Fourteen games in, the Hawks have already stopped trying
Pretty much sums this one up, wouldn't you say? (AP photo)
Let’s see. Who else have they got on that bench? Bob Bender? He’s been a Hawks’ assistant since 2004 — hey, that pitch worked for Larry Drew — and Bender played under Bobby Knight. Why not give him a shot? Or maybe Lester Conner. At least he played D in his playing days. Or maybe Wally Blase, who’s technically the trainer, but at this point who really cares?
It took the Hawks six years to stop listening to Mike Woodson. It has taken one month for them to tune out his successor. To say the effort the Hawks gave against the Boston Celtics on Monday night was amateurish is to discredit the concept of amateurism and to distort the meaning of “effort.”
Said Larry Drew, the head coach: “Very embarrassing. Very, very embarrassing. Very embarrassing. If I had to sum it up in one word: Embarrassing.”
Drew’s team trailed by 26 points after one quarter. The Celtics, who played Sunday in a different country and who started four men who’d been in the NBA for at least a dozen years, scored 39 points in 12 minutes and made 18 of 25 shots. If you’ve ever wondered how a basketball game would look if one team was prohibited from guarding the other, here it was.
“Embarrassing,” said Josh Smith, invoking the word of the night. Then: “It was like they hit us with one knockout punch and we had the glass jaw in the fight.”
The Hawks are 8-6 after starting 6-0. They’ve lost five home games. (Since you asked, their first home loss of last season came on Thanksgiving night.) Of those eight victories, none have come against a team that holds a winning record. Once the Hawks started playing somebody capable of beating them, they pretty much stopped playing. On Monday they stopped trying.
The team that won 53 games and took the No. 3 seed in the NBA East last season managed 10 first-half rebounds and zero steals. That’s one rebound every two minutes and 24 seconds and no steals over 24 minutes. As any coach will tell you, rebounds and steals reflect effort. Or, in this case, the absence thereof.
Written in blue letters on a whiteboard adjacent to the Hawks’ practice court were these words: “Hustle will dominate.” It did. The older team ran the younger one off the younger team’s court. In spring 2008 the Hawks took Boston to seven games in Round 1 of the playoffs, and in 2009-2010 they swept the Celtics 4-0 in the regular season. On this night the older team scored its 77th point with 5:04 left in the third quarter; if Boston hadn’t scored again, it still would have won.
Oh, yes. Almost forgot. The Celtics were missing two starters, including the Hawk-killer Rajon Rondo.
Said Drew: “What I see with our team right now, I don’t feel good about.”
Then: “I’ve got to find out what’s going on with our players.”
Here’s what: The Hawks succeeded in getting the nice-guy assistant promoted to head coach, but there’s a reason players always lobby for the nice-guy assistant. Because they figure they won’t have to work as hard. And they aren’t. This marked the third time in a season not four full weeks old that the Hawks have lost at home to an opponent coming in off a game the previous day.
Woodson might have been a bit of a curmudgeon, but he tended to get guys’ attention. Drew was considered — at least by some in ownership — the kinder, gentler alternative with a better grasp of tactics, but it doesn’t matter what X’s and O’s you sketch if nobody pays attention.
Said Al Horford: “I feel like all the pieces are there. We’ve got good game plans. We’ve just got to play harder.”
And that’s frightening. The most professional player among Hawks already sees a team not trying hard enough. After 14 games under a new coach. Even if you believe the promotion of Drew was a wrong-headed move (and it was), he deserves better than this.
When Monday’s game began, a seat at center court was occupied by an increasingly infrequent patron. Ted Turner left at halftime. The team he used to own didn’t bother showing up.
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148 comments Add your comment
Is Sund still here ?
November 23rd, 2010
8:22 am
@ Mark Bradley please look below the surface for the truth. Sund is a disease in the front office, he needs to go. Pat Riley may have sold those guy on belief, but it is dumb to actually think anybody wants to be on a directionless team. I mean guys could go to New York for that or even New Jersey & be an idol. It seems this team is always missing something, but nobody out there wants to be that final ingredient, what are players really saying about this team around the NBA ???? Now if you want to write a real article Mark Bradley, why don’t you ask some of the visiting players, off the record, why this young squad is not worth joining !
dtanner
November 23rd, 2010
8:26 am
hate the hawks,hate the n.b.a., to dark for me, wish the hawks would move somewhere else
Is Sund still here ?
November 23rd, 2010
8:30 am
Hey Mark never mind, because as long as people like dtanner still live in ATL, the answer is right in front of me !
why try?
