TheNorthCydeRises

Quote: Quote: The game was lost in the first 5 minutes of the 4th, where we couldn't score and we couldn't get enough stops to keep us closer. And it just so happens JJ was on the bench to start the 4th quarter. And people wonder why Woody plays JJ 40+ minutes a night. Maybe in the 1st quarter, JJ should be the first to come out of a game, just to make sure he can play the entire 2nd half. The time when JJ is on the bench, is really the time in which either Marvin or Smoove need to take up the scoring load. LOL . . . but that brings up a whole other issue. JJ is struggling making the midrange shot, no doubt on that. But his mere presence on the floor enables Marvin and Smoove to do what they do. It'll be like benching Chipper Jones, if he were hitting .230 with only 4 home runs and 15 RBIs for about a 4 week stretch. You know what he's capable of doing, so you don't ever take the bat out of his hand. Let him keep swinging, because you know that he'll eventually get back to normal, and come up big for you. But if you take him out of the lineup, the good pitches that the guys hitting in front or behind him were getting, will suddenly go away.

Quote: Quote: Quote: It was 44-41 and a few bad shots and almost stolen balls and before you could blink, the game was over. LOL yeah that 1 pt deficit going into the fourth quarter was insurmountable. I'm not going to get into this with you, but that stretch effectively ended the game. They had control from that point on. And look at you laughing about the loss. I'm obviously right. Those points allowed and not scored ultimately factored in to the loss. Or did that not actually happen? So the 8 straight points ( two 3's by JJ ) the Hawks scored in the first 2 - 3 minutes of the 3rd quarter, didn't get us rigt back to the 3 point decifit that you cited where everything started to fall apart? The game was lost in the first 5 minutes of the 4th, where we couldn't score and we couldn't get enough stops to keep us closer.

Quote: Sorry but I dont know a Falcons message board and dont wanna deal with it. I know some people might want to weigh-in? -What coach would you like to see come in? (Cowher or Billick or young Pats O-Coordinator) I'm not a Falcons fan, but I would go after a coordinator type. Maybe a guy like a Jason Garrett or a Maurice Carthon. The Falcons need to be completely restructured, so bring in a fresh face to do it. I don't think the older coaches would be patient enough to go through a complete rebuilding situation. Quote: -Will coaches even want to come to ATL? (I hope Arty breaks the bank - that's our only hope.) Yeah, but like I said before, I would get a coordinator who could put his own stamp on a team. Quote: -Is Petrino justified for leaving? (eh...donno; don't respect him for it at least) HELL NO!!!! He's a quitter and a sellout. Quitting before the damn season ended? Didn't tell anybody that he was leaving, until he was already gone? Even acting like he was in it for the long haul, even after the game last night? That's bulls**t!!! I hope that program goes winless in the SEC next year. LMAO @ that mo-fo doing the "woo pig sooie" chant. That mo-fo. Quote: -What do we do to rebuild? (I think we gotta look at McCadden with the #2 if we can lose out...yes, tank!) McFadden is a good start. But you guys have serious QB issues. Personally, I would make a play for McNabb, if the people in Philly continue to drive him out of town. Of course, he'd cost ATL a few 1st round picks, but a vet QB like that in ATL would make everybody immeadiately forget about Vick. And it would be an immeadiate upgrade at QB. Quote: -Is Rich McKay Okay? I mean, is he worth a sh*t as a GM? (I'd like to see an interview with him.) Hmmmm, I don't know. He's made some moves to try to help the team, that has actually made the team worse. It's a hard call though, seeing that the entire offense was built around Vick. The Falcons defense though . . . damn near as bad as my Bengal defense. That D definitely needs to be addressed. Here's a move: PacMan Jones for DeAngelo Hall. Both players need a change of scenery, and Pac would be the King of ATL. Hall might get his focus back while with the Titans. Pac was rapidly developing into a Pro Bowl talent, before he got suspended. LOL, that would be a ballsy move for them though, taking on a guy like PacMan, after the Vick fiasco. That kid has major league gamebreaking talent though. Quote: -Where do we stand as a team? What positions do we need to build up or acquire players for? Any free agents we would look at? Who do we draft in Rd. 1, 2, 3...? Gotta completely rebuild the team, IMO. Once the new coach is brought in, do exactly what Marvin Lewis had to do with my Bengals. Marvin came in, and cut 10 - 11 vets from the Bengals by the time the season started, just to purge the underachievers from the squad. I think that also needs to happen in ATL. Get the offensive stud in the first round, if you don't trade it for an impact vet. Address the defense in rounds 2 and 3. Quote: Hey, at least Falcons fans have something to pay attention to now. Came as pretty shocking news to me. I was of the opinion that Petrino would ultimately succeed as an NFL head coach once we rebuilt and got some talent and a QB. But, hey, maybe he wasnt an NFL guy. He is certainly a serial team changer. That mo-fo!!! ( they just played the "woo pig sooie" chant on SportsCenter's Top 10 plays). He's going to convince kids coming to Arkansas to be loyal to the program and give it his all, yet, this mo-fo flat out quits on the Falcons after 13 games. The Falcons are definitely better off without him. Oh well, I guess Chris Redman can go back to selling insurane. That was Bobby's favorite QB.

