Al Horford’s Contract Extension; Mike Bibby Starting

I’m trying to catch up on the things that have been going on with the Hawks over the past month.  I apoligize to the readers of this blog that I haven’t been able to update over the past month. 

Al Horford’s contract extension is apparently coming down to the wire.  This report says that if a deal isn’t done at the close of business next Monday, Al will become a restricted free agent next offseason.  I would highly recommend that the Hawks get this deal done.  They Hawks ownership and management may think Joe Johnson is the key to the team, but they would be sorely mistaken.  This is a completely different team with Al Horford than without him.  I’m of the opinion that Al is the most important player on the team.  He accounted for the most win shares on this team last season and is only getting better.  He will be the key to the future of this team.  He is a top 5 center in a league that doesn’t have a lot of great centers.  Get this deal done!

In other news, it appears that Jeff Teague was unable to take the starting job away from Mike Bibby.  I’m a little disappointed in this because I think this team has maxed out its ability with Mike as the starting point guard.  He’s a declining player, and we are infinitely weaker defensively with Mike on the floor.  I hope this isn’t a sign that Teague isn’t developing as the team had hoped.  He did have some injury issues during the preseason, but I was really anticipating that he would end up taking the starting point guard spot from Mike Bibby.  While I won’t say it is time to press the panic button on Teague’s future, if we go into the season with Jamal Crawford playing the majority of the minutes behind Bibby at this position, then we will have a decision to make on the future of this position at season’s end.