It's only one game, but I am REALLY 'disappointed'

[HAWKS1986]

Non existent defense.

Too many turnovers.

Nobody can hit a consistent outside shot.

I know Speedy isn't Jason Kidd or Steve Nash, but I expect a more consistent effort from him. A couple of steals, knock down a couple of outside shots to help keep his team in the game. That hasn't happened-- as of yet...

Speedy needs to evolve into a consistent second or third option...

As for this game, we shouldn't be down 15 to 20 points to Philly...

[Guest Walter]

We played our starters the entire preseason to "learn to win" and we lost the game within the first 5 minutes with SW fouling Webb left and right withing 2 minutes, Philly playing over the top of us, and our horrid offense (not that the defense is much better) under Woody.

Damnit we need a center who can change a game (defensively) in the worst way. The worst way to lose is a (poor interior) team playing over the top of you (with alley-hoops). No post game to match. Too many answers to this problem have been available, some readily, and BK has failed in getting them. Now we have less to bargain with. Shame. a poorly designed, poorly coached team is what we have.

W

[Blunt91]

I agree that Speedy needs to hit his open jump shots. I also agree that we need sometype of lowpost offensive threat. ZaZa's post game was nonexsistent against Daly. Joe's shot was off and no one else in the starting lineup can shoot. Hope Marvin can come back soon.

[HAWKS1986]

I agree.

If the Hawks are going to to get to the 'next level', it MUST start DEFENSIVELY...

We aren't tough enough inside. And when we go against teams with size (i.e. Miami, Orlando) we don't matchup very well..

Do you remember the days when we had Antoine Carr, Cliff Livingston, Konkak, Willis... collectively they played great defense...or even the days of Mutombo, Blaylock in the mid 1990's...

[Guest Walter]

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I agree that Speedy needs to hit his open jump shots. I also agree that we need sometype of lowpost offensive threat. ZaZa's post game was nonexsistent against Daly. Joe's shot was off and no one else in the starting lineup can shoot. Hope Marvin can come back soon.

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...this offseason. Banks, Rondo, Williams, Sergio, etc. (not like we could only trade with Pheonix), other trades. I'd rather have a post defender that can't be fouled out or simply played over the top of than a post scorer, but we need both. We had one somewhat in Harrington and we got zilch for him. Horrible GMing! I'm afraid the horrible coaching will overshadow BK's ineptness, but they both suck and need to go.

W

[Guest Walter]

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I agree. If the Hawks are going to to get to the 'next level', it MUST start DEFENSIVELY...

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We used up all our lottery picks! There all used up. We're not getting anymore. We can trade somebody but it looks like a firesale when you have drafted 5 forwards in the 1st rd and you're wanting to unload 'em. We wouldn't get pocket-lint for SW and he and Childress are the two forwards I prefer traded. A 5th and 6th overall pick and we couldn't get much for them. Just shameful GMing.

No 'next level' without a serious overhaul at this point. Lot's of luck required "winning out" in several trades, enough to acquire not only significantly more talent but at the right positions.

W

[RAHMOR]

As with all losses this one was hard to take. More so for me because I was so amped about the start of the season. We had multiple chances to mount a comback but fell short. I was hoping Josh Smith was holding back in the preseason and would breakout this being his third season and all but I didn't see any signs of that tonight. The good thing about the NBA is that you don't normally have to wait long between games like the NFL. I will be watching Fri. in hopes that we will fair better against the Knicks. No snap judgements for me, at least that what I promised myself this season. GO HAWKS!

btw. Dwight Howard is a word in the dictionary I discovered yet. OMFG.

[drzachary]

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I know Speedy isn't Jason Kidd or Steve Nash, but I expect a more consistent effort from him. A couple of steals, knock down a couple of outside shots to help keep his team in the game. That hasn't happened-- as of yet...

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I would have been happy with, you know, one assist from our alleged point guard.

[AtLaS]

If someone would have told me we would hold Philly to 88 pts on opening night, I would have marked that down as a double digit win. Philly handed us the game about 10 times and we couldn't take advantage of it. If not starting off 20-4 we would have won the game. I think we are missing Al's offense more than I thought. We really didn't get destroyed inside, I don't think our defense was that bad. It's not just Speedy, we missed open shot after open shot after open shot.

Philly looked horrible also. We came out as flat as a team could possibly come out, if Philly would have played Charlotte they would have gotten spanked by 30.. I mean we had no passion at ALL. I mean the players looked like they knew they were gonna lose, even at the beginning of the game! (EXACTLY LIKE LAST YEAR during our 2-16 start), and we had no chemistry to speak of. Our offense just stood there and did nothing and I blame that on Woodson.

Do y'all think the new ball had something to do with our horrible wide open shooting?

On a positive note Chill looked great, and JJ looked great in the 2nd half..

Why do we always begin the season with no passion? Like all the players just have a "disappointed" look on their face. It's the first game of the year!.. get fired up! I blame that on Woodson actually.

BTW something we never really talked about before this season is that we don't have a vocal leader, AH is the only person on our team last year that even RESEMBLED one. It seems like noone says anything to each other, and I think that is a BIG problem. JJ should be our leader but he doesn't talk, not that that is a bad thing but we need some1 with experience to step up and get our team together. That's why Cassell turns every team he goes to into competitors..

[HAWKS1986]

A couple of assists from Speedy would have been 'nice'...

Speedy's unimpressive stat line: 27 minutes, three turnovers and ZERO ASSISTS

[TexasPete]

The Shelden era is officially underway. Man, I'm glad Billy didn't work out any other players. When you just know something...you just know it, right BK? You get that feeling in your gut. After watching about 10 other rookies shine this year well above SW it is gonna feel like we were all kicked in the gut. And to think I bought season tickets again.

