Hawks Squawks: Hawks 94, Pacers 84
– This one was looking like Philly all over again early. The Pacers got any perimeter shots they wanted while making 6 of 9 3-pointers in the first quarter. Brandon Rush was lighting up J.J. for 4 of 4 3s. The Pacers scored 31 points.
– Tweeted Hawksdawgs of Peachtree Hoops: “The Hawks have closed out on a shooter one time so far, and Mo Evans fouled Troy Murphy for a three point play on that possession.”
– Enter Jamal Crawford. He scored 10 points during the 12-3 run that energized the Hawks. “Now that’s what my team expects of me,” he said. “If I’m not doing that I am kind of throwing everyone else out of wack.”
– It wasn’t just Jamal, it was all the bench guys. Zaza, the Rook’, Mo and Joe Smith all had a hand in limiting the Pacers to 7 of 20 shooting in the second quarter. Shoot, Teague even got up to bloc Danny Granger’s shot on a fastbreak.
– “Our second unit came in and really picked up our defense up and got us going,” Woody said. “I thought that was the difference in the game.”
– Lately it seems Woody is more willing to let the bench guys play, particularly if the starters are going to be so nonchalant about things. The reserves have earned that trust. If the Hawks lose with the reserves playing big minutes but giving big effort, so be it. Better that than to watch the starters just kind of be out there.
– After scoring 31 points on 12 of 21 shooting in the first quarter, the Pacers scored 52 with 21 of 60 over the final three quarters. Yeah, they had a few shots rim out but the Hawks were much more disruptive and cleaned the boards to limit second chances.
– Horford went to work in the third quarter: 12 points, eight rebounds, 6 of 8 shooting. He finished with 18 and 12 for his eight straight double-double. His counterpart, massive Roy Hibbert, couldn’t stay in front of him on defense and wasn’t much of a factor on offense.
– “He’s been consistent from Day One he stepped foot in Atlanta and put on a Hawks uniform,” Woody said of Al. “He’s been fantastic. He’s been on a nice roll here of late by getting the doubles-doubles and we are going to need him to continue to do that.”
– That will be easier to do if the Hawks limit those stretches where they seem to forget about Al. Not so today, when the shot distribution looked nice: 18 for Josh, 14 for Al, 13 for J.J. and 15 for Jamal.
– Smoove helped close out the Pacers with 11 of his 20 points in the fourth. He also had 13 rebounds, two assists and a steal.
– In three games against the Pacers, he’s averaging 20 points and Horford is averaging 25.6. ““We have struggled with them all season,” Pacers coach Jim O’Brien said.
– It had to be encouraging for Woody to highlight a guy on the scouting report and then see the Hawks go out and do a number on him. Granger had dropped 30 or more points in four straight games, including 44 against Utah on Friday. He got just 18 points on 7 of 19 shooting against the Hawks.
– Granger and Brandon Rush credited the Hawks’ switches off screens. Unlike the Sixers, Indiana doesn’t have the combination of size and athleticism to exploit favorable matchups.
–There weren’t many opportunities for Granger to step around a screen and get to the basket or pull up for a jumper. “Atlanta always gives you problems because they switch every ball screen,” Granger said. “We just really didn’t take advantage of the switches like we should have tonight.”
– “Their switching on defense really gave us problems today, which really took us out of our rhythm to make any shots,” Rush said.
– Things got a bit dicey after Woody started pulling starters with a 90-75 lead. I thought he might put guys back in after A.J. Price hit that 3-pointer to cut the lead to 91-84.
– Mo and Mario both had nice hustle plays.
– With nine games to go the Hawks matched their victory total from last season. They didn’t make a big deal about it.
– That’s also eight straight home Ws. They are 30-7 at Philips with five home games to go.
– The Hawks are off Monday but Smoove is scheduled to “work” a shift at Champs Sports at Lenox Square Mall on Monday from 3 to 4 p.m. Smith is to work the cash register and be a personal shopper for select fans. The store also will be giveaway items signed by Smith.
– I’m out, Hawks fans.
MC
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68 comments Add your comment
Lacsho
March 29th, 2010
3:06 pm
Ray, I always wondered if Marvin didn’t start in college, why would you start him over a 4 year college player like Chills?
SMH Woodrow Please!!!!!
