TheNorthCydeRises

(( This is more for JB than you AHF . . nice win over my Vols by the way. )) Just like with Shelden, I can't defend Salim anymore. When you're a shooter, and your job is to come in and make shots . . . you have to make those shots. That's one of the main reasons why Lue plays over Salim. Lue, while horrible defensively, can at least step in a game, and knock down a few of his early shots. He doesn't need 5 shots to get warmed up. Hawks down by 4 to the Nuggets . . 8 minutes to go in 2nd quarter . . and Law just picked up his 2nd foul . . this is a typical Hawks game log with Salim in the game: 8:05 - Salim enters game for Acie Law 7:52 - Salim misses 24-foot three point shot 7:51 - Camby defensive rebound 7:35 - Iverson makes 17-foot jumper ( Anthony Carter assist ) 7:17 - Salim bad pass ( Iverson steals ) 7:06 - Camby mises two point shot 7:05 - Josh Smitth defensive rebound 6:58 - Salim misses 20-foot jumper 6:57 - Zaza offensive rebound 6:56 - Zaza misses lay-up 6:55 - Zaza offensive rebound 6:55 - Zaza misses tip-in 6:53 - Kleiza defensive rebound 6:44 - Carter makes lay-up 6:30 - Josh Smith misses 16-foot jumper 6:29 - Joe Johnson offensive rebound 6:24 - Salim misses 23-foot three point shot 6:22 - Camby defensive rebound 6:07 - Carter makes 7-foot shot 6:07 - Shooting foul on Salim ( Anthony Carter draws the foul ) (( Woody gives Salim "the look", throws up his hands in disgust, and calls timeout )) 6:07 - Atlanta full timeout 6:07 - Josh Childress in for Salim 6:07 - Carter makes 1 of 1 free throws So what happend here? - Salim misses 3 shots ( 2 threes ) - He commits 1 turnover - He commits a foul on Carter on a shot that he makes - Carter scores 5 points out of the 7 Denver scored - Hawks are now down by 11, instead of 4 And Woody is suppoed to let him stay in the game?

Quote: Quote: - ???: brought up yesterday the name of Cuttino Mobley. He's a guy who isn't a one dimensional offensive player, like a Parker or a Korver. Cuttino can do what they do, plus create his offense off the dribble. What does Cuttino's contract look like ? Oh he's definately making too much money ( 9 mill a year, for two more seasons ) My thought process behind a signing like that, is his contract would pretty much equal what Chill and Zaza or Chill and Shelden would be making combined. Money wise, it's almost as big of a risk as adding a Dalembert or a Curry We'd have to throw a big in the deal with Chill, or some of the expirings and Chill, to make the deal work. I think Cuttino would enable us to both spread the floor out more, and give us an extra guy who can create offense off the dribble. With the Clips struggling mightily, I'd love to get either Cuttino or Cassell from them. Shoot, how about a Lue + AJ for Cassell deal, if the Clips want to tank out the rest of the season? I bet Cassell could teach Acie a thing or two about playing PG in this league.

I agree. Having said that, my choices were: - Laimbeer: His WNBA team Detroit Shock, has pretty much embodied what he was as an NBA player. Tough. Fearless. Kind of cocky. But even in that league, Laimbeer has the luxury of having a dominant post player ( Cheryl Ford - Karl Malone's daughter ), a versatile wing ( Swin Cash ), and a guard wh can create her own shot at any time ( Deanna Nolan ). He and Rick Mahorn did a great job with those women. Maybe he can help Smoove, Marvin, Zaza and Shelden become tougher. - Curry: I'd rather have Gasol, but I think most would pick either him or Daly, so I wanted to be different. I'd ship out Shelden + expirings or Shelden + Chill for Curry in a heartbeat. And I'd bring Curry off the bench, and let him be the offensive option with the 2nd unit or while JJ is resting. During crunch time, Horford would still be my center. Horford would get a chance to play the 4 more, with Curry here. - Calderon: obvious - ???: brought up yesterday the name of Cuttino Mobley. He's a guy who isn't a one dimensional offensive player, like a Parker or a Korver. Cuttino can do what they do, plus create his offense off the dribble.

