Are We Better Than Last Year?

[KDT88]

Pros

• 1 more year of expeience for our youngsters
  We got a taste of the playoffs
  Bibby will be close to %100
  Speedy could be...COULD BE..healthy
  We got a much needed big in Morris
  We added another 3pt threat in Mo Evans
  

Cons

• Childress is gone
  All aquired FA's are no names and have done nothing, excluding Mo Evans
  We kept Woodson
  Smith 'may' be a disgruntled player with the way things played out in FA (I'm doubting this one, but I've heard it from others)
  

[LOL_Hawks]

Pros outweigh the cons. We're better.

[EazyRoc]

Yes, for the reasons you stated.

Also, Woodson isn't in another contract year, so the pressure of winning might not be as bad as it was last year. What that means is we might actually go outside of an 8 man rotation this year.

[tmac13]

Pros

• 1 more year of expeience for our youngsters
  We got a taste of the playoffs
  Bibby will be close to %100
  Speedy could be...COULD BE..healthy
  We got a much needed big in Morris
  We added another 3pt threat in Mo Evans
  

Cons

• Childress is gone
  All aquired FA's are no names and have done nothing, excluding Mo Evans
  We kept Woodson
  Smith 'may' be a disgruntled player with the way things played out in FA (I'm doubting this one, but I've heard it from others)
  

Yes

I think having Bibby for the entire season is worth 7 or 8 more wins. Add that to the maturing of Horf, Smoove and Marvin and I think we are a 45 win team.

[LOL_Hawks]

In addition to that, there's got to be more wins coming, because there were a whole lot of games last year that would've been won if the team was more mature. 1 more year of experience for this young team should get some more wins.

[crimedog]

My "simple yes or no" answer is "yes". Mainly because I think Bibby adds some wins and Evans is being a better fit balances out Chil being a better player.

Our biggest problem last season was depth, we had no one off the bench who could rebound (defensively), shoot, or play defense. We could be A LOT better this year if Acie can play for 15-20 a night, if either Hunter or Morris have anything, or if Zaza can regain form.

I'm expecting Marv, Horf, and even Smith to come back better to some degree.

The biggest thing people forget is that Joe had a pretty bad year by his standards. He shot about 41% most of the season and exploded towards the end. I hope he is fully healed up and can play as well as we know he can for most of the season, that would be big.

[Cwell]

edit:nevermind it was up there

Edited August 13, 2008 by Cwell

[capstone21]

Yes

I think having Bibby for the entire season is worth 7 or 8 more wins. Add that to the maturing of Horf, Smoove and Marvin and I think we are a 45 win team.

Exactly, we have a real pg for the full season. He is going to make a world of difference. That with our experience is going to make us better.

As for our needed big with the addition of Morris. I really don't think Morris is going to be anything more then a warm body on the bench. We still need a big guy for the bench. We need to sign Powell asap.

[Theeyo]

Yes if we can stay healthy

[gmoney1184]

I wouldn't say we're better, but we're not really that much worse. A lot of teams in the east are poised to make a move this year, and many of them made many a move this offseason. seems like the momentum we had at the end of last year is gone (Chil jumpin' ship, Smoove contract) but our nucleus is back which puts us in the race. Because of the other teams making moves, that takes us down a notch.

and we brought back woody wood pecker....ugh

[Wretch]

We kept Woodson

'nuff said.

[Nicholasp27]

we are better (woulda been even better if kept chill), but many eastern teams got better, so we'll see what that means in wins

[Packfill]

we are better (woulda been even better if kept chill), but many eastern teams got better, so we'll see what that means in wins

Agreed.

[Atlsportfanz]

Yes we're better assuming we don't have any major injuries before the season begins.

[JackB1]

there are so many unknowns, but it looks like we will be better for the following reasons:

- A Healthy Bibby

- A Healthy Law

- Horford / Smoove / Marvin......all youngsters will be ONE YEAR BETTER.

- Evans - may provide needed 3 pt shooting and DEFENSE

- Zaza might play like he did in the playoffs and be more accepting of his backup role

- Morris may surprise

Only "given" really is Joe and Horf. They will both be solid and equal or better than last year.

The biggest "con" to me was rehiring Woodson. Hopefully Bibby will step and and be more of

a vocal leader on the court and take over as "offensive coach". We still need more bench players

but there is a lot of potential upside on this team with Smoove, Horf, Law, Richardson, Bibby, Marvin.

All could improve and if they do......watch out!!!!

[frosgrim]

Its hard to say as the rest of the East looks better. That said, the Hawks should win 40-43 games this year, so that is better record wise. I just don't know how much better the team will play given Woodson. The increase in wins, IMO, will come from Bibby w/ the team all year. The bench really doesn't look all that much better than it was last year. We still need a scorer.

I do know that Woodson better coach his damn butt off if he wants to stay though. I hope that doesn't mean he'll go with with a six-man rotation for the whole year...

[thefloydian]

Yes.

I think we are much better if Marvin is bigger and starts shooting the 3.

[boycecauthen]

No. We lost one of our better players, who happens to be by far our most efficient scorer.

Having Bibby for an entire season, our younger players improving, and adding Mo Evans should minimize the damage. But we are without a doubt inferior to the team we ended the season with. Mo Evans < Childress. None of the other moves will likely effect our depth. We really screwed this off season up.

[Traceman]

Pros

• 1 more year of expeience for our youngsters
  We got a taste of the playoffs
  Bibby will be close to %100
  Speedy could be...COULD BE..healthy
  We got a much needed big in Morris
  We added another 3pt threat in Mo Evans
  

Cons

• Childress is gone
  All aquired FA's are no names and have done nothing, excluding Mo Evans
  We kept Woodson
  Smith 'may' be a disgruntled player with the way things played out in FA (I'm doubting this one, but I've heard it from others)
  

I think we will be better than last year but probably not as good as we would be if Chillz were coming back too. I think Big Al, Smoove, Marv, Acie and even Zaza will improved with another year under their belts. I also think a full year of Bibby will make a HUGE difference.

[frosgrim]

No. We lost one of our better players, who happens to be by far our most efficient scorer.

Having Bibby for an entire season, our younger players improving, and adding Mo Evans should minimize the damage. But we are without a doubt inferior to the team we ended the season with. Mo Evans < Childress. None of the other moves will likely effect our depth. We really screwed this off season up.

Saying we 'really screwed this off season up' is a little over the top once you take a step back and see what was accomplished. Was it a good offseason, no. Was it a poor offseason, probably. Was it a complete failure, no.

The great:

Resigning Josh Smith (whew)

The good:

Signing Evans

Signing Morris et al to minimum contracts- gives some depth, but not much

The Bad:

Loosing Childress for nothing

The Horrible:

Resigning Woodson

The key for me is how the minimum level players that are signed play in the regular season. This, of course, assumes Woodson will pay them. I am not certain that Woodson will play more than Zaza, Acie and Evans off the bench. That is an 8 man rotation, which can be done in the NBA, but it wears players out by March.

Honestly, if Sund gets another scorer for the bench then the offseason has to be considered relatively sucessful. Do I think that the Childress and Smith situations could have been handled better, absolutely; but, if Smith comes in to play with a chip on his shoulder and plays well, then maybe Sund had is right. However, the Childress situation was completely botched. No spin can change that debacle.