Projection: Hard pill to swallow

[graymule]

Last in the east with 27 wins.

That's what ESPN has our Hawks projected for next season.

I know we're not great but I believe we are much better than that.

What do you think ??

[Jamaaliver]

Read on Twitter

27+ wins sounds pretty close to what I'm expecting.

But outright last place in the conference? That seems a bit hard to believe.

I think we'll struggle to get 30 wins, though. And if we're out of playoff contention by the All Star break...I expect we'll essentially stop trying to win games at all. Playing the young'ns and absorbing all the Ls we can.

[macd-gm]

:noway:

Last in the east with 27 wins.

That's what ESPN has our Hawks projected for next season.

I know we're not great but I believe we are much better than that.

What do you think ??

We are better than that but we won't win more. We may win less. We aren't trying to win games this year.

[DirtybirdGA]

That hard pill will go down better with some ice cream...

[kg01]

:noway:

Last in the east with 27 wins.

That's what ESPN has our Hawks projected for next season.

I know we're not great but I believe we are much better than that.

What do you think ??

C'mon GM, it's BSPN. IIRC they also project CLE to win under 50 games which is silly considering how bad the east will be. Also, there's scarcely any way CHI wins more games than us.

[jayu70]

I've always been wary of any ESPN projections for the Hawks even going back to the Joe trade. We were supposed to be real bottom feeders then too.
Just don't see the Hawks as a last in conference type of team.

[Spud2nique]

For the first time ever, I pray ESPN is right. They've always hated us...alwayssss

[jayu70]

For the first time ever, I pray ESPN is right. They've always hated us...alwayssss

I know the idea is to get a high a pick as possible. I still want to see intelligent basketball by our players. Bad basketball is one of the worse things ever.

[kg01]

For the first time ever, I pray ESPN is right. They've always hated us...alwayssss

I know the idea is to get a high a pick as possible. I still want to see intelligent basketball by our players. Bad basketball is one of the worse things ever.

Exactly, which is what I think we'll see. Ergo, we're not gonna be the worst team in the east. We won't be going out these like PHI has the last few years and just pissin all over themselves with no clear plan (which is why I think Brett Brown is massively overrated but that's a whole other conversation).

[macd-gm]

I think some good teams will get frustrated trying to defend the 3 on us.

[Jamaaliver]

For the first time ever, I pray ESPN is right. They've always hated us...alwayssss

Never trust the biased news media.

Especially the failing ESPN. Sad.

[macd-gm]

The espn prediction system goes like this:

Each team starts with 35 wins.
Add 1 win for each player on the team the analyst has heard of
Subtract 1 win for each player on the team the analyst hasn't heard of
Add 5 wins for teams that have a player the analyst wants to impress

[ATL Boy]

This won't happen while Bud is at the helm. Although I wouldn't mind seeing us get a top 3 pick.

[Jamaaliver]

Read on Twitter

I have to admit the Mike Budenholzer Effect troubles me. He’s a good enough coach that he might bleed 35 wins out of this unassuming-to-say-the-least roster, which would, in a pretzel-logic way, be grounds for firing. If you’re tanking, tank.

Then I check ESPN’s projected Hawks starting five, and I think, “Maybe this is beyond even bright Bud.” Here’s your five: Dennis Schroder, Taurean Prince, Kent Bazemore, Dewayne Dedmon and Ersan Ilyasova. The latter three are essentially backups; the first two are young. That’s a really bad lineup. Which is, I say again, the idea. If the Hawks land Michael Porter next June, nobody will care how awful the 2017-2018 season was. Because — let’s face it — almost nobody’s going to be watching.

[Spud2nique]

For the first time ever, I pray ESPN is right. They've always hated us...alwayssss

I know the idea is to get a high a pick as possible. I still want to see intelligent basketball by our players. Bad basketball is one of the worse things ever.

No doubt Bird! I expect to see the same intelligent (well, the same intent to play intelligent basketball) Budball continue. Kinda expecting a 2012-13 rendition of the Hawks that pushed the Pacers to six games in the playoffs, not so much ending up with 38 or so wins we had that year but rather the unselfish, hustling, ball swinging Hawks we've grown to love, only with a few less wins, around 33 for me right now.

I'm hoping we are a young team that builds chemistry early on, plays smart, and hard but only wins about 25 games.

[graymule]

30 plus! No 13 season wins that Atlanta once had. Just added what may be
the final piece, Luke Babbitt. He's a young 28 year old SF that doesn't play
defense or rebound. But he's deadly from downtown and Bud has the uncanny
ability to improve those thing that he is very weak in.
In today's NBA, if you can't hit those 3's, forget it. Hawks projected 2nd unit
may have some dead eye shooters to keep things interesting.
This is not a last place team. In fact, with the east in the shape it's in, we may
find the Hawks, not fighting to stay off the bottom, but making the playoffs!

[azuresou1]

Anyone that thinks this team is winning more than 34 games or making the playoffs is being willfully delusional.

Like, have you guys LOOKED at the entire roster? It's really **** awful.

Bud is a very good coach but end of the day you win games with talent. This team has less talent than just about any team I've seen other than some horrific 76ers, Nets, and Bobcats teams.

I don't have time to build models any more, but my personal over/under is 28.5 wins.

PS: Don't talk **** about Brett Brown if you haven't actually watched 76ers games, that guy is a fantastic coach.

[Jamaaliver]

Read on Twitter

Brad Rowland: 26-56. 14th in the East...with Mike Budenholzer’s system and the way I think they’ll defend, it is reasonable to think they could get to 30 wins. It’s really tough to see past how bad the offense will likely be.


Graham Chapple: Yikes… Unlike many, I’ll give this Hawks team credit in that I believe they could be better than people think. I’ll say 31-51 and 13th in the conference. It’s possible that they Hawks just completely fall off after the trade deadline. Playoff teams might come for the likes of Marco Belinelli, Luke Babbitt or Ersan Ilyasova -- or those players might agree a buyout after the deadline.

[Jamaaliver]

[Jamaaliver]

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