HAWKS = The new Rodney Dangerfield of the NBA.

[Gray Mule]

Have you heard this one?  Can you really believe this one?  Cry for the Hawks if you do!

Kelvin Pelton, sports writer for ESPN,  believes that Atlanta will be hard pressed to make the playoffs next season.

48-34 seems to have been our record last season.  He expects 10 less wins next season.  That's 38-44 coming up.

Apparently, he, like every other sports writer, thinks that, when we lost Horford we lost all hope.  That he was the

only reason that the Hawks ever won and now that he is with Boston and their wonderful fans, the Celtics will

automatically end up just behind "The King" and his merry men.

Apparently, no one else on the Hawks roster, their head coach and his staff, or anything else matters.  Horford is

gone and we are doomed.

Dwight Howard is washed up.  Too old.  Jarrett Jack is injured and is too old.  Our three rookies are not really

NBA worthy and all the other Hawks are either too old or so overpaid that they can't contribute.

Other than that, everything is great !!

[Lurker]

Kevin Pelton said he doesn't buy his projection system with the Hawks, as it's been wrong the last two seasons, just FWIW.

[macdaddy]

In reality the number of wins is somewhat irrelevant as it is seriously affected by how many really crappy teams there are.     I think we'll finish 3rd or 4th in the east.   Sap, Dwight, Korver are proven vets still at a healthy age, and Dennis and Baze are young guys who have improved dramatically the last 2 years.   That's a starting 5 that is certainly in the top 5 in the east.   Add to that what should be a deep bench and we're looking pretty good.  

Also, as you point out, we have a coaching staff with a proven record of winning in different ways.   Indy, Washington, Knicks, Magic, (and really Bulls) have to figure out if their coach can work with their players.    

[Thomas]

Yeah, according to the the general sports writers we are the league version of a fire hydrant in a Dangerfield skit. This year has even more doom and gloom than usual it seems. As he said, just can't get no respect.

[Alex]

Respect is earned not given.  After a histroric run in 2015 that led to the Hawks playing so far over their heads they ended up getting trucked by Cleveland in the ECF.  Only making it that far because John Wall got hurt the series before for Washington.  Fast forward  a year and the nearly identical roster performed worse in the regular season once again was utterly dominated by Cleveland one round earlier this time.  The Hawks are going in wrong the direction as far as I am concerned.  They got worse this off season and deserve whatever the "experts" hurl at them.  

[Thomas]

The Cavs dominated us in one of the playoff games this past playoffs. We had the lead going into the fourth quarter of two games and lost by one point because we couldn't buy a bucket in the last one. Met them a round earlier this year but didn't get waxed every game like the year before in the ECF. 

[RedDawg#8]

3 hours ago, Alex said:

Respect is earned not given.  After a histroric run in 2015 that led to the Hawks playing so far over their heads they ended up getting trucked by Cleveland in the ECF.  Only making it that far because John Wall got hurt the series before for Washington.  Fast forward  a year and the nearly identical roster performed worse in the regular season once again was utterly dominated by Cleveland one round earlier this time.  The Hawks are going in wrong the direction as far as I am concerned.  They got worse this off season and deserve whatever the "experts" hurl at them.  

You can't say things like "only made it past the Wizards cuz Wall was hurt" and not give us any credit after losing Korver and having Carroll on a bad leg and Horford getting ejected against the  Cavs. There are always ifs and ands so don't knock us for handling our business winning 3 in a row against a very tough Washington squad yet act like we were playing at our best and at full strength against Cleveland. 

Last year was bound to happen. We didn't attempt to replace Carroll and our big FA acquisition missed half the season so we essentially were a worse version of the ECF team and still finished tied for 3rd most wins in the East after pissing away countless games all year. In other words we barely even tried and still were the 3rd best team in the conference.

This year we are even DEEPER than any Coach Bud led team and maybe the deepest in the East. That's not even being biased. Our entire 2nd unit were all starters in this league and most of them on playoff squads. 

We have 3 All stars in the starting lineup. (Only 2 that really count, sorry Kyle). 

