Horford ‘frustrated’ by progess following surgery
Vivlamore reporting from Hawks practice.
Al Horford said Thursday he is “frustrated” by his progress as he works to return from surgery to repair a torn left pectoral muscle.
The Hawks All-Star center went through a full-contract practice with the team.
“Today was the first chance I actually got to play 3-on-3 half-court with the guys and I’m not where I need to be,” Horford said following the workout. “I had a deadline in my mind that I wanted to be back by the last game of the regular season … but I’m not where I need to be. That is a little frustrating for me.
“I’m going to keep trying to work, but I’m not there yet.”
The Hawks have four games remaining in the regular season with the finale a week from today. Horford didn’t put a timetable on his return nor did he offer the chances he could return in time for the start of the playoffs. The postseason would begin for the Hawks either April 28 or 29. However, he made it clear he would continue to work in hopes of seeing the necessary improvements.
“It’s awkward just because this is only the third time I’ve played with contact,” Horford said. “Once you get moving and doing different stuff that is when you start to realize [how far you have to go] and I feel limited. Any chance we get to practice, I want to get in there. It’s hard because I can’t expect guys to come out and practice just for me. They play every other day. If we get a full practice I’m going to try to get out there and keep progressing.”
Horford said that while he has been working on his game during the rehabilitation process, it’s the physical condition of his shoulder and the nature of the NBA that is the biggest concern.
“When you play in the post you have to have a level of physicality and you have to naturally be able to bang with another player and I’m not confident doing things like that yet,” Horford said. “The other thing is really keeping [my left] arm above [my shoulder] for a certain period of time, that is another weak point for me. Keeping my hands up defensively and if I can’t do that, I’m going to be in trouble. The last thing I want to do is hurt the team.
“It’s very frustrating because I was doing everything on schedule, my rehab was going well. … It’s just tough.”
Hawks coach Larry Drew said Horford will continue to work with the team and that the decision on when he will be able to return rests with the center.
“When he tell us,” Drew said of Horford’s availability.
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204 comments Add your comment
Big Lou
April 20th, 2012
12:04 am
They will move to number one in the league in runs score after tonight.
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
April 20th, 2012
12:05 am
Granger is nowhere close to being a superstar. He can’t even make an All Star team without guysbgetting hurt. Gtfoh.
I overrated him too. He is a very good player. That’s all
doc
April 20th, 2012
12:23 am
cynicism
1. an attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others
2. a scornfully or jadedly negative comment or act
interesting
if the shoe fits
well
heh heh
easy to be jaded from atlanta and a fan of its sports teams, in fact it is too easy, maybe a sign of hopelessness or weakness.
.
a team i loved to watch from the first puck drop, atlanta flames become the calgary flames and win the stanley cup. selah
a hung slider
a db goes for a walk on the wild side
bird again and again
the abl
pistol blows a knee and he was a superstar.
henry never gets anyone around him
asg becomes basg
the list goes on
easy to be weak
Grandmaster JeJe (GM)
April 20th, 2012
12:28 am
drmaryb.(*_*).
April 19th, 2012
11:29 pm
Boston gets Sean Williams.
Hawks should waive Damp and grab the best D-League PF/C available. Maybe Sund can pull a name out of Ivan to help us for the post season.
LinkReport this comment
****
You think Sund is going to stress himself out by finding some scrub to replace Erick WaHo?
smh, Miss Mary
doc
April 20th, 2012
12:33 am
stevew @8:14
the basg says this is about entertainment as the goal without the superstar supposedly putting the emphasis on the team
george karl is into developing a new model to compete to wn the big prize and cares nothing about the entertainment aspect
and i still shudder at how poorly the hawks were managed to get to this point. the issues are primarily there.
as i said to begin he season as i falsely predicted a win total of 33-36 wins we continue to slide down the scale. if boston wins then i might get the second part of it right because we are again fifth but i would give the hawks little chance against boston in seven without home court.
Najeh Davenpoop
April 20th, 2012
1:08 am
Hornets are 6-2 this season when Eric Gordon plays. Whoever gets him in free agency is going to improve by a lot. The Pacers have the cap room to make it happen, and if they do they will be scary.
vava74
April 20th, 2012
1:58 am
We stand little to no chance against the Celtics.
