Atlanta Hawks: Knicks 102, Hawks 90

Felton isn't the only one who does this to the Hawks. (Christopher Pasatieri / Newsday)

Felton isn't the only one who does this to the Hawks. (Christopher Pasatieri / Newsday)

New York–After all the hype surrounding this game, it came down to some basic, boring (and familiar) truths about the Hawks.

  • A team like New York, which has penetrating point guards, threats to roll to the rim and 3-point shooters, can slice up the Hawks because the first thing leads to the other two. And the Hawks can easily be induced to take long jump shots, either because opponents force them to do so or, like tonight, the Hawks abandon the game plan after a few misses in close.
  • Both things happened against the Knicks, and so the Hawks were subpar both on offense (aside from making 11 of 22 3-point attempts) and defense (48 percent shooting allowed, 18 fastbreak points).
  • Defense was the real problem for the Hawks, who never could put together any kind of sustained run because New York would easily get an open shot and make it.
  • “Every time we tried to [rally], they made a big three or a big basket,” Al said. “It was a little demoralizing. We stayed with it, but we just didn’t have enough tonight.”
  • The issues, like most times, started on the ball.
  • “They run a ton of pick-and-rolls and we were trying to figure out the best coverages for it,” L.D. said. “They do a great job in the pick-and-roll with Felton and then they have a guy who is a forceful roller with Stoudemire. You have to defend the guard, you have to defend the big guy on the roll and then they spread out with shooters. It makes it tough for us. “
  • Sounds like he pretty much just described the Celtics. Or the Bulls. Or the Magic. Shoot, take away the roll man but add two of the best screen-roll ball-handlers in the league and it’s the Heat.
  • “We just had more individual breakdowns on a lot of simple things [like] transition defense, closeouts,” Drew said.
  • “It’s kind of hard to really help, especially when they are knocking down the jump shot like tonight,” Smoove said. “We gave up too much dribble penetration and then we helped and were scrambling from that point on.”
  • I’m thinking I can save time by putting the above three quotes in a macro file.
  • At one point, a New York hack sitting next to me asked: “So, basically, whomever Bibby is guarding scores?” Me: “Not always. Sometimes his man passes to open shooters when everything breaks down, and they score.”
  • Later from the hack: “If this team had a different point guard they could be so good.” I told him it was supposed to be Teague, and he asked: “Is he hurt or something?”
  • I couldn’t decide if my blog people would have laughed or cried if you had heard that conversation.
  • Al never really could get on track, though he dismissed his beef with Stoudemire as a factor: “I thought it was something small to begin with that he tried to blow it up and run with it. I think it was just a lot of talk. He didn’t say anything out there on the court. I went out there and played my game and he played his.”
  • For the first time I can remember, Al complained about his touches. That’s odd since there have been plenty of other games when the Hawks did forget about him for long stretches but tonight he was involved.
  • “I started to get touches a little later in the game as opposed to early or the start of the second half,” he said. “I didn’t get touches in the post like that so I could really get established.”
  • I thought the Hawks might have been able to keep up if they had stuck with the post-ups. Joe and Marvin got into good position by backing down their men. Smoove got some drives at the basket and Bibby some good spot-up looks when passes came out of the post.
  • The Hawks had trouble finishing at the basket, though, and instead of keeping at it, they went to their favored jump shots. That approach also quickened the pace.
  • “We want to think inside out,” L.D. said. “Once you show you can attack inside they have got to collapse, they have got to double team. We missed some easy ones and then we started settling for outside shots, jump shots. On the road, it can be your demise. When they pressured us and sped us up some, we didn’t handle it well.”
  • “We was rushing and they were giving us the jump shot,”Smoove said. “We weren’t able to knock them down tonight.”
  • Especially not Josh (6 of 16) or Jamal (3 of 11). The latter forced things at times, as he tends to do when back in New York (usually with better results). He jacked a jumper on the baseline while double-teamed after the Hawks got within 74-65. They never recovered.
  • The Hawks enter the All-Star break in fifth place in the East, a full game behind Orlando
  • “I think we will come back re-focused and ready to go,” Al said. “I don’t think we are playing our best basketball yet. We are starting to be a little more consistent, we just have lapses like we did tonight. I hope we can get there.”
  • I’m off to L.A. tomorrow, blog people. I’ll get back to blogging when I get out there.

Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat

374 comments Add your comment

Trojan

February 17th, 2011
1:31 pm

Fire Sund, Fire LD!

