TomSelleck

The reason the team suffered for 8 years after dumping Steve Smith and Mookie isn't because they got rid of those guys it's because of the moves they screwed up afterward. If in the 2001 draft the Hawks would have held onto Pau Gasol instead of trading him for Shareef Abdur-Rahim or just picked Joe Johnson right there things would have been a lot different.

You're right but I don't know if the Hawks have a psychological advantage in the conventional sense. I heard Sekou Smith on the radio during the Magic series and he said how the Hawks are incapable of feeling pressure. Not because they're so mentally tough but because they just flat out don't care. The team feeds off Joe Johnson's attitude where he knows he is getting paid either way and doesn't care if they win by 20 or lose by 20 and doesn't care if the building is full of Hawks fans or the opponent.

$17.7 million, 25.7 MPG, 10.9 PPG, 36.8% FG, 29.6% 3PT, 2.7 RPG, 4.0 APG, 11.00 PER

I would say the difference is in the past Orlando has shown the ability to dog it and then turn it on in the playoffs. They obviously crushed the Hawks last year, took care of the 76ers and Cavs pretty comfortably in 2009, and beat up the Raptors in 2008. This Hawks team has never, ever made it look easy in the playoffs. The only two series these Hawks players have won were way, way closer than they should have been. Now do I think Orlando can turn it on again? Not really. I don't think they're as good as they were. But their fans have at least seen it happen before.

Whether it's due to internal or external pressure, I don't know, but one way or another both Woodson and Drew seemingly put all their efforts into short term winning with players who already know how to play with little concern for long term winning and the player development necessary for that.

At the least I could see it going 6 games, maybe with the Hawks even winning. Not because the Hawks are any better than last year, but because Orlando is a lot worse.

I want new players.

Doc's a great coach but let's not forget he went one-and-done every time his team made the playoffs (including choking away a 3-1 lead against Detroit in 2003) until they assembled the Big Three in Boston in 2007. With a mediocre roster he's been no more of a miracle worker than Woodson. Unless he can turn Teague into the next Rondo this team isn't going anywhere with him.

Don't forget the extension for Bibby. The thing to me is I don't see the reason the ASG fired Knight. You would think if they thought he did a bad job, they would have done something to break up the team he put together. Instead they've rewarded his entire starting lineup.

Is that on the ASG or Knight and Sund? Those two guys are the ones who picked the players and subsequently decided to extend them. At best all the ASG did was say they were more than content to keep together a 1st round playoff team and not blow it up and try again.

Extremely well said.

The Hawks have the #7 payroll in the entire NBA. Their problem is they're spending bad money, not that they're not spending enough money.

The only semi-significant move will be letting Jam Crawford go.

Maybe a little bit but it's still a dysfunctional roster with among the worst point guard situations in the league, an overpaid quasi superstar with no killer instinct, a 'tweener with no true position playing power forward, and a power forward playing center. Not exactly what you'd draw up if you were starting a team from scratch.

LD is doing a bad job, but it was a huge farce that any new coach was going to take this team any farther than what Woodson did. It's still a dysfunctional group of players with one of the worst point guard situations in the NBA, an extremely overpaid and unmotivated pseudo-star, a 'tweener with no true position at power forward, and a power forward playing center. Coaching wasn't going to fix that.

The biggest problem is it should be pretty evident that the window has closed on this Hawks team and any move to improve for 2011 or 2012 was pointless. If the Hawks did nothing a new window may have been possible by 2013, at the earliest. But now the team has given away two assets that could have helped open the new window (Jordan Crawford and 2011 1st round pick), the Hawks are looking more like their next window won't be opening until 2014 or 2015.

The worst thing is that Sund was apparently too incompetent to know that BK's plan was going nowhere. BK may have acquired all the players, but Sund decided to give them new contracts, and for more money on top of that. Sund is the one who gave Marvin Williams a new $40 million contract, Mike Bibby a new $18 million contract, and Joe Johnson a new $120 million contract. He didn't have to. He could have said this team has already peaked we need to do things differently if we ever want to take it to the next level.

yup

Exactly. The roster needs an overhaul.

I just don't see another "starting quality player" being the difference between winning and losing in the first round of the playoffs. The Hawks' problem isn't with their starting quality players, it's with their star quality players. When you measure Joe Johnson as the Hawks' #1 star up against all the other eastern contenders' #1 stars, he's arguably last. Until the Hawks can find a player to legitimately match up with Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Derrick Rose, and Rajon Rondo, they'll be pretenders.

No one is going to willingly take over a contract that pays Johnson more than what LeBron James makes without passing on an even worse contract.

Johnson's contract is an albatross.

Yes. That's the exact reason they should have never re-signed Joe Johnson and that's the exact reason New Jersey was able to make this trade and Atlanta wasn't. The Nets abandoned all hope of winning two years ago trying to accumulate assets to make a big move. The Hawks have been too busy trying to lock up the #4 seed in the East to position themselves for a mega trade.

Woody was a good coach but it was time to move on. By far the biggest problem was Billy Knight. This team has an incredibly flawed roster and for some reason the owners and subsequent GM decided to keep the team nearly exactly the same as what Knight put together.