Coming up on Game 23
Hey, folks-
Hope all are well. A few things:
While some interesting things were said on the topic, I am going to completely not venture an opinion on the European players thing.
KevinA – thanks for the number crunching (the Hawks are 8-0 when they hit 22 or more assists and 10-1 when JJ has five or more assists) . I think this obviously says plenty about what makes them go. It’’s something that the players and Mike Woodson recognize, that they play their best when they’re unselfish and when they get out and run. Al Horford says this a lot.
This isn’t exactly the most insightful observation you’re about to read, but this obviously happens most when they’re defending and rebounding to start their transition game. It’s trite, but they have to defend well to win.
One thing I’ll say about Jeff Teague – even when he wasn’t playing much, he wasn’t having too much trouble getting to the basket. But he had a pretty low percentage on his drives. It seemed like 1 out of 4 shots in the paint was going in and the rest either bounced off the rim or were rejected.
I asked Jamal Crawford about this, and he said Teague had to figure out the angles he was taking to the basket and so forth. So maybe he’s figured out something. I think it might be a little premature to say he’s ready for a steady diet of minutes – I’d feel differently if he’d gone for 19 points, 15 assists, four steals with just three turnovers against, say, Miami and Milwaukee and not Chicago and Toronto and, too, I don’t know if the NBA is similar to baseball and the NFL where a rookie can have success out of the box but then the “book” gets out on him and he plateaus – but he may well have turned some sort of corner. He would make the second unit, and in turn the team, so much more dangerous.
Anyway, Joe Smith will not be playing again Sunday. Wednesday against Memphis might be the day.
Things I’ll be watching against the Nets:
1) How is Brook Lopez defended?
2) How are the minutes apportioned with the second unit?
3) Can Teague keep up his excellent run?
4) Can the Hawks play even better than they have the past two games?
Apropos of nothing, but Charlotte is in the No. 8 spot in the East right now. and Miami is just one game over .500 (11-10).
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245 comments Add your comment
Mychelfromatl
December 12th, 2009
11:36 pm
To adress a question from the old blog, look for the Lakers to come back to the pack as they start to play more road games. So far this season they have played more home games than anybody. By the way, they lost today in Utah. Boston on the other hand seems to be the bigdog of the league at the moment, and the Hawks have already shown they can beat them.
Mychelfromatl
December 12th, 2009
11:37 pm
First!!
I couldn’t resist.
Grandad
December 13th, 2009
1:41 am
1. I did not realize discussing European style b-ball was a race issue.
It is most assuredly a style issue determined by officiating, coaching, and yes skill level or athleticism. In many occasions South Americans, Canadians, Australians, etc. get lumped in with Europeans. Tony Parker is European for example, and I don’t think it much matters if he’s Euro. or not he’s still married to Eva.
2. For the gentleman who wished for a grade from each of us; are you going to tally and give us the avg. scores/grade ?
Hawks – B+ (downgraded slightly for inconsistent play)
mr.w. – C+ (downgraded for inconsistent use of bench)
*** mr.w.*** student shows improvement ! Possible ‘B’ by mid-term !
vava74
December 13th, 2009
4:33 am
1) Quick elbow to the face should get Brook to slow down and know who is the boss. The Hawks have to be more physical and mean in some occasions.
If Brook knows that he may be whacked every time he ventures in the paint, maybe he will not be so dynamic.
2) The minutes on the second unit should be ample for Teague (15), Zaza (20 – since he is a good elbow distributor), Mo (15 who is hot) and Crawford (28-30).
3) There is no reason for Teague not being able to keep this run of good games. The Nets should not be a troublesome opponent, however, Woody must battle is unwillingness to play Teague more when the team is not comfortably up by a few points.
4) I hope they win, regardless of the quality of play. The crucial point is our mental toughness. After a string of good games it is easy to revert to a lazy attitude (Knicks game), forgetting to defend the paint and forcing the opponents to work for every basket. Josh and Al must have a good defensive game so we can run
Marcus
December 13th, 2009
7:29 am
Biggest foe: complacency
The Hawks still show that maddening tendency (esp. in AWAY games) to play down to level of the sorrier teams in the league. We should have no more than 2 losses: We should have beaten ORL on Turkey Day (2nd half brain laspes/selfish ball), NOA (w/o C. Paul, even though Bibby got hurt… that is what all this depth is for) and never taken NYK and DET (w/ at least 3 starters DNP due to injury) for granted.
CHA I give a pass, because it was the early part of the season and last AWAY game coming off a long West Coast road trip, LAL, well, we fell apart in 3Q.
If we show that we will consistently lay whoopings on those whose record dictate said whoopings are deserved …. we will have turned the corner.
I think either Ken’s articles or a blog somewhere mentioned that now through Jan. we face 9 or so teams who are very beatable and could really extend our Ws to match the elite in teh NBA. This will be a good litmus to see how mature we are as a team and focused on being around in late May/June 2010.
FoxNoise.net
December 13th, 2009
8:40 am
If Woodson can develop Teague this year it will be the icing on his cake for a big new contract.
rms
December 13th, 2009
10:22 am
If Woodson can develop Teague this year I will shave my head!
northcyde
December 13th, 2009
10:33 am
Grandad, thank you for answering the question. I’ll post the question again, for those of you who didn’t see it in the other blog.
- What grade would you give the Hawks overall?
- What grad would you give Woody so far?
My grade for the Hawks: ( A- ) . . only because of the meltdowns. Otherwise, they’ve played great basketball. This team has far exceeded my expectations ( and everyone else’s, even if they don’t admit it ), so far. This team is on pace to win 60 games. Not a single Hawk fan was predicting a season this successful. And the national media surely wasn’t.
My grade for Woody: ( B+ ) . . He had to make sure Crawford didn’t disrupt the chemistry of this team, and he’s successfully did that. And he didn’t succumb to the pressure of playing the bench more and possibly sacrificing wins to do so. Winning is the most important thing, and he knows that he’ll have plenty of time to develop the bench. Easily his best coaching stint of his career so far, and a legit candidate for Coach of the Year.
northcyde
December 13th, 2009
10:42 am
So in other words Marcus, you want this team to play perfect basketball.
No team in the NBA plays perfect basketball. Think about this though. Could it be that those “sorrier teams” are getting UP to play the Hawks now? I mean, it wasn’t too long ago that we were one of those “sorry teams”, and we really got UP to play the good/elite teams at home. And we won some of those games too. And it wasn’t because they played “down to our level”. It was because we took it to them and beat them.
Saying that the Hawks should’ve only lost 2 games, is an unrealistic criticism on this team. Because to do that, you discount the games that they DID WIN, that they probably should’ve lost. They should’ve lost @ Dallas, but didn’t. They should’ve lost @ Boston, but didn’t. They should’ve lost @ Portland, but didn’t. Honestly, this team has only had one bad week all year. One bad week out of 6.
You take the good and the bad with this team ( or any team ), and look at the overall picture. Whether they win pretty, or win ugly, the only thing that really matters, is that they WIN. And the same thing applies to losses.
RLP
December 13th, 2009
10:58 am
NORTHCYDE:
I agree with the grades you are giving. It is easier to give a grade to the team than to the coach because the NBA is a players league. There are very few coaches who have the moral authority to stand up to what the players want to do. The coach’s main weapon is playing time. I am not sure that fans looking in really know all that goes on behind the scenes. So when we make a grade on the coach I think there is a lot of guesswork involved. But ultimately you must look at the outcome when you are making a judgment. Since the team is where it is in the standings it is very difficult to hold back from a very good grade for the coach. I think your B is just about right.
This afternoon if the Hawks play right they will be tied for the divisional lead and for a second seed in the East!!!!!. This is a BIG game for this team. Go Hawks.
northcyde
December 13th, 2009
11:10 am
As for you other bloggers here: If this team keeps winning, it is important for all of you to drown out the negative opinions on this board. Do not let their poisonous rhetoric take away your joy of watching this team.
The Hawks will lose games that they should win, and win games that they should lose. But as long as this team keeps winning far more than they lose, support this team and praise the Hawks every chance you get.
As of right now, you’re watching the 2nd best Hawk team in franchise history. Only the 1993 – 1994 Hawks got off to a better 22-game start ( 17 – 5 . . . won 14 in a row after starting the season 1 – 4 ).
As long as management doesn’t something stupid . . like do a “Nique” . . and trade JJ for an “up and coming star”, to prevent the organization from possibly getting nothing if they lost JJ at the end of the season, we have a shot to match the 57 wins that the 93 – 94 achieved. And unlike that team, we’ll have our franchise player intact.
That 93 – 94 team had win streaks of 14, 7, and 6. Their longest losing streak was 4 ( which happened right after opening night. Outside of the 4-game losing streak, they never lost no more than 2 in a row.
They had mini-game stretches in which they’d lose 3 of 4, or 4 of 6. But every time they’d go through those stretches, they turned around and would win 3 or 4 straight. So depending on how you viewed that team, they almost always won 6 out of 10 . . 7 out of 10 games.
When you do that, plus have stretches where you’re winning 8 or 9out of 10 games, it’s a recipe for success in this league. So that’s how people may need to start looking at this team. If you try to micro-analyze every loss, you’ll drive yourself crazy. They’re not going to play great basketball on a nightly basis. The only thing that matters, is that they consistently win games.
Keep supporting your team Hawks fans. And for you fans in the Atlanta Metro are . . . GO TO THE GAMES!!!
doc
December 13th, 2009
11:13 am
NC i see you found it!
look folks there are a ton of teams waaaay behind us at this point in the season and we clearly have room between us and the 5 spot in our league, no one expects it for us to inch into the top three, including coy man samuel, to cover his bet that woody needs honors and a new contract. in other words the guy sooo confident about his coach wont put the bar a bit higher than where we were last year. by now we see shaqis not the title assurance he once was with a supreme player.
i said it earlier and i will repeat it tis team is capable of being top three in our division. should woody or the team be decried if they dont? no, but i would only give them one more year with woody to do it and that is the rub. yup, do you place your chips on woody for a three or four year contract knowing within a year you might see his upside or truly evaluate what he brings and then make the decision.
let us see how he and the team respond to adversity with an expanded roster and there will be some. let us see how he readies the team for it now instead of waiting until it happens and then declare oh my injuries sidelined us and i didnt have the horses ready in the corral, like it happened in the cleveland series. now is the time to get teague ready to find out whether he can carry the load or learn to do it as at any time bibby can be further slowed by the slightest of injury decapitating his defense that he relies on and hampers his already over laden front line smaller than most in size bigger than almost all on heart. yup, i am in woody’s corner this year but i still have my eye on him and wont be complacent to suggest he still has rooom to grow and improve. i wont give him any more passes. look at what sloan, adelman, jackson do under similar circumstances … they continue to win.
truth, wherever you are there are three names i would put in front of woody in a second. probably more to come for your top ten list later.
northcyde
December 13th, 2009
11:19 am
Check that . . . add the 1997 – 98 Hawks to that list as well. They also started out 17 – 5 to begin the year, fueled by an 11-game winning streak to start the season. And the 1987 – 88 team started 16 – 6.
