Mini-camp invitees
Hawks rookie point guard Jeff Teague will make his on-court debut with the Hawks in a mini-camp next week at Philips Arena.
HAWKSVILLE - While most of the rookie/free agent attention is focused on the happenings in Las Vegas, the Hawks don’t have a summer league entry in Sin City.
Therefore, the only chance we’ll get to see rookie point guard Jeff Teague in action this summer is during the Hawks’ mini-camp next week at Philips Arena (it’s not open to the public, sorry, and is barely open to the media – we get to see the last half hour of action everyday, which usually consists of cats shooting free throws and trying half court trick shots).
There is good news, though. Intriguing news, even, when you consider who will accompany Teague on the floor during these mini-camp workouts.
If the (tentative) invite list I glanced at today doesn’t change between now and Monday, recent second-round picks Sergiy Gladyr (last month) and Cenk Akyol (2005) will also be in town for the workouts. I know how much you guys love to examine the web-footage of these guys to determine what you think of their games. But I’m looking forward to seeing them in action and on the floor with guys who could potentially be their teammates some day in the future.
Also joining the party will be blog-fave/road grader Garret Siler, the 6-11, 305-pound big man from Augusta State. We only got a chance to see a glimpse of what he can do when he was in for a pre-draft workout with the Hawks. Now we’ll see what he looks like in game-type action during mini-camp. Then and only then will it be clear if he has any chance at all of coming back for training camp and trying to make the Hawks’ roster (which remains a distinct possibility, from what I’m told).
Other names to chew on the next few days as we get ready for the mini-camp include: G-David Huertas, G- Dionte Christmas, G-Sundiata Gaines, F-Shawn Taggart, G-Corey Williams, G-Anthony Goods, G-John Lucas III, F-Yaroslav Korolev, F-Ivan Harris, F-Frank Robinson (a returnee from last summer and one of my favorite cats), F-Leo Lyons and C-Chris Taft.
I know this is a slight detour from our recent free agent/trade conversations, but this mini-camp should be an interesting study in where youngsters like Teague, Gladyr and Akyol are in terms of when they can be expected to contribute to the Hawks.
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487 comments Add your comment
Ariose
July 20th, 2009
1:37 am
Diaw sucked when he waswith us, I’m sorry but i’d need about 5ot 6 notebookes to tally up all the missed/brick shots Diaw put up. It was VERY annoying for me to watch personally. I” give him props for blossoming into the confident player heis today, butI really didn’t care for him while he was here.
Samuel
July 20th, 2009
1:45 am
Notice that diaw started 37 games and averaged 25 minutes as a rookie. But I thought Woody didn’t play rookies. So, what did you want Woody to do? leave him in for 40 minutes? I guess he would have averaged 7ppg then. Still nothing that screams Springfield.
niremetal
July 20th, 2009
1:45 am
Yes, Walker was a rotation player for the ‘06 Heat. He played 26.8 minutes a game, not 40.2 like he did with the Hawks. And SF was the one position where the ‘04-’05 Hawks were actually deeper than the ‘05-’06 Heat, so you can’t just assign it to depth.
The point that many have made about Woodson is that he doesn’t run a system or use a rotation that is conducive to player development. Diaw didn’t just suddenly develop talent during the summer of 2005. It was there and Woodson didn’t recognize it or didn’t know how to tap it.
But hey, I know Woody’s your boy. No sense arguing more about it.
niremetal
July 20th, 2009
1:46 am
Samuel,
Uh…Woody wasn’t coach during Diaw’s rookie year. Stotts was. Woody cut Diaw’s minutes when he got to town.
Samuel
July 20th, 2009
1:50 am
Ken,
Care to weigh in on this Woody holding back the young studs argument? Who you got: Matt Freije?
Ariose
July 20th, 2009
1:55 am
http://dginfq.bay.livefilestore.com/y…
Samuel
July 20th, 2009
1:58 am
My bad. Yea, didn’t we pick up a pretty good forward that cut into his minutes by the name of Al Harrington? How can you give a forward more minutes shooting 42%? Those are “SNIPER” and ACIII numbers.
