sillent

17 points , 4 steals, 5 assist, 3 rebounds, 1 turnover in 27 minutes. Pretty good job for the first game with the team!!

I thought I knew what I was talking about when I made my predictions this season but it's only game 1.

His dad is on the older picture. Darker but still Horford has a lot of his features.

These are the first 10 point guards and company Teague will see when the season starts. 1 Deron Williams 3x 2 John Wall 3 Kyle Lowry/Goran Dragic/Johnny Flynn 4 Mario Chalmers 5 Kemba Walker/DJ Augustin 2x 6 Derrick Rose 7 Darron Collison 8 Ricky Rubio 9 Jose Calderon/Jarod Bayless 10 Raymond Felton I believe Teague is up for challenge if healthy. Teague is in the mold of a Derrick Rose/ Rajan Rondo type point guard meaning he is more effective driving to the whole and controlling the tempo. Teague like Derrick is not the most flashest passer but he has his own knack. His defense sets him apart from most if not all the point guards currently in the league. With his quickness and leaping ability he does for us at point guard what Josh does (or use to do) at small/power forward. Once he gets a little better with his on ball defense his quickness and athleticism is going to cause problems for a lot of guards. These early match ups are going to prove early on where Teague compares to the rest of the top tier point guards in the league. I think he will show flashes of brilliance in some occasions but he's still young so I expect some mistakes. If he controls the tempo and runs the team Rondo style we are going to be a very tough team to beat. Our core players are more athletic than Bostons so I expect us to be even more exciting.

Thank you thank you very much!! lol

Josh Smith scoring production will noticeably go up: He should have plenty of 20 + point games this season. Marvin Williams will prove himself to be another closer alongside of JJ and the rest of the core. Teague will prove he should be the Hawks point guard: More in the mold of Derrick Rose than Deron Williams and Chris Paul. He may not be the best passer but will be an integral part in controlling the tempo and momentum in games. Joe Johnson will prove to be an elite player in this league (playoffs will tell the real story). Al Horford will play to his highest capabilities just to not be left behind by the rest of the core. Tracy McGrady, Willie Green, and Radmanovic will prove to be great pickups off the bench with Drew's motion offense. Drew's offense would usually need a full regular season to be implemented properly but with a bench full of seasoned vets it shouldn't take that long. Stackhouse will show he still has some gas left in the tank. Sloan or Ivan might prove to be worth a look for the full season.

First game is Tuesday and we got 9 games in about 12 days. Let's see what we look like after 10 games. I'm just talking about how we look as a unit, I know 10 games doesn't determine the season.

Thank You Sir and same to you all !!

I feel ya. I think we both will be happy though if the Hawks prove you wrong this year!!

That's true but which one of our 26 yr old's and younger are going to take a step back. Joe avg. 18 last season and it's going to be hard for him to play worst production wise than last years injury riddled season. I agree to try to get the best trade value if need be but we currently will not get the best trade value with most of our players current trade value.

Yeah Eddie house would be redundant excluding the fact that he doesn't play defense like our other guards.

Why not play this season out. This year is the last year for GM, head coach and practically our whole bench if their contracts are not renewed. We will have a lot of options depending on the outcome of this season. From keeping or losing the core and if so being able to Amnesty a contract like JJ's could give us a chance in the bidding wars for Dwight. A sign and trade with Horford and Marvin could be an option as well but this year needs to play itself out !!

Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000194 EndHTML:0000006900 StartFragment:0000002380 EndFragment:0000006864 SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/shaquez/Documents/Hawks%201st%20place%20contention.doc It's undeniable how good our team would be if we were clicking on all cylinders every night. The Bulls and the Heat are among the top competitors currently. New York hasn't proven how (defense?) elite they can be yet. Celtics age is showing even before the season starts and Green was a part of their youth. Magic’s have to carefully satisfy Howard or try to magically pull a Denver/New York trade. Pacers, Sixers and Bucks should be good and the Wizards might surprise this year off pure talent. Nets might try to be competitive as well. Point is Breakdown the Bulls roster and ours last year and you will see a bulls team that is better defensively while we were better offensively at almost every position. If you haven't noticed all our moves this year we grabbed all defensive capable players that have also proven themselves at one time or another in this league. If you look at everyone of our starters individually all of them are pretty good on offense and defense. With everybody playing on a serious mission and our bench being able to go deep in this shortened season we should be on pretty good pace. Our motion offense should be in affect a lot more this season as we have less iso players and plenty of available scorers on the floor from starters to bench. Our motion or frantic defense should also be pretty innovating to the Nba and should catch a lot of teams off guard, especially in a shortened season like this one. Their will be plenty time to run with Teague at the helm in a starting role. With this shortened season and our depth, many teams aren’t going to be able to keep up!! 66 Games, less practice time (chemistry) and the need of overall team production puts our team ahead. We have good chemistry from the coaches to the players and vets who have done a lot and seen a lot, which will help them learn our system quicker. Don’t forget most of our players came in pretty good shape to start the offseason. Spurs did it last lock out and emerged as an elite team(again) with the arrival of Tim Duncan. Maybe the fresh arrival of Teague with our core playing on a mission and our bench being able to handle it's own, we just might make the needed step (#1). When your best in the league in your conference people take notice (look at Chicago). I don't want to hear anything about needing a superstar because either one of our core on any given night can be a superstar when playing at a high level. That might sound laughable but most of our core has reached their prime age and how they develop from here on out will determine their career. This is their last contracted year together as a core from players to coaches to the GM. You got to go for it all and they have to believe themselves that they can do it. “Come to Play” is this years theme and I expect that and so should we all !! By the look of our roster (after cuts), I think ownership is thinking the same thing.

