RealGM

Even though it is early in the season, it is clear to me that the Hawks have joined the Celts, Tragic and the LeBrons as the elite EC teams. JJ is an All Star approaching his prime, Josh Smith is maturing and incredibly athletic, Horford is solid, Bibby leads them, and I like their bench. Chucker Jamaal is a gifted explosive offensive player who has finally found the right team. They have matured and grown together during their last 2 playoff runs. AND they are still a young team overall.

That said:

1) We are coming out of the East!
2) Tragic will be tough, but we can beat them.
3) Hawks will be very competitive, but we will beat them also.
4) Cavs wiil always be supergood because they have the King, BUT they are zero without him. They almost lost to the frigging Warriors on Tues nite, and got squashed by the Wiz tonight - both times WITH Lebron.

BTW, I currently like Miami with DWade and a rejuvenated Jermaine, Indiana with Granger, a healthy Wiz team with Gilbert, Butler and Antawn as playoff teams 5-7.

Regardless, older legs or not, we are playing in the Finals.

Fakers may have their hands full with Denver, Suns, Mavs, Portland and never count out Timmy, Manu, Parker and Jefferson/Spurs.

Ex

And Toronto and the Bucs will fight it out for the eighth spot.

Atlanta is for real because they finally beat us 1 game.......I need to think about that one........

Kefa my friend

No. IMHO, hawks are for real because of the reasons I enumerated in the OP, and because of some very solid wins on the way to a 10-2 record (besides us).

If we had played like we are capable of, we would have beaten them, and WE WILL BEAT them in most future games!

Ex

P.S. I love that you are one of us. I love your rational positivity. I love your undying faith in this team come hell or high water - which I share. You are 1 of the "counters" to people like Biscuit boy.

The Hawks have a nice little squad but let's not get silly. They are not an "elite" team in the East. They are doing exactly what they did last year. That's how they roll. They are a streaky team that will put together a run of 10 games where they look like NBA Champions and then they will lose five in a row. They started out 6-0 last year and people were saying the same things that I'm hearing now. When it's all said and done, they will have about 50 wins and will put up a little fight in the playoffs and that's that.

I need about 40 games to really see what this years Hawks are about. The C's are tested.....the Hawks are not. So like I said before I will wait and see.

50 win tops but I will say this there core has been together now for 3 or 4 years they added offense to the bench and that says alot.
I like em to win the 1st round of playoffs series unless its us of course.