ESPN Power Rankings

[Guest]

http://espn.go.com/nba/powerrankings/_/year/2013/week/-1 Hawks are at #18.

[pimp]

8th in the east in these rankings .They had us at 6th in the east , back in Aug.

[AHawks89]

I love ESPN predictions. I can not wait to look back at this again after the season is over and laugh like always.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

East Rankings1) Heat . . ( 1 overall )2) Celtics . . ( 6 )3) Sixers . . ( 7 )4) Indiana . . ( 8 )lol . . so the East has 4 of the top 8 teams in the league? OK.5) Nets . . ( 12 )6) Knicks . . ( 13 )7) Bulls . . ( 15 )8) Hawks . . ( 18 )

[Watchman]

http://espn.go.com/n...ar/2013/week/-1 Hawks are at #18.

I think they are seriously underrating how good we will be this year. I guess they just looked and saw that we don't have Joe anymore and assumed we would lose a lot more often, without bothering to think through how the additions we have made help to offset that. Dummies.

[capstone21]

Its a good ranking...we are going to be pushing to make the playoffs this season

[TheNorthCydeRises]

I think they are seriously underrating how good we will be this year. I guess they just looked and saw that we don't have Joe anymore and assumed we would lose a lot more often, without bothering to think through how the additions we have made help to offset that. Dummies.

So how good are we going to be? Even if the offense is better, even you have to admit that we're going to be weaker defensively. If we try to play better defensive players like a Stevenson, that takes time away from one of the scorer/shooters. Our frontcourt depth hasn't improved, other than getting Horford back full time. We have no starting caliber SF, other than Josh Smith, who will probably play PF. We have a glut at PG, in which 2 of the PGs will have to play an undersized SG role. Honestly, there's plenty of reasons to doubt this team. You guys are acting like Anthony Morrow, Kyle Korver, and Anthony Tolliver solid all-around players or something. I wouldn't trade ANY of those guys for Marvin straight up, if salaries were the same. And I wouldn't trade those 3 for JJ either, if salaries were the same. Drew is going to have to become a master of situational substitutions in order to make this work. And that's something that hasn't been very strong at for the past 2 seasons. While I don't agree that Golden State should be ranked ahead of us overall, it's hard to argue against the Hawks being rated 7th or 8th in the Conference, and somewhere between 15 - 17 overall.

[Watchman]

Its a good ranking...we are going to be pushing to make the playoffs this season

I think some of the teams that were ranked higher than us are extremely iffy. Memphis? New York (really?) Minnesota? Utah? Golden State? I even wonder about Dallas this year. Maybe some of those teams will be better than us, but I seriously doubt that all of them will be.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

These are the lineups the East teams are going to throw at us this year. I'll give what will probably be their top 8 players

MIAMI

PG - Chalmers

G - Wade

F - Battier

PF - Lebron ( if they go with what worked in the Finals )

C - Bosh

6th - Allen

7th - Haslem

8th - Cole

BOSTON

PG - Rondo

G - Lee ( will be Avery Bradley when he returns off injury )

F - Pierce

PF - Bass

G - Garnett

6th - Terry

7th - J. Green

8th - Wilcox

INDIANA

PG - Hill

G - George

F - Granger

PF - West

C - Hibbert

6th - Hansbrough

7th - Augustin

8th - G. Green

BROOKLYN

PG - Deron

G - JJ

F - Wallace

PF - Humphries

C - Lopez

6th - Brooks

7th - CJ Watson

8th - R. Evans

SIXERS

PG - Holliday

G - Richardson

F - Turner

PF - Hawes

C - Bynum

6th - N. Young

7th - Hawes

8th - Wright

KNICKS

PG - Felton

G - JR Smith

F - Melo

PF - Amare

C - Chandler

6th - Kidd

7th - Novak

8th - Camby

BULLS

PG - Hinrich ( Will be Rose when/if he returns late in the season )

G - Hamilton

F - Deng

PF - Boozer

C - Noah

6th - Gibson

7th - Belinelli

8th - M Teague/N Robinson

Those are the projected top 7 teams in the league, and what probably will be their top 8 players. When you do our lineup

PG - Teague

G - Harris

F - Korver ( Ferry loves him, so he may encourage Drew to start him initially )

PF - Smith

C - Horford

6th - L. Williams

7th - Zaza

8th - Ivan

Or who knows what our lineup will be.

