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This has been said a million times, but Marvin does seem to fade in and out at times. He will put up numbers and be aggressive in the first half, but it seems like he becomes an onlooker in the 2nd half or when the game is on the line. He plays entirely too shy almost as if he is afraid he is going to screw up or be blamed. I am hoping this is more of a sign of maturity than an eternal character flaw, but I am not so sure anymore. Maybe he would have come out of his shell and into his own if he hadn't broke his hand. Maybe he will blow up next year. But then again, maybe he won't. If we can trade him this offseason to fill a need with a quality player (read: not Lo Wright or Speedy) then we need to do so. We would probably have to throw a few things into the trade to get something worthwhile, but so be it. However, we shouldn't force the trade if it is not there.

I am not so sure that Carter is going to leave NJ or that NJ is planning on blowing up their team. I thought it could potentially happen a month or two ago, but some of the recent comments by the NJ ownership has made me rethink it. They "sound" like they really want to keep Carter and make a push with the current lineup. We will see what happens. I think they would be best to trade away Kidd and Carter and rebuild.

I agree we won't compete for the championship without some changes, but we can definitely compete for a playoff spot. If we didn't have so many injuries this year we could have potentially made the playoffs. Or, if we had a real coach we could have made the playoffs (and maybe avoid some of the injuries we had). Hopefully we can get lucky in the draft, get a new GM and coach, pull off a trade that helps, or get lucky with the development of our young guys in the offseason.

Quote: Name the last 4th worst team to win a title within 3 years time. Miami was the 4th worst team in the 2002-2003 season. They won the Championship in the 2005-2006 season.

Just click on the PCT link above the win percentage column to re-order the list based on percentage of wins. This will get your desired result. I have no idea why it doesn't automatically order teams by that when you click on league standings.

Have I seen our attendance?? Yeah, I have, I own season tickets. Atlanta is still a good basketball town.

The Hawks are not moving from Atlanta, period. They may be "struggling" depending on your definition, but they are not moving. Atlanta has a strong basketball community and the team won't go anywhere. Look at CLT a few years ago, the ownership was not happy there and was allowed to leave. They got a team a couple years later simply because it is a good basketball town. Same thing for Atlanta. We may have had problems, but this is a basketball town. Ups, downs, it's life. Dallas could have easily lost there team back in the day and they are now great. That is how the game works. Hawks will be here forever.

Javaris is going to be nasty. He has gotten dramatically better as the season has progressed. I would love to get him with the Indiana pick. It will still take a couple of years for him to develop, but he is a big guard that can shoot, pass, and has potential.

Neither Rip or Vince deserve to be on it. Typical bullshit though.

Yeah, Isiah sucks as a coach, but Larry? You gotta be kidding me. "After 13 seasons as a player in the NBA, including three championships with the Boston Celtics, Larry Bird returned to Indiana to coach the Pacers in 1997. He agreed to coach for three seasons stepping down at the end of the 2000 season. In his third and final season as coach the Pacers went to the NBA Finals for the first time, but lost in six games to the Los Angeles Lakers. He was asked to stay on as coach and declined, also turning down offers of a front-office position. But on July 11, 2003, the Pacers announced Bird would return to become the team's president of basketball operations." He did not suck as a head coach, he just had higher aspirations. I would give almost anything to have a coach with his talent/ability.

His shot wasn't falling, but that happens. It's not the end of the world. You know what coaches tell you to do when your shot isn't falling? Keep shooting. That's the only way to get out of a shooting funk. Now, I am fine with Smith hoisting a 3 every once in awhile, but definitely not as frequently as he has been in the recent past. Last night he looked like he didn't settle for nearly as many 3s as he has been. He actually drove the to the basket several times which was nice. Granted he didn't finish on most of those baskets, but that will change. What is important is that he hustled. He missed shots close to the rim and kept fighting for the board and attempting put backs. It didn't work most of the time last night, but if he keeps it up he is going to get us a ton of points in the future off of that hustle. As for the dribbling, you're right, he can't dribble for [censored]. Hopefully that is something he will work on. He lost his dribble way too many times when the smallest amount of pressure was put on him. He made the right decision driving to the basket and once he gets used to doing so it will pay off. But he has to work on his handles. Dribbling is something easy to get better at. It just takes time and practice. He should be doing miscellaneous dribbling drills at least an hour a day every day. He should also make those drills part of his pre-game warmup. This would do wonders for his game. Oh, and no, we aren't trading Smoove.

I was going to go to the game, but then work intervened. Damn them! Now I am instead stuck in SE Ohio doing a firewall cutover. Oh well, I will be watching the game tonight via ESPN updates I guess.

Yeah, I really liked the article. Thought it was funny and yet scarily accurate. Glad to see that fans pain is also felt by the sports writers!

Exactly. If we win 35+ this upcoming year he will be singing praise for the team. It's happened plenty of times before with other teams. The truth is that it is safer for a sports writer to down the Hawks than it is for them to say we may make a run at the playoffs. If he went around saying things like that, he probably wouldn't have a job for long (unless he happened to be always be right). Worse case scenario for him, we win 45 games (which I know we won't) and he will be proven wrong. But everyone will be proven wrong in that case and he won't look any worse for it.

Good article.

If they were running it on the cheap would they have traded for Joe Johnson? There is a difference in being cheap and being frugal. We have made our team better this offseason by paying what players are actually worth (as in no Nene deals). By keeping the team below the cap limit we don't screw ourselves in the future with not being able to sign talent or make trades.

Maybe I am just jaded or not impressed with Kobe that much then. I know a lot of people like him and I never have. I really am probably the crazy one.

I am curious... How many of these players made it past the first round of the playoffs? Yet, Kobe Bryant is 1st on the list. Yeah, he is pretty good. I wouldn't put him first though since basketball is a TEAM sport.

Yeah, getting Gasol in that trade was a brilliant move. With that being said, I haven't been totally happy with BK's moves here, but I think my mind is changing. It is possible that his long term plan wasn't sooo evident to me before. So far, he has picked up a defensive big man, a point guard that is capable of starting, and a backup center. All of which we needed. On top of that, we are not being killed by horrible contracts. We are obviously going to have to pony up for Smoove and Marv in due time, but that isn't a big deal. Who knows, we might actually do alright with what seems to be our future lineup. We had 26 wins last year and a ton of games that could have gone either way with 2 minutes left (like 60/82 including the ones we won, but I am not saying we will 60, I am thinking 35-40). If you add the fact that we may actually get some small amount of respect this year we may actually win a good number of those close games. Like I said, I could see 35-40 wins this year. Or as Zaza said in an interview last year when asked about the calls that he never gets, "It's ok, one day I will get respect." Because if he gets half the calls he "should get" it's going to be ugly. If the Hawks scored 4 more points last year on average simply based on calls they should have gotten, that is a 12 win swing. I know some will say, well Al is gone and that is our 2nd biggest scorer. I expect to Smoove and Marvin to pick up most of that scoring (mainly Marvin). Then again, maybe I am just crazy.