November 23rd, 2010
8:37 am
Are any of the hawks “studs” in the final year of their contract? Didn’t think so, now you see the results.
Reggie Rooker
November 23rd, 2010
8:45 am
3 game stat: Jamal Crawford-30 points (10 points per game), Joe Johnson-28 points (9.3 points per game), and Marvin Williams-19 points (6.3 points per game). The Hawks are looking more like the LA Clippers every game, they don’t look like a playoff team and maybe they should package a deal with Jamal Crawford and Marvin Williams because this just is not working out.
Westurd
November 23rd, 2010
8:48 am
ASG I want a refund on my tickets. You’re product is broken and you have no plans on fixing it!
Last nights game ended with the jump ball. I am still disgusted. DISGUSTED. It was like watching the girls JV team play the means Varsity team!
FIRE LARRY DREW
November 23rd, 2010
8:54 am
FIRE LARRY DREW
Bell
November 23rd, 2010
8:58 am
The Hawks are a bunch of boys not men. Their problems deal with their character. The talent is there. Not trying is character.
dirty
November 23rd, 2010
9:00 am
i WAS AT THE GAME LAST NIGHT AND REALLY REALIZED HOW FOOLISH THE JOE JOHNSON DEAL WAS. THIS IS A UNIQUE TOWN. i HAVE BEEN TO AT LEAST 11 NBA ARENAS AND ATLANTA IS INDEED UNIQUE. UNFORTUNATELY, THE OWNERS AND GM ARE CLUELESS. THEY RUN THIS TEAM WITH THE SAME MODEL THEY WOULD USE IN MILWAUKEE, MEMPHIS AND MINNESOTA. ATLANTA NEEDS A ENTERTAINING PRESENCE ON THE FLOOR. THIS COULD BE A PACKED HOUSE WITH STARS LINING THE COURT NIGHTLY IF THE HAD SOMEONE TO SEE, ALA LABRON, DWADE, KOBBY, MELO (HINT,HINT). PEOPLE JUST DON’T COME TO SEE THE HAWKS. AT THIS POINT IF YOU ARE GOING TO LOSS DO IT WITH SOME PAZZAZZ.
yodaddy
November 23rd, 2010
9:00 am
Jeff Teague, Jordan Crawford, Mo Evans, Josh and Al should be the starters from now on. I’m tired of these overpaid players not worth the name on the back of their jerseys. Trade Joe Johnson for some draft picks…we need to start over and get some young boys in here that want to play. The type on the rookie scale contracts not the hard headed type.
I’d rather lose with a team that’s actually playing some basketball than to see people jog up and down the court and leave players on the best team in basketball wide open. Deviate from running the play constantly and show no effort to defend or rebound. It’s disgusting.
They have bought in to the offensive philosophy but the defensive philosophy they don’t even care about (in general and as a collective).
Jamal Crawford for Tayshaun Prince
Marvin Williams for a bag of Doritos, Season 4 of Sister Sister and a stack of envelopes
Joe Johnson for some draft picks
As a matter of fact just to get Joe outta here I would accept Eddy Curry or Peja’s expiring contracts since they play for teams not going anywhere anyway. At least we know eddy won’t give the facade of showing up to play for his money. We’ll have them off the books in the offseason. Lose enough games to get a lottery pick…hopefully get a high enough pick to get Kyrie Irving or Terrence Jones or really anyone with some heart and emotion to their games.
Mike Bibby & Zaza for anybody
Let Pape Sy (the most useless roster spot EVER), Etan, Powell and Collins expire.
Permanent trading block should be
Joe Johnson
Zaza Pachulia
Marvin Williams
Mike Bibby
Jamal Crawford
Jason Collins
Etan Thomas
Pape Sy
D Hawks
November 23rd, 2010
9:00 am
As pathetic as this team looks right now, the Hawks still have the fourth best record in the conference, they’re tied with mega-payroll Miami and only 2 games out of the East lead. So there is no need to panic yet, but it’s obvious that this team is a long way from being what they need to be to move further in the playoffs. I think some kind of personnel move is needed, because these guys seem to be too comfortable with themselves and their coach right now. They are learning a new system, and time will tell if this coach has the you-know-what’s to rip somebody a new one every now and then. I picked them sixth in the conference preseason and I still see them being that team, but I was hoping that they would surprise me. If they are still playing this way after 25 games, then it’s time to panic.
