The Atlanta Hawks entered the season in a state of disarray- an entire book could be written on the breakdown in ownership that is still dragging on- plus GM Billy Knight has been rightly roasted for several bad trades and some questionable trades and drafts, most notably bypassing Chris Paul for UNC's Marvin Williams in the 2006 draft. The Hawks ended the year with a 30-52 record but in the East Conference they were only 7 games out of the playoffs.
The Hawks had not had a lot of success lately in the NBA- especially lately The Hawks had not had a rookie of the year since 1955, no All-Star since 1993 (Dominique Wilkins) other than Joe Johnson in 2007. No First team all Rookie Team since 1992, No All-NBA First team since 1986. No NBA MVP since 1959, no Hardware at ALL since a most improved player trophy given to Alan Henderson in 1998.
Hope came in the NBA draft when the Hawks were given the number 3 pick- and armed with the 11th pick as well thanks to the trade of Al Harrington to the Indiana Pacers. The Hawks were unable to make a deal to move up and ended up selecting Al Horford
However, hope and redemption appeared to be on the horizon for the Hawks in 2007. With the third pick of the NBA draft, they selected Al Horford from the University of Florida fresh off back to back titles wins- Horford was instrumental in helping the Gators win over Ohio State and number one pick Greg Oden; later in the draft they selected Acie Law IV from Texas A&M University. Law was the second point guard drafted in the NBA; Law got a ton of college awards and player of the year awards. This draft seemed to give them a solid young core with SF Josh Smith (2yrs) PF Marvin Williams (1Yr) and now a Center and Point Guard to go around All-Star SG Joe Johnson.
The Starting 5
C- Al Horford was a great force inside as a rookie- coming in second to the rookie of the year trophy that went to Kevin Durant. He played in 81 games starting 77 and averaged 10.1 points per game and 9.7 rebounds per game. Horford had 25 double doubles during the regular season- tops of all rookies. Horford was 1st among rookies in rebounding and 12th in the NBA. Horford received 3 Rookie of the month awards.
PF- Marvin Williams followed up a second team all-rookie team year with a solid effort averaging 14.8 points per game and 5.7 rebounds per game in the 80 games he appeared in all starting. Marvin also had 7 double doubles this year. Marvin still has not been able to shake the stigma of being drafted ahead of Chris Paul- but is improving with the rest of the Hawks steadily.
SF- Josh Smith continued his rise to one of the better Small forwards in the NBA starting all 81 of the games he played in and averaging 7.2 points and 8.2 rebounds in 35 minutes per game. Smith finished 6th in the defensive player of the year voting- with 2.8 blocks per game, while having 19 double doubles and even having his first ever triple double this year. Josh was second in the NBVA in blocks, 16th in steals and 26th in rebounds per game
SG- Joe Johnson returned to the All-Star game- the first player to do so since Dominique Wilkins for the Hawks. Johnson averaged 21.7 points (14th in the NBA), 4.5 rebounds per game and 5.8 assists for the Hawks. Started all 82 games as well; Joe won 2 player of the week awards and a player of the month award. Johnson had 9 double doubles and cracked 30 points 12 times this year.
PG- Acie Law unfortunately was nowhere near the stable point guard that the Hawks hoped for ended up averaging 4.2 points per game and 2.0 assists per game in 56 games with 6 starts only averaging 15 minutes per game. The Hawks started looking for a veteran point guard to lead a VERY young team So on February the 16th, 2008 Atlanta acquired guard Mike Bibby from the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Anthony Johnson, Tyronn Lue, Shelden Williams, Lorenzen Wright and a 2008 second round draft pick. Bibby, had a great deal of playoff experience to lend to the young hawks and in 48 games with the Atlanta he averaged 13.9 points per game and 6.0 assists per game, despite an ongoing thumb issues.
IN total the starting lineup of Bibby, Williams, Smith, Johnson and Horford started 31 games together and went 14-17 on the year and the frontcourt of Horford, Williams and Smith started 74 games together.
The Hawks were able to pull together and had a seven game improvement and made the playoffs with a 37- 45 record and were setup to face the top seeded Boston Celtics