Light at the end of the tunnel

[Atlantaholic]

    So here we stand having entered December with everything that could go wrong having gone wrong for the young Hawks this season. John Collins' suspension and Huerter's injury just when he was starting to find his sea legs gutted the already thin rookie filled crew. To add insult to injury(suspension*) the NBA unleashed upon this rickety team the toughest schedule to start the season in recent memory. The results have been... yea.... pretty much as bad as one could realistically expect with a team starting the likes of  Cam Reddish, Deandre Bembry, Alex Len and Damian Jones on the regular against a gauntlet of MVP candidates, super teams and road back-to-backs that even good teams would grimace at.

A lot of the fans have already openly mutinied against sophomore coach LP, ravenously calling for his head in virtually every post on the game threads, and it's tough to blame them as some nights the team has looked like it doesn't belong in the NBA, while other nights they have fought hard against good teams like the Pacers, Raptors, and Bucks, just to fall apart late... Hope has seemingly been snuffed out by heartbreakers and laughers and questionable coaching decisions and it's all added up to one of the more disappointing seasons to date.

But guess what Hawks faithful? What would you say if I were to tell you that I am starting to see some light breaking through the long overbearing seemingly never ending darkness that is the 2019-2020 season? Seems like a crazy thought? The product of a desperate sick mind of an Atlantaholic that has had to resort to too much of the cerveza to make it through the last few months of Atlanta sports misery?? Well hear me out first before you jump to judgment.

After yesterdays blowout win that snapped the miserable 10 game losing streak that saw so many of our fans jump ship, the few of us who have dared to stick around and look at the NBA standings this morning will have been surprised to find that the Hawks are only 4 games out of the 8th seed, some quick fiddling with the abacus reveals that with 21 games in the books, there are still 61 games left to play. 4 games out, 61 games left to make up the distance. Season is not over yet folks, heck... it's really just began. On top of that fact, taking a gander at the remaining schedule further reveals that the brutal first quarter Tsunami that the team has had to navigate through is subsiding and December winds are starting to sway much more kindly with our next 9 games coming against the beatable Nets (twice), Charlotte, Chicago, Indiana, New York,  with only the Los Angeles, Miami and Utah games looking like longshots.

Did I mention that our favorite ginger sniper Huerter is set to return either next game against Brooklyn or if not against Charlotte? 

So more hands on deck, calmer seas, and if we are somehow able to squeeze out a respectable 4 or 5 wins during this stretch we’ll more than likely be just a few games out of the 8^th seed as we get our banished and disgraced first mate back... Hopefully with a massive chip on his shoulder and hungry to atone for his unintentional treachery.

 As I said Hawks fans, season isn’t over. Maybe I’m a damn fool for still having some hope in this raggedy bunch of misfits, G-leaguers, and baby birds, but I’m still not giving up on them for this season just yet, not with so much basketball yet to play, not with our crew’s full reunion right around the bend and Captain Ice Trae the Unmerciful with his hands firmly on the helm.

What say you, fellow Hawks’ fans? The abused and punished, forgotten and mocked? Will you join this fool and madman on the hype ship to an unlikely playoff push? Even if we fail, even if the Hawks and up Hawking the season up and sending us sinking like a stone once again into the depths of the lottery… Well, at least there’ll be rum! 

Edited December 3, 2019 by Atlantaholic

[REHawksFan]

24 minutes ago, Atlantaholic said:

    So here we stand having entered December with everything that could go wrong having gone wrong for the young Hawks this season. John Collins' suspension and Huerter's injury just when he was starting to find his sea legs gutted the already thin rookie filled crew. To add insult to injury(suspension*) the NBA unleashed upon this rickety team the toughest schedule to start the season in recent memory. The results have been... yea.... pretty much as bad as one could realistically expect with a team starting the likes of  Cam Reddish, Deandre Bembry, Alex Len and Damian Jones on the regular against a gauntlet of MVP candidates, super teams and road back-to-backs that even good teams would grimace at.