Still, you’re seeing something special so far with this 2009 – 10 Hawk team. It’s one of the best, if not THE BEST team we’ve ever had here. Enjoy it while you can, seeing that it tends to happen only once a decade.
Melvin
December 13th, 2009
11:29 am
From Twitter:
“Lorenzen Wright’s tryout in China unsuccessful.”
I guess they don’t like popcorn in China….
northcyde
December 13th, 2009
12:01 pm
@ RLP . . . on the Squawk, everyone there knows that I blasted the Jamal Crawford trade. Matter of fact, I HATED THAT DUDE for how he played in the past, with all of the terrible shot selection. I did not want that dude on the Hawks PERIOD. I hated him as much as some people hated Woody.
My comment to Woody in one of my rants when the trade went down: “Woody . . don’t let Jamal get you fired.”
I was afraid that he’d mess up our chemistry as a team. That he’d take away shots from Smoove, Horford, and Marvin. Well, all of that did happen, especially in the case with Marvin.
But Woody did something that I thought was critical to Crawford’s success. First, he and JJ told him to NOT worry about being a playmaker on the team, and just concentrate on scoring. That’s what he tried to do in the Indiana game on opening night, and passed up shots.
After he got the green light from Woody and JJ, Crawford felt comfortable, and started balling.
But the 2nd thing that Woody did, was to NOT surround Crawford strictly with the 2nd unit, especially if his shot wasn’t falling. Earlier in the year, the 2nd unit as a group was NOT ready to play with each other. They were routinely losing leads and playing horrible defense as a unit.
So he started to surround Crawford with some of the starters. That way, if Crawford struggled with his shot, he’d have people around him that he could defer to, instead of shouldering the entire scoring burden himself with the 2nd unit.
Most important though, it was necessary to see how JJ and Crawford could play with each other. Woody also needed to see if the 3-guard lineup ( with 2 known bad defensive players ) could be as lethal as people thought. That was more important to establish, than playing the bench players right off the bat. He knows that he has plenty of time to get the bench integrated with this team, but he had to make sure Crawford knew his role and could be effective in it first.
That decision won the game @ Portland and @ Sacramento, enabling us to get off to the quick start at 4 – 1.
A lot of people are complaining about Teague’s playing time or the amount of minutes that JJ is playing, but they aren’t looking at the other side of this. Everybody isn’t going to play as much as they think they should. What matters is how these players play together in certain units.
Crawford is currently shooting 46% FG, which is far above his career average. He’s still erratic from 3 point range, but he has the advantage of going up against 2nd team guys, and the advantage of NOT seeing the other team’s best perimeter defender guard him. When on the floor with JJ, it’s JJ who they’re still trying to stop. That’s enabling Crawford to do his thing even more on the offensive end.
In the last 3 games, the bench seems as if they’re starting to learn how to play each other, especially defensively. If that happens, it allows Woody to give them consistent extended minutes each game. He’s handled the bench excellent in my opinion. You don’t give Teague 15 – 20 minutes during tight games, when you have the option of playing Bibby or Crawford at the point. We have way to many guards who can get the job done, to trust a rookie PG in those situations.
Woody has said that Teague’s playing time will increase as the season progresses, and I fully believe him. But he’s not going to allow Teague to struggle, and possibly cause this team to lose in the process.
Very good coaching job by Woody so far.
doc
December 13th, 2009
12:06 pm
maybe the suv’s there are bigger and he couldnt keep up with the demand. probably said the smog there through his game off. funny melvin and sooo true. the guy backed up to the pay window for five years because he had a big butt that gm’s liked not because he could play.
northcyde
December 13th, 2009
12:09 pm
Almost football time, but the questions still stand for the board:
- Give the Hawks a letter grade so far:
- Give Woody a letter grade so far:
Nate ArchiBALL
December 13th, 2009
12:12 pm
Hawks – B+
Woody – B
JeJe
December 13th, 2009
12:33 pm
WOODSON, PLEASE USE YOUR BIGS TODAY. DO NOT LET AL PLAY 38 MIN AND GET DESTROYED BY BROOK. GIVE COLLINS AND ZAZA BIG MINUTES.
PLEASE
i_am_soulstar
December 13th, 2009
1:25 pm
happy Woody doesn’t have the extension yet.. He’ll clearly have to develop Teague and prove he can take the Hawks to the next level to get it
niremetal
December 13th, 2009
1:52 pm
Jeje,
You do realize that Horford shut Lopez down the last two times they played, right?
KevinA
December 13th, 2009
2:11 pm
Lost 3 games to these guys last year – no more of that. Limit Lopez and thay are toast. Hawks by 20 with playing time for all.
O'Brien
December 13th, 2009
2:19 pm
Ken S,
Another thing I’ll be watching, is how do we play Devin Harris? I will not be surprised to see Woody go back to his switching defense (we know Bibby cant keep up with Harris).
That being said, I look for the Hawks to win this game big. Just keep passing the ball, and forcing the tempo.
O'Brien
December 13th, 2009
2:22 pm
northcyde,
I give the Hawks B+ (I almost gave them A-), and I give Woody a B-.
JeJe
December 13th, 2009
2:38 pm
niremetal,
“Lost 3 games to these guys last year – no more of that. Limit Lopez and thay are toast. Hawks by 20 with playing time for all.”
RLP
December 13th, 2009
3:00 pm
I thought I read somewhere that Devin Harris is not at full speed and may not even play today. Anyone have any knowledge about that?
Ree
December 13th, 2009
3:20 pm
From NJ.com:
The good news: They’ll have enough guards to get through the 48, and there’s some extra manpower: Devin Harris and Keyon Dooling both will play, and Eddie Najera is going to suit up. Ditto for Bobby Simmons
He did sprain his left pinky last night though.
cp
December 13th, 2009
4:05 pm
This is the type of game we should win but sometimes we play down to our opponent. So hopefully the Hawks come out early focused and ready to play. The way the Nets are playing this year if we get up big on them early then we should easily win.
Ken Sugiura
December 13th, 2009
4:16 pm
Update – Marvin Williams will not be playing (upset stomach). Mo Evans will start in his place.
JeJe
December 13th, 2009
4:29 pm
Oh no. Marvin is out! What a loss for this team. His 10 ppg (apparently he averaged 14 according to some people here), awkward athleticism, and inability to hit shots anymore will truly be missed!
Like I said, refer back to my post last Sunday when we blow this game or come close to.
And Brook will have a field day as usual
KevinA
December 13th, 2009
4:32 pm
Hunter may get some burn tonight. If the we get off to a good start this will be a good thing. We need Josh to get out of his mini slump and go back to All-Star play. A 20 Pt game wound be good timing.
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
4:57 pm
LETS GET IT…
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
4:58 pm
home just in time… Hawks need a good win, Falcons tried to ruin my day….
Big Ray
December 13th, 2009
5:16 pm
Northcyde ,
Nice posts. Very nice.
KevinA ,
I wouldn’t mind seeing that from Smoove.
Big Ray
December 13th, 2009
5:17 pm
bigdave ,
Yeah, the Falcons had me cryin’, man.
O'Brien
December 13th, 2009
5:19 pm
With my untrained eye, it looks like the Hawks are switching. Which is one of the reasons why Josh has 2 fouls….
Hawksfan
December 13th, 2009
5:20 pm
we need smoove weak call
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
5:21 pm
Nique… they’ve won games…
niremetal
December 13th, 2009
5:21 pm
Not just you, O’Brien. They’re switching.
niremetal
December 13th, 2009
5:22 pm
Good drive-and-dish by Bibby.
BONE
December 13th, 2009
5:26 pm
So I just came on and I see we are losing to freakin new jersy. Terrible
O'Brien
December 13th, 2009
5:26 pm
I think its Ken Strickland who has consistently made the point, that when the Hawks play straight up defense, they defend better.
Here we are, switching, and the Nets are shooting lights out (7-11). (And with no Josh in the game, there is no one to cover up our mistakes on defense).
On offense, I like the way Mo’ has bene playing. If he was 6′9″, I wonder if he would be our starting SF (considering his price tag).
JB
December 13th, 2009
5:27 pm
nire, I love Al but Lopez is a better player. If somehow we could trade for Lopez I don’t think any of us would turn that down.
niremetal
December 13th, 2009
5:28 pm
JB,
Horford for Lopez? A lot of us would turn that down.
BONE
December 13th, 2009
5:29 pm
Wow Hawks playing down to competition again.
BONE
December 13th, 2009
5:29 pm
Niremetal Lopez is better than Horford. I still like Al tho.
niremetal
December 13th, 2009
5:30 pm
That was some ugly basketball there…
O'Brien
December 13th, 2009
5:33 pm
Good job by Woody putting Teague in the game. I hope we stop the switching now.
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
5:33 pm
Sekou in the building i see…
BONE
December 13th, 2009
5:33 pm
Yea Teague
Wabe
December 13th, 2009
5:34 pm
Floater in the lane. Like yall said, if he can get that down consistently, he’ll be a problem because the guy can get into that lane.
BONE
December 13th, 2009
5:35 pm
Wow Joe ball hoggin like crazy. Jamal was wide open
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
5:36 pm
hell of a lay…
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
5:36 pm
he was open…
but Joe had a layup…
O'Brien
December 13th, 2009
5:37 pm
JJ is a ball hog, but he sure makes some tough shots though.
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
5:37 pm
5 assist for the ball hog…
i guess he just should stop shooting for some of yall to be happy…
BONE
December 13th, 2009
5:37 pm
bigdave I was talking about the previous play.
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
5:38 pm
me too…
Ramon
December 13th, 2009
5:39 pm
Lopez isn’t better for THIS team than Horford is.
Ken Sugiura
December 13th, 2009
5:39 pm
this unit’s producing and back on the floor. if they keep it up, i wonder how long woodson will go with them.
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
5:39 pm
not the buzzer beating lay, not the previous lay, but the lay attempt before that where Nique said he had Jamal in the corner… truth is Mo was the easier pass on the same side as Joe. however Joe had blown by his man…
niremetal
December 13th, 2009
5:40 pm
We needed a tough buzzer-beater to give us a lead at home against a 2-18 team. We’re getting beaten on the boards and on D because of the switching D. Not good signs…but hopefully Woody will adjust
JB
December 13th, 2009
5:40 pm
Nice touch by Lopez there with the Duncan special
BONE
December 13th, 2009
5:41 pm
Go Teague
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
5:41 pm
if he makes that shot consistently… ut oh… spaghetti o’s for Bibby…
Ken Sugiura
December 13th, 2009
5:41 pm
i guess the answer is 1:22.
O'Brien
December 13th, 2009
5:42 pm
Teague has really stepped his game up the last 3 games. I hope he continues to improve.
Does anyone remember what our record was last year when Mo Evans started? I remember it was pretty good. And I liked what Mo gave us in the first quarter.
