OPINION: The Atlanta Hawks are a work in progress. Slow, slow progress.

Vince Carter scored his 25,000th point on a dunk with less than a second remaining in what was the Hawks ninth straight loss on Wednesday night. The Toronto Raptors, 15-4, who have the best overall record in the Eastern Conference, won the game 124-108, and the Atlanta Hawks, 3-15, have one of the worst (only the Lebron-less Cleveland Cavaliers are worse at 2-14). The milestone for Carter was the highlight of the night and arguably the first 16 games of the season. The Hawks are a work in progress but there is a bright side and I am not talking about thanking for the draft rights to Zion Williamson or R.J. Barrett. Much more.

The crowd at Wednesday night’s Hawks game looked more like they did during those seemingly long ago playoff runs led by Al Horford, Joe Johnson, Kyle Korver, Jeff Teague and Paul Millsap. Energetic, active throughout the game -for some reason they were booing Toronto point guard Delon Wright every time he touched the ball- and positive despite the Hawks never leading during the game. In fact Atlanta did not score their first points of the game, on a mid-range jumper by Kent Bazemore, until the 7:33 mark of the opening period, nearly five minutes into the game. By that point they would be down 7-2. The game was an up and down affair and the Hawks kept it interesting but in the end it was another loss. With Boston coming into town on Friday night and Charlotte on Sunday, the losing streak might extend into double-digits faster than you can say “Let’s go Hawks.”

The team is playing hard, the games are exciting but after the first month of the season it is understandable if fans want to move on to college football conference championship games, college basketball (Mercer and Georgia State men’s and women’s teams are playing well at the moment) and forget about the local NBA season with the exception of when the Golden State Warriors (Mon., Dec. 3) and Los Angeles Lakers (Tues., Feb. 12) come to town for their one and only time this season. There are more reasons to drop by State Farm Arena though, the team is a work in progress and you want to be there for the bad (nine-game losing streak, tough one-point loss at Lakers, Dewayne Dedmon’s love affair with three-pointers) so when things get good again you can wear your t-shirt cannon free swag in public with pride.

Second-year forward John Collins is back, lottery pick Tre Young is the real deal, Taurean Prince is having a career year and Jeremy Lin (11 points and 2.8 assists per game) is looking more and more like a solid free agent signing. There’s plenty of good stuff taking place downtown Atlanta (and I’m not talking about the Falcons).

Atlanta is a work in progress (Have you seen our airport lately?) but worth the wait. Congrats to Vince Carter on his awesome achievement and thanks for giving a columnist yet another reason to come see the Hawks.