Samuel
July 20th, 2009
2:00 am
I going to bed. I’ll pick this up in the morning. Dam_ my trolling motor is broke. Anybody got one for sale? Remember, i’m a cheapskate teacher.
niremetal
July 20th, 2009
2:14 am
Samuel,
If you watched Hawks games back then, you’d remember how Woody used Diaw – as a spot-up/bail-out shooter, same as he uses Marvin. That was the worst possible way to use Diaw and it, of course, led to a low shooting percentage. The next year, with a coach that pulled Diaw off screens and kept him off the perimeter, Diaw’s shooting percentage leaped from 43% to 52%. He started taking only 0.4 threes per 36 minutes in his first year under D’Antoni, compared to 1.5 per 36 minutes in his last year with Woody.
Do you really think it’s a coincidence that Diaw posted the lowest FG% of his entire career during his only season under Woody? Or that he went from being a bit player on a 13-win team to a starter playing 35.5 minutes a game on a team that won 54 games?
Woody didn’t know how to use Diaw’s skills. D’Antoni did. So does Larry Brown. If you really want to press this argument, be my guest. You’ll just come out looking silly.
Ariose
July 20th, 2009
2:19 am
Game, Set, Match!!!!
niremetal
July 20th, 2009
2:27 am
*from 42% to 53%
My favorite stat, though, is that he doubled his minutes per game while halving his three-point attempts per game. Even once you adjust for minutes and possessions, Diaw improved in almost every single measurable way. Unless there was some sort of divine intervention during the summer of 2005, there only seems like there’s one logical explanation.
A Tribe Called Quest
July 20th, 2009
2:47 am
Give me a break about taking on Crawford’s contract.
We gave up about 9 mill in USELESS contracts (Speedy and Acie are below NBA players…They are absolutely worthless talents) for a 20 ppg scorer. We didn’t take on !@#$. Crawford’s contract will be about 5 mill in additional salary next year — whoop dee do
ESAUN
July 20th, 2009
2:50 am
hawks compete for seed 4 thru 8 like always. a realistic roster evaluation is a bunch of NBA sixth men at best who will provide great family entertainment, but like the mediocre hawks teams of the past ten years hve no shot at a NBA title.
A Tribe Called Quest
July 20th, 2009
5:15 am
Good point, ESAUN.
Unless we trade for a legit superstar big or Smoove and Horford take their games to the next level (post-game, bigger, mid-range jumpshot), this team has no shot in the next 3 years of competing.
Sorry folks
KevinA
July 20th, 2009
5:33 am
cp, I was promoting a Chills/Flip/Gooden because the money was close to the same salary of Crawford. Of those three I assumed Chills would get the most minutes because in my opinion he is better than Flip. Chills is a lower volume shooter but much more efficient. Chills is also a better defender.
If you look at my posts since the Chills option failed, I replaced his name with Sessons. Another good pg defender. Low volume shooter.
JJ, Bibby, Flip and Crawford are peas in a pod. They are all high volume jump shooters. We need these guys to pass more attempts to Marvin/Gooden/Josh/Al. My best guess would be 650 at min.
Your point is that these guys need to come in and score. Score is fine. Miss is worse. Fact is Josh, Al, Marvin, ZaZa and exChills missed less and scored more efficient.
jhan
July 20th, 2009
8:41 am
The Hawks have ALWAYS competed for the 4th – 8th seed? Where have I been? Seems like only ONCE in the last 10 years have they competed for those spots.
You think the Celtics players in their upper 30’s will still be vying for championships in 3 years? I don’t.
Daniel
July 20th, 2009
8:54 am
ESAUN and Tribe-
I guess I have been a fan of a totally different team, because I don’t remember this run of the Hawks being a playoff team over the last 10 years. Seems like we have only been over .500 once in the last ten years. This is important to note, because it shows where we are in our development. Yes, if the Hawks had been consistently knocking on the door without breaking through, then I could see your point. But, the truth is this is still a team on the rise.
Did I see something about Warrick or Wilcox signing a free agent contract?
Where's the Beef? | Hawks Blog
July 20th, 2009
9:03 am
[...] Where that beef comes from remains the only mystery of this summer. There was a time, earlier this summer, when I thought the Hawks might be close to pulling off a trade for a big man like Marcus Camby, who might not have the beef but certainly has the big man game the Hawks currently lack. But that was before the Los Angeles Clippers moved Zach Randolph to Memphis and cleared room for rookie sensation Blake Griffin to go to work this year. In the weeks since then, the focus has shifted from big name free agents to fringe bigs (Channing Frye opted for Phoenix, and he was my sleeper pick for the Hawks) and now to mini-camp and training camp invitees like Barron, Taft and Siler. [...]
