AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2006 > April > 18
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
48 hours and counting
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re now counting down the final hours of this season and somehow the blog traffic is strong as ever. I love it. I love the venom and the vigor with which you’re all attacking not only this season but the past and the future. For all those people out there who insisted to me that there was no cyber crowd out there for the Hawks (hence the reason this blog didn’t exist until around this time a year ago) I salute you and hope you realize the mistake in your evaluation. There is more than enough interest out there.
I’m going to echo the thoughts of several of you when I say, hopefully for one of the last times here, in hindsight Chris Paul would have been an ideal choice for the Hawks with the No. 2 pick in last summer’s draft. So would Deron Williams and/or Raymond Felton, since we’ve all realized that point guard is one of the Hawks’ areas of need. But we all went into the free agency period assuming that the Hawks would nab a veteran PG since they passed on Paul. And that did not happen.
So panning Marvin Williams (hey Ando, the same argument made about Paul not topping out at 20 applies to Marvin, right?) at this time is not only unfair, it’s ridiculous. We don’t know how good this kid can be. He could turn out to be the league’s next big superstar. Or he could be a solid pro who never turns into the megastar the Hawks hope. But we don’t know anything for sure and 81 games (one at a time, baby) is too soon to judge. From what I can tell, there’s no reason to think this kid won’t be an asset to this team. And all we’re operating on is the assumption that Paul has a great year here because of how well he’s done with the Hornets. But it’s strictly hypothetical, and that’s just not good enough for me to make a judgment.
That’s the beautiful thing about the draft and the league in general. You get a chance to right your wrongs at least twice a year - at the trade deadline in February and when the draft and free agency roll around in the summer. I’m interested to see where they go next, what moves get made in the coming months to rectify the situation.
The uncertainty of it all is what keeps me going this time of year, wondering what moves elsewhere will impact the Hawks. I was telling someone over the weekend that I never imagined Joe Johnson on this team a year ago. I remember watching the playoffs and trying to think about which players would fit with the Hawks and JJ never came to mind. Then the summer hits and things happen and the next thing you know he’s a Hawk.
Only a few things can be measured at this point (the order of the draft lottery won’t be determined for at least a month), so I’m willing to examine this season and weigh in on that (keep an eye out in the paper for our season wrapup later this week). Everything else, is up for debate. So have at it.
