More downgrading of the Hawks by the experts

[macdaddy]

The Entertainment (and sports) Programming Network as a new ranking of eastern conference champions and the Hawks come in........5th most likely to win the conference.  

 

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/13464178/2015-summer-forecast-east-champs

 

Cavs - ok that makes sense

Bulls - wake me when they get out of the second round

Heat - wake me when lebron brings his talents back to south beach

Wiz - wake me when they get a frontcourt

 

 

Actually the Heat look good on paper but they are going nowhere unless Wade can hold up and I don't think he can.   Bosh just missed a whole season with a near death illness.

 

The Bulls annoy me.  They have some great talent but most of them are creaky or old or creaky and old.  We'll see if Butler can be the man on that team and take them anywhere.  

 

The Wiz - i'm actually pretty afraid of Wall and Beal but their 4/5 players are terrible.   If they had Horford or Milsap on their team they'd be pretty scary.  Hell they should have gone after David West.

Edited September 1, 2015 by macdaddy

[Dnice]

Meh

[Guest]

"Eggsperts" ~@kg01

[hazer]

Good. The less they expect from the Hawks and the bigger chip on the Hawks' shoulders, the better.

[Guest]

[Plainview1981]

I'm not sure how the Wizards are going to be better than last season. Have they made any upgrades at all?

[Guest]

I'm not sure how the Wizards are going to be better than last season. Have they made any upgrades at all?

 

 You're forgetting Wall's bionic non-shooting hand.  It'll earn them like 15 road wins all by itself.  Also, they added the notorious punchface-killah to the squad.  That's like 12 victories more right there.

 

Oh and apparently KD is comin' "home" since the Zards are a clear FAgent destination so he can 'team up' with Wall and Beal.  SMDH.

 

Durant love'd the DC area so much that he chose to go to college at Georgetow- no, maybe it was Maryl- nope ....

[Plainview1981]

 You're forgetting Wall's bionic non-shooting hand.  It'll earn them like 15 road wins all by itself.  Also, they added the notorious punchface-killah to the squad.  That's like 12 victories more right there.

 

Oh and apparently KD is comin' "home" since the Zards are a clear FAgent destination so he can 'team up' with Wall and Beal.  SMDH.

 

Durant love'd the DC area so much that he chose to go to college at Georgetow- no, maybe it was Maryl- nope ....

 

It just seems that Washington would have taken a bigger step last year if they were going to take one. Instead, they had a mediocre regular season, and they accomplished nothing outside of destroying a Toronto team that peaked in the first couple of months of the regular season last year.

Edited September 1, 2015 by Hotlanta1981

[macdaddy]

It just seems that Washington would have taken a bigger step last year if they were going to take one. Instead, they had a mediocre regular season, and they accomplished nothing outside of destroying a Toronto team that peaked in the first couple of months of the regular season last year.

 

Totally agree.  There is always love for the Wiz for some reason and they always disappoint.   That backcourt is great but not signing one decent 4 or 5 in the offseason is a crime.   But they have a lot of money tied up in Gortat and Nene i guess.   Nene is a $13 million expiring this year though so if they move him at the deadline for a decent PF then they could be trouble in the playoffs.  Still they lack depth.

[Gray Mule]

Wow!  ESPN still believes that Atlanta will make the playoffs!  All of Hawksquawk

is in shock.  What makes the "experts" that they have believe that we will miss

the lottery?

 

Always, with any and all teams, the question of health has to be addressed.

Hawks lost DMC when he left but the Hawks didn't have all their eggs in one

basket, so to speak.  We're weaker there, that's true BUT we're improved with

our additions so that, most posters here would agree, we have a deeper, better

bench than we had last season.

 

We got a year older but we don't have anyone who is retirement age, as far as NBA

players count age.  No real problem there.

 

King James is favored to win it all.  Everyone is aware of this and it's expected.

However, if The King happens to go down with a serious, season ending injury,

Cleveland would suddenly be looking to fight to stay out of the lottery.  He's that

important to them.

 

They have other good players.  We remember last year n the playoffs when the Hawks

smothered Bron.  The other Cav players hit forty leven straight three point shots.

 

Even our resident pessimist, Hotlanta 1981, has us ending up higher than ESPN.  If

he says that the Hawks are going to be pretty good, count on it!

 

[Randy]

Well, ESPN has a whole lot more problems than they think the Hawks have. Looks like they ought to worry about their own power rankings.

 

"Sports-TV powerhouse ESPN, a profit machine that has long towered over the media landscape, is showing signs of stress as the pay-TV industry goes through an unprecedented period of upheaval. A decline in subscribers as customers trim their cable bills, coupled with rising content costs and increased competition, has ESPN in belt-tightening mode, people familiar with the situation say. The company, majority owned by Walt Disney Co., has lost 3.2 million subscribers in a little over a year, according to Nielsen data, as people have “cut the cord” by dropping their cable-TV subscriptions or downgraded to cheaper, slimmed-down TV packages devoid of expensive sports channels like ESPN. At the same time, the prices ESPN pays for the rights to show games are ballooning. Rivals including 21st Century Fox Inc. ’s Fox Sports and Comcast Corp. ’s NBC are aggressively pursuing sports properties to feed their own outlets, which is also driving up prices. (Fox and News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, were part of the same company until 2013.)"

