Atlanta Hawks 2009-10 NBA Season Preview

The Atlanta Hawks have been a young team on the rise for the past few seasons but has their talent taken them as far as they can go in the current Eastern Conference? During the off season they added a couple of veterans in Jamal Crawford and Joe Smith to bolster their lineup and drafted Jeff Teague out of Wake Forest. There is only so much room for improvement for this team to make without adding an elite player to the mix but they could still be the best of the rest in the East.

The point guard position will be handled by Mike Bibby. He won’t be asked to score as much as he did last season but he needs to be the facilitator in this backcourt rotation. Backing up Mike Bibby is Jeff Teague who should see decent minutes in his rookie year.

Joe Johnson will once again serve as the Atlanta Hawks go to scorer. He can rain buckets in from all over the court and help set up his teammates for easy looks by drawing the defense to him. New addition Jamal Crawford will be the Hawks 6th man off the bench. Crawford should provide a nice spark off of the bench and let Johnson get a few minutes of rest when needed. As an added bonus Crawford can also play point guard.

At small forward the starter will be Marvin Williams. Will this be the year he finally breaks out and lives up to his potential as the former number two pick in the 2005 draft? It’s possible but look for slightly better numbers than he had last season, which was injury plagued. Maurice Evans will be the backup 3, he is a very good scorer when he is on top of his game, and he should continue to play plenty of minutes.

Josh Smith had a down year during the Hawks last campaign. He is still young at 24 years old but he is a veteran in his 5th NBA season, I don’t think he has peaked just yet and his numbers should improve from last season. Joe Smith will see limited numbers in his backup role.

Al Horford will be the starting center he provides 10-12 points a game, lots of rebounds, and good defense. He is the only real post presence on the team. Zaza Pachulia will back him up and might get less minutes than he did last season.

The Hawks should compete all year for the number four spot in the Eastern Conference and could spoil one of the big three’s runs and make it to the conference finals. They have plenty of scorers and talent to provide an upset over one of the top tier teams but I think they don’t have enough front court depth or a consistent superstar to carry them. Joe Johnson is a star just not a superstar. Atlanta will finish in second place behind the Orlando Magic in the division.

Starting Five:

Mike Bibby

Joe Johnson

Marvin Williams

Josh Smith

Al Horford

Contributers:

Jeff Teague

Jamal Crawford

Zaza Pachulia

Maurice Evans

Joe Smith