Myrak43
July 20th, 2009
9:40 am
niremental
Diaw always had talent, but was and is still to passive of a player. Woody tried to play Diaw, but he just flat-out refused to take a shot even when he was wide open……And he only plays hard after he as been traded. just ask a Sun’s fan what they think about Diaw. I am glad he got traded and we got JJ from him…. we made out like theives….. and lets see how Diaw does this year, my money is that he goes back to his passive ways…
Samuel
July 20th, 2009
9:53 am
OK. I said he developed into a decent player. Sometimes you hit and miss as a coach. pretty much everybody’s numbers go up in DAntoni’s system. Pretty much shoot at will and don’t worry about playing defense. Everybody knows that.
So,1 player out of 54 that got better. Any more?
How many did Larry Brown “screw” in NYC. Give me a break.
I MUS WRITE
July 20th, 2009
9:54 am
Melvin- U are wild’n out right now -hahahaha… That was funny, brought back memories of my childhood. I would go to stay with my Auntie on weekends while my mom was working….. She was heavy into the Penicostal Church–MY god -we were in there for hours at a time -It looked similar to the people on that clip LOL….. A 10 year old kid shouldnt be subjected to that IMO.
Im Baptist so people worshiping that way was wierd to me. Needless to say I was happy when my mom got a new schedule and we would be back home from church by 12:30 just in time for Football….
From the Clips of Matt Barnes -I cant really tell who the better player is -Marvins a little more athletic but basicly the same player. Marvin 8 mil….Barnes 2.5 mil
Yeah Ariose -U once asked Is i liked that stiff NESTEROVICH……. Compared to Solo and Randolful …..hell yeah
There are very few bigs left and I knew after signing ZAZA and Bibby the rest of our signings would happen in August-meaning all the bigs worth a dam would be gone …….
So yeah man i like that stiff (No Homo)
kwooden1
July 20th, 2009
9:59 am
Last year (where many thought the HAWKS won’t make the play-offs) they were:
Orlando: 2-4
Cleveland: 1-3
Boston: 0-4
Lakers: 1-1
They only got blown out once against the Lakers, Orlando and Cleveland.
They are competing right now against the elite teams!! To be a legit threat though, will take personal improvement by several of the players and Woody getting a real offensive. I think Crawford will be a real help in terms of the offensive, he fits Woody’s “system” well. You can give him the ball and tell him to score, Woody likes that!
Boston definitely got better, at least for next year. Orlando, might have gotten better, but Turk was a big piece in terms of assists. I’m not at all sure if Cleveland got better. Either way none of those teams have the ceiling to improve like the HAWKS! The HAWKS are winning games without an inside threat!! If Smoove can start attacking in the post along with Horford, no one is going to want to play us. By the way the HAWKS are already top 10 in defensive FG% and 3pt%! The top teams in those categories are the usual suspects. (LA, Clev, Boston, Orlando)
If the HAWKS can keep Flip, sign Solo and Marvin to their Q offers, I will be content for the rest of the summer.
GO HAWKS!!!
I MUS WRITE
July 20th, 2009
10:01 am
I had to watch that again- That little guy in the friont is hillarious ….. OMG Me and my coworkers are cry’n laughing right now. I gotta play it one more time.
How the hell is Cleveland sign ing all these guys….Moon and Anthony parker make them deeper than last year -now they have the length and athleticism at the 2/3 spots plus Big Shaq …..dam thats unfair
Danny Ferry is that dude -O we lost in the ECF last year -o no problem i’ll just buy who ever or whatever to get that Larr O’brien Trophy…….. Wow thats what it feels like to have a Gm that has the green light on bringing in players….
bigdave
July 20th, 2009
10:03 am
Ariose….
based on moves, and what they do on the floor… now… as far as shooting… well Barnes is a set shooter, he doesnt shoot of the dribble well… Childress was becoming that same type player. were if it was kicked to him in rotation he would either take the shot or dribble penetrate. based on that clip alone, put a Hawk jersey and a fro on him and tell me it aint Chilly…
bigdave
July 20th, 2009
10:05 am
and thats GS Matt Barnes too… havent seen his game much since he’s been in PHX…
I MUS WRITE
July 20th, 2009
10:07 am
OMG Go to the :45 sec mark of that clip -did he just do a front flip in the church thats soooooooo funni.
