HawksTalk Takes Flight

Welcome to HawksTalk. It is my pleasure to cover the Hawks for this upcoming season as I think they remain among the top five teams in the Eastern Conference and have the talent to grow into one of the contenders. I’ve had the pleasure of covering the NBA for Fanball.com and OwnersEdge.com for the past 20 months and also write SmokingPistons.com. I couldn’t allow the Hawks blog to go silent any longer.

We’re already four games into the preseason so there is a lot to catch up on. While I typically avoid bullet point posts, there’s so much to recap. So here are my thoughts on the Hawks offseason and preseason. Expect more thorough analysis on many of these points in the near future.

• Jamal Crawford was a steal. For one, the Hawks gave up useless parts. Secondly, he’s a very good ball handler who can take over when Mike Bibby goes through his inevitable slumps. Third, he finally gives the Hawks a serious scoring threat off the bench a la Jason Terry. Finally, he’s an expiring contract.

• Joe Johnson made a HUGE mistake in turning down $60 million over four seasons and I think that could haunt him this season. No way he gets $15 million per season next summer if the cap falls to $50-$52 million as expected. Good effort by the Hawks though.

• Ownership should be applauded for re-signing Bibby, Marvin Williams, and Zaza Pachulia.

• That said, I’m not a huge fan of Bibby’s future and have never been sold on Williams. Jeff Teague is good insurance for the aging Bibby. Coach Mike Woodson seems convinced that Marvin will take a big step forward this season. If he does, the Hawks are a serious threat in the East. I have my doubts, though.

• Al Horford’s sophomore season was a disappointment. He needs to start playing bigger. Thank goodness for Pachulia, who steps up whenever the Hawks need him to…which was too often last season.

• Josh Smith was also a disappointment last season. Everyone knows about the decline in blocks, but what happened to his free-throw shooting?  He had not hit less than 68.8 percent of his free throws in any of his first four seasons and then shot 58.8 percent last season. That’s something that has to be remedied this season. He’s hit 13-of-20 (65 percent) this preseason. The Hawks were 28^th out of 30 in the league in free-throw shooting last season.

• Teague looks like he was the right pick. His speed can not be taught and he shows no fear on the court. Teague can score, but can he get minutes?

• Joe Smith was a great veteran pick up that should help in the second half of the season. It’s a bit concerning to already see him sitting out games with a sore knee.

• Coach Mike Woodson is in the final year of his contract, and deserves to coach the entirety of it. He and his squad know each other well by now and should have built a mutual respect. One of his biggest challenges will be competing for the No. 4 seed in the East while preparing his team to play their best in the postseason.

I’ll be back with more tomorrow and prior to the season come back to check out predictions, analysis, and some hopefully entertaining reading. Thanks for taking the time to stop by and look forward to consistent Hawks Talk right here throughout the 2009-10 season.

Tags: Hawks blog, Hawks preseason, Hawks season preview, Jamal Crawford, Jeff Teague, Joe Johnson, Joe Smith, Josh Smith, Marvin Williams, Mike Bibby, Mike Woodson, Zaza Pachulia