Atlanta Hawks vs. Warriors: Marvin still not feeling bench role
L.D. is using his normal lineup tonight so Marvin is back among the starters. He looked pretty good in his two most recent games coming off the bench. He played fewer minutes than his average but he got up 17 shots in 50 minutes. I think the Hawks benefited from him playing on the second unit.
None of that changes Marvin’s preference to start.
“I’ve played what, two games off the bench?” he said. “I’ve played how many starting? Now start me for 300 games and see how I play.”
Truth is Marvin has played well the last couple weeks as both a starter and reserve. But L.D. notes that he can get Marvin more involved when he’s on the floor with the reserves.
“When he comes of the bench, it allows him to be more of a guy I can go to a little bit more as far as play sets that are called,” L.D. said. “When he’s in the starting lineup with Joe, Mike Smoove and Al he can be a first option at times, he can be a fourth option at times. When he is in there with the reserves, he is going to be either one or two.
“To me, he’s adapted well in coming off the bench when I’ve gone with my big lineup. He actually looks more comfortable. I think he knows in that second unit he will get more touches, I am able to run more plays directly for him. And most of the time he will be playing against their reserves.”
All of those things may be true but, again, Marvin has always been a starter and wants to keep it that way. Not that he takes it personally when he’s not.
“I love L.D. He’s been nothing but good to me,” Marvin said. “I’m not upset at him about anything and I don’t think he’s upset at me. It’s just the choice he made and I’ve got to live with it. It doesn’t make me mad at him or mad at my team or anything like that.”
Pick up the pace?
The Warriors are among the fastest-paced teams in the league. The Hawks still are among the slowest.
L.D. doesn’t like it when the Hawks play too fast on the road but he doesn’t mind picking up the pace at Philips.
“We definitely want to control the pace but we don’t want to get away from what we do, especially at home,” he said. “We want to get up and down, we want to run. We don’t want to get into a quick shoot contest with them. That’s kind of what they want.”
Atlanta’s pace at home is 92 possessions per game, still slow.
It’s pretty obvious why Drew is using the regular lineup against the Warriors, who are small to begin with and now are without Andris Biedrins (ankle) and Dan Gadzuric (groin).
“They don’t have the big forces inside,” Drew said. “They’ve got some very good centers, guys that can play the position very well but not a situation where we have to look to come and double team.”
What the Warriors have are swift backcourt partners Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis. The Hawks have J.J.. Something’s got to give.
“We do have Joe against the smaller guards. We are definitely going to try and exploit that,” L.D. said. “On the other end they have the advantage of smaller guards having the speed and the quickness. Maybe Joe doesn’t have the speed and the quickness to stay with them. We try to combat that on the other end.”
Curry is working his way back from an ankle injury and played 29 minutes against Portland on Saturday and 28 against Philly on Monday. Ellis is third in the league in scoring and 10th in usage rate.
“Very, very explosive,” L.D. said. “I’ve always liked him. He’s a guy that has a knack for scoring. He’s really explosive so have to do a good job on him collectively. He’s too good, too explosive and he gets too many touches. It has to be a team effort. We have to make sure we load up on him in transition. We have to contest all of his shots but more importantly we have got to keep him out of the paint. It’s going to take all five guys to do that.”
Michael Cunningham
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
244 comments Add your comment
Melvin
December 29th, 2010
9:09 pm
LOL Al stole Josh 10th reb…
Ree Roe
December 29th, 2010
9:09 pm
Joe “big nose” Johnson? Racist much?
-REEady made Roe!!!
Melvin
December 29th, 2010
9:10 pm
I will take this win….
J.J.M
December 29th, 2010
9:11 pm
im black so I dont see how thats racist..and he does have big nose
Astro Joe
December 29th, 2010
9:17 pm
Is there any chance that if Teague doesn’t “get it” in practice that maybe dude doesn’t deserve to be a consistent rotational player? LD is a huge Teague supporter (presumably) and still recognizes that he is best utilized as a 3rd string PG. Why is that so hard to believe? 3rd stringers get inconsistent playing time… plain and simple.
Ree Roe
December 29th, 2010
9:18 pm
@ JJM, suuuure you are. Keep your racism to yourself breh
-REEturn of Roe!!!
drmaryb (*_*)
December 29th, 2010
9:19 pm
Empty Feelings!
Marvin can go and suck 3 eggs! I don’t give a damn about his feelings!
He came off the bench in one year of college, if he don’t like it he can go back to college and tell them about what he don’t like!
Child please! Bump Marvin! He better be glad he ain’t traded already!
Aye Marvin! Do what helps your team – you already got your money and you will NEVER see that much cash ever again. We want a refund to date!