Double Zero Eight

February 17th, 2011
1:37 pm

I am afraid we will be having these same conversations
this time next year!

Shake Something

February 17th, 2011
1:44 pm

People keep saying trade Jamal and Josh, but what I dont think you people see is that, if we trade Jamal, we lose our “ENTIRE BENCH”.You trade Josh and lose the only defense you have seeing as we dont have many good defenders. Package most of those guys on the bench in a trade with whatever draft picks(Useless in the hands of Sund) and find you 2 teams thats willing to take what you got and work out a trade.

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=4b7t3jf

This is what came up with, and you address both needs PG and Center,which allows starters to take our bench off life support by coming off the bench

Starters:

1-Curry
2-Joe
3-Marvin
4-Horford
5-Biedrins

Bench:

1-Bibby(Eddie House)
2-Jamal(6th MOY)
3-Wilkins/Sye(Or just rotate with Joe,Marvin & Josh,but the rookies get some experience)
4-Josh
5-Powell and rotate with Horford

Our bench can now bring some energy and has some actual usage

JeJe

February 17th, 2011
1:53 pm

Worldwide Clyde for Poster of the…

DECADE

Najeh Davenpoop

February 17th, 2011
1:54 pm

I’m reading Bill Simmons’ annual trade value column (interesting if not always accurate) and I came across this paragraph:

“it’s not life-altering to get 14-15 points, 5-6 assists and 35-36 percent shooting from a point guard. There’s never been a deeper crew of point guards — we go something like 20 strong, and that’s not even counting the Ridnour/Blake/Udrih types. Remember the days when there were so few decent point guards that Eric Snow and Howard Eisley signed $40 million deals? No more. Long gone.”

Pretty sad that when the league is that deep at point guard, the Hawks can’t even get those “non-life-altering” numbers from that position.

vava74

February 17th, 2011
1:55 pm

http://popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/gameflow.cgi?date=20110216&game=ATLNYK

Our lead (small) in the first quarter went down the drain when Bibby left the floor and entered…

The UNDERTAKER (Jamal).

With Bibby on the floor JJ was assigned to Felton and probably that changed when Jamal got in (nire, please confirm).

Then, Jamal, who was having a monster game, AGAIN played a 17 minute straight shift to close the game.

Is anyone looking at stats in the Hawks organization?

Apart from a few (very very few) scattered games Jamal has been EXTREMELY ineffective in virtually all late 3rd + 4th quarter shifts that LD stubbornly gets him to play.

This has happened even on games in which he scores 16-24 points since he gets 80-90% of his points in the early part of the game.

Last night it was the double wammy: Jamal’s first shift (last 5 minutes 10 second of the 1st quarter and first 3 min 22 second of the second) produced a brilliant ± of -17!!!!!

I MUS WRITE

February 17th, 2011
1:57 pm

Enter your comments here

Rufus1

February 17th, 2011
1:59 pm

Jamal -17….Wow

That is because he is not a PG and PG is Hard.

terrell

February 17th, 2011
2:02 pm

Josh used to be Mr. highlight factory himself. LD’s turning him into Mr. jumpshot factory. The whole team actually.

terrell

February 17th, 2011
2:07 pm

it was not a bad pick could be right. Marvin might be the best sf on the team WHEN HE’S ON. Josh is a pf. PERIOD! He’s hanging out at the 3pt line more often than Bibby now. Gotta keep him in the post. And btw, Earth calling JJ and Jamal. You copy?

Najeh Davenpoop

February 17th, 2011
2:08 pm

Also in that column, Bill Simmons has some awfully nice (and maybe somewhat inaccurate) things to say about Smoove, aside from the Jersey Shore nickname.

terrell

February 17th, 2011
2:10 pm

Hawks win enough just to keep us interested. Guess that’s all the ASG wants to do.

Grandad

February 17th, 2011
2:14 pm

Lewis made an excellent point:

Joe;
plays such **Unremarkable Defense**
-yet-
he has the rep of being an exceptional defender.

KevinM

February 17th, 2011
2:17 pm

Did anyone notice what we started the 4th quarter lineup with down 13?
The same stale non-defensive JC1/Bibby to go with Joe/Smoove/Marvin…the smallest lineup we could put out there.
Why no post defender? How many times are you going to let someone drive down your throath without knocking them down…..
Enforcer needed for the Hawks because ours are on the bench.

