TheNorthCydeRises

Quote: I haven't watched Gasol much the past couple of years but the people who have don't seem to impressed with him. I know northcyde watches him quite a bit and doesn't seem the least bit interested in trading for him. MemphisX obviously sees him a lot and said flat out it would be stupid for the Hawks to trade Smith for Gasol. As the Secretary of Defense in the movie "Independence Day" told the President, when the President was explaining to Jeff Goldblum's daddy that there was no such thing as aliens or Area 51 . . . That's not entirely accurate. I definitely like Gasol's overall game and he would fit in quite well here. I would've traded Smoove for Gasol back in November. When NBA teams really want to rapidly get better, they usually trade young developing talent for established talent. Gasol is an established talent that would instantly make us better offensively. A Gasol, Horford, Marvin . . . Gasol, Smoove, Marvin . . . or a Gasol, Horford, Smoove frontine, is better than the current Horford Smoove, Marvin frontline we have now. Having said that, I'd first see just how bad Memphis wanted to get rid of Gasol first. Chill + the expiring contracts would be my initial offer, to see if they wanted to get his salary off the books. Now, I would only trade Smoove for Gasol in a sign and trade after the season, if the lack of a post game was a major reason why we couldn't win a playoff game or two in the first round. Trading for Gasol is usually a move that a playoff team looking to compete for a title, would do. It's a trade that the Bulls should've done last year to balance out theit team. Damn . . . just had to duck in my closet for about 10 minutes because of a tornado warning in my city. No damage reports yet. Might be a rough day for you guys in Alabama today and in Georgia later tonight.

Quote: Well, there's a lot to be said about playing aggressively and playing together. However, we need some shooters that can be counted on if we're going to do this halfcourt thing. Otherwise, I submit we become a true uptempo team. When we were going back and fourth with the Cavs in the third, that played into our better style of play... basically getting out athletic wings on the run and getting them the ball on the break. When we slowed it back down to a halfcourt game, we uncovered our weakness. It's not so much we need the shooters... it's in fact that we're not aggressive. If you trade Marvin for Rudy Gay straigth up... we'd be better. No slight on Marvin.. but then we'd have one guy in our starting lineup that will get the ball and attack the goal when an opening presents itself. Same is true with Iguodala. WE HAVE a team full of set shot artists. One other thing is this... the reason I stood up and woke up the neighbors when AJ dunked is not just because the old man got up... But it was the fact that the old man saw this huge hole in the defense and he attacked it... It was the recognition that there's something outside of swinging the ball back around that I can do. And that didn't make anybody's top 10??!?? Law should be taking note. We need him to play with an eye towards exploiting openings. When we went back and forth with the Cavs in the 3rd, we were very solid defensively and on the boards. That's when the pace of the game picked up. If we play defense, we can play that pace you want to play at. But if the other team makes shots, we can't try to play fast just for the sake of playing fast. Last night's game was won because of defense, not offense. LOL @ the Rudy Gay for Marvin comment, then saying "no slight on Marvin". Sure buddy . . lol.

JJ created/scored 39 points last night. We need him to at least have him create/score at least 30 points ( preferably 35+ points ) a night, in order for us to win on most nights. So if he goes for 28 points & 3 assists or 15 points & 8 assists, that's what we need. He's the focal point of the offense, so he either has to be a high scorer or a good distributor. As far as the 2nd scorer, this will alternate between Smoove and Marvin. It's probably better to look at what we need combined from them, than looking for a #2 scorer. 40 ppg would be ideal bewteen the two, especially if Woody shortens his rotation to 8 guys. I think Woody may opt to play Marvin more spot minutes at the 4, with Zaza and Shelden not playing up to par. That also means that Smoove may see spot minutes at the 5. I think he's going to ask more from both of them offensively as the season goes along. Zaza/Shelden's failure also means more time for Childress. So you can look at this from many angles. - have one of either Smoove/Marvin be a definitive 2nd guy. - get a combined 40+ ppg from Smoove and Marvin - get a combined 52+ ppg from Smoove, Marvin, and Chill - get a combined 70+ ppg from Smoove, Marvin, Chill and JJ

WOW @ that deal. I hope this is sarcasm. Luke is quickly becoming the next Speedy with all the injuries. Swift is very unimpressive as a reserve big man. And has Damien even broken the 25 point barrier in a game, since he looked like Nique Jr. aganst us? Just a horrible, horrible deal across the board. You do not trade Chill, unless you can get an equal or greater player for him. And if we trade him with multiple guys, I want a player who is a quality starter or borderline star. Chill is only gone from the Hawks, if we don't match a deal.

