No Matter what Hawks still get no respect!

[Hawksfreak]

I don't get it I just don't get it! I'm reading NBA magazines and most of them have us below the Chicago Bulls! A lot of them say we wont even get 40 wins! 37 wins!!!!! Now lets just look at our lineup compared to Chicago's real quick.

CHICAGO:

PG: JAY WILLIAMS (ROOKIE)

SG: JALEN ROSE (REALLY THERE ONLY ALL AROUND GOOD PLAYER)

SF: DONYELL MARSHALL

PF: TYSON CHANDLER

C: EDDIE CURRY

GOOD BENCH PLAYERS: B. RUSSLE, EDDIE ROBINSON, MARCUS FIZER

HAWKS!:

PG: JASON TERRY

SG: DION GLOVER

SF: GLENN ROBINSON

PF: SHAREEF ABDUR-RAHIM

C: THEO RATLIFF

GOOD BENCH PLAYERS: IRA NEWBLE, NAZR MOHAMMED, DAN DICKAU, ETC, ETC

My point in this post is not just is the magazines insane, but on NBA.Com we were voted as going to be the most improved team and to me winning 4 more games hardly is improving! Whats up with these guys I don't know but I can't wait for them to see us the "SLEEPER" in the NBA! Now I know as you can see the Bulls are going to be a team to deal with in the future, but clearly we are the better team. I will give them a slight edge on the bench they got a little more on the bench then us, but still we are the better team.

[Gray Mule]

Keep it quiet. We don't want the other N.B.A. teams

to know! That way we can sneak up on them!

On paper, Hawks look good, but we have to show people

we are as good as we here on Hawksquawk think we are.

We will only gain the respect of those "Experts" who make

a living writing about N.B.A. teams when we show it on

the floor and not in pre-season games, but when they

begin to count in the regular season.

Then, we have a very tough schedule early, playing some

of the top teams in the west. Don't expect much of

these writers to mention Hawks and good in the same

breath for several weeks.

Gray Mule

[Hawksfreak]

We have the talent to beat any team in both the East and West I know we will lose because everyone does but I can see us doing good at the beggining.

[cyman3]

Let them all say HAWKS SUCK... all of them!

We will be one of the SURPRISING TEAMS in the NBA... they'll find out sooner or later.

[Playoffs03]

As Shareef and Theo said, " we will just have to prove it and live up to it ". What other people or mags said is not important, we just have to prove it. prove them wrong and earn our respect this way.

[thecampster]

Mike,

Darn good post. You're starting to write a ton better and comparison, informed opinions and effort will get you a bunch of respect....These type of posts will get you there.

On the respect train, I think Nov 12th is when that boat docks. The Hawks start the season as follows:

Oct

30 Wed @ New Jersey - Probably a loss.. (no way the nba let's last years EC champs lose on opening night.)

31 Thu Utah (Winable)

Nov

2 Sat Chicago (Winable)

5 Tue @ Denver (Winable)

6 Wed @ Phoenix (Winable)

8 Fri @ Utah (Winable)

10 Sun @ Sacramento - Probably a loss.

12 Tue @ L.A. Lakers - and here's the respect game.

We will probably go into the L.A. game 4-3 or 5-2. But have a winning record. Theo will have issues guarding Shaq and I could see the big fella going for 30 plus except for game flow. The Hawks start 3 players that require Double team rotations. (Terry, Robinson and SAR...potentially Glover). None of these 3 are guarded primarily by Kobe and Shaq, meaning the defensive doubleteam assignments will fall to them (or risk letting these 3 play one on one). Teams that go stong at the 5 or 2 get taken apart by the lakers...but teams strong at the 1,3 or 4 give them fits....When Kidd was in Phoenix they would compete nightly against Phil's boys. Making the lakers play shifting Defense takes the wind out of their 2 big boys sails and makes them beatable...If we get the win or at least play to within 5 points on Nov.12, the national accolades will start.

[KZ3]

Shaq might not have recovered by the 12th, so there is even a possibility that he won't play, or won't play big minutes. If Ira can shut down Kobe like he did last year, I think that the Lakers are beatable.

[Hawksfreak]

Thanks thecampster got the complement, but I have to say that statment about you saying he will probably lose to New Jersey is very untrue infact I think we have a great chance of winning this game. Last year we won 2 out of 3 games vs them and without Theo,Dickau,Big Dog,Hamster,E-Mail,Glover,Hendu, and Chris Crawford. All they have added is Deke which will help them, but we still have the advantage. Last year all the Nets did was double and even sometimes triple team Reef and that left DJ and JT wide open for three's, now yes DJ is gone but we have added another unbelievable scorer in Big Dog which will make the Nets have to focus on him and Reef at the same time......Then that leaves JT,Theo, and DG open for good shots. This is also good because we will finally get to see if Theo is back and ready because he has to matchup against Deke! Now for the Lakers, and this is why I think we can beat them WITH Shaq. Now that Theo is back and if he is ready he can cause all kinda porblems for Shaq. The quickness of Theo is unbelievable for his size and all Shaq does is post up, if somehow we can get Theo to distract Shaq by using his quickness to putting Shaq into a bad place to shoot JT or DG could just come around and snatch it, yes I left out Kobe, but Reef and GRob are to big for Kobe to get past, if we can exicute this play we have a 100% chance of beating the Lakers!

[KZ3]

Quickness will not stop Shaq from bulldozing into the lane and taking whatever shot he wants. In fact, Shaq is still very quick for his size, which adds to his dominance. Furthermore, Shaq is one of the best passing centers in the NBA, so coming around to snatch the ball is unrealistic. Kobe is the same size as both Reef and Big Dog give or take an inch, but is much much quicker than both, which will prevent either from stopping Kobe. Ira and maybe Ham are really the only ones that can slow down Kobe on our team, and we don't have anybody that can stop Shaq. There is no play that you can execute that will beat the 3 time champion Lakers 100% of the time. I do think that if the Hawks play their game well enough offensively, however, that they have a chance of beating the Lakers. A good example would be when we beat a healthy Shaq and Kobe 108-106 a couple years ago, before Shareef and after we traded away Dikembe.