JeJe
December 13th, 2009
5:42 pm
Woody adjusting? LOL. He will run Horford into the ground because he does not trust the free agent bigs we BROUGHT IN TO HELP (not Joe Smith today unfortunately).
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
5:43 pm
Joe at PF again… dont know bout that… why not bring in one of the kids? Thello… Morris?
O'Brien
December 13th, 2009
5:43 pm
Wow, Woody is going with Bibby and Teague in the game at the same time? Very interesting.
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
5:44 pm
say something about that Nique…
Nique likes Jamal more than Joe…
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
5:44 pm
its quite obvious…
JeJe
December 13th, 2009
5:45 pm
If Horford is our “main defender” of Brook, THEN WHY IS HE IN IF BROOK ISN’T? PUT IN COLLINS OR RANDMO AND REST ZAZA AND HORFORD AT THE SAME TIME. MY GOD
JeJe
December 13th, 2009
5:45 pm
O’Brien, we were 11-2 or so. Maybe 13-2?
JB
December 13th, 2009
5:46 pm
Well if we had Lopez and ran a more traditional offense, he and Josh would be a great tandem up front. For the current guard-oriented drive and kick offense, Horford is perfect. It’s just a matter of which option would be better.
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
5:47 pm
no way there more than 2 Hawks in the All Star game… we’d be lucky to get 2…
O'Brien
December 13th, 2009
5:48 pm
JeJe,
That sounds right. Maybe 13-3. I know its early, but it just makes you wonder about Marvin, considering his ~$7.5 mil salary.
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
5:52 pm
Teague was right in his pocket though…
niremetal
December 13th, 2009
5:53 pm
Whenever someone gets hurt, it’s the same pattern: Woody makes an adjustment, and we win at first. Then other teams adjust to our adjustments, and we lose.
And we were 10-6 without Marvin last spring (10-7 if you count the last game of the year). Started off winning 6 in a row, then went 4-6.
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
5:54 pm
Falcons need to look at Joe at strong safety…
JB
December 13th, 2009
5:55 pm
Lol, blatant walk by Joe to Crawford for the three
niremetal
December 13th, 2009
5:55 pm
We should not be letting these guys hang around like this.
D.carter
December 13th, 2009
5:56 pm
Josh and al need to learn to turn and face and use their quickness as oppose to keep trying to back guys down.. both have very limited post moves!!!!I hate that woody refuses to constantly use pick and rolls too create penetration by spreading the floor. Is it just me or does joe not like crawford? i have been to 5 games this year and noticed that joe is ver reluctant to pass the ball to crawford at times
O'Brien
December 13th, 2009
5:57 pm
That looked like it should have been an And 1 for Crawford on that 3.
Thanks for the clarification nire.
Some guys have suggested a trade for CP3, and I know its early, but if the Nets end up with the #1 pick, which would be John Walls if he comes out, would the Nets trade Devin Harris? Would the Hawks be interested?
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
5:58 pm
air walked…
D.carter
December 13th, 2009
5:59 pm
Woody kills me with that dumb ass look and folding his arms… He needs to start yelling at joe for forcing shots and dribbling to damn much
niremetal
December 13th, 2009
6:00 pm
The midrange jumper is the least efficient shot in the game. It frustrated the hell out of me when Marvin relied on them a couple years ago, and they seemed to go away for the most part last year and in the first 10 or so games this year. They seem to have crept back in during the past few games…
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
6:02 pm
from that angle right there… Mo didnt brush his teeth this morning…
D.carter
December 13th, 2009
6:03 pm
The mid-range shot is the least efficient shot in the game are you kidding me???? Have you seen this Kobe Bryant kid?…..lol Thats whats wrong with Lebrons game if you ask me
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
6:05 pm
And1…
D.carter
December 13th, 2009
6:07 pm
Want to see Randolph gets some minutes
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
6:07 pm
looks like he’s found his Wake touch…
D.carter
December 13th, 2009
6:08 pm
Woody with the 4 guard rotation….
Boy
December 13th, 2009
6:09 pm
good scrap Z !
niremetal
December 13th, 2009
6:09 pm
Big Z with the hustle play!
Macaroni Tony
December 13th, 2009
6:10 pm
I wish JT would got that dunk off.
O'Brien
December 13th, 2009
6:10 pm
Good way to end the half. It looks like Woody has a lot more confidence in Teague, and Teague has been making shots, so that helps.
Lets keep it going in the second half.
Melvin
December 13th, 2009
6:13 pm
Hawks closed the half strong. Good 1st half of b-ball for the Hawks…
cp
December 13th, 2009
6:16 pm
I like what I’m seeing from Mo, Teague, and Crawford. We stepped up our defensive effort when Josh came back in. Hopefully we go ahead and put them away in the 3rd quarter.
Ken Sugiura
December 13th, 2009
6:23 pm
from what i remember, that’s the first time teague has held for the last shot. a sign of increased confidence from woodson..
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
6:26 pm
better than who?
vava74
December 13th, 2009
6:27 pm
The refs are killing Josh every single game now… he can’t get any calls down under!
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
6:28 pm
Harris has to be to 5 in flops…
vava74
December 13th, 2009
6:29 pm
offensive foul there!
Boy
December 13th, 2009
6:34 pm
not much D being played by either side. we can’t let them hang around.
Boy
December 13th, 2009
6:36 pm
Josh needs to stop yakking at the refs and just play. refs are like elephants, they have long memories and the hold grudges.
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
6:37 pm
wow… what a pass..
Boy
December 13th, 2009
6:42 pm
poor Bibby. he is trying but he just can’t play D anymore.
Blast
December 13th, 2009
6:43 pm
Hawks are running away with this one.
vava74
December 13th, 2009
6:45 pm
I like what I see! Teague has very faassst hands!
Blast
December 13th, 2009
6:46 pm
The Teaguer! Making steals and dunking on folks!
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
6:46 pm
Coach bout passed out seeing Teague pick Trent’s pocket… like damn… i should be using this kid…
BONE
December 13th, 2009
6:46 pm
Teague will be starting soon like I said
Wabe
December 13th, 2009
6:47 pm
It ain’t fluke, the kid’s got some quick hands…
Loved the finish.
The Realist
December 13th, 2009
6:48 pm
The quality of this blog really has deteriorated.
You had Sekou, who couldn’t write properly. You have Sugiura who writes so sparingly and anemically that it’s less than noteworthy.
The arguments on here are about race + Europeans. What the hell is wrong with this blog? Time to go back to the Squawk
niremetal
December 13th, 2009
6:48 pm
Nets just roll over when they get hit. It’s like the Hawks 3-4 years ago…
Blast
December 13th, 2009
6:53 pm
Hawks have scored 101 points in the 3rd!
doc
December 13th, 2009
6:53 pm
dont let the door slam on you the r.
Blast
December 13th, 2009
6:55 pm
Take that New Jersey! Pow! Pow! For those two defeats last season.
Ken Strickland
December 13th, 2009
7:00 pm
TRUTH SERUM-is this Brook Lopez Horford is abusing the same guy you’ve been running off at the mouth about? Does he know there’s a gm going on? Does he know you’re his biggest fan? Exactly what does he does that’s so much better than Horford? Why would you want him instead of the man that’s currently whipping his ass? Hee, hee, hee.
Melvin
December 13th, 2009
7:06 pm
Bob Rathbun just said that Sean Williams is a forgotten man… Oh my, I hope Clyde didnt hear that…
niremetal
December 13th, 2009
7:06 pm
Sean Williams sighting! Someone get Clyde!
JeJe
December 13th, 2009
7:08 pm
How is Horford beating up on Lopez?
Lopez has 19 and 11. Horford has 16 and 9. Someone did not get a GED
Melvin
December 13th, 2009
7:08 pm
Look like Othello is trying to help the Nets patient their block shot stats…
O'Brien
December 13th, 2009
7:10 pm
“Sean Williams is having a hard time finding minutes on a team that has won only 2 games”. Well said, Bob.
Good game Hawks. Even Hunter is seeing some PT.
niremetal
December 13th, 2009
7:19 pm
Lopez has 19 and 11. Horford has 16 and 9. Someone did not get a GED.
Horford played 27.5 minutes. Lopez has played 38. Someone didn’t make it past addition and subtraction.
Ree Roe
December 13th, 2009
7:20 pm
Good to see the guys on the bench cheering for our reserves. This is a team that pulls for everybody on the floor. RandMo is REALLY hitting that 10-15 ft jumper with some confidence. I don’t think we can look at his play as a fluke anymore. 130 pts with no Marvin or Joe Smith, gotta love it
-REEcently Roe!!!
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
7:21 pm
Randolph tried to boom …
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
7:21 pm
Randolph with the hustle…
Blast
December 13th, 2009
7:25 pm
Now that’s how you open up a can of whoop azz on a struggling team!
vava74
December 13th, 2009
7:31 pm
Now that he last lost all that weight it is clearly visible that RandMo has excellent bball fundamentals.
This was already evident from his execution of exercises during the training camp’s media day.
For him to be a valuable big he only needs some fire on his belly…
vava74
December 13th, 2009
7:32 pm
I believe that someone in this blog made a bold bet and lost by a landslide… I wonder who it was…
cp
December 13th, 2009
7:33 pm
Great win. Nothing to complain about.Teague is improving game by game. Love what Mo gave us tonight. Everybody who played scored. Time to get ready for the net opponent.
Najeh Davenpoop
December 13th, 2009
7:54 pm
I gotta say I’m pretty happy the Hawks made me (and some others on this blog) look stupid for picking an upset in today’s game. I know they were playing a terrible team, but they are back to looking like their early season dominant selves.
Najeh Davenpoop
December 13th, 2009
7:55 pm
Sean Williams had three blocks today too, so everyone’s happy.
Alien in ATL
December 13th, 2009
7:56 pm
Northcyde: Kudos – triple shout-out!
I’m late on the blog, b/c just got home of some other b-ball games (daughters playing) so I am behind on the blog. But you hit the nail!! Most of the people on this blog predict/hope for a 50+ win season. So what games are they supposed to lose? If we don’t win against the top teams, we are losers. If we lose against lower teams we are losers. So when are we expected to lose those 25 – 30 games? But of course, it’s Woody’s fault to lose the games we don’t agree too!
D.carter
December 13th, 2009
7:58 pm
Randolph has better post moves than AL and Josh… Give the man some spot duty Woody!!!!! He has 6 hard fouls to give and plays better help defense than i thought
Sam from da Swats
December 13th, 2009
8:07 pm
Nice game Mo, much better flow in your game than terrible Marvin…
Najeh Davenpoop
December 13th, 2009
8:09 pm
I’m not gonna go so far as to say Morris deserves meaningful minutes, but he has improved by leaps and bounds since he first joined the Hawks. He is good enough that the Hawks don’t need to worry too much if Zaza gets injured.
KevinA
December 13th, 2009
8:11 pm
I am one blogger that talks about shared responsibility when it comes to team ball, cut down of the ISO and creating a balance between the bigs, swing and post players.
