tgunzz

He needs a coach to get him to understand his strengths and coach them up. But more importantly, a coach needs to get him to understand that he's not a do everything type player... atleast not yet. Then that coach needs to work on his fundamentals like he was training him to be a shao-lin monk.

Unless you are gonna bring tree rollins out of moth balls or give Woody's brain a defensive lobodomy, it won't help. Our scheme has holes and good teams exploit them consistently.

I actually think that we would have fared better if Ducan had played. Our post def is better than our pnr def. SAS would have fed the post more because TD was in the game and ran the pnr less. I'm not saying that we would have won, because SAS is a smart effecient team. But we would have been playing more from one of our strengths vs our weakness. Our switching def's achillies heel is spots 1-3 players who can get to the rack at anytime. Its been a problem for more than just this year.

I think you guys are overreacting on Bibby's defense. Tony Parker couldn't guard Tony Parker last night without help. Bibby's strength has never been defense but our defensive scheme doesn't help out either. The fact that Joe, Flip, and our bigs were getting crushed by TP and the pnr all night is proof. If Acie or even Speedy was completely healthly, they would have looked just as bad. The only time we really have been successful stopping this play was when we last played NO. The reason for that was, we switched less and we sagged in the middle to stop further penetration by the cp3. This is not our base defense. Our def breaks down anytime we play a team with a quick slashing type player at the 1 through 3 spots (spots were its tough to double), or we play a team w/ an effective pnr game. Its not just Bibby but Joe, mavin, mo, flip, and to some extent smoove get exposed by this scheme. Teams know that there is no clean up type big in the middle or timely help out def designed in our scheme. If you look back some of our games and focus off the ball on def, it'll be clear to you.

I agree with you but that's not what Woody was asking of the player guarding the PG today. Thats not how his base defense is set up. If it were, the bigs would hedged the pnr more allowing the guard time to get over the screen. A soon as the pick is set, we switch just about 100% of the time.

Acie wouldn't have helped. The player guarding TP wasn't asked to stay in front of him. We switiched on every PNR and TP scored the bulk of his points on this play. Its our kryptonite.

Outside of the freethrows, the players can't outplay a bad system (offensive and at times defensively) and the other team every night. Too much heavy lifting.

This loss was 100% on Woody and the coaching staff. Bibby maybe guarded Parker 4 times tonight. Joe, Flip, or Mario were the ones assigned to be destroyed by Parker tonight. But it wasn't their individual defense so much as it was Woody insane switching defenses that allowed Parker to win this game. This team is not build to have a switch at the PG spot - particullarly with a quick, penetrating PG. We don't have a defensive stopper at center to clean up the mess from this pnr switching. Everyone of the assigned targets(joe, flip, etc) switched with a big when parker ran the pnr and he made a play every time. It really wasn't parker being superman, but us not being smart or adaptive on defense. Mike Glenn said as much after the game. The real problem is not only that Woody seeing his team get abused this way, didn't make any changes at halftime, it's that he hasn't recognized that this has been happening all year. And it will continue to happen. Woody, that sound you continue to hear is your head banging against the same wall it has all year. Time to make a turn and maybe banging on a door or something.

Come on. We all knew that Bibby was hot and cold when we got him. This year he's been mostly hot. I think that this current cold streak is mostly due to being really effected with a bad flu bug. Bibby will be ready for the playoffs. If not with his personal offense, with his decsion making and stabalizing influence on the floor. That being said, his defense will still be a potential liability.

I would take your point if this winning streak were on the road. Hawks are much better at home. Also, chemistry is an elusive thing. Sometimes you can tie it to something directly, like a lineup change, and other times it is something more subtle, like one of your top players getting benched or a players only meeting. Who's to say it wasn't the dust settling from the Wood/ Smith blow up that caused the players to get more focused? Bottom line is that the squad is playing harder and are at home. I think its just a coincedence that its happening while Marvin is out.

The only thing that Mo adds is that "garbage game" (in a positive way) that Marvin doesn't. It allows the other players to focus on their games knowing that someone will be there to ATTEMPT to do the dirty work. Its kind of like what JChildress brought to the team, only Mo does it to a lesser extent. That being said, Marvin should remain the starter.

