cam1218

I know, too much positivity.

Adreian Payne's head/hair looks like a defective chia pet. He can't be a rookie!

Fun game to watch. I loved seeing everyone get some minutes. Props to Horf for his triple double and Mack for his double double.

Best part of the game was when Nique said "Hawks have played so well tonight you could probably send out Wally Blaze and he would contribute."

I hate to laugh at Payne, but he looked like an old vet with that camera angle on his head/hair. Either way, glad he got some time in the court tonight. GO HAWKS!!

Thabo is trending up for sure. That should be expected. He has never in his career been as bad offensively as he was to start the season so natural regression to the mean was bound to happen.

That said, the guy is pretty terrible on offense. He always has been. His peak is as a very low volume solid 3pt shooter. Hopefully he is on his way to returning to that level because that makes him a 3&D guy off the bench which is very useful overall (primarily due to his defense). All you should expect from Thabo is for him to hit a few wide open 3's. If he can do that at a decent % while giving his usual work on D and the boards, I am getting exactly what I expected from him and am happy.

He is not going to be revolutionized by Bud into anyone who is a real offensive threat.

Agree with most of this but Thabo has also been pretty good with knowing when to cut to the basket. He has scored some easy baskets and had some nice assists off his slashing. Bud isn't making him a real offensive threat but the offense is allowing him to be a little more than a 3&D.

Thabo is getting comfortable with what we are doing and that is the biggest reason his 3 point % is trending up.

While I do appreciate all these SuperFriends and Avengers and Justice Leagues banding together, I'm with a lot of folks that won't be satisfied with one fractured group handing over responsibility to another. As long as there's one gal/guy owning at least, say, 75% of the franchise, I'll be happy.

~lw3

Yeah I agree, so many names being tossed around. I don't want a game of horse being the deciding factor in where our money is spent.

The two good things I see are we have a lot of players who haven't really been high on the Hawks suddenly wanting to own us. We also have ATL guys like Hank wanting to be involved. Both of those factors help keep me confident we stay in Atlanta and that our team is starting to get a lot of respect.

Hopefully all of these names basically morph into one and we wind up in good hands and a big wallet.

In reading the pre game preview on ESPN, their quarterback (P.G.) told

everyone that Washington is now a much better team than they were

when they last met the Hawks. ]

They probably are a better team now, GM. Only problem is their quarterback didn't realize that we are a much, much better team since we played them in Washington.

After beating them we then let Toronto score 126 on us in Philips. I don't see that type of defensive effort happening anymore.

Just like the 2 above me said, they are just developing him. We don't need him right now so why play him? He is a mid first round pick playing on a deep team with exceptional chemistry.

He will be fine whenever we need him. I like his versatility, he will eventually be able to give us outside shooting and rebounding.

Not that his presence had anything to do with it, but the one time he actually comes in the game early we lose a home game to Milwaukee by 30. Bud just isn't going to go out of his way to mess up our rotations for Payne.

I only had the bad vibe because I thought the game wasn't be broadcasted locally. Everyone knows I'm a really optimistic fan!

Keep getting those bad vibes please.

I have always felt like Bob has been a homer, which is great. I love listening to him call our games. I haven't really listened to much radio over the years, so I think of Bob instead of Holman when I think of Hawks broadcasters. Plus, it's hard not to have some excitement show when you are rolling like we are.

Side note, does anybody remember when he used to call Braves games? He is 1000X better with basketball.

Preach on, Volman. Good stuff!

I had to watch this one on a computer without sound. How loud was the crowd for the game? It looked to be pretty full.

Very exciting beginning and finish. It's like they got bored with the 20 point lead so blew it on purpose to build a 30 point lead.

Thanks for finding and posting these updates. I'm getting more excited about this guy the more I read about him.

I understand the sarcastic side of that but in the long run wouldn't it be better to get more fans interested in the Hawks and in reading about the Hawks via subscriptions to the AJC? 

 

Of course it would be, I just don't have much faith in the AJC to really invest in their own product. I knew it was bad but I didn't realize this was the first time they sent him on the road. You'd think he would have at least traveled to Charlotte or something.

Why would that be a good thing? 

 

Because they won't have to pay for another trip. $$$

Brilliant planning on the AJC's part. They were hoping that he would have such a miserable time traveling in the bitter cold and snow that he will just be happy staying in Atlanta for the remainder of the season.