What does that tell you about Larry’s refusal to make changes?

I see nothing he does that shows he’s a better game coach than Woody. Bibby got 35 frickin’ minutes as we continued to play from behind.

And don’t suggest for Sund to get fired; the puppetmaster Gearon is pulling all the strings here. Sund is being told what to do because there is no way my GM sits on his hands and watches this type of inconsistency in his 3rd season and game #55.

And folks, unknown to all NBA players who get interviewed saying we are 1/2 way through the season here at the AS break, we are 2/3 through the season and we still don’t feel any need to make a move of any significance as far as I can tell.

KevinM

February 17th, 2011
2:25 pm

terrell, Marvin isn’t the best of anything on this team. He isn’t the best paid, the best shooter, the best conditioned, the best hustler….he isn’t the best anything!

It was a colossal mistake that will haunt this franchise for many years. We are stuck having to watch the lowest rated starting SF in the league (when he starts), yet we continue to feel he has some potential yet untapped. Marvin is a 2ndary thought on both ends of the court for either coach he has played for….there must be a reason for it. Perhaps he doesn’t like to go inside and play tough. Perhaps he doesn’t like to scrap for loose balls. Perhaps he is just going throught the motions to make sure he doesn’t get hurt.

Marvin simply is not helping us win and move past where we are as a team under its current construction.

I sure would like to flip a switch and see all that talent we had that was going to make it hard to match up against us. Our record does not reflect how inconsistent we have been this year.

lewis

February 17th, 2011
2:32 pm

thanks for pointing out that article najeh,

Lol @ Al Horford #22 and Josh Smith #27 on Bill Simmons most valuable trade pieces.

Their contracts are spot on, not too big but well worth what they provide to the team.

Damn JJ’s contract. Shoulda just rebuilt around Josh/Al

mykhalc

February 17th, 2011
2:43 pm

memo to Al…this team has NEVER played its’ best basketball..PERIOD!!! it WON’T…for many reasons!!! and all seen over the past 3+ seasons!!!

superiorblogman

February 17th, 2011
2:54 pm

Portland is after Devin Harris not Ramon Sessions. Portland selected Brandon Roy, Aldridge, and Oden, all the correct picks just happened that injuries have derailed Oden and Roy, but they make the correct picks or get the correct players. Add Wesley Matthews and Camby in free agency. Add letting players like Outlaw go. If only the Hawks were not so worried about money they could just get the correct players. The Nets are said to want a big man out of a deal for Harris. I still think Jamal, Zaza, and a 2012 1st round pick for Harris and Humphries might get it done. I would also be willing to through Jordan or Teague into the deal if push came to shove.

Hawks get Devin Harris and Kris Humphries

Nets get Zaza, Jamal and a 2012 1st round or Zaza, Jamal and Teague or Jordan

KevinM

February 17th, 2011
3:26 pm

lewis, you are just spewing what I complained about all summer.

No way we would have ended up like Cleveland had Joe left; he is just a piece to the puzzle. Would we be 34-21 right now? Probably not, but we would have some salary flex to play with even if we never resigned JC1.

As of now, we hover at the cap going forward until further notice as we have to find a buyer for Bibby or Marvin / and Zaza to free up some resources.

KevinM

February 17th, 2011
3:30 pm

Let me throw a crazy trade out there should Melo go to Jersey….

Joe to the Knicks
Curry and Wilson Chandler to us…

Does that trade scenario pass the ‘trade meister’ machine?

That frees up mega cap room for the limited Hawks and the Knicks might be willing to listen…

KevinM

February 17th, 2011
3:33 pm

The NY media would kill the Knicks over that one wouldnt’ they?

ESPN says trade is doable, gives Knicks +3 and the Hawks -2….good for both teams…Dolan can afford Joe and his mega wallet.

SteveW

February 17th, 2011
3:38 pm

Rethinking that Sessions stuff – Sessions would help the Hawks in driving to the hole alot. I’m not sure he would help defensively.

Jeff Teague must either be on drugs, or LD has a major flaw in his coaching philosophy. And in this League right now, you can’t hide a major flaw, teams will exploit you ruthlessly.

SteveW

February 17th, 2011
3:44 pm

Another very spot on article on the Hawks by Hoopinion. I find them like MC, very non-biased.

