Zaza Pachulia finally got a chance to play big minutes and he ran with them.  Zaza averaged 11.7 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game in his first season in Atlanta.  Pachulia should even be better this season because of how hard he plays.  For his career Pachulia averaged 7.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game.

Lorenzen Wright is a banger that fits in well behind Pachulia.  Wright has averaged 8.9 points and 6.9 rebounds over his career, but it seems like he could be so much better than he is.  He could do ok if the Hawks needed him to play more minutes.

The Hawks were so impressed with Marvin Williams last season that they let Al Harrington leave.  Williams is an active, tough player that is a good rebounder for a small forward.  Williams averaged 24.7 minutes per game last season, but he did alot in his limited time.  Williams averaged 8.5 points & 4.9 rebounds per game.  The sky is the limit for him when he returns from injury.

Josh Childress is a decent, smart player.  Childress is really good at deciding when to shoot and when not to, as he has hit 50.6% of his shots in his young career.  Childress has averaged 10.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.0 steal per game so far.  Childress will get big minutes until Marvin Williams returns.

Matt Freije has the reputation of being a good shooter, but he’s never proved that in the NBA.  Freije has only made 29.1% of his career FG attempts.  Freije has averaged 4.0 points & 2.7 rebounds per game over his career.

The Hawks held the Magic to 11 points in the first quarter and then coasted to victory.  Joe Johnson (31 points) and Zaza Pachulia (17 points) led the way on offense for the Hawks.  PF Josh Smith had a good game with 11 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocks.  PG Speedy Claxton only hit 1 of 10 shots from the floor for 6 points, but he also had 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 6 steals.

This was a nice home victory for the Hawks.

Young third-year player Josh Smith will start for the Hawks at power forward.  Smith had a huge second half for Atlanta and they hope that was a preview of things to come.  Smith has great athletic ability and loves to finish the fast break with a thunder dunk.  Smith has averaged 10.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 0.8 steals and 2.3 blocks per game over his career.  Look for Smith to improve on those career numbers with the added playing time he will receive this season.

First-round pick Shelden Williams of Duke will back-up Smith and get some playing time until Marvin Williams comes back from injury.  Williams is a defensive stopper and great rebounder that will give the Hawks some toughness that they have been missing.

Esteban Batista is the #3 power forward.  Batista hasn’t got much playing time in his career so far, but he seems to be a decent rebounder.  Batista has only averaged 1.8 points per game and 2.5 rebounds per contest…..but that’s all in only 8.7 minutes per game.

Joe Johnson was on fire against the Knicks, scoring 30 points, grabbing 4 rebounds and dishing out 8 assists.  Center Zaza Pachulia scored 22 points, grabbed 7 rebounds and dished out 4 assists.  Josh Smith (11 points), Josh Childress (12 points) and Tyronn Lue (11 points) all contributed to the victory over the Knicks.

This was a solid win for the young Hawks.

It’s hard to get excited when you watch your team shoot 33.3% from the field in the first game of the season, but that’s what the Hawks did.  Joe Johnson still managed to score 25 points on 9 of 23 shooting.  Za Za Pachulia played a good game, scoring 15 points, grabbing 12 rebounds and blocking 2 shots.  Josh Childress also had a decent game scoring 15 points and adding 10 rebounds.  Josh Smith & Speedy Claxton were pathetic only scoring 8 points on 2 of 15 shooting between them.

The Hawks need to slow down on offense and take better shots.