NBA Preview: the ATL

"Hello.  I'm the reason people are
 afraid of NBA players."

Much like Odysseus or Allen Iverson, I have returned from my long absence and will once again be writing as much as I can for this prestigious blog.  Of couse, much like Allen Iverson, my return will probably be nowhere near as prestigious and exciting as you think it is.  Regardless, my absence from writing here has created a bit of a dearth in quality NBA writing for our tens of fans to read up on their least favorite sport.  I only refer to basketball as the least of the sports as most of our readers (and writers!) are still a bit confused why the hockey players of today don't score as much as they did in Wayne Gretzky Hockey '98.

Anywho, the NBA season is quickly coming upon us once again and, with the passing of the new arena deal for Seattle, there is a need for Washingtonians to actually start paying attention to basketball.  This means its time for the oldest of blog entry ideas: the team preview!

Starting alphabetically, the most time-honored of traditions, brings us to the Atlanta Hawks, the blandest and possibly least exciting of all franchises.  Yes, even with the trade of Joe Johnson and the "loss" of Marvin Williams, the Hawks still seem like the same old mediocre playoff team of the last few years.  Josh Smith will continue to score and block shots while taking the most ill-advised threes which, in his case, are any threes at all (career 3PT FG: 28%).  As talented as he is, Josh Smith just isn't quite what he should be.  The ridiculousness of this statement, for a player that averaged 19 PPG and is continually amongst the league leaders in blocks, isn't lost on me: Josh Smith just insists on making the strangest of choices in his game, the exact opposite of Al Horford, everybody's favorite boring center.

Yes, Al Horford returns, hopefully at full strength, ready to lead the Hawks to the promised land of another seven seed.  This is a player so consistent as to shoot 55% the last three years in a row, with last year's injury-shortened campaign being the only year of his career he didn't average between 9.3 and 9.9 RPG.  Frankly, Al Horford is the kind of player that can make a team with the talent of last year's Sixers or Pacers and make them a championship contender.  On a team like the Hawks, where he is forced to be the center of everything, Horford will continue to produce as he does, and continue to lose relatively consistently.

As I mentioned before, this year's Hawks aren't quite what we are used to, thanks to the losses of Joe Johnson and Marvin Williams.  Yes, after years of Joe Johnson's iso jumpers making him look like a good player, new GM Danny Ferry has finally shipped him away, content to let Lou William's iso jumpers take over for him.  Unfortunately for the Hawks, their roster beyond Lou, Horford, and Josh Smith starts to get very very depressing. Zaza Pachulia returns once again, content to spend his life as a fan favorite in Atlanta with a silly face.  At shooting guard, the Hawks will be trotting out the most repetitive rotation that ever has been: Kyle Korver, Anthony Morrow, and John Jenkins are all built to shoot spot-up threes and not much else.  At small forward, the Hawks have... Deshawn Stevenson?  A man with Abraham Lincoln tattooed on his Adam's apple should not be your starting three.

In short, the Hawks are not as good as they have been the last few years, but Ferry's new view has finally convinced the team they aren't going to get better without getting worse first.  Expect a 7th or 8th seed as the ceiling for this team, with a lottery pick growing more likely every time I look at this roster.