Iman

I don't think we are as far off as it seems. This year we were injured, the Cavs and Lebron are on a mission, and our Coach sux. I thought we always matched up well with Orlando and most of the other Eastern teams. A Coach, good health, and using Bibby's money to get someone like Kaman and we'd be right there assuming we resign Flip and maybe pick up a Jarrett Jack like pg also. I doubt we make that many moves so we'll probably not be much better next year. Maybe the next year we might make a bigger move like Horford for Bosh.

The Nique, Doc, etc teams were the best in my mind. Those teams were trying to break through against the Boston and Laker dynasties. The bench (Spud, Battle, Levingston, Carr, Koncak) would beat most all the other Hawks teams. The next best team had Laettner with Smitty, Mookie, Deke, etc. That team needed to find a SF and bench but poor drafting, salary issues and the Bulls killed the team. I think team quality is down these days so the current Hawks have as good a shot as the others.

I should have added ZaZa to the list of players that played with heart and would keep us in this. Bibby had heart but needed to use his head. They really covered Joe tightly tonite, Chalmers was pretty tough on him. I still think Joe will break out in one of the next few games. Anyways, we now have our homecourt advantage back and that should be enough for us to win the series.

Sekou, etc and now Barkley before the game is saying that Joe Johnson just can't carry a team. I don't think Joe is a great player but I think he'll carry the Hawks through this series and prove everyone wrong. We'll find out in just a few minutes. Actually I think Joe, Josh, and Horford all play their hearts out and with a little help from Flip and Mo carry us to wins, but the defense will lead us with Joe and Josh scoring.

Yup, that's the positive that probably will happen if we lose to Miami, we'd probably get a new coach. I still think we beat Miami in six or seven. I like our core but I won't mind if we lose Bibby or even Joe as long as they are properly replaced, much like Chillz was replaced. I wonder what we could get for Joe or even just for Joe's money?

I was getting worried, he hasn't even been on the sidelines in a suit since the injury. Now he's suddenly cleared for light practice and a roadtrip. Still seems weird that he didn't even attend any home games. Dermarr used to be on the sidelines in a neck halo after his injury.

It looked very bad to me, I wouldn't be surprised if he were out the rest of the season or if he needed surgery. Hopefully not, I look rooting for ex-Tech players, as long as they aren't playing against the Hawks.

Josh is streak prone. In the past I thought his outside shooting might improve like Karl Malone, Chris Webber, etc. After seeing how bad Josh has became at the free throw line, I just don't see it happening. Josh needs to be continually reminded to stay on the block on offense, 1-3 three point attempts per game max, actually 4 jump shots per game max is a better goal.

Yup, a few yrs ago I hoped Salim would develop into a guard that we could bring into the game to close it out due to his closing abilities in college. Then I sorta hoped Acie given his history would do it. But then along comes Flip who does it perfectly, great signing and we need to resign for sure. I think we could have won a few more games this year if Woody would have given the ball to Flip instead of Joe in the last few minutes. Joe is our best player but he's not a 1on1, draw fouls kinda player like Flip. Btw, by no means am I saying Flip should be playing more minutes, actually I'd try a little less. I Acie should get 5 or 10 minutes more mpg, largely taking minutes from Flip and Joe. But I'd play Flip down the stretch of most close games and play off him as much as Joe or Bibby. Other than the fact that he slaps at the ball a little too much, I like Flip's defense also.

I think Josh still thinks he can be a superstar (probably same with Marvin and Al) and he's working much harder than we think he is. He'll be fine, but he'll probably never be a great shooter, 35% 3 pointers and 70% free throws is probably gonna be about the best he'll do unless he completely changes his shooting form.

With the offensive improvement in Marvin and Al, and with Bibby available, Joe needs to pass the ball much more. I'm not saying he has to be a playmaker, just less of a black hole. His shot will come back but for us to advance a round or two in the playoffs we cant be so reliant on how Joe plays. It'll probably take a coaching change for anything to substantially change. As far as Joe dunking, he's a great basketball player but he's just not a great athlete. He may have slowed a little this year due to weight but as long as he's been a Hawk, Joe obviously barely can dunk, just like Zaza.