 

 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/espn-tightens-its-belt-as-pressure-on-it-mounts-1436485852

Edited September 1, 2015 by Randy

[Guest]

It just seems that Washington would have taken a bigger step last year if they were going to take one. Instead, they had a mediocre regular season, and they accomplished nothing outside of destroying a Toronto team that peaked in the first couple of months of the regular season last year.

Stock explanation: "But dey has Wawl."

Seriously how overrated is he becoming? Almost as overrated as his backcourt mate.

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

[Dejay]

I stated this months ago and I'll repeat the message here. Unless the team resides in Cleveland, there is no other squad in the Eastern Conference that I see beating the Hawks in a 7-game series, especially if Game 7 is here. Chicago on a good day, perhaps (but as Macdaddy stated earlier, wake me up when they get out of the second round). But the cHeat? Not without Lebron. The Whiz? Even at our worst, we beat them, including twice on their court. The Bucks? If they had kept Brandon Knight I might have taken pause.

Anyway, this is just another log to put on the fire and we all know why. Those teams they listed are the ones they REALLY want to see finish out in the East. The Cavs with Lebron, the Bulls with Rose, the cHeat with Wade, and the Whiz with John Wall. Notice a pattern here? Those are storylines that they can put on autopilot while collecting their ad bonus $$$ in Cabo next summer if everything works out to plan. But the Hawks with....'nah, too much work for me to dig up. They lost Carroll so that was the end of their little run of success. They have no stars. They'll finish 44-38 and out in the first round as usual'.

It has been over 25 years since the last time I was this hyped to start the regular season ('88-'89 if you're asking) and I have a feeling that as special as last year was, this might be even sweeter...

Edited September 3, 2015 by Dejay

[Guest]

Get 'em, @Dejay!

[LucastheThird]

I didn't know a small forward that averaged 12 points and 5 rebounds last year would take away 15 wins from us this year. I thought we kept our 4 all-stars that all rank in the top 50 this year according to Sports Illustrated. Not to mention adding Splitter, who ranked in the top 100 as well. The East must be racked with talent if the Hawks are gonna finish 5th despite having 5 players in the top 100.

[Dejay]

It is simple as them not wanting to see this team win anything because it would upset the status quo. Last year, they were all but trying to will the Whiz into pulling off the upset and were howling mad when it didn't happen.

 

To them, it's all about ratings and the bottom line. Where are the pregame exclusives with Lebron or Wade if the Hawks make the Finals? What good is John Wall helping out the TNT folks from the studio or Derrick Rose giving comments on ABC about what the Spurs could do to neutralize Kyle Korver and Al Horford? That doesn't get eyeballs on the TV screen so they're going to root like hell for the Whiz, Bulls, or cHeat to step it up. And on that note...

 

Could you imagine how nuclear ESPN/ABC would be if they were left with the Spurs and Hawks in the Finals next year? How about Grizzlies-Hawks? They might go back to tape delay to avoid broadcasting it...

[frosgrim]

@Dejay (quote thingy not working)

I get what you are saying about ratings, except Atlanta is consistently one of the best NBA TV markets in the country. We are usually just behind the two cities playing in the Finals in terms of viewership. Now the Hawks, aren't a national draw, but that can change with continued success.

[Dejay]

@Dejay (quote thingy not working)

I get what you are saying about ratings, except Atlanta is consistently one of the best NBA TV markets in the country. We are usually just behind the two cities playing in the Finals in terms of viewership. Now the Hawks, aren't a national draw, but that can change with continued success.

I understand where you are coming from. But you also have to keep in mind that in general, the national media hates Atlanta with a passion that words cannot describe. The very last thing they want to see is the Hawks becoming a contender for anything of note. They had more joy talking about the empty seats back in the dark ages of the BK error (spelled correctly) than they did talking about the streak in January.

We know that Atlanta is a consistently high market for the NBA but is that ever mentioned anywhere else other than here, Peachtree Hoops, or in some blurb in the AJC? The ESPN folks were so giddy that the Cavs won that they were damn near high-fiving each other on Sportscenter. To them, the Hawks will always be an also-ran and a fringe playoff team in a city that should've just stuck to college football and hosting conventions. They see them as a perennial contender as much as a hot female sees Poindexter as the next Brad Pitt.

[Plainview1981]

@Dejay (quote thingy not working)

I get what you are saying about ratings, except Atlanta is consistently one of the best NBA TV markets in the country. We are usually just behind the two cities playing in the Finals in terms of viewership. Now the Hawks, aren't a national draw, but that can change with continued success.

 

That will not mean that things will totally change. The Utah Jazz probably didn't get as much credit as they deserved and they made two NBA finals. Atlanta might not be a small market, but the Hawks (even at their best) are still going to look at as a smaller franchise compared to LA, Boston, Chicago and whomever Lebron plays for.