Quote: Some of you people need to really stop. All these personal criticisms of players that fluctuate on a day to day basis is really just ridiculous. Kissing Josh's ass one day, insulting his intelligence another. Calling for Shelden's head one week, begging to do his laundry the next. PUT SALIM IN! SALIM IS A BUM! MARVIN IS A WUS! GIVE THE BALL TO MARVIN! The ONLY thing that any fan should insult a player personally if it is because that player is not trying their best. We can comment negatively on a player's skillset all we want and we do. But having two threads were Josh is being called ignorant because of a bad game, when he just got eastern conference player of the week and was instrumental in beating Orlando BASICALLY is ignorant in itself. I cannot wait till the Hawks win on such a consistent basis where fans comment on games, not on HESUCKS! HEROCKS! He goes from being called names like Shellhead (from his own fans nevertheless) to people kissing his ass. We have the youngest team in the league (aka prone to mistakes and bad games), yet you'd think it would actually be we have the youngest FANS in the league. This is the Hwksquawk Post of the Year ! Excellent post.

Quote: Quote: Who will help JJ close this out? Josh Smith, Chris Bosh etc. You are talking about close out the win for Toronto right! This JJ/Smith love thing is getting ridiculous! JJ had 18 in the 2nd half. Smith just tried to force too many things. We were right there to begin the 4th though. Even if JJ would've scored 25 in the half, but we lost, you'd still be whining about JJ. Even in victory last nigt, you were whining. I'll make sure to send you a season's supply of Kleenex for Christmas, since you're going to complain and cry all season.

Quote: Quote: Like I said . . . First one to 88 points wins this game. Yea right. How bout 1st to a 100 and only team that shoots above 40%. What is the difference between last night and tonight? We played a team that actually shot their season fg%. LOL @ first to 100. The Raps had 69 points at the start oof the 4th. No way they should've reached 100. 88 points was the right target number to get. But once again, we couldn't get stops when we couldn't score. We cut the lead to 1, only to immeadiately swell back up to 9 and 10 points. The start of the quarter was big for the Raps. Oh well . . . life goes on. Off to Detroit. Maybe Solo will get to play in D-town, if Al gets suspended.

If he got ejected, the foul was a Flagrant 2. That gets you an automatic 1- game suspension I believe. Zaza got hit with one around this time last year, for that hard foul in Utah.

Like I said . . . 11 points in the quarter by the captain . . held the Raps down, although TJ still got his . . . and Acie is giving us good minutes . . plus the lead was down to 2 to begin the 4th. Who will help JJ clost this out? We could use another excellent defensive quarter. And thank God for Chill tonight.

OMG you're right. We can't have this out of two guys that played vitually the entire game last night. We need to trade them both for Miller and Biendrins. DO IT NOW!!!!!

We still have a half to go. Most of us kinda expected a game like this, so it shouldn't be a shock to most of us. Defensively, we melted down. They went on a 24 - 6 run to close the half. The adjustment is simple. Make someone else besides TJ Ford beat you. This does mean that the role players will probably get a ton of open looks. And if they knock them down, we're going to lose by 15+ points. But we've been in this situation before. The defensive intensity needs to be turned up big time. Offensively, JJ, Marvin and Smith will have to step it up. JJ probably will. marvin shouldn't turn down any shots right now. And Smoove needs to play the playmaker role for a while, until Marvin and JJ get us back in the game. First one to 88 points wins this game. I'd expect this lead to be cut to 5 by the start of the 4th. Expect a big quarter by our captain coming up. Smoove, or possibly even a Salim or Acie, will be big in the 4th, if we are within striking distance.