So Larry Brown should be an assistant coach. Pat Riley too. Because Brown couldn't get that individually talented NY Knick team to play defense, and Riley can't get his current Heat team to play good offense, even with Wade and a slowed down Shaq playing. Las, coaches can only do so much. They can't hold their hand on the court, and drag them to the right spot on the floor. You also need players to execute. Hell, we beat Utah. And Jerry Sloan is a far superior coach over Woody. Players tend to do what is comfortable for them to do. Marvin needs to rebound and drive more, but he's not the type to constantly mix it up. JJ doesn't drive nearly as much as he should. You even brought out the point at the end of regulation of the Portland game. JJ goes to the hole 4 consecutive times, drawing 3 fouls and hitting 6 FTs. On the last possession, he settles for the fadeaway jumper, because that's his comfort zone. But it probably wasn't the best offensive play at that time. Now Woody CONSTANTLY tells these guys to go to the basket. So I guess it is Woody's fault that JJ settled for that jumper? Please. That was a decision that JJ made, not the coach. The same goes for defense and crashing the boards . . and rotating on defense . . and boxing out for rebounds, which no one but Horford and Shelden do. So whenever a team starts to kill us on the offensive boards solely because we're not boxing out, that's on the players. Boxing out is taught on every level of basketball. So if a pro basketball player isn't doing it, that's on the player. Woody stresses defense and rebounding. So when the team doesn't do it, it's al on Woody? Hogwash! As for Smith and his rotations, you're right. He's notorious with either givng a guy too much room, or not rotatng fast enough. But this is also a guy that Hawk fans consistently talk about having a low BBIQ. It's not shocking to me at all, that he'd do the same incorrect things over and over, no matter what the coach says. As for JJ, you're wrong. Just flat out wrong. If anything, JJ just gets worn down for having to do damn near everything each game. It's not a coincidence at all that he looks real sluggish on back to backs. If you check his stats, that's the time in which his numbers really go down across the board. You see the same ish happening to D-Wade now, seeing that he's virtually a one man team these days. He's not Flash anymore. He's taken the cape and the "S" from Shaq, and has become Superman. Meanwhile, he's playing ball with C-list "superheroes" like Hawkman, Thor, The Wonder Twins, and Captain Caveman. Hell, even the former Superman ( Shaq ), is more like Apache Chief these days. The result: Heat have lost 13 1/2 games straight . . with our game pending. And I'll ask the question that no one has seemed to been able to answer on this board: Name me a team that runs a good offensive system, that doesn't have either a good PG to run it, or a good low post option to get the ball to? Woody is an average coach. He's not a miracle worker. People are asking this team to be consistent without both a PG and a low post option . . LOL. It's funny though. The guy that many believe is unmotivated is BOTH our PG-like playmaker, and the best guy to throw the ball to in the post. Yet, he acts like he doesn't care? LOL @ that ish. Maybe I should pose this as a poll question: Which player was asked to do the most, while with the Hawks? a) Dominique Wilkins b) Steve Smith c) Joe Johnson

Trade Shelden for Patrick O'Bryant. He had a defensive reputation in college, and may can give us that quality 10 - 15 minutes at center that we're looking for. Ish, maybe Shelden could thrive in Nellie's chuck and duck offense. Instead of Al being the backup center to Biendrins, mybe Shelden could assume that role.

Walter, I'll still defend the pick, because addressing the frontline was a more pressing need, than taking Roy. Having said that, you have been proven to be right about Shelden. I can't defend the guy anymore. And yes we can get a 1st round pick for him . . but it would be for another 1st round pick that is also underachieving. It would be for a Jared Jeffries type player or a Patrick O'Bryant. I fully expected Shelden to do exactly what Horford is doing for us these days. When you see a player regress to the point that he can't even crack the rotation, you have to question that player's work ethic, not the coach putting him in a "doghouse". That would be the last thing I would've question about Shelden. That's why all this blame on Wody is BS. Woody can be blamed for some of our woes, no doubt on that. But these sorry azz role players have to take responsibility for the situations they're in. F--k a doghouse. They've built their own personal prisons. Marvin improved. Smoove improved. Chill has improved in a few areas. But Shelden, Salim, and Zaza have all regressed. And all 3 of them got to play early in the season, but they didn't produce. They built their own prison on the bench. And people wonder why Woody always has that pizzed-off look on his face? I'd be pizzed too if my 2-time defensive POY in college, can't even give Smoove and Horford adequate rest and get 20 - 25 minutes a game playing PF & C . . or that the backup PG that I trust offensively, can't play defense to save his life, and can't rotate to shooters that knock down the 3 . . or the undersized, malcontent shooter from Arizona always seems to perform well when a game is totally out of reach, but tends to go 1 - 5 FG when I need him to score in the 2nd quarter . . or my supposedly big-bodied center shoots 35% FG and pads his rebound numbers by tapping his misses off the rim to himself. LOL . . I'd be pizzed too. So if one of those players said someting back to ne, they'd definitely get cused out.

