TheNorthCydeRises

What I loved about Smoove's game last night, was how under control he was offensively. He hit the jumper. He drove past people. He battled for offensive rebounds. He scored on a few good post moves when smaller people were on him. He passed the ball well. He even had a play where he got a rebound, started to force the fast break himself, but collected himself and got the ball to Bibby so he could bring it up the court. He showed the full repetoire last night offensively, and looked fantastic. And you won't get any . . "oh but it was only against the Grizzlies" comments from me. When you look great, you look great. Big props to Smoove last night.

Quote: and that's why our starters have to play so many damn minutes. We bring in the bench and the Grizzlies go on a 9-0 run. LOL. I don't ever want to see a complaint about starter's minutes ever again.

Quote: So the Marvin gets the game ball thread is about him having a great game or about posters not congratulating him enough? If it was Chill he'd have the same thread as Marvin and the same number of people (but different people) who say 'it's just the knicks' would say about chill 'its just garbage points and he can't create his own shots' Be happy he had a great game. Why do we have to have a parade for it? You call this a parade? The fact that ONE thread of props to Marvin has seemed to irritate you a little, proves my point about all of this. Marvin has been villified so much on this board, that when he does happen to play well, people will tend to not even give him credit for it . . or downplay it in some way. If he'd scored 7 points and pulled down 4 rebounds, people would STILL be talking about his poor play in about 10 threads. And you're exactly right. Certain people do that for Chill too . . and that's not right either. All I say is give props where props is due, even if you don't like a certain player. It won't kill people to just be objective sometimes. Here's something . . . JJ scored 25 points and dropped 13 assists last night. And almost NOTHING was said about that, because people take his production for granted. He created over 50 points last night, and not a significant word was said about it.

All Acie does, is play to not make mistakes. He's not forcing anything these days. He's more content in just playing the defensive PG role ( ala a Jacque Vaughn ), than to try to really do something on offense. Just to warn you guys . . . Critt is getting quite a bit of PT in Memphis these days, and is looking decent. So expect the "we should've taken Critt" threads to pop up tonight, even though he plays the 2 in Memphis, with Lowry as the PG most of the time when he's in the game.

A few players who played more than JJ's 41 minutes tonight: Lebron Kobe Boozer Deron Artest David West Stephen Jackson Iggy ( played 45 minutes ) What some of you have to realize, is that JJ to the Hawks, is equivalent to Kobe to the Lakers or LeBron to the Cavs. If a game is tight, all 3 of those guys have to play heavy minutes in order for their team to win. A star player playing 40+ minutes in this league is nothing. Especially if they don't have a good player as their backup. JJ dropped 25 points and 13 assists today, and we still had to fight to the end to win. If he plays 3 - 5 less minutes in that game, we might have lost it. JJ is the superstar player on our team, even if most of you don't think he is. Everything flows through JJ. He almost has to play 40+ minutes from here on out. And I have no problem with it because every other team battling for a playoff spot or playoff position, will do the same exaxt thing.

Just think. If Chill had a game like this, there would be 3 different threads about his great game. And Lord knows how the board would be gushing if Smoove had a 27 and 11 game. It just makes you wonder about some in the fan base, and their ability to be truly objective. He had a GREAT game, but will get very little love for it. And that's a shame. Great game Marvin.

Quote: what is scalping? explain Scalping - those guys that are always asking . . "you need any tickets", as you walk to the arena/stadium.

Shoot, I have the cellphone # of a scalper. Whenever I want to sit in the 100 level, I call him, and he can get me a good seat for $50. Like you though, I can usually get club level seats for $40.

Atlantaholic, I'm NOT against a coaching change. I just know that Woody isn't the complete problem with this team. Changing him out, and briniging someone else in, may or may not improve things because we'll still have the same ownership and some of the same players.

