How many wins next season to justify Woodson's extension?

[evildallas]

With Woodson indicating he will accept the 2 year extension, how many wins must the team have next season to indicate it was a good deal?

Pick the minimum number it will take for you to be okay with Woodson's progress and feel it was the right move for the team.

[HoopsGuru25]

Wins and losses don't really matter. I want to see Woody actually get better as a coach. I would like to see the Hawks actually finish in the top 10 in the league in defense if he keeps preaching it and if not...I would actually like to see them play to their strengths and finish top 10 in the league in pace.

I would like to see less 3rd quarters where the other team makes an adjustment to shut down whatever we did in the 1st half(although the assistant coaches are the ones who are supposed to take notes during the game) and just beat the crap out of us(the game vs GSW when they just triple teamed Joe in the 2nd half for example). I would like to see him stop benching players before they are in foul trouble especially considering he doesn't trust any of your bench players besides Childress. This may not be in control but I would like to him just trust his bench more now that he isn't coaching every regular season game like a playoff game(or is his job still on the line)? The Hawks probably don't have any Leon Powes or Sasha Vujajics but how will we know if we only play 7 players on a consist basis?

I don't know how many wins I want next year until I see the roster...if it were up to me and I could make the moves I wanted to fix the flaws on this team...I would say about 45 wins. My actual prediction is that Sund will "stick to the plan"..bring the Joshes back(and obviously Woody)while the ASG tries to ride the momentum of last years playoff series and the Hawks will fail to make the playoffs(finishing with 37-39 wins) as teams like Miami and Chicago will be much better and teams like Milwaukee and New York shouldn't be as bad as they were last year. I just can't see the East being as bad as it was last year but I say that just about every year and it get's worse.

[Harry10]

wins do not matter.

making it into the second round would justify the extension

[tbhawksfan]

I want the wins, but I also want to see Woodson fix all the fatal flaws in his coaching. Killing rookies confidence, bad in game adjustments, bad use of starters and bench minutes, bad X's and O's, confrontational and dour with his players, stubborn and doesn't work well with his peers (BK), negative comments on the teams readiness with out taking responsibility.....

[perthwildcat]

At the moment 40+ but it depends a bit no the offseason...

If we can add a bit to our bench id expect more

[killbuckner]

harry- you can't honestly think that this team is good enough that they SHOULD be one off the top 4 teams in the eastern conference. (which is what making the second round means)

[dms269]

Make the playoffs should be a start. If we make it again, and not as the 8th seed with an under .500 record, then it could be justified.

[Hawks]

A playoff berth,42-45 wins, and the development of Acie Law.

[HMFFL]

All Coach Woodson needs to do is get the Hawks into the playoffs.

[killbuckner]

Acie Law should probably be traded. Its obvious that Woodson has zero confidence in him (which I don't blame him for). But if the Hawks can get anything decent for him then trade him now because I just don't see Woodson changing his mind on Acie.

[Sultanofatl]

at least .500 and another playoff birth.

[JoshB914]

It's hard to say at this point. But definetely a playoff birth. I think the goal should be to get home court in the first round.

[mattlanta]

He needs to get over the .500 and make a run in the playoffs IMO.

[Rip2137]

He needs to stop coaching like crap.

Playoffs is about matchups and if they catch a bad matchup from the 5th or 6th spot, then hey, not much he can do about it.

I just can't continue to watch him make horrific coaching decision after horrific coaching decision. He did a good job coaching in the playoffs for the most part(first two game he did a horrid job, game 3 he was great, game 4 Joe and Josh bailed him out, he did a craptasitc job in 5 but was just fine in 6-7(yes even the blowout in game 7).

And that is about what I would want. Even the best coaches make some curious or bad decisions from time to time and that is expected. he is human. I can't watch him consistantly making horrible decisions like he did in the regular season.

If he does that, we will win more. simple as that.

[LL Cool Scott]

Barring injuries, we're probably looking at a 6 or 7 seed next year. Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, Washington and Orlando are drastically better than we are. Miami should be greatly improved, so should Chicago, and so should Toronto. I'd like to see us get to the second round, but it would be over-achieving. Unless Horford makes a huge leap.

[Master8492]

^Considering the Hawks are 5-6 with Cleveland, Washington and Orlando... they aren't drastically better. Hawks can beat any of them with home court.

[High 5]

If the Hawks aren't at least at .500 then there's really no way around the fact that Woody is a terrible coach.

[killbuckner]

High 5- I just don't see how this roster should be expected to be significantly above .500 with any coach. The team has 2 above average starters and no one at the top 5 of their position. Currently it has only 1 useful bench player. We shall see what Sund does to improve the bench but right now I could easily see the Hawks sustaining an injury and finishing below .500 without it being on Woody's head.

[td00]

If you see the Hawks reach the 42-45 win plateau, what more is there to say? Woodrow will have done what he was supposed to do and continued to build this team up.

Will that be reality? I don't know; too many variables in place right now.
If we can improve the roster (from last year's final team) to get more output from the bench, we have a shot at winning a playoff series.

But, there is a huge difference in the being a top tier team and the one we saw last year. We are still not close to figuring out what it will take.
Perhaps another solid starter to help us lock down opposing stars would be a good place to start.

There should be plenty of activity this summer with perhaps 3-4 new faces on the opening day roster. The bench just has to get stronger and we need another big guy to help rebound and defend.

[Rip2137]

Joe isn't a top 5 shooting guard?

I have Kobe, Manu, Iverson, Wade above him honestly? Who else goes there?

I also still argue that the difference in usefulness between Zaza, Salim, Jeremy Richardson and Acie Law is really not that far away from the usefulness of Eddie House, Leon Powe, Sam Cassell, and PJ Brown.

The difference there is a coach that would play guys off the bench regardless and one that wouldn't.

Like Last night, Eddie house was ridiculously important to the celtics winning. He started 0-3 on wide open shots. Now lets be realistic and honest here. What is the chance that Woody would have kept Salim or Law in the game if they started 0-3 on wide open shots? Again, take all your "but salim sucks" out of it and be real. If he started like House started he wouldn't play again that game at least.

Doc stuck with him because he knows that Eddie is a shooter and he needed a shooter to stop the Lakers from clogging the paint. Until woody starts making adjustments like that, and utilizing his talent that is there for him, you will continue to see the difference between a good coach and a horrid one.

Those are the changes that need to be made in the offseason.