Dallas against Pheonix. And secondly no two players are exactly alike. Salim while having the same kind of profile as JT will bring some different positive attributes to his play that JT didn't bring and vice versa.

These lineups are going to be very interesting and somewhat unpredictable. Since everyone kind of agree that our Centers are average, do you think we will march out a shooting line up of JJ, Salim and Marvin playing the point, SG, SF respectively at the same time?? If JJ pans out at PG I think that lineup from the outside can be deadly!! Follow up with Al at PF, with Smooth coming off the bench to spell him. I personally think it will be Chillz and Marvin will be sharing time at SF. I don't see Chillz as a natural SG. I think JJ and Salim will be our SGs, with JJ switching to PG on occasions. Eventually I think Lue will end up being our starting PG. I see the lineups going like this: PG: Lue, Delk, JJ on occassions SG: JJ, Salim SF: Marvin and Chillz PF: Smoove, Al and Batista C: ZZ, Collier, Edwards By the way, is Delk's knee 100% healed?? He will be a big help to this team if he is 100% healthy and can stay that way thru the season!!

That is more of a result of circumstance and not a result of crappy play. At Arizona Stoudemire played SG and was their hired gun to shoot the ball so I don't expect him to have high assists numbers in that role. The question should be: Can he play PG or does he have the ability to play PG? Time will tell, but I think the answers is YES. Based on his size he will be a PG that can shoot the hell out of the ball. And personally I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. I actually rather have a Point Guard who is a serious threat from the outside. No one should say he is not a PG because he had more turnovers than assist. Of course he would, being assigned to shoot the ball. That is not a good barometer of how well he will play PG based on his role as a SG. Basically we will have to see how well he can be coached and how well he can assimilate into a certain role...that is the big question. He did a pretty good job in the Summer League playing the Point.

Good email!! I just sent your email drzachary.