Atlanta Hawks: Intense practices have injuries adding up
The open practice at Philips Arena today was a relatively light affair for the Hawks. The way things are going, L.D. might have to start sprinkling in more sessions like that to keep his team in one piece.
Six guys were left behind when the Hawks flew out today for games at Detroit and D.C.: Teague (ankle), Marvin (ill), Twin (leg), Pape Sy (back), Mo (knee) and Jamal (back).
Al, Etan and Josh Powell also have missed time with injuries since camp opened.
“It’s a different preseason for us this year,” Teague said. “It is a lot more intense in practice. Injuries happen in the game. Last year it was a little more laid back and we didn’t have a lot of serious injuries at this time. It is really intense, guys are going really hard and things happen.”
For some of the injuries, it’s hard to know how much of it is just vet players taking it easy so they can be healthy for the long season. And with Mo and Pape, the issues were there before the Hawks started practice.
Still, L.D. said his long, intense practices have been a factor in the assorted nagging injuries but that he doesn’t want to let up too much.
“It is going to be like that, especially when we are preaching being more a physical team and playing with more of a physicality,” he said. “We are going to have our nicks and our bruises. The thing I have to gauge is the fact we are not beating up on each other too much.
“Some days will be a little bit more intense and tougher than others. I won’t wear them down from playing like that every day in practice. Some days we will have to gauge it to where we are not banging as much. But for the most part I want them to bring that energy and intensity every day because that’s who we have to be when we play.”
Teague rolled his ankle when he landed on Jamal’s foot in practice Saturday. He said he thinks he will be back on the court by Tuesday.
Mo said he pushed the knee too early a week ago and had to have it drained. Now he’s backing off a bit while he continues to build strength.
“I don’t want to start that type process,” he said. “If you rush back from injury put yourself at a disadvantage. When I come back I want to be as close to 100 percent as I can. I see Kobe is out there limping around and not really having his full range of motion. I think he came back a little too early. I don’t want to be put in that situation.”
The Hawks will take 11 players on the trip. L.D. said Smoove (hand) would be a gametime decision Monday at Detroit. Josh said he would be out a week after cutting his hand on the rim Thursday but it looks like he could return sooner.
L.D. said he would wait until the Hawks got some guys back before adding more elements of his motion offense. Expect to see some weird lineups in the two games since L.D. still wants to limit the minutes for some of his regulars.
“Injuries are a part of it,” he said. “You hope to get through training camp where it’s an injury-free camp but that’s a not reality. There are bumps, there are bruises.”
MC
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115 comments Add your comment
KevinM
October 11th, 2010
5:11 pm
Some quotes from the Eddie Jordan era in Philly: are we going to see similar results?
“It didn’t fit, it didn’t work out,” Brand said. “I think with the personnel we have, the offense could have been set up for what we have instead of just bringing in a set offense in mind. It didn’t really work for the pieces we have.”
Is this the personnel needed for this offense to succeed?
“Forget the Princeton offense. We should have been focused on defense. – Dalembert”
I want to hear more about what is going on to slow down the opponent. I really don’t have a concern with any offense we have. If we can be ranked #3 NBA for an iso-offense, that is not where my focus would be heading into this season.
These kind of comments are why I believe in a wait and see approach versus lapping up everything Sund and LD are verbalizing.
We will know soon enough and like LD said, its not that difficult. I don’t like hearing about that. Its easier to accept the injuries as opposed to not having the scheme in place. Too early to judge now, but I can see us going backwards if this thing goes haywire early and we are having to deal with backups to fill roles.
Samuel
October 11th, 2010
5:19 pm
KevinM,
That was just a slick interviewing tactic that LD used to trick people like the ASG who know nothing about basketball. How do you think people like Jay Triano was able to over throw a good coach like Sam Mitchell in Toronto. People who don’t know basketball can easily fall for slick talkers.
Don’t worry, you won’t see much of this gimmick anyway. 90% of the offense will still be the same as it always has been and we’ll get the same results or worse.
truthspitter
October 11th, 2010
5:26 pm
Ken Strickland
October 11th, 2010
2:56 pm
TRUTHSPITTER-you might not respond directly to my posts, but you do respond don’t you. And your inability, or unwillingness to respond to them directly isn’t due to your dislike for what I have to say, but to your lack of courage and/or ability to confront my posts with your very narrowly focused, negative, and often uninformed, single minded opinions of the team and 1 or 2 specific players.
All you’ve contributed thus far are negative comments about AHorford, JTeague and what the team can’t or won’t accomplish, period. Other than that, you might as well be deaf, dumb and blind. As far as the Hawks being soft, that’s the same label that’s been placed on the 2 TIME DEFENDING NBA CHAMPION LA LAKERS. Apparently being considered soft hasn’t stopped them from becoming champions.