Quote: I wish I knew how to quote independently like that... It's easy. - Click on the "quote reply" button. When you see the message, you'll see something like this [ quote ]Ok, I will address some of the things. 1) No one should absolve anyone of blame. The Hawks are a patchwork team with horrible management. Woody cant wield supernatural powers, but the Hawks are not the Heat. That is the truth. [ /quote ] Focus on the [ quote ] and the [ /quote ]. All you have to do is type [ quote ] where you want to begin the section you want to respond to, and [ /quote ] where you want it to end. You have to type [ quote ] without any spaces between the [ and the quote and the ]. It has to be typed altogether for it to work. When you type [ quote ] without any spaces between the brackets and the word quote, and end it with /quote, it looks like this: Quote: 2) Yes, we do have a collect F Job done here. Everyone from the ASG all the way down to the players. But for anyone, and I mean anyone, to give Woodson excuse after excuse or even intimate that he should stay if we make the playoffs proves to me how little that person knows about how subpar he is as a coach and how we can't get over the hump with him here. It's not personal or an attack to him, it's just the way it is. It's easy to do, once you understand how to do it.

That's true. But the difference between bad teams, average teams, and good teams, is that the bad teams see those guys doing that on a nightly basis . . the average teams see it every once in a while, or maybe nightly in a few of the players only . . and the good teams only see it rarely.

I usually click on channelsurfing right before the game starts, but after the broadcast initially comes on air. So if you have a 7 pm start time, click on it at 7:01 or 7:02. Don't wait too late to try to go to it. I haven't had any problems seeing some of the games via channelsurfing, when I've done that.

Quote: Yes, I don't understand it either... Is Hawksland (and knicksland apparently) the only place on this planet where head coaches don't get judged based on the performance of their team??? Wait, what? It's not the coaches fault it's the players fault you say? Guess what guys the COACH IS IN CHARGE OF THE PLAYERS AND RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR FREAKING PERFORMANCE... He is the boss, the captain, the CEO (well that would be BK, but this tirade is applicable to him just as much as Woodson), the decision maker... You think ANY business in the universe, any army in the planet, would not change captains or directors after FOUR years of not winning a battle or turning a profit? That's the problem with some of you. You think everything will be A-OK with a mere coaching change. LOL . . isn't the very coach that we're rumored to get ( Larry Brown ), flat out FAIL with the Knicks? Do you blame Brown for not being able to "reign in" Stephon Marbury, when no other coach has been able to? Do you blame Brown for trading a 1st round pick to get Eddy Curry. A pick that could've ended up beng Roy, Aldridge, or Rudy Gay? Do you blame Brown for obtaining Quenton Richardson and that horrible contract, then benching his azz because he can't make a shot, nor play a lick of defense? He didn't acquire Jerome James . . or Jared Jerrfies . . or Steve Francis. So does Brown get the blame for that too? LOL @ the coach is responsible for a player's performance. What a coach tries to do, is put their players into the best possible situation to succeed. But in the end, it's still the individual talents of that player, that will determine if he succeeds or not. If a player just can't get the job done, there's nothing a coach can do.