Ken Strickland
July 20th, 2009
10:23 am
SAMUEL-all BS aside, I really do believe we have a chance to replace Orlando as the #3 seed, but of course that might not happen. There are too many factors that can come into play that can either make it happen or prevent it from happening. However, compared to what Turkoulu provided for their OFF, VCater’s presence will require a drastic change in their overall OFF philosophy. Adding BBass to their starting lineup will mandate a switch in positions for RLewis. All of these adjustments, along with replacing 3 starters and their top Big off the bench, will definitely have an early impact on their chemistry.
The key for the overall success for their season will be how rapidily they’ll be able to make the necessary adjustments and establish chemistry. The key to us replacing them as the #3 seed will be based on how quickly we come out of the box and take advantage of their potential situation. HOWEVER, WE CAN’T OVERLOOK THE EFFECT WOODSON’S CONTROL ISSUES AND COACHING LIMITATIONS MIGHT HAVE ON THAT PROCESS. I don’t see fatigue being an issue early in the season, but if he maintains his play them until they drop approach, we may end up getting overtaken down the stretch, assuming we get off to that great start.
Woodson has to get it through his thick head that we are not constructed to match teams like Boston, Orlando and Cleveland physically, especially when we try matching their style of halfcourt ball. On the other hand, they’re not constructed to match the speed, quickness and athleticism of our frontline players. There’s no way Shaq and Ilgouskas can match Zaza, Horford, Smoove or Solo’s, assuming he’s resigned, open court speed up and down the court. WE NEED TO TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF THAT ADVANTAGE. IT’S ABOUT TIME WOODSON REALIZES/ACCEPTS WE’RE BEST SUITED TO PLAY AN UPTEMPO STYLE OF OFF, AND ESTABLISH THAT STYLE. THEN WE NEED TO START FORCING TEAMS TO MATCH US AT OUR GM, INSTEAD OF US GETTING OUR BUTTS KICKED TRYING TO MATCH BIGGER MORE PHYSICAL TEAMS AT THEIR GM.
Ariose
July 20th, 2009
10:34 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH7WnR_cx00
Old vid of Zaza lol.
Ariose
July 20th, 2009
10:39 am
I.Mus, lol. Rasho is OK, he’s just kinda old. I’drather go with youth. Someone not too old that we can build aound.
bigdave, I hear ya, still, I think he would be a nic backup to Matvin for about 2.5 mill.
bigdave
July 20th, 2009
10:47 am
yes he would… i agree
Reggie
July 20th, 2009
1:33 pm
Sekou
What is the latest as far as Joe Johnson getting a contrct extension? Any chance he gets a contract extension this summer?
Ken
July 20th, 2009
1:37 pm
About Orlando, I agree there’ll definitely be some chemistry issues with all the changes they made. Most noteably losing Turkoglu, whom they were effective running their offense thru. Overall though, I think they have more talent now than they did last year. Dwight Howard was the only bruiser type they had last year, and now they have added Bass.
This is first time Vince Carter will have ever played with a dominant post player, so it will be interesting. Rashard Lewis is switching back to his natural 3 spot, which will create plenty of mismatches. The Ryan Anderson kid is a lot better than he is getting credit for. They still have a gang of 3 pt shooters they can deploy whenever. We will just have to see what happens though; guaranteed to be interesting. I sound like i’ve become a magic fan, but just being real about it.
niremetal
July 20th, 2009
3:13 pm
Yup
phoenix falcon
July 20th, 2009
5:45 pm
Marvin Williams have all opted to re-sign with the Hawks for the long-term.
Williams’ contract looks as though it will be five years for $40 million dollars, which breaks down to around eight million dollars a season (though the details of the contract have not been released). Given the fact Ben Gordon and Anderson Varejao were able to get $50 million dollar deals from the Pistons and Cavs, re-signing a rising star like Williams for $40 million is a bargain.
http://hawks.realgm.com/articles/592/20090712/hawks_keep_key_players_in_the_nest/
phoenix falcon
July 20th, 2009
5:51 pm
bigdave
his game ( Barns ) would fit perfectly with the hawks, he a consistent 3 point shooter, who gets up and down the floor, and he plays nagging ( kind of like a fly in your face ) defense.
Deep
July 20th, 2009
8:56 pm
Just read the post about Marvin…. is this confirmed by Marvin’s party or the Hawks front office?
Jose
July 21st, 2009
6:48 pm
Has anybody checked Cenk Akyol on youtube. He looks like an all rounder. Correct me if am wrong.