LouFan

The Hawks will make 4 moves this offseason and guess what Hawks fans non of them involve Lebron James...LOL...but we already knew that.

1) Head Coach - Hawks will hire a head coach no later than June 1st. That gives the new coach a few weeks to prepare w/Sund for the Draft.

Coach: The Hawks will probably give Casey the job, but Avery Johnson, Dan Majerle are in the mix. Avery Johnson price tag will probably be to high so look for Casey, Dan Majerle and Tyron Corbin to be the likely candidates. NO suprise here.

2) Once the Head Coach is in place the Hawks will trade Mike Bibby + Filler. The likely candidates would be to Nets for Devin Harris, provided that the Nets get the First Pick in the draft.

3) Sund really wants to bring Joe back but my guess is Joe Johnson is headed to NYC or NJ. And Sund will need to make a serious move to create some excitement in this organization. Unfortunately with the Hawks financial situation that move would have to be extremely Crafty to get a player to listen. Sund will meet with Joe Johnson the Second week of June and show him his plan.

Options:

a) Sign n Trade Joe Johnson for Chris Bosh.

Why?

It would move Horford to the PF spot, and allow Bosh to play center. Even though Bosh is undersize his versatility would give the hawks a formidable front line. Bosh, Horford, Smith...wow

b) Sign n Trade Joe Johnson (plus filler) to Chicago for Joakim Noah, Brad Miller, and Kirk Hinrich + Draft Pick.

Why- This works if the Hawks are not able to trade Bibby to Nets. Then Bibby would be packaged here....This would give the Hawks much needed size, but more would need to be done to get another shooter on this team.

c) Would be the steal of the century...trading Joe to Miami for Wade...but that is only in the dream world.

4) Josh Childress will be back in Atlanta Uniform.

The future of the Hawks is underway. The move Sund makes this offseason will determine if we are a top 3 team in the East or competing for the 8thspot...

I seriously doubt that Casey will be our new head coach. The organization feels that they needed a new coach to replace Woody and do better. Why would they try to keep JJ and get a cheap coach? Money is not going to be the issue. They would shoot themselves in the foot if they did that.

I can't speak for 99, but I schedule vacation time to see the Hawks about a week after the schedule comes out. My effort is to try to make at least 1 Hawk game a month plus go to any other games if I'm in the area.

Last year, I made it to 6 games + Game 3 vs Orlando.

I made it to a 7:30 Friday start vs Washington on Halloween Eve and a 7 pm Tuesday start vs Cleveland a few days before New Years.

When I make a commitment to see this team, I try to eliminate as many obstacles as possible.

And I live 4 hours away near the TN/KY state line.

Well I will never complain about MARTA again. lmao.

Well . . there you have it. If what coachx says is correct, we will NEVER have a championship level fan base here. If the casual fans in ATL don't cherish the arena in-game experience, they'll always use these excuses to not attend Hawk games.

These same excuses will be used, no matter how good the Hawks get I guess. So can the fan base grow, if we don't reach the NBA Finals?

LOL @ beggars . . . the only "beggars" people will run into in downtown ATL for a Hawks game, are the guys begging you to purchase a ticket.

I don't know about anybody else, but I personally LOVE being at sporting events LIVE. No way I'm staying at home if I have the option to attend a game.

The point is how you budget your money really. Instead of going to an expensive restaurant to eat wanna be Italian food (Olive Garden)... Use the money on a ticket. Or instead of watching Iron Man 2 in IMAX, get a Hawk ticket. The economy is not so bad that you cannot afford the tickets. You just have to re-budget. So money is not a factor more than transportation and getting up to go.

Live games > HD television any day. Because you are around a bunch of fans who are cheering with you. Had some great memories in Phillips! Met some cool people too.

Whoops, meant to say 42 oz! Not 4oz!

As a fellow beer drinker, I knew what you meant.

Quoted for truth!

