My final point is.........

[Hawksfreak]

BHD hasn't really made any sense in his posts throughout. I feel shamed for him to turn into a Pacer fan but a lot of people are bandwagon fans. I hate when he says he is a Hawks fan through and through,but I don't like him calling me a child and niether would yall. Yes,I think the Pacers have a nice young team,but to me I think the Hawks can stomp over any team. It's Happened before. Sure last year we had a rough time with the Pacers but we did also have 4 guys out because of injuries but let me point this lineup comparisian out.....

PACERS

pg: Jamaal Tinsley

sg: Reggie Miller

sf: Ron Artest

pf: Brad Miller

c: Jermain O'Neal

HAWKS

pg: Jason Terry

sg: Dion Glover

sf: Glenn Robinson

pf: Shareef Abdur-Rahim

c: Theo Ratliff

advantages:

JT and Tinsley= JT

Miller and Dion= Miller

Robinson and Artest= GRob

Reef and B. Miller= Reef

O'Neal and Ratliff= Theo with a slight advantage.

In conclusion to this post I'm saying that clearly I think we are the better team,but BHD desided for the worst and I can't wait to see us kick the Pacers's butts!

[Guest]

Freak, nice post of substance (let's see more of these and fewer one liners/ whiners). Couple of flaws in the lineup...

Brad Miller will be their starting Center and O'Neil their starting PF...

Miller vs. Theo - Theo much better on D, Miller better on offense...edge to Theo (largely due to his role on this team).

O'Neil vs. SAR - reversal of above, SAR's the much better offensive player, O'Neil's better on D and has slightly more athleticism. Edge to SAR for all-round game/ more moves in the post.

Regardless, the point of yoru post is well taken. It'll be interesting. However, Indy's definitely got the better bench. I'm not even sure that Artest will start...Harrington's back/ was really coming along till blowing the ACL last year. They may very well start him and use Artest to bu the 2/3 and when in need of defensive tenacity. Bender's still developing/ adjusting...the jury's definitely still out on him. They've got a decent bu pf/c in Foster and Croshere's an undersized pf with very good range (3pt) for a 4. Pg's really their worst position...Tinsley can pass, no doubt about it...but it's been correctly said before that he has trouble going left and quite simply can't shoot for $%&@. It'll be interesting to see how Fred Jones fits in/ competes with Tinsley for the starting 1 spot (I just dont' see him in the backcourt alongside Tinsely)/ can Strickland play any point?

Regardless, any way you slice it, they've got a very talented team with great depth/variety at 4 of the 5 spots...

The only way we can make such a claim (about quality depth) is if we remain healthy...Hendu in particular (we need his bu abilities at the 4, we really do), but Dion as well (I still say let him come off the bench as sixth man and start Ira for defensive purposes...with three scorers on the floor, we could use two hustle players who concentrate on D).

It's going to be an interesting year. That's for certain.