I have been critical of the coach and the guards. After the last game I said kudos to the guards for multiple games of improved performance and ball movement.
I once again have the pleasure of saying – great game.
Swing players 9-18
Guards 22-42
post players 18- 32
35 assists with 10 from our stat JJ.
Poor Al the most efficient player on the team finally got a few extra attempts. did he dissapoint? 7-12.
I agree with a few seasoned bloggers that it is early in the season and should not create assumptions. But you got to admit – this is a nice trend.
Benjamin
December 13th, 2009
8:13 pm
I do not understand y’all’s criticism of Joe Johnson. He’s not D-Wade, Kobe, or LeBron, but there aren’t many guards aside from those three that I’d deal him straight up for. The dude’s been awesome for us, and if he leaves this summer, we’ll have a hard time replacing his production.
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
8:17 pm
my goodness… Rudy Gay has dropped 40 on the Heat with 7 left in the 4th…
KevinA
December 13th, 2009
8:17 pm
Rand Mo has earned my voice for his support. He has done well in his minutes. He deserves the same chance as Teague. He deserves the chance to prove there is no reason to pick a a big in the next draft or panic if Joe Smith decides to leave.
To be clear that does not mean that he has earned it but deserves the chance.
Big Ump
December 13th, 2009
8:18 pm
It’s funny how some bloggers complain about the switching D when the game close and don’t hear anything from them when they blowing out teams. If you really paided attention to the game instead of hatin on certain players, and the HC,you should be able to see they they played straight up sometime down and vice versa.Sometime straight up D don’t work either, that why the HC adjust and go with what’s working for them at the time. Haven’t heard too much about how the HC is a rookie PG killer, except for the very few who will say that he didn’t help Teague develop because Teague did it all on his home.
RLP
December 13th, 2009
8:21 pm
For those who made a prediction for Ken S. The actual record is 3 Wins 0 Loses. Seven games to go.
South ga boy in the atl
December 13th, 2009
8:22 pm
Najeh u r so right about Morris. I’m a lot more comfortable these days about a sustained injury to zsa zsa. He’s definately a different person than last yr, a 40 lbs different and it’s showing. He’s so much quicker and with these blowout wins he’s getting some burn that is giving him confidence. He ant crack the top 10 yet but a big kudos for his work ethic in the last yr. U know what they say “nothing breeds success like success”. He worked hard,he’s getting some burn, and having success. I see a real upside for him now that I didn’t last yr
Jody
December 13th, 2009
8:25 pm
How bout a round of applause for Mo Evans! Great game by him and loved how he stayed aggressive while he was out there. Overall, this was a solid win and I’m enjoying watching Jeff Teague improve and get more minutes as a result. Keep it up young fella!
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
8:25 pm
Benjamin…
as Stinger said tonight, “Joe makes everyone’s life easy”…
Sam from da Swats
December 13th, 2009
8:26 pm
big Dave, wouldn’t you love to have that guy instead of Marvin? Marvin will never go for 40…ever!!
KevinA
December 13th, 2009
8:41 pm
Benjamin
Who are you refering to
KevinA
December 13th, 2009
8:44 pm
By the way OKA tied with Clev 62-62 wouldn’t it be fun to see the kids beat Clev.
JeJe
December 13th, 2009
9:00 pm
Are we not getting a game story tonight?
Hawks Fan In New Orleans
December 13th, 2009
9:11 pm
whooo hooo! It feels good after a tough Falcon’s loss to look at the standings and see ATL tied for first in the southeast division with Miami at 11-11 a distant second! Jeff Teague producing in 24 minutes of play is equally impressive.
Go Hawks.
O'Brien
December 13th, 2009
9:12 pm
Rudy Gay is a beast. I must say, that watching him at UConn, I did not think he would be as good as he has turned out to be. And we complain about Marvin, but imagine how the Blazers feel? They could have taken Durant, but went with Oden instead.
That being said, Mo Evans is a bench player who is starting, and he is aggressive from the start. Marvin, has been a starter for years, and is still talking about how he needs to be more aggressive. Unacceptable.
Great win tonight though. Last year, we didnt have as many blowout wins, so our bench players didnt get a lot of minutes from these kind of games. It has helped our starters, and it is helping our bench get some PT and some confidence. And Woody is giving them a chance.
Great job tonight, Hawks and Woody.
Blast
December 13th, 2009
9:15 pm
Go Hawks, Go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
KevinA
December 13th, 2009
9:20 pm
JeJe,
Like to here your story of missed assunptions on this game. I predicted 20 pt win
kirkinga
December 13th, 2009
9:40 pm
Happiness is winning and 156 comments without a “Wire Woody” in sight,..and some say there’s been no progress over last season!
Go Hawks!!
Alien in ATL
December 13th, 2009
10:15 pm
Isn’t it funny how all those so called Hawks fans and “fire Woody” fans are only on the blog at the start of the game and as long as the game is still in balance, but disappear once the Hawks are putting the game away? Pitiful, no? They can’t even stay on and agree to the fact that they are wrong!! Thank you Hawks for shutting up those sarcastic fans you only hear when they can say something negative!! Live and this blog will be sooo beautiful without them!! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAWKS!!!
Alien in ATL
December 13th, 2009
10:17 pm
LOL @ kirkinga! Totally agree!!
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
10:52 pm
Sam from Swats…
only if he steps up his defense and rebounds the ball… we have all the offense we need… yea Rudy is a better talent, but Marvin is starting to be reliable in the sense of playing his role. hey, he can’t help when he was drafted…
still early though… but i get just as frustrated with him…
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
10:52 pm
but no… doubt Marvin goes for 40… ever…
bigdave
December 13th, 2009
10:53 pm
but in the event he does… promise the blog you buy a fresh…crispy… Atlanta Hawk # 24
Ken Strickland
December 13th, 2009
11:15 pm
JEJE-You were probably too busy looking for excuses to notice Lopez got most of his points in garbage time and/or when Horford wasn’t in the gm. When both were on the court and going head to head, Horford kicked his taller, bigger butt. You have to be able to see the forest among all of those trees for it to register.
D.CARTER-your comment is one of the issues I have with Woodson. He seems to operate on the principle that if a player doesn’t give him exactly what he wants from him, whatever that is, he will disregard everything else and treat him as if he’s useless. The intelligent thing for any HC to do in situations like this is to focus on what the player does well and see how it can be utilized to benefit the team. Of course that only applies to certain players, otherwise Bibby would be anchored to the bench as well.
Overall, I have to echo CP and his assessment of it being a good gm overall and EVERYONE on the bench and on the court contributed.
Rufus1
December 13th, 2009
11:21 pm
I give the team A-
I give the coach B+
KevinA
December 14th, 2009
12:43 am
Ken,
I think you are being overlly critical. When we get into tougher teams and if Woody goes back to the old Woody ball I will chip in.
This game could have not gone better. We have gone 4 games of non “Woody ball”
Ken Strickland
December 14th, 2009
1:00 am
KEVINA-How am I being overly critical, or even critical? I was just cosigning on a comment made by D.CARTER and offering an explanation. Did you miss the last sentence where I gave credit to everyone that participated on the bench and on the floor for a gm well played?
Najeh Davenpoop
December 14th, 2009
1:58 am
O’Brien, co-sign on Rudy Gay… he may have the worst-selling jersey in the league, but he’s much, much better than I thought he’d be coming out of college too. We Hawks fans complain about the Marvin pick, but at least Marvin is a decent rotation player. Picking Shelden Williams over Rudy Gay and Brandon Roy was a much worse evaluation of talent.
The Grinch
December 14th, 2009
2:20 am
Woody seems to have improved as a coach, and if he can keep it up over the whole season I might just leave the “Fire Woody” camp. I have nothing against the man personally, and will be happy if he continues to improve and succeed. So far this season I give him a solid B (a damn sight ahead of the last few seasons).
It’s a good year to be a Hawks fan; this is the best team they’ve put together in a long time. I said at the beginning of the season they’d be good enough for 50 and a 3 seed despite Woody. With Woody actually using his bench and dropping the ISO Joe, 55-60 and a 2 isn’t out of the question (knock on wood, pardon the pun). I give the team an A-minus so far.
I hope y’all jumped on the over/under 44 wins at the beginning of the season; easiest money we’ll ever make (and I said so at the time). Maybe we’ll finally get some recognition.
The Grinch
December 14th, 2009
2:24 am
No love for “the Landlord?” How dare you question Billy Knight! Josh Smith and Al Horford were a perfectly good net out of ten straight seasons picking in the top 10.
The Grinch
December 14th, 2009
2:28 am
He was like a blindfolded Mexican kid swinging at a pinata, only arrogant, is what I meant to say.
South ga boy in the atl
December 14th, 2009
2:42 am
Say Najeh, don’t think I saw any commentary on period of time on todays game when we had 4 guards on the floor plus Al. Ihax to look twice to make sure I was seeing Joe, bibby, Teague, and Jamal out there at the same time. I think Woody is using some of these easier games to really experiment with some different things
Say Najeh I had to look twice today to make sure I was looking at the tv correctly when I saw 4 guards on the floor today with Al. Joe, Bibby, Jamal, and Teague can really push the ball or drive and kick for jams or 3 pointers. I know all the criticism of Woody for being to stubborn, unwilling to play anyone except vets, and his unimaginitive offense. However there they were today: 4 guards on the floor atthe same time. I find it very refreshing, of course I have been a Woody supporter all along, but I was wondering what you thought of this new Woody and doesn’t he get credit for trying new things on offense and giving significant time to Teague. Whatta ya think of the new woody
Crashing the Glass
December 14th, 2009
4:06 am
Is Josh Smith the Hawks best player?
http://crashingtheglass.com/2009/460/mythbusters-atlanta-hawks
Big Ray
December 14th, 2009
7:30 am
I love it when this team stomps on an inferior ballclub. How far have we come with this?
The noise made about Woody is just too funny. How can you NOT give the head coach credit when the team is doing this well? And obviously he’s not killing his young point guard. He likes the kid, and the kid is listening to him and performing. It’s all good. What’s to complain about?
Yes, Woody gets kudos for making good decisions and having his guys ready to play. But funny how giving credit to the players for doing what they do is construed by some people as NOT giving Woody enough credit. What’s next, we give him credit for every point scored, rebound grabbed, shot blocked, ball stolen, assist dished out? Give me a break, people. Do try to be somewhat realistic.
Coach and team BOTH get credit. You get the feeling that there are Hawks fans, and then there is fans of a certain player, or a certain coach. Somebody please start a blog for the Atlanta JJs, the Atlanta Woodys, Atlanta Jamals, or whatever…
Meanwhile, what happened with our “fake” center? Seems to me that Brook Lopez had to stay in the game 11 minutes longer in order to “outperform” Horford 19 points/12 rebounds to 16 points/9 rebounds. When both were in the game, I didn’t see where the bigger Lopez was doing better. In fact, he simply wasn’t. Horford held his own. I’m not surprised.
