NBA: Atlanta Hawks

[lefty]

Disappointed. They peaked at the wrong time.

If they played in the playoffs as well as they did during that streak, they would make the finals.

It's a matter of more practice, and getting things to flow automatically. If they can keep the team together, the team would do better next year.

lol if


they are not a contender period

[rocknblues81]

The Pistons were a quarter away from winning back to back championships.

But they didn't win.

And like I said, Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace were great defensive players.

Millsap and Horford can't even outplay Tristian Thompson and Mozgov.

Horford scored 2 points tonight. In a close out game.

That Pistons team was better than the Hawks at every position almost:

Billups>Teague
Hamilton>Korver
Prince>Caroll
Sheed>Millsap
Wallace>Horford

Moreover, that's one team...

What is this so hard for people to understand... Teams with the star players win the le 99% of the time.

This Hawks core is NOT good enough to truly contend for a le. None of their players are big time playoff players. None of them.

[rocknblues81]

lol if


they are not a contender period

Some people just will not accept it no matter how obvious that it is.

[Arcadian]

Billups, Hamilton, Prince, Ben Wallace, Rasheed. Which one of those players is capable of being the best player on a championship team?

The Spurs last year didn't have a "best player on a championship team" guy either, tbh.

Yeah, but these Hawks weren't nearly as good as those Pistons or Spurs. They're worse at every position.

Billups > Teague, Hamilton > Korver, Wallace brothers > Horford and Millsap, Prince > Carroll.

For the "superteam" build to work, you really need every position to be filled with both top-level talent and experience.

[ambchang]

No, they will not do better next year. December and Jan was largely a fluke.

It was a fluke in a sense that everything clicked.

The Hawks now have to work on making their ball movement and defense natural so that everything click most of the time instead of just over a two month stretch.

It's actually a problem the Spurs had in the past as well, where things click at the wrong time. Much of that has to do with injuries, and the Hawks had a fair share of them at the end of the season, throwing things out of the loop. They have to get redundant players to fill that void now. I used to think that the Hawks can play with any rotation of players, but I was wrong, the reason they play well individually is because of each other. Take one main guy out, and the others suffer.

BTW, I really like Horford. He can shoot, pass, rebound, defend, doesn't foul much, and is very efficient. The problem is that he's rarely healthy. People talk about Gasol and Aldridge, but if healthy, I'd put Horford right up there.

In fact, for the Spurs, I'd take a healthy Horford over any bigs out there.

[ambchang]

lol if


they are not a contender period

If the Cavs are a contender, the Hawks are a contender.

[lefty]

If the Cavs are a contender, the Hawks are a contender.

No
The Hawks are a bunch of scrubs

[ambchang]

No
The Hawks are a bunch of scrubs

Then how did they win 60 games and make it to the ECF?

[Caltex2]

Still 43 years in the past.

Most recent playoff team between the two: Spurs East

And funny enough, Spurs East has more wins this season than the Lakers and Lakers East combined

This board has devolved so much that Spurs and Lakers fans are arguing over whose better between the teams that have a slight connection to them in the other conference.

[JoeTait75]

No
The Hawks are a bunch of scrubs

No, they're a good team. You don't win 60 games and advance to the conference finals by being a bunch of scrubs. But in the playoffs greatness trumps goodness, and it's tough for a team with a bunch of good players to beat teams with superstars. I saw that plenty of times when the late '80s-early '90s Cavs went up against Michael Jordan.

[ducks]

hawks did not have a lot of confidence going in
injuries hurt them late then started losing
they are a good team they all have gained more playoff experience as coaches and players

[benefactor]

Hawks will be fine. Hawks fan is just trapped in a losing mentality, for obvious reasons.

[Mr Bones]

What's most interesting in this for me is how it affects the free agency decisions of Millsap and Carroll. If they'd made it to the finals and had a good showing, I think those guys would've been more likely to stay, but now maybe they view the season as a nice run, but not necessarily a legit championship run. Millsap, being slightly undersized at PF, especially might benefit from having a bigger guy than Horford, who's also slightly undersized for a C, behind him.

[rocknblues81]

It was a fluke in a sense that everything clicked.

The Hawks now have to work on making their ball movement and defense natural so that everything click most of the time instead of just over a two month stretch.

It's actually a problem the Spurs had in the past as well, where things click at the wrong time. Much of that has to do with injuries, and the Hawks had a fair share of them at the end of the season, throwing things out of the loop. They have to get redundant players to fill that void now. I used to think that the Hawks can play with any rotation of players, but I was wrong, the reason they play well individually is because of each other. Take one main guy out, and the others suffer.

BTW, I really like Horford. He can shoot, pass, rebound, defend, doesn't foul much, and is very efficient. The problem is that he's rarely healthy. People talk about Gasol and Aldridge, but if healthy, I'd put Horford right up there.

In fact, for the Spurs, I'd take a healthy Horford over any bigs out there.

Horford had two points last night... A weak way to go out.

[ambchang]

Horford had two points last night... A weak way to go out.

No question, I don't expect Horford to dominate every game, but he has all the tools, and with the right system, he can play very well.

He was playing hurt throughout the playoffs, wasn't he?

[rocknblues81]

No question, I don't expect Horford to dominate every game, but he has all the tools, and with the right system, he can play very well.

He was playing hurt throughout the playoffs, wasn't he?

That was Millsap. His shoulder might require surgery... That rumor is floating around anyway.

Horford's hand got banged up against the Nets, but his series against Washington was pretty solid.

It's just that guys like he and Teague will not bring it every night on the offensive end. They've been in the league all of these years and so I can't really see it changing too much.

[ambchang]

That was Millsap. His shoulder might require surgery... That rumor is floating around anyway.

Horford's hand got banged up against the Nets, but his series against Washington was pretty solid.

It's just that guys like he and Teague will not bring it every night on the offensive end. They've been in the league all of these years and so I can't really see it changing too much.

I thought horrors banged up his finger? Tough to shoot with a banged up finger.