Top to Bottom is this the most talented team we have ever had?

[Wurider05]

We got some talent and our young guys all have that dog in them and can produce. Is this the most talented team that we have ever had? 

[Sothron]

Just based on raw talent the 1989 Hawks were better especially if Kevin Willis was healthy that season. Nique, Moses, Willis, Theus, Doc, Spud, Cliffy, Carr, John Battle and even...sigh...Koncrap was pretty deep and good. That was the only team Nique ever had that had a real shot at maybe winning a title...if Kevin hadn't missed the whole season. 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

7 minutes ago, Wurider05 said:

We got some talent and our young guys all have that dog in them and can produce. Is this the most talented team that we have ever had? 

Nope.

[Diesel]

 

These guys said... Wait a minute. 

 

[Final_quest]

13 minutes ago, Diesel said:

 

These guys said... Wait a minute. 

 

Playoff Guarantee!  Where's Big Dog?

[bleachkit]

6 hours ago, Wurider05 said:

We got some talent and our young guys all have that dog in them and can produce. Is this the most talented team that we have ever had? 

This is our most talented back court. We have had better wings and bigs though.

[Diesel]

1 minute ago, Final_quest said:

Playoff Guarantee!  Where's Big Dog?

No.	Player	Pos	Ht	Wt	Birth Date		Exp	College
3	Shareef Abdur-Rahim	PF	6-9	225	December 11, 1976	us	7	California
33	Michael Bradley	C	6-10	245	April 18, 1979	us	2	Kentucky, Villanova
40	Jason Collier	C	7-0	260	September 8, 1977	us	3	Indiana, Georgia Tech
4	Chris Crawford	PF	6-9	235	May 13, 1975	us	6	Marquette
5	Josh Davis	PF	6-8	235	August 10, 1980	us	R	Wyoming
32	Boris Diaw	SG	6-8	250	April 16, 1982	fr	R
12	Dan Dickau	PG	6-0	190	September 16, 1978	us	1	Washington, Gonzaga
15	Hiram Fuller	PF	6-9	240	May 15, 1981	us	R	Fresno State
5	Dion Glover	SG	6-5	228	October 22, 1978	us	4	Georgia Tech
6	Travis Hansen	SF	6-6	205	April 15, 1978	us	R	Utah Valley, BYU
44	Alan Henderson	PF	6-9	235	December 2, 1972	us	8	Indiana
1	Stephen Jackson	SF	6-8	218	April 5, 1978	us	3	Butler County Community College
2	Nazr Mohammed	C	6-10	221	September 5, 1977	us	5	Kentucky
34	Mamadou N'Diaye	C	7-0	255	June 16, 1975	sn	3	Auburn
54	Lee Nailon	PF	6-9	238	February 22, 1975	us	3	Butler County Community College, TCU
7	Wesley Person	SG	6-6	195	March 28, 1971	us	9	Auburn
10	Joel Przybilla	C	7-1	255	October 10, 1979	us	3	Minnesota
42	Theo Ratliff	C	6-10	225	April 17, 1973	us	8	Wyoming
12	Željko Rebrača	C	7-0	257	April 9, 1972	rs	2
3	Bob Sura	SG	6-5	200	March 25, 1973	us	8	Florida State
31	Jason Terry	PG	6-2	185	September 15, 1977	us	4	Arizona
11	Jacque Vaughn	PG	6-1	190	February 11, 1975	us	6	Kansas
36	Rasheed Wallace	PF	6-10	225	September 17, 1974	us	8	UNC

 

The most underachieving Jokers to ever be assembled. 

 

[Gray Mule]

Current team is very, very good if they can always play like they did last night.

Cannot compare team from one era against another team from another era.  Why?  Because of the competition that each team must face.  We all, regardless of what era, face different competition because of team makeup and rules of the day.

[AHF]

I think this could be the most talented team we've ever had.  

Trae is our first MVP candidate since Nique.

DM is an All-Star talent.

Capela could lead the league in rebounds and should finish top 10 (sitting just outside at 10.2 per game right now).

Hunter is coming along - he's had some good offensive games and some good defensive games.  How high can he step it up from his career norms coming into this season?  That is the real question.

JC is not going to be an All-Star this season but has put up All-Star numbers earlier in his career and has become a quality defender to add to that nice base.

Bogi is inconsistent but when he is "on" he has played at an All-Star level in the past (if his several month run of crazy good play had come at the beginning of the season he might have made it two years ago).  Could be a huge piece for us.

The real wild cards are the kids.

OO is 21 and just took it to the league MVP (again).  

JJ is 20 - can't drink but can rebound, pass, and score.  He is so raw who could really say what his ceiling looks like?

