Atlanta Hawks - season preview

[Karma]

Point Guards

Joe Johnson / Tyronn Lue / Salim Stoudamire / Tony Delk​

Shooting Guards

Josh Childress / Royal Ivey

Small Forwards

Josh Smith / Donta Smith

Power Forwards

Al Harrington / Marvin Williams​

Centers

Jason Collier / Zaza Pachulia​

Other Roster Players : John Edwards (C), Esteban Batista (PF/C)
2004/05 : 13-69, 5th in Southeast
Coach : Mike Woodson
Key Additions : Joe Johnson, Marvin Williams, Zaza Pachulia

Strengths : The Hawks have great depth and talent at the swingmen positions. New signing Joe Johnson teams with rookie Marvin Williams along with Josh Childress, Al Harrington and the explosive Josh Smith. With the Hawks in a rebuilding period, these young guys will be given ample opportunity to grow and give the Hawks a solid base to solidify their roster around. Young big man Zaza Pachulia, signed from the Bucks, has showed signs of being a solid NBA big, whilst rookie guard Salim Stoudamire is an exciting scorer.

Weaknesses : Atlanta have a long way to go before they are a playoff contender. Upfront the hawks are very weak defensively with nobody capable of making stops. Collier and Pachulia are offensive minded centers, whilst Williams and Harrington who will share time at the 4 are tweeners for that position. At the point, Atlanta are likely to trial big signing Joe Johnson. This experiment is unlikely to have the required results as it does take away from Johnson's natural game. The Hawks do have Lue as a backup plan, but he is not a NBA starting quality guard with this roster.

Key Player : Joe Johnson got his payday, after getting his wish to leave the Phoenix Suns. This is a terrible move for him if he was seriously looking at a title, but that obviously was not a thought. Johnson was after responsibilty, and he'll have all that and more with the Hawks with no Steve Nash and Amare Stoudamire deverting attention. Joe will log minutes at all perimeter positions and will need to be effective at the point to help this team lift from the basement.

Overview : The Hawks have had a productive off season bringing in multi talented guard Joe Johnson, whilst drafting the athletic Marvin Williams with the 2nd pick. They certainly are an improved squad from last season, just through the experience players such as Childress and Josh Smith received. However this is still a very young squad, with alot of development required to be successful NBA players. The Joe Johnson trial at point guard will be interesting along with William's transition to the pro game. Look for the Hawks to be a dangerous team at home, but badly suffer from the road blues. Plenty of excitement from this bunch, but that will be from the highlight reals on ESPN, rather then in the standings.

Win Range : 22-27 wins

 

[ChicagoCavFan]

Key Player : Joe Johnson got his payday, after getting his wish to leave the Phoenix Suns. This is a terrible move for him if he was seriously looking at a title, but that obviously was not a thought. Johnson was after responsibilty, and he'll have all that and more with the Hawks with no Steve Nash and Amare Stoudamire deverting attention. Joe will log minutes at all perimeter positions and will need to be effective at the point to help this team lift from the basement.

Replace "responsibilty" with "money"

Thanks for the lowdown Karma...do you plan to do these with each team?

 

[Karma]

I will be doing this for each team, alpabetical order. Hopefully you guys can throw in your views on how they will fair and so on. How many wins you think they'll get.

 

[ChicagoCavFan]

Looking back up at their roster, and one thing comes to mind....these guys are YOUNG.

They won't win too many games - I would start an over/under at 25 wins.

I'll tell you what these guys can do - they can be a good "spoiler" team - a team that could show up one night and run all over the court, putting up 120 points. This could ruin a winning streak or playoff positioning.

 

[highplainsdrifter]

Damn Karma! Did you write that yourself or pull it from somewhere else? And for every team! You are a true, dedicated NBA fan! Ill buy you a Fosters!!!

The Cavs should sweep the Hawks this year, I remember last year Josh Smith was a great shotblocker. Dont know much about Marvin. JJ wil certainly have his hands full with this roster, will be very interesting to see if he elevates his game or chokes. Hopefully LeBron will take the dunk title from JSmith!

 

[Karma]

Josh Smith is an amzing athlete that is becoming more regular in the NBA today. He really needs to work on his mid range consistency and develop some range otherwise he really has peaked already.

 

[cavincali]

they look decent on paper but they still have a ways to go, and with no support coming from atlanta i dont see any sense of urgency. until they get the unselfish players on that team they wont move in the positive direction. they also dont have any leaders, i wouldnt want to depend on joe johonson have the "locker room presense".

 

[TruBuckeye22]

hello last place. maybe the Cavliers can get Tony Delk from them to be a 3rd PG/combo guard.