TheNorthCydeRises

Quote: With the lack of draft pick, if the team only ends up winning 33-35 games this year it's a complete waste. A complete. Just over a month ago the team was 3 games over .500 and you figured they might can play .500 ball the rest of the way. However, they're back to where they were before. I have low predictions for this team, but it doesn't even look like they will win the 37 games I predicted. It's really sad because there is no reason to believe things should get better. They should trade Marvin. He is like Glenn Robinson. He is one of those players that don't help you unless he is scoring. He's got a clumsy offensive game other than his mid range shot. While he will get to the FT line, you can't count on him because he will get the ball striped or knocked away alot of times. So he is not dependable. While he is not a bum, he will never live up to his draft position or live up to the players that should have been picked before him. Billy Knight has failed at an epic level. I don't know if you can fail as a GM anymore than he has. He has failed to get enough talent... Which is obviously linked to his poor drafts which have resulted in a bench full of scrubs. Damn right I figured that they'd play .500 ball the rest of the way. I knew that December was probably the absolute best they could play, and that we were playing a little over our heads. AJ definitely played over his head, which bought him a little more time as the starter. Hard to argue with the "bench full of scrubs" comment. But with the way Woody's mindset is, I'm not so sure the players we passed over, other than Paul, would be even close here, to what they are now in other places. - Roy would not be a starter here. He'd be the shooter off the bench. Woody would still opt to go with Lue or AJ at the point. And with Marvin being the #2 pick, he wouldn't even move JJ to the 3, to make room for Roy at the 2. I'm almost convinced of that now. Roy might be getting 20 - 25 minutes a game here tops. - Iggy or Deng might be starters, but nowhere near the caliber of player that they are now, unless BK drafts Paul the next year at #2. The way they play in their rookie year, would be a huge factor in the direction that BK goes with that pick. So if they were inconsitent or lackluster as rookies, BK probably still takes Marvin. - BK wanted Monta Ellis, but changed his mind and went with Salim. Ellis is free to just attack, attack, attack with the Warriors. Here, we'd be trying to force feed him into becoming a legit PG, instead of a Barbosa, attack style scorer. And because the kid plays little defense, and can't consistently hit long range jumpers, he could easily be in the same situation that Salim is in. Conversely, a guy like Salim would probably thrive in the Warriors system. - Deron, I don't know. Paul would have no problem transitioning to the league, but Deron benefitted tremendously from being in the Utah system Deron would still be a major upgrade over what we have now. I just don't know if he'd be as good here, without a Boozer to consistently get the ball to down on the block. With Paul, it wouldn't matter. Even if his assists numbers weren't as high, he'd probably be the 2nd leading scorer on the team. *********** It's just unbelievable that this team continues to break down on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court. And that happens because of a lack of leadership on the court from the PG position. Like I said 2 - 3 weeks ago, my main beef with Lue and AJ, is that they don't play like a PG. They play more like a 2-guard. Our only chance in erasing passing on Paul, is to see if Acie can do it when he plays major minutes. AJ and Lue aren't going to get any better as players. At one point in that game last night, Marvin was 1 - 11 from the field. But because we were still winning, Woody kept him in. Even if he had a bad matchup, Woody was hell bent on keeping him in the game. Unless his name is JJ, you just can't do that. If Wright or Shelden was the better defensive matchup against Okafor, that's who you have to go with. The crazy thing about all of this, is that we're about 3 - 5 plays away from actually WINNING 6 of our last 7 games, putting us at 24 - 25, and being in the #6 spot in the East . . with a little room to even mess up on this road trip. Now, there's no room for error. None.