A lot of the fans have already openly mutinied against sophomore coach LP, ravenously calling for his head in virtually every post on the game threads, and it's tough to blame them as some nights the team has looked like it doesn't belong in the NBA, while other nights they have fought hard against good teams like the Pacers, Raptors, and Bucks, just to fall apart late... Hope has seemingly been snuffed out by heartbreakers and laughers and questionable coaching decisions and it's all added up to one of the more disappointing seasons to date.

But guess what Hawks faithful? What would you say if I were to tell you that I am starting to see some light breaking through the long overbearing seemingly never ending darkness that is the 2019-2020 season? Seems like a crazy thought? The product of a desperate sick mind of an Atlantaholic that has had to resort to too much of the cerveza to make it through the last few months of Atlanta sports misery?? Well hear me out first before you jump to judgment.

After yesterdays blowout win that snapped the miserable 10 game losing streak that saw so many of our fans jump ship, the few of us who have dared to stick around and look at the NBA standings this morning will have been surprised to find that the Hawks are only 4 games out of the 8th seed, some quick fiddling with the abacus reveals that with 21 games in the books, there are still 61 games left to play. 4 games out, 61 games left to make up the distance. Season is not over yet folks, heck... it's really just began. On top of that fact, taking a gander at the remaining schedule further reveals that the brutal first quarter Tsunami that the team has had to navigate through is subsiding and December winds are starting to sway much more kindly with our next 9 games coming against the beatable Nets (twice), Charlotte, Chicago, Indiana, New York,  with only the Los Angeles, Miami and Utah games looking like longshots.

Did I mention that our favorite ginger sniper Huerter is set to return either next game against Brooklyn or if not against Charlotte? 

So more hands on deck, calmer seas, and if we are somehow able to squeeze out a respectable 4 or 5 wins during this stretch we’ll more than likely be just a few games out of the 8^th seed as we get our banished and disgraced first mate back... Hopefully with a massive chip on his shoulder and hungry to atone for his unintentional treachery.

 As I said Hawks fans, season isn’t over. Maybe I’m a damn fool for still having some hope in this raggedy bunch of misfits, G-leaguers, and baby birds, but I’m still not giving up on them for this season just yet, not with so much basketball yet to play, not with our crew’s full reunion right around the bend and Captain Ice Trae the Unmerciful with his hands firmly on the helm.

What say you, fellow Hawks’ fans? The abused and punished, forgotten and mocked? Will you join this fool and madman on the hype ship to an unlikely playoff push? Even if we fail, even if the Hawks and up Hawking the season up and sending us sinking like a stone once again into the depths of the lottery… Well, at least there’ll be rum! 

I'm down with any reason to be optimistic.  Using my own abacus:

First 21 games: Teams are cumulative 240-177 (.572 WP or equivalent of a 47 win team) 

Next 21 games: Teams are cumulative 218-199 (.523 WP or equivalent of a 43 win team)

It's a start. Also worth noting that Bonehead is only out for 9 of the next 21 games. Those 9 games are against 5 teams with .500 or worse records and against teams with a cumulative 95-89 record (.516 WP or 42-win team). Can the Hawks find a way to go 5-4 over those nine and then be healthy at 10-20?  That would be best case, imo. 

Are we grasping at straws? Sure. But desperate times call for desperate measures. 

[cam1218]

I was looking at our schedule and thinking about this today too. I can't believe we are only 4 games back of the 8th seed. It really shows how bad the East is, but it'd be nice if we could take advantage. 

Making the playoffs as an 8th seed in the East with a record under .500 isn't much to brag about, but it would be good experience for our guys. We did that twice during our playoff streak and both of those were actually some of my favorite playoff series. In 07/08 we finished 37-45 and took the Celtics to 7 games. I felt that really helped the young group and they enjoyed some solid seasons and first round playoff success after that. In 13/14 we finished 38-44 and really should have beat the Pacers in game 6 to win the series. The next year we won 60 games (we also added a healthy Al Horford back).

If we go 32-29 we will hit the 37-45 mark. Is it good enough to get in the playoffs? Can we play at that level once John and Kevin come back, assuming there are no more injuries? I really don't know, but I do feel that hopefully the worst is behind us and we can start enjoying more than just watching to see what Trae does each night. Even though that is fun, I also want some victories to go with it.