Joe Johnson had a great game. I really liked the 10 assists. I like to see the full spectrum of Joe’s game, rather than watch him try or be forced to play the one-dimensional role of top dog scorer. He’s still top scorer, but I love to see him also be something he has a natural affinity for: playmaker. Is he the best playmaker? No, but he’s a damn good one.
I remember people talking about Mo Evans being absolute trash. Still think that? The guy has raised his game despite receiving far fewer minutes than he did last season. And he really blew up last night when he got a chance to start.
Ok, now cue all the responses of “yeah, but it was just the Nets..”
On another note, the Grizz are for real. We’re better than them, but they have been jelling and really competing. Don’t expect an absolute cake walk on Wednesday.
Big Ray
December 14th, 2009
7:38 am
By the way, that “Crashing the Glass” site? Good stuff. It’s a great article on busting myths surrounding the Atlanta Hawks.
Really good stuff on Woody, great endorsements of him. You don’t want to miss this. Good reading?
Big Ray
December 14th, 2009
7:38 am
VERY good reading!
vava74
December 14th, 2009
7:50 am
We must absolutely win the next two games and, sincerely, I really believe that if we do this we reach the Cleveland games with such a momentum that we can win back to back.
My fear is that if we lay an egg against Memphis (dangerous young team) or are out coached by Sloan/out hustled by the Jazz, the team will start another period of unbalanced performances and under perform against the Lebronettes…
Big Ray
December 14th, 2009
7:59 am
Vava ,
Excellent point. I think you have it pegged.
Fundamentals
December 14th, 2009
8:02 am
Definitely signs of a solid team in the making. Memphis and Utah will be a good challenge to see if we have fool’s gold or not. I think we’ll do fine. Good to see a few quality outings without let-down from any of our players. Good to see folks are coming around on Morris. Check the blog. I’ve been calling for him all year. Good job Randmo.
I’ve been a bit tough on Collins. He looked a little better yesterday. Seemed to get to the spots a bit better and he did hit a nice jumper. I’ll never relent that he needs to get into game shape, but Hopefully he’ll continue to see minutes and give us a HUGE instead of a big to send in on Shaq, Big Z, Dwight and Bynum. That’s really the only reason we signed him.
Props to the boys for another great game. Wed can’t come soon enough!
nunna yo biznezz
December 14th, 2009
8:14 am
BIG RAY,
TOP OF THE MORNING TO YA!!
i am one of woody’s biggest critics and said this team would be 3-7 over this 10 game stretch.
i based that on his 7-8 man rotation,and the starters playing 35-40+ minutes a game..
and i repeatedly stated that using his bench and increasing their playing time and playing teague now instead of later when he may be needed would benefit the team in the long run and help us in the playoffs..
and it is finally happening..but,it happened for a reason..not because woody included this in his plan,but because of a blessing in disguise..
the ankle injury to bibby..
that gave teague more playing time and woody some forced confidence in this guy..and that spreaded to others on the bench getting increased floor “burn” as others on this blog call it..
with teague getting increased playing time:
A.it allowed the 2nd unit to have a full 5 man bench rotation..
B.it allowed the starters to get rest and play with energy as well as play with some of the bench players and get accustomed to each other..
C.it allowed us all to see what most have believed,RANDMO has skills that should allow woody to go with a big center who could make a difference when needed..
And D.,it allowed us to become now more of a force and a threat to the NBA..
we know what we have coming off the bench with crawford,and with evans,zsa zsa,teague,joe smith or even with Randmo,we have a 2nd team that can keep up the scoring if not score more,and keep us fully into the game and pick up any slack that the starters may have..
so,if my 3-7 goes from that to a 10-0 ten game stretch,then i could not be more happier.
if woody keeps this team going and playing like they are now and even in the playoffs,and, not go back into a 7-8 man rotation once we play the elite teams and bibbs gets better ,then woody would deserve to be retained as the HC of this team..
my only worry is just that..once we play the teams who are the elite of this league,and bibbs feels better then we’ll see the old woody ball come back..
this is what i’ve been and others have stressed all season long this year..
now,if he would have started this 10 man rotation a lot earlier in the season we probably would have had a better record(even though 17-6 is not bad)than we do now..
but,overall,we will be better over the next 23 games..and i think we’ll be better than 17-6 over the next 23 games..
we shall see..
Clyde
December 14th, 2009
8:27 am
Sean Williams had 3 blocks in 8 minutes. New Jersey could have stayed in the game with his defense if he would have gotten more PT. Can the coach see only playing him single digit minutes = a loss?
Samuel
December 14th, 2009
8:32 am
Doc,
I hear you. Let’s say the Hawks do finish in the top 3 but lose in the second round again. To me, that still should be enough for an extension. Sund will have a tough decision to make no doubt. What if he lets Woody go and Woody goes elsewhere (Memphis, Chicago, NO) and turns them around. Sund then hires whoever and we go backwards. In my opinion that should get him fired.
It’s easy to say we “should” be in the top two or three teams in the league but is he willing to stake his job on it?
Woody=COY
Daniel
December 14th, 2009
8:36 am
OK, guys great win. I don’t care that it was just the Nets, it is tough to blow out teams in the NBA and the Hawks are doing it on a semi regular basis.
I will try to look it up, but someone (Nire?) probably has already crunched these numbers. I wonder what the blowout (15>) wins vs. losses is the year compared to last? I think this is a truer sign of the Hawks moving into elite status, than anything else.
So, how is everyone going to spin this? Teague is getting more consistent minutes (HMMM about 20 games into the season, like someone suggested). Yes, the Bibby injury has spurred that to some extent, but Bibby can play, but Woody is electing to rest him. He is not forced to do that. But, I am sure some how this will be turned into an “I told you so” “if Woody would’ve only listened sooner” type thing that noting what it really is. The rookie has been brought along at a reasonable pace to not overexpose him and as Crawford and Joe have developed a comfort level. Teague gets more time.
Oh yeah, Joe is such a ball hogging egomaniac!!! Really, where? when?
Once last thing, to someone who I won’t mention by name, but tends to write in all CAPS and posts under others names. How did that nasty, unstopable Nets team do? I am sure you don’t have the class to admit you were wrong, but who knows maybe you will suprise me.
Daniel
December 14th, 2009
8:40 am
Samuel- For me, it will be more about how the team plays in the playoffs. Not all second round losses are created equal in my book. If we play a tough series going 6-7 games and lose then we definitely need to extend. If the team folds like a tent….. well… it makes the decision tougher.
Astro Joe
December 14th, 2009
8:44 am
I liked the post from the guy who said (I’m paraphrasing), “if you predicted the Hawks would win around 50 games, then you predicted they would lose around 30 games, so why act shocked when they lose. We don’t play the Celtics, Lakers, Magic & Cavs 25-30 times”. BRILLIANT!
Was that Sean Williams who was being posterized by RandMo? Hilarious. RandMo looks great against back of the bench defenders. Kudos to him for working hard to improve his game.
Also, Bibby looked like he had his legs back yesterday.
Lastly, Mo started for the Hawks during one of those stretches when the Hawks had like 6-8 consecutive home games late in the season. He is definitely balling this season, but his record as a starter is puffed up because he has started more home games than road games.
Fundamentals
December 14th, 2009
9:10 am
Gotta give props to Mo for showing what a veteran does when he gets his break. The guy went from doghouse to team MVP in a matter of minutes.
Could just be the wins, but everyone seems more relaxed and more confident in their roles. Each and every player has filled their niche during the past few games.
I don’t remember a time when we consistently blew people out of the gym on a regular basis. Nets or not, this is nice stuff. If we roll till Christmas the big 3 talk may have a few name changes at the national level.
newkid
December 14th, 2009
9:17 am
Good to win those we’re expected to win. Mo’s energy and offensive efficiency with the 1st unit stood out. Doesn’t need to occupy the ball more than a second or two on the offensive end to be productive. Imagine, on a nightly basis, having a 3 on the floor who consistently hits the catch-n-shoot deep jumper and finishes well around the basket. Wish he were a couple inches taller, but if his performance yesterday was prologue, I’d take him at the 3 with the 1st unit on many nights.
Lopez is even larger in the flesh than he looks through the eyes of the television camera. The Nets could have a very bright 3-6 year future if the ping pong balls are kind enough to them to yield John Wall to pair with Lopez and one or two TOP FLIGHT free agents in ‘10. Having to wait until ‘12 to actually call NYC home might be a turnoff to some of the FAs, but you get the impression that the new Russian owner is gonna be a player for the likes of LBJ and CB4.
Grandad
December 14th, 2009
9:22 am
‘TS’:
mr.w. deserves a round of aplause! He is improving which goes
against his pattern of stubborness. He is beginning to administrate
some of the changes [Teager] that myself and others have been complaining about. Congrats to mr.w. and yourself for your loyalty.
If he proves himself during the playoffs, I will be one of the first
to give him his due.
niremetal
December 14th, 2009
9:22 am
You’re right, Clyde. Sean Williams’s 3 blocks during garbage time proves that the Nets would have won if only they had played him more.
What a joke
December 14th, 2009
9:27 am
Crashing the Glass keeps posting here trying to get people to read his blog not realizing that there’s a reason no one comments on it – its because no one reads it because its terrible. You are no better than the rest of us, fool. Stop pretending you are special enough to deserve your own blog. And Ray, stop trying to pump him up. Your continuing endorsements dont make him look good, it just makes you look bad.
Grandad
December 14th, 2009
9:49 am
Ken Strickland &
niremetal:
Brooke Lopez is a very good player. No, he is one of the best ‘young’
players in the league, as is Al. With all due respect, B.L. is good, and Big Al is good. I know you are drawing comparisons by using stats and you are correct. However, I cannot believe either of you would pass up the opportunity for Al and B.L. to play side by side. I also understand that is not even a remote possibility. My point is, that kid
can do things [offensively] that Dwight isn’t even capable of doing.
He is a monster, on off., plus he rebounds and makes a reasonable attempt at guarding his man. I also understand that you are defending Al and his value as a center. Don’t worry about the knuckleheads who cannot fathom that Al is 1st class albeit a [4] or a [5]. When the playoffs arrive and mr.w.’s rear end tightens up, the game will slow down, we will play “woody ball” as you have so aptly named it, and I feel there will be a need for Al to have an enforcer to compliment his
size and skill set. I have nothing but respect for the both of you, as you have both been very receptive to me as rookie on this board. Please accept my comments as they were intended. Thanks.
niremetal
December 14th, 2009
9:51 am
I thought this pretty much sums up the development of my views on the Crawford trade:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBSF0Gi7oM0
Lacsho
December 14th, 2009
9:58 am
Great Win !!!! Sometimes one must keep scrolling.
Fundamentals
December 14th, 2009
10:11 am
Good points Granddad. Lopez might just take over Dwight as he continues to develop. He looked alot leaner than last year to me. Definitely a monster no doubt.