Quote: Quote: To me, Woody has been coaching not to lose, instead of to win, for about 4 weeks now. He's playing the guys that he trusts, regardless of how bad they're playing. I completely agree, and I completely understand from Woody's perspective. You back a guy into a corner, and that's what happens. With such a young team, the AS should've either extended him or fired him last summer. That's what I forgot to add. I do understand why he does it. He has no job security, not even the infamous "vote of confidence". Because of that, he feels that he can't take any chances with some of these inconsistent players. Acie's situation is different though. He's the one guy that probably should be starting, or getting major minutes anyway. Yet, Woody doesn't have time to develop a guy . . another guy. But like with Horford, Acie may prove right away to be the best option anyway. It's all of these end of the game situations that we keep blowing, that gets me. Out of all of the PGs, Acie is the only one who can play solid one-on-one defense, and get to the rim on offense. Acie can't be any worse than Lue or AJ in thoe situatons. He just can't be. That Cleveland game Friday night pizzed me off, because Lue kept trying to double Lebron, leaving his man wide open for a long jumper. The only way to prevent that ish, is to not have him in the game in the first place. If they don't fire Woody, BK should at least trade one of AJ or Lue away from here, and force Woody to start Acie. The mandate should come down, just like Memphis did regarding Conley and Damon Stoudamire. Damon might be slightly the better or more consitent player, but he wasn't about to take that Grizzlies team anywhere. And who cares if AJ doesn't like the move. He is NOT the future of this team. He isn't even the present. Give Acie major minutes, and see if he can help win some of these close games. See if he can get our starters easier shots. If he goes 3 - 13 FG . . so the hell what. Play him anyway. He might go 7 - 13 FG the next game, with 9 assists. Throw him into the water, and see if he can swim. One of the definitions of insanity, is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result. That's exactly what we seem to do here. Oh, and as for getting Andre Miller, I don't think there's no way in hell that we get him now, seeing that Philly has won 5 straight, and is percentage points ahead of us for that 8th spot.

I've done something tonight that I've NEVER done on this site . . and that is actually take a LONG TIME in thinking about what I am going to write. I didn't want to write something all emotional and ish. I said at the beginning of the season, if the Hawks fell 8 games or more below .500 at ANY point of the season, Woody should be fired. We're 7 games under ( should be 6 ), and have to play the Lakers in LA to start a 5 game west coast road trip. It's essentially the ZERO HOUR . . Hawk Armageddon, if you will. And what's worse about that trip, is that we have 2 consecutive back-to-backs in that stretch. If Bruce Willis doesn't push that button to blow up the asteroid, we might be completely dead after that trip. That's 4 games in 5 nights folks . . on the (( bleepin )) road. Yes, we're still in the playoff hunt. But we defnitely have to win at least 2 out of the 5 road games. To go 1 - 4 this time, may mean that we have to play .500 ball the rest of the way, just to have a shot. If this team falls more than 3 games below the 8th spot, I think we might be done . . which would be a damn shame. The most disturbing thing about this loss, is the decision to go with an ice cold AJ, over Acie, who had been playing the best game of his career up to that point. Up until that time, AJ had played a total of 15 minutes, while Acie had logged 28 minutes. I understood why he subbed Smoove in for Acie ( even though I would've taken out Lue ). But after Smoove quickly picked up foul #6, and he opted to go with a cold AJ, you knew right then and there that he just couldn't bring himself to trust the rookie down the stretch. This was the perfect chance to officially pass the PG torch to Acie. The perfect time to see if he could actually lead the Hawks to victory, like he used to do in college. The perfect time to have his confidence sky high. And Woody (( bleeped )) it up. There's no other way to describe it. He flat out (( bleeped )) it up. This team is going nowhere, unless Acie is given the chance to do what he was drafted to do. And that is to LEAD the Hawks. If Woody won't give him that chance, even when he's playing his best, he should be fired IMMEADIATELY!!!! There is absolutely no excuse for that coaching move. NONE!!! I've said before that AJ is the equivalent of Detroit Lion QB Jon Kitna. He's a good team guy. He's a good leader. He can even make a few plays. But at the end of the day, he just doesn't have the talent to effectively lead his team during a game, on a daily basis. And his lack of talent will eventually cause you to either battle to win games, or flat out blow games that you should win. AJ is nowhere near a good enough of a player, to justify him playing clutch minutes, when he'd been on the bench for over 15 - 20 minutes prior. To me, Woody has been coaching not to lose, instead of to win, for about 4 weeks now. He's playing the guys that he trusts, regardless of how bad they're playing. And the fact that he hasn't shaken up the starting lineup ( even by starting Chill at the point if necessary, something he did last January, which worked for a while ), kind of illustrates what his mindset is. He was going to make that group win, no matter what, even if certain people never came through when it counted, or always made some key offensive or defensive mistake. It's not that these guys don't play hard for him, because they do. It's not that they are trying to get him fired, because they aren't. It's just that Woody is his own worst enemy at times. PG is our weakest spot, yet, he trusts Lue and AJ unconditionally. So like with Salim and Shelden, I can't defend the guy anymore. Fire Woody.