1) We actually play pretty good team defense, but certain players always find themselves out of position. When certain players always do the same thing, that has to be attrbuted to the player, not the coach. It's amazing to me that you don't believe a defensive coach like Woody doesn't get on these guys every single day about defense. That's all these players talk about after victories . . how they played together and how they defended. Defense is the main reason why we're better than last year. But I don't care who is the coach, he's not going to make AJ faster, or make Lue have more awareness on the defensive end. 2) Smith these days, shoot the vast majority of his 3's at the end of the shot clock, only after JJ or AJ passes him the ball. Even Monday, Marvin passes up a jumper late in the clock, gets it to an open Smoove, who shot the ball with like 3 seconds on the shot clock. I'm not mad @ Smoove for taking that shot . . he had to take it. And if Woody constantly benched Smoove for taking a bad shot, that means that one of our inconsistent bench players has to enter the game. Smoove is just as important to our defense, as JJ is to our offense. 3) To say that because JJ isn't playing at the same level as he was last year, that he's not motivated, is a bad assessment on your part. This fan base doesn't realize that JJ played at an almost SUPERSTAR level last year. This fan base expects him to be Superman every night. When he plays like Batman or Aquaman, he's now not as motivated as he was last year? You can do better than that Las. JJ brings it every night. He knows he needs help. Even the fan base knows he needs help. But every night, he just goes out and tries to do whatever he can to carry the team. On most nights, he has to be the scorer, the playmaker, guard the other team's best perimeter or sometimes their athletic 4 . . and do it while plying 40+ minutes a night. If he doesn't perform at a high level, fans scream . . "JJ just isn't motivated . . something is wrong with JJ . . JJ sucks . . we don't need JJ, so trade him and let the offense run through Marvin" . . and so on, and so on. 4) A team isn't the sum of the parts? - Salim was supposed to be our 3-point specialists (( bzzzzz )) - Shelden was supposed to be the banger, rebounder, and defender off the bench (( bzzzzz )) - Zaza was supposed to be the starter at center, or at the very least, provide adequate scoring from that position off the bench (( bzzzzz )) - Law was supposed to bring consistenty to the PG, and give JJ a guy to pass to and knock down the open jumper (( bzzzzz )) - Lue was supposed to be the vet leader on the team, that would keep us afloat when the 2nd unit was on the floor (( bzzzzz )) - AJ wasn't even supposed to play (( bzzzzz )) - Mario was supposed to be dressed in a suit every night (( bzzzzz )) - Wright was never supposed to see the court (( bzzzzz )) - Solo was supposed to be a spectator every night (( ding! )) . . now people want him to play. Why? See the reasons listed above. The fact that Al, Smoove, Marvin, Chill, and JJ have played consistently decent on both ends of the floor on most nights, is the reason why we're not further under .500 right now. They're now being asked to play even more minutes and carry the team the rest of the year, because the bench just can't be trusted these days. Only the sulkers on this team are underachieving. 5) Legler is dead on in his assessment. We are a C-team. Legs thought we'd be a D team, according to his preseason prediction. So did every other ESPN analyst outsde of Hollinger. That talent wasn't supposed to be 5-deep though. Myself and other fans on this board, was talking about this team possiby being able to go 10-deep. LOL . . no chance at that ish happening now. The fact that Mario West hs gotten PT this year, is all you need to know about the state of our bench. Somebody said they'd like to see the bench consisting of Chill, Law, Solo, and West. LOL . . good Lord. So much for our bench then. If that's our bench, we're transitioning into a full-fledged defensive squad. Might as well cut or trade everybody else.

Quote: From ESPN: Time to pass out the midseason grades for the Eastern Conference. Team are listed here in order of conference standing: Atlanta Hawks (Grade: C) -- It's funny how some people think the Hawks have arrived. Yes, they can be great on given nights and have played their best basketball against the NBA's elite teams. But this team has far too much talent to be so inconsistent. I don't want to hear about their youth … they can compete NOW in the East, but they haven't figured out how to focus and mature to the point where they can be taken seriously. I don't disagree with that assessment. Of course they're a "C-team". Ish, in years past, we've been a "F . . a D+ . . or at very best, a C- team". What did the fan base expect? For the Hawks to be a B+ team right now? But like coach hs pointed out, it's so funny to see how some of the fan base is expecting the Hawks to be 22 - 17 or something. Most of the board fully expected that the Hawks would win 36 - 42 games, and maybe just slide into the playoffs. Now, that doesn't seem to be good enough. People are talking about being "championship caliber?" Please. Only a blockbuster trade, or Smoove or Marvin raidly developing into star players, with JJ playing at a superstar level every night, is going to get us to championship level. An Anthony Parker, Sam Dalembert, Cuttino Mobley, or any other trade for a role player, only gets us to playoff level. even trading for Gasl doesn't get us to championship level. My main beef with this team, is how the majority of this bench can't be trusted anymore. We may have to move some of those guys, to bring in a more consistent player, just to assure that we will make the playoffs. Even without the trade, we still have enough talent to be .500 . . as long as the starters play decent on a nightly basis. (( talking like Dennis Green )) "The Hawks are who we thought they were."