Al definitley needs someone to bang in the playoffs. That’s why I keep calling for Randmo & Collins. I doubt a trade will ever be easy for what we need. With our record, drafting will be difficult. To me it looks like we’ll have to farm our own big man. Right now Morris is our man.
Mike is Back
December 14th, 2009
10:19 am
BIG RAY, thanks for the plug on Crashing the Glass article, it was definitely good reading!! Crashing the Glass nice link broooooooooo.
H’mmmmmmmmmmmmm…who was cautioning against writing off RandMo in training camp…and said he might have redemption on his mind like Solo. I wanted the Hawks to develop, RandMo and Siler…we forget how young these guys are. I expected Othella to be rusting after sitting so long…he was still out there trying to play some d.
I have another caution…THIS SHOULD BRING SOME LAUGHS. lol I would caution against the continued scoffing of Collins. BY the second half of the season, Collins will have gain enough conditioning to affect play at Pivot. Don’t forget he is a great P&R guy…Having his playoff experience…size… and six fouls…just might be of some help before the season is over with.
Going down the stretch and come playoff time…his services could very well become a valued asset… just saying…could that have been part of the plan from the start. lol
Woody has the Hawks tied for first place in the SE conference with vaulted Orlando…and ranked third in the Eastern Conference ahead of LBJ…even with Shaq…WTF…NOUGH SAID…GIVE THE MAN HIS PROPS!!!
GO HAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fundamentals
December 14th, 2009
10:24 am
Def agree Mike. Kids we’re griping about are terribly young. I don’t expect much from Othello, but I do like his energy. How bout Randmo diving into the stands after a ball! Who would’ve guessed that one last year? I can’t be more pleased with his efforts this year.
Collins will have alot to bring come playoff time mentally and physically. With a little bit of conditioning he’ll be a tremendous piece in the playoff grind.
I’m always looking for ways for our team to improve each week. Good to see I’m at the end of the bench cause the rest of the boys are playing some of the best ball we’ve seen.
Fundamentals
December 14th, 2009
10:27 am
Woody goes as his boys stick to the program. When they listen, play D and play together we see Woody as COY. When they digress we see “Woody Ball”. I don’t think the issue is as much with Woody as it is with kids that are growing up. Let them all develop. Good things are happening. After this post-season we’ll either look like a team that needs a change or we’ll be atop the national stage. We can only get better as most of our team has 10 years in the tank left.
Daniel
December 14th, 2009
10:34 am
Fundamentals- I couldn’t believ I saw RandMo diving into the stands. That is the exact opposite kind of play that his career has been known for. Too bad, the kid is learning too late in his career.
Mike- God, I hope you are right about Collins, he looks scary bad right now.
Grandad
December 14th, 2009
10:35 am
Fundamentals:
Thanks, and I’m beginning to come around on R.Morris. A Big body to grapple wi. the Dwights and Shaqs. His scoring could also be a plus.
J.Collins is what he is, ‘value meal and supersize it’.
Grandad
December 14th, 2009
10:38 am
Daniel – Great post but *he’s still a kid*!
Mike is Back
December 14th, 2009
11:01 am
Samuel, Ditto on your December 14th, 2009
8:32 am post to DOC… Another point to make is cost…when you look at what it would cost to lure a big name coach…getting a Big name coach is not as cut and dry as some think. Finishing third in the Eastern Conference with the Hawks budget should be more than enough to gain and extension. The talent of the Hawks is young enough to allow the Coach and the Team to continue to grow together as long as they continue to produce.
I have not witness any digression in the Hawks…in fact they are among the Elites in the league…the scaring thing is that they can perform even better as Woody continue to define guys roles.
I’m not taking up Woody’s defense…but I have to acknowledge his work…cuz like I said…I use to be one of his biggest detractors his first three years. However, I always wanted to see the team succeed…so its not a problem to swallow some crow and admit I was being too impatience…I recognize the blood, sweat, and tears Woody had his staff has poured into this team. I believe this team is for reeeeeeeeal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol
The rest will take care of itself.
Mike is Back
December 14th, 2009
11:07 am
Fundamentals, preciated bro…all the credit belongs to the organization, coaches and the players. IT’S NICE TO BE RELEVANT AGAIN. lol
Najeh Davenpoop
December 14th, 2009
11:22 am
Woody seems to be following a similar career path as Doc Rivers. The more talent he gets to work with, the more creative he gets with his schemes and personnel, and the better he appears to be as a coach. I have been critical of him in past years too, and I don’t back down from that criticism, but he has been damn near flawless this year and he deserves our respect. I give him a solid A- so far for this season, and if it hadn’t been for that little lull the Hawks had a couple of weeks ago it would be an A.
doc
December 14th, 2009
11:22 am
i mentioned earlier this year that we were a very deep team to have the number ten or eleven guy be someone like mo evans. realistically that is what he represents when you begin to look at the rotations that woody has come up with. cudos to him to be pro enough to keep his game together to do the job as a fill in like he does. look this team and woody are just now beginning to understand the weapons that they have at their reserve that we as fans have really hoped for earlier in the season in our fantasy worlds that we live in. let us keep the momentum going here against an improved memphis team and the utah jazz always a nemesis.
samuel, agree with your comments. i want woody to be the guy that is here for the long haul like sloan has done at utah rather than win coy awards. continuity is key in organizations of any kind. too many of those awards only mean one year wonders and find those guys out of work two years later for whatever reason like what happened in n.o. this year. my desire is to see this team give a credible run at the three spot, win at least one series and challenge or win a second series and no blowouts as they do it, against them, like it was against cleveland, then see the guy get what he deserves. i dont think he needs to go to the next level quite yet but show consistency like we want of this team. again it is a difficult decision for sund to go with woody as the next contract is for longer term and he has to know what he has and feel comfortable with it or we as fans will suffer if he makes the wrong decision gong forward to find woody has a ceiling, right where he is. no one has a clue right now, only suppositions.
coaches have to live at altitude just like players, kind of like a golfer going low or a guy like kobe or lebron going off to have crazy numbers, to shoot a 59 or score more than 50 respectively. it takes a special personality. it takes a special kind of person to live at that altitude and i hope that woody has it. after one winning season and one series won in the playoffs, i am not just yet ready to give it to him. not a hater but a realist and i think you know what i am talking about since you have been a player and are coaching now.
doc
December 14th, 2009
11:31 am
mike, i was one of the very solo voices called a pollyanna four years ago for suggesting woody had some redeemable features so i am not a hater only stating what the probs are for management as i have stated before and again today. as a fan i want the next contract to be the right one to whoever can continue to take the team higher.
it is a 82 game season, not 24, though the first 24 say, job well done. as teams rise, the coaches can get just as tight under the collar as players can, if you know what i mean. let us see how he handles success or adversity this year before we declare him the second coming. again, the best thing for us and the organization is for him to succeed in what we see happening this year for the whole year and hope it translates into a situation to expect it frequently rather than infrequently.
The Jerk
December 14th, 2009
12:17 pm
I already have Ken’s Wednesday blog written out:
Hey Folks. Going to be an interesting game tonight against Memphis.
Questions:
Who will cover Rudy Gay after his explosion on Sunday night?
Will Woodson use his bench bigs to help out on Randolph and Gasol?
Looking forward to hearing back from you all.
niremetal
December 14th, 2009
12:35 pm
Were you born a poor black child in Mississippi, sittin’ on the porch with your family, singin’ and dancin’?
Mike is back
December 14th, 2009
12:36 pm
DOC, I hear ya bro…agreed. I’m not saying make a decision before season end…just acknowledging the point Samuel made about the Hawks being the third seed, and displaying improved play in the second round…that should be enough to garner an extension.
He is certainly making a strong case early on. They will endure some tough stretches during the season…that is inevitable…however, if they continue play unselfish…they will be hard to beat…that too should also merit consideration for an extension.
niremetal
December 14th, 2009
12:37 pm
And in case you missed the reference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3Vp9fQ616k
Ken Strickland
December 14th, 2009
12:59 pm
It’s one thing to criticize certain players and our HC, right or wrong, but it’s pretty stupid when someone resorts to criticizing a temporary beat writer who took this job on as an added responsibility. THEN AGAIN, THE NAME HE/SHE/IT CHOSE, “THE JERK” DEFINITELY SAYS IT ALL.
Since Teague has gotten meaningful and consistent mins over the last 3gms, I did a little checking to see what he’s been giving us compared to Bibby. TEAGUE/BIBBY-MPG 21.67/20.67, PPG 10.3/7.33, APG 5.67/3, SPG 2/1, TO 1.67/1.33 FGA 22/19, FGM 13/9. When we combine their stats, we end up getting a hell of a lot more overall production at PG than we’ve gotten when we’ve overplayed Bibby and ignored Teague. And when you factor in Teagues superior DEF, especially his on the ball DEF, we don’t have to play so much of that switching DEF that allows teams to score so many inside pts against us and gets our frontline players in early foul trouble.
If we continue playing and Woodson continues coaching the way we have the last 3gms against the better teams, we can take over the East. None of last yrs top 3 Eastern teams can match our speed, quickness, athleticism, versatility and depth.
The Jerk
December 14th, 2009
1:12 pm
The first thing Ken said when he got here was that he isn’t trying to replace Sekou’s shoes.
Why would anyone say that? Are you right then telling us you’re not going to try hard at this temporary add-on job? There’s no difference between these anemic blogs and Joe Blow Big Ray’s blogs in my opinion. Sorry for expressing an opinion. I know it’s forbidden in this country.
doc
December 14th, 2009
1:23 pm
jerk, the problem i have with your comments is you may be or are probably a regular blogger here that feels he cant be upright and state it without cowering behind a different tag. have an opinion but keep it real instead of being a coward. of course ray and ken can easily do the homework to see who it is if they cared enough about your insignificant trivial drival.
The Jerk
December 14th, 2009
2:20 pm
doc, aren’t you like 55?
You’re almost older than my Dad. You should be playing sudoku or on your yacht right now.
Leave me alone.
doc
December 14th, 2009
2:33 pm
heh heh.
Ken Strickland
December 14th, 2009
2:50 pm
THE JERK-I’ll bet DOC did a far better job of raising his kids and stimulating their intellect than your father obvious did with you. I feel a need to apologize to you for launching an attack on your issues with Ken Suguira. When I made that statement, I hadn’t yet realized you were probably too stupid to discuss any basketball issues, so you resorted to something much simpler, and that in itself showed initiative. Good for you, and I have no right to expect anymore from idiots like you.
The Jerk
December 14th, 2009
2:56 pm
Thanks, Ken.
Your evaluation of my behavior on a comment-board filled with a bunch of old has-beens and immature high school kids really is quite accurate. I’ll let my Dad know of your evaluation of him — he will be quite amused.
And thanks so much for filling my screen with your 6 paragraph posts. I am sure it helps you achieve Self-Actualization, knowing that you can post insightful comments about a team on a website like this.
Thanks again for making my day. You are a good man.
