Lots to talk about as the season gets underway for the Hawks tonight in Orlando against the Magic.

As I have mentioned many times since the start of training camp, I am cautiously optimistic about the upcoming season. I base that opinion on many things, but I base it mostly on this one main opinion: the Hawks players are still improving.

Think about it. Al Horford? He's only going to get better. Marvin Williams? He's not a finished product by a long shot. Josh Smith could break out and become an All-Star. That's 60% of the starting lineup that you can reasonably expect to play better this year than a season ago, and that's not even including what their improvements will mean for Joe Johnson (who garners most of the defensive attention night in and night out). Mike Bibby is finally healthy, and I have an expectation that we'll see him play much better than he did last year.

But that's not all - the bench is improved too. Zaza Pachulia, injured and in a funk for much of last season, looks completely rejuvenated this offseason. Ditto for Acie Law. Both are young players still capable of improving their games. And I think the "FlipMo Squad", as Sekou Smith has christened them, will provide some things on the court (bench scoring, 3-point shooting) and off (veteran leadership) that the team has been missing for several years.

Yes, I think this could be a very good season for the Hawks, and I think a playoff berth (and a better one than last year) is absolutely within reach. We'll get a pretty good read on what this team is capable of early on, as the team plays 7 of the first 10 away from home. The Hawks were good at home last season, going 25-16 which was tied for the third-best mark in the conference. The road...well, that was where things went awry. Simply put, Atlanta can't go 12-29 on the road this year and expect to be playing basketball in the month of May. If the Hawks can weather the first storm (which won't be easy, by the way, with early road games against playoff teams New Orleans, Boston, and Cleveland amongst others), it will set them up to take advantage of a very home-heavy December and hopefully give them some breathing room in the Eastern Conference pecking order.

In other news, I am happy to announce that "Hometeam" Brandon Leak, who you know from his tenure at 790 the Zone, will be joining us on Hawks.com for the upcoming season. While we haven't quite ironed out exactly what all he will be doing, sufficed to say Hometeam is one of the most well-known Hawks fans in the A and I think you'll enjoy getting to hear from him as the season goes along. He joined me yesterday for the season's first BasketBlog Podcast, so be sure to listen as we break down the Hawks roster for 2008-09 and discuss all of the offseason changes for the team and what they mean going forward.

On the blog front, I do want to mention two of our fellow Hawks bloggers have new homes this year. Hoopinion, which did a tremendous job covering the team analytically last season, has set up shop in a new spot this year at Peachtree Hoops. He's a little more pessimistic than I am, but hopefully the team can prove him wrong! Also, the blog formerly known as Hawks, Dawgs, and Jesus has decided to narrow it's focus a bit this season (sorry God!) and has rechristened itself Zaza's Playground. Both of these blogs write about as much about the Hawks as any other blog you'll find out there, so definitely check them out.

In addition, if you are a fan and have started a blog about the Hawks, by all means let us know. Shoot us an email at hawks.mailbag@atlantaspirit.com so we can follow your work, and if you are really keeping at it we'll be happy to add you to our blog roll.

This season is going to be a lot of fun, and it all starts tonight. The Hawks are without Marvin Williams, who is serving his one-game suspension for his flagrant foul on Rajon Rondo from last year's playoffs. Otherwise, the roster is healthy and ready to rock. I spoke to Marvin yesterday about the upcoming season, and he sounds confident in both the team's chances of making a playoff run and his ability to knock down some more perimeter shots than in years past. Methinks the two things will be related somehow...

Check out the action from Orlando tonight at 7:00 ET on SportSouth, and tell us what you think of the game right here in the comments.