Iman

I think we have looked like a much stronger team most of this year. Even in the Boston massacre, we looked to me like me might wear them down but they just never cooled off. If JJ shot normally so far this year, we'd be 3-3, maybe 4-2 with losses to Boston and just that weak showing overall against Washington. I think JJ will come out and have a great game against Charlotte, we'll sorta overlook Seattle them take over late in the game, again led by JJ. Three outta the next four are very winnable road games so hopefully we can win two of those. San Antonio even here will probably be a loss. Then December is our easiest month. We'll be fine.

Yup, the crowd was much more into the Dallas game. A few weird things did happen during the Phoenix game though...the wildest was the halftime game. Sometimes they'll have a couple of 6 yr old or so basketball teams play during the half. For this game the floor announcer Mike King did a great job and I think the crowd was almost as loud as for the Hawks when one of the teams had an outstanding play and score. The wave occurred during the mid third quarter I think, I actually got up once almost on time but not waving, rooting for a great play by Smoove I think..lol. Then the main announcer tried to get the crowd on their feet and behind the team at the break between the third and fourth quarters which was way too early IMO but most of the crowd got up. Even kisscam was weird, they had a lot that didn't want to kiss. Traceman, I think I saw you in section 119 but you weren't in the front row as usual and the guy I thought was you was in a nice blue suit instead of your usual jerseys(which is how I sorta know what you look like). There were just three of us on the front row most of the night, I think 2 to 4 of those seats this year are guys that work at the arena. With the construction this year I'm coming down Northside drive and then Marietta street to most games. I like the Georgia bar lot(especially when I have a bar member with me) or the back lot closer to the Dome. The Dome lot especially works well if you are going North on I75 since it's easy to get to Northside drive from that lot.

Guess the easiest way to spot me and my cousin is he often wears a black beret. We usually can be spotted grabbing a hotdog in the arena about 15-30 mins before gametime. If we get there too early we usually go up to the bar that overlooks the arena and grab a sandwich and beer.

Nice post. I don't see homecourt being as big an advantage for the Hawks as it is for most teams. We don't have much of a fanbase yet to motivate the players and Woodson seems to get these guys to play hard even on the road.

Hmm, since we dropped Medvedenko, Ivey, and Batista for West, Law, Horford, our average age probably stayed about the same even though our key players gained a year. A similar average may stay for the next year or two if we drop Lo, AJ for draft picks or young talent.

Lol, they want to play offense like Phoenix, Zaza says he really wants it, he's been running for years now and he can outrun most bigmen. JJ admits he has to be more of a leader. Woody was impressed with Acie over the summer, expects him to get tons of minutes. Lue says we just need two out of Smoove, Chillz, or Marvin play good per game to go along with JJ and we'll win.

Sportsouth just had a Hawks cheerleader special, now player show. I'll try to bring up any new info after it's over.

We are overstocked at the forward and need a center but I would not move Smoove for Biedrins. I understand Biedrins is valuable but I'm sure GS would jump on that trade also. I also would not trade Horford for Biedrins. I would trade Marvin or a combination of Chillz, Zaza, Salim, etc. If we play well this year we'll have plenty of valuable assets that we can move if we feel we need to tweak the team.

I think it will be a very big positive if Acie reliably score to close out games, whether that be by hitting the open jumper or driving the ball. JJ sometimes forced it late in games last year, that's why Lue was so critical at times. Otherwise, I think it's more critical that Acie just plays the point well and lets our other scorers carry the load. Of course I'm assuming he'll shoot better than Speedy even shooting with his offhand.

Yup, I'm noticing the same thing. In the past I couldn't often find anyone who would use my extra tickets even if they didn't have to pay, this year some of my friends are actually mentioning games they'd like to see. I went last night and I'm going Monday, these are the first preseason games I've ever been to so even I must be feeling the buzz.

So far Shelden has definitely sucked. However, Marvin haters could even blame us having Shelden on Marvin. If we had taken CP3 or Deron, the next year BK probably would have been all over Rudy Gay. Otherwise, there really wasn't much to draft during Shelden's draft. Roy had a known foot problem that now appears will require the bone to be shaved. We already had a Foye like player in Salim. It could still be argued that Shelden was a better pick than Marvin or even Chillz. At least we apparently won't have to worry much about Shelden putting us much further over the spending cap when we have to resign him..lol.

I'm biased about as far as the Marvin haters. I would have drafted him since I saw CP3 get worn out by big points in college so I questioned him and Deron's shot and quickness were questionable. I don't think I quite understood the SF's not being very important thing and fell prey to the Marvin hype. Now that we know how good Deron and CP3 are, Marvin can never be justified as the right pick. I actually even find myself rooting for CP3 to not come back from injury and probably would do the same thing with Deron if given the chance just to justify the fact that I definitely would have taken Marvin, even at #1. Now I'm in with some of the others hoping Acie is basically as good as Deron or CP3 kinda nullifying the bad pick. This further sucks since Chillz is my favorite Hawk and it's likely we'll lose him since we improperly drafted Marvin. Maybe a team loaded with forwards can start a new trend and succeed, at least then the Marvin thing will come up less.

Marion just needs to quit whining, his contract is why he's always in trade talks, not his skills. To me, Marion and Steve Nash give Phoenix it's style of play, move Marion and suddenly you have a different team, maybe better, likely worse. I don't think Marion would fit on the Hawks well (he's another tweener) not factoring in that his contract would pretty much stunt our chance at ever building a strong frontcourt.

I like the above definitions of tweeners, but I'd say size is usually a bigger factor than skillset. One thing I do see is this question just gave Diesel another chance to hack at Marvin when in effect he might be the least "tweener" that we have on our team. Actually Speedy is the main Hawk that can only play one position. Horford probably is basically a PF, Chillz a SF. We'll see about Acie, but the rest of the Hawks are tweeners to me, including Joe.