I'd have to guess that he's no longer injured and that we just aren't playing him due to a ownership/GM decision. I'd guess that if Bibby went down to injury we'd play Speedy. Actually he might play next year if we can't resign Bibby. If Craig were healthy, I could live with that about as well as most points we might try to pick up for the MCE, etc, plus we'd have Acie and Flip.

Our young players with potential really haven't improved this year. We still have plenty of time for that to occur. Some including me thought Al could be as good as Boozer, now maybe I'm saying as good as Okafor. Marvin can be as good as Caron Butler or a less aggressive Paul Pierce. If Acie were to improve enough to bench Bibby, say he was nearly as good as Chauncey Billups. Combine any of those with healthy Josh and Joe doing what they can do and a better Coach and we should contend.

The only way I see us making a trade big enough to matter is if Bibby gets injured before the deadline and we play just as well without him. Then we might move Bibby. Otherwise I doubt anything will come up that might not make us worse. As it is, we have a good shot to win one round in the playoffs, I'll take that and see what free agent big we can add this summer. If I were the Hawks GM and I had to make a move, I'd dump Woody for someone like Fratello.

I think the only player you can get for that price would be Flip. Otherwise, I like it, especially the resigning of Chillz although we now know he really didn't fit the team that well.

I was at the game and was very happy with Bibby's winning shot. Yao and that bunch of NBDLers were pretty resilient. Bringing Yao back in at the end might have cost Houston the game. Scola, Wafer, the tiny PG (Brooks?), Landry, etc played their hearts out. Wafer was cramping at the end of the game and still playing too hard to be taken off the court.

I think it mainly depends on how much we continue to improve and how far we advance in the playoffs. If we win a playoff round this year, the FO will probably put a strong effort into resigning Bibby. Assuming no huge offers, we'll get him resigned for 3-4 yrs. Joe is becoming the face of our franchise. We'll resign him maybe even for a 5 yr deal assuming we continue to improve. Since he's somewhat key to our improvement, if we don't advance in the playoffs, he could be gone. Horford may not get much better. Even with that, he's a good NBA bigman, we'll match any offer for him, just like we did with Josh. If Billy Knight was still GM no doubt we'd match any Marvin offers. I still think we will but I guess there is a chance we might not match a max offer but I doubt he gets one. So he'll be resigned. Zaza is fine for the money as is Flip, etc. I assume most will be back if we continue to improve. Probably the biggest key to the bench will be if we resign Bibby. If we don't, we'll have money to spend on a good big and that probably will mean Zaza is gone. Unless Bibby is injured this year, we just won't allow Speedy to play, that way we can collect the insurance and medically retire him. I assume he could play now if we needed him.

I agree that Bibby is the biggest reason for our improved record. A close second would be our improved bench play. Defense has improved also. Lately Bibby has even been converting us to a few very nice pick and roll plays per game, hopefully these will continue to increase. However, Bibby is not the MVP of the team. He's a way overpaid, poor defending, but very good shooting PG. Joe and Josh are by far our most critical/MVP players. Josh still isn't back to full strength but just look at our record with and without him. Flip and Acie can almost replace Bibby, especially if you factor in Bibby's salary and what type player we could get for that type money.

Josh was too quick for Houston's frontcourt. He could score on them inside the paint easily but they were too strong for him to rebound against. I think he had no rebounds until the 4th quarter. Josh also couldn't stop Scola from backing him down anytime he tried. Once Josh even just gave up and tried to "pull the chair" on Scola which didn't work and cost Josh his 4th foul I think. Also Josh still doesn't consistently seem to have his explosive jumping back fully yet. But he has scored over 20 in like 4 outta 5 games now. Zaza had a good game and Solo looked great other than picking up fouls way too fast. Al got abused by both bigs and smalls, not one of his better games defensively but kinda to be expected against Houston.