Quote: Any single event like this one can be dismissed as not being his fault. But look at the patterns. It's not his fault the players are unhappy. nope . . not Woody's fault It's not his fault we lose all the time. we don't lose all the time . . but yeah, the coach has to take the blame It's not his fault the players don't rotate on D. nope . . not his fault. It's not his fault Smith shoots 3s. nope . . not his fault, because Smoove knows that Woody and can't afford to bench him for bad shots It's not his fault that Joe isn't motivated. LOL @ JJ isn't motivated. JJ plays his azz off just about every game. He just isn't a rah-rah type of player It's not his fault that our offense looks like crap. yeah . . that's his fault It's not his fault we haven't been running despite having the best bunch of athletes in the league for a couple of years. How many running teams run with their wings leading fast breaks? Woody gets 1/2 blame though, because we might coul run with Law at the point AND if our Forwards would give the ball to Law after rebounds, so that HE can make the deciisions on the break. It's not his fault Law's swagger has been crippled. Law has to play consistently better. 1/2 fault again though, because he probably should give Law heavy minutes regardless. It's not his fault we have no clue how to adjust when our opponents play zone. Not his fault . . you need shooters to bust a zone. We lack shooters. What is he responsible for? The pattern here is a team that underachieves, that has started to get tired of him. Only Zaza, Shelden, Salim, and sometimes Lue, are underachieving. Evrybody else is either playing at, or above the level where they should be playing. Yes we were within inches of winning a couple of games. We were withing a couple of coaching decisions of winning them too. The bottom line is we lost them. When Smith comes up with the ball late in the Portland game and Woody calls timeout as Smith is starting a fastbreak to Childress, it possibly cost us the game. I think we were down 2 at the time. After the timeout, Marvin draws a foul and he knocks down 2 foul shots to tie the game. The timeout, while ill-advised and panic-stricken, didn't cost us. Ok we've won a whole 3 more games than last year at the same point in time, whoopee! This team is underachieving and held back by its coaching. Every little thing may not be his fault, but he is one of the core problems. The fan base consistently says we need to trade for a starting post player or a PG. That's our core problem. Question . . if Woody had either the starting PG or the Post player, would we be better, the same, or would we still lose? Wait, I already know the answer. So by my calculations of what you listed, Woody is responsible for about 32% of our woes.

Coach, just let them live in fear. 80% of this fan base is convinced that we're going to lose 4 out of 5 of these road games. Once that happens, all hell will break loose, especially if one of those losses is to Seattle. The thing that concerns me about this team, is not the play of the starters. JJ, Smoove, Horford, and sometimes Marvin, have been doing their job every night. Chill hs been doing his job for the most part. But the rest of the bench is what concerns me. It would be nice to trade some of the expiring contracts, for a decent player we can bring off the bench that will produce. As for the state of the Hawks . . . We're 3 - 8 in our last 11 games. In our last 22 games . . we're 11 - 11 We're just a streaky .500 team. And the Nets lost AGAIN tonight.

Quote: Well this post is borrowed from Rip2137 on another board - therefore I have no idea of it's accuracy (although R did have a reasonable post count). +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "I am not gonna rundown Zaza. I was at a game where I saw Woody curse out Zaza like he was his pimp or something after he got a entrance pass stolen from him. Then I watch the players as they came out of the time out go up to him and tell him not to worry about it. Sure, he has had a bad season, but i am just not one of those people that think that a coach should be able to curse out a player and then send him packing if he says something back." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Hopefully Woody is more professional than to express himself like that during a game. Cussing in practice I certainly understand - but not by the coach at the game. Good Lord. Now coaches can't curse at players during a game? If you're athlete, and your coach curses, there's a very high chance that your coach will cuss at you sometimes during a game . . . especially if you keep (( bleepin' )) up . . like Zaza does. LOL . . the fans can cuss Zaza out. But as soon as the coach does it . . oh no!!! Some of you act like the things Woody does, only he does it. Quick . . name the NBA player who was sent to the locker room by his coach during a game this season. Also, name the NBA coach who did it Hint: He is a well respected coach, and is known to cuss at his players, because that coach don't take any ish off of anybody. Zaza is just a weak-minded individual that thinks he's much better than he really is. Remember guys, Zaza was our starting center at the beginning of the year. He was hurt the first couple of games, but Woody didn't hesitate to put him in as the starter @ center once he got healthy. He just flat out let an undersized rookie take his starting center job. Simple as that. No doghouses. No conspiracy theories. No nothing. This is all on Zaza folks. When you shoot sub 40% as a center, you DO NOT DESERVE the benefit of the doubt when your coach benches you for lackluster play.