Our only real hope is that age becomes a factor and the injury bug hits them.
They MUCH MUCH better coached than we are and they have championship pedigree:
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/kevin-garnett-thanks-media-pathetic-articles-lousy-analysis-182047567.html;_ylt=AqA8LiqpV8NYj71JLCot_4.8vLYF
These guys are determined, resilient and confident.
Unless injuries derail them, we will lose to them.
I think it will be a close series (not worse than 4-2) but we will come out losers.
vava74
April 20th, 2012
2:10 am
On Horford:
The Truth had a very good post on the subject. As I said, I am not necessarily in full agreement, but it contains a very strong angle on the subject.
My “disagreement” is that I am even more critical of Al than Truth is and I really doubt that Al has the cojones to go back into the paint.
His overall demeanor has indeed went the soft path and sincerely, I don’t think he will revert back to Boss Al under Drew.
I think that much of Boss Al’s past toughness came from his coach at Florida (Donovan) and from playing with Noah who is simply electric.
Drew is an enabler, which happens to be the good formula, IMO, for Josh’s recent evolution who needed and deserved to become the Hawks’ focal point on offense.
Since Drew – somehow by default, due to injuries – enabled that Josh became and remained as the offense’s focal point, Josh’s focus has improved and his effort levels within games and from game to game became a lot more stable.
AJ will disagree with me, but as a boss/coach you need to lead your personnel with a mix between setting up a rule AND understand that people need some personalized “adjustments”.
A hard line stance on a given instruction does not work with everyone, in particular in a league where coaches are not seen by players as their “bosses”.
On this subject:
Teague’s self confidence is shaky, he needs pampering and a good coach would have pampered him and built his confidence.
Woody and LD shattered his confidence.
Another example on how mentally weak Teague is – in my opinion, he wasn’t when he came into the league – since he airballed that 3 at the buzzer against the Celtics, his 3 point shot is COMPLETELY OFF when previously he was hitting those shots at close to .400.
He has taken that “that guy is nobody” take from Garnett to his heart and he has completely lost his mojo from the outside.
This will also be a factor in the playoffs. I very much doubt that Teague will not sulk and shrink against BOS.
vava74
April 20th, 2012
2:18 am
Forgot to make a conclusion on the first part of the previous post:
Since LD is an enabler, I don’t think he will have a good influence in curbing Horford’s softness and his “enabling” ways will lead to a conflicting roles between Horford and Josh.
Josh has superior offensive skills and should continue to have more shots – that is essential for him to be motivated.
Al should be using his superior mobility to go back to snatching offensive rebounds and getting his points out of garbage plays.
Yes, Horford midrange is very good, but that was a byproduct of slow scouting – everyone was leaving him wide open.
Horford’s mid range shots can still be a feature in our offense BUT at a much smaller rate since defenses will close him out, as last year’s playoffs proved to satisfaction.
With the rock in Josh’s hands down low, he would have three good options:
1. Force a shot over double/triple teams in the post with Al working the offensive boards.
2. Pass to JJ for perimeter shots out of the double teams.
3. Pass to Al for elbow shots out of the double teams.
Al does not and will not command double teams. That makes him AT BEST a #3 option on offense.
Given Josh 20 shots per, JJ between 14 and 18 and let Teague and Al fight for being the #3 option (I would prefer that Teague gets more touches).
drmaryb.(*_*).
April 20th, 2012
7:33 am
Too Much Good Stuff!
Vava74 is on FIYAH!!! Nice work, comments and insights all the way around. I’m glad you’re a Hawks fan.
drmaryb.(*_*).
April 20th, 2012
7:36 am
Vava! We need your brother – Zaza.
Ha Ha … That rhymes.
Let’s Go Hawks! 89-84 Hawks 2Nite
Admiral Snackbar
April 20th, 2012
7:37 am
“Boston is going to be a division champion. A non-division championship team with a record better than a division champion (or champions, plural) can be seeded higher — but just the single winningest non-division champion can do that under NBA rules. The Hawks are three games behind the No. 3 Pacers (40-22), who have won six straight but cannot catch their division-leading Bulls.”
hawks ain’t the single winningest non division winner, we are number 2 so we can’t get home court against the Celts.
