Are you ready for opening night?
Al Horford and the Hawks insist they are ready to get things cracking in the Eastern Conference this season. We'll all find out soon enough. Horford and the Hawks face the Pacers Wednesday night at Philips Arena.
HAWKSVILLE – Answer the question.
Are you ready?
Are you ready for more of the craziness that is the NBA season and the Hawks’ role in it?
Are you ready for the season you love to hate, the team you love to hate and the game you just love to love?
Of course, you are.
You’ve been waiting what seems like forever, just like me and everyone else around here.
You couldn’t wait until the Hawks’ opener against the Pacers tonight at Philips Arena, could you?
We understand. Cleveland and Boston was a fine way to open the season, what with Rasheed Wallace posing a most frightening sight out there stroking shots from deep with the for flowing and sporting that classic Celtics uniform (and yes, that was Shelden Williams logging quality minutes for the Celtics early on, so maybe we were all wrong about the man some of you affectionately refer to as Mr. Parker?).
Not much else has changed for the last two teams to dispatch the Hawks in the playoffs. Kevin Garnett is still a monster. Same goes for Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, when the Celtics knock the dust off those old legs and get up and down the floor. The supporting cast looks rejuvenated and hungry.
LeBron James is already in MVP form. But the Cavaliers remain the flawed team we witnessed in that conference finals series against Orlando last year. They can bust out of the gate and build a double digit lead faster than any other team in the league. But they’re almost guaranteed to lose it just as fast when they’re dealing with another one of the league’s elite (and this is my formal challenge to Shaq and Zydrunas Ilgauskas to a foot race. Give me a month and I’m doing my Usain Bolt on those cats).
Seriously, the stuff we saw from Orlando in that preseason game last Friday reminds me of the same things we’ll see from the Magic and Celtics all season. They have the kind of talent across the frontline that will give everyone else in the East, the Hawks included, fits on most every night. They’re just too good, too deep and too versatile for most teams to handle when all things are equal.
Before the Hawks can worry about any of those teams they have to deal with the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center Sunday (at least they weren’t invited for Tuesday’s ring and banner raising ceremony). And that’s after they tussle with the Pacers and Washington Wizards (Friday at Philips) first.
Are the Hawks ready?
Are they ready for the season that seems like it never ends; the roller coaster that always seems to be their season?
Jamal Crawford (back), Kasim Reed (middle) and Ludacris (right) get it in during a recent fundraiser for Reed, the Atlanta mayoral candidate.
We’ll get our first real glimpse soon enough.
POLITICALLY CORRECT
Jamal Crawford political activist has a different ring to it.
It may be a bit of a stretch for the Hawks’ guard with the rapid-fire handle and endless bag of offensive tricks.
But Crawford showed off a different side earlier this week when he helped host celebrity fundraiser for Atlanta mayoral candidate Kasim Reed. Crawford joined Grammy award winning artist, actor and philanthropist Ludacris, music mogul and philanthropist Chaka Zulu and several others in throwing their public support behind Reed.
“Hey man, I’m all over, man,” a smiling Crawford joked when asked about his political activity. “A lot of people in his position talk the talk and promise a lot of stuff. I just like that he’s doing it. He cares about people. And I know how important some of the stuff he’s talking about doing is for the kids in this city, especially the recreational activities for young people. That’s where I lived when I was growing up. Things like late night [basketball] programs, that’s what kept me out of trouble when I was growing up. I was always in the gym. He wants to take it a step further with technology and education along with the sports programs and I think that could literally save a lot of kids’ lives.”
We’ve always stayed away from politics in this space and I’d suggest we continue that practice (Blog-Z does not endorse any of the candidates since he can’t vote in that election anyway and plans on running in the next Smyrna mayoral election). But I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised that a player is plugged into the local political scene, particularly one that has only been in town for a few months.
“The thing about it is, you can’t please everybody,” Crawford said. “You just have to do what you think is right. And I think he’s the best candidate.”
