Dear Atlanta Hawks
This picture is worth so much more than 1,000 words...
My oh, my oh MY... How the once mighty have fallen. ATL, I was probably your biggest fan in 2008. No one picked you guys to go to the Playoffs that year. I did. No one thought you would win a game against the eventual champion Celtics. I did, and ended up winning a few dollars, while you guys took the Celts to 7 games. No one thought you'd be able to keep up the improvement for the next two years. And you know what?? They were right. Hawks, you guys have gone from a Cinderella story in the NBA to a team that's gotten as good as it's going to get.
Not only did you get VACUUMED (swept can't even be used anymore) by the Magic, you guys got blown out every game this series. You made Dwight Howard look like the best big man in the league (he is far from that) by letting him impose his hoe-wifing, no post move-having self all over Al Horford and Josh Smith's face. Marvin Williams didn't show up, as usual. When are you guys going to just give up and admit that you drafted the wrong Williams (Deron isn't doing much better after getting swept himself, though) in 2005?? Joe Johnson, you looked like a SCRUB. There are no words for how terrible you played. If this is what teams should be expecting out of a 'max-contract' player, then they will be getting robbed of every penny come July. As a man who's playing for his contract, you were playing like you had already signed the dotted line. No, you haven't. You and your backcourt mate, Mike Bibby, played like you deserved to be riding the bench, like above. I think I saw Bibby hit one shot all series. Even Jamal Crawford seemed out of sink, and he's usually the one pulling the offense out of nowhere. I don't know what the deal is, but it's obvious you guys have hit your peak.
Joe 'No defense & no max contract' Johnson
The thing is, I should've seen this coming. Last series against the Bucks, you guys looked bad. And not good-bad.. Sluggish bad. Unprepared bad. Overconfident bad. You let a Bucks team playing without their star big man (Andrew Bogut) bring you to 7 games, much like you did to Boston 2 years ago. Brandon Jennings, although a bit inconsistent was torching your 'defense' at times, while John Salmons and Carlos Delfino quietly closed the casket on you. Hell, you guys were down 3-2 before finally buckling down and sending the Bucks home. Regardless, that doesn't excuse the woeful performance against the Magic. I'd go as far as to say that this team needs some drastic changes in the offseason. Whether it's shipping Bibby or Smith or Johnson or Williams or SOMEBODY, something needs to be done to shake up this roster, because it looked dead in the water last night. I guess when you don't have the support of the fans like Joe Johnson (sarcasm), it doesn't matter how bad you play...