Congrats to an Awesome Season!

[Gray Mule]

:angel19:

Before we get down on this year's team, let's wait and see what NBA team

whips the pants off of this Cavs team and leave them in the dust with four

victories over King James and his Merry Men.

Sure. They won in four in the first round. They won in four in the second round.

Do any of us expect ANY ONE to stop this team from becoming the NBA champions

for this season? Will any one come close? Somewhere out there they may find

a loss - - Maybe two - - that will be hung on these Cavs.

But, win four of seven? Who? Who can stop The King? Who can slow him down?

Barring injury, no one. If they do, the rest of the wide open Cavs will kill them.

:sad:

[sturt]

All things being equal and just looking at it from a quantitative trend perspective, one would presume that next year we improve to 50+ wins and a more serious contention for the East.

However, we now come to what is really going to be the most pivotal off-season for the Hawks since the off-season when Babcock threw-in his hand and gambled on Isiah Rider.

Sund will either put a finishing stamp on this team that will take it to that next level, or he will make moves that severely cripple that pursuit. It's pretty incredible to think of all the pieces that potentially could be moved around this summer--Bibby, ZaZa, and Flip expiring, Marvin and potentially Chilz as SNT bait, Speedy's expiring contract, and even a first round draft pick again for good measure. Oh yeah, and the annual "is this the year for David Andersen's arrival" question mark. And yet, also a decreased salary cap to contend with.

Who knows what will happen, but it's safe to say it won't be a ho-hummer.

[PureGreatness]

we have to make some decisions on bibby, flip, marvin and zaza

Edited May 12, 2009 by hoodstar

[mrhonline]

Enjoy the month off, 'Squawkers!

June 15th = early entry withdrawal date for the draft.

[Admin]

Yep thank you Hawks for the entertaining season. I hate how the season ended but I have hope that this thing can be improved upon this season and I look forward to us joining the eastern elite next year!

[DJlaysitup]

I choose to take it in stride and be positive . . . . . and hope for some changes to coaching.

In my heart I agree Doc...but we really got our arses spanked bad in this series on Nat TV. We not only got swept - we often didn't look like we deserved to be on the court with Cleveland. No game went down to the wire. Closest we came was 10 points. Second closest was 20 when our bench came back from a 36 point deficit to only lose by 20 at home.

These things have to be considered.

CLE exposed all of our weaknesses. They were too big for us to have any real post game...they doubled JJ immediately...they have the MVP...and their guards are much faster than ours. In all honesty we looked like a 1960's style team going up against a 21st century team. They just man-handled us - no two ways about it.

We would be better off if there were no 3-point line.

But hey - we did a little something this year so Congrats Hawks....and fire Woody.

Edited May 12, 2009 by DJlaysitup

[Guest]

Sund will either put a finishing stamp on this team that will take it to that next level, or he will make moves that severely cripple that pursuit.

There is always the possibility of there being not much change. Sund might still be "evaluating." I find that doubtful, but it is certainly a possibility that there isn't much change.

[Guest]

Hard to sit here and say this was a good season because we didn't show up at all this series. But probably in a few weeks it'll be easier to say that this season was a step forward.

[gsuteke]

A successful season indeed.

We would have liked to see it go further but a 2nd round Playoff bid was a success.

[Joker]

Where did Marvin really improve? He was a 13PPG player LAST YEAR. He shot abit higher in 3's, but he doesn't really make enough or anything for it to be a real big difference. ZaZa was better than last year, but still worse than his two years before. I like Solo, but I don't know if he will ever have a shot to really impact the team anyway. Al was pretty much the same. In fact, it felt like his rebounding was worse this year.

This is probably the oddest team I've ever seen. Stat wise, they're efficient in some area's but you don't' really see it on the court. The most I'm worried about is the lack of firing of Woody. The job security he seems to have is really head scratching.

His overall game improved, his slashing abilities, defensively all around. His understanding of the game and his position on the court for the given situation. He made great improvement in those areas. Zaza first two years were like JJ's, really irrleavent because no one really gameplan for the Hawks. When ppl seen Zaza, it was like another stop gap Center. That how ppl played him, he in no way was better two years ago then now. Solo sucks, he improve his overall skills each season but his tactical awareness is as poor as Stro Swift who is 5x the player Solo is. I think Solo is near finished as far as his NBA career is concerned. No, rebounding better, but teams are scouting us and noticing that we do not box out, Horford does at times but no one else does. Zaza is tough and has a nose for the ball but doesn't box out, and is not athletic as well as he only give effort on the offensive side of the boards. Woody is not the problem, he is a good coach, he could give up is offensive playcalling though.

