Joe Johnson & Co. are in town coming off a loss to (gulp) Chicago on Saturday. The Hawks' reaction to getting beat by the laughingstock of the League will be a good indicator of whether this team is ready to grow after last year's success (Hollinger's statistical power rankings has them at #1). Of course, our beloved Timberwolves may decide not to show up for 12 minutes at a time, thus making the indicator less valid.
Whenever we play the Hawks, I feel the need to apologize to Billy Knight. Sure, he's the guy who drafted Acie Law #11 and Shelden Williams #5. But he's also the guy that brought Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Al Horford, Marvin Williams, Mike Bibby and Zaza Pachulia to Atlanta. We all laughed when he drafted Childress, Smith and Williams, but he sure assembled an eventually potent squad.