Ken Strickland
December 14th, 2009
3:10 pm
THE JERK-You’re very welcome. I’m just glad you can read. And just so you know, I didn’t pass judgement on your Dad, that was adequately done by you and your stupid comments.
Oh, one more thing. Using the term SELF-ACTUALIZATION was really impressive. It’s too bad your youth, inexperience and upbringing has retarded your ability to use your vocabulary to come up with an actual intelligent thought or idea that could be shared with the blog.
Crashing the Glass
December 14th, 2009
3:10 pm
What a joke
December 14th, 2009
9:27 am
Crashing the Glass keeps posting here trying to get people to read his blog not realizing that there’s a reason no one comments on it – its because no one reads it because its terrible. You are no better than the rest of us, fool. Stop pretending you are special enough to deserve your own blog. And Ray, stop trying to pump him up. Your continuing endorsements dont make him look good, it just makes you look bad.
Tell me this, Mr. hiding-behind-a-fake-name- Why is this so important to you? If you don’t like my stuff, don’t click on the links, genius.
Ray is a genuine guy that’s trying to add a little support to an emerging Hawks/NBA blog that he, along with a number of others, enjoy reading. Links are part of the internet- deal with it.
Like this one-
http://crashingtheglass.com/
Ha!
doc
December 14th, 2009
3:28 pm
nice concise stuff ba.
like it that you are covering other areas of the sport not just the hawks. it too is relevant and helps to keep the hawks in the context of the whole. we forget to do that here frequently as folks play out their own agendas to convince someone to agree with them. disagreement is the foundation of discussion, why would folks want it any other way? they would have nothing to talk about.
BA
December 14th, 2009
3:36 pm
Thanks doc- I’m honored that you’ve been reading- funny I thought “no one” read CTG- least of all one of members of Sekou Smith’s original Mt. Rushmore.
Of course the Hawks are my team, but I enjoy writing about other teams as well, for the reasons you said, and it also satifies my OCD tendencies each night after work.
Seems a shame that now, in what has been a golden era for our Hawks, we have to deal with these half-wit cannibloggers. I guess that’s how it goes though.
Big Ump
December 14th, 2009
3:55 pm
Mike is Back
I totally agree, you hit the nail on the head. Been saying that a long time We still winning. So why complain? Just being realistic.
Blast
December 14th, 2009
8:54 pm
Thing I love most about Hawks right now is that they are one of the only teams that have kept the same core together for 5 years or more! As a result, that core has had a chance to grow. From cellar dwellers to possible contenders. Joe, Josh, Marvin, Bibby, Horford, Zaza, and the new additions, Hawks are for real!
Recent statements from Joe indicates to me that he will likely resign with the Hawks. Especially when you read this link below.
An interesting story on Woody’s take here in the ATL. From a Celtics Blog less!
http://www.celticsblog.com/2009/12/7/1189120/should-woodson-get-extension-hawk#26763779
JeJe
December 14th, 2009
9:22 pm
Woodson beat Teague in 1-on-1?
Josh said the Hawks are an offensive team that can add defense to mix (I thought we’re supposed to have a defensive philosophy)?
Horford said it’s all about effort for RandMo?
Interesting stuff
Ken Strickland
December 14th, 2009
10:28 pm
After the next 2 home gms, we’ll embark on a 4gm roadtrip and play 8 of the next 12 gms on the road, which includes consecutive back to backs, 4 in all during that stretch. This stretch of gms will be a very good test for the Hawks. If we keep coaching and playing at our current level, we’ll come out on top.
With Teague responding so positively to the increased consistency and mins over the last 3gms, I’m beginning to wonder what’s going on with Woodson and Teague of late. According to reports, Woodson is really putting in extra time and effort with Teague, and it’s certainly paying off, and I’m loving it.
doc
December 14th, 2009
10:45 pm
a virus just invaded ken’s computer and commandeered its content. not to worry the real ken will survive.
heh heh
Grandad
December 14th, 2009
11:10 pm
Mr. Jerk:
It’s interesting that you, being a learned man, invoked Dr. Maslow’s
concept. Obviously you have already acheived self-actualization therefore you feel the need point out what is phony, you’re both spontaneous and creative, plus you are not bound by social convention.
As most of us have advanced beyond the physiological stage of our
“Hierarchy of Needs”, then where on the pyramid do the rest of us belong? Myself and I suspect most on this board have at least risen to the esteem level. As far as Ken Suguira is concerned; if you do not enjoy this blog, then farewell. If you wish to have an intellectual debate, I don’t care to waste my time with you. If you desire a discussion of psychology [self-actualization] with someone, then please go find a blog that suits your fancy.
Ken Strickland
December 15th, 2009
2:04 am
GRANDAD-AMEN!!
DOC-you need to leave me alone, old timer, hee, hee. I’m serious, which is why I did that comparison with Bibby and Teague. Teague has outperformed Bibby with both of them having played about the same mins over the last 3gms. I honestly find it hard to believe Woodson would actually push Teague the way he has because he will make it hard for him to keep Bibby in the starting lineup.
Unlike some of our fans, I don’t care WHO coaches the Hawks, but rather HOW they’re coached. Even though he’s out of shape, rusty and some of you have enjoyed making fun of JCollins and his size, he’s demonstrated over his last 2 limited opportunities that he still knows how to play the position. When we have blowouts, we should consider inserting both players in the gm at least midway through the 4th qtr, instead of waiting until the last couple of mins. We need to start thinking right now about getting Collins ready to pound with Shaq when we have that back to back with the Cavaliers.
doc
December 15th, 2009
3:29 am
see i told you so …
just playing ken.
The Jerk
December 15th, 2009
10:12 am
Grandad,
Thanks for your kind words. I appreciate you implying I am having a psychological debate, when, in fact, I was just making an offhand remark about Ken Strickland’s yearning desire to run this board.
My affinity with psychology is pretty average, as I do not study the topic. However, since you imply I am some self-proclaimed psychological guru, I’ll take that as a compliment too.
Best,
The Jerk
Ken Strickland
December 15th, 2009
11:25 am
THE JERK-If your idea of wanting to run this board is being an active participant in discussions about the Atlanta Hawks and their future, that shares and receives info, asks questions, poses different senarios, offers and defends his opinions and often offering challenges to the opinions of others, RATHER THAN BEING FOCUSED ON COMPLAINING ABOUT SOMETHING AS TRIVIAL AS NOT BEING SPOON FED INFO BY KEN SUGIURA, then I guess you can accuse several of us regulars of wanting the same thing.
A word of advice. If KenS doesn’t provide you with enough of what you want, try using the internet and doing a little research on your own, like a lot of us do. That way, you’ll find KenS will become far less of an issue for you. Just show some initiative. You’ve certainly demonstrated you have the intellectual cacacity to raise your BB IQ through individual research.
Even though I frequently jump down the throats of TRUTH SERUM, ROD FROM CP, along with their numerous alter ego’s, and SAMUEL, I recognize they still manage to render some well thoughtout and insightful comments. Your contributions seem to focus almost exclusively on a side issue that you can remedy with a little effort and initiative. COMEON, GET WITH THE GROUP AND START USING YOUR OBVIOUS ABILITIES TO BE A PART OF THE ATLANTA HAWK DISCUSSION.
jerrywest
December 15th, 2009
11:51 am
http://www.peachtreehoops.com has a great article up on Horford.
The Jerk
December 15th, 2009
2:38 pm
Ken Strickland,
My frustration with Ken is not due to my laziness or unwillingness to research this team. I spend 3 hours a day checking and re-checking sites like RealGM etc.
My frustration is due to the fact that HE is the closest to the Hawks out of any writer. HE is the one who is with the team and talks to the players. So why should we suffer with these paltry pregame blogs which ask questions and make comments about the most obvious stuff —> “How to guard Brook?”
Anyway, the Hawks have been winning. Tough stretch coming up, but if we keep winning, who cares? If Hawks win the next 50 games, you can all say anything you want to me and I won’t c are.
Ken Strickland
December 15th, 2009
3:19 pm
JERRYWEST-thanks for sharing that excellent article on Horford. This article reinforces what I said in an earlier comment about him being classified as a very talented and versatile athlete, rather than a so called NATURAL PF or UNDERSIZED C.
Has anyone else noticed something very unique and exciting about the current Hawks and how we’re responding to them? In the past Woodson and most fans have made issues of our benchs’ lack of talent, depth and experience. Well, things have certainly changed now. When was the last time we were able, or even willing, to talk about, have confidence in or make such an issue of the talent and performance of bench players 9 thru 12?
Unless you’re still blinded by reality, and/or personal agendas, we’re all starting to see what we deprived ourselves of by limiting the rotation to 7-8 players. If Woodson had been willing to assume the responsibility of managing player’s mins earlier, we likely could have gotten this kind of bench production earlier as well.
Fortunately, Woodson seems to have started seeing the wisdom and benefit of taking on the previously rejected responsibility of managing players mins and spreading the wealth by extending his rotation, at least for now.
I’ve acknowledged Woodson when he does a good job of coaching, and I’ve made him an issue when he hasn’t measured up. However, when we’re winning, some of his supporters like to give him all of the credit. But when we start playing poorly and losing, they suddenly become DEAF, DUMB AND BLIND and have little to nothing to say, other than to start blaming certain players.
HOW CAN ANYONE MAKE THEMSELVES BELIEVE WOODSON HAS SO MUCH CONTROL AND IMPACT ON THE TEAM WHEN THE PLAYERS AND TEAM ARE PLAYING WELL AND WINNING, YET SUDDENLY BELIEVE HE HAS ABSOLUTELY NO CONTROL, IMPACT OR BLAME WHEN THE PLAYERS AND TEAM START PLAYING POORLY AND LOSING?
Let’s hope that both Woodson and the team continue to do as well as they’ve been doing lately.
BA
December 15th, 2009
3:34 pm
Ken Strickland is the man. I like reading his posts. Somebody needs to take their personal shortcomings and deal with them somewhere ohter than a damn Hawks blog.
Don’t hate on Strickland and the long posts. A long post is far preferable to some fake-name, non basketball gutless sniping.
Maybe spend three hours a day to figure out what your own problem is, instead of referencing obscure websites. Strickland is just a well written guy with a penchant for production, not your mean dad.
Ken Strickland
December 15th, 2009
3:36 pm
THE JERK-I understand, but you’re assuming he’s the closet to the team. You have to understand that although he’s currently the Atlanta Hawks beat writer, unlike Sekou Smith, it’s not his only responsibility or his primary responsibility. It takes a lot of time and effort to line up players, coaches and execs for interviews. It takes additional time, effort and research to monitor blogs, write articles, as well as accumulate and present information to these blogs. Sekou did the same things, but he did it as his primary responsibility, without having the additional burden of another job.
Under the circumstances, I think KenS has done a very good job, and it’s been appreciated and acknowledged by the overwhelming majority of the bloggers. Consider this. You’re obviously annoyed with me for ASSUMING certain things about you and making certain judgements based on those uninformed assumptions, right. Well, please stop and consider that you’re doing the same thing with KenS. COME ON, LET’S TALK ATLANTA HAWKS BASKETBALL!
