Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Mark Bradley, February 21:

"Getting Mike Bibby - good move.

Keeping Mike Woodson - not so good.

The Hawks are 7-18 since Dec. 27. They’ve lost six in a row. They’ve lost 13 of 17. If the playoffs began today, they wouldn’t be in them.

Yes, it’s too soon to expect Bibby to have formed a mesh with his teammates, who are so used to playing without a point guard they can hardly be expected to know how to act when one’s on the floor. But it isn’t too soon to grasp what has become painfully obvious to everyone except Billy Knight and the team’s many owners: This coach isn’t apt to take any team anywhere worth going.

How many times have we heard Woodson say the Hawks weren’t ready to play or that they just didn’t compete? Whenever a coach says that, he’s indicting himself. The First Rule of Coaching - it’s in all the manuals - is: Get your team ready to play. Everything else is a secondary concern.

I thought the Hawks might fire Woodson at the end of January when they lost seven of eight. I was all but convinced they’d do it over the All-Star break, having dropped four in a row and fallen to ninth place in the East. Instead they dealt for Bibby, which was fine on its face, but where’s the wisdom in handing Jeff Gordon’s racecar to Fred Flintstone?

And now the Hawks are 0-2 with Bibby with three more games to play out West, and already the positive buzz that followed the big trade has begun to dissipate into plaints of “Same Old Hawks.” I wish I could tell you I foresee good things for this retooled roster, but as long as the same old coach remains I see no real hope."

The Nosebleed Section, February 21: "Amen!"