It would be unfair to blame this loss entirely on Mike Bibby’s defensive shortcomings as he’s not to blame for the Hawks missing plenty of good shots while falling behind in the first quarter, Josh Smith taking nine more jump shots (making three), or Smith and Joe Johnson throwing the ball away on three successive fourth quarter possessions, effectively eliminating any question about which team would win the game but New York scored 102 points on just 92 possessions with the vast majority of those points coming from attacking Bibby or attacking the weaknesses created through the machinations involved in attempting to hide Bibby’s defensive liabilities.

Primarily, the Knicks attacked Bibby on the pick-and-roll. Bibby’s lack of mobility forced whichever player guarded the screener into double-duty: slow the ball-handler and recover quickly onto his man. Because, if the Hawks switched on the ball-screen, the screener could either roll Bibby into the deep post or pop and shoot over Bibby. Most often, Bibby went under the ball-screen, his help defender showed on the ball-handler, then quickly retreated to his man. This gave the ball-handler two options: 1) take an uncontested jumper or 2) attack Bibby off the dribble again in the hopes of drawing another help defender. And that second option created two avenues of attack for the ball-handler. He could attack in the hopes of either again drawing help off the initial screener or from off of one of New York’s spot-up shooters.

When Larry Drew attempted to remove Bibby from the screen-and-roll defense he did so by keeping Bibby on the court but assigning Joe Johnson to guard the ball-handler. Joe Johnson struggles mightily dealing with off-the-ball screens and had little success* dealing with the combination of Raymond Felton’s speed and the ball-screens inherent in the design of New York’s offense.

*Nor should he have been expected to have success in that situation.

Finally, as has been tried so often this season as the Hawks have been attempting futile comebacks or busy blowing leads in the fourth quarter, Larry Drew responded to the inherent defensive problems of playing a Bibby/Jamal Crawford backcourt not by removing one from the game in favor of a two-way player but by playing a 2-3 zone that roots Bibby and Crawford in space on the perimeter and drags at least one of Josh Smith or Al Horford away from the basket to deal with spot-up shooters.

One hopes that the All-Star break provides Larry Drew and the Hawks with the time to reflect on whether or not it is worth it, even given the limited options at his disposal, to work so hard to find a way to keep Mike Bibby on the floor for 30 or more minutes a night. It wasn’t worth it in New York and that on a night when Bibby shot the ball well (15 points on 8 shots), providing more of an offensive contribution than can be reasonably expected on a regular basis.

Larry Drew:

“They run a ton of pick-and-rolls and we were trying to figure out the best coverages for it. They do a great job in the pick-and-roll with Felton and then they have a guy who is a forceful roller with Stoudemire. You have to defend the guard, you have to defend the big guy on the roll and then they spread out with shooters. It makes it tough for us.”

Josh Smith:

“It’s kind of hard to really help, especially when they are knocking down the jump shot like tonight. We gave up too much dribble penetration and then we helped and were scrambling from that point on.”

Al Horford:

“Every time we tried to [rally], they made a big three or a big basket. It was a little demoralizing. We stayed with it, but we just didn’t have enough tonight.”

Overheard at Madison Square Garden with Michael Cunningham:

At one point, a New York hack sitting next to me asked: “So, basically, whomever Bibby is guarding scores?” Me: “Not always. Sometimes his man passes to open shooters when everything breaks down, and they score.”

SteveW

February 17th, 2011
3:49 pm

And on the Phoenix blogs, they want Marvin and 2 First Picks for Nash…

SteveW

February 17th, 2011
4:03 pm

What my eyes tell me:

That Bibby is to slow to start in the NBA at G

That Mo’ is a worse than he was 2 years ago

That Wilkens is a better ball player than Mo’

That Marvin was a terrible #2 pick. But if he would have been drafted #16 or 17, we would be saying what a solid role player he was, and how every team needs a Marvin type player etc.

That JJ played hard just to get an All Star spot

That JJ and Josh are enormously talented, but Al is our best basketball player

That Josh shoots to many jumpers, regardless of stats

That Josh does not respect his coach, but he is a student of the game

Just what my eyes tell me about the Hawks

Grandad

February 17th, 2011
4:05 pm

There are multiple ways to cover Bibby;
however, a Coach cannot cover for:
Bibby & Joe + Jamal + *Marv (oh yeah, Marv)
*[Marv is the slowest in the league at closing out]
**Marv never reacts to anything – he must think about it 1st.
***That’s why he catches a rebound at his crotch. (he’s a late jumper)
****You see it’s not “only” Bibby.

