Is it just me?

[evildallas]

I must admit I losing any remaining anticipation for next season. What I'm not sure about is whether it's just how the season ended or how the summer is run that's done it to me. The season did end poorly, but I think the summer has been more depressing. The offseason should be a time of some hope and anticipation, but I don't have that feeling. The only people probably enjoying this offseason less are Cavs and Raptors fans.

Problem #1: The coaching search. I understand that they're not going to drop big bucks on a big exciting name that people will recognize, but our franchise seems determined to conduct the least inspired search ever. The only thing our list of candidates has going for them is they aren't Mike Woodson. They've ignored the opportunity to drive up interest in who will be in charge. Float extra names, do some big interviews that the casual fan may recognize, and then when you hire whomever you hire you can spin it as they are the best candidate of an exhaustive search. The only thing exhausted during this search is the Hawks fans patience.

Problem #2: The draft. The only things I've heard about the Hawks in this draft is that we might sell our pick and that there is no immediate help when we pick. Way to sell the hope there sparky. This is a very deep draft. Why not communicate with the fans that little separates the players from 6-40. Hawks fans know that our 10th-12th players on the bench did nothing and we may lose 2 of the first 9. It's not inconceivable that we could get a rotation player and improvement out of this draft. Give us some hope that we might move around and grab another pick. Tell us that we are dedicated to finding a steal like some other teams seem to find every year. Nope the Hawks fans get the memo that we shouldn't expect anything from our draft.

Problem #3: Free agency. While some teams are worried about resigning their best players, we are split between those who are worried about losing Joe and those worried about overpaying Joe. Hard to say anything that would go over well. The team can't say anything about prospective free agents, but a simple statement of you have to spend to win and you have to win to make money would go a long way to easing fan angst. I'd even be bolstered by a simple assurance that even if we don't spend this summer it doesn't mean we won't spend in the future.

Problem #4: The players. We have 7 rotation players under contract for next year. It would help me to read articles in the AJC or other places with quotes from Al Horford, Josh Smith, Jamal Crawford, Marvin Williams, and Jeff Teague talking about how they plan to get better this summer or at least how unhappy they were at the way the season ended. Hell, I'd be happy to read an article about how Zaza is studying film from the Boston-Orlando series to learn what he could do differently to slow down Dwight Howard. Our entire franchise is out of sight and out of mind. Doesn't the ASG employ a publicist?

Is it just me? Am I expecting too much from the ASG? I'm just asking them fan the flames of hope a little bit even if it is only false hope. Instead it feels like they are phoning in the summer which normally leads to phoning in the season. It's making me sad and that's my rant.

[azuresou1]

I don't get it either. On one hand, Gearon seems to actually be a fan, which is kind of a blessing. On the other hand, nothing we've done shows that we actually give a damn.

[HoopsGuru25]

I have been anti-Gearon since 2008 when we didn't even toy with the idea of bringing in someone like D'Antoni, Larry Brown(despite the fact that I don't like him personally), or Scott Skiles. I realized that complaining about Woodson was kind of moot when it was obvious that the ASG had no plans on bidding against another team for a quality coach.

[HoopsGuru25]

His interviews on ajc.com after the Hawks took the Celtics to 7 games were also beyond embarrassing. He sounded ecstatic about the team's progress(37 wins?) and couldn't stop praising the coach and GM despite the fact that we had the worst record in the league over that 4 year period. Let's also not forget that he said "people don't realize that we wouldn't have been in position to draft Al Horford if we took Paul or Brandon Roy".

[DirtybirdGA]

I thought I saw where they had some summer plans interviews on Hawks.com.

[parson]

evil, your only problem is you love the Hawks. That's not so bad a thing. You want the owners to love the team as much.

[evildallas]

I thought I saw where they had some summer plans interviews on Hawks.com.

Thanks for the tip. I went over and watched Marvin's video (the only one up) and I'm more depressed. Not your fault, I'm just saying that it wasn't the most inspiring clip. It was a minute and a half that consisted of we really did well this season if you think about it and I'm signed up for summer classes. No talk about what he personally needs to work on to be a better pro this summer. No reflection on his own performance during the season. Nothing to indicate a greater drive or urgency. Now I'm not sure if I need to see Marvin play with a different coach or different system before judging him. Unless the guy we hire is a master motivator it probably won't help. It's obvious to me that Marvin doesn't have any fire of his own.

Maybe we ought to try featuring Marvin some on the court to drive up his trade value and then cut our losses with the best deal we can get. At least that was the feeling I had after watching his video about a busy summer.