VICTORY
Count Hawks coach Mike Woodson among the growing legion of fans of veteran power forward Joe Smith’s lyrical alter ego, Joe Beast.
Woodson got his first listen to Smith’s Hawks’ anthem (”Victory”) after Tuesday’s practice and offered to sign Smith to his record label, which we all know doesn’t exist.
“Did you really make this?” Woodson, doing the worst impersonation of a hip-hop impresario ever witnessed, asked Smith. “That’s unbelievable that you could come up with that stuff. Unbelievable.”
Smith said he planned on doing something along the lines of the playoff anthem he did for Cleveland last season anyway, but he sped up his process at the behest of an unlikely source.
“That intro music would come on at the start of our preseason games and Jeff Teague would look at me every time we played and say, ‘come on Joe, what you gonna do?’” Smith said. “So you know I had to go into my lab and come up with something.”
Smith has been dabbling in music for more than a decade, since the early days of his career. It’s only recently, he said, that the finished product has caught up with his ambitions.
“When I first started I really wasn’t that confident in what I was doing,” he said. “But lately, I’ve been getting better and better and more and more confident in what I’m doing. I’m getting close to being ready to putting something out there. I’ve got my own equipment. And the technology is so good now that I’m able to tote some of it on the road with me and I write [lyrics] on the plane on road trips and other times when I have a little solitude and time to myself.”
Woodson was genuinely impressed.
“He’s got a talent that not everybody has,” Woodson said. “He’s worked at it, too. That’s not amateurish stuff right there. That’s impressive stuff.”
If you’re at Philips 90 minutes before the tip of the Pacers game, you might want to listen for the song. It’s full of interesting stuff about Smith and his teammates, including a shout out to Teague.
“I’ll take that,” Teague said before breaking into a dance move in front of his locker as Smith recited lyrics. “I’ll take that”
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306 comments Add your comment
Big Ray
October 28th, 2009
9:45 pm
Nire ,
I don’t know which was less likely to happen: ‘Nique not saying “heat check” or Woody not playing Joe for 39 minutes in a game.
bigdave
October 28th, 2009
9:46 pm
Joe’s mins last year = Joe’s mins this year
put me down for that…
Mac-Town
October 28th, 2009
9:48 pm
hmmm….How is Crawford going to adjust to just being a role player?
not many minutes….not many attempts…….
Big Ray
October 28th, 2009
9:50 pm
bigdave ,
Never said Granger did all that to Joe. I said no way Joe was guarding him all night, and it wasn’t a good idea to do that anyhow, considering how tough he can be. And as I recall, Granger scored on Joe as well, just not as much. All I’m saying is that Joe’s defensive assignments for the evening weren’t too strenuous, and that’s a good thing, considering the minutes he played. Clearly, he hardly had to deal with Granger at all in the first half, when dude went off on us for 22 points.
I know you’re a big Joe fan, did you think I forgot that?
bigdave
October 28th, 2009
9:50 pm
what happened to ‘Hawks Live’?
niremetal
October 28th, 2009
9:52 pm
Yup. Last year, JJ averaged 39:32 per game. Tonight he played 39:23.
buckhead benny
October 28th, 2009
9:53 pm
Can you tell me how they come up in the box score for the totals for Jeff Teague and Mo Evans- it looks to read where it should be 7 for teague instead of 5 and 14 instead of 12 for evans- maybe i am blind- Something can’t be right about the totals-
Sautee
October 28th, 2009
9:53 pm
Just a reminder…..
Monitering the voice of ignorance
October 27th, 2009
8:39 pm
“When you have no inside game you have no choice by to try an score outside. One thing is for sure….You aint getting Sh!t out of Horford and Zaza. Hamburger and his helper.”
OOPS!
Horford: 24 and 16 with 4 ast and 2 blocked shots!
And that, my friends, was against 7′ 2″, 278 pound Roy Hibbert.
Actually I’m SURE that truth-serum is pleased to be wrong, at least for tonight.
And IF (and that’s a HUGE if) Al can do this consistently, I’ll wager that he’ll win truth-serum over. How could he not?
