In an article about a week ago, Joe Smoth said that Atlanta is were he wants to be. Seems like a front for something bigger(cle) if you ask me…

Thats my conspiracy theory for the day lol.

Also, Josh is more easily frustrated than either Horford, JJ, Marvin or JJ. The same emotional drive that triggers his desire to work so hard in the off season to improve himself both physically and skill wise, often leads to his frustration. He knows he, his teammates and the team as a whole, are much much better when they push the ball, play uptempo and attack the basket. When the team gets bogged down and morph into the ISO Joe, Bibby and Flip mode, and everyone else gets shut out of the OFF, he trys to change things by running a one man fastbreak and forcing the issue when he secures a rebound.

When you’re not allowed to run consistently and score easy baskets, when you don’t have an inside scoring presence and your halfcourt OFF is limited and breaks down often, your alternative is a lot of dribbling, one on one play and long jumpers to beat the shot clock. DOES THAT SEEM FAMILIAR?

After giving it some thought, I believe I know why OHunter hasn’t been offered a contract. Joe Smith is the object of our desire and we want to secure our 12 man roster first. If we sign Joe, we’ll have our PF. If we don’t, Hunter will likely be signed, along with Siler and another FA Big. Signing Joe Smith instead of OHunter gives us more experience and versatility.

GO HAWKS!!!

Excellent point about our offense being better during the regular season, then falling apart in the playoffs and going right back to Joe. The $64,000 question (if you’re playing “The Weakest link” or some other similar gameshow) is “why?”

In the face of adversity or simply tougher-than-normal conditions, people tend to “rise to the occasion” less, and are “reduced to their level of training” more. Of course, that usually leads to another round of our usual blame game around here, but that can’t be helped. : )

OH, and you know Woody is just not that short-winded when he’s asked a question. Unless he’s being interviewed by Jeff Schultz….

By the way, I think you should make “ATTACK THE RIM” your tag line. Snazzy. Hip. Dope. Or however it’s said these days. I like it.

Sam From the Swats,

I agree that Josh gets a lot of flack, more than the guys drafted ahead of him. At the same time, Joe is right. It’s less about draft position by now, and more about showing what they are truly capable of. Marvin is no game changer. Josh is. That doesn’t mean Marvin’s no good. But it does mean that more is expected out of Josh, who is clearly capable at this point of having a much more dynamic effect on any given game, on any given night.

By the way, unless you’ve talked to every single GM and/or front office personnel of every team, you can’t possibly know that no teams were interested in Marvin. Just because it wasn’t reported doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Front office personnel are on the phone with each other all year long. If all the phone calls and conversations were leaked to various media outlets, the deluge of rumors would saturate and permeate everything. We wouldn’t even know who made the playoffs for trying to keep up with the rumors…..

The answer to your question depends on whether Sund has thrown in the towel as viewed by Woody. If those are the signals from Sund, then perhaps Woody is just executing Plan B. However, if those are not the signals from Sund, then you make a valid point. One scenario in a Plan B PR-blitz is that it will demonstrate to Joe Smith agent a willingness to move on. One weakness in Joe Smith’s strategy is if both Hawks and the Cavs move on and he has no more suitors. The Cavs really can do without an expensive third option PF is perhaps the reason they have not made the deal happen by now. However, the more the Hawks retreat from pursuing Smith, the more it strengthens the Cavs negotiation hand with him.

This deal should have been made to order for Sund since the competing Cavs are in L Tax land and have acquired Moon to be their backup PF option. Enough said.