Season Previews Atlanta Hawks

[KG-MVP21]

I've always had a soft spot for the Atlanta Hawks. It's as if, for some reason, I see their losing ways as a sad little accident rather than the result of poor team building.

I think I started this affinity for the team back when they spent the summer putting together a squad that featured Jason Terry, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Glenn Robinson and Theo Ratliff. At the time, it seemed to me they had done enough to crack into the bottom of the playoff race. Clearly I was wrong.

Now I don't have those kinds of presumptions about this team. The Hawks, as they appear today, won't get within sniffing distance of the playoffs, but for some reason I feel an urge to be kinder to them than the Bobcats even though they find themselves in nearly identical positions: loaded with young talent, without a clue what to do with them.



The team has made some questionable moves in the last couple of years, namely letting players like Rasheed Wallace and most recently Al Harrington go for nothing in return, and there was the Joe Johnson for Boris Diaw and two first round draft picks deal, and of course drafting Marvin Williams over Rookie of the Year Chris Paul, but that's all done and all they can do is look forward.

What they do have on their side is a roster that is (very) slowly rounding itself out, with a good core of Johnson, Williams, the Josh's (Smith and Childress), and incoming rookie Shelden Williams. They have teamed them with young vets like Zaza Pachulia and Speedy Claxton, and they even have a couple of role players on the bench like gunner Salim Stoudamire. However, what this team lacks is depth.

This team needs to stop waiting for that All Star free agent to sign in Georgia and realize that they actually have enough good young players that it would be a detriment to go that route. There are precious few impact players who are ever really available to other teams around the league, and those who are usually become that way because they have demonstrated to their club that they aren't franchise-player material.

For the amount of money it would take to seduce a player like that to sign up in the ATL, it'd be a make-or-break decision for the whole franchise. Firstly, because they'd have no money left over to re-sign their young guys. Secondly, because it'd prevent them from having any cap flexibility down the road to make moves with. Thirdly, because the league itself is moving away from one-player teams winning titles. The whole team is the thing, now, and trying to overspend on players like Kenyon Martin is not the way to build a competitive team.

So what do they do? Well, they have made strides this off-season, in my opinion, signing guys like Claxton and Lorenzen Wright. What they need to do now is keep their wits about them and be ready to make trades this winter to help boost the core they already have in place. To do that, it means that one or two of the young guys will have to go, but that's the only way they're going to get better, by trading away one or two of their young pieces for some solid veteran help. As the season rolls on it will become apparent what areas need the most help on this team, be is something as tangible as rebounding or as elusive as leadership, the Hawks' brass will have their work cut out for them making this losing season (which it will be regardless) a useful one.

Of course, this could all be for naught if their ownership issues cannot be resolved in a timely manner as to allow the team to get back to maneuvering like an NBA club and not like a grandmother on a fixed income.

They could've landed Troy Murphy from Golden State this summer but didn't want to absorb his contract. Granted, he is overpaid, but he's also an offensive rebound machine who can start at centre and stretch the defense out behind the three-point line. He wouldn't have been the answer to all of their problems, but it gives them instant depth by allowing Pachullia or Williams to come off of the bench.

As it stands, they got a draft pick form Indiana for their second-leading scorer, and all that will bring them is another young body, which at this point is the last thing that they need.

PROBABLE STARTING FIVE

PG - Speedy Claxton

Speedy represents the biggest upgrade this club made all summer, allowing Johnson to stay at his natural shooting guard position and Royal Ivey to come off of the bench. Claxton may not be a premier playmaker in the league, but he showed two seasons ago in New Orleans that he can come in and run an effective show. His shot is streaky, and so is his health, but if coach Mike Woodson can keep him playing a facilitator role instead of a scoring role, it'd help this team tremendously as it looks to try and run an actual offense this year, for the first time since Lenny Wilkins stalked the sidelines.

SG - Joe Johnson

Statistically, he had a stellar year last year, but winning 26 games with good stats is about as impressive as winning a championship ring in a year missed to injury. If nothing else, Johnson proved last year that he is a perfect complementary player, but he is no leader. He needs someone else on this team to step-up and take on a leadership role, especially on the court, so that he can he can do what he does best: drilling open jumpers and making the extra pass. If he has to be the primary offensive weapon, he will score, but it takes too much one-on-one posturing for him to do it, and that means he's got four teammates standing around waiting for his shot to go up. If they could ever develop (or acquire) a power forward who is as skilled inside as he is outside, then he'd see himself back in the conversations of relevant players in the league.

SF - Josh Smith

He started last season slow, but really came on late, tightening up his defense, crashing the glass and especially blocking shots. If he can develop a consistent jumper, even from mid-range, he could open up all sorts of opportunities to use his athleticism on offense as well as opening up the floor for his teammates, who often have to deal with his defender who has sagged off of him because of his spotty field-goal percentage. If Marvin Williams is able to develop an outside game faster than he can, then look for him to play the four spot on offense while most likely covering the other team's best player on defense. There is no reason why he couldn't elevate his game to the place that Gerald Wallace now sits because all it takes is work. It's players like him that give this team a reason to dream.

PF - Marvin Williams

That gust of air you felt around mid-July this summer was coming from the Hawks brain-trust as Marvin Williams finally began to show signs of life in this year's Vegas Summer League. They've been hearing about passing on Chris Paul all year, and could desperately use a season of Williams coming into this own to restore some amount of credibility to their scouting process. The team has enough faith in Williams that they more or less said goodbye to last year's starter Al Harrington on the last day of the season. Whether or not he can replicate his 19 and 7, however, is another matter. Most likely Williams will find himself struggling to find his game against the likes of Tim Duncan and Elton Brand, but the Hawks have staked so much on him he'll be given most of the season to work things out for himself. If, in the end, it turns out he isn't a power forward, or worse not an NBA starter, they'll cross that bridge when they get to it. In the meantime, the Hawks staff will now hold their breath and pray that this summer wasn't a fluke and that Williams actually can play a little bit of basketball.

C - Zaza Pachulia

Last summer Pachulia signed in Atlanta without much of a fight from his former team, the Bucks, or any team in the NBA. As it turned out, he was one of the few former end-of-the-bench big men who could actually play if given the minutes. If Jerome James has become synonymous with the kind of big man free agent who tanks after he gets a fat contract, then Pachulia should be recognized as the other end of that spectrum: the guy who got a sizable raise and used every ounce of his ability to justify it. After all, his contract is worth about half of what James pulls down, but the fact that he got four times what James could muster in scoring and rebounding the ball per game should put both contracts (and players) into a nice kind of perspective.