Acie must have some Texas A&M shorts on under his regular shorts, ala what Jordan used to do with the UNC shorts. I guess Lue has on his Nebraska shorts on as well.

Quote: Josh and Al with 2 fouls in 1st qtr = no minutes in 2nd qtr. That's called good coaching. Lord knows we'll need both of them in the 2nfd half. At least this gives Shelden a chance to get out of Vick's kennel.

Quote: It is only too much to give up if you are a loser franchise. I swear you people on H.S. don't believe in trades whatsoever. Who gives a damn about a young scrub pg, a stiff center, and a underachieving chucker backup sg? If you get a chance to get a HOF pg, who is still productive and has the ability to take you to the next level...you get him. Dallas' window is now. They cant wait for Harris to figure it out, nor can they depend on JT. Tommorow ia not promised to anyone, especially considering the volatile nature of sports. In 2009 Dirk could blow out an achilles and dallas would have wasted its window of opportunity. I agree JB. When you have a chance to do something like that, especially if you're a contender, you have to do it. Once you reach that status, you do whatever it takes to win. If that means trading your mama . . for the hooker down the street, and a crackhead to be named later . . if it improves your chances of winning, that's what you do.

The funny thing about this deal, is that most Hawk fans would KILL to get their hands on Harris, Diop, and Stackhouse. There is your PG, your C, and your shooter. Now Dallas would NEVER do this deal, but tradng Chill, Shelden, Zaza, and Lue . . would get us Harris, Diop, and Stackhouse. I think a team like Dallas would worry about acquirng possible talent that could help them, than expiring contracts. Hawks lineup: Harris / Law / AJ JJ / West ( with Stack probably being the guy who spells JJ ) Marvin / Stackhouse Smoove / Solo ( with Horfrd actually being the backup PF ) Horford / Diop / Wright Of course, the key would be Devin's ability to get to the basket, and Stack providing timely shooting from the outside. This would also allow us to possibly start Diop, and bring Horford off the bench, but I would initially keep starting Horford.

Quote: Women's basketball needs any pub they can get. Until they go with a skins vs. shirts game, I don't see why anybody would want to watch. Now that I think about it, I wouldn't watch that either. Please. Basketball is basketball. People who truly love the game, can watch a bunch of 9 year old boys play. It's just that most people aren't true b-ball fans. A lot of college fans, don't like the NBA, and vice versa. People who don't even give women's b-ball any credit, are either sexist ( like what your comment suggest ), or has never seen or played against a woman who could bust your azz on the basketball court.

As a Vol alumnus, and a Lady Vol supporter, even I have to agree. But what was that Rutgers player thinking about? She juse jerked Nikki by the shoulders and threw her down. She made a call on her easy to make. But that timekeeper should immeadiately be suspended by the university. Then again, i remember the Duke - Clemson game last year, in which the guy running the clock, didn't start the clock for the whole second. Duke ends up having enough time to dribble all the way down the court, and hit a game winning lay-up.

Quote: We have the veterans and bench expirings which are Lo, Lue, AJ, Salim and the near expirings Solomon and Zaza. They (save AJ for PG) are all expendable. This leaves core players. It is clear to me, Marvin is the one to trade. I'll say it again, Mike Miller can be had with Zaza and expirings. Marvin is the key bait. Childress has again proven he is much more valuable (to this team) than Marvin so Marvin is the bait. Marvin for Petro and Watson. All (fillers) expirings and Zaza(or Acie Law) for Miller and Javaris. People keep saying that Miller is available. I watch Memphis all the time, and Miller is the perfect guy for their system. Rudy Gay will be the star, but Miller routinely leads that team on the floor in every other aspect. Memphis does have to meet a minimum payroll, so unless they're planning to go after a big time free agent this summer to team with Gay, I don't think they'll move Miller at all. Somebody is going to have to offer them a very sweet deal ( which will probably involve more draft picks and a real nice young player ) to get Miller. Right now, Miller is easily the most popular player in Memphis. It used to be J-Will . . then Battier. Now it's Miller. Gasol, while popular, was kind of like how Hawks fans are with JJ. They like him, but if were to take a poll, he probably wouldn't be our most favorite player.

I believe that close range area, is the area 5 - 15 feet away from the basket. Guys who shoot well in that range, are usually your back to the basket post up guys, or your slashing type players that can hit runners in the lane. Smoove also struggles in that area for the same reason Marvin does. JJ, because whenever he gets into the lane he'll shoot a floater, usually shoots well in that range. But when you look at his hotspot in those areas this year, compared to year's past, you see why his shooting percentage is so down this year. That's why i think he's still favoring that calf a little. His floater in the lane used to be money. Now, it's inconsistent at best.

