Most observers thought that Joe Johnson was a product of the Phoenix Suns’ offense and wouldn’t be able to thrive on another team……and they were wrong.  Joe Johnson was the leader of a vastly improved Hawks offense, often playing point guard for them.  Johnson will be better off at shooting guard and his scoring should go up.  Johnson averaged 20.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game last season.

Second-year guard Salim Stoudamire had a good rookie season and followed it up with a stellar showing in the Summer League.  Stoudamire is instant offense off the bench, as he averaged 9.7 points per game in only 20.3 minutes per game.  Stoudamire is a great 3-point shooter (38.0%) and stretches the opposing defense when he enters the game.

Marvin Williams was going to be the starting small forward for the Hawks this season, but he suffered a broken finger and will miss 6-8 weeks.  Look for Josh Childress to get the bulk of the minutes until Williams returns.

The Hawks doled out alot of money to sign Speedy Claxton to run the show.  This move will be sink or swim for the Hawks because Claxton has been a career back-up.  Claxton has averaged 25.8 minutes per game in his career.  In those 25.8 minutes Speedy has averaged 9.9 points, 2.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.5 steals.  The Hawks need him to be a pass-first point guard, because Claxton is not a good shooter.

Tyronn Lue will be back as the #2 point guard in Atlanta.  Lue essentially plays about half of the game and is a shooter first.  Lue can hit the 3-pointers (39.0%) and stretch the defense a little when he plays.  Lue averages 8.9 points, 1.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game for his career.

Royal Ivey is the third string point guard for the Hawks and he doesn’t really add to much to the team when he plays.  Ivey has averaged 3.6 points, 1.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game for his short NBA career.

Mike Woodson has a 39-125 record in two season as the Hawks head coach.  Woodson would like to run a team that plays good defense all the time, but with all of the young kids he’s been coaching it’s been hard for him to get that kind of effort.  Woodson will not change his style which could lead to him losing his job soon.  With Bobby Knight and Larry Brown as his mentors, he has his style and the Hawks can live with it or start over with a new coach.