I mean how can anyone claim we will be worse than our down year. Everyone is hungry and ready to prove themselves. No more sleepwalking Jeff leading our starters. No more Al deciding to play hard once every 10 games.

we are poised for an epic year. You can wait until the All star break if you want before you decide to like this squad, meanwhile I'm telling you now, we are going to make some serious noise, and I won't miss a single minute of it

[Guest]

Here is my outlook for us...

 

1. Cavs

2. HAWKS

3. Raptors

4. Celtics

5. Pacers

6. Bulls

7. Pistons

8. Knicks or Wiz

 

I tried to be as unbiased as I could...lol...honestly this looks legit to me. I think the Raptors will take a slight step back but will still be solid. There is a possibility that they could be 2nd and us 3rd it will be close. The Celtics will be much better than last year and will get home court probably. I like the Pacers starting lineup but their bench is paper thin. The Bulls look good on paper but you can't have a backcourt in Rondo and Wade, neither can shoot it, still they are veterans and get in. The Pistons have some young developing talent, and it's a toss up between the Knicks, depending on their health and the Wiz, depending on their chemistry.

I wouldn't mind playing the Pistons in round 1 and Raps in round 2 to set up another east finals against Lebron.

 

Just a prediction here.

[Thomas]

 

7 hours ago, RedDawg#8 said:

You can't say things like "only made it past the Wizards cuz Wall was hurt" and not give us any credit after losing Korver and having Carroll on a bad leg and Horford getting ejected against the  Cavs. There are always ifs and ands so don't knock us for handling our business winning 3 in a row against a very tough Washington squad yet act like we were playing at our best and at full strength against Cleveland. 

Last year was bound to happen. We didn't attempt to replace Carroll and our big FA acquisition missed half the season so we essentially were a worse version of the ECF team and still finished tied for 3rd most wins in the East after pissing away countless games all year. In other words we barely even tried and still were the 3rd best team in the conference.

This year we are even DEEPER than any Coach Bud led team and maybe the deepest in the East. That's not even being biased. Our entire 2nd unit were all starters in this league and most of them on playoff squads. 

We have 3 All stars in the starting lineup. (Only 2 that really count, sorry Kyle). 

I mean how can anyone claim we will be worse than our down year. Everyone is hungry and ready to prove themselves. No more sleepwalking Jeff leading our starters. No more Al deciding to play hard once every 10 games.

we are poised for an epic year. You can wait until the All star break if you want before you decide to like this squad, meanwhile I'm telling you now, we are going to make some serious noise, and I won't miss a single minute of it

Great post. It's nice to read details of our recent playoffs that actually has accurate history involved. Don't feel that everyone watched all four games against the Cavs. A fans version of mailing it in.  

[Guest]

First of all @Alex, go change some diapers or something.   Seriously, hope all is well there.

I agree respect is given/not earned.  However, the thing that pisses me off (and I mean really pisses me off) is to keep hearing the eggsperts continuously prop up teams like NO, WAS, MIL, CHI, CHA (really?), NYK, IND/BOS (because of our old players who apparently were trash until they left us?), MIN, etc.  The list goes on and on and on of teams who've literally accomplished far less than we have yet we're not allowed to be optimistic?  When it comes to the Hawks it's, "Nah, we don't like their history, lineup, coaches, crowd, arena, city, traffic, uniform so nah, they won't do anything.  But I really like what PHI is doing.  Embeed just might actually run up the court twice this year.  Can you believe it!!!!!"

Look, I fully understand we are not (likely) a Finals team but we have just as much to be optimistic about as 95% of the teams in the league.  Do we deserve respeck although it's not really been earned?  No, not really.  But neither do all the other 25 or so teams who aren't much better than us.  That is what we complain about over anything else.  JMEO

[macdaddy]

10 hours ago, Alex said:

Respect is earned not given.  After a histroric run in 2015 that led to the Hawks playing so far over their heads they ended up getting trucked by Cleveland in the ECF.  Only making it that far because John Wall got hurt the series before for Washington.  Fast forward  a year and the nearly identical roster performed worse in the regular season once again was utterly dominated by Cleveland one round earlier this time.  The Hawks are going in wrong the direction as far as I am concerned.  They got worse this off season and deserve whatever the "experts" hurl at them.  

