Atlanta Hawks surprise in the newly available Pro Basketball Prospectus

Kevin Pelton and Bradford Doolittle have come across with another fantastic edition of this indispensable NBA annual. It is available right here for a pdf download and will be offering a hard copy edition through Amazon.com very soon.

As for our contribution, again, we are honored to be included in the Atlanta Hawks chapter where we are asked what the Hawks should do with the ball if the game came down to the last possession.

Historically, BP's SCHOENE predictive method has underrated the Hawks, so this season should either excite or scare you based on your level of daily anxiety in that they are predicting the Hawks to win 49 games.

This is only one game off last season's pace, where the Hawks won 40 in the 66 game season, a pace of 50 wins.

Al Horford is back, Joe Johnson is gone. Marvin Williams out, Louis Williams in. All the changes may take a while to gel on the court with chemistry but on paper, which is what the Prospectus is, says the team is still a very efficient group.

They predict an uptick in offensive efficiency while seeing a slight downturn in defense. Why do they foresee this? Go get the book!

They also offer a player by player breakdown with statistical projections for each -- are they predicting Josh Smith's best year ever? Will Jeff Teague make the leap statistically this season?

They break down every team and player in the league and also provide some fantasy rankings based on their projections. It's an excellent read and our inclusion in it is puzzling and exciting.

If you do check it out, roll on back here and let us know what you think about our answer and the book in general.