Still think the Hawks are teasing us worth it?

[thescout5]

Any else noticing how the Hawks seemingly win games against teams that are below 500 to pad ther record? It would be interesting to find out what there record is against teams that are 500 and above. I said this 4-5 years ago until the Hawks win consistently against top competition are they really going anywhere.Four to five years later still can't beat better teams consistently. I know we have to start somewhere but I am afraid this spurt is just a big tease enough to not have any chance of a top 3 pick and good enough to finish maybe 9-10 from the bottom and give the pick to the Suns the ultimate payoff. Considering this is one of the better drafts for big men they picked a great time to go on a spurt to cost the franchise a top 3 pick that could set this team up for years.

I don;t like being a pessimist but I think Charles Barkley pointed this out a few years ago if your going to have a bad season finish one of the worst since if your middle of the pack your never going to get that impact player you need to turn the franchise around. Besides JJ the other guys are they going to be true playmakers or just pieces.You need 3 top notch players to have a hope of winning a championship right now JJ is the only one.

Marvin,Smoove,Childress will develop but will they develop into go time players even as young as they are? I don't see it so are these victories going to matter in building the team that could compete with the elite?

If Marvin,Smoove,Childress were in this draft do you think they would make the top 7 picks,6 picks 5 picks? Big men only come so often this seemed to be a bad year to win a few games enough to take the Hawks out of a TRUE FRANCHISE PLAYER. Not just Oden,Durant,Noah are 3 players that could help a team significantly, it isn't just a one player draft although Oden is the prize.

[AtLaS]

Hmm, we've beat Cleveland, the Clippers, Denver, Orlando twice, Minnesota, and Detroit. We gave up HUGE leads in the 4th to UTAH and Chicago. We lost to the Wizards by 1 in OT. There have been so many games that we have lost in the 4th this year, I think those are due to inexperience.

Also we have been one of the most injury plagued teams in the NBA this year, yet we are still on track to finish much better than the last 2 years, I'd say we are making progress.

[AtLaS]

If anything the question should be "why can't we beat sorry teams?" We lost to Seattle w/o Ray, LA without Kobe, the Bobcats twice, Philly with no AI, thats just horrible.

[DJ_Money]

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Hmm, we've beat Cleveland, the Clippers, Denver, Orlando twice, Minnesota, and Detroit. We gave up HUGE leads in the 4th to UTAH and Chicago. We lost to the Wizards by 1 in OT. There have been so many games that we have lost in the 4th this year, I think those are due to inexperience.

Also we have been one of the most injury plagued teams in the NBA this year, yet we are still on track to finish much better than the last 2 years, I'd say we are making progress.

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The key word in that post being "progress."

When we were winning ~30 games/year in the final years under Babcock, we were making no progress.

We went back to square one when BK came in...and now we're making progress. 13 wins, to 26 wins, to possibly 35 wins this year. That's progress.

No, I'm not saying that we're making as much progress as we could be, (Yes, I think we should look for a new coach. Yes, I'd much rather have Paul or Deron.) but we're making progress.

If we were the same team that we were last year, the tank crowd might have a legit argument. Despite adding nothing of real value last summer and the boatload of injuries this year, we're a better team. Someone explain that one to me.

[AtLaS]

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Despite adding nothing of real value last summer and the boatload of injuries this year, we're a better team. Someone explain that one to me.

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We also lost our 2nd leading scorer (AH). If we were healthy this entire season we'd be in the playoff hunt RIGHT now, I mean we've played without a pg for basically 15 straight games, and before that Speedy was playing injured anyway. We are still the youngest team in the league.

I'm still waiting for someone to find the last team that made the playoffs being the youngest team in the league.

[BusBoyIsBack]

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If anything the question should be "why can't we beat sorry teams?" We lost to Seattle w/o Ray, LA without Kobe, the Bobcats twice, Philly with no AI, thats just horrible.

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Seriously. Clearly this guy doesn't follow the team.

The complete opposite of what he said is true. We actually come to play against the good teams on our schedule and turn around and give a poor effort against a team like Charlotte, Philly, or a team missing it's superstar player. That and injuries is why we are below .500 right now.

[CBAreject]

I disagree about our not being able to beat good teams, but to the question of whether the teasing is worth it, I say "no".

It's not worth it to "make a little run" and win a few games to give us all hopes for mediocrity come next year.

I love the play of Smoove lately, but I hate the fact that our chances of getting the franchise player we need are slipping away.

A lot of people are calling this flirting with mediocrity "progress". That reminds me of what C.S. Lewis said about progress:

"We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive. " - CS Lewis

If progress is moving toward an NBA title, we may be on the wrong road altogether. It may require a bit more losing to put us on the right path.

[f_town]

so lets see...

we have Josh Smith finally playing with intensity most nights and Joe Johnson finally back in his early-season form...how exactly do you plan on forcing them to 'tank'?

Unless youre going to trade or bench one of our key players, i cant see it happening...

Woody can help, but he cant physically force them to lose.

With this team only 4 games out of the playoffs, what is the exact incentive of the players to deliberately lose...

besides, i think some teams are trying alot harder than we are to bottom out, and the likelyhood of the Hawks getting a top 3 pick are pretty slim...the odds of giving Phoenix a very high pick are alot higher

[exodus]

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If anything the question should be "why can't we beat sorry teams?" We lost to Seattle w/o Ray, LA without Kobe, the Bobcats twice, Philly with no AI, thats just horrible.

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Seriously. Clearly this guy doesn't follow the team.

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[jerrywest]

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If anything the question should be "why can't we beat sorry teams?" We lost to Seattle w/o Ray, LA without Kobe, the Bobcats twice, Philly with no AI, thats just horrible.

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Seriously. Clearly this guy doesn't follow the team.

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This guy doesn't even follow the scoreboard. Otherwise he would have know that we have beaten a lot of big teams and lost to too many of the bad teams. We won with Orlando 3 times, not twice. We won against Bobcats when they had a full team and lost when they were missing players. We almost always play at our opponents level.

However, this ingorant opinion will be highly valued by the agenda driven morons.

[Johnnybravo4]

People who want the team to tank obviously only watch the live boxscore updates on ESPN. No one in their right mind who watches every game live or on TV would want this team to tank.

[Gambit99]

Wow...such a miss placement of CS Lewis.

In your view we should tank to get an unlikely franchise changer from the draft.

The Logic:

There are very few time that a "franchise changer" comes into the league and even then certain parts must already exsist ie Shaq(but it didn't happen until LA), Jordan(but it didn't happen until other were added and experienced, Duncan(he had D Robinson and they were injury plagued the previous year, L James(hasn't happened yet), D Howard (hasn't happened yet), Kobe(had to develope and then get with Shaq), Olijuahn (sp)(had to wait for Clide), Magic (had Kareem and co), Vince & Kid(had to go to NJ but still waiting)

Other guy had to develope or move to another team ie Amare(develope and then get Nash), B Wallace (develope then wait for the whole Detroit team), Hell the previous starting 5 for Detroit, Dirk(developed and still waiting), Wade(had to get Shaq), J Oneal(developed and still waiting), Bosh(developed and still waiting)

There's more but I think my point is clear Ogden/Durant/Noah will take time to develope in the NBA, they are not going to come in the league like Jame, Duncan or Shaq, but in the near future we should win as many games as possible and when guys like Bosh, Howard, Frye, Amare hit the market we are polished enough to attract them.

[AHF]

Just one minor correction, Olajuwon won his first title with Sam Cassell, Robert Horry, Otis Thorpe, etc. but without Clyde Drexler.