Sports Page Atlanta

The 2008-09 Atlanta Hawks regular season schedule was released today. You can see the Hawks schedule here.

The Atlanta Hawks and the National Basketball Association (NBA) today announced the 2008-09 schedule, and for the first time in six years, the Hawks will be featured on national television during the regular season as Atlanta and Boston meet for the first time since their thrilling first round playoff series, as ESPN televises the Wednesday, December 17th game from Philips Arena. The World Champion Celtics return for a second time on Friday, March 27.

The Hawks open the season on the road Wednesday, October 29 at Orlando, and three nights later, Atlanta will host the Philadelphia 76ers in their home opener (Saturday, November 1 at 7 p.m.).

The 41-game home schedule is highlighted by 24 weekend dates – with 10 games on Fridays, eight on Saturdays and six on Sundays (four of them during the afternoon). Atlanta will play eight straight at Philips Arena from December 13 to 29, and seven in row during a 14-of-20 home stretch between March 7 to April 15 (final day of the regular season), and six consecutive road contests during a 12-of-16 away stretch from January 31 to March 6. The Hawks’ busiest month of action occurs in March when the Hawks play a total of 17 games, with 12 of them at home.

In addition to the home opener on November 1, other notable contests include two games against the Cleveland Cavaliers (November 13 and March 1) and division rivals, the Orlando Magic (January 7 and April 4), while the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers visit Atlanta on Sunday, March 29.

The folks over at Hoops Addict are running the first annual Hoops Addict Floor Burn Tournament.

Each night ESPN, NBA.com and YouTube are flooded with clips of players soaring through the air for rim rocking dunks, buzzer beating three-pointers and blocked shots that make your jaw drop in amazement. While those are all entertaining plays, teams who win championships need players who are willing to get a little dirty and do the little things needed to help their team win. As valuable and crucial as these players are to their respective teams success, these players rarely get the credit or respect that they deserve. With that in mind, the First Annual Hoops Addict Floor Burn Tournament will kick off this week.

Over the next few weeks we’re going to pare down 32 participants until we’re left with one final player who will be heralded as the First Annual Floor Burn Tournament Champion. As players are eliminated, they’ll be matched against the bracket below them. For example, the winner of the West/Powe match-up will face off against the winner of Dudley/Nocioni in the second round.

In the first round, Atlanta Hawks guard, Mario West is pitted against Leon Powe from the Celtics. West is pounding Powe in the voting so far, but let’s everyone go check out Hoops Addict and Vote For Mario West!

So, Josh Childress is now officially out of the NBA. There’s really no more point in discussing the impact this has on the Hawks (hint: its negative), but, instead, it seems more prudent to understand why Childress is willing to make the commitment to go from a sixth man in the NBA to a star player in a foreign country. Sure, the money it certainly a factor, but what other reasons could have factored into his decision making process? It’s summer and there’s not a whole lot else to talk about in regards to the Hawks (oh, yeah, Maurice Evans… he’s, um… a warm body?) until we lament Josh Smith signing somewhere else. Thus, this seems like a perfect opportunity to delve into Childress’s reasons for leaving. Some possibilities:

• Gyros. So unbelievably tasty. I mean, sure, Atlanta offers some delicious cuisine, but, nothing matches a gyro made with goat cheese.

• Felt offended when he was snubbed for the Olympics team; considered the Olympiacos the next best thing.

• Secretly hoping he gets to play some games in the Pantheon.

• When he does return to the United States, he plans on changing his name to just “Chill” and going by his one name moniker, like so many European sensations before him.

• This Greek goddess. (Safe for work, but just barely)

All these reasons seem legitimate. Also, the whole “our front office and ownership is a complete disaster and is ruining the one ray of hope we’ve had in eight years due to overwhelming incompetence ” thing, but, you all knew that already.

Randolph Morris is coming back to Atlanta.  The former Landmark Christian superstar signed a 2-year contract to play for the Atlanta Hawks. 

The 6′11″ power forward/center has played part of 2 NBA seasons with the New York Knicks and has played in 23 games including 2 starts.  The former Kentucky Wildcat scored 2.6 points per game and 2.0 rebounds per game last season.

He is not Josh Childress, but the Atlanta Hawks might have signed his replacement. 

The Hawks signed Maurice Evans to a 3-year/$7.5 million.  Evans is 6′5″ and has played six seasons in the NBA including last season with the Magic.  With Orlando, he played in 68 games while starting 47.  He averaged 9.3 points per game and 3.1 rebounds per game. His career-high came this past season against of all teams the Atlanta Hawks back on April 15th when he knocked in 27 points in a Magic win.

He has played for the Timberwolves, Kings, Pistons, Lakers, Magic and now the Hawks. 

The Atlanta Hawks swingman Josh Childress will now be playing his games for the Greek team Olympiakos.  The contract is for 3 years for $32.5 million.  The Hawks had offered the 4-year veteran a 5-year/$32 million contract.

Childress called this ‘an opportunity of a lifetime’.

The Hawks retain the rights with Childress for the next 2 years.

Atlanta Hawks restricted free agent Josh Childress has been offered a contract by the Greek team Olympiakos. The team has been rumored to offer the swingman around $20 million for 3 seasons.