Agreed accept I believe the Heat are going to top the Bulls meaning our mission for home court advantage over these teams is to be 1st place in the Eastern Conference. I know it's a leap from being the under dogs we like being but it's a necessary leap for us to take the next step. Bulls did it last year. Heat will be better but like most stated about their roster maybe not better than ours.

Stackhouse will prove his worth come play off time and in injury situations. With fresh legs in the play offs and being in this league for so many years he can be plugged in when there is a need on the floor. Don't be so naive to think older vets are suppose to fully show up in games that don't even mean anything on the statistic charts. He's a vet and he'll be ready to play his role and may be a pleasant surprise playoffs!!

Sloan can actually ball has a good crossover and is a good distributor and finisher. Pargo kind of became irrelevant after we signed Green but I understand the need with Hinrich being out. Pape Sy is quick for his size but it was wiser to keep Pargo who has proven he can handle the position. Stackhouse leadership and motivation is priceless for a team/core with all the talent but lack of guidance. Proud of ownership for not making the glamored line up but the TEAM they thought could compete the best for this shortened line up. Our bench has alot of proven players that have shown they can do it on the big stage. They may not be as spectacular as they once were but they still know how to get the job done. I knew I went off subject a bit and meant to agree with you on keeping a big man like Benson. As a running/athletic team I can also understand why they think there big men will be able to hold their own.

That was my argument for not against Benson just to let you know. He was talking about picking someone other than Benson.

We did his name is Ivan Johnson!! Reggie Evans... lol. I understand what you meant though. We needed a blue collar tough guy that hustles. That's why we kept Johnson.

Sy has the mold and ability to play both guard positions. He was just lacking the mentality that it takes to be a point guard in the NBA. We took Benson before we knew how the lockout was going to play out. Don't you think we have/had enough short bigs anyway?

After seeing the cuts we made you might be happy to know the Hawks and ownership have a Win Now mentality. That's exciting if the production can be shown on court!!

These moves would not have occurred in a regular season. We have little time to develop this season and everybody we put out there on the court has to be ready to contribute right away. This is not a season for Championship contenders to develop their youth. We may have to go 10-12 down on our roster most of the year and we need as many proven players/contributors as possible. This season leaves a small learning curve with practices being drastically decreased. I personally would have loved to keep Sy, Rolle and Benson and think that would be a gimme in a regular season but this year we just don't have that luxury. Ivan(Reggie Evans who) and Sloan are older and I believe can still be solid contributors.

Well 2 of my predictions have already become a mute point. The moves are understandable from a business side because with a season like this you need everyone of your players to be able to contribute from the gate. Still sad to see so much potential released and hope we can get another shot with them later on down the road!!

Green has that Flip Murray mold and fill. He exploded from nowhere on the 76ers in his early years and can be an explosive scorer at any time. He holds his own on defense as well. For those who miss Flip, your welcome.

Let me give you 29 of them. The Mavs are still good but less defensive. The Heat are small and a wrong injury away from being a normal team again. The Bulls have Rose but with the right leadership we still could have beat them. The Magic are in Turmoil. The Celtics are old and banged up. The Lakers may get surpassed by the Clippers. The Blazers lost Roy and may suffer the same fate with Oden. Thunder still scare me but they are on the other side of the conference. Bobcat's are rebuilding. Spurs(see Celtics). Knicks look good on paper but we've seen them like that before and they still need time to develop Chemistry. 76ers stood still for the most part. Bucks?? Pacers will be better but are not unstoppable yet. Nets?? I could go on but I hope you are getting the point. With a shortened season conditioning and chemistry are going to be put to the test. I think the Hawks have their number 2's ready!!

I agree with you Randy and would agree with you completely but because of the intense shortened season I believe our reserves will have a bigger role as well as our core players stepping up with their individual growth. I didn't go as far as saying we would win a championship this year although I would like to but there are too many variances that want allow me to go that far (injuries,trades, etc.). I also think Larry Drew will show us his mastermind after having a full season under his belt!!