Today we continue the series with point guard Speedy Claxton. How do you think these players will do? Leave your answers in the comments!

Speedy Claxton

2007 Stats: 5.3 ppg, 4.4 apg, 1.7 spg

2007 Highlights: It was a tough season for Speedy, to say the least. A broken finger cost him most of the preseason, and chronic knee pain kept him in and out of the lineup until he eventually had to shut it down for the season in early March. There really weren't many highlights to speak of, but he did show glimpses of what Hawks fans were hoping to see in back-to-back games in December, scoring 19 points and dishing out 11 assists in a 97-88 win at Memphis on Dec. 15 and following that with another double-double (10 points, 11 dimes) in a 106-105 loss to Chicago on Dec. 16.

What he needs to work on this summer: It's hard to pinpoint one thing, given how much went wrong for Speedy in 06-07. He shot 55% from the free throw line, 21% worse than his career average, for example. I think it's safe to say at least some of last year was an aberration. Claxton had arthroscopic surgery on his knee, and has been working out in Vancouver this summer with one of the top sports physiotherapists in the world. Hopefully, improvements to his health and to the competition around him will have him back to the form that led the Hawks to sign him in the first place. So far at least, the word is he is healthy and ready to show what he can do.

Click here to see Speedy's video highlights!

Outlook for 2007-08: As much grief as Speedy got for his season a year ago, there is no doubting his importance to the team's outlook for 2007-08. With the team promising to play more up-tempo, Claxton is just the type of point guard the team needs to implement that kind of style. I simply refuse to believe that Speedy is as bad as he looked last year. This is a guy who finished second in the 6th Man voting as recently as 05-06 - clearly he has talent. For him it will be all about staying healthy, but I also think the stiffened competition at the point from T-Lue, Acie Law, and Anthony Johnson will help to raise his game as well.

The Hawks need Speedy to play to the level they though him capable of when they signed him, and Speedy needs to play well to redeem himself from a nightmare campaign a year ago.

This subplot will go a long way towards determining the team's success.

Agree?

Well, I suppose a valedictory of the season is warranted before we truly move on to the business at hand of figuring out just where the ping-pong balls are going to put us for the NBA Draft.

I look at the past season as a four-act play.

Act One - Hangin In:
This comprised most of the first quarter of the season, where we battled through injuries (a recurring theme) to stand 8-9 after an improbable 98-96 win at Denver on December 6. Things were looking up - we were set to get Marvin Williams back from his broken finger, Joe Johnson was one of the leading scorers in the NBA, and Tyronn Lue was playing the best basketball of his career.

Act Two - Die Hard:
It began the next game out, as JJ hurt his calf against the Lakers and things started to trend in the wrong direction. The tipping point came in two games, as the Hawks failed to hold onto two late-game leads (including a 21-point fourth quarter spread) against the Bulls and Jazz. Those losses were devastating. I don't think I've ever felt two losses affect my physical well-being as those games did, and I just work on the website. You can imagine what it did to the team's confidence.

At this point, a perfect storm of circumstances caused the season to spiral downward at an almost dizzying pace. T-Lue hurt his groin. Josh Smith had to have surgery for a hernia. Speedy continued to deal with knee problems that limited his effectivess. Joe's calf. Marvin's finger. Shelden's shoulder. Childress's foot. It went on and on, and all while the team dealt with a brutal schedule that saw the team face seven playoff teams in eight games (with the eighth being Indiana, a team that was comfortably in the playoff picture at that point).

Predictably, the team lost all eight games, and now, sitting at 9-21, hope appeared lost.

Act Three - The Resurrection:
A surprising thing happened at that point. Act Three saw the team begin to play better, starting with an 86-74 home win over the Clippers on January 6. Despite a few bad losses (including consecutive blowouts to Charlotte on back-to-back nights), the Hawks strung together some impressive wins, including a home victory over Detroit, on the road at Minnesota, and home-and-away wins against Orlando to take the season series. The Hawks finished January with a winning record, the first time the team had achieved such a feat over a full month since a 9-7 March back in 2002. February started off well too - the team won three of four on a West Coast road trip going into the All-Star break (including an all-but-inconceivable win at Phoenix), and things were looking up. Even with all the injuries and the big losing streak, the team was just a few games out of a playoff spot to start the second half and to top it off, Joe made the Eastern Conference All-Star team (yeah yeah, I know it was as a replacement, but we all know he was deserving, so shut it).