Reid Adair
November 23rd, 2010
9:08 am
Of course they’ve stopped trying. Ownership stopped trying when their only free-agency move was the mistake of giving Joe Johnson a max contract. Despite their claims that they weren’t finished in free agency, which were reported repeatedly by Michael Cunningham, they were finished – and so is this team for 2010-11.
shannon
November 23rd, 2010
9:09 am
Arthur Blank ,if your listening please buy this team.. It has potential it justs needs someone wit ha brain to operate it. ASG does not know how to do that.. Hiring Larry Drew was the funniest thing they did all season.. It took them the whole season almost to hire Larry drew really? lol
Please Trade Marvin Williams or at least sit him down..HE IS NOT A STARTER BY ANY MEANS
newkid
November 23rd, 2010
9:11 am
If it’s even the slightest inkling of a prospect of brighter ownership days ahead, hands down the absolute best news out of the Hawks organization I’ve heard in six years is that Ted Turner attended last night’s game. Now if David McDavid does a cameo over the next couple weeks, maybe we’ll have a scoup.
Next stop: let’s get rid of that atrocious talent evaluation department.
bascogcjs
November 23rd, 2010
9:11 am
Marvin Williams and Nate McLouth, the carnival act are two peas in a pod. They seriously lack it upstairs. They should both be shipped out today. How in the h— can they justify receiving a pay check?
Do you think they feel a little weird when they make a bank deposit?
Hawks73
November 23rd, 2010
9:14 am
The hiring of L.D. was a complete joke by this inept excuse for an ownership group. They have done nothing to improve the foundation of this roster (by adding much needed pieces) and hired the path of least resistance in Drew (because he was cheap and would comply with the idiocy up top).
We were all screaming for a “proven coach” that would have the ability to light a fire under this team and get them to compete at a championship level, and we get a guy who is clearly not the right voice. Drew while being a true professional, does not command the respect/voice needed to compel these overpaid idiots to work for something greater than “getting paid”.
Terence
November 23rd, 2010
9:15 am
I gave up on the Hawks years ago, and haven’t paid a penny to see them. There are many many better ways to spend my entertainment dollars.
Let these sorry good-for-nothing millionaires make their bucks off someone else, but not me.
SECWasteManagement
November 23rd, 2010
9:18 am
Went to the game last night with some friends and we just happened to be sitting next to Josh Smiths mom. She lays into Zaza harder than any Hawks fan I have ever heard!
ken
November 23rd, 2010
9:20 am
I say again, JJ is a nice # 2 player but not a leader on the floor. If he was serious about winning it all , he would have taken less money like LJ , Wade, Bosh did to give them the best chance to sign quality players. This team has serious internal problems with petty jealosy as the number one issue and this starts with JJ. Shaq was able to see this and went to Boston and his choice has proven his wisdom. We could have easily signed Dampier who now goes to make Maimi better. This ownership group is just not serious about championship basketball and is content with mediocrity. This shows in what they did during the offseason which is next to nothing while everyone else passed them by.
richcat
November 23rd, 2010
9:20 am
werunthisstate… Hewitt needs to be fired and you damn well know it. Mark didn’t call for Richt’s head just stated the facts and you make your own opinion fair and balanced.
Now Drew has been thrown in the same hot seat. The Spirit( stupid owners) knew what they were doing when they hire him against the fans wishes. Now my Lord let them lose..I’m tired of this BS. You pay these guys millions and they play like kids street ball . I hope they lose every game till they sell the team.
FIRE PAUL HEWITT……hell yes! …. Give’em hell Mark!
JB
November 23rd, 2010
9:25 am
Who really cares about the Hawks ?? Why waste your time & money. Last time I went to a Hawks game was about 40 years ago when I had season tickets (primarily because of Pete Maravich). As soon as the Hawks traded away the ‘Pistol’, I wrote Pat Williams (then the General Manager) and told him that I would never again support the Hawks by attending games (or for that matter watch a Hawks game on TV). I have kept my word all these years.
SilentCC
November 23rd, 2010
9:26 am
Sure is nice to read stuff like this on a sport I don’t care about. Give me college ball any day.
Stoney
November 23rd, 2010
9:29 am
I think people should boycott Hawks games because it’s not fair what management and the players are giving the fans (nothing)…I mean all the real superstars took paycuts in order to bring in better players to try win championships. On the other hand, Hawks management is not trying to win a championship. They just want to put a competitive team on the court and that’s not fair to the fans. I don’t blame JJ for taking the money. If they were willing to pay me that amount, hell I would take it to. However, I do blame JJ for not suggesting he take a paycut so we can bring in some much needed help at center,point guard and a proven coach. I guess JJ is not playing to win championships either.
