Playoffs?

[OGRat]

Just read a pre-season prediction that the Hawks will not make the playoffs.

http://www.csnchicago.com/bulls-talk/nba-predictions-eastern-conference-breakdown?p=ya5nbcs&ocid=yahoo

Are we playing for a lottery pick? What do you guys think?

[capstone21]

We are a playoff team...probably a 5 seed. This is probably the one season I would be okay with us missing though...the talent in this upcoming draft could be huge.

[Admin]

I don't see any way that we miss the playoffs. We have too many solid NBA players who are fundamentally sound and the East is simply too weak. I agree with Cap we are probably around a 5 seed.

[AHF]

I see a 5 seed as near the top of the bell curve of possibilities and missing the playoffs near the bottom. The probability is that we are a lower seed but in the playoffs, IMO. I am predicting a 6th seed finish and would see a 7th seed as more likely than a 5th seed.

[macdaddy]

I see no way the Detroit, Cleveland, and Washington all make the playoffs. Maybe one of those teams

[Bahamut]

[lethalweapon3]

Assuming everybody who's already healthy on Eastern Conference rosters stays that way, we're still in 5th-through-8th country. Where, precisely, depends on Lou-Will's contribution (how soon and how much).

~lw3

[Guest]

When little is expected of the Hawks, they always surprise. We will be in the playoffs.

Al, Korver, Milsap - they will be their consistent selves. I say this team will go as Teague goes if he continues his improvement on both sides of the ball and plays with some level of CONSISTENCY, no more dissappearing in games we will do well.

[Guest]

Too many good players who have a lot to prove. I'm thinking anywhere between a 3-6 seed in east depending on health. It would be a great season to tank but it won't happen unless 2 key guys like a Horford Teague type go down with injury. We are a deep team. Poor man Spurs of the east. Consistent, smart, fundy ball played.

[Guest Zone]

The Hawks are a 6th through 8th seed team. They're not better than Mia, Ind, Chi, Bk, or New York. In fact, one of those teams I listed would seriously have to underachieve for the Hawks to get any higher than 6th.

[capstone21]

The Hawks are a 6th through 8th seed team. They're not better than Mia, Ind, Chi, Bk, or New York. In fact, one of those teams I listed would seriously have to underachieve for the Hawks to get any higher than 6th.

I think NY is very overrated and are not that good

[yungsta]

I think NY is very overrated and are not that good

you really think we are better than the knicks when you compare our roster to theirs? They still have most of their core players that won 50 games last year.

[Guest]

Knicks and Nets are both overrated...only teams better than us are the Heat, Pacers and possibly the Bulls if they stay healthy.

[thecampster]

Although everyone in this thread is being very optimistic, I think 30-35 wins is more realistic. An injury to Horford/Teague would sink our season.

As I've been saying all off-season, Devin Harris, Zaza Pachulia, Ivan Johnson and Josh Smith are very hard to replace.

Consider that a few games after Lou Williams went down, the Hawks finished the season 19-20 (a 40-42 pace). Schröder is awesome, some of the pick ups are nice but Harris and Zaza's NBA game experience and Ivan tough play alone are going to be hard to replace. But with Josh gone, there is no one quarterbacking the defense. 35-47 isn't crazy....30 wins is possible if we experience any injury issues like last year.

[Gray Mule]

Health is the key.

I don't believe we will miss Josh as bad as some say. His replacement, Millsaps

ain't bad. Gotta keep him healthy.

Horford and Teague are our two biggest stars, in my opinion. Keeping them

healthy is a major concern.

Korver is our difference maker with his ability to hit the three. Our two draft

picks from last season are behind him in the rotation.

We are going to miss some of the players from last season's bench but, all

in all, we seem, at least on paper, to be deeper and better than last season

from what we read. We still have to see them in action.

Hopefully, around Christmas, Hawks get back their microwave player from

his major injury and this will improve our overall game.

Every season there may be one or two teams in the east or the west who

will admit that they are playing youth now, this season, with the idea of

improving later. Everyone else thinks that they will be "Much improved"

from the previous season. Everyone plays this mind game. We hear it.

The east will be so much tougher because everyone has improved so much.

It doesn't always play out that way so I'm going to believe that our beloved

Hawks will hold their own with all those other "Greatly improved" teams!

GO DREAM!

[frizzledizzle]

The Hawks are a 6th through 8th seed team. They're not better than Mia, Ind, Chi, Bk, or New York. In fact, one of those teams I listed would seriously have to underachieve for the Hawks to get any higher than 6th.

This is my thinking as well.

The Bulls prior to Rose being injured had the best record in the NBA back to back seasons. If he's healthy, the Bulls should be one of the best teams in the East.