Where is Rod from CP? Go get ‘em Rod! I’m done here.
LOL and ROF!
Great Win Hawks!
Ramon
December 29th, 2010
9:23 pm
And you guys are lobbying for Josh to be traded? If you guys can’t see why Josh gets pissed so often then I don’t know what to say. Josh and Al gets irritated by the back court. Josh is just the only one who speaks out about it.
Sautee
December 29th, 2010
9:26 pm
Gaudy nimbers for our 4 and 5 tonight:
43 points, 25 rebounds, 9 assists, 4 steals and 4 blocked shots.
Not too shabby.
drmaryb (*_*)
December 29th, 2010
9:28 pm
Joe wallet is bigger than his nose! Don’t hate cause Joe don’t give a rat’s tail what yall think about NOTHING!
Go Joe! Bump these whoes!
Worldwide Clyde
December 29th, 2010
9:31 pm
LD is gonna regret not giving Teague more playing time if Bibby gets injured.
Worldwide Clyde
December 29th, 2010
9:32 pm
You gotta get your reserves ready to play just in case.
Najeh Davenpoop
December 29th, 2010
9:34 pm
“And you guys are lobbying for Josh to be traded? If you guys can’t see why Josh gets pissed so often then I don’t know what to say. Josh and Al gets irritated by the back court. Josh is just the only one who speaks out about it.”
Co-sign.
Astro Joe
December 29th, 2010
9:34 pm
I think your reserves have to earn time in practice. If the play calls to go right and you go left, you don’t get playing time in case someone gets hurt. You get token minutes until you learn the f’ing playbook.
SteveW
December 29th, 2010
9:37 pm
Marvin traded? Believe it or not the Cavs want him bad. And they may have some pieces that could improve the Hawks. But I’m just happy Marvin is playing more aggressively, for the most part anyway
Astro Joe
December 29th, 2010
9:37 pm
Dr. Mary, how would have preferred that Marvin answer MC’s question about coming off the bench? And is your preferred answer the same you would expect to get if LD sent another starter to the bench every now and then?
drmaryb (*_*)
December 29th, 2010
9:40 pm
What?
I didn’t see the game but:
31 asst
44 rebs
44 points in paint
Sounds like a lot of motion and movement to me!
_______________________
Why worry about Joe’s contract? Didn’t cost me one red cent.
Not my problem. If ASKG didn’t pay Joe, they would prolly stuff it in the mattress
Or, split it amongst 6 bench scrubs. Pick your poison.
Spend that money Joe! Spend it all in one place! Buy the first thing you see, don’t shop around!
Worldwide Clyde
December 29th, 2010
9:42 pm
Astro how you know what’s happening in practice? All I know Teague and Collins looked good last game and they didn’t get to play tonight. That’s something Woody would do.
Worldwide Clyde
December 29th, 2010
9:47 pm
And you say the reserves have to earn mintues right? So why in the hell is Zaza the first one off the bench when Smooth or Horford gets in foul trouble? Zaza may be the sorriest player on our team.
northcyde
December 29th, 2010
9:48 pm
@ drmaryb . . . exactly
If a person would have followed the blog tonight, and not saw the game, you’d think JJ was the worst player on the court, according to the comments.
Yeah, some of his shots were a “little” offline.
But the dude went 6 – 14 FG . . had 16 pts and dished out 8 assists.
Follow the blog though, and it’s like he went 4 – 19 FG and had 11 turnovers. JJ isn’t worried about the names. He’s got 125 million reasons not to sweat that.
And once again, Bibby proves why LD plays him so much. Too bad for Teague that LD stuck with a cold Jamal, but it is what it is.
Like Astro said, maybe TEAGUE is doing something behind the scenes in practice, that keeps him out of favor with LD.
Oh . . and Rusty . . . if I say stupid things, why have you read every word I’ve typed the past 10 months? I said from the beginning of the season that I wouldn’t put most of the blame on Drew, because it’s management that essentially brought back the same team for him to work with.
It’s not like Sund is rushing out to upgrade the roster. So if you start to see more and more “Woody tendencies” from. Drew, that may be the reason.
Worldwide Clyde
December 29th, 2010
9:48 pm
That reserves have to earn minutes is BS. This team is run by favortism.
Worldwide Clyde
December 29th, 2010
9:52 pm
When Bibby gets circles ran around him in the playoffs Drew is gonna regret not giving Teague more playing time.