The Wiz won 1 and lost 2 with Wall and won 1 and lost 2 without him.     If he was such a difference maker why didn't he actually make a difference?

We were the best team in the east until the Cavs reloaded at the trade deadline and we had a slew of injuries at the end of the season.   We were not playing over our heads.   We were a damn good team that went on a great run.   But by ECF we were nowhere close to being as good or as talented as the Cavs.  

[Thomas]

If another team won over 100 games in two regular seasons  my guess is some amount of respect would be paid to that team (especially the coaching staff) by whatever journalist that writes about them. The Hawks did it and the most consistent descriptive word used has been fluke and now our immediate future is to struggle mightily to even make it to the eighth seed. Its easier to just write an article than to research, analyze and then write one.

[Alex]

Regular season accolades mean absolutely nothing.  Just ask Golden State that.  

[Thomas]

Then how do you get to the playoffs in the first place? Gotta win games.

[aali34]

To be honest, I haven't watched ESPN in at least a year for obvious reasons. I usually just watch Inside the Nba and the Starters cause they are way more entertaining and even though they piss me off sometimes they at least don't have favorites. I also watch this guy on youtube who lives in Atlanta who goes by Legend of Winning and is pretty interesting. https://www.youtube.com/user/BGBL00/videos

[Thomas]

47 minutes ago, aali34 said:

To be honest, I haven't watched ESPN in at least a year for obvious reasons. I usually just watch Inside the Nba and the Starters cause they are way more entertaining and even though they piss me off sometimes they at least don't have favorites. I also watch this guy on youtube who lives in Atlanta who goes by Legend of Winning and is pretty interesting. https://www.youtube.com/user/BGBL00/videos

ESPN is a good source for stats online but as everyone tends to agree they are unprofessional with their articles in that they are seemingly biased towards certain teams whether in a good way or bad. The video highlights from games represents about half of the league most times. Definitely understand your avoidance of them.  

[Guest]

15 hours ago, RedDawg#8 said:

You can't say things like "only made it past the Wizards cuz Wall was hurt" and not give us any credit after losing Korver and having Carroll on a bad leg and Horford getting ejected against the  Cavs. There are always ifs and ands so don't knock us for handling our business winning 3 in a row against a very tough Washington squad yet act like we were playing at our best and at full strength against Cleveland. 

Last year was bound to happen. We didn't attempt to replace Carroll and our big FA acquisition missed half the season so we essentially were a worse version of the ECF team and still finished tied for 3rd most wins in the East after pissing away countless games all year. In other words we barely even tried and still were the 3rd best team in the conference.

This year we are even DEEPER than any Coach Bud led team and maybe the deepest in the East. That's not even being biased. Our entire 2nd unit were all starters in this league and most of them on playoff squads. 

We have 3 All stars in the starting lineup. (Only 2 that really count, sorry Kyle). 

I mean how can anyone claim we will be worse than our down year. Everyone is hungry and ready to prove themselves. No more sleepwalking Jeff leading our starters. No more Al deciding to play hard once every 10 games.

we are poised for an epic year. You can wait until the All star break if you want before you decide to like this squad, meanwhile I'm telling you now, we are going to make some serious noise, and I won't miss a single minute of it

You forgot Thabo. Injuries to other teams seem to be given more weight than Hawks injuries, smh.

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Alex said:

Regular season accolades mean absolutely nothing.  Just ask Golden State that.  

So what has any other team done in the regular season to make them more relevant than us.

What's good for the gander is good for the goose.

@Alex how is fatherhood.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, JayBirdHawk said:

So what has any other team done in the regular season to make them more relevant than us.

What's good for the gander is good for the goose.

@Alex how is fatherhood.

What the hell's a gander anyways-George Costanza

[Gray Mule]

Spud2Nique:

The Goose is female, the Gander is male.  The same species, different sex.  Get it?

Gee whiz.  Grand kids today!