Due largely to getting lucky in the lottery last year, we are now an extremely deep team. The key now will be to figure out how to make a team outta these players and who we need to deal for other assets. Even if all these players do fit well together we would still need to move a player or two before extending them or else we'll have too many overpaid bench players. I assume we'll finally move a swing player or two and maybe a bigman to finally get us a better center. Hopefully all our young players will play well this year so they'll have better trade value. Probably the only reason we won't move for a center will be if Horford does end up dominating there. I see us keeping JSmoove barring someone offers us a DHoward type player for him. Chillz, ZaZa, Marvin, then Shelden will be our next more trade worthy players that we'll either have to extend or move (Salim probably isn't worth mentioning). If we don't feel our team is working, the combination of a couple of those players should be pretty valuable. I don't think I'd bench Marvin so I could slide Horford in at PF even if that's his best position since that just puts ZaZa or Shelden on the floor in place of Marvin. I'd try to move those players to get something back first. JSmoove at SF works fine in my mind as long as we're using a shooter like Acie or Lue at PG, not with Speedy. In my mind though, most of this won't be necessary, Horford will work at center. Up until the Amare deal came up, I was in the draft Yi camp. Then when I saw what we would have given up I started thinking more about Horford. In todays game players the size of DHoward and Amare dominate at center. At times they play with other bigmen but often they play with someone less effective than JSmoove in the post. Plus we are pretty large at SF and SG with Marvin and JJ. That leaves Chillz, Zaza, and Shelden as players that we'll probably have to move unless we can get them signed cheaper than expected.

Seems to me that on this board, Al Horford is most underrated. I think he instantly comes in and challenges for being the second best player on our team. Other than adjusting to the speed of the NBA, he should step right in and come close to JSmoove's stats other than blocks while shooting a higher percentage. He played plenty of center in college and will be able to continue playing center in todays NBA although he'll be much more dominate at PF. Most on this board think Acie Law will contribute more to the Hawks next year. I don't think even Woody can be stupid enough to not figure out how to get Horford at least a 32 mpg this year.

I have no problems with Smoove at SF. He is improving dramatically in his basketball skills and decision making. Just because he plays SF doesn't mean he goes back to jacking up 3's and trying to defend smaller players by letting them go by him and going for backside blocks. The key is that we currently have two top 15 or so SF's in Marvin and Chillz, whereas Horford and Shelden are unproven. So if we are lucky and Horford is very good then it may cut into Smoove's minutes but he'll still get most of his minutes at PF. Also, since we don't have a solid center, Horford will definitely get minutes at center. I think a Shelden/Horford combo on the court together will work and maybe force Smoove to get more SF minutes by later in the season. Then by 2009, we move Chillz or Marvin for a good center and we have our team set.

I think we need to play this team and then see what we still need. Of course any good trade for a low post threat would help but I think we are too far along in our rebuild to make a move like Boston did. I really wasn't a fan of the Amare deal much less a Gasol deal. Hopefully Marvin and Horford play well this year and if they do that will give us more tradeable assets if our team just isn't winning. Also if we aren't winning a coaching change will definitely happen.

Yup, Joe was always gonna be just a valuable piece in Phoenix, or for that matter he'd be just that on many teams. However, on the Hawks, most people consider him to be by far the best player. He also got paid very nicely. I'd guess he is still very satisfied although he won't be if we don't make the playoffs this year and further after that. He'd then only be mildly frustrated as he waited a few years for his next contract and opportunity to go to a winner. I thought the topic was "is Joe Johnson frustrated about not being on the Olympic team?" In answer to that question I also don't think it bothered Joe, he's very happy to have been on the team and an allstar last year. He knows that he now needs to take his team to another level to move up to being considered an elite player.

I still thought Walter was just some sort of computer program/worm redesigned periodically to rehash the same statements even if not on topic? J/K, I'm pretty stubborn myself in person, just haven't gotten that way online....yet.

To just be the face of a team you usually have to be the statistical leader (or QB). JSmoove should approach 20/10/4/2.5, but he probably will always be the second or third leading scorer on the Hawks. So he'll at best be somewhat the leader of the Hawks but not a city dominant type athlete. I see us being a balanced team with JSmoove being only a slight leader in fan favorite voting.

Yup, count me out on that deal also. Those are the type players we need but Marvin or the #3 alone are pretty much worth Jefferson and Rondo to me. For sure throwing in Chillz or maybe even Salim with the #3 should get you Jefferson and Rondo given that Boston would rather have Horford or Yi than Jefferson. If they really want Yi they might throw Kendrick Perkins out there for us to exchange picks. That's the deal I'd want, even if I had to throw in a little more like Salim or Solo.

I've been to the Hawks draft parties for a decade or so now. To me, the old small parties with mainly sports commentators and 100 or so hardcore fans were the most fun. Last year at Phillips there were around 1000 people or so mainly just milling around. Some of the concession venues were open so you can at least have a beer and walk around. If you dont have to drive to far and have a few friends to hang around with you'll probably find the draft party worthwhile. Just dont get the wrong idea, it's not a party, more like an open house kinda thing.

I've been to whatever type party the Hawks have for the draft most every year since I think a few yrs before Alan Henderson was drafted. Last year was by far the biggest but actually one of my least favorite. I liked it when it was small with mostly just sports radio people and the really die hard fans. Btw, I signed up for a half season ticket package (2seats) for the first row/rail of section 119. I wanted the better seats but wont be able to make it to that many games. If anyone wants to somewhat split the package with me, leave a message for me on this site plz.

I'd take Hibbert, Yi Ji, Horford, Conley in that order.