Today we continue the series with center Zaza Pachulia. How do you think these players will do? Leave your answers in the comments!

Zaza Pachulia

2007 Stats: 12.2 ppg, 6.9 rpg (2.8 offensive), 1.5 apg, 47% FG, 79% FT

2007 Highlights: The Hawks big man had several nice games for the Hawks, putting up 13 double-doubles to finish second on the team in that category. His best handiwork though came in a 100-97 win over Washington on March 7, when he popped for a career-high 27 points and 12 rebounds. His performance was particularly important considering it was the first game the team played after losing Joe Johnson to a calf injury that would eventually end his season. ZP had other gems as well, including 22 and 12 in a late-season win over Boston and 23 and 10 in a close home loss to the champion Spurs.

What he needs to work on this summer: Zaza has long been known for his prowess on the offensive glass (he finished 17th in the league at 2.8 per game). Now he needs to round out his production on the defensive end better as well. The Hawks have had trouble in the past with giving up second chance opportunities, so the more defensive snags Hawks big men like Pachulia can get, the better the team will do.

Click here to see Zaza's video highlights!

Outlook for 2007-08: Zaza had a somewhat up-and-down season last year, losing his starting spot to Lorenzen Wright for a spell while recovering from injury. Still, he had several stretches of impressive play, especially right after the All-Star break. Though he is still just 23 years old, Zaza will be counted on to be one of the veteran leaders of the frontcourt for young guys like Al Horford and Shelden Williams.

With so many bigs fighting for playing time (the team still employs Lorenzen Wright and Solomon Jones) it will be interesting to see how all the minutes are divided. But as long as Zaza continues to pound away on the glass, you can count on him being out there for extended periods of time.

Everyone who played contributed last night. Zaza Pachulia had 18 points at halftime on his way to 23 on 11-12 shooting. Marvin Williams had nearly a double-double in the first half, finishing with a full one (13 points, 11 rebounds).

And then there was Josh Smith. A short aside first.

Last night, about one minute into the game, ace Hawks PR man Jason Roose came over to my station on press row to ask if I was live-blogging the game. I wasn't, but FYI, I will be live-bloggin Wednesday night for the Miami game (plug!). I asked him why, and he said he wanted it on the record that Josh Smith was going to get his first triple-double tonight. Obviously, you will have to take me at my word on this one, but the game literally was less than 90 seconds old when he made this proclamation. Man was he close to being right.

Josh ended up a point shy of turning Roose into a modern-day Nostradamus (Smoove finished with 9 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists), but the fact that he came that close is just another testament to the all-around player Smith is on his way to becoming.

Just to recap, in the last week, Josh has now set career-bests in points (32 against Minnesota), rebounds (17 vs Philly), and assists (10 against Sacto). He is starting to remind me of myself, actually. And by that I mean, when I used to rock Tecmo NBA Basketball on my old-school Nintendo, I used to play with the Bulls and see how many different things I could do with Michael Jordan, like how many steals he could get, or points he could score, etc.

The way Josh is playing right now, it's almost like he is thinking to himself, "Let's see, what statistical category do I want to fill up tonight?" Meanwhile, the Hawks have won five of seven since losing Joe Johnson. Cause that makes sense.

By the way, the picture to the right is from a dunk Smith nearly pulled off last night that, had he finished it, would have probably been the best dunk these eyes had ever seen. Here is a link below to see for yourself. He missed it, but man if he had nailed it...wow.

Josh Childress, lest we forget his efforts, also had a great night as well, popping for a season-high 25 points. He was particularly present in the third period, hitting 6-6 from the field and earning himself the lead in Rob Blackstien's fantasy hoops column for USA Today.

With the Heat coming to town Wednesday night, it will be important for the Hawks to play team ball the way they did against the Kings (they dished out a season-high 32 assists). They can win this game without Joe. Man, who thought we would be able to say that two weeks ago.

First and foremost, I want to give special commendation to Hawks C Zaza Pachulia, who crammed the game of his life into a single half, pretty much single-handedly rallying the team from a 14-point deficit in the third quarter to get the team back to even entering the 4th. Zaza, scoreless at halftime, had 15 points in the third and finished the game with 23 in a losing effort. He was in attack mode the whole half, getting to the rack again and again for layups and timely putbacks.

Unfortunately, Manu Ginobili struck again, as he had so many times before in this game, and soon the Hawks were back down again. Ginobili was unstoppable in this game, particularly in the second quarter, when he scored a ridiculous 24 straight points for the Spurs. Begrudgingly I will give him credit for his efforts, even though I think he travels more than any player this side of Allen Iverson, and could have been whistled for it five or six times. Also, it continues to amaze me that in the NBA, you can just flail your body into the lane and get a foul call almost every time - though when I think about it, it just makes me wish we did it more often. I mean, if you can't beat em, join em, right?

Here is a photo gallery from the game - I know moral victories are not what we want to get around here, and I am disappointed by the loss, but I still feel like the team made some progress in showing enough backbone to comeback the way they did. Still though, it's time to start turning moral victories into actual ones.

In other news, today is the trading deadline. If anything happens around here, we will let you know. Obviously there have been some rumors, and we know what the team is in need of, but as of now there are no deals that I am aware of.

Check back as the day goes, and we'll see if anything changes.