Admiral Snackbar
April 20th, 2012
7:42 am
if the coach has to mollycoddle Josh to get him to play then Josh should be traded while he has value.
Grandad
April 20th, 2012
7:54 am
vava
You are way overstating the case for what is a
“coach`s job description”.
A coach has no control over a player`s personality.
It has been way overstated about LD`s ruinng Teaguer`s confidence.
[I`ll come back to that.]
Personally, my opinion all the folderol about Al`s softness
has been overstated as well.
Butr to address Al`s softness, one last time, here goes:
when that coward and bush league, plus downright dirty Blake Griffin;
took that cheap shot on Al … what ? two yrs ago … I think that has
left a psychchological scar on Al.
Upon which he has yet to overcome. Now this surgery in addition
will be another hurdle to overcome.
Now this is me doing nothing more than being Dr Phil just as you
have been doing. My theory holds just as much water.
I said I would come back to Jeff Teague.
Wdsn did the most damage to Teague because the young man
is / was fragile to begin with.
He is meek by nature. No coach ruined him.
Perhaps some coach one day may motivate him better than another
but no coach can alter a kid`s personality.
A person`s basic personality is what it is.
My hope is that Al can overcome his trauma.
Grown men sinking to calling other grown men petty names
that debase their manhood is puerile at best, mean spirited at worst.
O'brien
April 20th, 2012
7:54 am
Truth,
So the offense shifted to featuring AL in a pick-and-pop role that he embraced..
Al has never been featured. Only JJ and now Josh has been featured.
But for the man in the middle main responsibilities, his first priority should be defending the paint, blocking shots, rebounding and other related intangibles..
It depends on the makeup of the team, and the type of player. Not all centers are created equally.
Al is not the shot blocker or help defender) that Josh is, but he plays good defense on his guy . And, let’s not forget that Al was playing with guys like Bibby and Jamal on the perimeter. How would Al’s defense have looked playing a full season with Teague defending the PG? I think his defense would improve.
O'brien
April 20th, 2012
7:58 am
AJ,
It might be a few picks early, but a project center the Hawks could take is Fab Melo from Syracuse. 7′, 250 lbs. Draft Express has him at #28.
Najeh,
Isn’t Eric Gordon restricted though? If he is, I dont think N.O. will let him get away. But the Pacers would be scary if they could sign him.
drmaryb.[*_*].
April 20th, 2012
8:02 am
West Coast!
Suns and Utah are dead locked for the 8th seed, looks like the Suns win the tie breaker:
33 – 30 (.524) Last 10 Games: 6 – 4
I hope Utah knocks the Suns outa’ there, so the Hawks move up a spot for the 2nd round pick. With the draft being so deep, perhaps we can find a sleeper pick there. Knowing Sund, he will sell that pick for cash to line ASKG pockets just a little deeper. They need a digital scoreboard.
drmaryb.(*_*).
April 20th, 2012
8:18 am
OB
Nice counter point re: Horfy’s role in the past with Bibby around and, what could have been With MVT.
Also, I hope you are right about Fab Melo falling to #28, we sure could use a big man project at that size. Fire Van Exel and get a big man coach in here. I like where we are at with Al, Zaza’s emergence with fair PT and, MVT @ point.
We have found some strengths through all the injuries, especially with Josh’s step up to another level plays. Josh has a few more notches he can improve upon with his shot selection. However. his 16′ rainbows look very solid to me from the 45 degree angle around the arc.
Have to give coach Drew a shout out for managing all the volatile personalities on this team: TMac, Josh and Ivan. We must admit that Joe is low-maintenance from a personality perspective.
Hope Kirk. Parg, Green and Vlad steps up in the post season. I’m not worried about TMac, he always takes his time and makes the right play, defends, rebounds, passes and scores.
vava74
April 20th, 2012
8:55 am
Grandad,
LD said before training camp last year that Teague would be the starter and then went on the whole year barely giving him any chance to play.
He also was guilty of awarding Teague with DNP-CDs left and right AFTER good performances.
LD coaches scared and only injuries force him to make personnel decisions.
The only exception was Collins against ORL, but after a beat-down of biblical proportions during the previous year, only an full blown idiot would not try a different approach to Woody’s.
