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Monday, September 22, 2008
TD’s take, and more …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No one has had a better vantage point for the Hawks’ unofficial summer school sessions than retired NBA veteran and one-time Hawks sharpshooter Tony Delk.
As one of the mainstays at the team’s practice facility this summer (Delk insists he’s not mounting a comeback but merely trying to “stay in shape”), Delk saw things the past few months that lead him to believe the Hawks will continue the rise that started in their playoff series against Boston in May.
Granted, Delk is the firs to admit that what a player looks like in an empty gym in the summer isn’t always a tell tale sign of how they’ll fair once the real games start. But having watched the Hawks closely the past few seasons, and especially last season, he’s convinced that the seeds for future success have been planted sufficiently.
“You can see who has come back improved physically and with a new twist to their game that you didn’t see the year before,” Delk said. “And the one guy that stands out to me off the top of my head is Al [Horford]. He’s making that mid-range shot. He’s come back a lot better. And he’s going to play hard so you know what he’s going to do. And really, if they stay healthy, both Acie [Law IV] and Speedy [Claxton] have really showed me something. I think they can help this team in ways that neither one of them did last year for reasons that were largely out of their control. When you look at how little Acie played last year and the fact that Speedy was out all year, it’s like having two new players this season without having to go out and sign them. Acie is physical and has that size to work with, all he needs is time on the floor. And Speedy’s got his bounce, his quickness and his outside shot has been as good as I can remember. That’s invaluable when you’re in the place the Hawks are right now.”
Just where they are right now depends on your perspective. Many of the pundits have already pegged the Hawks for a fall back to the pack in the Eastern Conference standings.
Delk, however, isn’t so sure that will be the case.
“The way they finished they have to know they’re going to be a marked team,” Delk said. “With that in mind, they have to come to play every single night. They won’t be able to sneak up on anybody. The key to me is finding the right chemistry in training camp. But I think they have a good shot at doing well and finishing in the mix of that top eight in the East. I don’t see how anyone could be convinced that they’re going to fall back to the pack.”
Delk said seeing so many of the Hawks on the floor during the past few months, on their own time, is what convinced him that they realize what’s at stake and what it will take to realize whatever goals they have or will set for themselves this season.
“I don’t think NBA players of my generation and beyond have ever gotten enough credit for all the work they do this time of year,” he said. “This is the time when you get in the gym and really get in shape and trying to polish your game. You can only do so many drills. At some point you have to put it into motion out there on the floor. And I think these guys, based on the way they finished and the way they had this city rocking, they all want to start off right. You don’t want to be behind the curve, you want to get ahead and know that you are a team to be reckoned with. Because the ultimate truth is that the seventh or eighth spot is not guaranteed to anybody. But if you get to third or fourth and stay right there you won’t be on pins and needles in those last five or six games like last year. If you get those wins early on and get off to a good start, that’s the key, and it keeps the fans involved.”
GOLD MEDAL DAYDREAMS: Hawks captain Joe Johnson can’t help but daydream about what it might have been like to have that gold medal draped around his neck in Beijing.
Technically, Johnson is still a member of the U.S. men’s senior national team. But he and the other players on the master roster that didn’t make the travel squad for the Beijing games will have to admire the flashy jewelry of their teammates that did make the trip.
With so few opportunities to snag Olympic gold, Johnson knows that the opportunity of a lifetime might not present itself again.
“It’s not always just about you,” he said. “Sometimes it’s about something a lot bigger than that. I’m just happy that we regained our position as the best team in the world. Do I wish I’d have been there on the floor with those guys? Absolutely. But I wasn’t and unfortunately there is nothing that I can do about it now. That said, I’ve got nothing but love for all those guys that were there. They did a fantastic job and represented us to the fullest. And who knows where we’ll be in 2012. I’ll be a little bit older … but you never know. Maybe I’ll get another shot.”
COACH BIBBY?: A large chunk of Mike Bibby’s summer was spent coaching basketball as opposed to playing. As the shot-called on his son’s AAU team, Bibby has a new perspective on the game, sort of.
“It was a good time,” he said of his summer spent running the show in a different way. “I was coaching my son, which is about as good as it gets.”
Now that he’s back to playing to the whistle instead of blowing one, Bibby’s eager to get his timing back. And perhaps more importantly, he’s eager to see where he fits going into the final year of his contract.
“It goes by fast, It does go by fast. But I still got some left,” Bibby said and smiled. “Last year I came in and just tried to fit in. You don’t want to come in and try and do too much. It was the same way when I got to Sacramento [from Vancouver]. You want to come in and fit in and just see how things play out.”
Things played out particularly well, with the Hawks earning the franchise’s first postseason berth in nearly a decade with Bibby piloting the ship.
But he struggled in the series against Boston, something that he shook off immediately after that Game 7 loss but has not forgotten.
“I think we definitely could have beaten them,” Bibby said. “We just didn’t play well on the road at all, and I mean at all. But things happen for a reason. Maybe that was the start for us to excel this season.”