Being mentally tough is far more important than being physically tough. A soft team wouldn’t be able to improve each of the last 5yrs, and overcome all of the liabilities that were present to become the 3rd best team in the Eastern Conference. In other words DRUM MAJOR FOR THE SPECIAL ED CREW, they out performed and finished ahead of all the so called tough teams except 2 last yr. If that’s your idea of being soft, I’ll bet all of the Eastern Conference teams over the last 2 yrs, except the Cavaliers, Celtics and Magic, would gladly accepted that kind of softness.
Isn’t it ironic that of the 2 teams that are considered soft, one finished 4th and 3rd in the East respectively over the last 2yrs and made it to the 2nd rd, while the other team won it all, TWICE IN A ROW. With those accomplishments, I’ll take soft in this instance over whatever the hell you’re looking for ANY DAY OF THE WEEK.
Strick-land,I don’t respond to you because you are a midget dude with midget points. I have never been overly critical of Al because I damn near love Al as a basketball player. My only knock on Al is that he whines about playing C at times when Olajuwan, Howard, Russell and on and on were shorter than the beastly C’s of there days. Bill Russell vs Wilt was more of a mismatch on paper than Horford vs Howard and so was Shaq vs Olajuwan but Olajuwan and Russell’s teams won a lot of those battles and Olajuwan and Russell won a lot of those individual battles. I am always critical of Marvin because he is a thief and deceiver. As for Teague, I criticize Teague but even more than Teague Sund for picking him and fans like yourself for giving him a position that he has no clue of how to handle. Teague was not primarily a PG in college because Ish Smith ran the position. Teague does not know how to run a team and I am skeptical that he will ever learn well enough to be a starting PG for a playoff team. My point remains that this is a soft team and poorly put together team and the proof is in the pudding. You are possibly the most shallow and ignorant person on this site. Find something to do other than respond directly to posters to try and make a name for yourself. Noone needs you to speak for them. I could careless if noone around here ever agrees with me but I know from time to time people will because I spit the truth while you are in a Strick-land that only allows you to move in areas that sugarcoat, tell lies, and try to protect the Hawks from well warranted worries and criticism. Call it negative if you want to but I call it the truth and something that you are stricken from understanding.
drmaryb (*_*)
October 11th, 2010
5:26 pm
Wacka Flocka Flame!
Melvin LOL! Wacka Flocka Flame … Yeah, I dropped that group
name on one of my posts last week!
Hey. I’m not tryin’ to make the girls cry … But, come on
fellas … How you show up to camp outa’ shape?
Where is the professionalism in that?
Hey KenS,
I feel you bruh! You just ready to get it on!
Until we start the regular season, this dead horse is gomna’
take another whoopin’.
We ready for some hoops – man!
Sautee
October 11th, 2010
5:35 pm
Ramon,
From the last blog, I asked you this:
“Did you find a link to where Horford allegedly (according to you) said that about “not winning without him playing PF” yet?”
“C’mon man, if as you said, he said it repeatedly then it should be EASY to find.”
“Unless it didn’t happen that way and you hyped up what he said.”
And then, in answer you said this:
“Sautee, the fact that he keeps saying that he wants to play PF, and the fact that he’s stated the Hawks can’t compete unless they added more size to the lineup (which they really didn’t with the exception of Thomas) means he must think the Hawks would be a better team when he’s at PF. So if saying the Hawks need to add size that can make an impact on the game, how could the new acquisition have an impact without getting significant time on the court at C? As a captain, how does that sound saying your guys in the locker room can’t win as presently constructed? So you, Sautee, haven’t seen an article where Horford said they couldn’t compete without more impact size?”
I’ll answer your question in a moment. But first, back to your original statement which was in a post to Sec. 303. You stated this:
“Al has said over and over that we couldn’t win without him playing PF”
NOW you say something totally different. Which is it? You say now X is a fact and Y is a fact which means Al MUST think Z. This is CONJECTURE on your part. You do NOT know his mind, and to pretend that you do, while disparaging his attitude is flat wrong.
Now if you were to say “In my opinion, he seems to think X”, that’s different, because you are making it your OPINION. But that’s not what you said.
What you SAID was: “Al has said over and over that we couldn’t win without him playing PF”.
I say that is total BS and that Al NEVER said those words.
Where is your evidence to prove me wrong? I’ve asked, and asked, and YOU said that he said this repeatedly. OK, when and where?
Ramon, you are either going to have to back off of your statement, or show me some evidence. Or put up with me hounding you about it. I’m trying to remain level-headed, and I don’t wish you ill, but I think you have unfairly slandered Horford.
Now, to answer YOUR question, yes, I saw an article where he said he and Josh needed help down low. He did NOT say that they “couldn’t compete” without that help. In fact, when the acquisitions were finished and he was asked about it, did he complain? No, he said “I’ll go to war with what we have”.