Teague’s college career indicates that he was the leader of his Wake Forest teams and the clips which are available on youtube are pretty telling of his fearless character before entering the league.
Teague’s THIRD game in this league was in LA against the Lakers. He almost single handedly brought us back into the game, capping his performance with a thunderous dunk on Lamar Odom.
12 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 1 TO in 16 minutes and 46 seconds.
Do you know what happened on the following game? DNP-CD
I am trying to get hold of Teague’s stats on that pre-season, but if memory serves me right, his numbers before a huge stinker against ORL to close the pre-season, were more or less in line with what he posted this year and last year during the CHI series.
Teague’s spirit has been hammered and broken down during 3 full years. The player we saw against CHI last year was always there.
This year LD has again tried to undermine him: when Kirk came back, completely out of sync, he started to sub Teague at the 6/7th minute mark regardless of how well he was playing.
We lost a substantial number of games during that period and if it wasn’t for JJ’s injury, forcing LD to again change the line up and introduce Hinrich as a SG we would still be watching LD taking Teague out by that same 6/7th minute mark.
vava74
April 20th, 2012
8:58 am
Oh, and for the people banking on Fab Melo dropping onto our laps, forget it.
No 7′ with perceived talent/skill/potential drops that far.
I would go out on limb and say that he will not be selected below the 14th pick even without looking at mock drafts and knowing who is ahead of him theoretically.
vava74
April 20th, 2012
8:59 am
drmaryb,
thank’s for the props. I should have re-started from there, but I was not polite enough to do it.
i hope you forgive me!
vava74
April 20th, 2012
9:04 am
One final note, before I go back into work mode:
We need to take the risk and get T-Mac as many minutes as possible during these final games.
Apart of the risk of him breaking down, we have to consider the potential benefits coming from those extended minutes:
a) He would get his playing legs going;
and most importantly,
b) His name would become visible again (if he performed well), so he could get the calls and respect from the refs during playoff time.
Basically, T-Mac is still playing, but psychologically for the refs he is “out of the league” so he is not getting ANY calls going on his favor.
He has been consistently hacked and whacked when he drives and getting less than 1/3rd of the calls he should be getting.
That would change if he managed to average on or around 15ppg for this final leg, playing 25 minutes per.
O'brien
April 20th, 2012
9:13 am
Rick Sund live on 790 the zone right now.
doc
April 20th, 2012
9:32 am
o’b didnt catch much of it but rick was on 680 yesterday. the last time i think he was on was when they were heading into february 10 games over .500 and saying LD reminded him of nate mcmillan in his first year stating the obvious, he hired a rookie. guess they are trying to build up some advertising visibility and cred before the playoffs. yeah, right! oops, there i go being cynical again when it comes to the basg, always.
o’b share any tidbits bro.
Astro Joe
April 20th, 2012
9:47 am
vava, you’re right, I have very little sympathy for the weak-minded and emotionally insecure. Step up or step off would be my answer to it all (or get some meds).
Folk want Al to be something he is not. He isn’t the super-athlete to be able to overcome his smallish stature compared to other true centers. Yet, he still has been effective against guys like Lopez and Hibbert in the past. So instead of trying to be Amare or Dwight and fail to simply jump over guys, he has worked on other parts of his game. His low-post game hasn’t come as far as his mid-range game, but he clearly has worked at it. And because he is a terrific passer and makes very good decisions in general, you can feed him the ball in the low post and run half-court sets through him. That doesn’t mean he will rule the paint like Al Jefferson or Z-Bo, but it does mean that the TEAM has a good chance of scoring out of that set. His shot blocking skills are average. Most teams don’t want to have two weak side defenders because it will potentially leave 2 players cutting to the basket (when those guys are left by the weak side defenders). I think Al could post more blocks but with Josh on the floor, it makes little sense to have Al do what Josh does so well.
Al’s problem is that he isn’t quite big enough, athletic enough or tough enough. meanwhile, he still routinely produces 14/10 as the team’s 3rd (or 4th) scoring option. He is one of the best pick and roll defenders in the league because of his agility and quick feet. Again, I’m not sure what dude needs to apologize for… not being some hybrid of Ben Wallace, Shawn Kemp and Karl Malone?
