A few links on a Wednesday morning as the Hawks prepare to play the Suns tonight in Phoenix...

- Over the years I've become friendly with some of the other website people around the league, in particular the guys with the Suns (who by the way have one of the best websites in the league). Yesterday I did a podcast with Steven Koek, who does a lot of the outstanding video work for their site, to preview the game tonight. One note - Amare Stoudemire will not play after being poked in the eye in practice the other day. He always causes us problems, and I wish he was able to play tonight but maybe sit out when it counts in January.

- Courtesy of Dime Magazine, Adidas has a new basketball commercial out and it's pretty sweet. It's footage of a pick-up game featuring several of the NBA's best players, and you'll see several cameos by the Hawks' own Josh Smith. Is it weird that I would be more fascinated to see those guys play a pick-up game than in an actual organized contest?

- Maurice Evans put a hurtin' on his former team on Monday, torching the Orlando Magic for 17 points in the Hawks 118-101 preseason win. The Orlando Sentinel caught up to him while he was back in town and did this little Q & A.

- Sekou Smith has a feature in the AJC on Mario West's chances of making the Hawks roster.

- And finally, there has been a lot of uproar around these parts over ESPN's John Hollinger and his preseason projection for the Hawks this season - he isn't too high on us (that's like, his opinion, man). Obviously, I think we all hope the Hawks will prove his 31-51 prediction wrong, and after watching a healthy Mike Bibby in action over the last week or so I am feeling very positive that we will, and by a healthy margin.

I wanted to ask Hollinger about his prediction, because my suspicion is that most people who are dropping the Hawks in the standings are basing it in part on the Bibby they saw in Atlanta the last half of the season and the playoffs. The Bibby I've seen so far looks nothing like that guy, and I wanted to know if Hollinger's opinion of the Hawks would if he knew that Bibby was finally back to 100%.

Well, I'd love to say his opinion was completely flipped around, but it didn't do too much to sway him. Hollinger wrote me back to say, "For the Hawks it isn't a question of which Bibby shows up, but that he shows up at all. The Hawks need 375 games from their starting five to make the playoffs because that bench...eccch."

Hollinger is entitled to his view - but hopefully performances like we saw Monday night from the likes of Acie Law and Maurice Evans will show that the Hawks bench is capable of more than people seem to think.