Quote: Ug, it pains me how some people refuse to understand that although all of the problems northcyde you posted are true, you utterly refuse to place heavy blame on Woodson. All I did was tell "the truth". Everybody constantly complain about what these players do on an individual basis, yet, expect Woody to magically cure everything that ails this team? Pat Riley is one of the greatest coaches in NBA history. But even he isn't a miracle worker. You see how the mighty Heat have fallen. Quote: Sadly, this is why our FO and coaching is what it is. They dont see things for what they really are. It's so sad. Woodson is not a good HEAD coach. Period. He has done the same old tired stuff game in and game out for several years now. Whether we make the playoffs or not, he needs to go. What some of you need to understand, is that we have a COLLECTIVE F-UP job here. People can complain about Woody all they want, but to place the majority of the blame on him is just flat out wrong. I say that because Woody did not choose this group of players to coach. Woody didn't pass on Chris Paul, nor did he refuse to bring in vet talent to help JJ until February. Woody gets 1/3 ( 33% ) of the blame, ownership/management gets 1/2 ( 50% ) of the blame, and the players get about 1/6 ( 17% ) of the blame. Quote: How some of you still want him here is beyond me. Some of you must have orgasms off to lackluster coaching or something. If you REALLY want what is best for this team, that means realizing that we have some major weak spots that only a competent head coach can address. Nobody wants Woody here. But we also don't want the ownership/management here either. And some don't even want the players here. So how does the bulk of the mifortune of the Hawks fall back to Woody? Woody is the easiest to get rid of, so he'll be the first one to go. The mistake that most people make about my defense of Woody, is that because I won't place all of the blame on him, they think that I think that Woody is a good coach. That's BS. He's not a good coach, he's an average to below average coach. He's the only coach in the league that has been forced to coach without a starter quality PG ( until he got Bibby ), AND without a legit low post player who can score with his back to the basket. To this date, Al Harrington is still the best low post scorer the Hawks have had since Shareef got traded. And Harrington would much rather shoot a 20 foot shot, than score down low, while he was here. And before Bibby came here, the best PG he had to work with, was Tyronn Lue. LOL . . but he was supposed to have this team running on all cylinders with a PG that literally dribbles the ball into the ground like he's doing some type of practice drill? This team, and the offense is so much better with Bibby, that it isn't even funny. Imagine what would happen if we actually had a low post scorer or a tough defensive center? Quote: Half of the stuff you posted is a direct result of the inability of the head coach to do his job to reign in his players. Being a head coach is more than looking good in a suit and drawing up plays northcyde... Good grief. Reign in players? How do you reign in Smoove, when we ( and Smoove ) know good and well we can't survive without him on the floor? When he reigns in Salim, he gets criticized for putting him in "the doghouse". It's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. Woody could some things better as our coach, but the guy isn't a miracle worker. And this is a league where you need the TALENT to win, more than you need a great coach to win. Not POTENTIAL TALENT, but ACTUAL TALENT. Because if all you needed was a great coach, the Lakers would've won a title in the post-Shaq era and Larry Brown wouldn't have failed in New York with the Knicks. Without the moves Ainge made in Boston to get KG and Ray Allen, you bets believe that the Celtics would be nowhere near the playoffs, and that Doc Rivers would be fired. But give Woody Chris Paul, and we're not talking about him getting fired.

Quote: It would be a shame indeed. When you have a team with this amount of talent compared to the rest of the conference, you should at least get over the .500 winning percentage hump. It seems that when we get a 15+ point lead, I always expect Woodson to blow the lead with horrible playcalling and substitutions. I totally agree. I mean, when Smoove makes repeated bonehead plays that makes everybody cuss . . or when Marvin misses wide open jumpers or gets his shot blocked drivng to the hole . . or when Horford statts fumbling the ball around and can't stop mediocre PFs from scoring . . or when JJ or Bibby have a game in which they're ice cold, but they still keep shooting . . or when Chill misses critical FTs in the 4th quarter, after making them in the 1st half . . or when Law steps into the game and is flat out invisible . . or when Zaza thinks he's Amare Stoudamire trying to take people off the dribble, but starts turining the ball over left and right . . or when Salim comes in the game, acts like the ball is a hot potato, and misses 4 shots in 2 minutes . . or when as a team, this team looks like a YMCA team playing defense . . that's ALL on Woody. Woody just needs to pass that X-Box controller to someone else.

LOL Ex. Always stirring the pot. People get mad at Marvin because he is content with acepting his role, instead of trying to do more than he's used to doing. Those same people go crazy when Smoove tries to do more than what he should be doing.

Flip to CBS and take a peek of the whippin Davidson is putting on Wisconsin right now. Curry is flat out putting on a show. I might have to take back what I said about him last week. He's looking a little like Brandon Roy. Wisconsin has no answer for that kid.

Yes sir. I definitely agree on that.

Quote: it's not an obsession with scrub players, it's realization of the need to keep our starters fresh in this crucial stretch..i think giving our starters an extra 2 or 3 minutes rest would be crucial for our run....and i dont want all the bench players out there at one time but rather one or two here and there. We curretntly have an 8-man rotation with Chill, Zaza, and Law. Chill is the super-sub that logs 25 - 30 minutes a game on most nights. Zaza will get 10 - 18 minutes. Law will get 7 - 15 minutes. Woody will occasionally throw West into the game at the end of the 1st half, just to give JJ an extra minute of rest. But Doc, you watch this team. You know the offense goes to ish when JJ is out of the game. You know the defense does the same thing when Smoove is out. JJ MUST play 40 minutes a night in order for this team to compete, let alone win. And I would rather have either Chill or even Law in the game for JJ, before Salim. Everybody CAN'T play, and they shouldn't play. Now, more than ever, should the rotation be shortened. It's going to be these next few games coming up, that will determine our playoff fate. The last thing I want to see, is Salim getting 6 minutes of PT, but go 0 - 4 FG with 2 turnovers. Or Solo getting 4 minutes of time, but picking up 3 fouls. If anything, give Law more minutes and move Bibby to the 2 when JJ is out. But keep the scrubs out of the game.