Astro Joe
December 29th, 2010
9:52 pm
Clyde, because if LD got hired in part because of the promise to develop Teague and now dude is a borderline rotational player, then the issue MUST be in practice. And that is consistent with reports from last season… that dude has problems “learning team concepts”. Here’s what I know, LD hired a coach to work with Teague and seemed to embrtace him personally, yet dude can’t get consistent PT. I’m more inclined to blame Teague than LD.
Worldwide Clyde
December 29th, 2010
9:53 pm
Drew = Woody Jr
Section 303
December 29th, 2010
9:54 pm
Guys,
Just got back from the game. Decent win. I’ll take it.
Most memorable part of the night: Did anyone else see Sky Hawk get in a fight with a fan over a t-shirt? It was really strange…with about a minute and a half left, I look down from my Section 303 perch and see Sky Hawk getting beat on by 3 kids. He is trying to pry a shirt away from a lady.
After pushing the kids away (and he did push them), Sky Hawk drags the lady onto the floor. They battle a bit and then the lady just falls on the court (This is right at the end of th game, by the way). Sky Hawk tries to get the on the floor security guards to help him, but the pretty much ignore him.
Finally, an usher tells the lady to let go and that is the end of it. Sky Hawk goes off in the other direction and you can tell he is still yelling at the security guards who ignored him. The lady returns to her group. She was laughing.
Very odd ending to the night.
Astro Joe
December 29th, 2010
9:55 pm
Clyde, more likely, LD will regret that he didn’t get a 3rd PG with proven defensive abilities instead of bringing over Sy. He’ll regret placing his faith in a guy who probably doesn’t know his right from his left… that will be his regret.
Worldwide Clyde
December 29th, 2010
9:56 pm
I’m more inclined to blame Drew because he’s been under Woody and Teague has looked pretty good when he has played this year.
SteveW
December 29th, 2010
9:56 pm
Hope Marvin’s not hurt bad. He’s just starting to come around.
SteveW
December 29th, 2010
9:58 pm
Detroit is beating the Celtics and Houston is beating the Heat.
Detroit up by 10 with 4+ minutes to go. I don’t feel so bad losing to the Pistons last week I guess.
SteveW
December 29th, 2010
10:00 pm
If the Heat lose, we’re only 2 1/2 games back. Interesting.
drmaryb (*_*)
December 29th, 2010
10:00 pm
Bees Knees!
KG knee buckled? For real? WOW! If he hyper-extended it, could be same injury as Perkins! Devastating! Perkins blew out his PCL (poesterior cruciate ligament) and ripped his medial meniscus – oowee ouch! Very rare injury.
But, if KG knee slid forward, that’s probably the ACL. Either way is bad, esp with his knee history. If the X-Rays are negative that’s not good, because a fracture is better (6 weeks to heal), than a torn ligament (1 year, 2 years if really bad) and career ending if dislocated completely.
I can’t wait to hear the medical report on KG! I hope he is gone for the whole year!
Let’s Go Hawks!
Get Well Soon Marvin! We need your A Game!
SteveW
December 29th, 2010
10:06 pm
Well it’s off to a 4 game Western road trip. 4 games in 6 days. At OKC, Clips, Kings, and Jazz. We better be ready to play.
ESPN aggrevates me about the Heat. The Hawks have played like 10 or 11 back to backs to this point. But the excuse for the Heat losing at the half is they’re playing back to back games. What whiny baby’s! If you can’t stack the team with enough All Stars, you ought to at least man up and play back to backs with no excuses. What cry babies ESPN is for the Heat. Makes me want to root against them more!
O'Brien
December 29th, 2010
10:07 pm
AJ,
I dont know if Teague plays well in practice or not, but he has played better in real-live games recently. However, that still has not translated to PT.
However, you and I were on the same page over the off-season in that the Hawks should have looked into another PG.
northcyde,
Co-sign. JJ took some bad shots, but overall, he still had a good game. Jamal, on the other hand, went 2-10 (although he did have 6 assists).
I hope Marvin is not hurt, because he has been playing much better the last few games (bench or starting).
SteveW
December 29th, 2010
10:07 pm
Drmaryb – 1st reports are it’s a lower leg injury. But it could be worse.
northcyde
December 29th, 2010
10:10 pm
Clyde . . but it makes no sense.
Why would LD simply stick with Bibby out of favortism, if he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Teague can get it done?
I’ll tell you why. Because Drew doesn’t trust Teague.
Now the question is . . why doesn’t LD trust him?
SteveW
December 29th, 2010
10:16 pm
OKC is dismantling the Nets.
SteveW
December 29th, 2010
10:21 pm
Teague can’t get it done, no doubt. But the only way he’ll ever learn to get it done is playing time. At some point, this team is going to have to turn it to JT at PG, or we’re going to have to make a trade to obtain a PG. Bibby is as brilliant on the court as they come, doesn’t turn the ball over, out played Stephen Curry tonight, great spot up shooter, but he’s just lost it athletically.