[Hawkeyes]

This offseason truly is depressing as hell for me. You look around the league and hear rumors about LBJ going to Chicago or New York. You hear rumors about Boozer and Joe teaming up with Wade in Miami, and various rumors surrounding the best free agents out there. It's a foregone conclusion that the east is going to be a lot stronger next year, while more than likely the Hawks will regress(No Joe) or they'll retain Joe and be the same product they were last year that has proven it isn't capable of contending. It's like our only hope of doing anything big next year is if we are able to swing a trade, but more than likely that won't occur or matter because I doubt there is a player on the trading block that is capable of taking us to the next level. It becomes a question for us as fans, the management, and everyone involved. Are we satisfied with just making the playoffs or are we willing to do everything it takes to become a contender? We just have so many flaws as shown vs Orlando, and as illustrated by the teams in the finals right now. We have no consistent scorers, none. We have not nearly enough size down low, and we don't have a true PG that is capable of making a big difference in a game. We have nothing off the bench outside of Crawford that can help us on a consistent basis. I just don't see where the Hawks will ever be able to fix all of these areas, or even fix half of them so that they can reach that next level. It's evident that we've tried out this core of players the past couple of seasons to see where they could take us and it's even more evident that they simply will never be able to contend for a title. However, we are in such a tough situation due to Joe being the only big FA that we can sign. So do you go down the same, unsuccessful path again with Joe back, or do you try and hope for something better in the future knowing that the immediate future will endure a downfall in results?

[azuresou1]

Am I the only one who thinks we get immediately better without Joe? Call me crazy, but I think this is a textbook case of the Ewing Theory - very good but not great player leaves, everyone writes off team, team does far better.

[killbuckner]

You are crazy.

[azuresou1]

Well, you're the one who thinks that we should run iso Joe 90% of our plays, so I'm going to take that with a grain of salt.

[killbuckner]

People who are crazy never believe the people who point it out to them.

[azuresou1]

True, but Einstein also said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

[evildallas]

I don't even need real hope of landing a big free agent or great coach. All I'm asking for is some marketing and story placement to generate buzz and hope however false it may be.

[td00]

As fainting as it may be, my hope is that we get Avery Johnson from our list of candidates. The purpose for ridding ourselves of Woody was to get a coach who can get more out of the current group. Well, I don't see Drew, Dwayne Casey(very limited experience as a HC), or Mark Jackson being able to come close to where Woody's team got to last year. Call me out if needed, but I think I heard this is the candidates we are considering. My worry is that AJ takes the NJ offer and leaves us with no viable experience in a critical position in the organization.

Getting AJ gives me hope for next year. As we know, Sund keeps things close to the vest, similar to Billy Knight. Who knows how the JJ negotiations go, but if I had my druthers, I would try to retain JJ and give him help on the offensive end. There are options as other teams will be looking to make major moves as well below the big 3 FAs.

We have to improve our PG play and after this draft, we will probably show that Sund believes in Jeff Teague and take him good or bad. Truth is, we need to bring in more PGs to make sure Teague continues to work hard for the role, a la Memphis, who had a glut of PG players and finally starting deciding to go with Conley.

I do have some hope, but like other teams in the league, there hasn't been much to go on so far. Once the draft passes, and we know whether JJ is back (i think 30/70 he comes back; too much money is going to be offered by the Knicks/Clippers), we will know where the potential is.

But I agree, not much to be excited about so far.

[D21]

His interviews on ajc.com after the Hawks took the Celtics to 7 games were also beyond embarrassing. He sounded ecstatic about the team's progress(37 wins?) and couldn't stop praising the coach and GM despite the fact that we had the worst record in the league over that 4 year period

Actually, it was allowed to be happy because of the record, if you look at the real or estimated record with Bibby. If the team got Bibby at the beginning, and did 37W, it would have been different, but you can't use the 82 games record for a team trading at the middle of the season, especially if the trade change the team like it was for ATL.
Once they got Bibby, they were more of a .500 team, which looked at the moment like a big improvement.
And it was confirmed the following season (first one since the trade) with a 47W.

In my eyes, this one and a half season was better than the season that just ended.
Nothing enough to be ecstatic like Gearon through.

[parson]

I'm confused. I thought we WANTED the owners to care.

[NWO4Life]

Evildallas - I think you are on the money and its obvious you are not alone.

Sadly, This is a result of management by committee. Everybody is worried and responsible in some way with the same things and makes things less efficient. You need people with focus on these individual things that you are mentioning here in order to be the best you must specialize... That's the same reason why a team of 6'8" guys can never win a title. Every part in an engine has its purpose but the car wont get their unless someone drives it.