SteveW

February 17th, 2011
4:06 pm

More on what my eyes tell me:

ZaZa has regressed as a basketball player

Jeff Teague is not nearly as bad as some make him out to be

That Josh Powell is garbage usually

The Hawks are reminding me of the Utah Jazz

That LD is reminding me of Woody, but he sure seems to know Offensive alot better than Woody.

SteveW

February 17th, 2011
4:07 pm

Grandad – Good post

Najeh Davenpoop

February 17th, 2011
4:15 pm

“And on the Phoenix blogs, they want Marvin and 2 First Picks for Nash…”

As well as Marvin has played the last few games, the Hawks would be insane not to do this. Combine this with my trade idea for T-Mac, Ben Wallace, Ramon Sessions, and Tayshaun Prince that I posted earlier, and you would increase the Hawks’ ceiling by a full playoff round.

Najeh Davenpoop

February 17th, 2011
4:16 pm

SteveW, can’t say I really disagree with any of that.

Najeh Davenpoop

February 17th, 2011
4:33 pm

Najeh Davenpoop

February 17th, 2011
4:34 pm

Much less realistic but would be amazing: http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=4ktb26g with two picks going to Phoenix

I’m surprised Phoenix fans think Nash’s trade value is that low, to be honest with you.

O'Brien

February 17th, 2011
4:37 pm

Steve W,

One mistake Rick made was giving Mo Evans a player option for a 3rd year, but he probably had to in order to convince Mo to sign with us (and not Golden State).

And another mistake was giving Bibby a 3rd year. Next year, he will be making $6.2 mil. That’s a lot of money to pay someone who is best suited as a backup PG for a playoff contender.

I dont agree with the Marvin contract, but at least Rick can try and justify it by saying 1)Marvin was still young with lots of potential 2)He was coming off a very good year 3)He defends his position well.

And I dont think anybody expected ZaZa to decline right after signing his new deal.

O'Brien

February 17th, 2011
4:40 pm

Najeh,

If Phoenix was to trade Nash to the Hawks, I think they would want Marvin and Jamal for Nash and somebody else.

superiorblogman

February 17th, 2011
4:45 pm

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=4lf25mj

Add Teague or Jordan or a 2012 1st round pick

Feasible trade.

KevinM

February 17th, 2011
4:47 pm

And on the Phoenix blogs, they want Marvin and 2 First Picks for Nash

Kinda ironic isn’t it, that Phoenix wants 2 more #1 draft picks for one of the backcourt starters….last time Diaw went instead of predicting Marvin.

Nash doesn’t improve the defense; I wouldn’t do that trade. Nash isn’t worth what Joe Johnson was at a much younger age.

Phoenix should be content to get 1 #1 and a filler for Nash at this stage. They aren’t going to be in the playoffs as currently constructed.

And SteveW, we will continue to try to look like the Utah Jazz, only more limited than they have been since their big problem all these years has been the Lakers. We have had a problem with numerous teams and the list will be growing this playoff season.

tyger

February 17th, 2011
4:49 pm

Bigger question is what is the plan?

This ain’t working nor is it going to get any better. It’s beyond this player or that one.

What is the plan going forward?

Do you wait until the summer or blow it up now?

This current team may not make the playoffs. Certainly wont get out of 1st rd. and forget the 2nd.

KevinM

February 17th, 2011
4:58 pm

superior, I can safely say that Sund is the only GM who doesn’t use a computer these days. Billy King has probably seen the ESPN trade doctor and wouldn’t be obliged to give us 2 favorable salaries so we can get Harris and an expiring Humphries.
I wouldn’t think an extra #1 would do it either even if they could add it to entice Denver with it.

KevinM

February 17th, 2011
5:01 pm

You trade JC1, it should mean automatic major minutes for JC2, but I don’t see that coming together. JC2 is barely dressing now, so I wouldn’t expect to see him all of a sudden getting 25 mpg.
Moving JC1 doesn’t discount the minutes Bibby gets on the court. Larry would just throw JC2 and MAYBE Teague gets 10 minutes.

