TheNorthCydeRises

Good game tonight Jeff. Can't say that about the rest of the team.

Funny how this thread basically went dormant when we REALLY started losing in February. Arguably the worst game of the year for the Hawks. And this is why that Dead Hawk was not funny. Now that I think about it, Deadspin may have actually been making fun of us being "dead".

I know it's coming, so go ahead and do it.

The Knicks aren't going anywhere but home in about 3 weeks. And don't be surprised if Sacramento blows them out tonight too. I'm already on record for saying that they may not win a single game in April.

That C with a 17+ PER is playing in Charlotte, but we passed him up. But God forbid that we actually bring in a C who can actually ball.

Put it like this Dol. You're a Syracuse basketball fan . . I am too by the way. I've always loved the Orange since the days of Pearl Washington. Next to my alma mater of Tennessee, I'm a big time supporter of Syracuse basketball. Now . . think of the Syracuse teams that "underachieved" and the teams that actually did something and reached the Final 4. What was the difference? STAR TALENT The 1987 Finals team that lost to Indiana had Sherman Douglas, Rony Seikaly, and Derrick Coleman . . all legit NBA players. The 1996 Finals team overachieved, with John Wallace playing out of his mind. The 2003 Championship team had a superstar in Carmelo and a young decent player in Hakim Warrick. Last year's Final 4 team had Michael Carter-Williams, who looks like he will be a damn good NBA player for years to come. But the teams that supposedly "choked" all of those other years, really didn't have NBA level talent on the roster. They were good teams with maybe one real good player, but not extraordinarily talented across the board, or with two or three NBA level players. The Billy Owens Syracuse teams definitely disappointed, especially when they lost to Richmond. As good as Lawrence Moten was, he never amounted to anything in the NBA. Even John Wallace, who put that team on his back in 96, didn't last in the NBA. Gerry McNamara will always be a beloved Cuse player, but he wasn't an NBA caliber player either. And the Johnny Flynn teams were fun to watch, but who off of that team is a legit NBA player? The fact is that as good as the Syracuse program has been over the years, we really don't produce many top notch NBA talent. Because of that, we become vulnerable during tournament time, because we don't have that "bail out player" to win a game for us. The same goes for the Hawks. As good as Joe Johnson was at times, he'd be a #2 option on just about all of those playoff teams that we lost to. And a guy like Josh Smith wouldn't be close to a #2 scoring option on ANY of those teams. We didn't have an All-NBA 1st team ( or All-NBA 2nd team ) player during the JJ era. The teams we lost to had an All-NBA guy. Here are the people we have lost to in the playoffs, from 2008 - 2012 2008: Garnett ( 1st ), Pierce ( 3rd ) 2009: Lebron ( 1st ) 2010: Howard (1st ) 2011: Rose ( 1st ) 2012: Rondo ( 3rd ) . . but still with Garnett ( 2nd team all defense ) and Pierce We were talented. But we didn't have enough talent. We needed more. Or we needed one of our talented guys to really elevate his game to the next level.

The mistake I made, was not staying in Atlanta for Game 4, which was the game in which JJ went off in the 4th quarter and Smith had an amazing all around game. I would've loved to have been there to see that. Game 3 was on a Saturday ( I think ) and Game 4 was on a Monday. So I had to be back in Tennessee for work. I should've just stayed the entire weekend and came back on Tuesday. But I had made up my mind that if the Hawks won Game 4, that I'd go to Game 6. Glad I did. But this is part of the problem with this franchise. This isn't a memory from an NBA Finals, or a Conference Finals, or even the Conference SemiFinals. It's from the 1st round. Somehow, someway, we need to get to that EC Finals to give that city some hope in the Hawks. For the most part, they are an afterthought in that city, until playoff time comes around.

We won 3 first round playoff series in a row after that series. The Joe Johnson Hawks just couldn't beat elite level teams . . because we didn't have enough talent . . and a good enough coach.

Too bad about that 88 - 89 team. The Kevin Willis foot injury killed that season, from a championship perspective. That team was still good at 52 wins . . ( actually better in the W - L column than the 50 win 1988 team ). But they didn't take Milwaukee seriously enough and let Ricky Pierce destroy us in Game 5 at The Omni.

