TheNorthCydeRises

Quote: You JJ and Smith apologist kill me! Last month Smith was playing poorly and we were loosing! He is playing better this month and we are winning! What is so hard to understand about that simple concept? As far JJ is concerned, anyone shooting 35% from the field and taking the majority of the shots on your team is a liability! Your focus is only on the offensive side of the ball. We're winning because we're playing better team defense. Even though Smoove was struggling, he's still a vital part our defense. When he's rebounding and blocking shots, we're more likely to win, than when he's scoring a lot. Go check his game log. In the losses, the one thing that really sticks out, are the number of rebounds he grabs. Just like when JJ goes out the game and the offense grinds to a halt, Smith has almost the same effect on the defensive end, when he goes out the game. As a team, we can survive a poor a shooting performance from JJ or Smith, if we're playing D and crashing the boards. And you forget that JJ is our best playmaker. He had a 3 - 17 performance against Phooenix, but still had 15 points mainly because he got to the line. But more importantly, he dished out 10 assists. And he did these things in the 4th quarter of that game,when it really counted. The number JJ needs to reach every night, is 30 - 35 points either scored or created for us. In the Phoenix game, that number I think was 37 points created. He's a playmaker and a scorer. Guys like that can't come out the game, just because they have a bad shooting night. LOL . . . his assist number should probably around 7 assists a game, but the team as a whole tends to miss open shots in bunches.

Quote: Doesn't matter who he's with, he will chuck it up whenever he has a look. This is what I was talking about the other day. That's what his job is, to come in the game and put up shots. He's not a PG. He's an Eddie House / Barbosa type player. They only have one job . . . to score. If they're cold, they might hurt your team. If they're on, they can extend a lead or get you back in a game. People who adovcate him getting more PT, have to live with this. He's going to have games like the one he had Saturday night. Interesting thing about the Law - Salim backcourt though. They actually played much better defensively, than they did offensively. But I agree that Salim should play with a bigger guard like JJ.

Quote: Ugh, why did Solo mess with those whores???? I saw this coming LMAO! I was driving and looking at this site on my PDA. You almost made me have a wreck. The joke didn't hit me right away. It took about 10 seconds. Then I couldn't stop laughing.

Lewis is who you should be worried about. He's the multi-talented scoring threat that they've been missing. I think we can survive a monster game from Howard, if he doesn't get Horford and Smoove in foul trouble. If Lewis gets going though, it might be a long night for us.

Teams still have to account for JJ though. If JJ is 2 - 7 in a game, teams aren't going to back off from him and let him shoot. The opposing defenses are still gameplanning to limit how effective JJ can be in a game. Imagine the Hawks without JJ, and opposing defenses planning to shut down Smoove or Marvin. A good defensive team could easily do it, because creating their own shot isn't their strength. LOL . . . some of you act like JJ is a liability or something. If that were the case, he wouldn't have to play 40+ minutes every night. It's the same thing that went for Smoove last month. Yeah he was struggling big time offensively, but it's not like we can do without the guy. His deal was that he just needed to stop taking shots and slow down a little. And he's our best playmaker, everyone talking bad about JJ seems to forget that. With JJ, he just needs to make a point to get to the hole early in games, to see if he can get going, instead of trying to knock down 3's right off the bat. But he definitely doesn't need to stop shooting. Shooters shoot themselves out of slumps.

Good post about Marvin's offensive game. When we go through those stretches when the the offense can't function without JJ, either Marvin or Smoove are the primary scoring options on the floor. If Marvin could effectively create his shot, especially his jumper, we'd be able to rest JJ more in games. But because neither guy can create a decent shot off the dribble ( other than getting to the hole ), the Hawks struggle to score if they can't get the lay-up or the foul. Marvin has definitely improved from last year though. When he's open, he's not passing up the shot. He just needs learn when to attack, and when to settle for the jumper. He had a situation last night in which he ended up with Damon Stoudamire on him about 15 feet from the basket, in the 2nd quarter. Instead of immeadiately attacking him and forcing Darko to defend him at the rim, he passed out to an open man . . . I think it was AJ. It was a good ball movement play, but with that midget on him, he should've attacked Damon and challenged Darko at the rim. That's one of the drawbacks of him not staying an extra year at UNC. If he had, he would've learned some of the nuances of being a lead scorer, instead of a complimentary scorer. He has talent to be a lead scorer, but he needs to create his shot a little more and develop that lead scorer mentality. Like I said a few days ago when taking about Salim. People wish that Marvin had Salim's mentality when it comes to scoring. If he did, Marvin could be a potent offensive weapon. Right now, Marvin is Corey Maggette. I'll take that for now.

A shooter like JJ has to keep shooting, especially when he's your top offensive weapon. Guys like Kobe, Arenas, Baron Davis, etc, don't stop shooting when they are in a mini-slump. Shooters shoot themselves out of slumps. And shooters are always a threat to hit 4 out of 5 shots, even when thry are slumping. The offensive threat has to still be there. JJ is just missing open shots. You don't tell your best shooter and only shot creater, to stop shooting. Now if someone else has it going offensively, and JJ is cold, then he can always play the playmaker role. But that's nothing new for him. Seeing that he's dishing out over 5 dimes a game, he's doing that anyway.

