RealGM

I was watching ESPN and one of there NBA guys was saying that the Hawks are the worst team in the playoffs and that the C's already losing two games to them is horrible.
IDK they dont play like the worst team in the playoffs to me i think there are at least 3 teams that they would beat in a 7 game series.

Toronto Raptors
Philly 76ers
Denver (no defense) Nuggets

you couldn't really tell come playoffs... they'd have to do a round-robin to prove it but i think his assessment is valid, i mean a 37-45 team doesn't really translate to someone who's going to beat a 66-16 one..

one thing to consider is that Bibby is only starting to jell with the young guys, their 37-45 record does not show how they fared (they struggled to find consistency, but they did come up with W's against good teams during the season), Josh Smith is a stud in years to come.. Childress is also a previous top prospect that's finding his niche as a 6th man.. all this things moulded together would produce you great results come next year

its arguable as to whether they could beat those teams.
and im of the mind that its still early enough in where ya go with reg. season records. and going by that their the 19thy best team in the LEAGUE

That's fine by me. I feel much better when the team is being doubted. It just feels weird for ESPN or any national outlet to give the Celts so much credit. If we meet the Cavs in the 2nd round, I'm sure their will be a lot more "Cavs in 6" predictions than there would've been otherwise.

rsceltic34 wrote:I was watching ESPN and one of there NBA guys was saying that the Hawks are the worst team in the playoffs and that the C's already losing two games to them is horrible.
IDK they dont play like the worst team in the playoffs to me i think there are at least 3 teams that they would beat in a 7 game series.

Toronto Raptors
Philly 76ers
Denver (no defense) Nuggets

The Hawks would probably beat the Craptors, the series with the 76ers would be a struggle, and Denver would demolish them. Denver plays no D, but neither does Atlanta! And Denver won 50 games to Atlanta's 37! In the West!

They obtained Mike Bibby before the deadline that made Atlanta a better team. They will be number five in the eastern conference next year. Don't forget Horford. He is only a rookie.

GreenGrizz wrote:They obtained Mike Bibby before the deadline that made Atlanta a better team. They will be number five in the eastern conference next year. Don't forget Horford. He is only a rookie.

Yep. People forget that they got better after Bibby arrived and they are a good home team too.

cisco wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Yep. People forget that they got better after Bibby arrived and they are a good home team too.

Until they can win 20+ road games, this is not a legit playoff team, people.

MyInsatiableOne wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Until they can win 20+ road games, this is not a legit playoff team, people.

So by that logic, only three teams in the East are legit playoff teams, while Utah, Dallas, and Denver aren't legit out West either?

They've got all star quality players in Johnson and Smith, a ROY runner up at center, a solid former lottery pick in Williams, and a solid veteran in Bibby - all they're missing is a bench, and I think it was just unfortunate for us that they managed to finally gel in games 3 and 4. These guys are a talented and pretty good team that just needs experience, they should be a 5 or 6 seed next year.

Now the Hawks are being overrated (never thought I'd see the day). Denver would destroy them, Philly would beat them, Toronto just sucks period.

Josh Smith is about to make max money from this playoff series, and I'm glad, I like seeing other teams overpay for players.

Pooronto is by far the worst playoff team, then Atlanter is right behind them.

Zin5 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-


So by that logic, only three teams in the East are legit playoff teams, while Utah, Dallas, and Denver aren't legit out West either?

Sure. If you can't win on the road, how the **** are you gonna win a title unless you have homecourt throughout? Answer: you're not!

I don't think Denver would destroy us. We blew them out at home. You've got to remember that our biggest weakness is winning on the road. If we had any semblance of our home form on the road we would have been a .500 team.

I don't see how we are the worst team in the playoffs. Maybe we were the worst team coming into them, but considering we have won two games while Toronto and Denver didn't even really put up a fight speaks volumes.

I didn't say the Hawks were the worst team in the playoffs...I think they easily would have beaten Toronto and a series with Philly could go either way.

Denver I think would have the advantage of having more veterans on the team, although they're all a bunch of knuckleheads so who knows?

I wouldn't be so sure on the Toronto lossing to them mark. ATL and TOR are opposite spectrum teams.

ATL's defense their playing right now is leaving the shooters open enough and protecting the rim and boxing out. TOR doesn't care about any of that stuff. They'd love to live and die by the jumper because that is what their team is all about and that's what they do when they play their best.

Then you have Bosh who has become the big man version of Wade. He draws fouls like a mad man just running into people. That's exactly the type of "cheap player" that would get J-smooth out of a series and expose ATL's bench.

I'd say ATL is probuly the second worst team in the playoffs with being close with PHIL. And TOR the worst for every other team to play besides ATL and PHIL.

Bosh is certainly a beast, but I find Toronto to have been vastly overrated from start to finish this entire season.

I hope they enjoy having their 2007 Atlantic Division Champs banner to keep them warm at night now that they have to cry themselves to sleep the rest of the playoffs!

If the Hawks can win 2 games against us, I think they could beat up on Denver pretty easily...

Yeah, we aren't a great team by any means but look at Johnson's splits for the season. He was off for most of it and not getting any lift when he shot... finally came on at the end of the season. Since we aren't saving our energy for the later rounds we can play our starters a ton of minutes so the bench concern isn't as bad as it was in the reg.

The fact that we beat you guys twice in a row should be enough to get some respect considering Denver couldn't even win a game...

I don't think the Lakers are that much better than you...

We haven't matched up well wth quick athletic teams all year, its not just the hWKS. It was charlotte, and phillie as well. These teams gave us the most trouble as they can exploit are match ups and run back at us before our defense sets up.

We are better equipt to play Detroit, LA and San antonio.

The hawks are two different teams, at home they push the ball and control the game. On the road they let the other team dictate the pace, go through the motions, pass once then shoot a brick.