The Peachtree Hoops Podcast: Joe Johnson and the Future of the Atlanta Hawks

The one area where I disagree is Al at center. If you go with the premise that it is better to build around Al and Josh, then Al has to play center. Yes, he’s not going to be comfortable going head to head with a bigger, functional center like Brooks Lopez, but lets face the facts. How many of those guys are there in the NBA? Not many. Al is already an upper echelon center in the NBA. He’s 8th among centers in PER. He’s 3rd among centers in win shares, and he’s 4th among centers in win shares per 48. The guy is in the top 10 in the NBA period for win shares and win shares per 48. What’s amazingly cruel to me is that the Hawks obviously do not recognize what a great talent and player they have in Al Horford.

With Josh Smith, you have a player that even though he doesn’t seem to understand his limitations, he was 18th in the NBA in 2009-2010 in PER and was 4th in the NBA in defensive win shares. The only players in the league who have more defensive win shares than Josh Smith are Dwight Howard, Gerald Wallace, and LeBron James. The problem with Josh is that he can’t shoot anything outside of 10 feet. If you go on the premise that Al should be a power forward, then that puts Josh at small forward, where he is going to be very much out of place.

If you move Josh to allow Al to be a power forward, then the player you put at center next to Al is likely not going to be nearly as good as Al as a center or as good as Josh as a power forward.

….that the Hawks have officially made the offer.

With this group of players, including Joe Johnson, the Atlanta Hawks will win the NBA championship in the next two seasons.

All you haters will be eating your words about the team and will be saying how great they are and how they can repeat for years if they keep the team together. Time to get behind this team because these guys are the best shot Atlanta has at winning a championship in years.

We will be deeper and more athletic than any team in the NBA. They have the potential to play the best defense in the league. The offense has no where to go but up with a new system in place.

Go Hawks!!!

We are going to be just fine. The problem in Atlanta wasn’t the players, it was the stagnation. The ball was in Joe’s hands for 15 seconds out of the 24 and then we had 9 seconds to pass and find a good shot. I think it’s safe to assume that after, what was it, 5 seasons with Woodson? Point being, after that many seasons of watching Woodson’s failures, I think its absurd to assume Larry Drew is going to make those same mistakes…..

We have a great group of guys on roster now, Jamal’s 11 million comes off the books next year. He may decide to resign with Atlanta for cheaper, as well. He does have family that already moved here, we gave him his first playoff experience, we’re about to have a new PG running the show in Teague and he will be able to push the ball, and he will still get starters minutes off the bench and the flexibility to score the ball. Hopefully, he will resign at the MLE of around 6 mil, but we’ll see.

Point being, our team is just fine even after signing Joe. We may not win a title while he is here, but we’re not going to become a terrible team. We will just be the same old Hawks we have been, above average in the regular season (as we will continue to win more games as our young players mature – because we still are quite young) but then tank in the playoffs. It sucks, but at least we can all be happy that we will win a lot of regular season games :/

I am from Atlanta. I was a season ticket holder the past two years. And I cant stand how negative the fans/ bloggers/ other people who have never seen this team play talk garbage about them.

The Hawks could not have played worse than they did from game 3 in the Milwaukee series onto the end of the Magic series. But anyone who watched them play any other time of the year for the past couple of seasons knows that they can beat any team in the league when they are playing well and are healthy. As they continue to play more games together, they will learn how to stay at that level for longer periods of time.

You have to remember that this team is still one of the youngest in the league. How many championship teams to have there been in the NBA with young teams? Yes, Joe will be 35 when his contract runs out, but the Hawks made that deal to win now. They have the talent to do it now and they can put it together for a playoff run and play to their potential, they can beat anybody in the NBA.

Some of best names that played for under $1 million From Yahoo Free Agent Tracker Some are Unrestricted some are Restricted.
Centers: First
Detroit ‘s own Ben Wallace , 7 Ft Earl Barron 7 games but in April; Avg 11.7points and 11.1 rebounds
7fter Patrict O’Bryant only got in 11 games but played April 12th, Anthony Tolliver 11.7 points 7.0 Reb in 46 games had 19 point game
Power Forwards:
Ike Diougu didn’t play in 2009
Juwan Howard played 73 Games 6pts 4.6Reb but had 33minutes 16 points 3 reb, a 12 point 12 reb game, 16 points, and 14 point 5 reb.
Small Forwards:
Louis Armundson, Rodney Carney,Jawad Williams,
Jonathon Bender 7ft Small Forward 4.7 points 2.1 Reb in 11.41 min.
Shooting Guards:
 Wes Matthews® (FA) 9.4 points 2.3 Reb 1.5 assists
Jerry Stackhouse (U) (FA) 8.5ppg 2.4rpg 1.7apg 42 games 20.23 minutes
Anthony Morrow®(FA) 13 PPG 3.8 RPG 1.5 Apg 69 games 29.11 mpg
Larry Hughes 45 Games two teams 8.1ppg, 2.3rpg, 2.0 apg ,
Luther Head, and Stephen Graham.
Point Games:
Earl Boykins avg 6.6 ppg 1.1 rpg 2.6 apg
5ft 5in Had a 20 point game and 2 18 point games and one game 8 points and 8 assists.
Shaun Livingston Exploded in April games of 2010 for 16, 21 and 25 points as well as 8assists two differant nights and 7 assists in another game.
Carlos Arroyo Had games of 10, 9, 8,8 assists 15, 12, and 15 points.
Rafer Alston, Will Bynum.