Who will show the most progress next season ?

[coachx]

What Hawks Players will show the most progress ?

[coachx]

Had to vote Smith b/c if he is really working with Hakeem the Dream Why not expect some post offense to magically appear out of him. I want to see a go to jump hook.

With this being his 4th year in the league it is time for big things.

[archie_otu]

I voted Marvin...I'm looking for Marvin and JSmith to be one of the best forward tandems in the NBA next season.

[HawksFan87]

Smoove has already shown us what he's capable of, I expect him to be much better and to have improved on what he needs 2..

I would love for Marvin to become a mad man, and begin to dominate. I know he has it in him.. He just has'nt shown it yet. But I think this is finally his year...

[AnakinJoe]

I still don't trust Smith, he may be working with Hakeem but he may still try to shoot 8 3s per game in the first 20 games of this season (he is also working with Calvin Murphy). Marvin should be playing in the SL and I am concerned that he is not there to get in extra time with his teammates and coaches. Shelden may not get enough time to show improvement.

I voted for Speedy. It is almost impossible to be that bad in 2 consecutive years. If he has any pride (which I assume that he does since he is an undersized player from a no-name school who has created an NBA career for himself), then he must be doing what it takes to prove himself relevant.

[exodus]

I am hoping that Marvin breaks out because the Hawks need him to probably more than the others.

It would be hard for Smith to improve the most since he has come so far already.

I agree that with Anakin that it would be hard for Speedy to be that bad two years in a row but i don't think he is as important to the Hawks as Marvin.

[mrhonline]

Anakin, nice to see you've come over from the AJC blog.

[atlien]

I truly believe Marvin will be a lot better.

Now that we have more weapons on both ends, Marvin will be more free to be the offensive player we all know he can be.

Hopefully he starts driving to the hole and finishing better.

[BHayley]

Shelden. If he gets minutes, he puts up double doubles. If he gets 18 mpg again, expect another 5/5 season.

I am very interested to see how Speedy and Marvin do this year. IF Speedy could just stay healthy for 65 or 70 games and Acie develops, that would be killer for us.

[Vol4ever]

I think Marvin and Shelden will both improve. I see Horford and Shelden spending a lot of time with Center and PF rotations and ZaZa spending more time on the bench because of his lack of defense.

[coachx]

Who voted for Zaza ?

You must show yourself. I really want to her the reasoning. I promise not to debate you to death I just want to know what thought and reasoning went into to that.

I saw reasons why people voted for everyone on the list except ZaZa.

So why did ya' vote ZaZa ?

[coachx]

When a post is entered that is intended to be optimistic we never hear from certain posters.

When a pessimistic post is entered they fill it up with, hrmm....."debates."

[DJlaysitup]

Well I didn't vote Zaza (figured JS was the safe bet), but one could make a borderline argument for Zaza. Towards the end of the year he started hitting the 12-15 foot jumper that he had been missing. If he can do that consistently other centers will have to come out on him and he should get more pts + more assists.

On the defensive end Zaza will have more support (depth) and therefore can afford to be more aggressive on man D.

It's a longshot but it could happen.

[mrhonline]

Quote:

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When a post is entered that is intended to be optimistic we never hear from certain posters.

When a pessimistic post is entered they fill it up with, hrmm....."debates."

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QFT

[frosgrim]

I didn't vote for Z, I voted for Marvin, but I actually can see the idea behind Z.

Towards the end of the season, Z started using a pretty slick drop step to get to the rim. When he used it, he scored or was fouled. Z also stated that the coaching staff has really been working with him on his post game. Z is in his early 20s, so he can improve. The big question for him is playing time now that we have 3 guys who will man the center spot for the team: Z, Sheldon, and Horford (no particular order here).

So, I can see the logic as Z did show something at the end of the season, but I just don't think his improvement will be as good as Marvin's. I will go ahead and predict Marvin will average around 18 a game on ~45% shooting.

PS I posted this just after DJ, but we must have been writing at the same time...

[DrReality]

Went with SW because he played so poorly last year. If he doesn't make a big improvement he's gonna be looking for a job.

[Lacsho]

I voted for Marvin; He started to break out last year, but the broken hand prevented him. This is his third year, and I think he going to silence the naysayers.

[mountain_jim]

Another vote for Marvin!

[gsuteke]

I voted for Marvin. he was ready to step up last year before he broke his hand. i remember hearing that news on the radio one weekday afternoon on the way back to work from the golf course. i was so ticked.

remember him wearing that funky brace/glove on his hand when he did come back? he was understandably timid for the longest time.

I think Marvin has the game to step it up because he's one of the few players on the Hawks that can take it into the lane amongst the trees. it was rightfully pointed out that Marvin wasn't a smooth finisher, however he draws foul after foul when he drives.

with a little more upper body strength he won't look so awkward in the lane this year.

[Nicholasp27]

Quote:

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I still don't trust Smith, he may be working with Hakeem but he may still try to shoot 8 3s per game in the first 20 games of this season (

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he only did that because he was playing SF at the time; now that's he's full-time pf, he doesn't do that