I disagree with you Hood. I explained why in that other thread. But did I see right? Phoenix is your other favorite team? Why do you have 2 favorite teams?

Quote: The paper said it was Fizdale's idea to put JJ on their pg which disrupted their offense. Can't give Woody that credit. He obviously needs to listen to them more and let them give direction. Because Fitz came up wth the right idea to limit the Magic, Woody can't get any credit. Even though it's part of Fitz's job to help the coach, when he does, coach can't get any credit. I wonder if Popovich ever got help from one of his assistants about an elemet of the gameplan? If we lose tonight, I'm sure it will be all his fault. If we win, it'll be because of some other element outside of Woody. Woody might as well resign then. Damned if he does . . . damned if he doesn't.

Quote: Quote: Great defensive game plan, and just an overall good coaching job by the head man. Put aside the hate, and admit he did a good job. 10-10 with this team at this point in the season with the eastern conference looking the way it is works for me! I'll give Woody some love - this team is playing tough, playing great D, and actually appears to be running some creative sets. It seems to be a series of curls and post ups withing 15 feet and it is getting a lot of our players touches and opportunities. I hope it's a tren and not just a blip on the screen. I don't think he'll ever be a championship quality coach, but I think he's doing a solid job at the moment. Sheed, we've always ran that offense under Woody. Execution is another thing. This isn't something that he's recently come up with. And I agree, he's doing a solid job right now. That doesn't make him a good coach, but it doesn't make him a bad or clueless one either. Most of Hawksquawk tries to have it both ways. When we lose, it's all because of Woody. When we win, it's in spite of Woody. Sorry, but people can't have it both ways. Some games, the blame should go to Woody. Other games, it's more of the players fault. But most of the time, both players and coaches have t take responsiblity. At least you're willing to give him a little credit when we are playing well enough to win.

Quote: The Celtics won a h#$& of a lot of championships both playing uptempo offense and suffocating defense. The two ideas are not mutually exclusive. AHF . . what did those great Celtic teams have? Guards like Cousy, Havlicek, Archibald, and Dennis Johnson. Do we have any guard on this team with 1/3rd of the taent of any of those guys? And how many of those guards are in the Hall of Fame? I guess Smoove is our Bill Russell? JJ our Larry Bird? Salim our Danny Ainge? Marvin our KC Jones? Horford our Robert Parish? (( talking like Ozzie Guillen )) "Ppppfffff . . . please." Good lord man. Those Boston teams could do it all. Defend you. Run with you. Play half court and destroy you. The current Celtics resemble the old school Cetics, because they can win any type of game. Same wth the Spurs, which is the reason why they have 4 titles in 9 years. The Hawks can't do that ish. We win when we defend well. But we can be good offensively, and stll lose a game ( see Seattle ) Yet, people blame the coach for not running . . . incredible. I totallly agree with Woody when he said earlier in the year that the Hawks can't run like they wanted, because they didn't defend and rebound well enough. It's incredible that you guys will settle for Smoove or Horford to lead a fast break, just for the sake of playing uptempo. I only want them to run when the opportunity presents itself. I dont want them running, just for the sake of running. LOL . . and don't want the PF or our C making decisons in the open court on the fast break.

Quote: so your emplying that johnson is not happy with smoove on his way to becoming better than him. so what that dude said on realgm might make alot more since. I don't think that was the reason why JJ may have been ticked off. It's the fact that JJ was the all-star, but the guy didn't even know it, that might have ticked off JJ. If you were an all-state player in high school, and in the following season, someone interviews you after a game and mistakenly credits one of your teammates as being the all-state player . . when you know that you were the all-state player and not him . . I'd bet you'd be a little pissed too.