LOL thanks. I just tried to give a glimmer of hope before the game, since most were convinced that we were going to lose. Too bad this team couldn't hit shots or lay-ups in the 4th qtr. I don't want the job full time though. I enjoy your threads much better.

Oh Lord AHF, you sound like Notre Dame football fans now. Didn't UK win 5 straight before last night's game? That team not showing up, was simply a team not ready to play. Depth wasn't an issue when you kicked the Vols azz a few weeks back. LOL @ that halftime score last night. I thought that had to be a misprint.

What's wrong with the Hawks at the end of games, is that we don't have a penetrating PG that can break down the defense, nor do we have a low post option to get the ball down to. That has nothing to do with Childress. Chill is what he is. He's a high energy player that is excellent in the running game. He's also our 2nd best offensive rebounder ( as far as percentage chances go ). Do we need a shooter? Yes. But even shooters like Kopono, Korver, A. Parker, and the rest, need to be properly set up. Those guys aren't running off of screens. Those guys get their shots because the defense is reacting to someone else either drivng to the hole, or can't rotate back to them once the ball is being moved around. If we don't make a trade, the ONLY chance we have to improve late in games, is if JJ gets his act back together . . or if Woody makes a change to see if Acie Law can be that penetrating PG at the end of games, and let him find the open man. A guy like Mike Miller can create his own shot. A guy like Cassell can create his own shot. Just adding a standstill jumpshooter to this team won't help us, because he's not going to be properly set up, unless a guy like JJ sets him up ( like JJ did on Smoove's 3 in the 4th qtr, that got us to within 1 ) We may get completely blown out last night, if Chill didn't come in the 1st quarter, and get those quick 6 points ( all of which were lay-ups ). Botttom line is when JJ and Marvin go 7 - 25 FG, we're probably not going to win. With those shooting numbers, it's amazing that we were even in the game. I feel bad for Smoove though. He was unstoppable in that game for about 2.5 quarters. But like everyone else in that quarter, he couldn't convert when we needed it the most. He missed 6 of his last 7 shots. JJ missed his last 5 shots ( 4 in the 4th quarter ) Yet people blame Chill?

Just clearing up some things: - Miller is not a low post scorer. He's a face the basket shooter from midrange. He's a very good shooter from 15 - 20 feet. Almost 70% of his shots are jumpers. Essentially, he's a center version of Marvin, when it comes to offense. A better comparison would compare his offensive game to Big Z. - Miller will make 11.37 million next year and 12.25 million the year after. - He's still a good rebounder and passer in the halfcourt offense. - Defensively, he's average at best.

Marvin's jumper has been off lately. When his jumper is off, i wish he'd switch into attack mode and at least try to get his points at the line. Use the Force . . . Marvin Use the Force

Have faith young Skywalker.

Since Teke is on a negativity writer's strike, I might as well make a bold prediction. I'd be SHOCKED if we lost tonight. Flabbergasted even. 1) Detroit almost NEVER sweeps us for the season. Even the sorry 13 win Hawks, led by the 32 points that Lue scored, beat the Pistons at least once. 2) JJ's numbers after having adequate rest, usually go up. Expect a good all around game from him, even if the Pistons do try to shut him down. 3) This team was literally embarrassed Saturday night. They're pizzed, and will come out ready to play. 4) The role players play well at home. 5) We got a little "Jungle Karma" today, with Nique being on Jim Rome's radio show today. Nique was evrywhere this afternoon. We got that same karma last Tuesday, with Marvin on his TV show, which led to the win over the Lakers. Expect victory tonight folks.

Quote: You want to trade BOTH Zaza and Shelden for Curry? Did none of you read mf's description of how detrimental he can be to a team? Key word - detrimental. I'm not sure I've seen a big man more overrated on here since Martynas Andriuskevicius. Curry does one thing well, and that is score in the post. You don't ask him to be the main option or be some defensive stopper in the middle. He'd basically be our version of Big Z, with a low post game, that we don't have here. Or a better comparison would be to compare him to a one-dimensional player like Wally Szczerbiak. Wally is a shooter, but not much more than that. On the right team, surrounded by the right players, Wally could thrive as that extra scoring threat, without having the pressure of trying to be "the man", or even the 2nd or 3rd option. Centers are grossly overpaid in this league. I'd rather have Curry, and get some type of production at that position, than to keep Zaza amd Shelden, and get nothing.

