Friday, August 27, 2010

This Week's Link Roundup

  • Wyn Douglas has created a player movement flow chart for every NBA team. Take a look at how Jason Terry, Alan Henderson, Lorenzen Wright, and the 3rd pick of the 2001 Draft lead to Joe Johnson.
  • At ESPN.com (Insider) Chris Broussard ranks the Hawks 15th in the NBA:
    For all the excitement (ed. -- What?) over the return of Joe Johnson, fact is, the Hawks have hit their ceiling. They may win 50 games but they are a second-round playoff team at best, a step below the real EC contenders: Miami, Boston, Orlando and probably Chicago. Collins and Powell won't improve Atlanta's fate against real bigs like Dwight Howard. The Hawks will be good again, but no way they threaten to win the East.
    Accompanying Broussard's analysis there's a brief, early look at John Hollinger's projections. His projection for Josh Smith looks encouraging.
  • Speaking of Josh Smith, long two-point jumper apologist Kelly Dwyer ranks him as the league's 7th-best power forward:
    Smith just got it together last season. And when you're a player of Josh's considerable skill and athletic ability, getting it together leads to big things. He's just an all-rounder, tossing in a relatively paltry 16 points and nine rebounds (and that's rounded up), but shooting over 50 percent while averaging 3.7 combined steals/blocks and 4.2 assists. My man, that works. Famously, at least around these parts, he also gave up on 3-pointers last season. After averaging 112 3-point attempts between 2005 and 2009, Josh attempted just seven last season, and to these eyes nearly all of them were last-second heaves from half court or beyond.
  • Dwyer ranks (not a "true center") Al Horford as the league's 4th-best center:
    Al Horford can defend. The Hawks don't really stand out amongst this league's best defensive team, not with those point guards, but Horford just tends to cover all angles and save his team's bacon time and time again. 14 and 10 with a block, too, last year. While shooting 55 percent, and not having many plays run for him. The idea that Al Horford might be a top five center in this league might feel a little off, but he is all over the place defensively, and a smooth scorer offensively. And he's nowhere near as injury prone as, seemingly, everyone on this list.
  • Erick Dampier? Sure, if the team is willing to carry a 14th player that would fill an obvious hole and to make the decision to lock up Jason Collins (relatively) early look even more curious.
  • Wherein Travis Outlaw makes me feel young.
  • I'm eagerly anticipating the countdown of the greatest Hawks of all-time. Jason Terry starts things off at #16.

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