In Other News
October 28th, 2009
9:54 pm
The Cavs look like boo boo. A ring for the King is going down FAST!!!. But damn Toronto Miami and the Wiz are coming on strong.
Big Ray
October 28th, 2009
9:55 pm
Either way, our defense as a whole looked like crap for the better part of three quarters. We did force a lot of turnovers (and nearly as many were unforced), though.
Have to play better defense against better teams, or we’ll be like Golden State: trying to outscore the competition.
Having said that, I’m glad that we won opening night (especially at home), and was ecstatic to see the offense flow through the frontcourt early and often. Al and Josh looked pretty damn good on offense.
Josh had 8 assists, 1 turnover to go with his 18 points and anemic 3 rebounds. Not to mention 5 steals and 2 blocked shots.
Al was an absolute beast with Dwight Howard-like numbers. 24 points, 16 rebounds, 2 blocked shots?
Where are the Al haters at?
The bench was fairly solid, and I was glad to see Woody play those guys. Mo Evans was the highlight of that crew.
O'Brien
October 28th, 2009
9:56 pm
I thought JJ would play about 35 minutes, and Crawford would get around 20. But instead JJ got his 39:23, and Crawford only got 14.
What I found interesting is that Crawford did not sub for JJ much. Instead, Crawford played some PG, and when Crawford played SG, JJ played SF.
I just think there is no reason for JJ to play more than 35 minutes, especially against the Pacers.
Sautee
October 28th, 2009
9:56 pm
Horford was Prime Rib tonight.
Najeh Davenpoop
October 28th, 2009
9:56 pm
A lot of blowouts in the NBA tonight. Philly and New Orleans are the only supposed playoff contenders on the wrong end of blowouts, but it’s interesting to see the Cavs about to go 0-2 for the season and have a second straight poor shooting game — this time against a team that is supposed to have a weak defense.
Blast
October 28th, 2009
9:57 pm
Toronto beating up on the Cavs, tonight? Wow! Whats up with Cleveland?
ILL-logical
October 28th, 2009
9:57 pm
Smith F 35:12 7-10 4-7 0-0 +23 0 3 8 2 5 1 4 18
M. Williams F 31:14 4-8 5-6 1-1 +12 0 4 0 2 2 2 4 14
A. Horford C 33:31 11-17 2-3 0-0 +15 3 16 4 2 0 1 3 24
J. Johnson G 39:23 10-21 3-4 2-5 +17 0 0 6 0 4 4 2 25
M. Bibby G 30:43 4-7 0-0 2-3 +16 0 4 5 0 3 2 1 10
Z. Pachulia 16:29 1-4 2-4 0-0 -7 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 4
M. Evans 15:08 4-5 3-3 1-1 -5 1 2 0 0 0 0 2 12
J. Teague 13:56 2-7 0-0 1-1 -8 1 3 4 0 1 0 2 5
J. Crawford 13:36 1-3 1-1 0-1 +1 0 0 3 0 1 0 4 3
J. Smith 10:48 2-5 1-1 0-0 -9 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 5
J. Collins 0:00 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
R. Morris
Good scoring balance tonight in an otherwise lackluster win. Tonight’s defensive effort will not cut it against the Wizards. But hey, at least we aren’t 0-2 like the Cavs!
Another thing: let’s watch our use of words/phrases like”lazy’; low IQ and similar potentially incendiary language when it is directed at a particular group of people as some do here. IMJS
Blast
October 28th, 2009
10:00 pm
For those who say trade Al or Josh for Bosh, looking at the raw numbers, both Al and Josh outplayed Bosh tonite.
Big Ray
October 28th, 2009
10:01 pm
Samuel ,
Larry Brown is a good coach. But what’s that you say, “It’s all about the players..”
