HAWKS

Mike Woodson is the coach of the Atlanta Hawks and the job will represent his first head coaching experience in the league. The Hawks made two blockbuster moves in the off-season with the first seeing the team trade their best player (shooting guard Stephen Jackson) to the Indiana Pacers for their sixth man Al Harrington. The Hawks also made a trade with Dallas where Atlanta sent slash guard Jason Terry and forward Alan Henderson to the Mavericks for all-star forward Antoine Walker and guard Tony Delk. The team also had a pretty good draft by picking up Josh Childress from Stanford and Royal Ivey from Texas along with youngsters Josh Smith and Donta Smith.

With the new pieces of the puzzle joining up with the remaining Hawks, the starting five should compete with that of any of the teams in the new Southeast division. Walker, Delk, and Harrington will likely start along side the rookie Childress and Joel Pryzbilla, a big man out of the University of Minnesota, to make a formidable starting lineup. They’ll be competing with Miami, Orlando, Washington, and expansion team Charlotte for a guaranteed playoff spot that the Hawks really believe they can win. Miami made a huge off-season trade to acquire the services of Shaquille O’Neal who is still without a doubt the most dominating player in the league and Orlando made a big move by shipping all-world player Tracy McGrady to Houston for Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley. Washington acquired Antawn Jamison from Dallas and should be better with more experience while Charlotte will be a young and exuberant team that will play with a lot of heart and guts. To put it simply, the landscape of the division has changed dramatically. After the NBA announced the realignment of the four divisions into six five-team divisions, everyone saw how tough the Southwest division would play and then immediately looked at the Southeast and assumed a 30-52 season might win the title. Every team dramatically improved in the off-season and now it’s not unrealistic to think any team could jump up and make the playoffs or win the division.

The Hawks have only won one championship in the history of the franchise which came in 1958 when they were the St. Louis Hawks. The team took down the other three teams in the Western Division and then beat the Detroit Pistons in the Western Conference Finals before taking down the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. Apparently the Celtics were too pleased about being beaten in the championship as witnessed by their run of nine championships in eleven years (including an eight-year consecutive run). The Hawks would like to make history of their own in 2004 but if they can simply make the playoffs, you’d have to think they would call it a good season.

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