Najeh Davenpoop
April 20th, 2012
9:51 am
“when that coward and bush league, plus downright dirty Blake Griffin;
took that cheap shot on Al … what ? two yrs ago … I think that has
left a psychchological scar on Al.”
I was at that game and I didn’t think it was that much of a cheap shot. It was a hard foul, but Al had a wide open lane for a game-winning layup and Griffin was out of position. What was Griffin supposed to do, let him score?
I mean, Griffin takes a cheap shot like that literally every game, and it hasn’t affected him psychologically. If Al is still thinking about that, he is softer than a baby’s ass. For that matter, if decapitating TJ Ford is the reason he doesn’t consistently come over from the weak side to try to block shots anymore, he is softer than a baby’s ass.
Astro Joe
April 20th, 2012
9:52 am
OB, I know the name (And a great one at that) but I have only seen highlights of Syracuse on TV. But he sounds like the kind of project center worth drafting.
Mary, the Hawks DO have a big man coach, his name is Tyrone Hill. Now, are you suggesting that a former player who probably never averaged 14 points in the league may not be the ideal tutor on how to score in the low post (at least he is better than Alton Lister)? Well, according to some around here, position coaches don’t do anything anyway…. skills are developed exclusively by playing in real games.
O'brien
April 20th, 2012
9:58 am
Some good stuff from Rick Sund’s interview.
1) They relived the Boston-Hawks series from ’08, and he gave major props to the crowd for helping lift the players.
2) His opinion…very unlikely that Al will have a Willis Reed moment this playoff
3) Looking at the last 4 or 5 NBA champions, they all had one of the oldest benches in the league. So he didn’t want the Hawks to have guys who would take 3-4 years to develop, and hav to rely on them in the playoffs. They wanted vets who can help now. And although they liked Jamal, they needed more depth.
4) He is pleasantly surprised at what Stackhouse has done (off the court and on the court).
O'brien
April 20th, 2012
9:59 am
The most interesting comments (to me) from Rick.
5) Didn’t talk much about Josh Smith trade rumors. But he is not a big believer in mid-season trades. However, he thought the Hinrich trade was necessary, and thought Hinrich played well last year.
6) He checks box scores from around the league, and he does take notice of certain guy’s stat lines, like JC1 and JC2.
7) They asked abut Howard trying to get SVG fired, and the relationship between coach and GM. He gave an interesting example. He said during Teague’s rookie year, he wasn’t ready to play. But he went to Woody and asked him to play Teague a certain amount of minutes every home game (if possible), because young/bench players tend to play better at home, and it could help in his development. And he said Woody obliged (although he didn’t have to).
Najeh Davenpoop
April 20th, 2012
9:59 am
For the record, I don’t think Al’s offensive game becoming more perimeter oriented is a result of that Griffin foul as much as it is a result of his jumper developing at a much faster rate than his low post game. To be honest, I don’t even have a huge problem with him being a better version of Ryan Anderson offensively, which is basically what he was last year. Sh-t, if he can extend his range out to the 3 point line, he would complement Josh pretty nicely and be in position to use his quickness to take people off the dribble more often.
My beef with him is more on the other end of the floor, where he doesn’t help on D enough and doesn’t play physically enough. The Hawks’ D is better this year than it was last year, and while Zaza isn’t the main reason, the fact that he plays with more physicality than Al has helped. A bench player who by and large didn’t do sh-t for the last two seasons shouldn’t come in and be an upgrade over an All NBA player in any respect. If Al can get back to being Boss Al on D, I don’t even really mind his offensive game being centered around jump shooting.
Najeh Davenpoop
April 20th, 2012
10:01 am
“Looking at the last 4 or 5 NBA champions, they all had one of the oldest benches in the league. So he didn’t want the Hawks to have guys who would take 3-4 years to develop, and hav to rely on them in the playoffs. They wanted vets who can help now. And although they liked Jamal, they needed more depth.”
Smart move on his part. He deserves props for this. Then again, some of those vets on the bench could have been better players if he didn’t paint himself into the corner where he only had minimum salary contracts to hand out.
drmaryb.(*_*).
April 20th, 2012
10:03 am
Thanks OB.