I went to Game 3 and Game 6 of that series. Easily the best crowds I ever seen in Atlanta. The one thing Atlanta does do . . is show up for playoff games. Even the Joe Johnson led Hawks didn't have much problem selling out playoff games. Problem is, if we played a popular team, they may have 3,000 - 5,000 of their fans in the arena. If we get matched up vs the Heat in the 1st round, Lord help us with the amount of bandwagon Heat fans that will be at Philips for Game 3.

Teague never gets calls though. That isn't anything new. How about the fact that we can't stop much of anybody. That's the REAL problem. Can't get calls + can't stop anybody = recipe for a loss No conspiracy theories needed. This has been happening all year when we play decent to good teams.

Flaw? What flaw? Grevis played 28 minutes. Lowry played 27 minutes. Grevis > Lowry in minutes = Grevis is Teague's counterpart in that game. But Lowry got the credit for the win vs Teague, because Teague logged 35 minutes and no other Hawk PG approached 25 minutes. Lowry > Teague Most backup PGs do not play more than the starting PG, unless there's something wrong with the starter that game ( injury, poor play by the starter, great play by the backup, foul trouble, etc . . ) In Lowry's case, he really wasn't having a good game until that 4th quarter. He was actually playing like azz. That's why Grevis was logging all of those minutes in those first 3 quarters in the first place. And in fairness to Teague, Toronto made their run at the start of the 4th with Lowry going up against Dennis and Lou, with Teague on the bench. Of course, Lowry kept it going at the end up the game and outplayed Teague in that final stretch. The stat is what it is. In the game in which the Hawks won, Lowry played 41 minutes. Teague played 40 minutes. And Teague won the matchup. All hail Teague . . . 58% of the time.

Temporary outdoor buys through ad agencies are usually for 30 days, 90 days, 6 months and 12 months at a time. But in the case of the Hawks, it may be better for them to just permanently buy a billboard spot, and change out signage anytime they want. I'm sure they have bought permanent spot around the city. Overally though, I like the creativity of the promotion. Fans rarely have intimate access to NBA stars in which they actually get to hang out and chat with them. And starting it off by creating a 3D billboard about the promotion is definitely going to catch a lot of people's eyes. I'm glad they're finally ramping up the creative marketing, and not relying on borderline goofy gimmicks to sell the Hawks. Now . . create that same type of foam/steel structure, but make it of Al Horford, and put it either inside Philips, or outside near the main ticket offices, so people will know who is the face of the franchise. It may even become somewhat of an attraction for people to see.

Were they engaging the fans though?People thought the account was hacked because of all of the stupid and random stuff that was being posted.I'm all for creativity in marketing, but at least make it clever. Just don't put anything out there.

I guess the Hawks marketing department thought it would be cool for Deadspin to take over the account for a day. SMH . . . we stay losing.

I somewhat disagree with this Paul Millsap can ball, and is a starter caliber player in this league. He showed that he had talent in Utah, and elevated his game when Horford went out to make his 1st All-Star team. Before Teague collapsed in January, people were talking about him sneaking in the back door and possibly making the All-Star team. Korver is the best spot up shooter in the league. Lou Williams was a 6th man of the Year candidate a mere 2 years ago, and had big time scoring games for us before he went out with the ACL last season. Those 4 alone will keep a team "competitive" on most nights. Brand is a decent veteran who can still contribute defensively, and still has an occasional jumper left in him. Mike Scott showed even last year that he can score the basketball. DeMarre Carroll was a key bench guy for the Jazz last year Even Shelvin last year was decent in the backup PG role. This is NOT a talentless team when you match them up against the non-playoff level teams. And at home, they can beat lower level playoff teams. The problem, is that the GM basically brought in offense first type of guys who can't hold their own on defense most nights. So if they don't outscore you in the 100s, they're usually not winning the game. And this is why when Millsap misses a few games, or their defensive guy in DeMarre misses a few games, the entire team suffers. To call this a "terrific culture", when we need to be completely healthy to win games, is just overselling what the GM has done so far. If the GM wasn't going to tank, and he had 30+ million to spend in free agency, there's no way we should've regressed this year as a team ( even with the injuries ). The facts are that even before Horford went down, we were beating lower level teams, and winning some home games vs good teams . . . but we couldn't beat even halfway decent teams on the road to save our lives. Until that changes in the coming seasons, people really can't celebrate the "culture" as being better than what we had in the past. People try to play both sides of the fence with the Hawks. On one hand, they say that the team is sorry, and is overachieving. On the other hand, they say that if we hadn't got everybody hurt in January and February, that we'd be challenging for the #3 seed.