Quote: In terms of trading Lue/Z/Sheldon for Curry, I think that is a good deal for the Hawks. Curry could start against the bigger centers and then Horford comes off the bench. Essentially, with Curry, the Hawks can have a 3 man rotation at center. In terms of re-signing Childress. I would like to see him stay on the team, but if an SnT appears that brings back a guy that can create his own shot, then I am all for it. Two good points. I can't disagree at all. Interesting point on the Chill SnT idea. That's a scenario that few have talked about. And you're right about starting Curry against big centers. That may be the best option in that type of situation.

Those 2 guys are making Speedy Claxton type money. Every team that needs a PG don't even think about trading for those guys. This board is so funny sometimes. People fiend for role players that play great aganst US, instead of how they play overall. Watson isn't much better than AJ at all. Watson can play defense, but it's not like he shuts down people. He just isn't a defensive liability. AJ is a little better offensively and he is a better leader. Ridnour is worst than both, which is why a scrub like Watson plays ahead of him. He's injury-prone like Speedy. He's shooting a career low FG% this year. And he may be the WORST finishing PG when he gets close to the rim, in the league. He finishes around the rim at a far lesser rate than even Acie. Yet, people are willing for this team to pick up those guys, making that kind of money, for the next 2 - 3 years? That is pure insanity. I'd rather roll with Law and Salim running the point, than those 2 guys. Adding an overpaid or overrated scrub to this team, does not help our overall situation. They would get here, play terrible, and everybody would blame BK for making an idiotic deal like that. If we add sombody, we have to add a starter-caliber player that can immeadiately produce, even if he comes off the bench. Otherwise, we might as well do nothing, and make the moves in the summer. Ish, give me a crazy person like Ron Artest, over any of those Seattle scrubs.

Avoid both like the plague.

Quote: Trading Zaza/Lue -for- Curry effectively kills any chance of re-signing Childress. (I can't see the Hawks adding more than 2-3M in future salary/season for this reason). Are you guys convinced that's a good thing? I'm not sure about the numbers, but if you turn that into a Zaza/Shelden/Lue trade for Curry, that would be an extra 7 million that would come off the books in Shelden and Zaza, that wouldn't have come off before. Add Curry's 10 mill, Smoove's impending max deal, and a re-signed Chill at about 6 - 7 mill a year, and we may could keep the entire core intact. I don't see teams offering Chill big money. I would NOT start Curry. I'd use him strictly as an offensive low post scorer against the 2nd unit. Defensively, we'd hope that Smoove or Horford could provide weak side help if need be. Curry is a scoring upgrade over Zaza and Shelden. I'd hope he could average 11 - 14 points a game in that role off the bench, while shooting 55%+ FG. If we're going to go with an 8-man rotation, I'd rather roll with Chill, Acie, and Curry coming off the bench, than Chill, Acie, and any combo of Zaza/Shelden/Lorenzen/Lue. Let Mario play spot minutes when necessary.

Sounds like the pre-cursor to a Curry trade to me. The acquire Ben to play him alongside Randolph. Then they trade Curry for multiple players with expiring contracts to compesate for the players they lost to Chicago.

When the bench (( bleeps )) up in the game, will you promise not to complain? I mean, people act like the solution is so simple, but they flat out ignore the lack of production by some of these guys. People hate Zaza and Lue because of their inconsistent play, yet, deny the fact that those two were supposed to be integral parts of our rotation. So if Salim gets into a game, and goes 0 - 4 FG in 4 minutes of PT, don't complain. When Shelden gets into a game, and can't stop people or even grab rebounds, don't complain. When Mario gets into a game to be a defensive stopper, but gets scored on anyway ( like Brandon Roy did to him in the Portland game @ ATL ), don't complain. These players just need to start producing . . . period. If other guys on other teams can do their jobs playing limited minutes, our guys should be able to do the same thing. Salim shouldn't need 4 shots to get "warm". Shelden shouldn't need 3 minutes of PT to grab one rebound or stop somebody just once. Zaza shouldn't be totaly clueless on defense when they come into a game. Acie shouldn't look like a lost puppy when he gets into a game. If these players want significat PT, tell them to (( bleepin )) produce when called upon.