Atlanta Hawks Show Heartbeat, Sign Bibby

One of my friends, a frequent guest blogger on my site, messaged me the other day touting the Mike Bibby trade that sent Anthony Johnson, Shelden Williams, Tyronn Lue, Lorenzen Wright, and a second round draft pick to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for the Hawks acquiring PG Mike Bibby.

Now you may or may not know this (and really, who could blame you?) but the Atlanta Hawks are actually tied for the 8^th spot in the Eastern Conference. Thus, there is a good chance that this team could make the playoffs, and the addition of Mike Bibby is a move that most would assume could give them the boost to reach that 7^th or 6^th spot in the conference.

But my immediate question to the friend who messaged me was, "The Hawks have a heartbeat?"

I don't remember the Hawks being interested in the playoffs since the days of Christian Laettner, Mookie Blaylock, and Dikembe Mutombo. It seems as if they really are interested in turning this franchise around and showing some sort of basketball heartbeat. And I have to say, it's quite surprising. Afterall, this franchise has been the pit stop for good players seeking better teams and better contracts for quite some time. Antoine Walker came through Atlanta to get traded. Gary Payton came through Atlanta to be released. Rasheed Wallace went through Atlanta to be traded, and there is a bevy of less marquee names that have done the same thing over the last several years.

But this move to bring Bibby in shows that the Hawks are actually trying to do something other than fill jerseys along with the wallets of the owners.

Mike Bibby fills the void at point guard that the Hawks have had all season. Joe Johnson was leading the team in assists from the shooting guard position with only 5.1, and the team only averaged 21.0 assists as a whole. Bibby immediately helps them in that category with his ability to manipulate the point position. Even though he is scorer, he is very adept at finding the open man when drives into the paint. So while his career average of 6.2 assists isn't great, it is better than Johnson's, and it is certainly better than former starting point guard Anthony Johnson who is only averaging 4.7 APG on the years.

Of course, had the Hawks drafted Chris Paul three years ago instead of Marvin Williams, they probably would not be in dire need of a point guard, but I digress.

A rotation that now consists of Bibby, Johnson, Marvin Williams, Josh Smith and Al Horford, probably puts the Hawks ahead of the 8^th place Philadelphia 76ers and the 7^th place New Jersey Nets who just lost Jason Kidd.