Hawks Pre-Season Power Ranking in East

[terrell]

Guys, I'm completely stunned how much you ar underrating some teams. Cleveland has not only got Bynum, they have an all-star PG on Irving, and up and coming SG on Waiters, they will have a healthy Varejao, Tristan Thompson, Zeller, Gee plus they added three very good players on Anthony Bennett, Jarret Jack and Karasev, they are fairly better than us. Nearly anyone of that list would be a starter on our team. This is a young team that will become better every year. Detroit has got so much better, Knight and Stuckey will be helped by Billups and Caldwell-Pope that will provide exactly what they lack. Drummond is going to be the best center on the league in 2-3 years and a frontcourt of Smith, Monroe and Drummond is just too much for us. Milwaukee has so much talent... Sanders and Henson will be improving next year, we would be salivating with that frontcourt and dreaming with a ring, Ilyasova, Mayo and Jennings fit well, Ridnour, Delfino, Adekotunbo and Pachulia are a good second unit. I think we can be tied with them, at best on my opinion.... Washington will have John Wall healthy from the beginning, Beal and Porter are terrific young wings, Hilario, Seraphin and Okafor are really solid and they have a deep bench with Maynor, Webster, Ariza, Glen Rice Jr, Seraphin, Booker... Charlotte could become a surprise this year, the new frontcourt of Zeller and Jefferson can make some noise, Walker and Henderson are solid, Kidd Gilchrist should improve and the bench has some useful pieces on Ramon Sessions, Jeff Taylor, Ben Gordon, McRoberts, Haywood and Biyombo. The truth about us is that Milsap is worst than Smith, specially on defense, and he cannot play the SF position as Smith something that gave us a lot of wins, even if we think he is not good at SF Milsap will be worst, Korver will not be playing for a contract, Devin Harris will also be missed because we don't have anyone to defend at SG, Hawks are not better with Lou, we were 22-17 when he injured the knee and a backourt of Teague and Lou cannot play too much time... we are very weak on the wing to defend a big SF withoiut Smith and cannot stop a big center... this will tell you guys how valuable are Teague and Horford on the league getting 44 wins, because the talent surrounding them except Smith is just very poor if you compare it with the teams above. Making the playoffs depends on Jenkins becoming a reliable starter at SG, been capable of scoring efficiently, we know he will not defend well, but at least has the size to not been posted, and DeMarre Carroll becoming a good starter been capable to play 25-30 mpg stopping the best wing on the opposing team at least we make a big move...

You state everything you think is positive about the other teams, and everything you think is negative about the Hawks. Not to mention Everything you just said is opinionated. Not 1 fact. We shall see..................

[DrReality]

8th

[benhillboy]

Teams with these awful cultures aren't gonna rise up all of a sudden just because they collect some talent. We take it for granted and love the term "treadmill", but many of these franchises would kill to know what it feels like to have a 6 or 7 year playoff run, let alone with the turnover we've had over that stretch on the court, sidelines, and office. And I love Kyrie as much as his mama, but some of you that are high on Cleveland have to be he same ones who despise Mike Brown because there are maybe 2 or 3 people on this entire board who think anything of him. How does that work?

Edited July 27, 2013 by benhillboy

[gurpilo]

You state everything you think is positive about the other teams, and everything you think is negative about the Hawks. Not to mention Everything you just said is opinionated. Not 1 fact. We shall see..................

Really?

How much would you give for Irving and Bynum?

How much would you give for Henson and Sanders?

How much would you give for Monroe and Drummond?

How much would you give for Wall and Beal?

Is it really an opinion?

[gurpilo]

I made similar statement on another thread about Indiana last year, some of you said we were better than them Teague, Smith and Horford were better than Hill, West and Hibbert...

I said that Indiana was a better team and with greater depth, and that they were so much better at the wings while having a legit center... yes time will tell but will we remember this discussion?

[nitte]

Indiana traded for Scola without giving up Granger.

Hill/Watson

George/Stephenson

Granger/Copeland

West/Scola

Hibbert/Mahinmi

Damned their front court just keeps getting better. Top 5 of the east is getting better except for Knicks.

Edited July 27, 2013 by nitte

[thecampster]

Believing the Hawks are a lock for the playoffs this year is crazy. 6th would be overachieving.

We didn't just lose Smith.

We lost Zaza, Harris, Johnson as well.

[RonMexico]

Please provide a link to where this came from

Really sorry it took me so long to respond, wasn't able to check the forums for a bit.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9507100/early-look-eastern-conference

Also, I'll make sure to include links in all future posts

Edited July 27, 2013 by RonMexico

[High5]

Believing the Hawks are a lock for the playoffs this year is crazy. 6th would be overachieving.

We didn't just lose Smith.

