ESPN.com: Ford/Hollinger: Future Power Rankings
Between March 2nd and August 3rd, the Hawks have fallen from 13th to 19th in Chad Ford and John Hollinger's NBA future power rankings (Insider): Atlanta dropped seven spots since our last Future Power Rankings, largely due to two factors.
First, a depressing playoff performance took some of the shine off their roster -- although they won 53 games and got the third seed in the East, it's hard to credibly call this a contending bunch. A mix of three good young players -- Al Horford, Josh Smith and Marvin Williams -- along with a veteran in Joe Johnson is nice, but this group needs more to get over the hump. New coach Larry Drew will have a tough time coaxing similar results given how injury-free the Hawks were last season.
Second, the enormous free-agent contract given to Joe Johnson is likely to be a significant liability going forward, especially given the franchise's reluctance to go into the luxury tax. As a result, money is likely to be extremely tight. As if to prove that point, the Hawks have barely dipped a toe into the free-agent market, and it may be difficult for them to keep Jamal Crawford as a free agent a year from now.
A word on their method: The Future Power Rankings are ESPN Insider's projection of the on-court success expected for each team during the 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons.
To determine the Future Power Rating, we rated each team in five categories: Players, Management, Money, Market, Draft (ed. note -- in descending order of importance).
The Hawks rank 9th in Players (246 of 400 possible points), 19th in Management (76 of 200 possible points), 24th in Money (71 of 200 possible points), 17th in Market (46 of 100 possible points), and 18th in Draft (45 of 100 possible points).
3 comments:
Brett, I would like to get your take on these rankings. I too am somewhat pessimistic about the Atlanta Hawks but feel this ranking is a little absurd. I know it is a very subjective system but what’s your take?
That ranking is ridiculous...How are the the 19th best team in the NBA when we are still the 3rd best team in the EAST. Are they saying their are 16 teams in west better than the Hawks.
What does money have to do with how good your team is...If you spend the money poorly, you are still a bad team.
What free agents have OKC aquired, but I beat their ranking hasn't dropped.
Rufus1: It's the Future Power Rankings. It takes into account how good a team is set up for the next 3-5 years, not just how good they are now. Also, it's a minor point, but the Hawks aren't better than the Heat, Magic, or Celtics.
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