AJ is a teenager and has shown nothing short of an exceptional shooting ability in an era where shooting has never been more valued or more impactful.  It is surely unsustainable but he is sitting at a .715% TS% right now.  Heck, his efg% is over .700%!  Again, what might his ceiling look like?  

We could have 5 guys on this team who end up being All-Stars and not in the "let's reward the team's record by making all of them AS even when some of them are just league average starters who are doing a great job playing their role in this team machine" kind of sense that ends up with Jeff Teague and Kyle Korver being All-Stars.  

When I look at the range of outcomes for the players on this team, the high end of those outcomes for even just a few of them would have this being the most talented Atlanta Hawks team ever.  So I'm saying...

[HawksNWaffles]

2 hours ago, Diesel said:

 

These guys said... Wait a minute. 

 

I thought that they were gonna be like the  avengers.......we got the retaliatiors instead smh

[macdaddy]

32 minutes ago, AHF said:

We could have 5 guys on this team who end up being All-Stars

You mean in their career?  or this year?   This year i think we'll have 2. 

[ATLHawks3]

In my life time, it would probably be this years team or last years team coming off of the playoff run.

[AHF]

2 hours ago, macdaddy said:

You mean in their career?  or this year?   This year i think we'll have 2. 

In their career.  When I talk about someone being talented I don't mean they are at their prime right now.  Like rookie Kobe was a bit of a mess but he was super talented.  If JJ turns out to be the next Kevin Garnett (not predicting this) then the raw talent is there right now even if his season isn't all domination (KG put up 10 and 6 his rookie year which speaks to his position on the development curve not his raw talent).

[Atlantaholic]

Yea, Talent-wise it just might be, but a lot of it is still raw. Hunter, OO, AJ and JJ still have some blooming left to do.

[Wretch]

Everyone has pretty much nailed this on the head.  One thing I'll add... Over the last few games, I felt like we were punishing teams for not converting.  With Hawks teams in the past, it was the opposite and I was always worried about scoring opportunities.  Especially when facing the better teams.  There's a lot of talent for sure, but Dejounte's presence is taking the offense to the next level.  It's all about defense and offensive execution now.

[Dejay]

12 hours ago, Sothron said:

Just based on raw talent the 1989 Hawks were better especially if Kevin Willis was healthy that season. Nique, Moses, Willis, Theus, Doc, Spud, Cliffy, Carr, John Battle and even...sigh...Koncrap was pretty deep and good. That was the only team Nique ever had that had a real shot at maybe winning a title...if Kevin hadn't missed the whole season. 

Yeah, that '88-89 team would've been pretty stout had Willis not broken his foot. Fratello spent the entire season changing out guys at his spot before settling on Koncak at the end, who had a pretty good run. Of course, we know what happened afterwards.

They were talented, a veteran bunch, and would absolutely undress you on the fast break if you were slow in transition defense. Chemistry was the main issue though...

[AHF]

11 minutes ago, Dejay said:

Yeah, that '88-89 team would've been pretty stout had Willis not broken his foot. Fratello spent the entire season changing out guys at his spot before settling on Koncak at the end, who had a pretty good run. Of course, we know what happened afterwards.

They were talented, a veteran bunch, and would absolutely undress you on the fast break if you were slow in transition defense. Chemistry was the main issue though...

It would have been interesting to see how Willis and Moses worked together given they occupied a lot of the same space.  That season without Willis was Moses' last as an All-Star and I'm not sure he would have had the 20/10 number he needed to sustain his streak of ASG appearances if Willis had been there.  (His PPG and RPG numbers fell [as did his per minute] with Willis back the next year.  Is that because Malone was now 34 or because he and Willis had to make room for each other?)

Moses was always a bit of an awkward fit for me as a Hawk.  Definitely a ways away from his prime years in Houston and Philly and a bit of a black hole on offense.  He was a master of the "miss my shot, grab my own rebound, make it on the second attempt" possession.