There are some serious questions once you eliminate JC1. Are we bringing Flip back for some bench scoring?

ag

February 17th, 2011
5:09 pm

I was looking at an interesting article in the Espn the Magazine, it showed area’s of the floor that team average %. It also gave the person with the highest percentage and the player with the lowest percentage. Two Hawks made the list! The Boss % at the top of the key is the best of all NBA players at over 65%. JJ made the list twice. First, from the corner 3pt (less than 24%), and the 3pt shot right center (21%). If ESPN the Mag has this info – our coaching staff should as well.

lewis

February 17th, 2011
5:30 pm

Yeah, i’m really not sure how I feel about Sund being an old-school, no computer, no college basketball GM, who if I recall correctly from some article last year RELIES ON FREAKING @#$@$ @)(8 HOOPSHYPE for trade rumors and news around the league. Not that I have anything against hoopshype, its a great resource for hardcore fans. Just not GM’s. I mean, my dad can barely send an e-mail but he runs a very successful real estate company. I do think there is something to be said for not letting the media influence one’s opinions when it comes to personnel decision, but Hoopshype, Sund, Hoopshype?

Sund is old-school, he doesn’t do anything fancy. He’s doing what the owners are asking him to do, and that’s to run this team on the cheap.

Sautee

February 17th, 2011
5:45 pm

KevinM,

If we trade JC1, then automatically Marvin goes to 6th man just to have scoring off the bench. We could start Damien at SF (which I’d be ok with).

Sautee

February 17th, 2011
5:48 pm

lewis,

If Sund doesn’t use a computer, then how does he read Hoopshype Rumors?

LOL!

lewis

February 17th, 2011
5:53 pm

Not sure, this is Rick Sund we’re talking about here. He admits to reading hoopshype and not having a computer on his desk.

Sautee

February 17th, 2011
5:59 pm

He could not have a computer on his DESK, but have it on a credenza behind him.

I mean, c’mon, it’s GOT to be somewhere if he reads Hoophype, right?

I think way too much is being made of his “style”. Like it matters, as long as he does his job. People will find something to b!tch about, no matter what.

And anyway his hands are tied unless Mikey has a change of heart about the “core”.

lewis

February 17th, 2011
6:09 pm

Lol his “style” –doing nothing in an attempt to maintain the status quo for teams unwilling to go into the Ltax (for 3 decades)

drmaryb (*_*)

February 17th, 2011
6:11 pm

Need 3 Tickets – Together!

If we could somehow get Kris Humphries hers, then Kim & Khloe Kardashian could sit behind the Hawks bench and cheer.

Now that is a show, I know the fans would come out to see.
The Boss is the only player this team has that could prolly get a “dime” and sit her in the stands. I heard Eva Longoria is freed up.
_________________________

Just Sayin’ … Since Sund isn’t trading for any roster talent, maybe the fellas can recruit their own fan base for home games.
Even MCI has a Friends & Family Plan.

Peter

February 17th, 2011
6:13 pm

Well Joe Johnson with another stellar “All-Start ” Type performance…..11 points…..gosh he fads so quietly in the bigger games.

Good thing he was paid all that money, so the team can’t improve. We have mediocre coming for years.

No center, no point, and no small forward…….wow 2 out of 5 is good ?

The Joke is the Spirit….they need to be run out of town with the Hockey team they messed up !

O'Brien

February 17th, 2011
6:14 pm

Rick said elite teams have homecourt advantage in the first round, and win the first round series. based on that, I think he may realize that the Hawks are not elite (after this playoffs is over).

I’m hoping we can win our first round matchup, but it is going to be a struggle (especially if we finish 5th).

myrak43

February 17th, 2011
6:28 pm

Jeff Teague has the potential to be a solid pg, but he needs playing time to develop. Playing time that he will never get in Atlanta. He needs to play for a bad team where he can get plenty of minutes. Where the Hawks are now, they can’t give Teague the minutes and wait on him to develop his game. We would loose to many games…… it would be beneficial for our future but not the pressent. the Hawks are not in rebuild mode. So we need to trade Teague somewhere where he can play. and in turn we need someone that is ready now. is it Sessions? I don’t know but he just dropped 30 and 8 on the lakers last night….. teague would never be able to do that right now. Sessions also average 8 ppg and 7.5 ast as a rookie with 26 minutes of play, Teague is not even ready to do that.

If we get Sessions as our starting point Bibby can come off the bench, we then can trade Teague for some front court help maybe revised that Jason Thompson trade. we would be a better team with more debth and a better starting five.

Sessions/Bibby
JJ/JC1
Smoove/Marvin/Wilkens
Horford/Powell
Thompson/ZaZa/Twin

Hell instead of only being one deep on the bench we are now three deep.

Looks like we can get sessions for a 2nd round pick and JC2. I say pull the trigger.