I lived in Boston when Patino drafted Chauncey Billups, the some of the same things that are being said about Acie were being said about Chauncey. That being, he should be playing at a higher level based on where he was drafted and how much potential he displayed in college. They were saying that he couldn't run a team as a PG, he was a 2 guard in a PG body, wasn't aggresive enough... blah, blah, blah. The only difference is that Chauncey had more PT. Patino still gave up on him. Look at him now, top 5 PGs in the league. I think that Acie as the skill set to be a very good PG in this league, he needs not only more PT but, training on how to run a team. I think he also needs to be told by Woody to "just go and run the team, don't defer." I think seeing Bibby for a year now has helped but, I think Mark Price needs to be elevated to assistant coach in charge of PGs to help him. A coach to spend time with him on running a team and more seasoning (ie PT), is all that Acie need right now. Its, definetly not time to give up on him.

Best game of the year for Josh. Not from an athletic or production stand point, but as a matter of focus. If looked as though he was actively thinking about his game and his in-game decision making. Good job, young man.

Things have to be pretty bad internally if you are the fourth place team, fighting for the home court and 2 teams within in a game, and you can't play with heart. This sounds like a bad 10th place team trying to figure out how to deal with the pressure of possibly not making the playoffs.

I don't think we have anyone on the coaching staff that has any head coaching experience though. That might be a problem in itself.

I wouldn't put 100% of the problem on Woody. You have like what, 8 more coaches. You would think that one of them would pull Joe to the side and say " Joe if you pass out of that double team a lot faster we'd have a open shot" or " Josh, if you focus on just getting rebound for the next 5 minutes, we can win this game" or "Woody, let stop this insane switching defense, it's killing us." The players break ranks with the head coach, why should the other coaches. Do we have the problem that the entire coaching staff is clueless? If so, removing Woody, won't help long term. Someone, has to have the player's ear because Woody obviously doesn't.

Tank, I agree with you. But I think that these two elements stem from the same point -- COACHING! While I think that Woody is not a great coach, I don't think he is as bad as the play on the court sometimes indicates. I really believe for the most part the player have tuned him out. It's hard for me to believe that the glaring issues we as fans see and point out night after night, a highly paid and experienced coaching staff can't see and correct in over a half a season. That brings me to my point, I'm sure that Woody institues new plays and schemes at practice, I just don't think that the players have faith enough in Woody's plans to stay with them when things get tough. Once things go south, no amout of yelling (or benching) from Woody with get them to get back on plan. It's iso time then. Woody is a tired act and he can't coach up a team with bad chemistry and a low effort level. I think a new coach (or an interim assistant) would bring a fresh start and possibly a winning streak but if that new coach is not respected and an X and O's guy, this team will be back in the same place again. That said, a change is definitely needed.

The players are no longer listening to Woody because he has no solutions. He's a practice coach. His defensive switching scheme can work BUT not all the time. Because he has no plan B, players get frustrated and lose focus -- always at the wrong time. He never had a clue on offense and if he did Joe would override him anyway. If Woody is here next year Sund needs to hire and offensive 'coordinator' (maybe defensive too) at the very least. Woody = Jim Mora minus a personality.

Al + Zaza = better match up vs. Big Z and their 4 (both were low post bangers).

Heywood Workman's payback!

I agree 100%. Even if his shot is not falling, we should continue to run some offense through him. He makes good decisions w/ the ball, his post offense allows the backside rebounder to get into good rebound position, he's really the only big we have that can run the pnr with Bibby, and if we consistently show that we will feed the post, he'll draw double teams and further open the offense. Its a good idea Woody, let's hope that light stays on.

Hello squawkers. Long time reader, first time poster. I agree that Al needs his props for this game. But more importantly, HE NEEDS MORE TOUCHES! He's the only player who get regular minutes that is shooting over 50%. He averages about 7- 8 touches per game. He needs 11 - 13. Now, I'm not saying that he is a dominate offensive player, but he is our only reliable answer to the "iso-offense." Look, he makes good decsions with the ball, he's really the only player that gets the picknroll, and he has true low post moves. Is he the solution to Woody's "no plan B" off and def schemes, no. But he can be a bigger help when Joe, smoove, and bibby are ice cold or have not determined that they can't play 1 on 3 the whole game.