Quote: And the reason why such a win streak isn't feasible is BECAUSE of Woodson. He hurts this team more than he helps it We are built to run, yet how often do we do so? He is too dumb to bench Pachulia or give Marvin more minutes instead of Childress Only when they are injured does it look like he has a clue But even still, we don't run nearly as much as we should And of course the worst part about him is that he doesn't call timeouts until the other team goes on a 10-0 run Yep, we need to run. Forget that the vast majority of running teams have a PG that can create for others at a very high rate, or take over the scoring load himself. Forget that most running teams have shooters galore that can knock down open shots from anywhere. Even though we have none of that here, we need to run. Some of you are holding onto this idea of running, yet, are completely ignoring why we've won 7 out of 10. DEFENSE. Like I said a week ago, we're built to defend, not to run. We resemble the Pistons more than any other team you can compare us with. And if you play good defense, you'll create quick transition opportunites. We should only run when we get stops. And even then, we need to have the advantage to make the most out of that opportunity. I had friend in college about 13 years ago at the U. of Tennessee, that used to get frustrated everytime Alabama would beat us. Back in the early and mid-90s, it wasn't Florida we couldn't beat, it was Bama. Forget that offensively we were always superior, we still found unbelievable ways to lose to Bama. But on this occasion, Arkansas had come to Knoxville and stunned the Vols. I think they ended up beating us on a punt return. LOL . . . it was so silent after the game. You'd think that you'd just come from a memorial service. At the same time, Alabama was winning one of those ugly Alabama type games in which they dominated you on defense, and did just enough on offense to win the game. My friend turns to me, and says something that I'll never forget: In a high-pitched, frustrated voice, he says . . . "I would LOVE to win a 10 - 7 ballgame!!!" He understood that no matter how pretty or how explosive of an offensive team we were, having a good to great defensive team was always better to have. With all of the great offensive players we had throughout the 90s, the Vols didn't win a national title until they had a great defense. Peyton Manning with an average defense, couldn't get it done. Tee Martin with a great defense, did. I'll take a game like last night, in which our defense won, over a 109 point game in which we still lose by 7. Damn looking pretty and winning. I just want to win, PERIOD. Good job these last 10 games Woody. Let's see if you can get these guys to play another 10 like that.

Quote: ... or even close to it, Woodson would be exposed to the rest of the world as the completely horrible coach that he is. It's like we're in a bubble or something. No one has paid attention to us for years. If there is more attention on the team, there will be more scrutiny of the coach. I would love to see this team to do the unthinkable, and win their next 5 games. That would give us an 8-game win streak, and run our record to 15 - 10. LOL . . . Woody still wouldn't get any credit. This is exactly what Sekou was talking about in his blog today.

Quote: ...how SPECIAL Smoove is? I signed on to the board tonight expecting everyone to be as overwhelmed with awe as I am, but there are surprisingly few comments. Yes, he still has some mental lapses, turns the ball over, takes some ill-advised jumpers, etc. The kid is 22 years old! He is the difference maker on this team - by far the most important piece. And he's already one of the elite few who can single-handedly change a game, on both ends. He has an intangible feel, not only in his shot blocking, but in his passing game. What's scary is he's only just beginning to realize what he's capable of. I'm not one for hyperbole, but we're talking about a potential top five all-around player in the league - and I'll go even further. He has the potential to be the best player this Atlanta franchise has ever had, including 'Nique. Mock all you want, but I see it. Just wanted to remind you all to really appreciate what we have on our hands here. We are witnessing history, people - enjoy the ride. (( mocking )) Good lord. This board sways like a tree in a hurricane. The only person who most of Hawksquawk stays consistent on their opinion on, is Woody. A player plays bad, and the board wants him traded. A player plays great, and he's either a future all-star or the potential best player in the league. LOL, a least the board is consistent on being inconsitent.

Quote: Quote: The majority of the fan base is truly schizophrenic. Except that Smith himself admitted to hurting the team with his play. He was AWFUL to start the season. Of course he was awful OFFENSIVELY. Overall, he still helped us stay in, and/or win games with his defense. Yet, people wanted to trade him after 10 bad games? A lot of people who are fans of this team, wanted to write us off after that Milwaukee loss ( ironically, that was the game that Smoove first went off in ). The majority of the fan base just KNEW that the game @ Miami would be the nail in the coffin. But this team scrapped, and clawed, and fougt hard to win the game. Smith was a big reason for the fight. 9 games and 6 more victories later, we're at .500 this late in the season for the first time in 8 years. Yet some still complain. I bet if Smoove and JJ have completely awful shooting nights, that people will dog them out again, completely forgetting how both of them helped secure a big road and DIVISION WIN just 24 hours earlier. LOL . . . damn . . . we're 3 - 1 vs the Southeast.

Quote: It's so funny seeing everyone praising Smith after trying to trade him for scrubs like Biedrins just a week ago. Anyone with patience knew he was going to play better. WTF would y'all be saying had we dealt him and he started playing like this? Good post. If we ever did trade him, you trade him for a legit impact player. Not some one dimensional role player. Now you're starting to see the same types of things in regards to JJ, like he's going to be a sub 40% shooter for the rest of his life. The majority of the fan base is truly schizophrenic.

