Season Preview: Atlanta Hawks

Quang: last year, for the 8th consecutive season, the hawks were left uninvited to the postseason. which meant for the 8th consecutive season, the league felt like it had seen enough of the hawks over the course of both the pre and regular seasons. but this is a new year and there is reason for cautious optimism in atlanta. in the first quarter of the 06-07 season, while marvin williams was out with a broken finger, the hawks played well enough that joe johnson was in the mvp discussion. and on the strength of his stellar first half, he made his first all-star team. unfortunately, the hawks couldn't maintain their original pace and a nice, pretty bow was wrapped around their season when joe johnson suffered a season ending calf strain after having been kicked by esteban batista. but here's the good news entering this season, joe is fully healed and esteban batista is no longer employed in the state of georgia. even better, the hawks successfully completed a draft where their choices were not universally panned by pundits. i assume this had to do with the fact that they had already drafted shelden williams 5th overall in 2006, effectively eliminating any possibility of making him another illogical promise this year.

as it stands, the hawks have a very promising and versatile group of players, and adding al horford i and acie law iv, two savvy rookies who were among the most nba-ready, can only help. joe johnson and his natural fadeaway jumpers are nearing superstar status, josh smith jumps higher and more often than everyone else in the league combined, marvin williams is so primed for a breakout that he's should be the new spokesperson of proactiv, and josh childress is one of the top sixth men in the league despite only being the second best josh on his team. and between anthony johnson, zaza pachulia, speedy claxton, solomon jones, and salim stoudamire, the hawks have the get-me-over role players who can spell their stars. they can even call on shelden williams and tyronn lue should the situation dictate. like if the situation dictates that the hawks' aren't annoying enough. anyways, as a general well-wisher of the hawks, i think their prospects for this season are very high and a playoff berth is certainly within reach. though to me, their success hinges almost entirely on josh smith. admittedly, josh smith is one of my favorite players in the league, but as one of his biggest fans i'd be remiss if i didn't mention one of his biggest shortcomings: the curious nickname he's been given. to me, "j-smoove" is ill-befitting a moniker for someone who plays as violently as josh smith does. it'd make much more sense if it were a nickname for joe johnson instead of a nickname for someone who dunks the ball with so much anger that his ears bleed. thus, to save the hawks' season, i suggest josh smith adopt any of the following new, and much stranger nicknames: "josh spice", "mr. plow", "high fly swatter", "speeding bullet", or "the runaway loco". only then will the hawks realize their potential. and if not, at least josh smith will have a ridiculous nickname to match his ridiculous awesomeness.

Dhivy: The easy thing to do when writing a preview for an NBA season is to simply state that the Hawks suck and move on. But if I wanted this to be easy, I wouldn’t have teamed up with two other people who have no qualifications to write predictions about the NBA. So here goes nothing:

The 2007-2008 Atlanta Hawks are a playoff team.

Joe Johnson & Josh Smith provide one of the most athletic tandems in all of basketball. What I love about them is that they both play great defense and attack on the offensive end. Between Josh Childress and Marvin Williams, they have great depth at the frontcourt positions and can run with anyone. And though Shelden Williams’ season might compare favorably to Greg Oden’s, Al Horford is an instant impact player who makes this team even more athletic than they already were. Critics have claimed the Hawks made the mistake of passing on Chris Paul, but Acie Law’s rookie season will prove that they knew what they were doing all along. Imagine if Tom Brady played basketball and was a left-handed black man. You’re imagining Acie Law.

Finally, you may notice that the average height and weight of the Atlanta Hawks is 6-6, 217 pounds. This just so happens to be the height and weight of a certain star of “Space Jam”, none other than Michael Jordan. Are you so arrogant as to say that a team of fifteen Michael Jordan clones could not make the playoffs out of the East? And to think they called me an idiot!

Joe: Looking at some of the talent accrued on Atlanta over the past couple of years, many are thinking this is the year for Atlanta to make some serious strides toward respectability. Those people are sorely misguided – and the simple reason is point-guard play. Unless all of my instincts are wrong and Acie Law IV becomes an NBA level point guard, the best available point guard on their roster remains Joe Johnson. Everyone knows that Speedy Claxton is the player the organization had in mind to lead this team down the floor when they signed him two years ago. The problem is that any team trusting a non-shooting, aging point guard that used to get by only on pure athletic ability but now is battling balky knees is destined for disaster. A “non-speedy” version of Speedy just does not bring anything to the table. Another glaring deficiency on this Hawks team is the lack of any experienced girth inside. Tall, lanky small forwards such as Marvin Williams and Josh Childress are forced to play power forward due to Josh Smith’s unmovable presence in the line up. On the flipside the two young “beasts” rookie, Al Horford and second year Shelden Williams are not NBA tested enough to battle Marvin, Childress and the incumbent starting center, Zaza Pachulia for quality minutes at the frontcourt positions.

Switching gears and focusing on the positive, Joe Johnson and Josh Smith are two of the most exciting players in the NBA. Johnson’s natural jump-shot is a sweet leaner no matter where he is on the floor – I’m a huge fan of seemingly effortless play – and it’s simple things like this that get my seal of approval. Also, the defensive intensity that the pieces on this team should bring under Mike Woodson will open up the small windows in transition that Josh Smith needs to stay on the Sportscenter Top 10 daily.

Achilles heels

• Shelden Williams (q)
  
• Shelden Williams (d)
  
• Speedy Claxton (j)
  

Unsung heroes

• Zaza Pachulia (q)
• Josh Childress (d)
  
• Tatum Jamaal (j)

Bold Predictions

• Joe Johnson will light up a team for fifty points. The next night, Joe Johnson will score 50 points through three quarters, followed by 50 points in the fourth quarter. (q)
  
• The Hawks finish as the East’s 8^th seed, leading to John Hollinger painting his face at a home playoff game. (d)
• Salim Stoudamire shoots 50% from the NBA line on the season. Unfortunately, his season only lasts two games and he goes 2-4. (j)

Favorite Memory

• in a game in charlotte, josh smith gets ejected from a game in the 2nd quarter. as he is escorted off the court, he kicks a bunch of jerseys and towels and then with both hands, flips off bobcats fans. josh smith is the best. (q)
• With Joe Johnson out, Salim Stoudamire scores 37 in an overtime loss to the Blazers. (d)
• An outlet pass is made to half court and Kenny Smith comments, “uh-oh, that’s a dunk”. Two passes later, josh smith soars for a huge alley-oop. (j)