Hawks on Pace

Solid win against the New Kansas City St. Hornets- they didn't have Chris Paul, which was disappointing to not get to see him play, but their team looked pretty bad without him. They have a decent number of wins in the West, so he must be bringing a lot to that team. Still, we were much better and looked especially good considering we played on the road the night before. Dr. Z has been fading as of late, and Josh 2 (Smith) seems to disappear from the game at times, but True Professional Al and JJ are finding a groove on this team. Man, I think the Hawks need to orchestrate something with Al. I cannot trust that no-contract play, unfortunately.

Okay, if the season ended today we would have the best chance at the top pick in the draft. BUT. The Hawks are at .500 over their last 10 games. If they can keep that up, they will finish around 35 wins, which would be fairly solid for this squad. They are still pretty new to each other as a team. Joe Johnson is beginning to find himself, as a great passing Shooting Guard, not a friggin' PG. He is not the Savior of this franchise, but he is dependable every night to play a good game.

When everyone on the team is slashing to the hole and dishing it back out, we look unstoppable on offense. We've got great shooters at every position, but not a lot of good dribblers, or great passers for that matter. So we don't have guys that can create their own open shots or too many wide open looks for other guys, except when we play bad teams that collapse inside every time Ty Lue takes it to the hole.

We actually do have a team that can play an up-tempo running game, but we rarely take advantage of it. The passing game is not good enough for us to be able to run and gun without turning the ball over 30 times. We turn it over almost 16 times a game playing a simple half-court as it is.