Wednesday, April 30, 2008

A Brief Post Looking Ahead To Next Year (Optional)

I won't be offended if you skip this post about next season written on the morning of Game 5 of a playoff series this season. I won't even be offended if you tell me it's in poor taste to have written this. I leaned toward that point of view before scraping the bottom of a greasy barrel of gameday stories.

The cutthroat competition in the Western Conference may be a boon to the Atlanta Hawks. Two coaches who, though they may have legitimate limitations in terms of winning a championship, might be looking for a new job. Sure, I can see why Chicago would be an attractive destination for a coach wanting to prove something to his former employers, but haven't the young Hawks (and their fans--a home court advantage is fun!) made a compelling case over the last four days that they have an immediate future brighter than simply not sucking anymore.

Ballhype: hype it up!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I stand by my doom-and-gloom that winning games 3 and 4 will get Woodson a new contract with the Hawks. Expecting anything more from Hawks' "management" is unwarranted. With Larry Brown unavailable I'm not sure who the better option would be anyway.

Anonymous said...

Might as well throw this out there, since you're talking about next year. Ian Thomsen on SI.com wrote an article that mentioned David Andersen, a 6'11 Australian who is one of the best men in European League. They were talking about him over on Hawksquawk. He's supposed to be a pretty good perimeter shooter as well as solid under the basket. The Hawks own his exclusive NBA rights because they drafted him in the second round back in 2002.

I've been convinced over the course of this season that the Hawks need to model themselves after the Utah Jazz. Horford could be very comparable to Carlos Boozer, and Josh Smith is similar to AK47-in both good ways and bad. Maybe this could be our Mehmet Okur?

Bret LaGree said...

Avery Johnson's officially available.

Anonymous said...

Holding out hopes for D'Antoni.

Drew Ditzel said...

at the town hall meeting for season ticket holders and from the ajc article a while back, it is very clear Billy Knight does not want woodson as the coach.
if he returns, which i don't think he will, there is no way two games are going to change his feelings about Woodson anymore than they will change mine.
if knight is fired, a new gm always wants to bring in his own guy. And even if you don't think that always happens, i don't think a new guy is willing to risk his new job on MIke Woodson's coaching performance.

Bret LaGree said...

Billy Knight clearly (and sort-of sensibly) wishes for a coach that could paper over the mistakes Knight has made which have left the team so thin on NBA talent.

Mike D'Antoni, in addition to being a better coach than Avery Johnson, also possesses the potential benefit of killing two birds with one stone in being named coach/GM.

chris whiffen said...

once the swell of this series ebbs from our memories we will still be left with the same ugly truth we have struggled with the last four years. will ASG call out the pink elephant in the corner?

i continue to believe that aside from horford and smith no player on the current roster is untouchable.

if woodson and bk are reupped there will be several holes in the wall that are the shape of my head.

go hawks!