Hawks

By Astro Joe

October 24, 2005 04:52 PM | Link to this

I personally think that Miami made a HUGE mistake this off-season with their moves. They came within a healthy Dwayne Wade of making the Finals last year. So this year, they do everything they can to take the ball out of his hands and give it to guys like Toine and White Chocolate. There is little doubt that this team has gone from being Wade’s team to being Shaq’s team. And while I do not expect Wade to pull a Kobe and act like a punk little girl, I do expect that the Heat have jeopardized their chance to sign Wade to a long-term deal when he becomes a FA in 2 years. By then, Shaq and ‘Toine will be too ineffective to do much more than give the team 20 minutes a night and Wade may be stuck with a rebuilding team. Riley’s short-term thinking may come back to bite him.

By Khao$

October 24, 2005 04:58 PM | Link to this

Hopefully the fellows will have some fight in them. I’ve been hearing the Hawks being mentioned in the Maglore trade rumors. I wonder who’d we’d be willing to give up in order to try and get him. I bring up this trade rumor up because the Hawks are soft in the middle. Until we can get a legitimate 5, we won’t be able to compete with the teams with gigantic 5’s (Shaq, Yao, even Iggy in Cleveland), athletic centers (Ben Wallace and Amare), or the over achievers. Hopefully Zaza will develop to the point where teams won’t totally obliterate us in the paint.

By Tony

October 24, 2005 05:52 PM | Link to this

Antoine Walker being the best player on the Hawk’s team last year? You see that is what is wrong with the media covering the NBA. They elevate flawed players like Walker who can’t shoot, play defense, and is a ball hogging turn-over machine that doesn’t make anybody around him better! In fact he makes them worse. The only reason you didn’t know there were better players on the hawks is because he killed any hope of anyone else could showcase their skills. I agree with Joe, Antoine Walker make the Heat a much worse team that they were a year ago.

By Jeremy

October 24, 2005 07:12 PM | Link to this

Good points you all made. I dont think Sekou really thought he was the best per se (as he did say “arguably”). But, I do agree that Miami did not make the best off season moves. The couldnt keep Damon Jones, who was great at spreading the offense with his 3’s and lack of turnovers. Eddie Jones may be past his prime, but he’s loved in Miami and he was a tall off guard who could hit big shots and big 3’s and guard taller guards and such. Antoine last year was part of the problem and at the same time a stability factor for a team in chaos and change/flux. I remember time and time and time and time again Walker trying to dribble the length of the court and pass or normally just shoot. His 3 pt % was pretty poor. Also, we would always slow things down and do a set offense where we would throw it to Walker on the block and we had hardly any movement nor was Walker at a good angle to do cuts (like being at the elbow on the freethrow line for example). I also agree we need another good center. I think the world of Zaza and I think he is going to surprise the heck out of a lot of folk. He is a lot more fluid and slithery than people think and he can consistently put down the 15 foot J and free throw. And he is smart and can pass. But have Magloire or Nene would be HUGE. Now, one thing I disagree upon with pretty much everyone in all the Hawk blogs is concerning Harrington. I think we would be on crack if we traded him. Coach sees him as a stability factor, a veteran like Lue in the locker room. His basketball IQ is far beyond the rest of the group. People knock him not getting rebounds last year..well, look how the plays were set up. When you are one of the few consistent threats (like he was last year for us) and you have plays run for you a lot (which happened) and everyone team is gonna throw 2 men at you…and you have to do a lot of fade away jumpers…it is going to be hard to get garbage rebounds or tap ins. Plus, he had the assignment many times of guarding people further from the basket..and usually one of the better scorers on the team..so he is not going to be camping out around the basket waiting for offensive boards. anyhow, just my two cents worth.

I think we keep Harrington long term all the way and look for 1st round picks and money as incentives for teams who are way past on the luxury tax. I mean, if you look at the first of the season, people were dumping some quality or at least decent players off their roster just for luxury tax benefits. I just think if we were able to get a long center with some sense of presence in the middle, things would improve dramatically for the Hawks.

Most people aren’t with me on my projections for the Hawks, but I consider or division to be a weaker division and I think we can pull out a solid 35-40 games this year. Yeah we are young and inexperienced…but NOWWW we are a team, with more diversification of roles and set plays, we are more of a running team, and we are obviously more dedicated to defense.