[HAWKS1986]

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As with all losses this one was hard to take. More so for me because I was so amped about the start of the season. We had multiple chances to mount a comback but fell short. I was hoping Josh Smith was holding back in the preseason and would breakout this being his third season and all but I didn't see any signs of that tonight. The good thing about the NBA is that you don't normally have to wait long between games like the NFL. I will be watching Fri. in hopes that we will fair better against the Knicks. No snap judgements for me, at least that what I promised myself this season. GO HAWKS!

btw. Dwight Howard is a word in the dictionary I discovered yet. OMFG.

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Dwight Howard had 27 points in an Orlando win over Chicago...He is really starting to take his game to another level...

[DJlaysitup]

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...If not starting off 20-4 we would have won the game...

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I dunno. It looked to me like the Sixers were playing in spurts. I think they were toying with us somewhat. Not to be too negative, but I think they could have turned it up a notch or two if they had been forced to.

But hey...it's just the first game.

[Guest Walter]

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The Shelden era is officially underway.

Man, I'm glad Billy didn't work out any other players. When you just know something...you just know it, right BK? You get that feeling in your gut. After watching about 10 other rookies shine this year well above SW it is gonna feel like we were all kicked in the gut. And to think I bought season tickets again.

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He's done enough damage already. I don't want him picking a coach, trading anyone, anything. Keep him away from even our 2nd rd picks. At least bring in (pronto) a president of basketball operations or someone to trump BK.

The decision to promise SW and not tryout the top talent or allow yourself to participate in draft day trades might just be the single dumbest GM move in history not taking into account hindsight (alah, not drafting MJ = hindsight). It's doesn't take hindsight to know that handcuffing and hog-tieing your team when you don't have to (as NOBODY would have drafted SW above 5!!!) is very bad.

I don't think the MW over a Pg decision was very good either, but it wasn't utterly unfounded and as team damning (unless you consider only Paul).

W

[sinctybldh]

we need to get a new gm and coach. I hope that this will be the end after this season. I am tired of this mockery. How long are we going to suck for, the next century? Nice to see we wasted a pick on a stiff.

[sinctybldh]

anyone who thought this team would be good, think again. It shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. Just about every team in the NBA has way more talent then we do. We have a couple building blocks,nothing more and from the looks of it we are still years away.

[Guest Walter]

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anyone who thought this team would be good, think again. It shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. Just about every team in the NBA has way more talent then we do. We have a couple building blocks,nothing more and from the looks of it we are still years away.

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...and the biggest question is "a couple of years away" from what exactly? With picks like SW, at best mediocrity. We still had to take risks where they could be very rewarding ones. The risk of taking MW over a more valuable, needed Pg (like Paul)? Not likely as rewarding given our roster and with regards to Paul a proven failure. The risk of taking SW at 5 and not even trying out the best or allowing for a trade? Beyond the dumbest move a 26 win team GM could make.

We consistently need more from BK and he consistently gives less and less. We need change.

W

[TheDude]

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I agree that Speedy needs to hit his open jump shots. I also agree that we need sometype of lowpost offensive threat. ZaZa's post game was nonexsistent against Daly. Joe's shot was off and no one else in the starting lineup can shoot. Hope Marvin can come back soon.

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...this offseason. Banks, Rondo, Williams, Sergio, etc. (not like we could only trade with Pheonix), other trades. I'd rather have a post defender that can't be fouled out or simply played over the top of than a post scorer, but we need both. We had one somewhat in Harrington and we got zilch for him. Horrible GMing! I'm afraid the horrible coaching will overshadow BK's ineptness, but they both suck and need to go.

W

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dude, you need to fing relax...you spend the entire offseason whining about the sheldon williams draft pick so we lose the first game and once again you bring it back to that..L WRIGHT DID NOT PLAY TONIGHT!

Why did we lose tonight? Simple, we could not hit a shot. It's not like they scored 120 points. THEY SCORED 88 POINTS! There was a lot of balls that seemed to fall their way. In the 4th especially we would STOP THEM DEFENSIVELY but the ball would bounce their way.

First game of season, we're missing one of the key pieces of our interior defense that we picked up in the offseason and our only other guy is a rookie..A ROOKIE!..i actually thought given this was HIS FIRST GAME and he was playing against CHRIS WEBBER that Shelden played well.

We got down early and could not hit a shot. It always seemed that when we were making a run, we couldnt hit that big shot to put us close. Lue made some bad decisions, JoshSmith made some good plays but got frustrated, JJ slipped on the floor right before half and it ended up being a possible 4 point swing, and you could tell there was no cohesiveness....

Screw defense. Last year that was our biggest concern, but i have no worries about that this year. Scoring is big. Who will be our 2nd guy?

Walter, i sure as hell hope at some point in this season you will have some sort of opinion that has nothing to do with Billy Knight drafting Shelden Williams.

[Duff_Man]

Is it really time to push the panic button? We outscored them over the last 3 quarters and held them to 88 total. Keep in mind this is now a new team...Speedy is back and playing, and Marvin is now out. Let's all relax. We play 82 games.

[TheDude]

and i actually figured we would lose this game (see the 5 game predictions thread) because we've still got young guys learning to play with each other and you're going against a decent team at home WITH TWO LONGTIME VETERAN STARS leading the way.

People, we need to be logical about this. I've got big hopes like everyone else but i think it will come in the form of a better start overall than last year with just as good/if not better finish of the year.