Trades, firing Woody and bringing Acie Law back home

[NineOhTheRino]

I've come 180 degrees on changes period when it comes to this team. For me I'm OK with being a fan of 3rd place team. I don't think it's settling but accepting reality. Hawks are probably losing money as is. Would it make sense to make a move at Stoudemire or any big dollar FA? No! Would firing Woody for another mediocre coach help? No! I'm OK with moving non-essential personnel like Marvin, Mo and other bench guys but hands off the mediocre coach and the core players. Let's just enjoy winning 50 or so regular season games for the next 2-3 years.

and...

Sund has find a way to bring Acie Law back home. Bibby is serviceable now but he seems to be tapering off. Instead of wasting time drafting another PG in 2-3 years let Acie slowly blend into the starting position.

Edited February 15, 2010 by NineOhTheRino

[Blunt91]

I've come 180 degrees on changes period when it comes to this team. For me I'm OK with being a fan of 3rd place team. I don't think it's settling but accepting reality. Hawks are probably losing money as is. Would it make sense to make a move at Stoudemire or any big dollar FA? No! Would firing Woody for another mediocre coach help? No! I'm OK with moving non-essential personnel like Marvin, Mo and other bench guys but hands off the mediocre coach and the core players. Let's just enjoy winning 50 or so regular season games for the next 2-3 years.

and...

Sund has find a way to bring Acie Law back home. Bibby is serviceable now but he seems to be tapering off. Instead of wasting time drafting another PG in 2-3 years let Acie slowly blend into the starting position.

No use in bringing Acie Law back as long as Woody is the coach. Just doesn't fit in with Woody's Jump shooting offense.

[GameTime]

Yay for mediocrity!

Forget that I want a championship or at least a honest attempt at one.

[coachx]

Yay for mediocrity!

A 50 + win team and 3rd in the East is far from mediocrity.

[mrhonline]

What a strange image to have as a magazine cover.

[NineOhTheRino]

A 50 + win team and 3rd in the East is far from mediocrity.

It's all about being comfortable in your skin. ATL is the #8 market in the county but is near the bottom of the NBA in revenue. What do all the top teams have in common? Great fan support. Most nights The Phill looks like a ghost town. Focus on building a winning tradition first and that will build the fan support. The fan support will in turn create the revenue that it takes to compete in today's NBA.

Edited February 15, 2010 by NineOhTheRino

[TheNorthCydeRises]

It's all about being comfortable in your skin. ATL is the #8 market in the county but is near the bottom of the NBA in revenue. What do all the top teams have in common? Great fan support. Most nights The Phill looks like a ghost town. Focus on building a winning tradition first and that will build the fan support. The fan support will in turn create the revenue that it takes to compete in today's NBA.

Welcome aboard Nine.

When you view the Hawks from this perspective, It makes you appreciate what they're doing even more. It also makes watching these games a little less stressful. It's like I said about a month ago . . all of a sudden, simply winning 50 games and being competitive in the 2nd round isn't good enough anymore. Even getting to the East Final would be looked down upon by some people. In the NBA, there is usually a maturation process that has to take place, before a team can make that jump to "title contender".

The one thing the Hawks have going for them, that they haven't had in playoff years past, are 2 potentially explosive scorers. What we're going to need come playoff time, are JJ and Crawford playing at an extremely high level just about every night. At the very least, if one is cold, the other has to be red hot, to compensate for that. From a frontline perspective, we don't need them to be great. We just need them to be CONSISTENT every playoff game. Horford can't disappear when playing Howard. Smoove can't get wild, and have one of those 6 jumpshot games. Marvin needs to make open shots and help on the rebounding.

If we can get that from our core, we'll have a shot.

That's about all you can ask for.

And honestly, until the city of Atlanta starts rooting for the HAWKS, instead of rooting for a WINNER, the city and the fans really can't expect ownership to go all out to win a title.

Your life as a Hawk fan will be a little better now, when you look at the Hawks from the perspective you're looking at them now.

[Gray Mule]

One of the reasons that the Atlanta Hawks has poor fan support: They expect to draw all their

fans from inside 285.

Get a radio network that works and covers a much larger area. The Braves had fans all over because

Ted Turner had a TV station that became a Super Station and the Braves were watched all over the USA.