1. Al Horford signed my Horford jersey! It really made my night since I'm a lonely Hawks fan near Detroit.

 

2. Pero has a huge following in Detroit. People were lining up to see him. Detroit seemed to have a large Macedoinian community. He was hugging and talking to them as if they were family (maybe they were?). It made me really appreciate how important Pero is to the Macedonian people.

 

3. I stopped Bob Rathbun from walking into the tunnel. We shook hands and I told him I follow SportsSouth as much as I can. He seemed really appreciative of that! Overall he seems like a really nice guy.

 

Basketball related:

 

1. If Al Horford would've played like this from the start he would be a guaranteed all star.

 

2. Dennis' fall looked pretty bad from my angle, but he kept playing thankfully.

 

I'm just releasing my thoughts. It's really late but I thought I would share.

 

Thanks for sharing! I am also up in SE Michigan. I've been to quite a few Hawks game the last couple years up here but I wasn't able to make it last night. I've been able to meet Bob and Nique after the game a couple times, Bob really is a nice guy. He seemed surprised that there were fans that wanted to talk to him. That is awesome about Horford, I haven't been able to meet any of the players except Korver. I'm guessing you caught him before the game?

Just read another "Detroit is the hottest team" article...getting sick of them. 

 

Hoping the Hawks continual motion and defensive focus will bring us another W and shut up Zeke and the rest of the Detroit bandwagon!

 

Go Hawks!!!!

 

It is annoying hearing about it. I guess when you lose a lot of games and start winning some it comes as a huge surprise. We have just been winning a lot of games for a long time now so nobody really realizes how hot we are.

We just need Koonin to come on here and have a chat with the 'Squawk.

The Pistons should have more of a home court advantage than they have had against us in years past. All of the Hawks games I have attended at the Palace reminded me of a week night Hawks vs Bobcats game at Philips. Very very quiet. The weather up here is pretty bad though and some highways have been closed down for periods of time today so that might wind up keeping Pistons fans at home.

 

Tickets right behind the Hawks bench were going for about 55 dollars last week on Stubhub. They even had the seats in the 200's for as low as 6 dollars. I looked the other day and the same 100 level tickets are in the 150 dollar range and the lowest price you can find in the arena was above 20. They are certainly jumping on the bandwagon while it is hot.

I'm a very positive person but I remember being annoyed with the team and our rotations after losing to Toronto at home. I was just waiting for the Hawks to take the next step and instead we gave up 125ish to the Raptors.

 

The 7-6 start seems like it was years ago. 

That MARTA crap is from some racist $%*&^ from back in the 80s! It actually makes me feel disgusted by members of my own race! There is nothing wrong with MARTA at all or Phillips Area for that matter. I don't care who I sit with as long as they are into the game. That's what makes going to the games special and better than TV.

I agree, I've never had any issues with MARTA. I hope that it extends out to Cobb at some point. Those protestors who think it will bring crime out to Cobb are wrong.

I'm out of state and have only been able to attend one game this year--the home game against the Clippers. I was very impressed with the crowd, it was definitely the best non-playoff crowd I've been a part of at Philips.

You can see it on tv too. The crowds are larger and more importantly they are there for the Hawks.

I remember a few posters were worried we blew our chance with ATL fans after the Bucks destroyed us, but the Cleveland and Memphis games made up for that one. Honestly, if you lose one game of those three it's probably better to lose to the inferior team. When you keep beating the "big boys" it's easier to just look at the Bucks game and chalk it up as an off night.

Great read, thank you for posting! The additions of Ferry, Bud and Koonin have completely changed our franchise.

Teague has been great this year. He is playing some amazing ball right now and we are very very good when Teague is playing like he is. We have so many guys that contribute in the clutch but Teague is the one guy that can just make a play when we need it.

I don't believe in the concept "peaking too early" in sports. Winning teams usually just win a lot of games all season long. Sure, you have your hot streaks and losing streaks, but that is a part of the 82 game grind.

We might cool off at some point and have a 5-5 stretch but that doesn't mean we hit our peak in December. It probably means we were maybe more focused and physically capable in December. Come playoff time we will turn it up (if it ever turned off) and play Hawks basketball.