RealGM

What are your predictions for the offseason (when the lockout ends), What will happen to Josh will he get traded? will we win 50+ in the regular season and possibly take the next step into the conferance finals? This is whats great about being human: Curiousity. So what are your predictions?

I'll give it a go:

The lockout looks like it'll be a doozy, and we'll miss some of the season even though the new CBA will be similar to the current one - at least for us (i.e., the LT threshold becomes a hard cap, but the soft cap remains basically in tact... but we don't go over the LT anyway). Everyone will be left scrambling to fill out the roster once it ends, and there won't be too many trades since GMs will focus on the FA's needed to fill the roster. We won't trade anyone (not enough time to work them out), but we'll resign Twin and get a veteran C type (think Joel Pryzbilla, etc) and maybe a shooter to compliment the roster (maybe this would be Crawford - I could see him being undervalued in the scramble).

As for the season - as stated, I don't expect that there be a full 82 game season. So 50 W's is prolly out of the ?, but our W% would project to more than 50 Ws. We're sitting pretty if there is a shortened season - our rookie coach will have time to breath and reflect on some mistakes, and our athletes will be healthier and play with more "bounce". On top of that, our PG situation will be the best it's been since... uh, Mookie? Also, we'll have also acquired an FA or 2 that is prolly underpaid due to the mad scramble in filling out rosters and they'll have decent years to re-establish their worth as well.

Unfortunately, the "extras" that help with the regular season will slowly dwindle by the playoffs. Overall, the playoffs will be hard to predict, since the seedings themselves will be a little crazy since the shortened season would also mean more volatility in the standings. Some of the more "skilled" teams (i.e., BOS, ORL) will be quite a bit lower than they would have been if they had played a full season. We'll have a high seed (maybe even as high as 2nd), but the combination of the fact that the players will be settling in (and lose the extra "bounce") and JJ's annual slump now being around playoff time instead of January will hurt us once there. We'll struggle a bit in Round 1 but escape. We get "upset" in round 2 by someone like BOS or ORL who'll be rounding into shape in the playoffs.

Well, when the lockout's over, Teague's son will dribble past Derrick Rose's son and pass to Joe's grandson, who'll dribble for 5 minutes and then shoot. Drew's great-grandson will then swear at Josh Smith's son for standing on the perimeter.



And Joey Crawford will still be the lead ref.

Lol

statistically: 50? you talkin bout 50 wins? no. not even close.

Logistically there are 10 Players on the floor at any given time.
You'd need 48 minutes of better than average players in good linerups to go .500 or .600.


Due to lacking a superstar and overspending and given everyone's return value I specified trading Al for 3 specialists. I Identified those players a while ago.

We had below average backups AND starters and tried to cover it up with shorter rotations and the 3 guard lineups only further exposed how shallow the Hawks team depth is.

Zone defense when you have Josh Smith lol.

Joe regressed Josh as well. The 50 win model w/o a superstar can't be done unless we trade Al and the longer we wait the more likely we keep falling behind in drafts w/o playoff success.

Motiejunas, Hill, Thabeet, Malcolm THomas ftw!

but seriously you cant win with a 8 man rotation w/o superstars or slowing the game down. Unfortunately Horford is an up tempo "center" skill wise and does not fit our defensive >> post up anywhere identity going forward

predictions......

when the Hawks win, sports writers and bloggers say how much talent is on the team.

when the Hawks lose, sports writers and bloggers will bail and call the team getto.

Hawks will still end up a top 4 team in the east and make it into the second round.