I decided that now that the NBA and the players have decided to not cancel the entire season it is time to give the Atlanta Hawks a little love. I can't begin to explain how excited I am that the NBA has returned. Many people hate the NBA and say there is no competition, but I however am a fan that can watch literally every Hawks game with the same amount of enthusiasm throughout the season. I decided that I would give you all a couple updates on the current Hawks roster and when the season starts to update you guys every 10 games or so with how the team is looking. I won't be preparing any food for these blogs, but rather just shedding a little light on how the Hawks are faring during the upcoming 66 game season. Of course I would say this, but I truly believe the Hawks have a legitimate chance with this lockout shortened season and of course with the last couple of seasons we as fans will have plenty to be excited about. Let's go HAWKS FAITHFUL.
One thing that the lockout did give the Hawks and every other team in the league an upper hand on is rest. Every player in the league will tell you that they enjoyed the longer break, it gave them a chance to rest their bodies and switch up their regular routines during the off-season. The Hawks have made the playoffs four consecutive years and have advanced past the first-round the last three years. That amount of play after the regular season will take a toll on a player and with the lockout it gave everybody a chance to re-charge their batteries. After the much needed rest a lot of the players started working out on their own without the luxury of team facilities and trainers. It has to be hard for a player to stay in shape when they have no real light at the end of the tunnel. After watching the video of Josh Smith getting some shots up at the Hawks facility, a video you MUST check out on the Hawks website, I was assured that our players have been taken their workouts seriously. The word on the street is that our main core of Smith, Johnson, and Horford have all slimmed down noticeably and look as fit as I have seen them in a long long time. One side note of Smith slimming down and looking much more agile and athletic is I am thinking he is taking his switch to small forward as a permanent one. Hopefully that will lead to the Hawks signing some kind of inside presence so we can slide Horford over to the 4 where we saw him excel at some points last year. Just the thought of the Hawks getting out and running their fast break offense with a faster Smith, Horford, Johnson at the 3 point line, and Teague turning on the jets gets me crunk!!!
A topic of interest to Hawks fans is the injury status updates of a couple of key Hawks. The AJC revealed today that Kirk Hinrich had shoulder surgery to repair some damage that he had from early season with the Washington Wizards. Hinrich is not supposed to be out too long with the hopes of coming back towards the end of December/early January. With the season not even starting until Christmas Day I am imagining Hinrich missing two weeks of the regular season and taking probably another two to get into a rhythm with his teammates. Marvin Williams had back surgery to relieve his constant back problems that have seem to plagued him over the past two seasons or so. With a chance to fully heal I am hoping this gives Marvin extra incentive to get back to full strength and provide some much needed punch off the bench in what seems to be his new role.
The Hawks have a potent returning core of players and are in need of adding some depth. Especially some scoring off the bench with the likely departure of Jamal Crawford and also some veteran toughness to beat some ass in the paint. My man Zaza needs a bash brother to elbow people and start fights with. With the shortened season and teams probably not playing their best basketball for a while, I imagine the Hawks having a good regular season with hopes of positioning themselves for the playoffs. A year of Larry Drew's offense under their belts should hopefully give them the opportunity to play more on their instincts rather than thinking about where the coach wants them. I am probably a little more excited than the average fan is because I love my Atlanta sports teams, but I think this is a year that the Atlanta Hawks can get over that 2nd round hump. The Highlight Factory is back BABY and is going to be bumping on opening night. I'll be there FOR SURE.
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