I still say offer the Sixers Bibby and a 1st pick, and a couple of 2nd’s for Lou Williams and see if they bite. Word is the Sixers are shopping Lou, and Bibby would be a great tutor for Jrue.
SteveW
December 29th, 2010
10:23 pm
Pistons beat the Celts by 12 at home. Led basically the whole way. Heat up by 2 over the Rockets going into the 4th quarter. Come on Rockets!
It was not a bad pick
December 29th, 2010
10:23 pm
Marvin has the right to be mad..No way Josh should start over Marvin at the sf..Drew is scared of josh..I thought Drew would do these things
1.start a true center every game, so Al can play the pf alongside marvin
2. stand up to Josh..I dont get it..This guy takes the worst shots on the team, gambles to much on D, and you guys blame marvin? i like Josh, but come on, this dude is a 6th man at best..
3. play his young players..this idiot Drew has now began to play Jamal at pg..WTF..When he is playing the point, no one else touches the ball,…Teauge and Jordan Crawford should be playing..Mo?
the Hawks will be put out the playoffs very early this year..time for me to put these seats on stub hub…
If i was Marvin, I would request a trade right now..The hawks are determined to see how far Joe Max and a guy who has played for nothing but bad teams his whole career (jamal) can take us…Josh starting over marvin is a complete joke
Rod from College Park
December 29th, 2010
10:24 pm
Before this blog gets taken down. Who gives a rats a@#, if Marvin does not want to come off the bench. He needs to be thankful that he is still in the league. If he was not on the Hawks, he probably would not be.
SteveW
December 29th, 2010
10:24 pm
Tracy McGrady 21 pts and 8 assists. The Hawks could have had him for the Vet minimum.
rusty
December 29th, 2010
10:25 pm
Nortcyde you probably told him jt sucked , you probably told him the same thing about dw & jc2. How the he’ll are we going to develop these young players if we refuse to play them,why are we drafting them & sitting them when we can make some money by selling the picks . The money can help in paying your boy jj salary & we can keep playing mo
Astro Joe
December 29th, 2010
10:25 pm
SteveW, Lou is a short SG and not a PG, no thanks. I’d rather have Teague than Lou… and heaven forbid that we have both. YIKES.
It was not a bad pick
December 29th, 2010
10:29 pm
Rod from College Park
Did Marvin have a wild doggy style session with your lady? I think you just roast Marvin to be irrelevant on this blog..it sounds more personal to me…
SteveW
December 29th, 2010
10:30 pm
McGrady – 12/22 @ Toronto 8-12 shooting, 17 pts, 7 boards, 7 assists
12/26 Chicago 15 pts on 7-13 shooting
12/29 Boston 21 pts on 7-11 shooting and 8 assists.
We could have him coming off the bench instead of Mo’…Sund you passed up Shaq, Dampier, and McGrady, what were you thinking?
Najeh Davenpoop
December 29th, 2010
10:31 pm
“stand up to Josh..I dont get it..This guy takes the worst shots on the team, gambles to much on D, and you guys blame marvin? i like Josh, but come on, this dude is a 6th man at best..”
I know you are proud of your grandson, but seriously, even he would admit that Josh is a million times better than him.
SteveW
December 29th, 2010
10:31 pm
McGrady started at PG tonight with Stuckey out
Najeh Davenpoop
December 29th, 2010
10:32 pm
“Did Marvin have a wild doggy style session with your lady? I think you just roast Marvin to be irrelevant on this blog..it sounds more personal to me…”
The way Marvin walks, I would think he’s more likely to be on the receiving end.
Grandad
December 29th, 2010
10:33 pm
Joe is our most ‘overrated’ defensive player.
He is supposed to be a lock down defender.
Joe:
*horrible help defender
*good on ball defender, until he thinks he’s gonna’ get beat;
then he quits on the play.
*never boxes out his man
*never hedges or cheats to help a teammate who’s been screened
*gives up on plays
*never gives a hard foul to stop a lay-up
Joe is:
*a good on ball defender when defending a SuperStar
Tonite on Offense:
Joe had his opponent outsized tonight;
and never posted him once [that I saw].
He [Joe] and Bibby use 80% of the shot clock.
(total – for the year, combined) I’m guessin’?
But, you know…we have won – what ??? 21 now?
Najeh Davenpoop
December 29th, 2010
10:33 pm
Section 303, that story is wild, man. If you didn’t catch that on video, I hope someone did.