Quote: This blame everything on Woody game is so childish. More things Woody is routinely blamed for: - Salim shooting 32% FG - Shelden having less impact on a game than Chuck Hayes - Bernie resigning today - Influencing the commish to make us replay the Miami game - The bad play of the Knicks - The CBA folding . . we all miss the Quad City Thunder - The Brawl @ the Palace in the DET vs iNDY game . . Woody had on a disguise and threw the cup that started everything - Heath Ledger overdosing today - Lil Kim and Martha Stewart going to jail - Building Skynet . . the US Defense system in the move "Terminator 3", that ends up causing Armageddon So as you can see, Woody is damn near the anti-christ. Quote: ZaZa is a grown man. He should know you don't try an argue with the coach (ESPECIALLY WHEN THE COACH IS RIGHT) in the middle of the game in front of 20,000 people. Its not like ZaZa was playing a good game either. ZaZa played 8.30 minutes with 1 point / 0 rebounds / 0 blocks / 1 foul...no telling how many points were scored agains him or how many rebounds were made against him. After a performance like that how do you argue with the coach ? Any coach would suspend a player who does this. Almost every team has a guy like ZaZa who thinks he is better then they truely are and get an attitude about it. Some people have some serious hatred towards Woody if there going to side with ZaZa and his pathetic performance. After his performance he should have gone to the bench with his tail tucked between his legs in shame not argue with the coach b/c you think your good enough to take minutes from Horford. Zaza is currently shootng 35% FG . . as a center. (( taking like Iverson )) "what we talking about man . . as a center? . . we're talking about as a center . . not a guard . . not a guard . . not a guard . . but as a center . . we're talking about as a center man . . as a center? . . a center? . . we're talking about as a center . . what wr talking about man . . a center." Lord knows that we're going to miss all of that production from him tomorrow night. When Smoove was shooting sub 40% FG back in Nov., all hell was breaking loose on this board.

What a disaster this bench has become. - Zaza is losing it, and may never see the floor as a Hawk ever again - Shelden is a complet non-factor - Salim is pretty much a lost cause - Lue is an asset and a liability - Acie is ineffective as a bench player, but comfortable as a starter - Chill is an asset, the only asset off the bench so far - Solo deserves time, by default - West has become the new Royal Ivey - and Lo Wright is still Lo Wright - and the former expendible PG at the start of the year, AJ, now gets heavy minutes LOL . . Horford's consistency from the jump, immeadiately made Zaza and Shelen expendible.

Wrong mentality Plastic. The window of opportunity is right now for us. At this point,we can't worry about where a player was drafted relative to another player. If Shelden doesn't have some mysterious injury that we don't know about, he has regressed as a player. With the situation with our frontline, there is no excuse for Shelden to not be able to get time. A lot of people blame Woody for Shelden not playing. I blame Shelden for Shelden not playing. No matter what level of basketball you play at, a player mush show the coach that he's improved, and is willing to play his role on the team. BK may have to come to the realization that Shelden just couldn't cut it as an impact player in this league. I'll defend the pick because I see why he chose him. His credentials were impressive. But he's not even a good defender on this level. He's just average. So when you're involving Shelden in ay deal, we can't have the mentality that we're trading a top 5 pick, because he plays nowhere near his pick status. It is what it is. So the deal is basically Cuttino for Chill, while getting rid of 2 players who are pretty much dead weight to us right now. Neither Lue nor Shelden looks to be able to help us in the ways we need help. Lue is more of an asset than Shelden right now. And that says a hell of a lot about Shelden these days.