Edited May 12, 2009 by nbasuperstar40

[tonegully]

We had a great season. I dont understand how some of you guys are knocking our season. We almost won 50 and made it to the second round of the playoffs after people thought we would win 30 games. Congrats to OUR team for the ride this season. Now its time to see our off season moves.

[DJlaysitup]

A successful season indeed.

We would have liked to see it go further but a 2nd round Playoff bid was a success.

Agreed Teke - but I would have liked for us to lost in 5 (or maybe 6) with some close games - not being punked with the CLE bench laughing. We gave em a run tonight I guess - but we never got closer than 10 points in any game. 74 points at home - missing a ton of open shots - I dunno?

We basically got our rear ends handed to us.

Edited May 12, 2009 by DJlaysitup

[AtlHomer]

I believe we have a core in place with viable 'assets' we can now trade/use to help improve our team. It's hard to make a trade if you don't have something that other teams want. I believe we are to that point now.

This is going to be an interesting off-season......

[sturt]

There is always the possibility of there being not much change. Sund might still be "evaluating." I find that doubtful, but it is certainly a possibility that there isn't much change.

Possible, but I guess what I meant to emphasize is that there are so many more personnel decisions to be made this off-season than we've had in a long, long time. If one is trying to channel Sund, it would seem reasonable to look at his Mavs experience and what his front office did when they got to this position. I'm not looking at it right now, but I'm pretty sure they didn't have the same flexibility that we've got. That can be a good thing, or it can be a bad thing, depending on the choices made, of course.

[buckeye242424]

We had a great season. I dont understand how some of you guys are knocking our season. We almost won 50 and made it to the second round of the playoffs after people thought we would win 30 games. Congrats to OUR team for the ride this season. Now its time to see our off season moves.

Amen!!!!

[coachx]

Congrats are in order !

The team took a necessary step in their journey to being an Eastern Conference power soon.

47 wins and a 2nd round playoff showing did meet the realistic goals set for this team in 08-09.

[HawkItus]

Thanks to the Hawks. Thanks to the Squawkers. Been a fun season.

[AHF]

47 wins was a step in the right direction. This is the first time in a while where I felt like the bottomline results were in line with the team's realistic potential. There is some obvious work to be done and some critical choices to be made this offseason.

This is where the rubber hits the road for Sund so I hope he is ready.

In the meantime, it was very nice to win home court advantage this offseason and here is hoping the players return healthy and having made some significant developments to their game.

[jhay610]

Just for the people who are still complaining about Billy Knight a full year after he left, think about this.

4 first round picks in the 1999 NBA draft (considered one of the better drafts ever). What did we get out of it?

1) Jason Terry

2) Cal Bowdler

3) Dion Glover

4) Jumaine Jones

5) Robert Bergerson (second round)

Guys we could have had (this is just from one draft):

Corey Maggette

Ron Artest

James Posey

Andrei Kirilenko

Jeff Foster

Manu Ginobili

And that's not mentioning the fact that we obviously needed to trade up to get Andre Miller instead of taking Jason Terry, who was a 2 guard in a PG's body.

Also not mentioning the trade that ultimately killed this franchise-trading Steve Smith for Jim Jackson and Isiah Rider.

You know it's bad when you have to cite Babcock's body of work to make your guy look good. He was one of the worst GMs ever...not good company to keep if you are a BK backer.

Anyway, I was just making an attempt at humor. I am fully on board with the ATL Spirit vision of "incremental progress". :rolleyes:

Seriously, this year was a step in the right direction and the offseason will be a very interesting time for us. Woody lives on - this guy 'woulda been won' the million dollars if he was on 'Survivor'.

Edited May 12, 2009 by jhay610

[frankthetank966]

Thanks to the Hawks. Thanks to the Squawkers. Been a fun season.

Heck ya! Do you remember our first chat of the season vs. Orlando?