Uh, what’s happening up there in Cleveland? They playin’ possum up there?
bigdave
October 28th, 2009
10:01 pm
“As for him quietly playing good defense, who has he been defending? I know it wasn’t Granger if his defense was good. ”
hmm.. it could easily be implied thats what you meant. but hey, im not 2nd guessing ya.
no by design he didnt draw the Granger assignment exclusively much of 1st half… but he sure did in the 4th Granger got 3 shots up.. hit a 3 with Joe’s hand in face. Joe did his work early on Granger, ball denial and such.
of course ya didnt forget!!
O'Brien
October 28th, 2009
10:01 pm
Good win Hawks.
Lets focus on our defense for the next game tho
Big Ray
October 28th, 2009
10:03 pm
Ok, how much of this do we chalk up to experimentation and first game “lack of focus?”
Okay, all except the part about JJ’s minutes. Damn am I tired of that already, and it’s only been one game.
Sautee
October 28th, 2009
10:03 pm
Truth-serum
Something to soothe your soul:
In 3 quarters, your boy Brook Lopez is goin’ OFF!
27 pts, 12 reb, 4 ast. in 3 quarters. WOW!
Two good young bigs coming in to their own. tonight. Of course only ONE of them is a “true center”.
Hawks Fan In New Orleans
October 28th, 2009
10:06 pm
Great win to start the season! Great game by Horf!
Big Ray
October 28th, 2009
10:09 pm
Heh. Andrea Bargnani scored 28 on the Cavs in less than 30 minutes. I guess somebody forgot to stop the “Euro punk”…
Cleveland’s problem is that LBJ is still the starting point guard, the starting 2-guard, and the starting small forward. Delonte West is in Loonyland, and apparently Mo Williams has yet to move out of Chokeville.
And for our sakes, I hope the Cavs remain befuddled on the court.
Big Ray
October 28th, 2009
10:13 pm
bigdave ,
I’ll refer to what I said earlier: “A lot gets missed when a person is in a rush to defend a favorite player”
And before I can be accused of it by anybody, notice I wasn’t all up in arms to defend Josh Smith, as I have been in the past. Then again, there wasn’t a whole lot to attack him on, as I’m sure just spoiled some people’s day…
The Hawksta
October 28th, 2009
10:14 pm
I should have known my fellow Hawkstas were posting over here! Silly me posting on Mark’s blog all night. None of the lifers were there. Oh well 1 down 81 to go.
The defense looked alot like our last preseason game against Orlando. By the way they look like beast! So do the Celtics! Go Hawks!
Big Ray
October 28th, 2009
10:20 pm
“no by design he didnt draw the Granger assignment exclusively much of 1st half… but he sure did in the 4th Granger got 3 shots up.. hit a 3 with Joe’s hand in face. Joe did his work early on Granger, ball denial and such.”
Again, I thought that was a GOOD idea. Woody played Joe damn near 40 minutes…AGAIN. My comment was based on the idea that even though Joe played so many minutes, at least he wasn’t tasked with guarding Granger all game long. It was actually smart strategy to put Joe on him in the 4th, while keeping him off of him for the better part of the first three quarters. Two things happened that were different, despite JJ’s excessive minutes: he got PLENTY of help on offense, to the point of where he became the helper rather than the chief contributor. And, he didn’t have the toughest defensive assignments for the majority of the game.
Of course, the only problem with that is you either have to agree that this was smart strategy on the part of Woody (and you know I’m not a big Woody advocate), or you have to declare it an accidental or coincidental happenstance. Much as I’d normally declare it coincidence, I have to think this was by design, and Woody gets credit for it . Or, I’m wrong…
Strange how my “implied” point was entirely missed, and all that came out of this was me “implicitly” bashing JJ. Gee, I can’t imagine how that happened.
Rod from College Park
October 28th, 2009
10:21 pm
Answer me this. Why was our best perimeter defender as some of you say not guarding Granger. You want to know why? Because he (Marvin) is not our best perimeter defender as I stated many times. Joe is our best perimeter defender. Would some of you (you know who you are), still take Marvin over Granger. Good win by the Hawks. Good game by Horford, Josh and Joe.
Big Ray
October 28th, 2009
10:25 pm
The Magic still look scary.