Sorry, just can't stop commenting on this preachy, insulting thread.

Furthermore, here's the quick answer to "if we want the owners to spend money, we should attend the games" crap:

We had the 22nd highest payroll last year. That's even lower a rank than our attendance. By Northcyde's faulty logic, which I in no way agree with, in which ownership spending should be a reaction to the fan draw, the ASG was stealing from us!

Amateur! Ask for the white cup, it's 4oz for $8 :) I almost always sit outside while the first quarter is going on because I don't want to blow my beer budget inside.

Really? CRAP! Thank you master. Your knowledge is stored and will be used next season. Haha

It's because of traffic, pathetic public transit because of racist yokels outside of the city, and because beer is 1/4 the price outside.

But hey, you want me to go in earlier, feel free to pay me and all the other fans for time lost working and the $28 4oz Coors Lights we have to buy in the arena.

This is why I drink Beers outside the arena before the game. 6$ 32 oz cup at the food court. Cheers.

Are minimum wage workers the most likely to go to a basketball game?

The Detroit unemployment issues are serious. But most of the unemployment affects those that weren't ever likely to travel outside of the City of Detroit all the way out to Auburn Hills to watch a basketball game. Those that were likely to attend Pistons games did have decreases in wages and the Pistons realized this so they adjusted prices accordingly. If the Pistons kept their pricing scheme the way it was then Atlanta would have outpaced them in attendance.

Yes, but also the pistons have not been the best of teams lately. Look at their record the past couple of years.... They got swept the first round last season and didn't even make it to the playoffs this season. That would effect ticket prices as well.

I like our discussion, but going back and forth on this is useless. Because you do not see what Northcyde, Rhino, and I are trying to point out. This fan base is sub par. It has nothing to do with money, wins (2nd best home record), playoffs(made it to the second round two years in a row), or entertainment(the highlight factory). It has to do with fan excuses and lack of loyalty and love for the team. We should be lucky to even have a team. Be grateful and support, or do not even be a fan at all.

The Hawks were tied for the #2 home record in the NBA this season. I can't think of any reason people shouldn't be packing into Phillips (GREAT facility btw) to see this team play. I stay 2+hours away from Atlanta but still made it to 8 home games. Me and my brother made the trip to Memphis to see them play on the road in early Feb. Luckily, every game I attended was a win except for the OKC game. :cant believe:

I am not stating this too pat myself on the back. The people of Atlanta could be in those seats if they wanted too. I would just like to say I really envy those who stay within minutes of the arena and could make all the games. At times, Hawks games can seem like more of a fashion show than a sporting event, but that's another topic. It is just funny to here people use the economy as an excuse when the cost of a ticket and gas money to Phillips is less than what they spend on cigarettes. As a fan base we could be much better than we are in terms of attendance. Only one team in the entire league won more home games.

Cosign. I applaud this sir. Isn't this why we go to home games? To see them win?

They also lowered ticket prices by a minimum of 10%. You come up with bad analysis when you don't observe the whole picture.

http://www.mlive.com/pistons/index.ssf/2009/03/pistons_to_lower_seasonticket.html

http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/tickets_090310.html

Minimum of 10% is nothing compared to the economic duress in that city. Atlanta is nowhere near that. I feel that the prices are more then fair for the fans. I know coworkers that make 7.50 an hour who can make it to games. Even if they are upper deck. It is about your loyalty and love for the team. That is the real issue.

No! Easily the worst PRO fans in America. I've watched so called Falcons fan cheer for the opposing team.

Yeah it is crazy how many bandwagon fans there are in ATL. So many "Falcon" fans were nowhere to be found after the travesty of Vick and Mora. They even said Matt Ryan wasn't going to be anything. Then all of a sudden they are a fan when we play Arizona in the playoffs.

I like how you ignore that the owners increased ticket prices while the city of Atlanta had increasing unemployment numbers. Factors like that don't attribute to attendance numbers so we should just ignore them.

