My bold prediction

[Plastic Man]

39 wins. that's triple from 2 seasons ago. 2 consecutive years of +13 wins. i think we could sneak into the 8th seed at 39-43. we lost so many close games the past 2 seasons; we have more experience now and should be able to win more of the close games.

[phx_suns]

LMAO

*Bookmarks this thread*

[gsuteke]

the NBA is cyclical

keep laughing fool

[gutz]

Quote:

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Here are the teams in the East that are better than the Hawks: Miami, Orlando, Washington, New Jersey, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago. Indiana has more talent, but all this off the court mess will impact their on the court performance. That puts Atlanta, Milwaukee, Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia and Charlotte somewhat in the same boat. I think Charlotte and Philadelphia bring up the rear. If you think that this team wins more than 41 games, then you have to say that they are at least the 7th best team in the conference. I think looking at the rosters of the other elite teams that is a reach for this season. I'm thinking 34-38 wins, barely missing the playoffs. Next season this team returns to the post-season.

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I just don't see how you can say Washington is better than us. Washington did absolutely nothing in the offseason to help their team who only won like 40 games last year. They even lost Jeffries who was their best defender. If anything they have dropped. We should beat them this year easily. I know Orlando is a very solid team after making that run they had at the end of last year eventhough it was against teams who had nothing to play for but I wouldn't consider them right off the bat to be hands down better than us. We will see though.

[Duff_Man]

Last year after Collier died, we got off to a slow start. We got robbed in at least 5 games in addition to that. I will say that we should have been 5-10 wins better last year. I will say 35 wins and barely missing the playoffs.

[Popeye]

We should definetly be better than Bobcats.

[TexasPete]

35-47. The East is better and we will have to learn how to win the close games, especially on the road, and that will take some time. Speedy MUST stay healthy and his track record suggets that is a stretch. Lue doesn't defend well enough to play PG full time so we need Claxton. We also must play better defense. I'm not sold on Woody. I think he is the biggest detriment to the Hawks.

I know everybody here is just chomping at the bit for a winner and we will actually be a reasonable team this year. We will no longer be the laughingstock of the league but the East is better and we are going to keep making incremental improvement every year. Thats not so bad and if we get a great coach in here...2007-08 can be awesome.

[Plainview1981]

Quote:

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35-47. The East is better and we will have to learn how to win the close games, especially on the road, and that will take some time. Speedy MUST stay healthy and his track record suggets that is a stretch. Lue doesn't defend well enough to play PG full time so we need Claxton. We also must play better defense. I'm not sold on Woody. I think he is the biggest detriment to the Hawks.

I know everybody here is just chomping at the bit for a winner and we will actually be a reasonable team this year. We will no longer be the laughingstock of the league but the East is better and we are going to keep making incremental improvement every year. Thats not so bad and if we get a great coach in here...2007-08 can be awesome.

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I think I predicted 23 wins last year.... I'll say 32 wins this year.

[BusBoyIsBack]

I think we will initially miss the offensive production of Al and Marvin needs more experience before he's ready to step in and fully replace it. Josh SMith also has to be more consistent and show up before the all-star break. Shelden also needs some games under his belt before he takes a leadership role.

I think 35-38 wins this year and 45 next year. But I won't be ridiculously shocked if we do go over 40 wins like the outside world will be because of how much talent is on this team right now.

[TexasPete]

ESPN's first power ratings have the Hawks DEAD LAST. I guess the only optimism about the Hawks is on this board. I think ESPN is missing the boat because they don't understand how much young and talented players grow during an offseason. Childress, Smith, MW, and ZAZA are all going to be better players....period.

But this stuff about playoffs and 40+ wins is also aggressive. With the East better I don't see that kind of year. And Woody is flat out overmatched on most nights. If we had a more competant coach I could see close to 40. That isn't the case, but this year will be a lot better than last.

[AHF]

My projection for this season is 35 wins +/- 3. I don't think we will have the consistency to make the playoffs but do think we will be significantly improved with greater roster stability and maturation of our young talent.

[mrhonline]

Wow. I've never been one of the pessimists, but I see 35 wins this season. IMHO, going from a poor team to an average team is a lot harder than some of you are making it out to be.

The Hawks are still the youngest team in the league, lost their 2nd best scorer, and have several players new to the rotation (Williams, Wright, Claxton).

My hope is that they squeak into the playoffs, but I'd settle for consistently beating the bad teams on the road and beating most teams at home.