The Nets won't be relying on KG or Pierce to carry them so the addition of them as role players should make them an improved team. When those are your fillers with Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson as your go to guys, that's kind of scary. Plus, they have a pretty good bench with Andrei Kirlenko, Jason Terry, Reggie Evans and Andray Blatche.

The Knicks are underrated imo. While I do think the Heat, Pacers, Bulls and Nets are all better playoff teams, the Knicks to me are where the line is drawn from the rest of the East. I don't know how anyone could say they're not very good when they had the 2nd best record in the East and that was with half their team injured all season. Carmelo, Chandler, Shumpert, Felton, Bargnani with a bench of JR Smith, Amare Stoudemire, Kenyon Martin, Ron Artest and Beno Urdih is pretty solid

The Pacers may actually be receiving too much hype. I believe they're the 2nd best playoff team behind Miami in the East but I'm not sure how that translates into regular season wins. I'd like to believe they'd finish 2nd in the East but I'm just not sure they're a regular season team. They did have one of the worst benches in the NBA last year and I think that's a big reason why they finished 3rd in the East. The starters are really good so you can play them more minutes in the playoffs but you can't run them into the ground during the regular season. Well, you can but that wouldn't be very wise. They upgraded the bench with Lance Stephenson, Luis Scola, CJ Watson, Ian Mahinimi, Chris Copeland and Solomon Hill though while plugging Danny Granger into a starting role. So it's possible their bench woes have been fixed and they could finish with a better regular season record than they did this past season.

This is how I see it...

1. Heat

2. Bulls/Knicks/Nets/Pacers

3. Bulls/Knicks/Nets/Pacers

4. Bulls/Knicks/Nets/Pacers

5. Bulls/Knicks/Nets/Pacers

6. Cavaliers/Hawks/Magic/Pistons

7. Cavaliers/Hawks/Magic/Pistons

8. Cavaliers/Hawks/Magic/Pistons

I think 2-4 and 6-8 are a crapshoot. If I had to pick 1-5 I'd say 1.Heat 2.Pacers 3.Bulls 4.Nets 5.Knicks. If Andrew Bynum and Kyrie Irving are healthy, I'd probably put them at 6. They have a nice core with Tristan Thompson, Dion Waiters, Anderson Varaejo, Jarrett Jack, Tyler Zeller and Earl Clark. Then I'd say it's a toss up between the Hawks and Pistons for the 7th and 8th seed. I'd probably put the Hawks at 7 just because Horford and Milsap are a fully developed front court. If Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe take the next step though, they could be dominant. I'm just not sure about Drummond yet because he's still rather young and I'm not sure he's ready to take that step. And I'm not writing off the Magic... they're very young but very talented. I actually think they could finish as high as 6th with the talent they have. I think they're favorites to be the odd man out and miss the playoffs but Tobias Harris, Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Afflalo, Glenn Davis, Jameer Nelson, Victor Oladipo, Maurice Harkless, Andrew Nicholson, Doron Lamb... they have the pieces to be really good. If they grow up in a hurry, they could be scary.

Edited September 30, 2013 by frizzledizzle

[Wretch]

The Hawks are a 6th through 8th seed team. They're not better than Mia, Ind, Chi, Bk, or New York. In fact, one of those teams I listed would seriously have to underachieve for the Hawks to get any higher than 6th.

Exactly. For me, it's not so much about how well the Hawks will do...it's about whether or not one of the teams you mentioned falters. Barring injuries, I see ZERO chance that Miami, Indiana, or Chicago will slip. The real question is NY and BKN. I think people are still underselling NY. They may be a regular season team under Woody, but they are still going to finish in the top 4. Brooklyn was fine without the additions and they will be fine with the additions. The only thing that will keep them out of the running is injury.

So, 6th...maybe 5th? I think that's a very safe bet...especially if a surprise team rises up.

[capstone21]

you really think we are better than the knicks when you compare our roster to theirs? They still have most of their core players that won 50 games last year.

I don't think their roster is put together very well...they don't have good chemistry and are extremely flawed. They are a one on one team on offense and on d its mostly Chandler

[MaceCase]

You are forgetting that Woody is a regular season god. There's simply no way he'll allow that team to slip in the standings even if it takes playing Melo 42 minutes a night so barring a catastrophe I don't see a feasible way that they slip. The shit works and will continue to work so it doesn't matter how basic their offense and defense may seem, they still have considerable more talent than most teams that they will face over an 82 game season.

Edited September 30, 2013 by MaceCase

[macdaddy]

As others have said Heat/Bulls/Pacers/Ny/bkn are pretty well a lock barring injuries. But that leaves 3 spots for Atlanta, Detroit, Washington, Milwaukee, Toronto, and Cleveland. So are we better than at least 3 of those teams? I think we're probably better than all of them but we'll see. Frankly its coaching. If Bud is any good we'll be in the playoffs. But we don't really know if Bud is any good.