The Hawks need to sign this 6th-man star badly. He was 2nd in the NBA in scoring among players that did not start averaging 11.8 points per game (only J.R. Smith had more).

He also does not miss often. He shot 57.1 percent from the floor last season and 52.2 percent in his career. That last number is 5th best among Atlanta Hawks players all-time.

Here are the top-5 all-time leaders in career field goal pct by an Atlanta Hawk…

Mike Glenn (1981-85) .553

Dikembe Mutombo (1996-01) .529

Tree Rollins (1977-88) .529

Cliff Levingston (1984-90) .528

Josh Childress (2004-08) .522

I have never been so happy about a non-Hawks signing as I was about Elton Brand’s 5 year, $80 million deal with Philadelphia. The biggest pursuer of the Hawks’ coveted restricted free agent, Josh Smith, was taken out of the running by committing themselves elsewhere. However, this does not mean our long summer ordeal is over. Teams, including Golden State (losers on trying to re-sign Baron Davis) and the Clippers (who failed to re-sign Brand to go with their acquisition of Davis) are aggressively pursuing Smith and fellow free agent Josh Childress.

It all goes back to last year, when the Hawks had the opportunity to sign Smith (22 years old) and Childress (25) to three years deals without other teams being allowed to make any offers. This is sort of deal is typical in the NBA, and a boon for both sides: the player gets more money then they would make as a restricted free agent (since their new contract kicks in a year earlier) and the team saves money on a year-to-year basis.

Of course, the Hawks aren’t famous for the wisest of decisions and the decision to not sign Smith and Childress to deals last summer will go down as one of former General Manager Billy Knight’s most questionable moves. However, the team’s mismanagement has extended beyond Knight’s tenure. New GM Rick Sund’s decision to retain Coach Mike Woodson will only make negotiations more difficult with Smith. Anyone who watches Hawks games can attest to Smith’s dislike for Woodson: his body language during time outs would be kindly described as “negative” and his history of in-fighting with the coaching staff (including a two game suspension two seasons ago) makes it clear that Woodson is not Smith’s number one choice for coach. While I normally would be opposed to the concept of a player acting immaturely like Smith, it is hard to argue for Woodson when one takes a look at his abysmal record over the last four years, including his underachieving team from last year. Sure, the Hawks made the playoffs and took the Celtics to seven games; however, Woodson also presided over a talented team going 37-45 in a weak conference.

It is impossible to overstate the loss Smith would have on the team. While still raw and immature in several aspects of his game, including settling way too often for a contested shot or poor three (where he shot only 25% last year, though it felt worse than that), his upside is simply unreal. He is only 22, but still averaged almost three blocks a game last year. His defense overall does still need some work (blocks are not the be-all-end-all of defensive statistics – he has difficulties with post-up play), however, he continues to improve every year. The most important thing which Smith added last year was an offensive game. Again, he still shoots too many threes, however, he showed an aggression going to the hoop which he had not had in previous seasons. While it is still not as fine tuned as it could be, again, he is only 22! Smith should be a cornerstone of the franchise for years to come, not a hot free agent commodity.

Childress’s value, while not as clearly apparent, is still immense. Childress is the quintessential sixth man – indeed, he could easily contend for sixth man of the year for seasons to come. He is a high energy player who does an excellent job getting back on the fast break and has an excellent jump shot (he shot 57% from the field last year). However, where Childress really shines is rebounding. Despite only averaging six rebounds in thirty minutes of play per game last year, Childress always seems to be right in the thick of the boards, blocking out players taller than him to fight for a rebound. This sort of high energy is exactly what an NBA team wants from its bench.

The Hawks core is one of the youngest and brightest in the NBA. Joe Johnson is establishing himself as one of the star scorers in the league, Marvin Williams is emerging as a complete all-around player, Mike Bibby will enter the 2008-9 season with a whole summer to get use to his teammates (where his mid-season acquisition last year did not give him time to adjust to each player’s preferences of where they want the ball), and thinking about Al Horford’s future in this league makes me giddy with excitement. With Smith and Childress on this team, the Hawks are possibly contending for a championship spot out of the East in the next few years. However, I can’t help but feel that poor management decisions which have plagued the team for years will cause this young nucleus – which we saw a brief glimpse of for three amazing games against the Celtics – to disappear before it ever really gels.

After all, there’s only so many Elton Brands out there to bail us out.

The Atlanta Hawks don’t have any picks in this year’s draft (unless a trade happens) so times are a little slow with Atlanta’s only playoff team.

They did make some moves with their assistant coaches, though.  Out is David Fizdale and scout Harold Ellis and staying put is Larry Drew and Bob Bender.

Now the Hawks must focus on what they will do with Josh Smith and Josh Childress.

The Atlanta Hawks re-signed head coach Mike Woodson to a new 2-year contract effective immediately.

Woodson has coached the Hawks for 4 seasons and his last one was his best as Atlanta reached the playoffs for the first time this decade and took which could be the NBA Champions (Boston Celtics) to seven games. He is 106-222 overall. His win totals increased every year from 13 to 26 to 30 to 37.

Whether this was a good move has yet to be determined.