TheNorthCydeRises

(( flashing 'Men In Black' light in Hawkmam's eyes )) There. It's gone from your memory.

I agree.

If the Hawks win tomorrow night, they will have won 6 of their last 9 games. And during that stretch, neither the Detroit nor the Hornets loss, can be blamed on Woody. So unless you guys can come up with a coach that is great with young players, plus a good X's and O's guy, this futile attempt is pointless.

That's why whenever Commander Woody plays "The Nuke", he should always play alongside JJ. If JJ is going to be the half court faciliator, he needs shooters around him. Too bad The Nuke came in the game last night, and missed 4 shots in 4 minutes, but you have to live with that. That's what Nukes do. As far as Acie goes, he just needs to look for his offense a little more. Take that open 20 footer or take it to the hole. Before last night, I noticed that he was actually trying to do just that. As for Calderon? ( talking like Rick Pitno ) "Doc Rivers isn't coming through that door folks. Jose Calderon isn't coming through that door."

No doubt. That's definitely tight. And thanks for putting me beside Lovin . . . lol.

And I think that I said that we'd win 45 games. As for JJ, Wade is almost having the exact same performance as JJ right now. 7 - 22 for 17 points with about 4 minutes to go. I guess he needs to pass to Ricky Davis more.

Quote: ok, TP that was the point of my post. I'm not ecstatic over this start and have been frustrated. But step back and tell me where you thought we would be to end the season. A right or about .500 team in the 7-9 spots in the conference? Guess what thats exactly what we are. If you thought we would win 42 games then what did you expect coming into the season. A .500 team will win one, loss one, get blown out in one, win a close one. .500 teams aren't exciting and are very frustrating by their nature. As Dennis Green said they are what we thought they were. The are a frustrating .500 team point blank, but that's what we thought they were. I didn't see anyone saying we would win 46-50 games, so nobody should be expecting for 4 and 5 game win streaks so step back and look at it for what it is. be honest after seeing the schedule with sa, dal, phx, nj, det twice, and the other road games did you expect anything but a 8-10 or 9-9 start?? Yes we lost some we shouldn't like Chi and Sea, but we won some we shouldn't have Dal and Phx. So once again we are an up and down team. AKA a .500 team. We aren't the 13 win team of a few years ago, and we aren't the Mavericks yet. But for all the frustration we are playing about even, and are playing awful some nights. but with Acie back and if JJ gets back on track can it not get better? with woody i dont know. but the team record wise is about where i thought they would be, and thats with playing bad. Just imagine if JJ gets back on track and if Acie steps up dare I say we get a little better then a .500 or so team. Exactly. TP knows this. But he like some of the others are just tired of waiting for this team to break out. I fully expected this team to be right where they are now, or slightly better. You are right on the money when you say that this is exactly how a "42 win" team plays. I think the preseason, coupled with the opening night win vs Dallas, raised the expectation level in most fans eyes. So when we play Detroit tough and then beat Phoenix, people really started to believe that we were real good. LOL . . then we lose 4 of the next 5, while blowing the Sonics game, and the fan base goes insane.

Excellent post. A select few will try to spin this as a loss though, because we shoud've beat them by 20. i bet a lot of posters were ready to EXPLODE on this board. But now that JJ hit the game winner, they have to adjust their thought process.

Quote: Quote: JJ and JS came through in the clutch. JS made the stickback off a JJ miss that kept us alive and JJ made the finisher. Much as I woulda liked to see us close them out earlier - at least we got the W. Now we need to take out the Griz. So when guys give up layups on consecutive possessions, they are the heroes. Oh, O.K. Like Peoria. He just doesn't like JJ. He's been against JJ all season.

Quote: Quote: LOL . . . . like I said, the Hawks don't like to win easy. JJ will save the day toward the end. I've seen this Hawks movie before. This team is like watching a disaster movie. You know things will be OK at the end, but a lot of people have to die first. While JJ hasn't been on as a whole, he's been big time when the Hawks need him late in close games. Maybe this game winner is a slump buster. People who doubt JJ, even when he's struggling, haven't been paying attention. Either that, or they just don't like the guy. Excellent games by Smoove, Marvin and Horford. I love Smoove's shot selection and recognition tonight. People just need to understand that this is the M.O. of the Hawks.

LOL . . . . like I said, the Hawks don't like to win easy. JJ will save the day toward the end. I've seen this Hawks movie before. This team is like watching a disaster movie. You know things will be OK at the end, but a lot of people have to die first.

We still have a half to go DJ. Remember, these are the Hawks. They don't like to win easy. Hope I'm wrong tonight though.

Very true. But Hollinger's simulation states that even with how we are playing now, we"re still most likely a high 30 win team, that barely gets in the playoffs. The reason why, is because of our usually good team defense, and the fact that the majority of the East have same consitency problems that we have. That's why I don"t stress when I watch the Hawks. I know going in that I don't know which team will show up.