Yet…uh, I know it was against the Pacers but, uh… Horford had slightly better stats than uh….Dwight Howard …
I just heard a sound like a dull “thud.” Oh, that was the Spurs stepping on the Hornets….
Ariose
October 28th, 2009
10:31 pm
10-28-2009 Indiana Pacers Post-Game Press Conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzdmnDKcfiY&feature=sub
Big Ray
October 28th, 2009
10:32 pm
Rod ,
Heh, heh, heh…I had you pegged for posting this sooner, but what the hey. All I can say is that Granger is for real, offensive design or not. As for who’s better at defending on the perimeter, I think bigdave has stated the case for JJ rather well (so has Nire ).
I also think it should be obvious why JJ wasn’t guarding him for the bulk of the game. It was better to let him get his earlier, then clamp down on him more in the 4th quarter. Just my opinion, though.
As for Marvin, he did typical Marvin stat-wise. 14 points, a few boards.
Josh and Al were off the chain, though.
Najeh Davenpoop
October 28th, 2009
10:34 pm
I guess it would be hypocritical for me to point this out, since I was sitting on my couch watching this game on TV, but it’s disappointing that a 2nd round playoff team can’t sell out its season opener.
kirkinga
October 28th, 2009
10:38 pm
Would some of you (you know who you are), still take Marvin over Granger. Good win by the Hawks. Good game by Horford, Josh and Joe.
You assume that Granger would be a good fit on this team. While tonight’s performance was very good, it is a long season and I’m not sure Granger could defer to JJ or be willing to play whatever role he needed to play given what the team needed game to game.
It would be easy based on tonight’s game to answer “yes” to your question, but I don’t think it is such an easy one to answer if we look at fit.
Big Ray
October 28th, 2009
10:41 pm
Hmmph. After watching Ariose’s youtube link, we’ll have to see what happens with Joe as the games wear on.
Clearly Woody is not yet ready to cut back on Joe’s minutes and trust bench players a little more. Hopefully that will change, and quite soon. It’s a combination, though. Woody has to get it done, but the bench guys have to show that they can get it done as well. We’ll see, but I think it will shake out alright.
Part of it has to be Crawford adjusting to a bench role, as well as being expected to play better defense than he’s used to. And of course, Teague, though exciting and bursting with potential, is having to learn as well.
Big Ray
October 28th, 2009
10:42 pm
Kirk ,
Great point.
Jody
October 28th, 2009
10:57 pm
Kirkinga,
I’m excited about the win, but c’mon man. Danny Granger would be GREAT on this Hawks team. Does anyone HONESTLY AND TRUTHFULLY believe that if a deal involving those two players was proposed that the Hawks would say no because Marvin’s a better fit? LOL! Let’s keep it real folks. No offense to Marvin, but Granger hands down.
Game ball for this win goes to Josh Smith. Kid did it ALL tonight.
kirkinga
October 28th, 2009
10:57 pm
Ray, I think you correct. I think Coach Woodson and his staff have yet to clearly identify and define each player’s role this season. I think that is one reason why we saw some old habits back on display tonight. I also think Coach was determined not to lose this first game of the season.
As I’ve said previously, trusting and developing his bench is going to made even more difficult by his lack of job security. Too easy to fall back into those habits when survival is on the line.
I think we also need to give a little credit to the Pacers for playing better than I think most of us expected. The Hawks probably didn’t think they’d have that much of a fight on their hands.
Go Hawks!!
Samuel
October 28th, 2009
11:04 pm
Good win over a team we should beat. Yea ray, Cleveland has a long way to go. 80 games left. they will be there when it’s all said and done but right now the two best teams in the East are clearly the magic and the Celtics.
I said that the Wizards would be hard to beat if Zero comes back healthy. Guess what, “He’s Baaaccckk”. Should be an exciting game coming up.
RLP
October 28th, 2009
11:08 pm
The important point about the defense is that after allowing 65 points in the first half they allow only 15 in the fourth quarter.