JJ points created: 1st quarter - 7 points 2nd quarter - 10 points 3rd quarter - 12 points

JJ points created: 1st quarter- 7 points 2nd quarter - 10 points

I think you're right. I think Chill hd a nice game that night as well. As far as JJ goes, remember that the magic number for he and the Hawks winning, is usually 30 or more points created. His own points + points scored off of his assits. 1st quarter - 7 points

The "crippled homie" section is classic. I still crack up when I see that pic of the hadicapped kid, with the Chamillionaire song lyric on it. That isn is funny as hell. What some "non-creative" people don't realize, is that a lot of the ish that creative people do, comes right off the top of their heads. A cat like you can take an idea, and rapidly create something funny with it, in a matter of hours. Ish, you probably can crank out a game thread in less than an hour. I can do that from a writng standpoint. If I'm on a computer, and not ny PDA, those long winded posts I write usually take me no more than 15 - 30 minutes to write, research, and edit. Once i know what I want to talk about, writng it is a breeze. If I need some stats to back up my argument, I already know where to look.

LOL @ Tender Love. That was the theme to my high school prom back in the day. Good game thread.

That's not her, or it must be her at another game then. The main woman jawing wit LeBron that night, had on green and black. She wasn't in red, nor did she have her har in a pony tail. Now that may indeed be Chris's girl in that pic, but I don't think she was the one LeBron was focusng on that night.

Quote: He had 4 TOs and 3 of those rebounds were "Zaza rebounds" as they came off of his own missed shots. The real reason I feel that he played worse than the stats indicate though is that I thought everything related to him in the game was forced. We were trying to FORCE the ball to him even when Kidd was in great position to prevent him from catching it. Then we he got the ball, he FORCED some REALLY bad shots over double (and triple) teams rather than passing the ball to the open man. Sometimes JJ makes unbelievably tough shots when he forces the action but Kidd defended him as well as I've ever seen anyone defend him. I love JJ and I think he is a great player but he needs to play a LOT better than he has played during our 4 game losing streak. His BEST game during that span was his 24 pt (8 of 18 shooting)/2 reb/2 asst performance against CLE and his perfomance in that game was actually skewed a little. Take away the two bombs he hit in the last 11 secs of the game and in the first 47:49 of the game, he was 6/16 (38%) shooting with 18 pts/2 rebs/2 assts. When that is your All Star SG's BEST game in a 4-game stretch, that is simply not good enough. But that's kind of what I'm talking about. That same type of performance in Cleveland, may have pulled the game out. The te bombs he hit at the end, cut the lead to 2. He did something similar to that in the first Detroit game, that rapidly closed the gap in that game as well. If he goes 6 - 16 in the NJ game, that may have been enough. I agree though, he has to shoot better consistently, in order for us to win. I'd rather for him to shoot 40% every game, than shoot 48% one game, and 30% in the next few games following. We have very little chance of winning when JJ shoots below 35%.

Add a section on there that shows Lebron turning into the Hulk when you make him angry. Those two fine women in Toronto were taunting him when they played a few days ago. He was playing below par, but then explodes for 24 points in the 4th. Then he playfully blames one of women, saying "it's your fault". Note to Hawksquawk: Don't give LeBron a reason to hang 45 on us tonight..

On espn mobile, you'll have to go to the Hawks homepage there, and the article should be there.

I think this might be an espn insider article, but people who have espn on their mobile phone, can view this. I'll post the mobile link in here. http://mobileapp.espn.go.com/nba/mp/redesi...6191&series=nba

Starters/bench: PG: Billups / Calderon ( makes an interesting argument for him ) G: Wade / Hamilton F: LeBron / Butler F: Garnett / Pierce C: Howard / Bosh Final 2 spots: Jamison & Josh Smith ( interesting argument for him as well )

Jersey, Philly, D.C., Chicago all losing right now, Cleveland rolling

With all of the talk about JJ having a horrible game, it might shock some of you to find out that he dang near had a triple-double vs the Nets. ( 9 pts - 8 rebs - 8 asst - 4 stls ) Other than his shooting, he had a damn impressive game. But when shooting is supposed to be your strength, that gets magnifed. I agree with the comments about JJ missing shots though. The tough shots are one thing, but the wide open looks are another. He has to knock those down. If JJ shot 6 - 16 FGs vs Jersey, but hit 2 threes in the process, you're now talking about him scoring 15 pts, with 8 rebs, 8 asst, and 4 stls. That might have been enough to pull the game out.