Unfortunately, that led to:

Act Four - the Deluge:
Another brutal stretch of scheduling (at Chicago, home to Houston, Phoenix, and San Antonio, and at Dallas), saw the team fall further back, and then the bottom dropped out when Joe Johnson was lost for the season after suffering a calf injury at Miami on March 5. The team responded well at first, winning four straight, but eventually the loss of their best player was too much to overcome. Further injuries continued to compound the problem, and soon the playoffs faded from sight. Fans began rooting for the team to lose (Commies) to protect the draft pick that heads to Phoenix if not in the top three, and the team obliged, albeit unwillingly.

There were positives even in the free fall, as Josh Smith continued to show off the game that leads many to predict All-Star game appearances in his future, and both Marvin and Shelden Williams had strong finishes with increased playing time.

Now, as we get ready to begin working on the script for 2007-08, it's time to say thanks to all the fans who stuck with the team through a true roller-coaster of a season. It was great at times and excruciating at times, but hopefully in the end the team takes with them the necessary lessons to build towards tomorrow.

Despite the season's finish, I find myself very optimistic about the future. Yes, we finished with the 4th worst record in the league. But I refuse to believe we couldn't have competed for a playoff spot, if not earned one outright, if we had ever gotten the chance to play with a full deck. We didn't and that's on us - every team deals with injuries, so you can't play the poor me card too much. But I'm not ready to give up on this roster, and I think we are set up to make some interesting moves this summer to improve.

So again - thanks to all the fans for your support this season. Good times are around the corner, I can feel it. Stick with us.

Tonight is going to be a big night at Philips (as I may have just written in the title to this post). Not only are the Mamba-led Lakers in town, but tonight is our first-ever Blog Night as well. Over a dozen Atlanta-area bloggers are signed up to come down, laptops in tow, to provide you with their thoughts and analysis of the game as it happens (or soon thereafter, it's entirely up to them).

The Hawks will be looking for their second win in two days, thanks to yesterday's 101-99 win at New Jersey courtesy of your favorite braided Hawk and mine, Tyronn Lue. Lue downplayed his efforts slightly when I spoke to him about his game-winning buzzer-beater this morning, but if you watch the highlight of the play (which I have done several times already this morning), you can see just how excited the team (and Lue himself) was to come out of the Meadowlands with such an important victory.

Joe Johnson once again was spectacular, continuing his All-Star retribution tour by dropping 37 points on the Nets and their two All-Stars Vince Carter and Jason Kidd, but this game was a team effort. Everyone who played chipped in, including Speedy Claxton, who continues to show a little rust from his layoff. His offense may not be where he'd like it to be yet, but defensively, Claxton made two plays yesterday that were complete difference makers - the charge he drew late in regulation against a streaking Kidd, and then his pilfering of Carter with 33 ticks left in overtime and the Hawks clinging to a one-point lead.

Neither of the Hawks floor-generals are even close to 100% right now, but yesterday gave a tantalizing preview once again of some of the things they are capable of when they are up and running.

Tonight's game is going to be a tough one, no doubt, as any game is against a team with Kobe Bryant on the roster. Hawks assistant coach Greg Ballard said in breaking down the Lakers this morning that Bryant isn't the only one to focus on - Lamar Odom and company will be every bit as important to focus on tonight in order for the Hawks to win.

We have seen the Hawks play much improved basketball over the last couple weeks, winning five of their last seven. Still, this is the kind of game they need to win to show they have really put the slump of late December-early January to rest.

Can they get it done? Join us and a chunk of the Atlanta blogging community tonight at Philips and find out!

See you there!