The DETROIT PISTONS average more attendance then us and they are one of the worse hit cities in the country..... Just saying.

I would definitely trade Josh Smith. The guy has low BBIQ and acts like a child. He also has no shot, while being in the league this long is unacceptable. I think he was untouchable under Woody... Not now.

Marvin Williams is good to keep as a bench player. He will help solidify the bench, that is what he did in college. And without an ISO-JOE offense, I think he will play better.

Joe Johnson staying is key. I am very interested in seeing how he would do under another coach... A coach that can call offensive plays. Sund's comments are a little extreme, but I do think JJ will mature and improve.

We have to keep Horford. I mean look how he has improved over the years in a position that he doesn't play. That says a lot about how hard he works, and imagine if he actually played his normal position... He is the only heart we have on the team.

JC is a suspect player for me. I do not like the MIA type of performance in the playoffs, and not to mention he takes horrible shots.

This is not a big team. We have to play to our strengths, which is running the ball up the court and passing the ball. AKA: Phoenix. Which hopefully the coach will address. A good X's and O's coach.

can't teach size

Bingo. They have bigger bodies. Dwight shot horrible because of this. Not only that, they only doubled him once the whole game. Which protected from the three.

Now I know its easier for the C's to rebound because they have more quality bigs but how come the Magic didnt look like they were shooting practice 3's in warmups vs Boston like they did vs our guys? Maybe because quite a few of our players :white flag:

Not only because of our players, but because we didn't have anybody to guard Dwight one on one and the Cs got Big Baby, and Perkins. They were allowed to guard the perimeter shot as a result of this....

As for our players...the Cs have a very solid defense and play hard. We do not. Simple.

I knew Josh would miss Woody the most

I would think so, because no other coach will let Josh do the childish antics he has. He would be benched immediately. Especially the things Hubie called him out on the interview, with jogging lazily down the court in game 2. Throwing up jump shots.... We need to get a coach to make this guy grow up.

:lol6:

LMAO! That was awesome!

I disagree. I think Gearon knows we have talent and we just need a good coach to put it all together. The reason we hired Woody was because we had no talent whatsoever. But when you have a team like we have, I think Gearon understands he needs to go big on a good coach. I'm sure a lot of coaches are intrigued by our situation as well. I think a lot of coaches might look at our team and think they can do a lotta good things with our roster.

I agree with this too. Why would they try to keep JJ, but hire a crappy coach? If it was about money they would not even care about trying to sign JJ back.

I appreciate the things Joe did , heck I appreciate what Woody has done. But if Joe doesn't want to be here , he knows the way out. We may not win the same way we have with Joe , but I think the best thing for this team at this point is to start to develop other scoring options and develop other players roles.

If we can win 53 games with no semblance of an offense other than iso Joe , imagine what we can do with a coach that stresses ball movement and running up the court. We have the athletes to do that now .

Why would you not want to see this with JJ? Imagine how his assists, rebounds, and ppg will go up. Not to mention he causes a double team, which will help our offense greatly.

I know Marvin isn't the best guy....

Yet, I feel he could be better under new leadership. Somebody who will push him to his full potential, there are games that he has scored well... he just is not consistent.

If we do trade him, we could be kicking ourselves later.

It is too early to speculate anything. We still have to see where other people go. I hope he stays here, loosing him sets us back a couple years. I want to see what our team can do under new leadership.

LOL @ Cleveland even attempting to boo Lebron. Difference being they know for fact they will be terrible without him and are not selling themselves on JJ Hickson being the face of the franchise and they'll end up with super value in a SnT.

And we will be in good shape without JJ? You are losing 21 pts per game, and 5 assists.... He leads the team in assists, WITH ISO.

Nah they will not, because the appreciate the fact that they still have a basketball team. Not to mention they should be more frustrated than us. All of their teams have not had championships in awhile. At least we had the braves in 95... Who did they beat again?

