Thanks go out to the Grizzlies, who forced the Hawks to re-sign Josh Smith by signing him to a 5 yr., 58 million dollar offer sheet that the Hawks were forced to match. Memphis helped us to bypass the inability for Sund to put something together over the past month. What a disaster it would’ve been if they let Josh S. go; it’s bad enough that they couldn’t work out anything for Chills. 

I’m hoping that they do re-sign both of them. Initially, there was a lot of interest for Smith, but some of the primary teams that were looking at him made moves for other players, so it lwould seem like we have a good chance at keeping him here. Not much has been said about Childress and the free agent market. I wonder how much interest is out there for him?

It’s not going to be quite the same with the Hawks not having any picks. From what the AJC says today, it doesn’t sound like they’re looking into trading for picks either. Makes for a boring draft from a Hawks fan’s perspective.

I was hoping that the word was “resigned” rather than “re-signed”. You gotta believe that the Celtics playoff series saved his job.

Any thoughts or opinions on the hire? The Sonics were crap over the past few years, so i’m not all that thrilled about bringing him in. If anything, they seemed to get worse over his tenure than better.

Are the NBA Playoffs pre-determined? It sure seems that way sometimes, at least when it comes to questionable refereeing. It’s funny how so many people are saying that David Stern wants a Celtics-Lakers Final because it sure is shaping up that way. If the Pistons come out of the East, then i’ll be more inclined to believe that everything is on the up-and-up, but I tend to be a conspiracy theorist when it comes to the NBA. I spent too many years in Chicago seeing Jordan get every single call, especially from ‘96-’98 after his first retirement. 

Well, Billyball is no more; don’t let the doorknob hit you on the way out. Is Woody next? Will the Joshes be re-signed? Will we bring a shooter in? Will we pick up a decent big man? Lots of issues to deal with over the next few months.

What do we do about a GM? I have no idea who’s out there, but I know that Lang mentioned a few options in Geoff Petrie, Nique and Steve Smith. I’d like to see someone come in with a proven track record, so i’m not so sure about Nique and Smith. Whoever they bring in, they need to do it sooner than later so that we can get ready for the draft (I know that we don’t have a pick but maybe a savvy GM could pull off a trade or two to acquire one).

I’d love to see both Joshes re-signed; while Smith drives me crazy sometimes with his turnovers, he still has streaks of brilliance that make him extremely valuable. Chill is probably my favorite Hawk, largely because he does the little things that make this team successful.

Woody’s gotta go; i’d like to see someone like D’Antoni or Avery come in, but I doubt either will happen. We need someone who actually knows how to run an up-tempo offense, something Woody often spoke about but rarely implemented; That’s why D’Antoni would be a perfect fit.

We have to bolster the bench with some shooting and some size. IMO, Salim is the answer for the shooting, but if Woody stays, then there’s no way that Salim will re-sign. Zaza showed some toughness in the playoffs, but he had a horrible season. We can’t depend on him to be our only big man off the bench.

A full year with Bibby at the helm should help guarantee our first winning season in over a decade, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.

I can’t believe we’re talking about a Game 7! As Mora would say- PLAYOFFS? PA-PLAYOFFS? You wanna talk about PLAYOFFS?

Do you think we have a shot? My logic goes that there’s no way we play four piss-poor games in a row up there-we’re due for a good one. I’m not saying necessarily that we’ll win, but I expect a close game, especially since there’s so much on the line.

We’ve gotta have a better game from Joe than in Game #6. We also need another strong game from Marvin, assuming that his knee injury is not serious. We have to make Free Throws up there-that means you Zaza, Bibby and Josh Childress. Keep up the pace, shore up the rebounding and we have a realistic shot. If we don’t do all of those things well, we’re done for the season.

SHOCK THE WORLD!

Shock the World indeed! Three wins in a week over the best team in the NBA-something no one thought could be done. Can you believe that there’ll be a Game 7 tomorrow?!?! I am so proud of the boys. If you’d asked me beforehand if i’d be happy with the Hawks winning two games, i’d say definitely. But now, I WANT A WIN and will be disappointed if they don’t win tomorrow, even if I know it’s less than likely.

Recap: Ismail and I went to the game, my third in a week. This was the biggest crowd of the three-20,425 in attendance for the biggest crowd in Philips history. The atmosphere was once again electric-this game meant something and the fans knew it needed to be a strong 6th Man, which it did.

Marvin had a huge game, his first good game of the series. Joe did not play well until the 4th Quarter, so we needed someone else to step up and Marv was the man. Josh was getting killed by the refs and sat for large portions of the game because of foul trouble. The Powers that Be must’ve been instructed to make sure the Celtics got the benefit of the calls as Garnett was getting every single call in his favor, hurting both Josh and Al’s PT. Despite this, we overcame two significant deficits (just like in Game 4) to pull out the victory. We almost shot ourselves in the foot with all of the missed Free Throws; I kept thinking that this was going to haunt us for sure, but somehow we found a way around it.

After the game, the crowd was the most animated that i’ve seen. Hundreds of people chanting “Let’s Go Hawks”, ”Boston Sucks” and “Overrated”. I would not have wanted to have been a Celtics fan in Philips last night as they were hearing it from the Hawks faithful; I couldn’t have been more proud.  

The Spin: Hawks Magnets again.

I went to the game again last night (alone as the rest of Riseup has become MIA) and once again, the atmosphere was electric and the game was amazing. There were two times where the Hawks looked dead in the water, including being down by 10 at the end of the 3rd Quarter. I was about to leave at the beginning of the 4th Quarter, but thankfully I stuck it out long enough to see an improbable comeback. Joe Johnson was unstoppable; he showed the rest of the country what he’s been doing here for the past three years. Overall, the game was every bit as magical as Game #3.

The Spin: Hawks magnets that I “lost”; they somehow ended up being stuck to the escalator within a minute of my receving them.

I see that Friday’s game is already sold out; I can’t believe the instant fame and popularity that the team is enjoying. Even more unbelievable to me is that i’m actually going to be using my Game #6 tickets!