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Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Do you believe?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - An interesting email from one of our founding members had me worried when I saw the subject line.
“Disheartened” was staring me straight in the face early this morning and I was thinking, “oh no what now?”
The tone of the email wasn’t what I was expecting, though. It was a sober take on a common theme around here. In short, the email asked a question - what makes me or anyone else think a 37-win team without any significant All-Star caliber additions has a chance to achieve anything more than 37 wins again?
That’s an extremely fair question, and one I’ve asked every Hawks player, staffer, fan, observer, etc., I’ve run across this summer. But the truth is I haven’t really asked myself that question as often as I probably should have.
Having chronicled this team for the past four years and seen them grow from a 13-win outfit to the 37-win crew that finished this past season in that Game 7 loss in Boston, I’m automatically giving the Hawks some credit for just natural progression.
Nothing in their makeup suggests they’re going to go backwards. Nothing about their core group and the work ethic of that group leads me to believe that they’re about level off and stop growing and maturing as individual talents, and in turn as a group.
But in the absence of any empirical evidence that they’ll simply be better because that’s what teams do when they are allowed to grow together without significant interruption, I’m doing what I always suggest folks shouldn’t when it comes to expectations.
So the burning question I’m left with this morning is the same one fans of every team find themselves contemplating in the dog days before the start of training camp (or spring training or what have you):
Do you believe?
Or perhaps even more fitting, are you willing to believe in this team going forward?
I didn’t have any real stipulations this summer to at least think this team had a chance to continue its painstaking climb up the NBA food chain - well, other than the retention of the core members of the team that were free agents and the additions of at least one or two veteran players in positions of need that could alleviate the pressure on the cats being overextended (by my count the Hawks went three for four in that department).
Where you stand on this team right now, though, really depends on whether or not you’re ready to take that leap of faith in this team (from everyone from the front office to the coaching staff to the players on the roster). It depends on whether or not you believe Mike Woodson and his staff come back better prepared to exploit the assets they have as opposed to being hamstrung by the assets they might still be lacking (and the depth is finally there, maybe not the best depth of any team in the league but certainly enough to compete). It depends on whether or not you believe Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Al Horford, Marvin Williams and Mike Bibby come back better prepared for the rigors awaiting them. And there’s
In years past I’ve always taken a wait and see approach about this crew, but their playoff run made more of an impression on me than some others (I don’t care if they won at home and got smashed on the road against the eventual world champs, I saw what this team could be when they’re firing on all cylinders). My belief has always been that when a young team finally tastes that firs bit of the exotic playoff fruit they either get infatuated with getting better and resolve to do just that (Orlando the past two years) or they assume they’ve arrived and suffer through the inevitable letdown that comes with that line of thinking (the Bulls the past three years).
I already know how one of our founding members feels, and frankly he’s been steadfast in his opinion from the day this party started.
But I’m curious where the rest of you stand, whether you believe in this (entire) operation or not, whether you are willing to believe or not?
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