Quote: Coach Woodson has to find PT for Salim and Solomon. Having them in the loop (gametime) is wise. What is this obsession with our scrub bench players? Salim and Solo would be buried DEEP on every other bench in the NBA, outside of maybe Seattle. I would NOT take minutes from ou core, just to give them to Solo or Salim, unless absolutely necessary. I'm a Salim fan ( for whatever reason ), but I'm also a realist to what he brings to the table, which is very little. The same goes for Solo. I'll keep saying this . . . EVERYBODY CAN'T PLAY !!!!

. .and Zaza played well too, compensating for Horford's off game. Nice to see him accepting his role lately.

Quote: Quote: A 3 - 14 FG, 10 point - 9 rebound game out of Smoove, while terrible offensively, doesn't mean that he had a horrible game overall. We've won games with Smoove shooting terribly. If Smoove grabs 9 rebounds, 7 - 8 of those are probably going to be defensive rebounds, which limits 2nd chance points. And Smoove will have a tendency to ignite fast breaks off of his defensive rebounds, especially with outlet passes to Chill. For some reason, Marvin's and Smoove's roles got reversed last night, and it cost us. Guys have to do their jobs on a nightly basis. Marvin can't miss 11 shots and Smoove can't grab just 4 rebounds, and expect us to win. 3rd Quarter Hawks w/ 8 pt lead Josh Smith 1/5 FG 5 pts 6 RB And when you look at how well both sides were shooting at that point, those 6 rebounds were pretty huge. Marvin was a scoring threat, Chill did his thing again, and JJ was the high scoring/playmaking threat. 5 pts and 6 rebs from Smoove is better than 10 pts and 2 rebs from him. His rebounding is more important than his scoring. Like I said, they just have to do their jobs, and we'll be OK.

Quote: i'm sure solomon appreciates all the love but isn't that Josh Smith in that highlight? Does anybody else watch games? How has this gone unchecked? Look up the box score and you will see DNPCD next to Solomon Jones Hilarious. It just proves how schizophrenic some in this fan base really are.

Yes sir. I was referring to Salim, not JJ. Dol, I think we both know that this is just another attempt to show how "clueless" Woody is. But when you really look at the situation, he's playing the people that he trusts to win games. The minute we blow a lead with one of those scrubs in the game, they'll be crying about how Woody left him in the game too long.

The Hawksquawk conspiracy theories kill me. It was pretty obvious why JJ wasn't playing well, but people wanted to believe something more sinister. As far as the rotation, I'll say this again . . everybody CAN'T play. To me, Salim has always been a guy with a "go-to scorer" mentality. Because he's so streaky, you almost have to give him 7 - 10 shots a game, to get decent production out of him. Because he is a scorer and not a shooter, he normally won't come into a game and hit his first few shots. It's almost like it takes him 5 minutes to get going. Well, when you're a bench player with a specific role, you don't have 5 minutes to get going, Especially not when we have an all-star 2-guard that we can play heavy minutes in front of you. And with 2 ballhandlers in Bibby and Acie, it's easy to just keep Salim on the bench. Salim, West, Solo, and Richardson just aren't good enough to justify playing time every game. Each one of those guys have a SERIOUS negative ( or negatives ) against the one thing that they can do somewhat decent. And the guys ahead of them are FAR AND AWAY better than them, which also makes it easy for Woody to keep them on the bench. No way I'm taking minutes from Chill, Marvin, Smoove, or JJ, just so our scrub bench can play spot minutes every game. They should only play when someone is in foul trouble or when somebody gets hurt. If Bibby can't go tomorrow, Salim and possibly West will see more time, with Acie assuming the starting PG position.