That doesn’t sound much like whining now, does it?
drmaryb (*_*)
October 11th, 2010
5:51 pm
True Dat!
Sautee said this:
“Now, to answer YOUR question, yes, I saw an article where he said he and Josh needed help down low. He did NOT say that they “couldn’t compete” without that help. In fact, when the acquisitions were finished and he was asked about it, did he complain? No, he said “I’ll go to war with what we have”.
That is exactly what the man did say! Yep! Verbatum!
KevinM
October 11th, 2010
6:05 pm
DMB, you know this exists………..if Al came back and started complaining about what hasn’t happened in the organization, you think he would be having contract discussions right now?
Don’t you think the more JC1 spouts, the further he gets his agent gets from a one-on-one with Sund?
Al isn’t going to stir it up too much. He more than likely he was told he was getting some serious help this summer.
cp
October 11th, 2010
6:24 pm
O’Brien the sad part about that is Sund said the bench is what he would improve in the off season. I don’t see any improvements. The scrubs he brought in are just happy a team was silly enough to give them guaranteed contracts..
Some of you guys are reaching like Stretch Armstrong. I think some of you just post stuff just to do it. KevinM seriously dude where have you been? Did you not read when LD tried to leave the Hawks a long time ago but wasn’t allowed to? Did you not hear Woodson come out and say numerous times that his assistants tried to convince him to do some different things but he refused to listen. This came from the head coach himself. Not a beat writer, not some so called expert on ESPN, not some “source”. Woodson the head coach said that on plenty occasions. Samuel its clear that you want LD to fail just so you can say we should have kept Woodson. It has been clear since your boy was told to pack his bags. The funny thing about you is that you gave Woodrow 6 years to fail or succeed but you only want to give the new guy 1 year. I really hope Woodson gets a new job soon so you can go support that team and continue to ride his jock.
Rod from College Park
October 11th, 2010
6:47 pm
truthspitter,
“I could careless if noone around here ever agrees with me but I know from time to time people will because I spit the truth while you are in a Strick-land that only allows you to move in areas that sugarcoat, tell lies, and try to protect the Hawks from well warranted worries and criticism.”
Wow. I could not agree more. I find myself agreeing with a lot of your points also, especially involving Marvin. The TRUTH will set you free.
drmaryb (*_*)
October 11th, 2010
7:45 pm
Be Cool!
KevinM I agree, Horford will toe the company line.
And, he should, after all this is the business of Basketball.
I think Al really likes his team, and this may become his
team at some point in the very near future.
So yeah, Al is smart and he will – Be Cool!
Jamal, on the other hand is over-playing his hot hand IMHO.
My strong advice to Jamal would be – Be Cool young fella.
However, we don’t really know what the GM has promised him
either. There appears to be some bad blood going on here.
But, hey! Jamal has an Agent to guide him here, as he
muddle through the negotiation process. I hope he is
listening and not dogging this – injury?
Mz. Hawkdafied
October 11th, 2010
8:10 pm
Okay this info helps calm my nerves. I’m not afraid to admit I was tripping and freaking out. Just the word injury. I’m like omg, no.
“Hard work”! Go Hawks! Whatever it takes!
Ken Strickland
October 11th, 2010
11:16 pm
TRUTHSPITTER/ROD FROM CP-you 2 SPECIAL ED ALUMNI must really have high and unwarranted opinions of yourselves if you think any OPINION you post is without question an unequivocal TRUTH. THAT’S TOTAL BS PART ONE. To say JTeague cannot ever learn to play PG is about as arrogant, stupid and self serving a statement as one could imagine. THAT’S NOTHING BUT PURE WISHFUL THINKING ON YOUR PART.
Tell me TRUTHSPITTER, if you think being soft is such a draw back, then how does a team like the Lakers, who’s also considered a soft team, manage to win back to back titles? During their championship yrs, couldn’t the Spurs have been called soft, since they were a finesse team that certainly didn’t try to be physical or over power anyone?
Also, since you managed not to respond to the question the first time, I’ll ask it again. If the Hawks are so soft, how do you explain them finishing ahead of every team in the East except Cleveland and Orlando?
Oaktown
October 12th, 2010
7:11 am
sorry if I am a newbie– big time Hawks fan but obviously I do not know all of the nicknames Twin (leg), Pape Sy — Is Twin Joe Johnson? Pape Sy? no clue.
joBjo
October 12th, 2010
9:20 am
twin is the big center that seldom got off the bench last year. he has a twin bro.
pop see is the rook from france.
joBjo
October 12th, 2010
9:25 am
got me to thinking. how’d you like to been Twin’s mom!
imagine dropping those 2 loads!
geez