Nice Timing Mark Bradely!! ??

[TheTruth]

I agree with you about quite a few things, but salivating over a 9 game under .500 performance just because it is the "best basketball we have played in 10 years" is pretty damn pathetic.

Our bright future will begin when we get these stooges out of here...

[BusBoyIsBack]

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I agree with you about quite a few things, but salivating over a 9 game under .500 performance just because it is the "best basketball we have played in 10 years" is pretty damn pathetic.

Our bright future will begin when we get these stooges out of here...

It's a testament to how pathetic our play has been over these years and why we've been the laughing stock of the league.

To expect Detroit Pistons/San Antonio Spurs esque success given this pathetic recent history of this franchise is absurd.

Making the playoffs, no matter how many games below .500 we are is a step in the right direction.

If you don't see that, then you haven't been following this team closely over the past 10 years

[TheTruth]

I never said it's not a step in the right direction. With our sorry past, hell, anything is a step in the right direction. I'm just saying not enough people seek realism as fans...they just discount the real issues just because we get a little taste of "success."

[BusBoyIsBack]

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I never said it's not a step in the right direction. With our sorry past, hell, anything is a step in the right direction. I'm just saying not enough people seek realism as fans...they just discount the real issues just because we get a little taste of "success."

But that's the thing, the fact that we have the 4th youngest roster in the NBA suggests that it could be more that just a little taste. It suggests we could do more than just make it, get swept, and suck for the next 10 years.

It suggests we actually have something to build off of in the upcoming seasons with 60% of our starting lineup 22 and younger.

This team could be damn good two years from now with the potential progression of our young front court players.

And by then Acie Law could very well be ready to take over the reigns at PG, and Joe Johnson will by no means be an old man either

[Lascar78]

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If your team is playing their best basketball in 10 years and have one of the brightest futures in the league with the 4th youngest roster, you don't write trash like this

I see. I thought the press was free here, but I guess not.

[TroyMcClure]

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It deserves ripping. Bradley very rarely writes about the Hawks yet he chooses a time when we're in the 8th playoff spot winning 5 of 7 to say the Hawks aren't a good team. Wow! What a revelation. Were 10 games under .500. Really? you think we're not as good as the Celtics? I'm glad we have sports columnist to help us understand the game.

His point seemed to be that getting Bibby made us better but not good enough. Which would be a great point if we sacrificed our future to get him. But we didn't. So he really has no point other than to say 'if you think the Hawks are a contender then you're wrong' As my daughter would say 'what a jack rabbit'

You guys just don't get it. You can't look at this in the vacuum of this one season. He's saying that the whole Hawks organization sucks and just making the playoffs won't matter. He cites a very relevant example in the Thrashers as to how that can all vanish so quickly. Funny how some of you don't want to look at that angle.

If you've actually read the paper and not just glanced over the last 15 years, you'd know he is a very good writer and usually on point. The fact that you guys are blasting him for this is beyond silly, and as I mentioned about the Thrashers situation, dishonest as well.

Lastly, he's a sports writer for god's sake! What do you want from him?

[BusBoyIsBack]

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You guys just don't get it. You can't look at this in the vacuum of this one season. He's saying that the whole Hawks organization sucks and just making the playoffs won't matter. He cites a very relevant example in the Thrashers as to how that can all vanish so quickly. Funny how some of you don't want to look at that angle.

If you've actually read the paper and not just glanced over the last 15 years, you'd know he is a very good writer and usually on point. The fact that you guys are blasting him for this is beyond silly, and as I mentioned about the Thrashers situation, dishonest as well.

Lastly, he's a sports writer for god's sake! What do you want from him?

The fact that he's blasting the entire organization is what makes it absurd.

Sure 30-42 isn't anything to write home about. But to blast the Hawks organization as it currently stands is absurd.

Exactly let's not look at this single season in a vaccum. The idea of trashing this team's future when the future looks so ridiculously bright is laughable

We are one of the youngest teams in the league for crying out loud. Sorry that we aren't World Champ contenders with 3 of our 5 starters 21 and 22 years old

How the hell can you blast the organization when they put together this young talented squad that is arguably only second to Portland as far as young talent?

And 3 of the 5 current starters were made in wheelin and dealing moves.

We made a move to get Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, and Mike bibby. We even made one to get Acie Law.

We blew this team up from the ground up to build this exciting future. Unfortunately with such pessimistic fans and sports writers, no one seems to notice.

[TroyMcClure]

I thought I would paste the essence of his point.

The Bibby trade was the right move because it gave the Hawks - sorry to bring this up for the 1,000th time - a real point guard and jump-started a team that mightn’t have made the playoffs otherwise, but will simply making the playoffs in the uninspiring East be enough? Enough for this city to get energized over the prospects of a first-round loss? Enough to change our longstanding perception of this flailing franchise?

We have only to look toward the Hawks’ brothers-in-Spirit for the answers. The Thrashers made the playoffs last season after being propped up by a flurry of deadline moves - they even won their division - but were swept by the Rangers in Round 1. Now they’re without a coach and without Marian Hossa and they hold the 28th-best record in a 30-team league.

It seemed like a big deal at the time, the Thrashers finally qualifying for the postseason. In hindsight it seems rather less. Unless something changes with the Hawks - unless, say, Salim Stoudamire turns into Vinnie Johnson and Solomon Jones into John Salley - the same will happen with them. They’ll get in and be gone in the wink of an eye, and we’ll ask ourselves, not for the first time, “Is that all there is?”

So... how is he wrong, again? We aren't building toward anything. This may be a high water mark for this organization.

[AHF]

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It seemed like a big deal at the time, the Thrashers finally qualifying for the postseason. In hindsight it seems rather less. Unless something changes with the Hawks - unless, say, Salim Stoudamire turns into Vinnie Johnson and Solomon Jones into John Salley - the same will happen with them. They’ll get in and be gone in the wink of an eye, and we’ll ask ourselves, not for the first time, “Is that all there is?”

I think the comparison to the Thrashers is a good one, in part because there is a real contrast to the two scenarios.

The Thrashers (a) gave up real future value for (b) 1/2 season rentals. At the start of the next season, they didn't keep any key pieces they acquired through the trades and lost out on some pieces that could have helped them moving forward as a result of unloading for the playoff run.

The Hawks (a) gave up cap room for (b) at worst a 1 1/2 season term from Bibby. At the start of next season, the Hawks will still have Bibby; won't have given up much that could have helped them past this season; and will have the same core in place (assuming the Joshes resign as the ASG and its representatives claim) that got to the playoffs this year - except this very young core will only continue to develop as they mature. Bibby is an asset on the Court and can also be moved for other players, picks, etc. as a valuable expiring contract.

I think the Hawks made a much better move that has very limited downside and some real long-term upside for the franchise compared to the much riskier "this season or nothing" moves from the Thrashers.