Internal expectations for the Hawks this season couldn’t be higher.
From Mike Woodson's annual preseason goal, he won't reveal it, but if he picked his team to win 50 games last season you can imagine what's on his mind this time around, to Marvin Williams stating that the Hawks are hunting a "championship," there will be plenty of carrot-chasing going on at Philips Arena this season.
Ian Thomsen of Sports Illustrated: "My feeling about the Hawks is that they're like a lot of teams in that their main worry is to keep costs down. However they did add Joe Smith and Jason Collins up front in addition to Jamal Crawford, which are all winning moves. So long as they're healthy, the only team that looks capable of moving up ahead of them to No. 4 in the East is the Wizards.
In terms of making a national impact, it's hard to imagine the Hawks creating a lot of buzz.
J.A. Adande of ESPN.com: "The NBA remains a league that belongs to the superstars, and unfortunately for [the Hawks] they have none. They have talent and now there's experience and cohesion to go with it, but they don't have that one guy who can single-handedly take over a playoff game on the road. Kobe, Shaq and Tim Duncan played on eight of the 10 championship teams this decade.
The Hawks don't have anyone of that caliber, not to mention the updated Eastern mix of LeBron James, Dwight Howard and Boston's Big 3. Because of the consistency the Hawks learned last year they could get to the second round -- if the Bulls don't beat them out for that final berth in the conference semis."
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