If they take care of business at home somewhat, and steal a game or two on the road, we can definitely do it.. It's like I was saying a few days ago. Although we still have our many flaws, this team is a lot more mentally tough than last year. And people won't give him credit for it, but a lot of that mental toughness is because of Woody. They deal with adversity a lot better this year. The Orlando game will be interesting. We pretty much handled them last year, so it's going to be interesting to see how we match up with them, and if our athleticsm will continue to bother them. Rashard Lewis is the wildcard in that game. If we can keep him from going off, we'll have a shot . . . . no matter how well Dwight Howard plays. It would be nice if we could get him in early foul trouble though.

Quote: Quote: Myself and BHayley are going to the game against the Jazz on the 17th and I don't know about him but I plan to start some anti Woodson chants if I can get a few people from the board here to go and help! Who's up for it? I hear ya MWB and I'm all for Woody getting the axe, but I don't think a game is the proper forum. Lotsa people take their kids to the games for a nice evening and having to put up with chants is a pain. I'm very critical of Woody, but when I'm at a game I always root for the Hawks and try to stay positive. I think emails or letters are a better way to approach the situation. JMHO. I'm glad you mentioned the kids. Philips was like a middle school playground last night. Of the 8 - 10K in the building, 5K of that had to be kids 14 and under. The kids are loyal to the Hawks, win or lose. If if wasn't for the kids, Philips would be even more dead than it is. This isn't NYC or Philly, where you're going to have a bunch of drunk fans yelling ish. Philips is definitely family friendly, and not a hardcore sports arena. So I agree with you. People should leave those anti-Woody, anti-hawk comments at home. LOL, hell . . . . . by the 17th, we could be over .500, something we haven't been this late in the year, since 1999.

LOL . . I believe the Hawks were up double digits when JJ and Horford left the game. And Memphis got a little warm offensively. But in the 2nd quarter, they literally couldn't score with JJ out of the game. Wes Welker of the Patriots is a good receiver. But because Randy Moss is on the field, Welker sometimes looks like a great receiver. A player like JJ, in which teams try to take out, enables guys like Marvin and Smoove to see one on one coverage all night. When JJ is out, the offense almost always becomes less efficent.

#14 - JJ needs to play less minutes and he bogs down the offense. Everytime JJ goes out of the game, the Hawks have MAJOR PROBLEMS offensively. So Woody is pretty much forced to play JJ. Even when he's struggling with his shot, he has to be in the game for the Hawks to function.

Quote: 9-10 baby! It was kind of an ugly win but I can live with it. Orlando coming up next. That will be tough. I can't wait to see how Horford matches up with Howard. I can definitely live with wins like these The Spurs and Pistons win games like these all the time. Some fans want to win pretty. I just want us to win. The fans that want to win pretty will always complain about wins like tonight.

Smoove was spectacular tonight. He was attacking all night. The Hawks want inside to Horford quite a bit this game, even at the end. It was a good game in which to try to estabish him. I saw the Memphis game last night, and they did anything they wanted against the Hornets. Almost every shot they took tonight was contested. Smoove and Al was a big reason for that. I think Smoove has shot over 50% in his last 5 games. Maybe the light hs come on for him offensively.

Quote: Quote: I disagree. This team is playing excellent defense. What is Memphis shooting from the field, by the way? I know we can't be shooting over 44%. The identity of this team is defense, not some uptempo team. That doesn't make it any more exciting though. The Grizz look terrible out there. Gasol looks like hasn't slept(or bathed) in days. I'm at the game. Our D is the reason why they look so terrible.

LOL @ this team. If Memphis can hit a few 3s, this could get interesting real quick.

I disagree. This team is playing excellent defense. What is Memphis shooting from the field, by the way? I know we can't be shooting over 44%. The identity of this team is defense, not some uptempo team.

AJ is playing a good all around game tonight. LOL . .. JJ out the game, and the team canMt score.

that was two great plays by Smoove. Please keep playing like this. Darko nor Gasol can do anything with him. And so much for the lethartic 3rd quarter. Up by 19 now.

i think we scored 4 total points when JJ was out the game in that 2nd quarter. JJ's presence on the court alone, helps our offense. Otherwise, we wouldn't completely collapse as soon as he exits. And people wonder why he plays 40+ minutes a game?

JJ took one bad shot that half. He's just not making the shots he normally makes. And he should be 2 - 6 with 2 extra FTs. He got fouled on that dunk that he missed. And he hd a 3 taken away from him because of a 3 second call. And it's not like this team is taking bad shots either. They're open shots They just aren't making them.

Another jumper. I guess that's Woody's fault. OH what a pass by Smoovr in traffic to Al. Way to hit the FTs

LOL @ Shelden. This team just gets jump shot happy, instead of continuing to attack. Oh God. I hate the Delta 3 point shot promotion. Expect long bad shots right now.

Quote: Marvin is scoring at will on Pau, Horfy is defending Pau to the perfection, Smoove is not playing out of control, Hawks are moving the ball like crazy. ALL THIS RESULTS IN A 10 point lead. SWeet! The gameplan is obviously attack Gasol to wear him down. Memphis looks like a very tierd team. Shots are short and no hustle at all. Smoove is in FULL attack mode tonight.

Quote: Quote: I'm at the game. LOL @ tis crowd. It might be 7K here if that. Expect a track meet tonight You mean 700 right? What's up with Smoove? He looks patient tonight. Everybody looks patient tonight. LOL what a great shot by Acie.

I'm at the game. LOL @ tis crowd. It might be 7K here if that. Expect a track meet tonight