[Diesel]

When you talk about top to bottom talent. 

o.	Player	Pos	Ht	Wt	Birth Date		Exp	College
31	Hilton Armstrong	C	6-11	235	November 11, 1984	us	4	UConn
10	Mike Bibby	PG	6-1	190	May 13, 1978	us	12	Arizona
34	Jason Collins	C	7-0	255	December 2, 1978	us	9	Stanford
11	Jamal Crawford	SG	6-5	185	March 20, 1980	us	10	Michigan
55	Jordan Crawford	SG	6-4	195	October 23, 1988	us	R	Indiana, Xavier
1	Maurice Evans	SF	6-5	220	November 8, 1978	us	7	Wichita State, Texas
6	Kirk Hinrich	PG	6-4	190	January 2, 1981	us	7	Kansas
15	Al Horford	C	6-9	240	June 3, 1986	do	3	Florida
2	Joe Johnson	SG	6-7	240	June 29, 1981	us	9	Arkansas
27	Zaza Pachulia	C	6-11	270	February 10, 1984	ge	7
12	Josh Powell	PF	6-9	225	January 25, 1983	us	5	NC State
5	Josh Smith	PF	6-9	225	December 5, 1985	us	6
19	Pape Sy	SF	6-7	225	April 5, 1988	fr	R
0	Jeff Teague	PG	6-3	195	June 10, 1988	us	1	Wake Forest
36	Etan Thomas	C	6-9	256	April 1, 1978	us	8	Syracuse
3	Damien Wilkins	SF	6-6	225	January 11, 1980	us	6	NC State, Georgia
24	Marvin Williams	SF	6-8	237	June 19, 1986	us	5	UNC

 

Johnson, Crawford, Bibby, Smoove, Horf, Teague, Marvin, Hinrich, Collins, Zaza,  - Tought team...

Then there's these guys...

.	Player	Pos	Ht	Wt	Birth Date		Exp	College
6	Pero Antić	C	6-11	260	July 29, 1982	mk	1
24	Kent Bazemore	SG	6-4	195	July 1, 1989	us	2	Old Dominion
7	Elton Brand	C	6-9	275	March 11, 1979	us	15	Duke
5	DeMarre Carroll	SF	6-6	215	July 27, 1986	us	5	Vanderbilt, Missouri
3	Austin Daye	SF	6-11	220	June 5, 1988	us	5	Gonzaga
15	Al Horford	C	6-9	240	June 3, 1986	do	7	Florida
12	John Jenkins	SG	6-4	215	March 6, 1991	us	2	Vanderbilt
26	Kyle Korver	SG	6-7	212	March 17, 1981	us	11	Creighton
8	Shelvin Mack	PG	6-3	203	April 22, 1990	us	3	Butler
4	Paul Millsap	PF	6-7	257	February 10, 1985	us	8	Louisiana Tech
31	Mike Muscala	PF	6-10	240	July 1, 1991	us	1	Bucknell
33	Adreian Payne	PF	6-10	237	February 19, 1991	us	R	Michigan State
17	Dennis Schröder	PG	6-3	172	September 15, 1993	de	1
32	Mike Scott	PF	6-7	237	July 16, 1988	us	2	Virginia
25	Thabo Sefolosha	SF	6-6	215	May 2, 1984	ch	8
0	Jeff Teague	PG	6-3	195	June 10, 1988	us	5	Wake Fo

 

Not as evidently talented but they had good chemistry. 

[Hawkmoor]

The only team that might be better is the 1969-1970 Hawks. That team was loaded. Bill Bridges, Lou Hudson, Walt Bellamy, Joe Caldwell, Walt Hazzard, Jim Davis, Gary Gregor, Don Ohl and Butch Beard.  They were a championship caliber team that the NBA purposely tripped up in the playoffs because they didn't want that Hawks team in the NBA Finals because they were playing games at Georgia Tech's arena and only drew small crowds (this was before the Omni was built).

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Hawkmoor said:

The only team that might be better is the 1969-1970 Hawks. That team was loaded. Bill Bridges, Lou Hudson, Walt Bellamy, Joe Caldwell, Walt Hazzard, Jim Davis, Gary Gregor, Don Ohl and Butch Beard.  They were a championship caliber team that the NBA purposely tripped up in the playoffs because they didn't want that Hawks team in the NBA Finals because they were playing games at Georgia Tech's arena and only drew small crowds (this was before the Omni was built).

I remember when this Hawks team came to Chicago to play the Bulls that year.  The Bulls were a pretty new franchise at the time (three or four seasons old).  A sports psychologist suggested that the crowd not make any noise at all whenever the Hawks shot free throws, instead of screaming like usual.  He thought it would mess with the Hawks players and provide a much needed advantage over the much better Hawks.  The strategy didn't work, as the Hawks made 32 of 39 free throws, and they won in overtime. 

But it turned out to be an amazing game, for entirely different reasons.   This link will explain the craziness that ensued.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_Buzzer_Game

I was a teenager living in Chicago back then and I listened to the game on the radio, or watched it on local TV (can't remember now).  The Hawks and the Bulls met in the playoffs later that year, with the Hawks winning handily. 

I eventually moved to Atlanta in 1977 for 30 years and have kept the Hawks as my main team since then, even though I moved back to Chicago about 15 years ago.