Radio stations carry the Braves today, even after wtbs passed out of the Braves picture.

If you live outside 285, try listening to the Hawks on your car radio as you travel.

Do we see ANY Hawks advertisment in south Georgia? Alabama? Tennessee? No. Why? Because this

is an Atlanta team almost exclusively. All the great things we read about their involvement is in Atlanta area.

If you want to increase attendance, cast a wider net. Also, all Atlanta sports draw MUCH better on the week end.

Check it outt. Thrashers, Braves, Dream and Hawks all have much better attendance on week ends.

And, from what I hear, getting to Hawks home games is no piece of cake. Is there any way to improve this?

:magnifier:

[niremetal]

One of the reasons that the Atlanta Hawks has poor fan support: They expect to draw all their

fans from inside 285.

Get a radio network that works and covers a much larger area. The Braves had fans all over because

Ted Turner had a TV station that became a Super Station and the Braves were watched all over the USA.

Radio stations carry the Braves today, even after wtbs passed out of the Braves picture.

If you live outside 285, try listening to the Hawks on your car radio as you travel.

Do we see ANY Hawks advertisment in south Georgia? Alabama? Tennessee? No. Why? Because this

is an Atlanta team almost exclusively. All the great things we read about their involvement is in Atlanta area.

If you want to increase attendance, cast a wider net. Also, all Atlanta sports draw MUCH better on the week end.

Check it outt. Thrashers, Braves, Dream and Hawks all have much better attendance on week ends.

And, from what I hear, getting to Hawks home games is no piece of cake. Is there any way to improve this?

:magnifier:

Unless the Hawks figure out a way to make the traffic disappear, no. And do it in a way that doesn't involve expanding the highways every 6 weeks. As I said on another thread, I won't consider moving back to Atlanta until the city ramps up its public transit.

The factors that make Atlanta sports teams have attendance that consistently ranks below their position in the standings are due to factors beyond the control of said sports teams.

Edited February 16, 2010 by niremetal

[mrhonline]

I always stayed in a hotel outside 285 and took the Marta in.

(BTW, my wife bought me tickets to see the Hawks in Charlotte later this season. Now that's a wife!).

[Gray Mule]

Mrs. Honline:

:thumbsupsmileyanim: :thumbsupsmileyanim:

[TheNorthCydeRises]

GM . . . I hear ya man. They could definitely promote the team, and its players, a whole lot better than what they currently do.

As far as radio goes, I'm a huge fan of sports on radio. Before the Hawks were switched to 790 AM, they were on 750 AM for a while. At night, I can clearly hear 750 AM in northern Middle Tennessee ( 300 miles away ). I think you can hear 750 al throughout the Southeast at night. So if the Hawks were still on a powerful nighttime signal like 750, it would definitely benefit them. That 790 signal sounds like it's powered by a 9 volt battery.

Having said that . . .

* If a person in GA has cable TV, the Hawks can be seen by everyone in the state either on FSN South or SportSouth. Here in Tennessee, I mainly get the SportSouth games ( which usually number about 40 - 50 a year. On rare occasions, I may get an FSN South game. Combine that with the national TV games, and I get to see the Hawks on TV 50+ times a year. And that's not counting the times you could possibly watch the Hawks online via channelsurfing.net or justin.tv

* Traffic sure isn't a deterrent when a big name team or player comes to town. The 7 PM weekday start is no problem, when D-Wade, Lebron, or the Celtics are rolling into town. The reason . . is that they're making it a priority to go to the game. When the Pacers or Bobcats roll into town, the traffic becomes the excuse why not to go to the game. In each case, they're not there to watch the Hawks.

It is what it is I guess. Maybe with more national TV exposure via ESPN and TNT next year ( surely we can get 12 - 15 national TV games next year? ), more people around Metro ATL will start viewing the Hawks as a top 10 team, instead of attending home games like they're a mediocre one.

The next game I'll get to attend looks like the Milwaukee game 2 Sundays from now. The Dallas game on Friday night is an ESPN game, so of course, it'll be packed or close to capacity. But I bet they don't even draw 12,000 for the Sunday evening Milwaukee game on Sunday.