Astro Joe
April 20th, 2012
10:09 am
OB, I heard the thing about Woody playing Teague during home games before. And also about older benches. It makes even more sense when you factor in the lack of practice time during this crazy season (not that practice helps individual players…HA… but at least it allows guys to figure out where they are supposed to be in offensive/defensive sets). I liked our bench from the start… several players capable of being at least average on both sides of the floor… something we haven’t seen around here sense forever. I’m still looking for my boy Vlad-Rad to ignite during a playoff game… Vlad will “make it rain” before all is said and done.
SLAM ONLINE | » Al Horford ‘Frustrated’ With Slow Recovery from Surgery
April 20th, 2012
10:16 am
[...] his self-imposed deadline as he seeks to rejoin the Atlanta Hawks prior to the NBA Playoffs, and it’s not sitting well with him. Reports the AJC following Horford’s first full-contact workout with the team post-surgery to [...]
doc
April 20th, 2012
10:17 am
well then, i hope to be singing in the rain, aj. hopes are not up though.
vava74
April 20th, 2012
10:52 am
“I mean, Griffin takes a cheap shot like that literally every game, and it hasn’t affected him psychologically. If Al is still thinking about that, he is softer than a baby’s ass. For that matter, if decapitating TJ Ford is the reason he doesn’t consistently come over from the weak side to try to block shots anymore, he is softer than a baby’s ass.”
Unfortunately, I think this is the case. Al is simply too nice and outside the martial environment Donovan implemented and away from Noah’s perpetual hustle, he is simply settling within his innermost nature.
Grandad
April 20th, 2012
10:53 am
vava
My points will stand as stated about Teague;
your points are valid as well,
I do not care to go `round & `round over that topic.
Slimjr
April 20th, 2012
11:04 am
Robotus help defense is absolutely atrocious!
He is one of the main reasons why this squad has an abyssal record of 2-12 (.143) in the 2nd round!
Grandad
April 20th, 2012
11:16 am
Najeh
You were at the game, I was not. [Griffin v Horford]
I did see it live on telecast 7 many times thereafter in review.
* note – Al`s toughness was championed on the blog by many
that eve due to his resolute character and mettle geting off the deck,
converting both FTs thereby winning the game.
On another matter:
Blake Griffin is a bush League, cheap Shot, Dirty Player.
A cowardly, faux tough guy who also fakes injuries, flops,
and hides behind his buddy DeAndre Jordan or ‘`Real`’ Tough guy
Reggie Evans. He dunks on people mocks them and whines & pouts
when he gets a touch foul.
Yet he never fouls anyone ….. noooooooooooo !
His rep around the league is – he`s a dirty player.
I`ve read numerous articles concerning such
& no I have not documented as I didn`t think
I was going to need to do so.
Slimjr
April 20th, 2012
11:16 am
His only weapon, the set shot from mid range is easily neutralized in the 2nd rd because he’s not given wide open looks anymore so essentially he becomes a liability and now other more skilled teammates have to take up the slack for this Allstar/AllNBA player.. Sad…
You notice when he played a full season last year he was involved in some of the biggest blowout losses.. Mike Bibby was addressed.. This guy should be addressed too when he returns..Playing this very limited offensively skilled player at the 4 will have disastrous complications.. He could probably could be used to acquire high draft picks..He cant take you to the ECF..
We have seen this B4?
Grandad
April 20th, 2012
11:17 am
vava
Fab Melo may drop to the 2nd round
Think:
Hasheem Thabeet
Grandad
April 20th, 2012
11:25 am
Mary Ellen
We do not want Fab Melo:
*Andrew Nicholson … St Bonnie
*Kyle 0`Quinn … Norfolk St.
*Henry Sims … Georgetown
*Festus Ezeli … Vandy
** Each of these would be better choices !
- @ our Hawks drafting position -
Please NO … fab melo = hasheem thabeet
Ken Strickland
April 20th, 2012
11:26 am
NAJEH DAVENPOOP-If one accepted your analogy on Horford and the qualities you think would make him as soft as a baby’s ass, then you’d have to say Wilt Chamberland was also as soft as a baby’s ass. It was widely known that he had an issue about hurting players, which is why he never got physical, and never retaliated in anyway when players were overly physical with him.