Ken Strickland
March 29th, 2010
3:13 pm
MARCUS-The biggest weakness for the Hawks is HC Mike Woodson, and no draft pick can correct that. In fact, with Woodson as our HC, there’s very little chance that a draft pick will even be given a chance to resolve any of our problems. Now, playing MBibby more than 15 to 20MPG and limiting JTeague to less than 10MPG is the next biggest problem. Getting rid of Woodson is the only way to resolve either problem.
Remember, there are only 3 draft picks(Smoove, Marvin and Horford) remaining on the roster from Woodson’s previous 5 drafts, which has included numerous lottery and high 1st and 2nd rd picks. He’s done a lousy job of developing and retaining draft picks over the last 5yrs, especially backcourt players, and has done a lousy job of developing and utilizing this yrs 1st rd pick, PG JTeague.
cp
March 29th, 2010
3:13 pm
Great post Ray. With guys like Durant and Beasley you watched the at times in college and said wow he is going to be special or wow that kid is going to be a problem once he reaches the NBA. With Marvin I never said any of that while watching him at UNC. I thought he was a young average player on a loaded team. As far as management goes I think they are going to give him at least another year. They might feel that he is pressuring himself because of the deal. I doubt he has much trade value but I would love for us to bring in a guy like Travis Outlaw to battle Marvin for the starting spot. He needs some competition or something to light a fire under him. The problem with that is will Woodson start Outlaw if he is outplaying Marv. There were times I felt like Chills should have been starting and Marv should have been the one coming off the bench………..Grandad that has been one of the main issues I have had with Woodson as a coach and its his lack of adjusting and trying new things. Rarely will he try another method to a problem. I like your ideas for Marvin but we have a coach who is known for trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Sometimes its as if Woodson has a set plan for something and he will not detour away from it regardless of whats the outcome.
northcyde
March 29th, 2010
3:27 pm
By the way . . . paid attendance at Indiana game
Sunday afternoon game . . no traffic . . 3:30 start
16,646
Actually higher than what I thought it would be. Still not a sell out, and I don’t know what the actual attendance was . . . but 16,000 for Indiana is good.
30th home win for the Hawks. Good job guys. Keep it rolling.
GeeMack
March 29th, 2010
3:35 pm
Hawks fans that are disatisfied with Woody.
What type coach would you like to see come in here?
Also what results would you expect from a new coach with the same roster?
I agree with most of you that Teague should get more burn, and the swithching defense should be adjusted to fight to force our guard to fight over picks. However I don’t think a coach that’s improved each year in wins and loses should fired at the end of the season.
northcyde
March 29th, 2010
3:39 pm
Woody made the right call in starting Marvin over Childress, and I tell you why. Our bench back in those days were SORRY. Chill provided that needed spark off the bench, much like what Crawford does now.
If Marvin was put in that same situation, could he provide that spark? And don’t just say YES just to be saying it. Think it out.
- Marvin isn’t good at creating his own shot, but he can draw fouls and get to the line on occasion
- Marvin is nowhere near the hustle player that Chill was, so his impact on the middle part of a game would be less than what Chill gave.
- At that time, Marvin was a MUCH BETTER outside shooter than Childress. This was one reason why JJ was able to average 5+ assist as a Hawk in his first 4 years here.
But while Marvin may have started games, it didn’t necessarily mean that he would finish games. Chill finished a lot of games for us, while Marvin was cheerleading on the bench. Woody would routinely go with the guy who was playing the best down the stretch, and go with him at SF.
It’s the same situation you see now with Bibby, Marvin, and Crawford. Whichever of the 2 is playing the best down the stretch, Woody will go with those 2 on most occasions.
VenomSpitter
March 29th, 2010
4:22 pm
I wouldn’t even allow Marvin to be my garbageman.
Grandad
March 29th, 2010
4:31 pm
GeeMack:
Responding to your question.
The more I watch Izzo, the more I think he would be the kind
of college coach who could run a pro team. He sure as heck can
coach in March. We made a run @ him a few yrs. back, maybe now
the time is right to try again.
Najeh Davenpoop
March 29th, 2010
4:32 pm
Wishing for Marvin to live up to his draft status is pointless. He’s been in the league for five years and has shown no sign of being able to do so, and the best thing for us to do is move on from those expectations.