We lost Zaza, Harris, Johnson as well.

It's not like we lost those guys without replacing them. Plus we'll get Lou back at some point and we have a few young guys who could contribute. I think we're a lock for at least the 8th seed barring significant injury, but I agree 6th is on the optimistic side.

[Afro]

I think 5-6 is accurate. Idk why but I feel the knicks will have injuries, and they really arent built to sustain them. Everyone behind us has more question marks than we do. We have a solid and talented team. We may not outplay or out-athletic any team, but we can outsmart and out hustle a lot of teams to victory.

[Afro]

Indiana traded for Scola without giving up Granger.

Hill/Watson

George/Stephenson

Granger/Copeland

West/Scola

Hibbert/Mahinmi

Damned their front court just keeps getting better. Top 5 of the east is getting better except for Knicks.

Offers for Granger must not be very fruitful. I wish we had tradeable players with decent contracts that we could move for Granger. We have a hole at SF and we dont really have anyone "untradeable" outside of Horford and the rooks. He could be worth it.

[Wretch]

We have replaced all of the spare parts that we lost. With Lou healthy, we haven't lost a lot with Devin. The only thing you guys could possibly be upset about is that Josh Smith is gone. That's it...and really, that's nothing to be concerned about.

For me, this has nothing to do with hate. I've only been sitting here watching our offense sputter for the last 4 years because Josh Smith was forced/forced himself into an alpha role. Something he should NEVER be. Ever.

This is our leading scorer. This is the guy with the #1 priority in our offense. A guy who shoots the ball as much as Kobe Bryant. Shot it more than Joe when he was here. Think about that for a second...

A guy that would be most effective in the post...who readily drifts away from the post.

A guy that can't shoot jumpers...that shoots more midrange jumpers than most STAR players.

A guy that shouldn't be shooting 3 pointers...that fires up several EVERY game.

A guy that can't dribble...who has the ball all the time.

A guy that can't shoot, doesn't want to go into the paint, has no dribble, that the defense encourages to shoot...that is our #1 option. How do people NOT see this shit? You take everything bad about Josh Smith and you take his shot blocking, and you replace that with the opposite kind of player with a hard working/role playing mentality. And you give more shots to Teague, Horford, and Korver...

We're not a better team? We're headed to the lottery? Nonsense...and I'm as PRO LOTTERY as you're going to find on this board.

This conversation is ridiculous. Worst case scenario is a 7th or 8th seed. Best case, somewhere around 5th...maaaybe a push for the 4 seed. No way we completely miss the playoffs, although I would be BESIDE myself with joy.

[Guest Zone]

6th seed is exactly where I see them at with Cleveland and The Wizards finishing behind them.

[Plainview1981]

We have replaced all of the spare parts that we lost. With Lou healthy, we haven't lost a lot with Devin. The only thing you guys could possibly be upset about is that Josh Smith is gone. That's it...and really, that's nothing to be concerned about.

For me, this has nothing to do with hate. I've only been sitting here watching our offense sputter for the last 4 years because Josh Smith was forced/forced himself into an alpha role. Something he should NEVER be. Ever.

This is our leading scorer. This is the guy with the #1 priority in our offense. A guy who shoots the ball as much as Kobe Bryant. Shot it more than Joe when he was here. Think about that for a second...

A guy that would be most effective in the post...who readily drifts away from the post.

A guy that can't shoot jumpers...that shoots more midrange jumpers than most STAR players.

A guy that shouldn't be shooting 3 pointers...that fires up several EVERY game.

A guy that can't dribble...who has the ball all the time.

A guy that can't shoot, doesn't want to go into the paint, has no dribble, that the defense encourages to shoot...that is our #1 option. How do people NOT see this shit? You take everything bad about Josh Smith and you take his shot blocking, and you replace that with the opposite kind of player with a hard working/role playing mentality. And you give more shots to Teague, Horford, and Korver...

We're not a better team? We're headed to the lottery? Nonsense...and I'm as PRO LOTTERY as you're going to find on this board.

This conversation is ridiculous. Worst case scenario is a 7th or 8th seed. Best case, somewhere around 5th...maaaybe a push for the 4 seed. No way we completely miss the playoffs, although I would be BESIDE myself with joy.

We have seem weak links. The teams best passer is a 19 year old that probably isn't really to play in the NBA. While Teague might collect some assists, he is not an above average passer. Josh Smith's passing/playmaking abilities will be missed a tad bit. Who replaces his 4+ APG?

That said, we will not miss Josh's scoring and Milsap will replace most of his rebounding. If we go by win shares then Milsap over Josh Smith is a win. Josh was only worth 4 wins per 48 minutes last year. It was Josh's worst year since his second year in the league.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/smithjo03.html

If this team is healthy I suspect they will win 42-44 games again. If they're more healthy than last year it is almost a sure thing.

