Atlanta

Survey Says!


Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services 

The third annual GM survey has 7 interesting results for Atlanta fans. Al Harrington was voted as the player most likely to have a breakout season this year. Josh Smith was named the rookie most likely to be a "sleeper" success. And in five other categories, Hawks players received votes.

Harrington received 37 percent of all votes to be named likeliest to breakout. Smith received 16 percent of all votes to be named likeliest sleeper.

Atlanta's other rookie, Josh Childress, actually tied for fourth with five percent for winning the Rookie of the Year award.

The acquisitions of Al Harrington and Antoine Walker received some votes as being the most underrated of the offseason but the top vote-getter was Brent Barry to the Spurs at 33 percent.

Other votes received included Boris Diaw as the international player most likely to have a breakout season (won by a tie of Mehmet Okur and Mickael Pietrus with 14 percent each), second-round pick David Anderson, currently playing in Russia, tied for fifth with five percent of the vote as the best international player not in the NBA (won by Serbia's Dejan Bodiroga), and Kevin Willis received five percent of the votes as the active player who will make the best head coach someday (won by Avery Johnson, who has become a head coach, and then by Steve Nash, each with a mathematically mind-boggling 71 percent).

NEXT GAME
Atlanta's (1-7 in the preseason) star rises in the West as the rebuilt team starts their season with a three-game Western Conference road trip. Their season opener is Wednesday, November 3rd, at 9:00pm Eastern in Phoenix against the young and hungry Suns (7-1 in the preseason). That game will be broadcast on FSO and NBA League Pass.

TEAM NOTES
Win a suite for Hawks opening night! Sign up for the Restart Sweepstakes.

INJURY UPDATE
Kevin Willis(right shoulder) will miss tonight's game but will likely be back for Thursday's game against the Cavaliers in Pittsburgh.Al Harrington (sprained right middle finger) will likely play tonight.Tony Delk (recovering from a July knee surgery) has had his first full contact practice and might play for the first time tonight.Chris Crawford(knee) is out for the season.

NEWSLINES

Bill Hartman ofChannel 2 Action News Sportswrites: Give general manager Billy Knight credit for rebuilding the Atlanta Hawks.They may not be very good for a while but they will be different. And with this franchise...different is good. The "new look" Hawks open the season on November 3rd in Phoenix.

Jerry Faull ofThe Seattle Timeswrites:Antoine Walker and Al Harrington, Atlanta Hawks:In case anyone cares, these two now play for the Hawks, who play their games somewhere in Atlanta. This might be the last you'll read of this team all season.

Mitch Lawrence ofThe Daily Newswrites: The Hawks can live with the fact that Smith, a local product taken No.17 overall, is a work in progress.The plan is to get the Oak Hill Academy product minutes, especially with Chris Crawford lost for the season. Smith was a four-five in high school, but scouts see him as primarily a three in the pros. When it comes to his off-the-charts athleticism, the 6-9 Smith has been as good as advertised. "But in terms of how to play," said one scout, "he has no clue."

Frank Hughes ofThe News Tribunewrites: There are plenty of good seats available for the Seattle SuperSonics’ home opener Friday night against the Atlanta Hawks.And when we say plenty, we mean p-l-e-n-t-y. According to a team spokesperson, there are approximately 8,500 tickets left to be sold to fill the 17,072-seat KeyArena. Depending on how many tickets are sold in the final few days, Friday’s crowd could be the smallest for a home opener since the 1984-85 season, when 7,117 showed up at the Kingdome to see a team that ultimately finished 31-51.