MVN - Most Valuable Network

Hawks Quickly Find Knight’s Replacement

Former General Manager Billy Knight is due to step down at the end of this weekend and the Atlanta Hawks have already found his replacement to come into a draftless summer of 2008. He will have no draft picks to worry about this summer, but will instead have to focus on keeping the important core of young players intact on a new playoff threat in the Eastern Conference.

Sund has been in the NBA for longer than I have even been alive. He was with the Sonics since the Millenium and before that was with Dallas for another 20 years. His experience will be his strength as he has served as much more than a general manager for many different teams, including the Detroit Pisons and Milwaukee Bucks.

Sund comes in with a great deal of respect from the league and will hopefully be able to bring some credibility to an organization that has lacked plenty of it in the past decade. Many felt the move to bring in Mike Bibby this season would surely keep Knight with the team, especially since they made the playoffs, but his resignation earlier this month was long overdue in the eyes of many Hawks fans.

Hopefully bringing in Sund will return some of the favor of the fans and maybe even get some of the playoff atmosphere into the regular season. I don’t know if anyone noticed, but the Hawks played out of their minds in front of sold out crowds and I think that kind of atmosphere night in and night out would make Atlanta an extremely difficult team to beat in Phillips Arena.

Whether or not Sund can get more fans in the seats next season will very much hinge on some key decisions revolving around some very expensive contracts. He will have to work quickly with the difficult Atlanta management to prove himself early and keep this young nucleus intact. Whatever happens, fans are already excited to see what happens now that the infamous Billy Knight will know longer be in charge.

Al Horford’s Rookie Year

Al Horford was recently the only unanimous selection for the NBA All-Rookie team, but many people around the NBA felt he actually should have won the Rookie of the Year honors. The former Florida Gator nearly averaged a double-double in his rookie season, leading his team to the playoffs after the longest playoff droubt in the NBA. Unfortunately, he lost out to a player who scored more and basically had been decided as the winner before the season even started.

The second Horford was drafted, he was already behind both Durant and Oden in expectation and popularity. Many people around the NBA had already written in Durant and Oden as the best players in the draft, and no one really gave anyone else a chance.

I understand that both Horford and Oden came into better situations, but that doesn’t mean they are any less valuable to their teams. Horford is one of the biggest reasons the Hawks made the playoffs this season, and one of the biggest reason they won 3 games at home against the best team in the NBA. Yes, Durant scored a lot and gave a horrible team a chance to win every night and fans a reason to show up, but Horford made his team win on many occasions.

Unfortunately, scoring has a tendency to overshadow everything else when it comes to things like MVP voting and Rookie of the Year voting, as can be seen with Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant. I won’t get into the Kobe Bryant debate because he’s more than just a scorer to that team but it is a similar comparison. Many times in the NBA a player is great simply because he scores a lot of points. I think many people were a little too high on Durant because he was the team’s number one scoring option. As far as value to the team, I think a player like Horford was much better; in fact I’d even say Luis Scola was more important to his team than Durant. Much more important in fact.

The point is, Atlanta has now become legitimate playoffs contenders for the next handful of years depending on how much money the team decides to fork up for the likes of Marvin Williams, Josh Smith and the rest of the crew. This offseason and the decisions around Josh Smith will be some of the biggest choices the management will have to make. They took a lot of flak putting this team together, now the question is do they have what it takes to keep it together and for how long. Only time will tell as this summer unfolds.

A Must Read for NBA Fans

Hey guys, I know you’re as excited for game 7 as I am, and I encourage you to relive the magic over and over with a great book on what some would call “the ultimate showdowns…” That’s right folks, a book only on game 7’s in NBA history. It’s pretty cheap as far as books go, so grab yourself a copy HERE. Don’t believe me? Read what other people say about it HERE.

In honor of game 7 on Sunday in the Hawks and Celtics series, here’s a little look at how the series went way back in  ‘8:

THE SEVENTH GAME of the 1988 East semifinals between the Boston Celtics and the Atlanta Hawks is nothing short of breathtaking — an example you would send to people from another planet who wanted to learn more about the game.

“That was some of the best basketball I’ve ever seen in my lifetime,” Celtics coach K.C. Jones said after his team’s 118-116 victory. “The last three minutes were the best I’ve ever seen.”

How great? The numbers are staggering:

·        The teams’ combined shooting percentage of 58.8 is the second-best in NBA playoff history;

·        The teams combined for only 15 turnovers and made 36 of 40 free-throw attempts;

·        In the fourth quarter, each team scored on 17 of its 22 possessions;

·        In the fourth quarter, Boston made 12 of 15 shots from the field while Atlanta made 14 of 21.

