Atlanta Hawks: Schedule stuff (UPDATE: 2010-11 schedule released)
The Hawks are set to release their schedule at 2 p.m. today. I will break it down here soon after. You will break it down below soon after that. Together we will formulate predictions, opinion and analysis that likely will mean little once the Hawks open the season.
Now doesn’t that sound fun? Hey, it’s August.
UPDATE
The schedule is out. Here are some highlights:
– The Hawks open the season with two road games and three in four nights. They play at Memphis Oct. 27, at Philadelphia Oct. 29 and at home vs. Washington on Oct. 30.
– Atlanta’s longest road trip of the season is broken up by All-Star weekend in Los Angeles. Games at Detroit Feb. 14 and at New York Feb. 16 are followed by All-Star weekend Feb. 18-20. Atlanta the continues the trip out West with games at the Lakers, Suns, Warriors, Blazers and Nuggets.
– The Hawks follow that trip with nine of their next 10 games at Philips Arena with just one back-to-back set. Atlanta plays 14 of its last 21 games at home.
– Atlanta plays a total of 23 back-to-back sets: 11 home/away, seven away/home and five away/away.
– Miami’s SuperFriends won’t make their first regular-season visit until March 18. The Heat visit again for Atlanta’s home finale on April 11. Miami will play an exhibition game against the Hawks at Philips on Oct. 21.
– The defending champion Lakers come to town on March 8. Orlando visits Dec. 20 and March 30. Defending East champ Boston visits on Nov. 22 and April 1.
– The Hawks play host to the Wizards on Thanksgiving Night (Nov. 25).
–The Hawks will play 14 games on national TV: seven on NBA TV, four on ESPN and three on TNT.
My three thoughts, worth $.02 each:
1. That closing schedule looks like a kind of trade-off between opponents and location, doesn’t it? It’s hard for the Hawks to complain about 14 of their last 21 at home, but they draw the Bulls three times, Miami twice (though that April 11 game could be meaningless for the standings), Boston, the Lakers, Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Orlando. On the plus side, the Hawks play consecutive road games just once during that span, and they are at Indiana and Washington.
2. There could be an opportunity for L.D. to get off to a good start in his first season as the head man. Memphis, Philadelphia, Washington, Cleveland, Detroit and Minnesota looks to be a manageable stretch to open the season. As always, that comes with the caveat that’s it’s folly to look at NBA schedules and predict wins and losses. And four of those games are on the road, where the Hawks were known to mess around and not handle their business last season.
2. Breaking up the February trip with All-Star weekend sounds good to me. I’ll take the long weekend in L.A. It should be good for the Hawks, too, since it takes what could have potentially been one long, 12-day West Coast trip and makes it a four-day trip East and an eight-day trip West with a short vacation in between. And the Hawks have all those home games to look forward to when they return to Atlanta.
MC
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
259 comments Add your comment
terrell
August 11th, 2010
4:10 pm
“Why is he even the GM if he has no power”? Ask the ASG,not me. BK went throught the same thing. Where ya been?
terrell
August 11th, 2010
4:18 pm
Northcyde, you, like many others around here, never complained about Sund re-signing Bibby, Marvin, and Zaza, until they underperformed. lol! Not to mention he canned old stubborn butt and brought in Flip/Mo and Jamal for a sackful of Krystals. Not too shabby if you ask me. Look at what Dumars has done to the Pistons in the last few years. How bout Isiah in NY, or Kerr in Phoenix(until he got lucky last year)? Get off of Sunds .uts!
drmaryb (*_*)
August 11th, 2010
4:46 pm
Shadow – Boxing!
Aye … You fellas better stop shadow-boxing with NorthCyde!
He’s a bad man … He gone’ knock yall out! Don’t make my man kill yall with them killer stats and facts! Yall, gone’ need. A respirator! And some life – support!
Dang Cyde!
Man, you got me thinking ’bout my out-fit for the Magic City Classic!
And the FAMU drum roll at the Ga. Dome! I better get my paper right, so I
can roll out and party.
Them Hawls? Go Figure.
northcyde
August 11th, 2010
6:10 pm
Wrong Terrell.