I also remember when a world class boxer named Emile Griffith was destined to be one of the greatest boxers ever, until he beat Bennie THE KID Parrett so badly that he died in the ring. He was never the same once he lost his killer instinct. Would you call him a soft ass for that? Would you call Ali a soft ass because he’d often waved for the ref to stop the fight because he didn’t want to continue hitting an opponent after it was apparent he wasn’t fighting back?
Night in and night out, no other Hawks player has to contend with anywhere close to the number of disadvantages that Horford does. He usually goes up against centers that are taller, bigger, stronger, or all of the above, on a routine basis. Even with all of these consistent disadvanges, he has still managed to not only hold his own, but perform at an ALLSTAR and ALLPRO level. I don’t know of any soft asses, especially at OC, that can function at that level.
It’s funny when you think of how many Hawks fans were clamoring for us to sign Shaq when he was a FA. The same big, strong, physical Shaq who missed so many gms do to injuries that other players play through routinely. In fact, that was the cause of the rift between he and Kobe. Shaq wouldn’t play through a sprained thumb, toe, when Kobe was playing through fractured and broken bones. I guess Shaq was a soft ass as well.
Rusty
April 20th, 2012
11:34 am
Vava 74 great insight,I agree with your views on LD, JT & TMac.
The Truth
April 20th, 2012
11:45 am
“Al has never been featured. Only JJ and now Josh has been featured.” – OB
That’s not “The Truth”. In LD offense while Al played, Al was a scoring option in pick-and-pop plays. If that was not the case, then how have learned about Al improved mid-range game. by accident?
“But for the man in the middle main responsibilities, his first priority should be defending the paint, blocking shots, rebounding and other related intangibles.” – The Truth
“It depends on the makeup of the team, and the type of player. Not all centers are created equally.” – OB
So if the things I mentioned aren’t part of a center main responsibility, than what are? Please enlighten us
The Truth
April 20th, 2012
11:48 am
^If that was not the case, then how have we learned about Al improved mid-range game. by accident?^
vava74
April 20th, 2012
11:50 am
Grandad,
I was not commenting on Fab Melo’s worth. Never seen him play, not even on youtube clips.
My comment was about how high 7′ with perceived talent/skill are picked and that he would not fall so far in the draft order.
Thabeet is an example that actually goes in favor of my argument: the list of crappy 7′ picked high in the first round is big enough to make a human belt around the globe.
Unless Fab Melo completely sucks in his try outs, there will be certainly a GM on #5 to #10 which will take a flier on him.
KevinM
April 20th, 2012
11:53 am
New blog by Viv…..http://blogs.ajc.com/hawks/2012/04/20/pachulia-out-versus-celtics/?cp=1#comment-292644
Astro Joe
April 20th, 2012
11:53 am
The Truth, in March, Josh averaged around 20 FGAs/game. Joe usually averages around 15. Al, has only reached 13 in a month once. And he went for soemthing like 17/12 that month. I think that is what OB means by “featured”. Al, last year, was 4th in FGAs behind Joe, Jamal and Josh. So while he gets FGAs, he certainly isn’t “featured”.
Folk want himt o play differently but differently may not translate into more effectively.
Rod from College Park
April 20th, 2012
11:55 am
” A bench player who by and large didn’t do sh-t for the last two seasons shouldn’t come in and be an upgrade over an All NBA player in any respect.”
Totally Agree.
“Night in and night out, no other Hawks player has to contend with anywhere close to the number of disadvantages that Horford does. He usually goes up against centers that are taller, bigger, stronger, or all of the above, on a routine basis. Even with all of these consistent disadvanges, he has still managed to not only hold his own, but perform at an ALLSTAR and ALLPRO level. I don’t know of any soft asses, especially at OC, that can function at that level.”
No one on this team deals with more defensive responsibility, or mismatches than Josh Smith. Josh has guarded everything from top notch 2 guards to centers. Al is scared of Dwight Howard, and wants nothing to do with him, Josh is not. Al is a good man to man defender, but his help defense is not good at all. Even though a lot of centers are bigger than Al, he has the quickness and agility qualities that balance the size difference out. Simply put, he had just become soft.