Movng Smoove is a ballzy move that could make or break BK as a GM. Initially, it would be widey criticized by the fan base and the media. But it is a move that could balance this team out. He'd be viewed as a fool, or a genius. Here's another guy to consider that no one hs talked about . . . . Cuttino Mobley ( 6 - 4 . . 215 - 220 lbs ) Cuttino is a guy that can shoot the 3 and create his own shot if need be. He's decent defensively, not great by any stretch of the imagination. He would also allow the Hawks to put 2 deep scoring threats on the floor at the same time ( Cuttino and JJ ). Most important, he's a vet that knows how to play. I haven't run this through the trade checker, but maybe a Chill + Shelden + Lue for Cuttino and a 2008 2nd rd pick. ( You trade Lue to get him out of Woody's Toolbox. As long as he is an option for Woody to go to, he'll continue to use him ) If not Gasol or an Eddy Curry, then a guy like Cuttino should be considered. This goes against my theory of trading Chill in a package for a very good player. But it would balance this team out if we moved him for Cuttino. Cuttino is owed around 18 million after this season for the next 2 years. That's pretty much equal to what a resigned Chill and a Shelden would make anyway. If the Clips want to restructure their team a bit, they may do a deal like this, seeing that it could potentially give them some instant cap relief. If they don't like Chill, they could just let him go when somebody signs him to an offer sheet. Same goes with Shelden, if they don't want to pick up his team option after the 08 - 09 season. Diesel, I completely agree with you in that other thread in which you dressed down JackB a bit about not willing to do whatever to make the TEAM better. Loyalty to Smoove, Marvin, Chill, or even JJ, shouldn't stand in the way of making the team better. But I agree wit you most about the point you made about JJ. This is Year 3 of JJ in ATL. If the guys we have now isn't the right mix to get us to that next level, the organization has to be willing to make changes sooner than later. If not, and we somehow miss the playoffs, JJ is going to be even more unhappy going into 2008. Lineup with Cuttino: PG - Law / AJ / JJ G - JJ / Cuttino / West F - Marvin / JJ F - Smoove / Marvin / Solo F/C - Horford / Wright / Smoove / Zaza Offensively, we could throw this group on the floor: G - Law G - Cuttino G/F - JJ F - Smoove F/C - Horford Or this lineup: G - Cuttino G - JJ F - Marvin F - Smoove F/C - Horford Or go high speed with this lineup: G - Law G - Cuttino G/F - JJ F - Marvin F - Smoove Offensively, these are much more potent groups to have on the floor, than anyting we have right now. And defensively, we don't lose much at all. Yes, we still need a decent or defensive big, but we lost that chance when we didn't get Nazr. For you running advocates, aquiring Cuttino may be a good move for the Hawks.

Indy's situation is very intreresting because they're now offically 8th in the East now. I would agree with you that they may try to move Tinsley, if O'Neal was healthy. The first time we played them, we beat them partially because Tinsley shot the ball like crap. The 2nd meeting a few weeks ago, Tinsley was hurt. But they beat us because of the great shooting outside by their wings, and the excellent play of O'Neal inside. Without O'Neal inside, they may need Tinsley more than ever. Another characteristic of the East, is that teams are relunctant to trade amongst each other, for fear of making the other team better. It's going to take someone to make a major move, for these scared GMs to actually do something. With the Hawks, we may actually get lucky on this road trip: - Melo turned his ankle last night vs the Lakers. Will he play against us on Wednesday night? If not, we should win that game. - Seattle looks worse now, than they did at the beginning of the year - The Clippers are playing just as bad as we are recently - Portland will be tough to beat at home, but we can play with that team. - Phoenix should beat us, but you never know with them. JJ has to be stellar during this trip, to give us a legit shot every game. Lose all 5, and heads should roll . . Lose 4, and a trade should at least be seriously considered. But if we lose 3 or less during this trip, the Hawks may stay with the status quo.