I was all for letting Bibby go, because I was still under the belief that Acie could take over at the point . . much like people think that Teague can do now. Even when Bibby was brought back, I thought Acie would show enough improvement to take the job away from him.
As for Zaza, he was signed out of necessity, because we didn’t have a true big center on the team. I think the playoff game @ Miami, in which he grabbed 18 rebs, is what led to us re-signing Zaza. I’ve never been a fan of “turnover” Pachulia. But I do know why he was brought back.
The only one I was in favor of bringing back, was Marvin. And that was because we needed all the scorers we could secure, if JJ left in 2010. At that time, Marvin hadn’t gone into decline, and he proved that by adding the 3 pointer to his game in the 08 – 09 season. I didn’t have any problem bringing Marvin back at the price that they did.
The main move I wanted us to make, was not Speedy + Law for Jamal Crawford . . . it was Speedy + Mo Evans for Marcus Camby. We needed quality depth on the frontline and rebounding help, more than anything. It would’ve been real nice to be able to acquire a guy who could play both PF and C, to spell Horford or Smoove.
The Crawford trade worked, so even though that wasn’t the move I wanted, it turned out great for us. But I would’ve rather had this lineup going into 2009 – 10.
PG – Law – Jamal Tinsley? ( vet minimum )
G – JJ – Flip
F – Marvin – Stackhouse? ( vet minimum )
PF – Smoove – Dejuan Blair ( instead of Teague )
C – Horford – Camby – Morris
You figure Woody is going only 8 – 9 deep anyway. Tinsley/Stackhouse would’ve been the 9th/10th man.
Don’t know if that lineup wins us 53 games, but it probably gets us at least 50. And I like that frontline going into the playoffs.
**********
But Terrell, it still goes back as to if Sund has any power or not. If he’s the “puppet” of the ASG, what makes you so sure that he was the mastermind behind the Crawford signing? Woody had been asking for a legit #2 scorer for years, to help JJ. Maybe it was Woody who asked for Crawford, if Sund is truly a “puppet”.
If Drew or Gearon wants Sund to bring in a player, and Sund’s “expert analysys” tells them that he’s not the right player, it’s Sund’s job to convince them of such. And the same goes the other way, if Sund wants a player, but Drew and ownership don’t. As the dang GM, it’s his job to convince them that it’s the right move.
If that move proves to be positive, praise Sund. If not, criticize Sund. But I be dang if he gets absolved of ANY responsibility for a transaction that is made. As the General Manager, it’s his job to manage the team.
If that’s what he’s not doing on every transaction, he’s not a GM . . he’s a GH ( General Housekeeper ).
rusty
August 11th, 2010
6:57 pm
northcyde
you have always been in love with bibby,jj & woody always hated teague & jc. show a lot of crappy stats. talk about sexy women. you must be 16 still in lust. you once said that i was 16. ha,ha,ha
Sautee,
August 11th, 2010
7:57 pm
Enter your comments here
Sautee,
August 11th, 2010
8:02 pm
Let’s try that again…..
As highly as I think of Al Horford, he has not come close to showing he is worth Max money. Of course, neither is JJ, btw, but his circumstances were FAR different than Al’s.
If Horford suddenly blossoms into an ALL-NBA player, I’d change my mind. Which would be great, but totally unexpected, even as highly as I think of him.
To me, Horford has HUGE “intangibles” in his game, and THAT is what separates him from the other young centers in the league.
Sautee
August 11th, 2010
8:05 pm
northcyde,
Woody would have started Flip at the point in that lineup. UGH!
sam'l
August 14th, 2010
7:45 am
why would the schedule be so important?
Gotta remember facing Boston and Orlando back to back………twice one week and then the next week. That’s why the schedule is important.
It’s one thing to be wrong…but it’s another thing to be wrong and be glib about it. Shaq is now too old to be what the Hawks need, an energetic, consistent, running, living, breathing competitor night in and night out.
To suggest that Shaq should be brought in because he is “marketable” skirts the point. “Marketable” to the fuzzy-headed Atlanta fans doesn’t equate to winning. To me, winning is marketing, not signing injury prone Shrek 4 or whatever the big nutcase is calling himself these days.
And then to pass that off as reality.
Northclyde…you could write some of Obama’s sound bites. Then you’d be a one term blogger.