VolGuy
November 23rd, 2010
9:34 am
The Atlanta Spirit Group is a bad joke. How many years have they been dragging their ownership dispute through the courts. I suppose they don’t have any more to spend on a proven coach since they are spending so much on attorney fees. I have to admit that I wouldn’t go to a Hawks game if they were playing in my front yard, but I find it hard to believe that fans pay their hard earned money to watch a bunch of overpaid, mediocre players just going through the motions.
P.S. that other ASG team, the Thrashers is also a patchwork bunch who don’t stand a snowball’s chance of ever winning the Stanley Cup.
PMC
November 23rd, 2010
9:46 am
They look like they have taken their talents… to south beach.
Andy
November 23rd, 2010
9:52 am
This team was DOA before the season began. I really don’t care. The only thing interesting about the NBA is seeing how bad Miami is playing. Now THAT is embarrasing.
Bobby O
November 23rd, 2010
9:55 am
Wow, what a pitiful performance. Felt like we were back in the days of the 20-win season. Either fire the coach or fire the players. This team is going nowhere but in reverse really fast.
Time
November 23rd, 2010
10:13 am
It’s WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too early to talk about the team quitting or trying to get the coach fired. Rational and intelligent hoops fans knew there would be some growing pains in trying to go from years of a one on one offense to running the motion. Combine that with a couple early season shooting slumps and you get a middling 8-6 start. Which is still winning basketball. Same record as the vaunted Heat have. Give it some time people. By the time March rolls around they’ll be playing well and that’s all that really matters.
Craig
November 23rd, 2010
10:23 am
For those of you that want to go spend $$$ to watch this team, I would do the Dave Pamsey rule and put the $$$ you would spend into an emergency fund. Save it for the day when this organization gives a rats a** about winning the East. What a joke.
the murf
November 23rd, 2010
10:30 am
THWG
Ted M
November 23rd, 2010
10:35 am
Joe Johnson has only had 1 good game this year. Ugh oh…the Hawks may be 5 years away before they can even begin to assemble a championship team. Lets hope not…maybe its the hand… D’oh.
Ted M
November 23rd, 2010
10:41 am
Time – The Hawks have had the same core of players for a long time, they should be better even this early. 0-6 against viable teams is pathetic. Miami has at least beat Orlando & Phoenix.
After further review ... the Hawks are in really big trouble | Mark Bradley
November 23rd, 2010
10:44 am
[...] belief, but in the interest of fairness I’ve spent some of the subsequent hours reflecting on what I saw/wrote. (Other hours were invested in sleeping.) And in my reflection, I have asked myself: “Marky [...]
chris
November 23rd, 2010
10:48 am
Larry Drew was hired because the Hawks ownership won’t spend money. Sund said earlier this week that he didn’t make changes to this team because he felt it was too early. This group has hit its peak, and why won’t somebody just say “Look, we aren’t going to spend Money to make it any better. This is as good as we will get.”
When you can’t win at home its going to be a long year. This team won’t be as good as they were last year. When does the Grapefruit league start??? I dread football ending when NBA is all we have.
FedUp
November 23rd, 2010
10:48 am
I tried to watch some of the Hawks game last night and after they got down by about 30 points I looked at my wife and said No one on the team is trying and hustling with the exception of Hofford. It is amazing watching this team, talented yes, lazy yes, don’t care yes. Horrible to believe.
Of course NBA basketball as a whole has totally gone down hill the past decade any way. Yes there are the Bryants of the world, but that’s about it.
I wish we could go back to the days of Bird, Magic, Wilkens, Barkley, Malone, Malone, Jordan and the likes. They were true to the sport, not a bunch of LeBron’s running around for self gratification.
Is it Sunday yet so I can watch a real team play? Go FALCONS!
FedUp
November 23rd, 2010
10:51 am
BTW,
Does anyone care if there is an NBA lock out?
Does anyone care if there is a NFL lock out?
I doubt anyone except a small percentage would say yes on the NBA. I would say a LARGE majority would say yes on the NFL. Heck for that purpose MLB would win out over the National Bully League.
OKSEE
November 23rd, 2010
10:58 am
“Congrats to Paul Hewitt and Mark Richt. Looks like Bradley’s attention will soon be diverted from trying to get you fired by starting to try and get Drew fired.”