[IllestPamfilis]

I think we sneak out 64 wins. And win the championship. anybody with me?

[Wretch]

Josh was a great passer. One of the things he's really underrated for. Thing is though, while he had pretty good court vision and he was a good passer...it's not like he ran the offense. Replacing what he did bring with his passing is a simple thing... Instead of Smoove catching the ball and jacking up shots...now those passes will end up in Horford, Millsap, or Korver's hands. If we're scoring by committee, I expect to see quite a bit of that actually.

Really, the only thing we're losing by subbing Millsap for Josh is his help defense and those back door plays/transition lobs.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a supporter of this patchwork kind of rebuilding. But what Ferry is trying to do isn't without it's merits. I'm sure we'll be fine. I think it's a given that we'll be making the playoffs and our offense should look a LOT more efficient. I think that in itself means an improvement, even if only marginal, on our record. We were only a game out of 5th last season. I think there will be improvement in the upper middle of the pack, but we'll be a better team and finish in about the same area.

I think we sneak out 64 wins. And win the championship. anybody with me?

Only if you go enough of those meds to share.... :D

[Plainview1981]

Josh was a great passer. One of the things he's really underrated for. Thing is though, while he had pretty good court vision and he was a good passer...it's not like he ran the offense. Replacing what he did bring with his passing is a simple thing... Instead of Smoove catching the ball and jacking up shots...now those passes will end up in Horford, Millsap, or Korver's hands. If we're scoring by committee, I expect to see quite a bit of that actually.

Really, the only thing we're losing by subbing Millsap for Josh is his help defense and those back door plays/transition lobs.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a supporter of this patchwork kind of rebuilding. But what Ferry is trying to do isn't without it's merits. I'm sure we'll be fine. I think it's a given that we'll be making the playoffs and our offense should look a LOT more efficient. I think that in itself means an improvement, even if only marginal, on our record. We were only a game out of 5th last season. I think there will be improvement in the upper middle of the pack, but we'll be a better team and finish in about the same area.

Only if you go enough of those meds to share....

I think Miami, Chicago Indy and the Nets will be clearly better. New York is up in the air. A lot of it depends on Tyson Chandler being healthy I think... So many of their players have questionable heart. Mello/Amare and Smith and those guys. Chandler is what makes that team tick.

Teams that were below us last year like Charlotte do have some potential. Walker made a big leap for them last season and they did get Jefferson. The Bucks aren't much if any better though. Boston will fall of course. Anywhere from 5th to 10th seed is possible for this team I guess.

Edited July 27, 2013 by Hotlanta1981

[MaceCase]

I would've gone 5th or 6th as well, but i'm a little skeptical of Brooklyn being better than us in the standings. I see them as last years Lakers this year.

The Lakers were barely 5 deep and even then couldn't get that 5 on the court at the same time. Brooklyn has much superior depth to the point that they won't have to suffer through 40 minutes of Joe going 2-14 but could rather bench him for Terry or Kirilenko should the situation (likely) arise.

[MaceCase]

I think 6th is safe. The only riser from the previous season that I see are the Wizards. Their second half when Wall returned was pretty impressive not necessarily for their record but rather their top ranked defense which was absolutely stiffling. LD will get the Bucks locked in their perennial 8th seed and I think that Raptors could benefit from a full offseason together with Gay and being free of Bustnani to secure the 7th but only the Wizards strike me as a team that can leapfrog us. Cleveland just isn't there yet, Kyrie is ready to explode (yup, even more than he already has) and Jack was absolutely a coup for them but even if he's healthy you know that they will still have Bynum under very strict..eh..restrictions and Varajao isn't exactly a ironman himself considering that he's cracked 30 games played once in the past 3 years. They need to figure out their F rotation too as Zeller, Thompson, Bennett and now Clark are all better suited for the 4 than any of the 3 or 5 positions.As good as people think Detroit's frontline is keep in mind that they plan for Josh to be a 3 unless they want to tank Monroe and Drummond's development or have a guy on that salary come off the bench. Most importantly, they have no guard play. Chauncey is done, he's giving them at best maybe 8 minutes of good play a night but he'll be counted on to play closer to 30. Knight, Stucky, and KCP are not point guards, maybe I'll hold off on KCP but the former 2 have shown zero aptitude for the position which is worrisome because that now lowers the productivity of their frontline. Will Bynum and Josh are likely to be their best playmakers next season. So yea, 6th seed, maybe a 5th seed if the Knicks slip but everything else seems like a lock.

[AHF]

I saw something on Washington's record last season that read something like:

Washington with Wall = near .500

With Wall and Beal = 22-17

With Wall, Beal and Nene = 15 - 7