I’ll admit, when Marvin was drafted I gave him the benefit of the doubt big time — in fact, I remember comparing the Marvin over CP3 pick to the Timberwolves choosing young, raw, talented forward Kevin Garnett over the more accomplished, undersized PG Damon Stoudamire in 1995, and mentioning how Stoudamire took the league by storm when he started while KG ended up being the better player. Not saying I expected Marvin to be KG, but I definitely thought he would go a lot farther towards justifying his draft status than he has. I thought he could be a more athletic Antawn Jamison. Obviously, he’s come nowhere close.
Of course, knowing Billy Knight’s affinity for shapely rear ends, it’s not too surprising he was, uh, attracted to Marvin during that draft.
Right now, the Hawks’ coaching staff needs to accept the reality that Marvin is basically untradeable with his contract, and develop his 3-point shooting and man-to-man defense so that he can be the role player the Hawks need at the small forward position. Bringing in someone to challenge him this offseason is fine, but the chances of bringing in someone who is a significant upgrade and is also affordable are not too great.
O'Brien
March 29th, 2010
4:39 pm
northcyde,
Crawford has said it doesnt matter who starts. It’s all about minutes played, and who is in the end the game at the end. So I agree with both you and him.
Starting Marvin is ok, because Chills got regular minutes, and was usually in the game at the end (instead of Marvin). The thing that bothers me about that, is how does Sund offer Marvin 5 year, $37.5 mil, but yet (according to Chills), Sund told Chills to go out and find an offer. I wish Sund had told that to Marvin, because nobody was offering Marvin a starting position at that salary.
Najeh,
I am over the fact that Marvin was drafted #2. What bothers me is the contract we gave him.
Ken S,
“Remember, there are only 3 draft picks(Smoove, Marvin and Horford) remaining on the roster from Woodson’s previous 5 drafts, which has included numerous lottery and high 1st and 2nd rd picks.” Ken S.
Although I have been very critical of Woody, BK deserves the blame for some of the players he gave Woody to work with.
cp,
“As far as management goes I think they are going to give him at least another year. They might feel that he is pressuring himself because of the deal.”
Does it look like Marvin is putting pressure on himself out there? If he was pressuring himself, there would be more aggressiveness. He would take more shots. He would show more passion on the court. It looks to me like he drifts in and out of games, and is content just to help out in whatever way he can (he is a good cheerleader on the bench).
I remember reading/hearing that Marvin was out of shape for the Hawks workout. And I also remember reading/hearing that Chris Paul had a good workout with us. Ouch. It hurts typing that.
Vava,
“Well, there is nothing we can do and if we forget that he went #2, we can at least accept him as being a serviceable rotation player. Maybe next year he will get better.”
The problem is, I don’t think you should pay a serviceable rotation player $7.5 mil annually.
northcyde
March 29th, 2010
4:56 pm
Marcus, when you talk about guys who may be available at the spot we’d pick in, 2 guys stand out in my mind.
Jarvis Varnado – Mississippi St.
Wayne Chism – Tennessee
Popular to contrary belief, switching coaches isn’t the major thing lacking in this team. It’s quality depth overall that’s lacking . . especially in the frontcourt.
So instead of doing like we did last year, and passing on a good frontcourt player like Dejuan Blair, we must take the best available frontcourt guy left on the board. And depending on what you want, Varnado or Chism should be the guy.
Varnado is the defensive PF that a team like us could desperately use on that 2nd unit. I could easily see him having a “Birdman” Chris Anderson effect ( who plays for Denver ) on that 2nd unit. Joe Smith will be gone at the end of the year, and we’ll need a PF anyway. Varnado is the all time shot blocker in NCAA history. He’s a better shot blocker than Smoove.
What may make him avaliable to us is the fact that he’s only like 210 pounds ( very thin for the NBA ) and he is limited offensively. But he’s the type of athlete that could fourish in Woody’s defensive system because he’ll be able to swich on perimeter players and get back inside to block shots. Varnado and Smoove would make life difficult for opponents in defense.
**********
If you want the all-arouind talent, Chism is your guy. Offensively, he’s more versatile than Varnado because of his ability to score in the post, and also his ability to shoot the ball from the outside ( up to 23 feet ).
