Anyone else a bit disillusioned?

[Johnnybravo4]

Hey I'm just glad my Alma Mater (Georgia State) has a football team now. I can transfer all of my Hawks passion to them. Anything else goes to my Tennessee Titans. I will just be a passive observer of the Hawks this year, but there's no chance that I'd buy a tix. If they moved to Seattle I wouldn't shed a tear.

[TomSelleck]

If anything ownership has been too generous. They gave too much money to Marvin Williams and too much money to Joe Johnson they can't do anything else.

[Diesel]

For me, that is very much true. However, I have to add that the teams around us have been going up and down in the time that it has taken us to simply go up. They must have figured out something we haven't...because even at our highpoint, we're still not as relevant as teams like Boston, Miami, and I would even go so far as to say Chicago. It's only a matter of time before NY gets its act together and lands somebody and with Miami and Boston setting fire to this Voltron trend, I imagine they'll not only be looking to add one guy like Melo or CP3, but they'll also be looking to add another.

Hammer meets nail. That one sentence says it all.

I wouldn't say that...

Let's look at some teams:

NY.. They are around us. They have cleaned house twice and are no good.

Philly.. They are around us. Who is their coach? They have had several. They're not better than us.

Chicago.. Again.. Not better.

Indy... Is Rick Carlisle still there? or Isiah? Anyway, they are not better than us.

Miami... we beat up on Miami every year.

Uhm... Charlotte?... Uhm No.

Can you say NJ?

I don't see these teams that have changed coaches and has surpassed us.

Now let's look at those good teams:

Boston. doc Rivers is a fixture in Bostno.

Orlando.

The point is..consistency is good. Especially if you have talent.

Our plan was simple.

Draft talent and let the team grow with it's rookie coach and then turn it over.

What happened was 2 bad draft picks. To go with three good ones and a great trade.

We didn't meet the need with talent but we got enough.

The second phase of the plan was to drop Woody for more experience.

In this particular case, lacking all the talent and an unforeseen recession leads us away from a big name coach.

Thats where we are.

If anything ownership has been too generous. They gave too much money to Marvin Williams and too much money to Joe Johnson they can't do anything else.

We can trade Joe. He will get us a good ending contract, some draft picks and maybe some midlevel players.

However, that's just giving up.

[lethalweapon3]

Miami... we beat up on Miami every year.

Now THAT's enthusiasm, people!

~lw3

[TomSelleck]

We can trade Joe. He will get us a good ending contract, some draft picks and maybe some midlevel players.

However, that's just giving up.

Joe Johnson has to have one of the most untradable contracts in the NBA now.

[Wretch]

I wouldn't say that...

Let's look at some teams:

NY.. They are around us. They have cleaned house twice and are no good.

Philly.. They are around us. Who is their coach? They have had several. They're not better than us.

Chicago.. Again.. Not better.

Indy... Is Rick Carlisle still there? or Isiah? Anyway, they are not better than us.

Miami... we beat up on Miami every year.

Uhm... Charlotte?... Uhm No.

Can you say NJ?

I don't see these teams that have changed coaches and has surpassed us.

You misunderstand my point. It's not about who is better than us right now. It's about how teams' up and down cycles are quicker and more meaningful than our "up" cycles. NY is not better than us and they have been in a tailspin for God knows how long. BUT, they went out and got an experienced coach (unlike us). Then they went out and signed a major free agent (unlike us). Now throw in the fact that Carmelo and many other major talents WANT to go to NY (unlike us)... They've already got good draft position and a couple of young talents. It won't take long for that city to draft, trade for, or lure the kind of talent they need to surpass us.

Philly is not better than us, but they do have talent and they did just add a #2 pick. They're also rumored to be working on prying Larry Brown from Charlotte. Chicago, already loaded with talent, adds Boozer. Charlotte is not better than us... Not record-wise, but they sure seem to have our number. How long before they add a guy that takes them right over the top of us? It's not unreal to think that Michael Jordan gets that expansion franchise to the ECF or NBA finals before our 40 year old franchise. NJ is not better than anyone in the league, but they've got owners that have money and are willing to spend it, they got the coach that we were too cheap to pursue, and they've also got draft picks. And how sad is it that Avery Johnson actually PREFERRED to sign there? Oh and he just decided to HO-HUM hire a former coach of the year candidate as an assistant.

The point isn't that they're better than us. The point is, we don't know how to get things done. If we sit still (like we always do) these are the teams that will be making the moves that we SHOULD be making. And they'll be going to the conference finals and NBA Championship just like they have for the past 40 years. Miami (who used to not be better than us just like all of those teams on your list) may be ready to make it's 2nd trip to the finals. Which is the bigger point here...

ALL of those teams, with the exception of Charlotte (a new team) and Chicago, have been to the ECF or the NBA finals in the past decade. You can add to that list Cleveland, Milwaukee, Orlando, and Detroit. Who is left out of the Eastern Conference that HASN'T been?

YOUR Atlanta Hawks!

SOMETHING is wrong here. Something has been wrong for a long time and it IS exactly the perception that consistency is good enough. We can't win 50 games and sit on our hands.

Especially when we just got handed the worst sweep in the history of NBA basketball.