AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2008 > October > 20
Monday, October 20, 2008
A strange feeling
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - It hit me late Saturday night about six miles from the Georgia state line (note to self, driving to and from Charlotte sounds a lot better than it actually feels when you’re doing it).
I wasn’t sure if it was that jumbo hot dog from the concession stand, or the frosty is stopped to get at the Clemson exit, that did it to me or if it was something else, something bigger than that.
But I’m realizing now that it was the Hawks.
Either I’m going soft after all these years on the beat or this team is finally starting to look like the rest of the average and above average teams in the NBA.
I’m not predicting a 50-win season and deep playoff run, this is the preseason after all (and I got a strange feeling, not a text from the basketball Zeus telling me to bet on the birds). But I am certain that this Hawks teams will keep climbing the its way up the food chain in the Eastern Conference.
I’m breaking with the party (of NBA watchers and writers) and going with the Hawks rather than going against them (like the folks that have predicted that they’ll backslide behind the likes of Charlotte, Miami, Indiana, Chicago and the like).
This team is better than the one we saw at the end of last season, the one that battled the Celtics to Game 7. Barring major injury, these cats appear to have a chance to really make some noise this year.
I wanted to wait a day to make sure it wasn’t just fatigue, bad fast food and a the emotional hangover of another embarrassing performance by my Wolverines working on me. It wasn’t.
This is by far the most dynamic, balanced and potentially high-scoring team I’ve seen entrusted to Hawks coach Mike Woodson. And he’s shown a willingness to tinker with and explore the possibilities with crew at his disposal.
You true Hawks fans out there have been begging for this for years, so I don’t want to be the negative voice out there telling you not to dream big (besides, that’s Ando and Ray’s job to be the realists around here).
The internal expectation for this team will be off the charts anyway (I’ve heard rumblings about one goal being a 13-game improvement in the win column, which is a huge leap without the addition of an All-Star caliber player). Why shouldn’t the fans have equally super-sized expectations?
Along those lines, I hereby refuse to stifle anyone’s heightened expectations for this team. And with the economy strangling the good vibrations out of us all, dreaming big about your Hawks is one guilty pleasure that shouldn’t be infringed upon.
