AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2008 > March > 31
Monday, March 31, 2008
April Fool’s?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CYBERSPIZNACE - Don’t pinch yourself Hawks fans.
This is no April Fool’s Day prank.
Your Hawks are currently sitting 2.5 games ahead of the competition for the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot with just eight games to play.
Seriously.
This thing could happen.
As plenty of the doubters around here have pointed out, many of us were off with our win/loss predictions during training camp. But the end results might nullify those prognostications, thanks to a defanged Eastern Conference.
A loss tonight in Memphis would certainly be a setback. But a win could do wonders for the Hawks’ chances of actually locking up the bid before the April 16 regular season finale in Miami.
It’s just a thought.
Now to a few housecleaning items, namely some of the fantastic posts that have made their way to some recent blogs.
The reason this thing works is because of the wild, the wacky, the cool and the crazy. Everyone who makes his or her way here and decides to share brings something important to the discussion.
My Moms even reads this thing everyday (big ups to Moms), wondering where all these hilarious people are coming from with some of the stuff they say. I dig it all, man. Even the stuff I don’t agree with makes me think, which is always the best part for me.
Anyway, some specific points I wanted to address:
Blog Z will remain on hiatus until the bottom falls out or he has cause to rise up and set the record straight. Win 8 of 12 during a late-season playoff push and that doesn’t allow Z to come out of his hideout very often. It’s hard to hate when things are great.
Ray is rapidly closing in on our first Poster of the Year award, it’s a new season-ending deal that we’ll unveil after the Hawks’ season wraps up (be it April 16 or later). Anybody that makes me (and I hope you) laugh out loud when I’m reading down the board is worthy of some iron. Keep it coming Ray. Volman’s the latest member of the crew I’ve met in person. And I appreciate the luv partner, just don’t go skipping class to dive in here. We’ll be here when you get out.
If Marvin Williams can dial up a few more efforts like the one he did against the Knicks Sunday, the Hawks could actually be trouble come playoff time. I’m not bold enough to predict anything foolish (the Hawks need into the mix for sure before I even entertain the specifics), but I’ve been saying for a while now that the Hawks needed someone to come out of nowhere with a scoring binge that helps take some of the pressure off of Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby.
As much as I despise the idea of trading any of the Hawks’ young assets, I realize that moving one of them to balance and solidify this roster for the future is something that has to be evaluated carefully this summer. Both Josh Smith and Josh Childress will be restricted free agents at season’s end. Keeping both of them will be very difficult to do (but certainly possible, if the Hawks are willing to spend that cash). I want to see the rest of the season play out and then examine what I could get in return if I parted with one of these guys before daydreaming about actually trading one of them.
David Andersen’s coming to Atlanta next season huh?, which Volman, CP and Jhan all picked up at the Town Hall Meeting (I wasn’t invited but I did hide out around a corner so I could hear all the goings on. Good stuff from the crowd, hard questions for Billy Knight and more answers than he ever gives us poor souls in the media). I see the logic behind using Andersen as your defacto first rounder (that pick is gone baby, the second rounder too).
Along that same line, Jeremy Richardson could easily be retained for another year or two as a defacto second round pick. The Hawks have spent a lot of time recently acquiring young players. The next phase is to really develop them, and I mean cultivating both their physical and mental games to match where the franchise is now. The Hawks have spent the past four seasons digging out of a tremendous hole. Now it’s time to shave off the rough edges and start smoothing this thing out. This current core group of players needs to be shaped and molded into specific roles that will help make the sum better than just its parts (it’s possible when you put a team together right and then develop them properly).
Not sure what the future holds for Mike Bibby and the Hawks, but I can’t imagine this team wanting to play without him (he’s eligible for an extension this summer). He’s provided everything he was supposed to when the Hawks made the trade deadline deal with Sacramento to get him. I just keep thinking about what type of season they’d have had if Bibby were healthy and in a Hawks uniform since training camp …? Something tells me they wouldn’t be sweating out a playoff berth right now.
Services »
