Are the Atlanta Hawks the best team in the East?!

Nope, best team is the Bulls, Raptors, Cavaliers and then it's a toss up between them and the Wiz.

 

This team reminds me of those Houston teams that had a bunch of good players on it. No stars, but a bunch of players that can really hoop.

They are obviously playing on a high though.

Demare Carroll? What?

 

Told my friends here that Budenholzer was the guy the Lakers should have targeted not Mike Brown/D'Antoni etc. The guy has transformed that team in just his first season having them make the playoffs last year as an 8th seed and almost upset the Pacers. Now the Hawks have one of the best records in the league and went through a very impressive stretch of beating 3 western conference playoffs teams in 4 days - with two on the road.

He is the run away choice right now for COY - I had originally though after losing Joe Johnson, and Josh Smith that the Hawks would return to being another lower level eastern conference team for a while. He has that entire team playing unselfishly and its beautiful to see. They had 28 assists last night on 34 field goals! 28 of their 34 field goals were assisted on! 5 of their guys had 4 or assists or more and one had 3. Its just fun to watch and without a big name super star there are no egos on that team.

They and the Raptors (i mean they are the Rockets of the east with Lowry, Hayes, PPat) are my favorite teams in the East to watch

 

I give Hawks props for a win streak but title contenders I hold back til I see a better body of work.

 

I don't know if the Hawks are the best team in the East right now (too early), but with Budenholzer at the helm I have little doubt that the Hawks will be a top contending team in the East for years to come. Some of those will undoubtedly come as the top team.

17 years on the Spurs, 15 years as the lead Assistant to Popovich and 4 rings on his fingers before he even became the Head Coach for Atlanta.

The Hawks are on their way to becoming Spurs East. If that doesn't scare the wits out of the Eastern Conference then folks really need to look more closely at HOW the Hawks are winning their games, not just the win/loss column.

Honestly, I have no idea why more teams didn't throw the kitchen sink at Budenholzer. When a legendary coach like Ettore Messina considers taking an assistant role to Popovich as a step up, then you know that it's a special kind of place to learn your craft.

The only thing that will likely hurt the Hawks in the play offs is lack of player experience. It won't be the coaching or the systems, that's for sure.

 

Hawks deserve all kinds of praise! What a week!

Budenholzer has turned them into Spurs East. Team plays so unselfishly!

 

They remind me more of that Denver team post Carmelo that actually surprised a lot of people and ended up being really good. That Denver team had some borderline stars. Atlanta has some borderline stars.

Just playing great team basketball with amazing chemistry.

 

Houston has great fans!!

 

They'll cool off...

 

Except with No TD. I bet pop doesn't win one without him.

 

r****ded thread topic ... Cleveland is going to the Finals regardless of any regular season results..

 

Not without spanish long hair boy. They're royally screwed now haha

 

based on?

 

Cleveland has no defense and LeBron can't compensate for all of them

 

If the Cavs went on the same hot streak that the Hawks went on people would definitely be hyping them up hell in this thread they are being hyped up.

Atlanta is a very good team and will be dangerous with a healthy Horford and upgraded the PF position by getting rid of Josh Smith for Paul Milsap

 

CSKA were about to can him. No head coach vacancies at least at clubs that were big enough or could afford him. Messina's last two head coaching stints in Europe were disappointments.

 

They good, but will start cooling down.

 

Are you talking about the Houston team with Dragic and Lowry on it? What was their winning streak at that time?