Chism isn’t going to WOW people with his athleticism, but he has a high basketball IQ ans has skills to match. And like Varnado, he’ll have no problem employing Woody’s defensive system, because Tennessee runs a similar style of defense that the Hawks run. The exception with the Vols, is that they have enough sense to switch back if the guy with the ball isn’t looking to score.
*******
So at that backup PF position, I’m looking for a guy that can give us 10 . . possibly 15 good minutes a game from that spot, without having to need the ball to be effective.
Varnado is the #1 choice . . . Chism #2.
GermanShepperd
March 29th, 2010
5:13 pm
How about that Zsa Zsa Pachulia? He had an awesome game against the Pacers. When he comes in and plays with passion, he become another lethal weapon on the Hawks BIGS. Pachulia is a student of the game because in the pacers game he made two shots that reminded me of two of the all-time games. Pachulia on one sequence ran through the paint and threw up a sky hook like Kareem Abdul Jabaar. On another sequence he ran the fastbreak and threw a behind-the-back pass to Josh Smith exactly the same as Pistol Pete Maravich. Pachula seems to have a brilliant array of replications of many of the all-time greats. Its amazing what this superb supersub hawk has pulled out of his magic bag of tricks. The Magic Man strikes again!
The Truth
March 29th, 2010
6:32 pm
The Hawks checkered trade and draft past:
In 1993, The Hawks traded Dominique Wilkins, who remains the franchise all-time leading scorer, for Danny Manning, who quickly left via free agency to Phoenix after the season ended.
In 1999, the Hawks traded Steve Smith who had recently been awarded the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award for his charitable endeavors to Portland for (pot smoking) Isaiah Rider and Jim Jackson. When Rider showed up late for a March game, the Hawks released him. The Hawks later traded Jackson away the following season.
In 2001, the Hawks drafted Spanish star Pau Gasol 3rd , but his rights were ceded to the Memphis Grizzlies in a trade involving Shareef Abdur-Rahim. In 2008 Gasol was traded to the Lakers. He was the second best Lakers in points (16.9), rebounds (9.3) and assists per game (4.0). He also led the team in blocks per game (1.90) and was tied with Lamar Odom with the most postseason double-doubles. Gasol then won his first NBA championship ring when the Lakers defeated the Orlando Magic in the 2009 NBA Finals.
In 2004 the Hawks traded Jason Terry (their 1st round pick), Alan Henderson, and a future 1st round pick to the Mavericks for Antoine Walker, and Tony Delk. In 2006, Terry helped his team advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history
In February 2004, the Hawks had the distinction of having NBA All-Star Rasheed Wallace play one game for the team. Wallace was traded from Portland to the Hawks along with Wesley Person for Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Theo Ratliff, and Dan Dickau.
In the 2006 Draft, the Hawks selected former Duke Star Shelden Williams with the fifth overall pick (enough said).
In 2010 Hawks fans are still stuck over the second pick in the 2005 NBA Draft, the Atlanta Hawks selected Marvin Williams of the University of North Carolina.
As you can see, this is certainly not the only anomaly of this franchise. Put in its proper prospective, the Marvin pick should rank small compared to some of other Hawk deals from the franchise past. You can certainly find more trades and draft-picks to whine about then Marvin.
JeJe
March 29th, 2010
6:49 pm
“The problem I had with drafting Marvin other than thinking he wasn’t even better than Jawad Williams, the guy who started over him was the fact that he wasn’t even in shape during the workouts. It was reported how he couldn’t even finish one workout because he was so out of shape. That told me then that maybe he did not have the worth ethic or didn’t care enough because all the experts had him going high anyway.. I watched a lot of North Carolina games that year and I always felt like Jawad was way better than Marvin. I never understood the hype.”
Nothing has changed. Watch Marvin’s interviews — listen to the rumors –> The guy does not want to be a star in this league. He is content with being average. He has no fire in his personality/game –> He doesn’t want the ball down the stretch. He doesn’t want plays run for him. He’s frail/awkward. He is not strong…He’s not a good defender.
he is the worst starting SF in the NBA, and Bibby is probably a bottom 5 starting PG
Blast
March 29th, 2010
7:23 pm
Y’all notice that the starters seems to switch more than when 5 bench players are in the game? Because of Bibby? I noticed last game in one possession, Mike did well to fight and stay with his man, but on that same play, Mike switched and ended up guarding Indiana’s center.
Hawks just have to know when to switch and when to stay with their man, no matter how hard it is.