Lue got my vote. He probably won't be here next year. Lue and AJ are also the same type of player in that they each are more of the jumpshooting PG, than the playmaking one. AJ gets the edge over Lue, because he's a better playmaker and defender. One of them has to sit, in order to see if Law can really make an impact on a game. Zaza has to play by default. We have very few big people, so he has to play. The thing to do, is not give him the ball on offense, if he continues to play like he's doing now. But with AJ, JJ, Law, Chill and West playing guard at times, Lue is the guy that is expendible. All 5 of those guys bring different things to the table at guard.

I think I'll start spelling Smoove's name with an 'a'. Call him Jash Smith.

Quote: Rapters will not give up capono, dalembert i think has a big contract, and gasol plays no defense Man please. While Gasol is definitely on the soft side at times defensively, he's one of the top offensive big men in the game. Gasol instantly helps this team, if we don't have to give up a Smoove, Horford or Marvin to get him.

Quote: I am trying not to have a knee-jerk reaction either. If this team doesn't get this thing turn around soon. They are just opening the door for the other teams to get back in it. They had a chance to build some distance between themselves and others. Now that gap is just 1/2 game from being out of the playoffs. . . . and 1.5 games from being in 4th place again. The thing about the East that people always need to remember, is that 12 of the 15 teams in this conference are highly schizophrenic. Outside of Boston, Detroit, and Orlando, every single team in this conference has emdured a 4 - 5 game losing streak. None of these teams are going to run away from us, as long as we avoid an extended losing streak or stretch. Indy is out west right now, so we'll see how they hold up. We have 4 home games before we start our West trip. We need to win at least 2 of them. And no, it doesn't matter which 2, as long as we win 2. Winning 3 or 4 would be extremely nice. But 2 is more realistic. If we go 5 - 5 in our next 10 games, we'll still be a playoff seed. Gotta love the East.

That lineup actually got us back in the game in that 3rd quarter too. Not sure if JJ or Chill was at the 4, but it wa definitely a frontline of Smoove, Chill, and JJ . . with Law and Mario in the backcourt. Woody routinely played Smove at the 5 last year, especially in the 2nd half of the season, so that he could use his quickness to drive past his man. The situation with Shelden and Zaza is definitely becoming a problem. It'll be interesting to see if they indeed are trying to move both of them, for another big man. Playing Solo probably isn't the answer either, but he may have to start playing him, just to see if he can send a message to Shelden and Zaza.

Quote: Quote: I have no problem making a deal involving Chill. What I do have a problem with, is trading him for a lesser player. His value is much more higher than trading him for a BU shooter or PG off the bench. That's debatable. He's certainly NOT worth a starting PG or big, and he's a backup wing himself, so why would he merit more than that? Trading Chill would also include trading some of the expiring contracts or a guy like Shelden/Zaza, to bring in a real good starter. If we're to trade one of the youngsters, I'm always looking to trade for at least a disgruntled very good player. ( Gasol, Kidd, etc. ). I'm not trading him for a one-dimensional role player.

Quote: The blame Woody bandwagon is a bit much. Watching the Hawks, I am noticing that there is simply no floor leadership. J.J. does not step up to the plate when it is needed. Woody can not be blamed for this. Players on the Hawks are getting paid millions of dollars and they are refusing to play with intensity, and unless Woody has some sort of magic potion to force them to do so, it is not his fault. Blaming Woody makes them all feel better. And once again, defense cost us this game, along with those offensive droughts. But when you play defense, you may create offensive chances to break the drought. I'm as big of a JJ fan than anybody, but I agree with you. The past 2 games, he's let himself be taken out of his game. As the captain of the team, he can't let that happen. He's an offensive player, and he has to stay in attack mode at all times either as a scorer, or as a playmaker.

Quote: Will we ever have a good team again is my only question? This is just rediculously bad effort mixed in with a coach who is overmatched.(Doesnt even see how bad his team is playing, and therefore does not make the necessary changes.) LOL . . now Woody is overmatched by Lawrence Frank? Hilarious. Woody gets no credit for the start, but all the blame forthe collapse. Typical Hawksquawk. He's just doing what most coaches do, and see if they can play ther way out of this. Our captain is the one that needs to pick up the pace right now. But I guess we should sub him for Mario West, to see if he can spark us offensively.