The home team won the first four games of the series. Larry Bird scored 24 of his 38 points in the first quarter of Game 1, while Kevin McHale poured in 32 points on 13-for-17 shooting in Game 2, a pair of Celtics victories. Back in Atlanta, the Hawks evened the series by getting their running game going. Kevin Willis led the way with 23 points and 13 rebounds in a Game 3 rout; Dominique Wilkins pumped in 40 points and Doc Rivers handed out 22 assists in Game 4.

Then, with the series tied 2-2, the Hawks stunned the Celtics with a 43-point fourth quarter to steal Game 5 at Boston Garden, where the Celtics had won 133 of their previous 142 games.

Back home in Game 6, Atlanta was poised to close out the series and advance to the conference finals. In a game that was taut throughout, the Celtics squeezed out a 102-100 victory when the Hawks’ Cliff Levingston — option No. 3 on the inbounds play — got the ball with four seconds left, drove and missed an off-balance, left-handed shot with one second to go.

In the locker room afterward, surrounded by scribes from around the country and scores of cameras, microphones and notepads, Bird declared the series as good as over.

“They had their chance,” he said. “They had a big chance to beat us. I think now we’re gonna come out and play like we did tonight, except we’ll be at home. Our shots are going to be dropping a little bit better and we’re gonna be running a little bit faster. I’d say Sunday is going to be a big win for the Celtics.”

The Hawks, however, came into Game 7 with the poise often lacking from a team with less experience and facing the Celtics mystique in Boston.

“Winning Game 5 in the Garden gave us a lot of confidence, and I think that showed in the way we came out,” recalled Atlanta guard Randy Wittman.

 Pretty great stuff huh?  Let’s hope things go differently this time around…

Can the Hawks Shock the World?

The 2008 Atlanta Hawks have already done many things no one thought they would do this season, including making the playoffs at all and taking the best team in the NBA to 7 games. Very few people thought the Hawks would make the playoffs, even in an extremely weak Eastern Conference, but the team played well down the stretch and managed to slip into the 8th spot. Then, matched up against the Celtics, no one even thought the Hawks would win 1 game, let alone 3. Most people would only give Atlanta a game for a pity victory in case all the Celtics fell off the earth. But here are the Atlanta Hawks, heading into Boston with a chance to shock the world in game 7, that is if there’s anyone left to shock…

The craziest part of the series is how completely different the teams look at home and on the road. In Boston, the team in white and green can’t manage to miss a shot and players like Sam Cassell and James Posey and Leon Powe look like All Stars. In Atlanta, the team in white and blue has energy, plays defense, and actually converts on offense. So do these teams really play that much better in white? Does the answer have something to do with the home crowd? The court? The refs?

Energy may be one of the biggest factors in the difference between Atlanta at home and on the road. When the young Hawks are confident and energetic they are a much better basketball team, running the floor, playing defense and knocking down shots. On the road, they just look confused and disoriented, committing turnovers and trying to do everything individually. When Atlanta is moving the ball around and spreading the defense and taking open shots, they shoot better and score better. In Boston they don’t pass the ball as well and don’t take good shots. It makes the Celtics defense look better and the Hawks offense look dismal. I’m not saying Boston doesn’t play good defense, but Atlanta sure makes it look a whole lot better.

So the question now is can Atlanta actually win a game 7; on the road? The way the Hawks have played so far in this series in Boston, I’m not sure how anyone could believe they would actually win. Of course they can win, but I don’t see how they actually will. Winning in Boston would require a huge game from Marvin Williams, Mike Bibby and/or Josh Smith, because the Celtics will take Johnson out of the game. Coach Woodson has said Williams is the key to this series, but his injury and youth may prevent him from being who they Hawks need him to be on Sunday. As a fan, I really really hope that Williams has a coming out party and I know that with one good game he can silence all of the critics who didn’t believe he should have been the second overall pick in the draft.

One big problem is that Atlanta has trouble making runs in Boston. In Atlanta, the Hawks get on a roll, the crowd gets into it, the team gets confidence, and they look unstoppable. In Boston, the Celtics get up by 10 and that’s it; the young birds can’t get back in the game. It is difficult to play from behind on the road. Somehow the Hawks manage to barely survive at home, but on the road it is an entirely different story.

I do not expect the Hawks to win this series, but I am more than happy with the way it went. I’m not sure any Hawks fan on earth can be disappointed with the way things have turned out. No one gave this young team a chance going into the playoffs and they turned everyone’s heads. The only series going to 7 games is the one in which the baby birds came out and shocked the world. At the very least this team has gotten some confidence, gained some experience and learned what it takes to not only make the playoffs but to win some games. So no matter what happens on Sunday, this team has my loyal support for the rest of my life.