Grandad
December 15th, 2009
7:50 pm
Mr. Jerk:
My apologies sir.
Self-Actualization, being a theory brought forth by Dr. Abraham Maslow,
[psychologist], led me to believe you were either an amateur or a professional practitioner of psychology.
My only concern was to defend Mr Suguira. Someone on this board said it best, after Sekou left: “Ken Suguira just happened to draw the short straw for this assignment.”
I do not want to enter any debate between yourself and K.Srickland, except, censorship on this board by a blogger [you in this case]
would give me pause.
Big Ump
December 15th, 2009
8:49 pm
Seem like some blogger have a stinking way of thinking that what they say is true. WHY IS IT WHEN THE THE HAWKS LOSE THEY GO BERSEK AND BLAME CERTAIN PLAYER AND THE HC, BUT DISAPPEAR WHEN THEY PLAY WELL. OR POST A 1 LINER ABOUT THEY PLAY GREAT ALL BECAUSE THE TEAM PLAYED THE WAY THAT THEY BEEN TALKING ABOUT. I’M SURE THE TEAM OR HC DON’T TAKE THEIR ADVICE HOW TO PLAYED THE GAME. BECAUSE IF THAT WAS TRUE WE WILL BE STILL LOOKING FOR OUR FIRST WIN THIS YEAR. AGAIN YOU CAN SPIN IT ANYWAY YOU WANT BUT THE THE HAWKS WIN AS A TEAM AND LOSE AS A TEAM. THEY ALL IN IT TOGETHER NO MATTER WHA A CERTAIN BLOGGER TRY TO MAKE YOU THINK OR REVERSE WHAT OTHER SMART BLOGGER BEEN TELLING HIM ALL SEASONS.
northcyde
December 15th, 2009
8:53 pm
This blog is too funny.
Because if we’d followed the “let’s play everybody in the 10-man rotation at least 12 – 15 minutes” theory, we’d be a 12 – 11 ballclub right now. And I say that because that 2nd unit was NOT ready to play with each other at the beginning of the year. LOL . . I guess people forget opening night, in which the 2nd unit got DESTROYED by Dahntay Jones of all people.
Like Woody said from the juimp . . . . (paraphrasing) “I’m not sacrificing wins, just to play guys the minutes they think they deserve”. And I agree with that completely.
If we were a 12 – 11 ballclub, this blog would be rallying up the troops, conducting Tea Party-like rallys outside the CNN Center, chanting . . FIRE WOODY ( clap . . clap . . clap, clap, clap ) FIRE WOODY ( clap . . clap . . clap, clap, clap ).
There would be no talk of . . “Hey, we’re 12 – 11, but let’s wait until the All-Star break to evaulate this team and Woody.” Or . . . “let’s see how we perform in the playoffs as the 4th seed with a 48 – 34 record, before we pass final judgement on Woody.
LOL . . no way. You’d have fans at Philips doing the tomahawk chop and the war chant ( both of which Braves fans flat out stole from Florida St. ), talking bout . . . . OOOOOOOO-O-O-OOOOOOO . . . . FIIIIIRE . . . THE . . . CO-OOOOOACH.
The “Woody supporters” on this blog have to be extra praiseful of Woody when times are going good, because we know how it goes down every time they lose a game. They players get no blame. It’s all on the coach . . . like he has an XBOX 360 controller in his hand, controlling every move of every player.
So forgive the “Woody Supporters” from being a little happy these days. People have been expecting Woody to win the Daytona 500 . . driving in a Volkswagon Beetle, for years. Now that he has a real car to run the race in, he’s showing that he can be a good driver.
Keep driving your butt off Woody. We got your back!
MAD-DONNA
December 15th, 2009
9:15 pm
northcyde, you have got to be kidding! I might support Woodson if he had more control of Josh Smith! I mean, how many GOOD coaches would tolerate him playing point-forward? And, can we learn some designed plays to run in the half-court game?
Big Ump
December 15th, 2009
9:55 pm
Northcyde
You right on point with your latest post. We 17 and 6 and they still complaining and saying that the only reason we winning is bacause the team is playing like what they had been preaching about. I’m like you I don’t want to guess what this blog would be like is we were 12-11.
Grandad
December 16th, 2009
12:00 am
TS: [and your other selves]
I was most gracious to mr.w. recently. It’s also untrue that those of us who are perpetually negative toward him, never criticize the players.
I personally have been critical of Joe Johnson. While others have pointed out Bibby’s shortcomings.
Many of your cronies constantly grumble about Marv. You and your other aliases carp on Big Al and Teager incessantly.
My point being: quote “The Hawks win as a team, lose as a team, we in it together”: ‘Big Ump’ 8:49 PM.
Therefore you (and your special friends) should be no more critical of
any one player than myself or others are of mr.w.
*On the other hand, I will always attempt to be open minded and continue to call ‘em as I see ‘em.
vava74
December 16th, 2009
6:27 am
Ken,
I agree with the bulk of your criticism of Woody, however, I feel that you overplay your hand when you do it.
You state that it is Woody that commands a slow pace and that he is guilty of not making this team run more. You call this “Woodyball”.
Well, there are two ways of running: a sustained way, starting with good defense and the domination of the defensive boards and a non sustained way, which could be seen as GS and NY currently play.
The Hawks players themselves admitted after a few losses that they got hammered by Woody for not playing good defense (by mainly being lazy on the switching defense) and after those “lectures” we bounced back with some very good wins.
I think that this illustrates that Woody likes when the Hawks play up tempo and wants them to do so, however, he rightly thinks that that can only work when running comes out of good defense.
So, when we don’t get the stops nor the defensive rebounds, its is only natural (and not an option) that we do not play a faster paced bball.
Where I do believe you are right is that when we cannot run, our offense is limited and Woody takes too much time (or fails) to make adjustments.
The above, however, does not overrule a simple fact: it is not always Woody’s fault when we do not defend well, our switching defense fails and we cannot run. Many times this comes as a consequence of poor effort/bad days by the players.
Finally, given our current record, it is impossible to conclude that Woody is not doing a good job so far.
Yes, he is far from perfect, however, there are other teams out there who have similar or better rosters on paper and that are clearly achieving less success than us.
Ken Strickland
December 16th, 2009
10:34 am
VALVA74-I recognize Woodson does allow the team to run, use more than a 7-8 man rotation and do most of the things I complain about. My major complaint is he hasn’t yet committed to allowing them to do it consistently. When we’re playing well and on a winning streak, we’re always using an extended rotation and playing fastbreak, attacking the basket style of basketball. When we hit a lull and start losing, we’re always playing halfcourt, perimeter jumpshooting, ISO basketball.
The switch from one approach to the other seems to always happen when we play a quality team and lose. You’re correct when you say Woodson has gotten on his players for not playing good solid DEF, but can you say that he’s done that when they suddenly reverting to playing WOODY BALL? When JJ, Bibby or Crawford start playing ISO ball and excluding teammates, which one can you say Woodson always ends up doing?
(1) Call a timeout, or take the culprit out of the gm, to correct their behavior and make them go back to sharing the ball and playing uptempo. or
(2) Shorten the rotation, play each culprit extended mins while standing on the sidelines with arms folded and allowing it to continue, often for gms at a time.
When this happens, can you honestly say they’re not doing what Woodson wants. Like he’s so fond of saying, IF I DON’T GET WHAT I WANT FROM A PLAYER, I’LL GO ELSEWHERE TO GET IT. He definitely understands what’s best overall for the team and has done some good things that’s been very beneficial. My biggest complaint with him is his lack of consistency in those areas, as well as a lack of committment to a definitive style of play.
Right now we’re running, fastbreaking, sharing the ball, attacking the basket, playing mostly staight man to man DEF and feasting on the weaker teams. The problem is, will we continue playing this way when we encounter Cleveland in those back to backs. What are the odds we end up going from effectively using a 9-10 man rotation to a 7-8 man rotation, even on back to backs.
When we play Cleveland, what are the odds that Teague, who does everything uptempo, gets no more than token mins because Woody knows Bibby is more comfortable when the OFF is slower and perimeter oriented. Now, Woodson could do a 180 and prove me completely wrong for the upcoming series with Cleveland, AND GOD I CERTAINLY HOPE SO.
Nothing would please me more than if Woodson would commit to making this team establish themselves as an uptempo, fastbreaking, attacking the basket team that gets after you on DEF and consistently uses it’s deep, athletic, versatile and experienced bench to wear teams down.
Isn’t it obvious that Sund is looking for more than just annual increases in wins or playoff appearances. He’s looking for improvement and growth from Woodson as well as the team, along with trying to determining the degree of influence he’s had of the growth of the team and its players. He knows Woodson can oversee and direct a winning team, he’s already adequately proven that. I believe Sunds higher expectations for the team, and accessment of its overall talent and abilities, makes him more concerned with finding out if Woodson can coach and direct a potential championship calibur team to the next level. As good as we’ve been so far this yr, we can become so much better through player development, improvement and utilization of that talent and development, without adding a single player. BOTTOMLINE, SUND WANTS TO DETERMINE IF WOODSON IS CONTRIBUTING SIGNIFICANTLY TO THE TEAMS SUCCESS, OR IF THE TEAM IS BASICALLY CARRYING HIM.
And this idea that Sund will be forced to extend his contract if the Hawks have a successful season is bull. After all, haven’t we been pretty successful since Bibby’s arrival and Sund hasn’t felt pressured to make a committment. What he wants to find out about Woodson will require the entire season to determine. Personally, I hope Woodson proves he’s more than capable and leads the Hawks to a first ever conference title appearance, at the very least. In the end, for me, it’s about the team, not the HC, unless the HC hinders the team.
truly1
December 16th, 2009
11:47 am
I echoe you Ken strickland I want to see HC woody when times get a little tougher on the starters does he go back to starters playing extended minutes. It is easy to play your bench now when your playing newjersey. Sometimes your bench can keep you in the game when your starters arent playing so well. And some games you are going to lose anyway so why play your starters so many minutes. I wonder if woody has learned these things yet. We will find out.
KevinA
December 16th, 2009
11:59 am
Ken Strickland,
Should Sund and Woody be judged according dollars spent? Like 10-24 million extra? Shouldn’t every 10 million of extra pay roll be worth 6 games? Kobe, Gasal, Bynun, Odom, and Artest = 65 million. That equals our pay roll.
Big Ump
December 16th, 2009
1:00 pm
Grandad.
On your post at 12:00 am talking about blogger being critical of players. That’s true with others bloggers including you. But I challenge you to find anything I ever said by a player in the year and a half I been posting. I wasn’t going to address this, but I knowed if I let it pass then you probably add something else I had never said before. Granddad I’m always a team man not like others. So when you accuse someone, please make sure you have your facts right. On call’em
like you see them it look like you just call’em what you thought you saw or what you want to see. Grandad have a good day and holiday.