Does Atlanta Have More Talent Than Cleveland?

[Triboy16]

Atlanta has much more talent and potential but lack unity in play and are still young compared to cleveland

in two years though lebron or not atlanta should be able to beat them as long as they got the same players now and a decent coach

[vjcsmoke]

I think this is a very good point.  The Cavs playing the half court set plays into the Celtics biggest strengths.  The C's may not have the fastest guys, excepting Rondo, but they do have a lot of weapons offensively and defensively once they get into the half court set.  Atlanta was able to give us fits because they pushed it up the floor and got easy buckets before the C's defense was set.  Then on offense they used their speed to aggressively attack the basket and draw fouls.  IMO the foul shots differential is one of the biggest factors that kept Atlanta in that series.

atlanta doesn't have mroe talent, but it has more athletes, and plays a full court game.

If you look at the season, We struggled with teams that were very young and athletic, our defense is best in the half court, transision D can be a weakness for us.

Look at some of our tougher regular season matchups- The bobcats, the wizards, sixers, and some close games against other young fast teams.

Clevlands problem is they WANT to play half court. How many times last night did james walk it up and waste 5-6 seconds setting them up in the half court?

If cleveland wants to play a half  court game focused on lebron due to its lack of athletes, i liek our chances in clevland.

If mike brown is smart, he'll start joe smith and gibson at the 2, and tell them to push the ball up tempo to lebron as hard and fast as they can.

Here's hoping they stay half court

[RickyD Fan]

I'm going to say YES, Atlanta has more talent than Cleveland. However, Cleveland has one guy that is more talented than anyone on the Atlanta Hawks team. When he is on, he is on and can carry a team to victory.

The difference with the Hawks is they need everyone to be "on" in order to acheive victory where Cleveland only needs one. Outside of LeBron (who I respect very much), I don't really think Cleveland has much of a team. Without him they are back to a 17 win squad with little catalyst to get them going.

[Big Ticket]

Much more "talented" starting five.  Much weaker bench.  Much weaker defense.... equals weaker team. 

The Hawks conundrum just combined several factors (their first experience in front of a loud home crowd, giving their athleticism even more adrenaline... even more zip and more pep!... a Celtics team that didn't show up on the road... boosted confidence for the Hawks... an anamolytic performance from Joe Johnson).

http://dberri.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/so-how-much-did-atlanta-improve/

Wages of Win article about the Hawks... basically shows if they could add one or two solid bench players, they could be a very good team.

[Edgar]

No.  They don't.



Boston beat Atlanta around 20 points every home game.



Boston never showed up on the road. 

love when W post before me and make my life and english easier

[Vermont Green]

I think Atlanta is more talented but not as consistent.  Cle has that steady veteran presence that shows up every game and gets it done.  The younger, more talented Hawks are subject to larger swings in game to game performance.  The big thing in the playoffs for Atlanta was how well Joe Johnson played.  I can't think of anyone short of Kobe or LeBron who could have played better than JJ did for those games (or at least on offense, defense is another story).  He can't consistently maintain that level (or at least has not so far in his career) but he was pretty impressive.

[Eeyore III]

This year, Cleveland won its series with Atlanta 2-1, but the teams scored exactly the same number of points in the series.

Next year, Atlanta is way under the cap ($52 million) while Cleveland is in cap hell ($75 million). But Josh Smith and Josh Childress are up for extensions, whereas Cleveland only has Delonte due for an extension.

Next year, Cleveland is still paying Eric Snow $7.3 million (ouch!) and Damon Jones $4.4 million, but Wally's contract is finally expiring, so they can move him at the trade deadline.

Prediction: both teams will look different next year. 

[Bankshot]

No.  They don't.



Boston beat Atlanta around 20 points every home game.



Boston never showed up on the road. 

Just because Boston struggled with Atlanta doesn't mean they don't have more talent than Cleveland.  Cleveland is definitely deeper (and they have Lebron so they would definitely beat Atlanta), but after Lebron and Z, not one player on the Cavs is better than 4 of Atlanta's starters, imo (I'm not including Bibby).

The problem with both teams is the majority of their players are the same thing.


Atlanta, athletic 2/3 guys. 

Cleveland, jumpshooters. 

Now if they could mix and match some of their players, they could have two better and more balanced team. 


The difference, you wouldn't trade James for the top 4 players on Atlanta. 

I agree.  But the question was whether or not Atlanta has more talent, which I believe they do. Not whether they can beat Cleveland or if they have a balanced team (which they don't).  I don't think they can beat Cleveland, I just think they have more talent (balanced or not).