The answer is 34 lottery picks amongst those 4 teams. 9 each for Charlotte, Washington, and Toronto. 7 for Atlanta.Best lottery pick out of this group is probably Pau Gasol ... whom we traded for Shareef.

I was watching Numbers Never Lie on Monday, and they were talking about if it would be difficult for Phil Jackson to turn the Knicks back into contenders. They said the numbers said NO . . because . . . 11 of the 15 teams in the East have made it to the Conference Finals in the past 15 years. When I first saw that, I said . . "no damn way that's right". Then I started doing the research. Number of Eastern Conference appearances by team since 1999: Detroit: 6 . . ( 1 NBA Title ) Miami: 5 . . ( 3 NBA Titles ) Boston: 4 . . ( 1 NBA Title ) Indiana: 4 New Jersey: 2 Cleveland: 2 NY Knicks: 2 Orlando: 2 Chicago: 1 Milwaukee: 1 Philadelphia: 1 So that is indeed 11 Eastern Conference teams that have been to the EC Finals since 1999. The crazy thing is that NINE of those teams have gone to the NBA Finals during that timespan. Only Chicago and Milwaukee didn't make it out of that group. And even Milwaukee can say that they lost in a Game 7 of the EC Finals vs Philly in 2001. So then you look at the 4 who hasn't made it to the EC Finals during that time period, and what was their best playoff result over that time . . . Toronto pushed Philly to 7 games in the EC Semis in 2001. Atlanta played Chicago to 6 games in the 2011 EC Semis. Washington got swept by Miami in the 2005 EC Semis. Charlotte got swept by Orlando in the 1st round of the 2010 playoffs. Honestly, that's incredible . . and depressing as hell from a Hawks fan standpoint. When the conference was at its weakest, we were one of the weaker non-playoff level teams. By the time we became good, the conference was strong and had superstars all over the place. The Joe Johnson playoff teams may have made the EC Finals . . . if they played in the early 2000s. But using that type of hypothetical is meaningless because they DIDN'T play in the early 2000s. They played in the late 2000s - early 2010s. And in this era, we have an NBA top 5 All-Time great playing in the conference. So just like in the 1990s with Jordan and the Bulls, and Bird in the 1980s, Lebron is probably going to take up one of those spots in the EC Finals. So the question are . . can we be that OTHER TEAM in the EC Finals in the years to come? Can we field a team that is good enough to beat the Indianas, the Chicagos, and the Brooklyns in a 2nd round playoff series in the future? Can we be that team that is good enough to get a spot, if Lebron goes down to injury and his team is out of the mix? The infamous NY Knicks in 1999, as an 8 seed, was the lowest seeded team to make it to the EC Finals during that 15 year period. But that was an anomaly, because it was a strike year, and it was a year in which the Knicks had various injuries to Ewing and Spreewell to suppress their win total. But once they were healthy, they were obviously one of the best teams in the conference ( as evident by their 4 - 0 sweep of an Atlanta Hawks team that was 2 games from being the #1 seed in the playoffs that year ). But normally, you have to be either the #1 or #2 team in the East, to make it to the EC Finals. A veteran Boston team made it as a 4 seed a few times. And two other teams made it as a 3 seed. But the trend is that the #1 and #2 seeds will most likely make it. I'm still blown away that 9 East teams have gone to the NBA Finals in the past 15 years . . and we can't even get out of Round 2.