What I have heard on today is more childlike behavior than I have heard at my Local YMCA on youth basketball night. Hawks fans are reacting to our recent loss like Children..

Let me get my litmus paper out.

1. How many of you angry Hawks fans thought that we would win this series vs. the Magic?

2. How many of you angry Hawks fans feel that any player is good enough to get passed a Double team of Barnes/Howard or Pietrus/Howard?

Remember, last year, Pietrus guarded Lebron ALONE... And Orlando won.

3. How many of you thought we had an answer to Howard?

4. How many of you thought that Woody's offense would put Joe in the best position to score?

Why are you so angry?

Are you angry because Joe said something after being booed by his home crowd?

1. What did you expect him to say?

If he would have said nothing, would that have made you happier?

When did Atlanta fans start deserving the right to boo anybody? Most of the crowd was there because the tickets were given to them by the ASG. So don't tell me about how loyal the fans have been. The fans have not supported one of the best Home teams in the NBA and in playoff time, with free tickets in hand.. what do they do? They boo the team's only star... Yeah... That's very good.

Now.. here's the thing....

1. What do you expect to get once Joe is gone? John Salmons? Have you who cry out John Salmons ever notice that he doesn't make his teams good enough that he warrants being kept??

Both SacTown and Chicago traded Salmons for cap space. Salmons looks good in situations where he's the only available offensive player.

I hear all these far fetched sign and trades.. I got some news. If NY doesn't get Lebron, they will sign Joe outright. We will get nothing.

So what's next for this franchise and it's reactive fanbase?

I suggest you get ready for more bickering. The hit parade will keep on going. Tell Smoove that he's next.

I guess we will build around Al. Who doesn't have a goto move and has shown some difficulty guarding the PF position but is too small to stop the best centers... Yeah.. Good move Hawks.

I applaud this brave sir. :worshippy:

A lot of sensitivity these past couple days. A lot of people taking things personal... The crazy thing is.... They do not even play on the team. :blink:

JJ makes one mistake on a comment his whole tenure here and we run him off by booing and not being understanding that he is human. He was the reason why I started really watching the Hawks again. The guy did bad because Orlando had a great defense! Who is going to replace him? Nobody, because we do not have the money for anybody else.

I would not call people childish per say, more like... a breakdown of understanding the big picture. Only person who was childish was Josh Smith. Even Hubie Brown called him out on his lack of effort at times.

YAY! WE LOST BY 40 AGAIN TONIGHT!!! WAY TO GO FELLOWS!!! CLAP CLAP CLAP

Give me a break. When your team deserves to get booed, you should boo the hell out of them. I think this series clearly falls into that category. If as a player you don't want to get booed, show us some guts and effort. I don't mind losing, but lose competitively and show some heart.

How are you going to be competitive when the fans start booing from the first quarter? Talk about a confidence killer. Makes you want to give up.

They don't understand that they made the situation worse tonight and put extra pressure on the team with the booing.

Booing is something that I've never done in my life. I may have cussed, or stayed silent for being so mad, but I've never booed any favorite team of mine in my life.

If they wanted to get their initial booing of JJ out of the way during the announcement of the starting lineups, then that's one thing. But to boo him the first time he touched the ball while the action was going on, that was straight up bush league and simply showing how idiotic some in the fan base were. Then they did it AGAIN.

They were booing him from the jump. He made a few shots, and the went back to cheering again. He started missing in the 3rd, and they went back to booing.

When he finally came out of the game, you heard cheers and boos. With that possibly being his last game, I would've stood and clapped out of appreciation for the 5 years he gave us . . .not boo him because he "hurt our feelings' with one stupid comment in the heat of the moment after losing a game.

That's why people outside of ATL rag on Atlanta so much. Seriously . . . who the hell boo THEIR OWN PLAYERS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME? They were acting like he was Kevin Garnett, with the way they were booing him.

+1 I felt like I was the only one who understands this.