The Atlanta Hawks Franchise deserved better
This article is in response to a post I read this morning. The argument was that Marvin Williams, the number 2 pick in the NBA Draft for the Atlanta Hawks in 2005, is somehow better than CP3 and Deron Williams. Why? Because he is still in the NBA and the other two or not (CP3 is temporary until a trade from OKC is completed). I was going to post this in the actual thread of the comment, then decided to pull it and create an article around it. I will begin with my actual response.
“Well, CP3 is going to be on a team, that’s temporary. Yes, Deron is out the league, but Deron was primary reason Utah had a resurgence and was a yearly threat in the Western Conference. He also finished his career as a 16 and 8 assist player. CP3 made the New Orleans/OKC Hornets a team to watch, relevant, then a winning team (56 wins in 2007). A few years later went to the Clippers and made a team that nobody took serious into a contending team each year. All of a sudden there was another team in LA. There were commercials of players that wore Clipper uniforms. Stars started going to Clippers games.
Marvin never made anybody a threat, he’s averaged 10 points for his career and people have paid him over 100 million to do that and this was before all the tv contracts. Deron on the Hawks would have made a difference and CP3 would have definitely made a difference and they have both proved that over their careers. People are trying to legitimize the careers of AL and Marvin and Jeff as if they are better than the people drafted around them and they are not.
The bottom line, AL was a 14 and 8 player, but closer to 13 and 6 and should have been a 24 and 12 player and got us to a Finals at least once (Tristan Thompson). Jeff should have been a 20 and 10 guy and was a 12 and 6 instead. And there is nothing wrong with that, they helped the Hawks win games, win a few playoff series. But they were never going to elevate their games to put the Hawks into “contender” status. The 60 win team was never viewed as a legit threat because we did not have a player that had the capability of “give me the ball, I’m about to win this game”. Heck, we didn’t have someone to say “give me the ball, I want to “try” to win this game”. Every championship team has had that player or players plural. Lakers had Magic, Kobe. Boston had Bird, then the Truth. Bulls had Jordan. Pistons had Thomas. Philly had A.I. Rockets had The Dream. Portland had The Glide, now Dame. GW has Curry and Klay, Cavs had Bron, Heat had Wade, etc, etc. Back in the day, for the Hawks, that guy was Nique and for a short time, we had Joe. Since then, who?
Our new Hawks team has several players that have that capability and they’ve proved it in just one season. Trae of course, team ran plays for Red Mamba and John Collins too. I’ve been saying this forever, that there is nothing wrong with looking fondly on past years. Hawks have won a lot more games than most in the last 12 years, we have made the playoffs much more than most in the past 12 years and it’s nothing to be ashamed about. We are not a mediocre franchise. At the same time, Hawks should have been better, a lot better”.
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Trae Young
John Collins
Kevin Huerter