[BrazilianHawk]

I would think we are way better then the Knicks, better than the Bulls sans Rose, and we COULD be better than the Sixers and Celtics as well. Guess we are being really underrated. On the other hand, we could really suck if the players don't fit together or Josh becomes Dumbass Smith again and doesn't play for the team. We'll see..

[AnthonyI11]

I think some of the teams that were ranked higher than us are extremely iffy. Memphis? New York (really?) Minnesota? Utah? Golden State? I even wonder about Dallas this year. Maybe some of those teams will be better than us, but I seriously doubt that all of them will be.

Why did you "really" New York. They are clearly better than us. We deserve this ranking until we prove otherwise. The only team that I think you listed that we are better than is MAYBE Utah and Golden State. Both those teams are young and rising. Curry-Bogut-Lee is better than what we have and so is Big Al-Milsap-Mo Williams etc. I think we will fight for a 6-8 seed and exceed everyone's expectations though. We just don't have a clear star and I question who gets the ball when the games on the line.

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

I think they are seriously underrating how good we will be this year. I guess they just looked and saw that we don't have Joe anymore and assumed we would lose a lot more often, without bothering to think through how the additions we have made help to offset that. Dummies.

. They also assumed we would tank and miss the playoffs after Al's pectoral injury last year. Shows how much they know.

[AHawks89]

and so is Big Al-Milsap-Mo Williams etc

Huh?!

[capstone21]

We have no size in the backcourt or defense there ... Lou is a scorer but that is it...he cannot defend shooting guards and we currently do not have a starting quality sf.

[High5]

8th in the East is on the low side, but it's understandable. I think our best odds are at 6th/7th. I can't put us any higher until I see how we look defensively, because on paper it's no bueno.

[Watchman]

Why did you "really" New York. They are clearly better than us. We deserve this ranking until we prove otherwise. The only team that I think you listed that we are better than is MAYBE Utah and Golden State. Both those teams are young and rising. Curry-Bogut-Lee is better than what we have and so is Big Al-Milsap-Mo Williams etc. I think we will fight for a 6-8 seed and exceed everyone's expectations though. We just don't have a clear star and I question who gets the ball when the games on the line.

New York is a collection of "me-first" players that will not be able to get past the second round, and I doubt they make it that far. Melo is a chucker, not a winner. Stoudamire is declining rapidly. While I like Chandler at center, he can't do it alone. Kidd is an old man. Felton is ok but nothing great. Maybe you like the clashing egos, but I don't think they fit together at all.

[TheFuzz]

New York is a collection of "me-first" players that will not be able to get past the second round, and I doubt they make it that far. Melo is a chucker, not a winner. Stoudamire is declining rapidly. While I like Chandler at center, he can't do it alone. Kidd is an old man. Felton is ok but nothing great. Maybe you like the clashing egos, but I don't think they fit together at all.

Melo gets a lot of hate. The dude is a pure scorer that needs a good coach and a solid supporting cast. We know Mike Woodson is not that. Stoudemire wouldn't know defense or rebounding if it hit him in the face. He is (at worst) on Joe's level. But yea, New York ain't great.

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

IMHO, we have the deepest bench in the league. Deep benches can play an advantage in the playoffs, although most coaches go with their top 8 once you get deep into the playoffs. For the season though, we will be a very good team that surprises a lot of folks. I'm little afraid that if the team does well, DF will get a lion's share of the praise. He does deserve praise, but a 50-win team this year would be a heavy dose of coaching and will.Our top 8 in my opinion:PG - TeagueSG - MorrowSF - Korver PF - SmithC - HorfordSG - WilliamsPG - HarrisC - ZazaI just hope Smith, Horford, and Zaza are able to pull out their inner Rodman and snag 30-35 rebs a game collectively.New York is the most overrated team in the league. Melo is a great scorer, but is kinda like Tebow where you have build a specialize team around him to make it work. He has to be the offense and the 2nd best needs to be a PG. A Paul/Melo combo would be deadly.

[DrReality]

Nobody really knows how it will play out for at least 6-8 wksAnd espn acts like they are more important than the sports they cover

[macdaddy]

I just have a problem being behind Minny, Chicago, Utah and GS. I think we should be 4 up. The rest i agree with frankly until we prove otherwise. Chicago i think will have problems without Rose. Big problems.