What’s going on?

[Vesper]

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What’s going on?

By Sekou K Smith | Tuesday, October 16, 2007, 03:47 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

I spent part of this morning at the Hawks’ shootaround practice (not a regular stop for me on home games but a must on road trips) and I realized that for all the questions we have about this team, the players have just as many, if not more.

NBA training camp is often portrayed as just the meaningless month before the real games begin. But in actuality, there always seems to be a ton of drama that has to play itself out before the start of the season if a team is going to reach its full potential.

To date, the Hawks are still trying to:

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Find the right fit at point guard (injuries to everyone but Anthony Johnson has prevented anything from being resolved).

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Determine what the best combination will be in the post (for a team with undersized players at nearly every frontcourt position, the right mix at the 4 and 5 are can be the most crucial decision made, outside of who runs the point).

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Come up with a happy medium between the up-tempo style they prefer and the half court style opponents will try to force on them (if you don’t believe the league is worried about the Hawks playing a frantic style just watch how many teams try and zone them out of it).

The answers are hard to come by right now. Nothing seems settled. I’m no more convinced today than I was Oct. 1 that the point guard situation was in the proper hands.

My eye-witness knowledge of the toll a first season can take on a rookie keeps telling me that Al Horford and Acie Law IV need to be eased into things rather than being forced into untenable positions. Yet everything I see from both guys makes me think waiting is only delaying the inevitable.

And knowing that the keys to the Hawks being able to run at will this season are based largely on the consistency they get at point guard and center, it’s clear that no one knows what’s really going on with this team.

Maybe I’m over thinking all this, worrying too much about things that have a way of working out naturally - I have been known to overreact you know. Remember those salvos fired off the first two weeks of the college football season?

But my gut tells me this team is still as uncertain of itself as I am of what they are and what they’ll become this season. It certainly hasn’t deterred them from working like crazy (this training camp remains the most intense I’ve seen from the Hawks).

But we won’t know the true measure of the competitive nature of this crew until the meaningless month comes to an end. For the Hawks’ sake, you just hope that’s not too late.

[exodus]

Quote:

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Maybe I’m over thinking all this, worrying too much about things that have a way of working out naturally - I have been known to overreact you know.

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Good thing nobody here has that problem. I know i don't.

[Jdawgflow]

I know what you mean. Could you really imagine what this board would be like if people started to overreact?