It's time to Bite The Bullet for some of us...

[DJlaysitup]

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...I am DYING to see what this team would look like if Acie, Childress and Speedy were all

COMPLETELY healthy

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I really wish we could have Speedy for the Utah game. He had Deron totally spooked last year. Deron couldn't even bring the ball up the court. It was a great game to watch until Salim gave up the famous 7-point play and we collapsed in the 4th quarter.

I really think that game was what got Deron's head straight and he got into better shape.

[DavidSomerset]

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BUT

as long as he continues to exceed my expectations of WINS and LOSSES for the roster than he is given, I am not going to complain one bit.

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You predicted about 38 or 39 for this season so he is pretty much on pace.

I am not sure what you predicted for the last few seasons seasons but I imagine the win totals weren't much lower than the 13 (worst in the entire league by 5 games); 26 (third worst in the entire league); and 30 win (4th worst in the entire league) results.

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Yep, I said 38 for this year, but I did NOT see us being 11-12 at this point...I was figuring we were going to have to play catch up.

Last year, I said the median number of wins should be about 33 ...+-5 on either side to accommodate luck/injuries/etc.

We had a terrible injury situation last year, therefore I think 30 is about dead on what we should have expected.

I believe the 26 wins in 2005 was actually OVERACHIEVING relative to the team we had.

13 wins in 2004 was probably about right.

We have been the youngest team in the league the past 3 years...There is no way any fan should expect anything more than near the bottom of the league production when we are that young...No matter how much raw talent we have.

Now that "raw" talent is being molded into productive NBA talent.

[DavidSomerset]

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In the world of sports, wins and losses are literally the only thing that matter.

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Yes, but there are things that coaches do and don't do that DETERMINE wins and losses, and you are ignoring that. You aren't evaluating Woody on what he ACTUALLY does.

Again, in 04-05 most Chicago fans would have been happy with 35 wins (at BEST), considering how young they were and starting 0-9. So you would have applauded a coach that achieved 35 wins that season, even though we now know that they were a 47 win team?? Obviously you would have. The problem is that you would've overlooked that hypothetical coaches' fallacies just because he won as many games as you personally expected. When if you actually looked back at some of the things he did wrong, you would realize that more games could have been won.

Not only that, just because YOUR PERSONAL expectations are 38 wins, doesn't mean everyone else feels that way. I feel this team could win 45 games easily, and we have the talent to do so. Yeah we are young, but most of the players are already MORE than capable NBA players. Our young players have lots of experience, our youth is no longer so much that it deters us from making the playoffs IMO. I agree that we are too young to be a contender, but we are NOT too young to make the playoffs. Obviously you don't think we are a playoff team by only expecting 38 wins, which is really underrating our talent IMO.

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The Bulls clearly overachieved in 2005 by winning that many games...It was a great coaching job.

For the record, I think we would still make the playoffs in the Eastern conference with 38 wins.

My expectations at the beginning of the year were to win 38 games and be the #7 or #8 seed in the Eastern conference.

We are on pace at the moment, with A LOT of easy games coming up...I have no complaints.

[macdaddy]

I'll give him credit for getting the guys to play defense and to get them to bring energy for the whole game. He deserves credit for the way the team is playing.

I'm disappointed that our offense isn't better and the substitutions seem haphazard when they aren't non-existant. It concerns me what 40+ minutes a night for JJ, Smoove, Marvin, and eventually Al will do to our injury situation, energy level later in the year, and preparedness of our bench.

[DavidSomerset]

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Not only that, just because YOUR PERSONAL expectations are 38 wins, doesn't mean everyone else feels that way. I feel this team could win 45 games easily, and we have the talent to do so. Yeah we are young, but most of the players are already MORE than capable NBA players. Our young players have lots of experience, our youth is no longer so much that it deters us from making the playoffs IMO. I agree that we are too young to be a contender, but we are NOT too young to make the playoffs. Obviously you don't think we are a playoff team by only expecting 38 wins, which is really underrating our talent IMO.

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Hey man, as I have said before, I have no doubt that most people on this board are smarter basketball fans than me.

However, I am just giving MY personal opinion on what I would expect out of a team with this much NBA ready talent.

When I look at our roster and compare it to our schedule and other NBA teams, I come out at about 38 wins and a 7 or 8 seed in the very weak Eastern conference.

I welcome other opinions, however, that is mine, and as long as Woody has playing great defense, and winning around 50% of our games, I am going to be happy with him...At least this season.

[Packfill]

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Mike Woodson is a good coach right now.

I was an adamant supporter of Woodson the last 3 years and really got pissed with him after lackluster halves (1st Minny game, Chicago game) this year, but I can't hate on what he's doing.

Jdu made the same post last week, but that was before these last couple of games.

Our defense is looking incredible right now--we could've used Nazr M. but I am satisfied now. Every shot is being contended, teams are running low on shot clocks, and there are fewer and fewer easy baskets every game for our opponents.

Unfortunately, once Lue comes back, Lue will resort to him for whatever reason.

Of course the offensive substitution patterns could be a bit better, but it was wonderful seeing Mario get 19 minutes last night.

My only complaints right now for Woodson are he needs a better offensive playbook and to keep one of our big 3 (Marvin / JJ / Smoove) in at ALL times.

Our team has gotten better to a .500+ (hopefully) level as it has gotten older, and this can be attributed to Woodson's developments of the players.

Hopefully we can gut out a win against Utah tomorrow (I think Okur is out), and then the feeble Miami Heat Wednesday.

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Please. Woodson is not a good coach. He may be average, but that is on a good day. If the Hawks ultimately aspire to something more than mediocrity then they need to get a better coach in sooner rather than later.