Also just a reminder that the Hawks could wind up with the fourth seed even if they were to finish with the second best record in the Conference behind the Magic. Although the Celtics look good and the Cavaliers look bad it is a long season. But would it not be exciting to see the Hawks breaking up the three headed monster all the prognosticators talk about? I am not predicting it but it is something to think about.
kirkinga
October 28th, 2009
11:09 pm
Jody, I’m not denying that Granger is a palyer. My point is that if we are going to ask a question such as wouldn’t it have been better to have picked Granger instead of Marvin, then we need to think more comprehensibly than just perimeter defense, or any one aspect of the game.
I would think that was the case if Granger did not have the kind of game he had tonight in which case I bet that question doesn’t get asked.
Fit and chemistry count. I believe Marvin does some things that don’t show up in the box score that nevertheless help this team to win. If anything, I think there has been more of a discusiion about Marvin becoming more assertive. Granger is on a team where it is easier for him to play a different than what Marvin is asked to do for the Hawks.
We have no idea if Granger would be a fit for this team no matter what his stats may be. In Marvin’s defense, I seem to recall that that he was said to have the most upside of anyone in his draft class by nearly every NBA observer. So it feels a bit beside the point to ask that question now.
Go Hawks!!
Ken Strickland
October 28th, 2009
11:10 pm
I don’t know of anyone, other than CLYDE, that’s been critical of Woodson for as long as I have. That’s why I’m very pleased to offer my congradulations to Woodson and the Hawks for an outstanding win. Over the last 5yrs, I’ve never seen the Hawks pass the ball inside and attack the basket the way they did tonight. That had to be by design, and Woodson gets a lot of the credit for that.
We also played some excellent DEF, even though it didn’t show in the 1st half. But, when the opposition shoots over 65% for the 1st half, including from the 3pt line, and we find ourselves leading at the half, it means we played some serious basketball. I also have to take my hat off to MBibby, who’s DEF certainly didn’t hurt us. This was a total team win, from the sidelines to the court. I noticed we didn’t switch defensively at every opportunity, and it allowed our best DEF players to handle their man. By not switching everything and ending up with so many mismatches, we got better rebounding and shotblocking from our 2 best shotblockers and rebounders.
I also like the use of a 10 man rotation. If we continue to run, attack the basket, pass the ball inside and utilize our bench the way we did tonight, we’ll win 50-55gms this yr. Cleveland went down again tonight. I hope you can remember when I said they wouldn’t repeat 66wins because Orlando exposed their achilles heel and teams would start the season attacking that weakness. I also said that although Shaq might bring an added dimension to the team, he’s probably worse than Ilgoukas at defending the pick and roll, which was their achilles heel, along with their poor transition DEF.
AGAIN, GOOD WIN TONIGHT HAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
kwooden1
October 28th, 2009
11:11 pm
I saw the final 10mins of the game, definitely a tough win! I can nit-pick about what I saw, but Bibby made some some big shots and the defense looked like it really kicked in late. Al had a great game and Smoove was very efficient. As everyone’s stated, I didn’t like the minutes that JJ played, but it was clear to me that Woodson left him in for defensive purposes. I hope that Jamal gets the hint about playing better defense. I have to assume that his defense wasn’t that great so Woodson was forced to leave him on the bench. Very good win!
GO HAWKS!!!
Jody
October 28th, 2009
11:27 pm
Kirkinga,
Sorry buddy, but we’ll just disagree on this one. There’s nothing (if anything) that Marvin does better than Granger. Because of that, I don’t think chemistry would be as big a deal as some try to make it. Simply put, you’d be hard pressed to find even ONE NBA gm or executive who would take Marvin over Granger today. The teams competing for the title this year will tell you that better players equal better teams. That simple.
cp
October 28th, 2009
11:45 pm
Glad we got the win. Saw some things I did not like though… We wont beat the Wizards if we play defense like they displayed tonight. We played well when we pushed the tempo and moved the ball. For some reason we got away with that at one point and went ISO Joe again. We always seem to go away from whats working. Luckily tonight it did not cost us. When we give our bigs the ball they produce. Im not worried about Crawford and Teague. I think they will be fine and just had one of those nights. Im disappointed we let Solo go but kept RandyMo around. They showed RamduMo on the bench a few times and it looked like he was either bored or in La La land. Indiana is a nice place for Solo. I think he is going to finally show that potential that a lot of us saw in him.