I think a lot of these GMs, especially in the East, are afraid to make the WRONG move via a trade. They're trying to make the perfect deal, and hope their team can at least hold their position until they decide what to do. Of course, some teams may have the urge to make a deal more than others. Detroit or Orlando are probably on the verge of adding Webber, to shore up the 5 spot. Boston may add one more shooter to bring off the bench ( rumored to possibly be Damon Stoudamire if Memphis buys him out ). Toronto and Washington are basically waiting on their injured PGs to come back, and give them a shot in the arm for the 2nd half of the season. And Cleveland looks to be clicking on all cylinders now, even though they might make a deal for a PG . . but no one wants Larry Hughes. I think those teams are kind of waiting to see what the other does, so that they can counter that move. Those six teams may believe that they have enough pieces to win the East, or at least get past the 1st round. Which leaves us, and the rest of the East. It's pretty obvious as we approach the halfway point in the season, that the rest of the East may have to do something in order to get those final 2 spots, or possibly move up into the top 6. But those teams are very leery of giving up young developing talent for a veteran, to possibly get into the playoffs, but only to lose to the more powerful East teams in the 1st round. So they have to make a decision: is making the playoffs the goal, or is making NOISE in the playoffs the goal? Miami, Milwaukee, and New York are teams that might be done . . although Milwaukee is still in striking distance. New Jersey - Just making the playoffs isn't their goal, they want to make noise because their window is rapidly closing. They're on the verge of a breakdown, because while they legitimately have 3 all-star players, they are easily the most schizophrenic team in the NBA. It literally drives that fan base and the NY media crazy. The Vince Carter for Jermaine O'Neal trade talk, could've been the spark that forced everybody to do something. But with Jermaine talking about sitting out the entire season, that talk is rapidly dying down. Chicago - While Gasol didn't look spectacular, the Bulls looked like complete crap today. But while we talk about getting Gasol, Chicago has a very real chance of getting him. Like Jersey, they're probably not just content to make the playoffs, especially not after their showing last year. But when you get throttled by the Grizzlies, the pressure may be greater than ever to make a significant move just to get into a playoff push. Indiana - They beat Philly today, but the news of O'Neal possibly sitting out a long time, forces a lot of people to step up and compensate for his loss. Now, more than ever, they may fully commit to the uptempo game. Any trade they do, may reflect that. Problem now, is that the one guy that could get them a significant player, is hurt. If they trade one of the other guys, it may hurt them more than help them. They would welcome just a trip to the playoffs, regardless of how they do. Philly - They're a team that has to make a big decision: Do they make a playoff push and trade for a player now, ( other than a crap player like Giricek ), or do they wait till next year to make their move? They have a few very desireable pieces to deal, in exchange for expiring contracts, that could make them a major player in free agency this summer. As for this year, they're still undecided. Charlotte - They're the one team that has made a small deal, that has seemed to make them a better team. With Nazr, the Cats can move Okafor to PF. This all of a sudden gives the Bobcats one of the more tougher and athletic frontlines in the East, with Nazr, Okafor, and Wallace. Charlotte has been playing top level teams recently, so the true impact of this move can't be judged yet. But if you see Charlotte start to consistently beat bad and mediocre teams in the East, they will have to be watched closely. Just making the playoffs would be huge. If J-Rich starts to light it up offensively, they become a dangerous team the 2nd half of the season. Atlanta - They have expiring contracts and nice young talent across the board. The perfect assets you need to make a move. But they're either scared not to make another mistake ( Speedy ), or are under orders to do nothing. If the teams below the Hawks are also scared to give up somebody, the Hawks may be OK and still get in the playoffs. But if somebody does trade for somebody, this may force our hand. What we can't do, is let one of those teams get a player that can help us, but help them overtake us. The trade has to make sense chemistry-wise and financial-wise. The goal for us is to just get in the playoff dance. The East is like a restrictor plate NASCAR race at Daytona, where everybody just follows everybody, trying not to make a mistake. Then, somebody will do something interesting, like stay out on the track during a caution while everybody is pitting for gas and/or tires, to improve their track position. It's a risky move, but a necessary one, if you want to be in position to win the race or finish in the top 5. I think the Hawks are perfectly content in just sneaking into the playoffs, without doing anything drastic to shake up the roster. It's going to take someone else making a move, or Charlotte catching us, to force their hand.

Other coaches do it all the time. But they usually do it with one of those big centers that just take up space, or a defensive minded forward or guard. They usually get subbed for more talented offensive players and play less minutes than that player. The crazy thing about us, is that offensively, Lue is our most talented scoring PG. But you can't start him because he plays better off the bench. You also can't start him, because if there is a good offensive PG on the other team, he'll have a field day against Lue. Lue is an asset and a liability at the same time. AJ is less of a defensive liability because he's stronger than Lue, and won't get pushed around easy. But he's too slow to contain the quick PGs and that slowness also hampers him on the offensive end. Acie has the quickness and the strength to properly play the position, witout being a liability on either end of the floor most of the time. But like I said last week, I think Acie needs Woody to give him the "keys to the Hawks offense", much like Memphis has done with Conley. He needs Woody to tell him that "you're our PG now. We're sticking with you no matter what. If you make some mistakes, that's OK. I'm committed to you." Woody has no job security though, so I guess he's playing the guys that produced for him in the past. In his situation, he can't wait for a guy to develop, he has to play the people he's used to playing right now. That's why he plays JJ heavy minutes. Still, it's obvious that this team will continue to be highly inconsitent, unless Acie is able to take over the offense. Lue and AJ aren't going to get any better than they are right now. Acie has a chance to rapidly get better, if given the minutes and the confidence to just do what he does. It's like a young QB in the NFL. Sure, you could play the veteran QB because he has more experience. And the vet QB might even be better than the young guy. But it comes a point in time in which you have to decide whether the team will be better off with the young guy playing. One thing is for sure. Acie isn't going to get better, if he doesn't get the minutes. Woody just needs to do what he was going to do back in November, and give the keys to Acie. Don't be fooled by the sporadic good games that Lue and AJ have. Go with Acie, because he potentially has the most talent, and will only get better with more PT.