They averaged over 16,500 a game in 2010.This year, we're barely over 14,500 a game in 2014.If the average ticket price is $50 a game + $10 in concessions, that's $60 per person.2000 × $60 = $120,000 lost per game in 2014 compared to 2010.$120,000 × 41 home games = 4.92 MILLION lost

She was 17 in this video.

So if that's the case, people shouldn't be gushing over Dennis' performance last night. After all, it was just against the Bucks.

And Klay Thompson is a RFA in the summer of 2015.

Those are actually perfect examples to what I am talking about. Look at OKC. They hit 3 home runs in Durant, Westbrook, and Harden . . and hit a double in Ibaka. You can't do much better than what they did in those 3 drafts.But when came time to secure their future with those 4, they played around with Harden, after locking up Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka. So they let Harden go. They even got a lot in return in that trade. But what they'll get, are mainly role players. Now look what they have created. They elevated a periodically mediocre team in Houston ( that had to pull a jack move to get Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin . . whom they were going to promote as the star of the team ), and just gave the a superstar talent in Harden. And that superstar talent was good enough to make them attractive enough to get the biggest free agent prize last year in Dwight Howard. All to keep from paying just a little Luxury Tax money. So instead of OKC keeping Harden, and going into battle with a superstar, and 2 bonafide all-stars, and a defensive star for the next 4 5 years . . they've immediately elevated a conference rival to their level ( and arguably above them ), and put them in position to block OKC from even reaching the WC Finals, forget about the NBA Finals. Same goes with Indiana. If they feel that they can't afford to go into the Luxury Tax to maintain a championship level team, they simply deserve what may happen to them in the future. They will simply open the door for big market teams like Chicago, LA, or even the Knicks to improve their teams. The rest of the NBA aren't going to play by the same rules of cap restraint, just because you have teams that refuse to go into the Luxury Tax to win a title.

Miss JBH, we're going to see what this "new universe" starts to look like this summer, when some of these good young players start hitting the market. We're going to see if a team like Golden State balks on re-signing Klay Thompson next summer to a big money deal, when all types of teams go after him. We'll see what the Pacers do, when Lance Stephenson hits the free agent market this summer, especially if the Pacers go to the NBA Finals and he's a significant reason why they went to it. We'll see if the Hawks blink when Paul Millsap comes up for free agency next summer, possibly commanding a 10 to 12+ million a year deal from somebody ( if he's still playing at All-Star level ). The true issue is going to be this: Do you want to save your money and not pay the piper at times . . . or do you want to WIN? Because it's been proven that if you want to WIN in this league, you better be an expert in the draft . . or you better spend money on high quality talent. And that's not going to change with this new CBA. Holding on to cheap 2nd round picks aren't going to get you to the promised land, if you don't already have a superstar ( or multiple superstars ) on the team that can do all of the heavy lifting. The big market teams are only going to periodically dip below that Luxury Tax line for a year, only to go right back over it. Chicago will take their step back next year. The Lakers will do the same. But they are only doing it because they're not in title contention. Had they'd been battling for a title shot, they would be less concerned about the tax penalties. Mark Cuban thought he was smarter than everyone, when he broke up a championship squad to make himself more "flexible" to go after the top free agents of 2013. He thought the entire league would follow his lead. But look what happened. He struck out on getting Deron, because Brooklyn said F-that . . we're not giving up a star player. He struck out on Howard because Houston was a better fit for him in Howard's eyes ( and he looks to be correct on that ). In a world in which everyone is trying to be "flexible", being "flexible" isn't really the competitive advantage that people make it out to be. It may keep your finances in check, but it may not improve your product. If 7 teams have 14 million + in cap space, a 10 million dollar a year player gets to pick and choose where he goes. Each team could pay him what he is worth, so money isn't the issue. The issue will come down to which team is a better fit for that player's talents, and which team is more likely to be in the playoff mix.

The funny thing is . . . that original post pretty much summed up the feelings of 80% of this blog for the past 2 - 3 weeks. But they try to clown the post for using improper grammar? It wouldn't matter if it was typed in pig latin, it would be the truth.