Quote: Wow. Woodson is showing confidence in some players! He let Salim play thru a time out. And I guess he was forced to give Sheldon minutes. I think Jason Maxiell flew to Orlando, put on a Shelden full body costume, and is playing for him. Either that, or Candace spent the weekend in ATL and did what every good woman does to pick hp hr man's spirit. Good job Candace!

Quote: Babcock would have traded Lue by now. I hated most of what Babcock did because he really didn't have a plan. However, 2 things Babcock wouldn't allow to happen. 1. Valued players to get Old on him... See Dominique, Smitty, Deke,and Mookie... (I disagree with this). 2. Allow his coach to become attached to a non-star player See Laettner, Augmon, Brevin, etc.. There was a player named Larry Robinson and another one we called EMail. They were second rate players who Lenny had gotten used to . Babcock traded them as soon as he could. Not because they didn't fit into his system... but at the time he was trying to develop JT into a PG. To do so, he needed to get all other possible PGs out of there. That includes Brevin Knight, Matt Maloney and a few others. Lue would be gone by now. Yep. He'd trade Lue for Troy Hudson. LOL @ those trades . . . Nique for Manning: downgrade Smitty for Rider: downgrade Deke for Ratliff: downgrade He'd trade JJ for Andre Miller He'd trade Smoove for Biendrins He'd trade Marvin for Luke Walton And trade Chill for James Jones The new Hawks: Miller Jones Walton Horford Biendrins

Quote: Quote: Then please explain to me why our scoring average and shooting percentage went up the last month of the season last year over the team's seasonal average when Johnson didn't play one minute! A lot of teams were tanking and were playing their reserves more. A lot of players were wasting less energy on defense. Correct. The Hawks did play great basketball in the next 4 games after JJ went down. Smith was spectacular during that time, and we won 4 straight. Then we proceeded to lose i think 13 of our next 17 games. LOL . . . along with Smith playing great, Shelden and Salim played great as well. Diesel constantly talked about the double-double that Shelden averaged in the last 10 games of the season. And I remeber Salim having a 37 point game during that time. Salim shot over 50% after JJ went down. So I guess that settles it. Let's send JJ to the bench, play Shelden 30 minutes a game, and start Salim so that he can put up big scoring numbers. Matter of fact, let's trade JJ straight up for Andre Miller.

Quote: I know it doesn't make sense. Smith is averaging only 7 rebounds a game though. His rebounding effort needs to improve. Ditto Marvin. I think we could also use some help from the pg spot. A lot of teams get quite of few rebounds there. I talked about this about 2 wewks ago. There is a pretty direct correlation between our wn and losses, and Smith's rebounding. He needs to make a better effort to help Horford on the defensive glass. And either he or Marvin need to crash the offensive boards, to see if they can get easy put-backs. Horford is the constant rebounder, because he actually boxes out people. Both Smith and Marvin tend to rely on their athletic ability to grab a board. JJ may also need to help more on the defensive boards, since he is considerably bigger than most 2's that he face.

Quote: I wonder how things will shake up by next week. Interesting to see the Wizards do so well without Arena. Can they keep this up? This will be a tough week for us. A test maybe to see if we belong in the playoffs? When I was semi-bashing Arenas before the season, I made a point to illustrate how hot and cold the guy runs. Whe he's on, he's easily a top 5 player in the league. When he's off, he killls the Wiz with his shot selection, instead of setting up other people. And Caron Butler is PROVING that his improvemet as a player had nothing to do with Arenas. Caron is turning into a beast of a player without Arenas taking shots away from him. The Wiz are a much more consistent offensive team, and a better defensive team, without Arenas in the lineup. If they continue to win, they might even deal the guy for another star player that could put them over the top. If I were them, I would be talking with Jersey, to see if they might entertain a swap of Arenas for Kidd. Kidd isn't going to jack up 25 shots, when he knows that he's ice cold. He might dish out 14 assists, defend, and get you 9 rebounds though. And that's why I'd still take a struggling JJ over Arenas. With Arenas, it would be do or die, depending on how he shot the ball. He'd be entertaining to watch when he's on, but an absolute nightmare when he's off. A cold JJ looks to get others involved. A cold Arenas tries to get himself more involved. And instead of constantly beating his man off the dribble ( something he could easily do if he really wanted to ), he'll keep settlng for those 3-pointers and shoot you right out the game.