Hawks ticket prices also went up fairly substantially vs some of the packages they offered in the past. This had to offend some that felt they had stuck with the team through the bad years and were now being shafted. Food prices are way up also. One way to tell that Hawks tickets are in higher demand is that the scalped/craigslist type prices have went up pretty substantially. I agree with Diesel that the games need to be into more of an event. Ryan Cameron, our main announcer is one of the best in the biz, Mike King the floor announcer is very good when he's there, Rashan Ali and especially Elle Duncan our sideline girls are very good, Harry and SkyHawk are very good. Some of the other entertainment is good, some is very weak. Half time shows need lots of work. The dance team is weak. Better music and lighting effects would help. More celebrity attendance would help. I assume the Spirit tries, I guess just the team getting better will get that to happen. Once we get more celebrities that will help casual fan attendance alot. Some would probably rather go to the game and see Bow Wow or Ciara was than see a Hawks win. Proper TV coverage would help. More national games would be huge. Still, Atlanta will always have fickle fans for anything except college football. That's just the way it goes down here.

I agree. I guess when you consider how many non-game minutes players spend on the court, a few extra mpg for the starters is probably not a big deal. But Woody is not developing Acie or Solo at all. And he still couldn't manage to get Morris on the court at all. I noticed that last night Bibby was subbed back in late in the third to get Joe a few minutes rest. It worked, and beating Denver was a big win, and the regular rotation pretty much knows when they'll play, but I still don't like it.

Bibby was an allstar when he signed his big contract. Sacramento practically salary cap dumped him to us. I think Bibby understands that he'll have to sign a much smaller contract. It reminds me a lot of the situation with Shareef a few years ago who signed a MLE contract after we traded him. Bibby will at least be offered the MLE. If he keeps playing this well and is uninjured all year he might even get an offer starting at $10 mil per but I doubt it goes any higher than that especially since that will require a team under the cap to make the offer.

I don't agree with most of these posts/opinions. I don't see how anyone not at team practices can really say what Acie is as an NBA player because we haven't seen near enough of him to say for sure. In what limited action I've seen, I think Acie has a great chance to be a very solid starting NBA point. I also think Solo has improved enough to be a likely good NBA backup but I'm also not sure in his case since I haven't seen enough of him either. As mentioned in other posts, maybe Woody isn't playing these guys due to lack of skills or effort in practice. I personally don't think that, I think Woody just hates playing inexperienced players. Of course he played our young core but it's not like he had much choice with those guys. Woody wants to win each game, even if it costs him longterm by wearing out the vets or not playing the young guys. Who knows, maybe Woody's more devious minded than I give him credit for. Maybe he knows that not playing Acie more insures that our GM will bring back Bibby who he likes. Maybe the same sorta applies to not using Solo. Either way, I have very little doubt that management considers Acie part of our future, it's just a Woody issue.

Woody is just stuck on the idea of a short bench. Only an injury or some player really stinking it up for a while will change the trend we are in, especially since we are winning. Mo Evans has been playing poorly lately. If this continues and we lose a few games after the homestand ends then maybe Mo will lose his 6th man slot. If I were the coach, Acie and Zaza would be the first players off the bench even though I'd sub Marvin and Josh out first. Flip would specifically come in each time Joe was off the court so he could take Joe's shots.

I think Flip and Mo are excellent bench players as long as used correctly. Same goes for Zaza, Acie, and Solo. Woody just doesn't seem to be able to use the bench, even in blowouts. So in effect, we'd have to get a vet player good enough for Woody to use him to make a difference and that would be harder. I don't think that player should be a shooter unless we have an extended injury to Bibby. We need another big. I like having Flip. If Joe went down for a few games, Flip would step in and take his shots. We'd suck half the time but that's to be expected without Joe. Mo is very consistent to me, especially given how few shots he gets per game. Just two bad shooting games in a row vs all the rest is no big deal. Also, please do not ask him to guard Lebron again. Or for that matter, anyone much bigger than him, he's just not that strong.