Short of a miracle, I am not too sure what I think or how I feel about this offseason for the Hawks. I can say without a doubt that I feel disappointed that we weren't able to do more. To hear from Zach Lowe that major free agents often reject meetings with the Hawks makes me want to sit outside all day staring directly into the sun.



Positives for the Hawks

I know I'm going to sound like a broken record and if you follow the rest of the Peachtree hoops guys like I do or are even REMOTELY aware of our team's growth, you'll know of the promise we have right now. Right now we've got a new coach mentored by one of the best, a system that actually makes sense, a young team with promise, a solid general manager and a good amount of cap space. Not to mention, believe it or not, I actually SEE people wearing Hawks gear! I shit you not. People are excited about the possibility of a great team. So excited, that they get absolutely pissed off when they hear about free agents snubbing us. Let's not forget our drafts though, Adrien Payne is looking like a pretty solid stretch 4 with good potential. Edy Tavares is also looking better than I had originally anticipated. His game last night in the summer league featured a great FT stroke, good passing and solid shooting.

The Free Agent Snub

So even though this offseason started out with some realism that we were unlikely to hear from Carmelo or Lebron, there was still a chance we could snag Pau Gasol, Luol Deng, Kevin Love, Chris Bosh, or Chandler Parsons. We all know how that went down. Instead we got Thabo and Bazemore for good prices. Those guys aren't bad at all. Good pieces and they're at the right price points for our club. But Pau, Deng, Love, Bosh, Parsons (others I'm forgetting) are all game changing pieces who would have done two things for us: (1) Gotten us out of the first round of the playoffs. I can't say that for sure but the majority of those guys are driven, winning players with experience. Parsons is still young and isn't quite as much of a game changer but he would be nice. Love doesn't have the proven track record but you know he wants it. And (2) would make us look a little more attractive. The Hawks obviously don't look attractive to free agents. You can say it has to do with our mediocrity (some might call that consistency), our fans, or our refusal to tank and rebuild.

Who Should I Be Mad At?

Whatever it is, we aren't luring anyone which, leads me to ask Should I be mad at Danny Ferry for not drawing in the free agents? Should I be mad at Ferry for not dishing out more cash? Should I be mad at my fellow ATLiens for cheering for ANY other team we play at Philips? Or Should I be mad at the free agents for snubbing us? I honestly don't know what to think. I know how fellow Hawk's fan @JoeGreenATL feels about it. And I agree to a certain extent. I look around and at the tanked ball clubs like Charlotte and Philadelphia with some shameful envy. Suddenly they have promise and excitement. Lastly, should I just accept that we, like other teams struck out this year and be happy we didn't overpay for someone?

To be honest, I don't really know what to think. I do know that we aren't significantly better and we'll be playing a tougher East this year. But I also know we'll be good enough to make the playoffs barring any injuries. And, if like last season, we exit during the first round, you can find me sitting out on my porch staring directly into the sun.

What do you think?