Damn . . if JJ had 37 points and 7 assists, that means he created 16 - 17 point from his assists . . which means he created damn near 55 points today. That's a LeBron type impact on a game.

Quote: JJ had 37 pts, 7 assists and no turnovers today. He was huge late in the game. People keep saying he doesn't play like a leader but when he does the silence is deafening. He also held Roy to 18 pts on 22 shot attempts. We outscored them at the line 30-17. We outscored them on the break 17-5. We even outshot them from 3. There is no way we should have lost this game. But Marvin, Smith and Horford were a combined 8-35 from the field. That just sucks. Childress had 4 of the teams 11 turnovers (along with his typical 1 assist). Lue was such a defensive liability that his 18 pts were meaningless. The Blazers were not getting easy shots when Acie was in with the starters. When he left they immediately started scoring easy baskets. One of these days Woody will realize he just has to start Acie, play him big minutes and accept the consequences. I just hope he realizes it before it's too late. Ex, that was what I was talking about the other day with Acie. He may be the type of player that is just more effective if he's the starter. The Hawks looked great in that 1st quarter with him running the show. And he looked good in the 3rd as well. Woody just trusts Lue a little too much. Right now, he shouldn't evr play more than 20 minutes a game, unless Law or AJ are playing like complete garbage. Lue is basically our Eddie House these days. That's a role I wished Salim could assume, but I think he's a lost cause now. But even with House, you know that he's only going to play a limited amount of minutes. That's how it should be with Lue, regardless of how he's shooting. If Acie isn't playing bad, he should be in there at the end . . unless you do need 3-point shooting. Then put Lue in. I'm not totally upset with this loss because Portland's bench hit a ton of shots today. The offensive rebounds and put-backs Portland got didn't help us either. Woody just should've pulled Lue in that 4th quarter a little sooner. I think Woody subbed for him when Portland was up 94 - 87 with a little under 4 minutes to go. The defense immeadiatey tightened up, and we got right back in the game. As for JJ, I think his created points number today was 49 - 50 points. I believe 2 or 3 of his assists were on threes. When JJ is creating that many points, no way we should lose a game. The JJ haters are so funny on this board though. The back to backs definitey take a toll on him, because he has to do so much. But when he's somewhat rested, and has a superstar-like game, they run in their holes and hide. Never anything positive to say about him, after games like these either.

The coach almost always goes before the GM. Can't do em both at the same time. The GM does need to at least try to change up the mix a little, in order to help out the coach. If ownership won't let him make a worthwhile move, there's nothing the GM can do. Then it's up to the coach to make the best with what he's got.

The goal is to make the playoffs. If you're a good team, you're going to make the playoffs. If you're a schizophrenic team, you can back-door your way in. But the ultimate goal is to get in, no matter what. Golden St. backed their way in last year.

I don't think anybody hs ever been down with Woody. It's just that you can't blame him for stupid player mistakes that cost us games. Today, he trusted T-Lue a little bit too long. Lue played a great offensive game, but was giving it right back to Portland either with poor man defense, or poor awareness on the pick and roll. With the all-around game that Law was having, he should've gotten him back in the game at the 6 minute mark, not with less than 4 minutes left. And even at that point, he put Chill in, and not Law. The moved worked defensively and got us back in the game. If done sooner, we might've won. Law finished with 7 points, 5 rebounds ( more than Marvin or Chill got ) and 5 assists. I wonder what his +/- rating was tonight?

I could've sworn that was Mario on Smoove. I need to get lasik surgery on my eyes, and an HDTV. Interesting though that he'd be on Outlaw, and not protecting the rim.

The only way we drop out of the top 8 in the east, is if we lose ALL of the road games . . and even then, we'll still be right there for the 8th spot. If we lose all 5, Woody probably deserves to be fired. But realistically, all they need to do is win 2 out of 5, to probably stay right where we are at #7. The good play in December bought us some wiggle room, in case we hit a bad stretch. Fortunately for us, Chicago is jut as inconsistent as we are, and we'll see what Indy does with O'Neal talking about sitting out an extended period of time.