Jason Collier and the Preseason

Sad stuff about the death of Jason Collier. From everything I read he sounds like a great guy, and will be missed. His death doesn't have much of an impact on the team on paper, but it's hard to measure what the loss will mean to the team.

As far as the preseason goes, well, we look competitive against the worst teams in the Eastern conference. I mean, we're not getting shelled by the Magic, and we're hanging tough with Charlotte and New Orleans. I've never felt like the preseason means anything in football or baseball, but I'm not so sure about basketball. It feels like it is a pretty good indicator of how the team is going to play. So I don't know. If I had to wager, I'd put my money on the under for the number of wins this season (currently at 21.5). But I don't think you can place too much emphasis on the weakness of the entire conference. The Hawks may not be very good, and could go .500 against this half of the league and I would not be suprised. If Joe Johnson works out well at point and the whole up-tempo running team thing doesn't give up 110 points per night, we could be... okay.

Get Used to It Joe Johnson, Atlanta Hawk

Man, you get the feeling he's going to see a few triple teams? Hope those handles are rock solid, JJ. How about "Dynamite" as a nickname for J.J.? Or "Napoleon"? Cryptic enough to work... Or how about just "Not Josh"? NoJo for short? NoJo for 3! Smith kicks it to Napoleon... it's good!

Update: This just in, Hawks lose to Orlando in the preseason opener. Did we catch Tracy McGrady on a hot night? Oh wait, they traded him. And were horrible last year. Not a good start for the team. It's just the preseason, but a 4th quarter collapse is still a 4th quarter collapse. Okay, so maybe the Magic weren't "horrible" last year, and maybe I'm still bitter from a dark day in Atlanta sports this past weekend.

Tyronn Lue

Tyronn Lue gets a free pass from me this year. He turned down offers to play for the Lakers in order to stay with the Hawks. I don't who this says more about, Tyronn Lue or the Lakers?

At any rate, any somewhat respectable player that *wants* to play in Atlanta gets my respect. I promise to not dog Lue this season, unless of course he plays bad. He can be a decent point guard, and it sounds like he's a good guy. Come to think of it, you can say that about most of the Hawks players right now. Most of them have not been trouble makers, and nobody shot their mouth off about how bad the team was last year. The influence of Al "True Professional" Harrington? Maybe Lue played a bigger part in the decision to pass on Chris Paul, who was exciting, skilled, but definitely not "a good guy". I mean, Paul did punch Julius Hodge in the nuts, folks.

Let's Get Excited (Remix)

Add to the list of things that get me excited: when guys show up to the gym at midnight to workout. It's just so Rocky. Joe Johnson needs a good nickname, so let's get it going, folks.

On another note, I have a new name for Al Harrington, "True Professional". Al says he just works hard, etc. On a horrible team last year, he couldn't even come close to putting up Abdur-Rahim numbers. I don't know why any team would want a guy that looks and plays like a high-school player. Al just doesn't seem happy. He looks like he hates this team and doesn't want to be here. I'd be pissed too if I got traded from Indiana.