Ken Strickland
March 29th, 2010
11:15 pm
OBRIEN-in a couple of instances, BK drafted a certain player because Woody didn’t want the player(S) he wanted to draft. BK wanted to run an uptempo fastbreaking style of OFF and drafted bigs capable of playing that style, and he wanted a PG that was capable of running that style. Woody wanted a slower halfcourt perimeter style of OFF and wanted a veteran PG to run his preferred style of OFF.
It was Woodson who didn’t want any part of CP3 or DWilliams, and publically stated his doubts about their ability to be successful at this level. That forced BK to draft someone else. I think BK got fed up and drafted ALaw, against Woodson’s wishes, and Woody took his dissatisfaction out on Acie, which likely contributed to the rift between Woodson and BK. In the end BK relented and traded for MBibby, which was what Woody wanted all along.
Woodson will play any veteran PG into the ground, like AJohnson, TLue and Bibby, no matter what, but make one excuse after another for not playing or developing younger PG’s. If the younger PG’s play excellent DEF, but aren’t excellent outside shooters, like ALaw and JTeague, he uses their limited shooting ability as his excuse. If the younger PG can shoot, but doesn’t play good DEF, like SStaudemire, he uses that as his excuse. But, if it’s a veteran PG, it doesn’t matter whether they can or can’t shoot or play DEF, he’ll play them into the ground regardless. STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES.
GEEMACK-virtually all Hawk fans, that aren’t WOODY LOVERS, are way past the days when our major goal was to increase the previous yrs win total. Our major concern now is to increase or win total and accomplishments in the playoffs. We were elated when we 1st made the playoffs, with a losing record, and took the Celtics to 7gms in a 1st rd playoff loss. We were also elated last yr when we earned the 4th seed and squeezed past the Heat in a 1st rd series, only to get embarrassed in the 2nd rd sweep.
We can’t keep using the past as an excuse for holding on to a HC that hasn’t progressed enough to help the team get to the next level. Or, doesn’t think fast enough and often enough to recognize the need to make adjustments and changes, notice when something isn’t working, or effectively and consistently utilizing the talents of certain players on his bench.
The question that needs to be asked now is, can Woodson make the adjustments, changes, and employ the strategy that will surely be needed during the playoffs? He certainly hasn’t demonstrated that ability during the last 72 gms of the regular season. WOODY LOVERS have to get it through your heads that we can’t keep awarding Woodson contract extensions based on the fact he started with 13wins and limited talent, and increased our win total each yr, as former GM Billy Knight continuously added talent.
vava74
March 30th, 2010
8:37 am
Grandad,
Thanks for the props on the previous blog.
On Tom Izzo:
I only saw a Michigan State’s game around 3 weeks ago and I did not particularly liked what I saw from a player movement / set plays point of view, however, it wasn’t a good enough sample to know if Izzo has the tools to be a HC in the pros or not.
I also did not get a feeling on how he manages his players, however, I follow Charley Rosen’s column @ foxsports closely and he constantly puts college coaches in perspective:
basically he says that college coaches benefit from the fact that college players need their coaches – to “like” them and to play them and consequently have to obey and withstand abuse to accomplish that – whilst pro players earn more money that the coaches and sometimes “have to play” due to orders from above which means that they don’t particularly need the HC (it has been said by many, including one of the best coaches – Chuck Daly – that the NBA is a players’ league).
This means that the typical college coaching style: shouting and abusing players establishing authority does not translate well into the pros.
I believe that there are many examples of successful college coaches that failed miserably in the pros and only a few examples of the contrary.
Employee #24 Supporter
March 30th, 2010
12:42 pm
Employee #24 has a ton of upside potential. He seems to be uninspired and appears lazy and totally unmotivated to improve. He knows that he has a starting position and so far, his starting status has not been jeapardized. If Marvin (or I should say Employee #24) believed his starting job is being taken from him or being threatened in any way, Marvin would be productive and would probably outperform everybody else. Marvin has no incentive to get better. He makes millions of dollars, is rich and doesnt care to get better. Again, if Marvin felt that he were to lose his job tomorrow, Marvin would perform better than Kobe or LaBron, but Marvin feels completely content with being MEDIOCRE and Employee #24 feels satisfied to do nothing, exert little or no energy whatsoever and continually get paid for it.