Jdawgflow

GM, I am honored that you are a part of this board. Great assessment and optimism. Kudos.

I don't know. That is a toss up. Zaza is playing like he wants to be an All-Start center sooner rather than later. And those are very rare. But it is nice to see both of those guys putting in the work it takes to make them better. That is what worries me about Smoove the most. He seems like the only guy on the team so far who has not made any marked improvements over last season (well, maybe Ivey, Salim, and Batman but they don't play much). Getting Marvin back will be huge for us. It will boost the team's morale and if we already are around .500 other teams will need to look out. I really believe we are going to be good this year. We just need to run more.

The main limits to Zaza's game right now is his bad passes and unwillingness to shoot the jumper from the elbow. Other than that (and his D to some extent), he has been VERY good for this Hawks team. With Marvin out, he is our 2nd most reliable player. JChill has to be third.

The problem with that, though, is we have to have a coach and PG willing to push the pace the whole game. Watching the Philly game was disgusting. The announcers were talking like we needed to slow the game down because "Philly will run on us". That blew my mind. We would run their old bodies out of the gym if we had pushed the pace. Getting into a half court mindset was what cost us the game IMO.

I think that parity is a good thing. It gives our Hawks a better chance to make the playoff IMHO.

Good point BeeSwatter. JJ on a bad day can often look like most of the other Hawks on a good day. Man, we really need JJ to play out of his mind this season if we are going to make the playoffs. If he can do that, I think other guys on the team will not be able to help but follow. Having Marvin back is going to be a big spark, too. He is going to be our 2nd option this year I believe. Losing him hurt more than some on this site care to admit. Zaza is a good player...he just is not a second option. Marvin will take it to the rack when he returns. With him and JJ taking the scoring load, Zaza helping, Speedy getting back in shape, and Chill plus Smoove doing the little things, I think we will still be in good shape.

I think it would be a much better game this time around. Maybe we will get to see it come playoff time?

I had a problem with them ending the sale early, too. So I had to call the number and explain to them what happened. They ended up taking care of me this morning and I now have five tickets in section 114. Is anyone else sitting in this section?

This is an excellent article. It makes me even more excited that we managed to get Joe on our team. He is going to bring us back to respectability this year with his play, attitude, and newfound leadership. Just waiting for tomorrow night. We will start showing the world who we are.

Quote: Lastly, the O-line is pass protecting finally. You are right, Lehr's suspenion has done wonders for this team. I like Clabo and think he is actually a pretty good lineman. He doesn't get pushed back to Vick right after the snap like Lehr did. It is amazing, though, that the coaches did not see this before the league graciously stepped in and forced Lehr not to play. Here is to hoping Lehr does not get his starter's job back when he gets off of suspenion.

Word! We are both here as Hawks fans and, although I might not agree with all of your viewpoints, I can and will respect you as long as you do the same. Now... Let's go Hawks!!!

I appreciate your answers (not that I necessarily agree). Thank you.

I think there is a good chance that we will win 10+ of those "winnable" games to start the season. And out of those other 13, we should be able to win more than three. With that said, I think we will be hovering around .500 at Christmas time. Merry Christmas to us!

Good deal. It is going to be a fun season. Oh, and we all need to plan a game again this year.

Please do not take this as an assault, but I am genuinely curious about what your feelings are about death and what (if anything in your opinion) happens after that? The other question I have is: Have you had a bad experience when speaking to Christians in the past who judged you and told you that you were going to hell if you did not believe just like them? Again, please do not think that this is an attack. I would just like to better understand where you are coming from.

Nic27, I just noticed that you are expecting 42 wins as well. Congrats on the optimism. It is much needed around here. Go Hawks!!!

Quote: Yep. This just about takes out all playoff hopes of even the most optimistic fan. Not necessarily. I still think that we can be a very good team even without having Marvin for a while. We have much more talent than we did last year, the players seem to play together better, we have some vet leaders, and the chemistry is a lot better. I, for one, still say that we will win 42 and make the playoffs. People are going to be surprised. Who else believes?

I would be careful saying that. To me, saying Zaza is not like "Caveman" Kaman is much too similar to when the pot calls the kettle black.

Sorry for posting another wins prediction here. I got excited as I logged on and posted this before reading much else. Maybe we can use this thread in a broader sense due to the other already has so many W/L predictions.

I think it is getting close to time for us to put all of our major soapboxes and predictions for this season into a single thread. This way, when the season is over, we will all know where to go to find out what we all thought. It will make for good laughs and validate/invalidate what many are saying by the end of the season (which I hope will be around June for our beloved Hawks!). I will start. Hawks Record == 42-40 (Just good enough for the playoffs) JJ is going to make it very hard for the coaches not to pick him for the All-Star team because his points/rebounds/steals will go up and his assists/mpg/TO will go down. Marvin and Shelden will make the rookie/sophmore game. We will do a much better job of defending the paint compared to last year. The greek guy will make the 15 man roster. Attendance will increase. The Atlanta Spirit will win the dispute and will buy out Belkin at a price that neither side will be too happy with. There it is guys. My predictions for this season. I might add more later, but for now this is a good start. And by the way, anyone else is welcome to put their guess of our projected record in their sig. It will be fun to see who ends up the closest. I think that Nic was closest last year if my memory serves me.

Good call! I agree that we need to start talking about the upcoming season instead off all this other stuff. It has been run into the ground. We need to start talking about when we are all going to meet for a game this season. Also, we need to talk about what playoff seed we are getting. And for the recond, I am putting myself out on a limb and saying that we are gonna go 42-40 this season.

Whats up with Lost this year by the way? Oh, and the commercials keep getting longer and longer. It has almost gotten to the point now where the show has become the commercials and vice versa. I just started taping it and fastforwarding during "commercials". It only takes like 20 min to watch.

Falcons 27 Giants 13 The Falcons will give up one TD and two FGs. On offense, we will finally score in the Red Zone. Overall, we will get three TDs and two FGs. Until they prove me wrong Sunday, this is what is going to happen.

For some reason it keeps telling me that a pop-up is blocked. The problem is, I turned off the pop-up blocker. Any computer savvy people know what I should do?

Does anybody know if the chatroom is down?