72 reasons to be excited about the Atlanta Hawks: #34 The optimism of training camp

The Atlanta Hawks will hold media day today. It will be filled with reasons why the Hawks can contend for an NBA title this year. Mike Woodson will give you reasons. Joe Johnson will give you reasons. Rick Sund will toss out a few. Place your Vegas bet now because after today, the secret is going to be out. The Hawks are going to be the sleeper team for the third year in a row. Just listen to the Hawks.

They won't be lying either. Jamal Crawford is a good addition. Marvin Williams has been working on his ball handling. Josh Smith plans to take less threes. Woody already let loose a preemptive strike through Sekou Smith talking about playing Jeff Teague and limiting Joe Johnson's minutes. It is all beautiful, wonderful true stuff. I plan to write it all down and read it as a bed time story.

The Hawks have a lot going for them, and when you just look at the positive, the landscape is a feel good wonder world. No player or coach is going to talk about how worried they are about the defensive tandem of Mike Bibby and Jamal Crawford. Al Horford is not going to spend thirty minutes on how he plans to not guard Dwight Howard and Shaquille O'Neal.

And personally, I don't want them to. Barring injury, we are about to enter a month of the team practicing together, working to get better where we as fans get to focus on how far the team has come in recent years. How great it is to be in the position we are in. To talk about how excited we are for this team, that there are real positives to point to. Maybe not 72 reason but a substantial amount that get our blood pumping and our enthusiasm genuinely excited.

In a little over a month, the games will start and you will hear criticisms on this blog. You will hear it creep out of players and coaches. I will have some of your own. But for now, we are undefeated. We don't have one shred of evidence to be negative. All we have is hope. Might as well be excited about it.