Must wins for the Hawks? Damn. That means we'll at least lose one of these next two games, to drive the fan base crazy. So we'll lose to Minny, but beat Memphis. Expect Hawk armageddon on Friday. Then after we beat Memphis, the talk will be all about how we should be running. Then we'll beat Orlando and Toronto to further confuse the fan base. While I agree with you guys that we should beat those teams, this team is just too unpredictable to expect them to do what they should be doing. And just when people are ready to give up on them, they'll give you a reason to hve faith in them again

Bumpy, the whole point of my post is that people who are for Salim playing, can't flip-flop on those nights when his shot is off. And those who are against him playing, can't jump on his bandwagon whenever he gets hot. Too often on this board, people flip-flop according to who is playing well. Poeple who had Smoove on the trade block last week, now love hm. Feelings for Salim tend to go the same way. I've always been a Salim supporter, even though I do understand why Woody doesn't play him. To me though, he has to get decent minutes every night, to see if he can blow a game open. But I also think he should always play alongside JJ. People complain about him gunning, but that's his job . . . to be a gunner. Salim has the scorer mentality that most people wished Marvin had. If people really want us to play uptempo, they should all be for Salim playing.

To me, JJ hs always been comparable to Paul Pierce. And they are both guys who are totally underappreciated by most of their fan bases. To this day, Al Harrington is the best player to play alongside JJ here in Atlanta. And people wonder why he wants some help? For Pierce, that player was Antoine Waker. But at least Toine made an All-star team. Both JJ and Pierce are multi-taleted. Both can effectively play 3 positons. Both are usually the top playmaker ob the team. Both have been unfairly blamed for their teams' woes, almost solely because their fan bases expect them to be top level superstars that can overcome flawed, inexperienced, or awful talent. In the NBA, most winning teams have 2 star caliber players, and a very good #3 player. And most of those teams can beat you from the inside and from the outside. If your team doesn't have these elements, you better have a well balanced team with about 8 players, who play well on both ends of the court. The one superstar + average guy teams, will tend to be wildly inconsistent. Ask Kobe.

Mr Buzz, you just don't understand. We don't know which Hawk team will show up on a given night. So to say that a home game with Orlando is an automatic loss, just isn't indicative of hoe the Hawks play. Last year, the start of our demise, were the rash of injuries to multiple players. Otherwise, we're probably a team that hovers close to.500 at the New Year's point. Nick's prediction of 6 - 5 in our next 11 games, sounds about right. And 2 games below .500 probably has us sitting right a the #8 or higher seed. Remember, this the East, not the West. And the thing about the Hawks, is that we have no idea which 6 games they're going to take. ! bet before the season, no one would've predicted that we'd beat Miami, Dallas, and Phoenix . . . but also lose to Seattle.

Lue vs Smith . . . . players supposedly thinking about tanking, to get woody fired . . . JJ and Smith not liking each other. . . JJ not playing hard because he's unhappy . . . Chillz, it's like the majority of the fan base wants to truly believe that there is something real sinister going on with the Hawks. Most know the reason why we're 7 - 10, yet, they also want to believe something far more X-Fileish. I guess the rapper Cee-Lo made the song "Crazy" about Hawks fans.

This board is funny sometimes. When Woody does put Salim in early, and he misses his first two shots, everybody wants him out of the game. But when he scores in bunches like he did last night, people wonder why he wasn't in the game earlier. You can't ride the fence concerning Salim. You either advocate using him enough to affect the outcome of a game, or you don't want to see him in the game at all. No in-betweeen. If you want to use Salim, you have to live with those nights in which he's getting abused on the defensive end, or when he has that occasional 1 - 6 shooting game. The hope would be that he could knock down 4 - 5 shots in a row, at any given time. He would effectively have to be our Eddie House, or at best, Daniel Gibson. Also understand that to maximize what he can do for us, guys will HAVE to defer to HIM when he is hot. Salim has the mentality of a 1st option scorer, so if he's on, you have to be willing to let him do his thing. Other than JJ, he's the one guy on the team that can create and mke tough shots. Salim is a NUKE. And as with the use of any nuclear weapon, you run the risj of destroying yourself, if you don't destroy the enemy first.

You say no to Brown, but want to bring in two other LOSER coaches? Brown woulldn't work because he, Lue, Salim and Smoove would instatly butt heads. The rest of tje squad are coachable under Brown. There are good reasons why Harris and Westidiot aren't sought after coaches. If Woody is best as an assistant coach, so are they.

Well said St. Nick

Diesel, you are dead on about the need for a low post scorer. And even though teams like the Spurs and Pistons show how to beat us, only a few teams in this league are able to defend us the way they do. A decent low post scorer would free up our shooters and possibly prevent scoring droughts. But the Pistons are a team that doesn't necessarily have a low post option to go to either. So when they're red hot offensively, their great defense can shut a team down, and blow a game wide open. And that's what happened last night.

Not you. I was talking about Mr. Haley.

This isn't the first time that the PIstons have held JJ to 5 points. They always pay special attention to JJ after he beats them, or almost beats them. So maybe it's the Pistons defense. You guys have to stop overreacting over every win or loss.

And people think I'm the strange one. It's like Sekou wrote the other day. NOne of these teams are game-planning to stop any other guy on the Hawks other than JJ. This team can barely function without JJ in the game, yet, he should be our #3 option? Pure schizophrenia I tell ya. What JJ needs to do, is either go to the hole from the jump, or make a point to try to get to the line to get a rhythm going. JJ is not going to shoot 40% the entire year. He's way too good of a shooter to struggle like this for the entire season.