FIRE ALL 3!!!!…and if PJ dont win on sat…kick his butt to the curb as well.
THIS IS ATLANTA…WE DESERVE BETTER.
just facts
November 23rd, 2010
11:09 am
it would be so discouraging to “start over” again. at least when the marlins blew up their teams they had championship rings to get them through until they were competitive again. this group of hawks has nothing to hang their hats on. i have followed the hawks since they played their games at GT so i have seen a lot of basketball. “players coaches” generally dont win championships. bobby cox is a prime example but look at bill belechik, vince lombardi, bobby knight, and phil jackson. lombardi was from a totally different era, knight from a kind of different era, but belechik and jackson are doing it right now and they are definitely not players coaches. i am not saying that what people refer to as “players coach” never wins, i am saying that the odds are against it and the facts prove it.
so many people will say that these are grown men and professional athletes and they should perform. what they are is a group of very wealthy young men who have never been told no by anybody. they were always the best of the team and have been treated as prima donnas and the majority of them cant handle what they have. if you think kobe bryant would be as great as he is if he had played for the succession of hawk coaches we have seen then you are crazy. it has always been said that a great coach could take his players and beat you and take your players and beat his. i know that is not always totally true but when you get the talent level that is in the NBA it is close. i think the current coaching staff of the hawks could takes their talent and lose to you and take your talent and lose to the hawks. it is gonna be a long winter.
Roundfield on Roundball
November 23rd, 2010
11:21 am
Trades have to be made … Josh Smith is all smoove and no smarts – he gone. ahright. ahright. ahright. Get a 1st round pick for him. Marvin Williams bustapotamus. He gone. ahright. ahright. ahright. Turning the franchise around and building to a series of 50 win seasons was nice. Now, the team is stale and selfish. The coach is on the cheap. The highlight factory is for let.
WHATTA SURPRIZE!!!
November 23rd, 2010
11:57 am
NOOOOBODY CARES!!!!!!!!!!! THE ASG (ALLTIME STUPID GROUP) DON’T SO WHY SHOULD WE!!!!!!
Drez
November 23rd, 2010
12:46 pm
I don’t think Drew is to blame. I think we have a group of players who are uninspired and play lazy defense. It’s obvious that they have no team chemistry and no leadership. If this team doesn’t show any improvement by January, Sund should break it up and trade whomever he can and start over. It’s one thing to lose and give it 100%, but it’s totally unacceptable to lose and not give any effort!
Dream On
November 23rd, 2010
12:53 pm
Here’s the deal! If the Falcons can go deep into the playoffs, or even the Super Bowl, that will get us to Late January or early February. Which will give us only a month before the Braves start spring training in March. Screw the Hawks!
tyger
November 23rd, 2010
4:41 pm
Bring Back Billy Knight!!!
1. All Hawks success is attributable to Billy Knight!!!
2. BK drafted Smoove, Horford, Marvin.
3. Traded for Bibby, JJ, ZaZa.
4. Hired Mike Woodson and Larry Drew.
5. Ended a 10yr. playoff drought.
6. Without him, Hawks imploding.
7. Sund has no vision or swagger.
8. Spirit stupid and broke.
9. Billy Knight is the Answer!
Fiddlin’ and Diddlin’ – Daily Links 11/23 | Basketball Online
November 24th, 2010
12:04 am
[...] in the Celtics Model? Rhymes with Hondo Boston 99, Atlanta 76 AJC Fourteen games in, the Hawks have stopped even trying Shaq picked Celtics over Hawks for better title shot Hawks no match for Celtics, lose 99-76 [...]
Boston Celtics Daily Links 11/23 | NBA Rock
November 24th, 2010
2:52 am
[...] 99, Hawks 76Hawks Cast in the Celtics Model? Rhymes with Hondo Boston 99, Atlanta 76AJC Fourteen games in, the Hawks have stopped even trying Shaq picked Celtics over Hawks for better title shot Hawks no match for Celtics, lose 99-76 Boston [...]
Igotitndallas
November 24th, 2010
2:02 pm
Watching the Dallas Cowboys during the Wade era and witnessing what happen to Woody in the ATL, it has become painfully clear that these ownerships cannot tell the difference between “over-achieving” and “under-achieving”. I’ll let you and your readers figure out which is which!
Atlanta Hawks - Page 54 - iSTORYA.NET
November 25th, 2010
8:51 am
[...] [...]
marquis james
November 25th, 2010
11:31 pm
why are they considered thugs????