Like I said, just my two cents. Yall have a great night.

By Samuel

October 24, 2005 07:30 PM | Link to this

I believe the Heat will ultimately be the #1 Team in the East. I do however, think it will take some time for them to come together.They may actually end up with a worse record than last year but they only need to peak come playoff time.

I think they definately upgraded. They added Payton,Williams, Walker, Posey, Semien and Barron. They lost Eddie and Damon Jones and C. Butler.

Zo will also be better than last year.

As far the Hawks, I don’t think we’ll be able to tell much with the game tonight, win or lose.

I have gone down on record as saying they will win 20-25 ball games with the roster “as is”. I thought they needed a point guard and a Legit Center. They passed up Chris Paul, Raymon Felton and Deron Williams. They still got a chance to sign a big man, if they pull the trigger.

God forbid anything should happen to JJ for any extended period of time. It could get “U-G-L-Y”, but “WE AINT GOT NO ALIBI”.

By Aaron B

October 24, 2005 10:14 PM | Link to this

Well It’s 6 mins left in the 4th and the Hawks are ahead by 6. Yeah even without JJ the Hawks are ahead. The Hawks have been ahead by 9, and it’s gone back and forth pretty much all game long. Having said that, it’s obvious that the Hawks are much better this year, and will surprise us all. I do see a huge difference when JJ is out though. He has to be the x-factor for the Hawks. The Heat may seem worse to some, but over all I’ve noticed they are just loaded with scorers. No matter if the starters are in for them or not, they keep better than average players on the court at all times. They have half of the starters from last years Celtics, as their 2nd string.

So regardless of wether or not people think they are better, at least on paper they are stacked! Now the Hawks are ahead by 10 with 4 minuites to go! GO HAWKS!

By AaronB

October 25, 2005 07:10 AM | Link to this

No way that happened… Al missed a dunck to finish off the Heat, then fouled them right away by accident to put them on the line. They missed 1of the two the second being rebounded by the Heat, then they hit another shot putting them within 1 point. We took it back down and created another turnover, so they ran it back up the court with a few seconds, missed like 4 consecutive shots, but got all of their own rebounds, and Payton put up the winning shot at the buzzer! That sucked royally. The Hawks deserved that game, but crumbled in the waining minuites.

By doc

October 25, 2005 08:11 AM | Link to this

nice summary aaron b. reminincent of old? who was in the game at the end? again that will be the critical piece to put together for the hawks this year, guys who arent afraid to win.

By HB Ando

October 25, 2005 11:17 AM | Link to this

Ouch. Learning how to finish off your opponent is one of the final stages in becoming a quality team (read: playoff). This will continue to take time. Watching closely, we’ll be privy to a lot of painful lessons this season for a young Hawks team. Even though it’s preseason, it’s how they bounce back after a tough loss like this that will tell us the most about what this team will become in the future.

By Tom

October 25, 2005 11:32 AM | Link to this

Will the Hawks WIN 13 games before Christmas?

By tom

October 25, 2005 11:33 AM | Link to this

Will the hawks win 13 games before Christmas?

By AaronB

October 25, 2005 03:03 PM | Link to this

Well they didn’t have our new playmaker Joe Johnson. that’s problably the difference maker. Our team played well over all though. Josh Smith was off offensively, but had a few key blocks and rebounds. Our rookies gave up most of the last few turnovers. Which is to be expected from them. As for who was in the game at the end, I can’t remember everyone that was in , but it included Harrington, Lue, SS, and one of the two smiths. I think John Edwards may have been in there then too. I was so excited when they were ahead by so much near the end. They hit alot of big time shots, then gave the win away at the end. It was quite dis-heartening.

Hey, will everyone who is playing the fantasy league list their team names. Even though we are all friends here, I feel ever so distant to my oponents online, due to the secretiveness about it. It’s not as fun, as it would be, if I could talk some trash to Samuel after a win, or congradulate him if I loose.

By Oz

October 26, 2005 10:39 PM | Link to this

Antoine Walker was by far the best player on last years Hawks team. Hawks fans are bitter because they are a joke of a franchise that even the Hornets organization can make fun of.

Of course Walker will have turnovers on a team like the Hawks where the second best player was rookie.(and I do no0t mean Josh Smkith because he can dunk a basketball NEWSFLASH dumb Hawks FAN, dunking doesn’t make anyone a great player)