KevinA
October 28th, 2009
11:54 pm
I do not know if we have the team to beat the top 7-8 teams in the league over a series but we will win many of these types of games against many of these types of teams in the future. Call this a trust building type of game. Trusting team mates. Woody still went to the well with Bibby and JJ during the last 7 minutes, when he didn’t have to. So why didn’t the coach have trust? Who the heck knows. The team mates on the floor show much more trust by passing freely and at will. Much better ball rotation and much better balance.
I for one do not mind the go slow and prove it to me play as long as the balance of scoring attempts remains even between the front and back court. Ok I take it back, no reason for JJ to be in game with 7 min left to go with a 7-10 point lead. I think it was a lost opportunity to show Crawford he can replace JJ till the end of the game or at least give him a 2 min rest. The former the better. The same idea with Marvin and Evans. Give them the chance to finish games. Not because they are better but for later in the season experience. We need to exploit the idea we have multiple players capable of finishing games. I for one think they have paid their dues and can handle it.
One new wrinkle to a plus side of Woody coaching. He is giving Al the ball with more opportunities. Al looked crisp tonight, he won’t always. Lets hope he gives the young feller opportunities in every game. If JT and Crawford get the same opportunities we may lose a couple games early but we will be tough coming down the stretch come play off time. Coaches are like fans – we buy into every win. Can we buy into a system that dev elopes. A system of trust.
kirkinga
October 28th, 2009
11:58 pm
Jody, no problem. Disagreeing is how it is sometimes around here. I will say that I agree that most people would take Granger over Marvin now.
I believe you discount chemistry. I’d humbly suggest you consult Shaq and Kobe and get their feelings on the subject before you dismiss it out of hand.
Go Hawks!!
KevinA
October 29th, 2009
12:03 am
cp,
Im disappointed we let Solo go but kept RandyMo around
Not to mention we have yet to see what Collins can do. What if Solo ends up better or as good as Joe Smith. Pacers seem to love him. I thought he was solid tonight. Grass greener on the other side of the fence?
KevinA
October 29th, 2009
12:05 am
Jody
October 28th, 2009
11:27 pm
Kirkinga,
Sorry buddy, but we’ll just disagree on this one. There’s nothing (if anything) that Marvin does better than Granger. Because of that, I don’t think chemistry would be as big a deal as some try to make it.
If Grainger was 4th option would he look so good? I am still waiting for Bibby to become 7th option.
Jody
October 29th, 2009
12:07 am
Kirkinga,
Cool. Glad to know we peacefully disagree. Lol. I know we all want to see the Hawks win. Now, I’m not trying to be funny when I ask this, but didn’t Shaq and Kobe win three titles together?
Big Ray
October 29th, 2009
12:08 am
Samuel ,
Yeah, it will be interesting. We’ll get our butts beat if we don’t play better “D”. Easily.
Kirk ,
Good points, once again. I think we need to exercise a little patience in this regard. Holy crap, did I just say that?
Jody ,
There are no doubts about Granger’s ability, particularly as a scorer. However, having him here means a change in roles. No two ways about it. Based on Granger’s game, if you’re bringing him here, you’re substituting him for Joe, not Marvin. Granger’s role is more like Joe’s. And the two may not fit together. So, really you replace Joe with Granger (though you lose the playmaking ability and defense immediately), though Granger would still have to play the 3, then you put a Marvin-like role player at the 2.
DecDawg
October 29th, 2009
12:14 am
Jody…you might not be able to find one GM that would take Marvin over Granger but I’m willing to bet you will find more than one GM that would take Granger over Joe Johnson.