CNNSI has posted their Mid-Season grades...

[Guest]

Atlanta Hawks: B-plus

22-19, No. 3 in the East

Remember when the Monopoly Community Chest would hit you with the “You have won second prize in a beauty contest, collect $10″ card and you didn’t know whether to excitedly cash it in or take offense at what could be interpreted as a subliminal dig at your appearances from an inanimate board game? Congrats to the Hawks, the third-best team in a two-team conference, the NBA’s ultimate beauty-contest runner-up.

Cynics will point out that Atlanta is barely above .500, has lost franchise big man Al Horford for the season and — barring a a terrible catastrophic injury to an opposing superstar — has zero shot of reaching the conference finals, rendering its No. 3 seed pretty worthless. Optimists will note that the Hawks were expected to be a sixth-seed type and have outperformed the likes of Brooklyn, New York and Chicago during what was supposed to be a retooling year as general manager Danny Ferry continued to get his roster house in order.

Both sides have merit, but I tend to side with the latter group because of the Hawks’ money management. Judge, let’s enter this player comparison as Exhibit A:

Josh Smith: 15.5 points, 6.9 rebounds, 40.8 percent shooting, 23.9 percent three-point shooting, 14.4 PER, 102.5 offensive rating, 105.1 defensive rating, four years and $54 million

Paul Millsap: 17.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, 46.8 percent shooting, 38.1 percent three-point shooting, 20.1 PER, 103.8 offensive rating, 102.3 defensive rating, two years and $19 million

The “Millsap over Smith” decision looked intelligent at the time and it looks genius now. Ferry got the better scorer, the better rebounder, the better shooter, the better three-point shooter, the smarter shot-taker and the more efficient overall player — and he paid 70 percent of the annual price and 35 percent of the total price to get it done. He ditched a player with historically awful shot selection for a strong All-Star candidate. In short, that decision has already paid dividends and it will continue to pay dividends next summer, and it’s worth bumping up this grade a notch from an otherwise bland “B,” even if the Hawks’ Horford-less postseason reality looks pretty hopeless.

Ferry must be getting be dancing a jig glad that Josh did not accept the 3yr/15mil per extention....whew!

[Randy]

First we had our midseason thread started by Benbillboy. Then c-viv has his. Now CNNSI. Copycats.....

[benhillboy]

All the grades I've seen range from A to B-. Good deal. I don't see us continuing a .550 type clip without Pero, he was instrumental to the screening and floor-stretching and was starting to get the hang of the NBA rebounding thing. But if we do stay comfortably above the mendoza by some miracle, us and Phoenix might sweep the Coach and Executive Awards. I thought Gerald Green was dead, yet they're getting his best season under a rookie HC. Both franchises have more quality wins than anyone expected (Indiana scratching their heads at two blowouts) let alone with both teams losing their best players.

Edited January 24, 2014 by benhillboy

[capstone21]

I was one of the people that wasn't very enthused with the signing of 'Sap...I am not afraid that I was completely wrong. He has been a true diamond in the rough and actually deserves some All Star love

[Atlantaholic]

I was one of the people that wasn't very enthused with the signing of 'Sap...I am not afraid that I was completely wrong. He has been a true diamond in the rough and actually deserves some All Star love

People didn't know much about Sap because he played in Utah, but he has being doing this forever.

[benhillboy]

I was one of the people that wasn't very enthused with the signing of 'Sap...I am not afraid that I was completely wrong. He has been a true diamond in the rough and actually deserves some All Star love

All message boards benefit from people admitting their error. I think I know everything, therfore I cant wait to admit I'm wrong on something because then I'm in the know. Make sense?I wasnt enthused either but I liked it. I knew he was always solid, but I don't remeber him being this agile and I'm guessing he's trimmed down over the past few years. He doesnt block a ton of shots, but when he does its usually at crucial times and he swats em pretty good. He's a little more polished in the post than I thought too, so he clearly learned by watching Jefferson. The three point shooting from out of nowhere is all Bud and Kyle, though. Edited January 24, 2014 by benhillboy

[frankthetank966]

All the grades I've seen range from A to B-. Good deal. I don't see us continuing a .550 type clip without Pero, he was instrumental to the screening and floor-stretching and was starting to get the hang of the NBA rebounding thing. But if we do stay comfortably above the mendoza by some miracle, us and Phoenix might sweep the Coach and Executive Awards. I thought Gerald Green was dead, yet they're getting his best season under a rookie HC. Both franchises have more quality wins than anyone expected (Indiana scratching their heads at two blowouts) let alone with both teams losing their best players.

The Mendoza Line is.referred to as .200. Not sure that was the best context to use... Edited January 25, 2014 by frankthetank966

[benhillboy]

The Mendoza Line is.referred to as .200. Not sure that was the best context to use...

True, don't know why baseball vernacular was on my brain. Maybe had a bad dream about Uggla and Upton.

[MaceCase]

The Mendoza in a nutshell means batting below .200 but it's larger meaning refers to the line at which whatever defensive prowess you may possess as a player doesn't offset your lack of production as a hitter. I've joked in the past Austin Rivers set the Mendoza line of basketball but looking at it deeper, our old buddy Josh just might be the best basketball equivalent.....I digress but still a poor reference.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Ummmm . . . but the Hawks are SUPPOSED to be right here.

In a normal year, a 22 - 19 record would have us somewhere around 6th - 8th in the East. But in today's Bizzaro East, we're 3rd.

I don't know why people are surprised that Millsap is playing like this. He's always been a decent player. What may be a little bit of a surprise, is that he's making 3s these days. He's already made more 3s this season, than he did in his entire career.

A team with Horford - Millsap - Teague - Korver . . is supposed to be a .500 squad.

I'll give us a B, because we could've assembled a better team. A B+ is kind of high though. Flipping Millsap for Smith is a good thing. It would've been better had we kept Ivan.

[NBASupes]

Sap is playing better than I thought he would. He really shined well with Horf. Without Horf he's been up and down. Antić stepped up he's the real surprise.