TheNorthCydeRises

Quote: Quote: At least Smoove is hitting the boards tonight, and JJ is getting to the FT line. The Heat should be blowing us out right now, but we're still in striking distance. They are in control, we lost this one too. In control? They're only up 6, but should be up by 20. We're shooting 29% and they're shooting 51% . . but they're only up 6? That's not control.

At least Smoove is hitting the boards tonight, and JJ is getting to the FT line. The Heat should be blowing us out right now, but we're still in striking distance.

Quote: He's a great player duh, that's why. LMAO !! I guess because ZaZa is a "big body". I guess this is a way to preserve Horford. As long as Horford is on the floor at the end, and getting his 30 - 35 minutes a game, I guess I'm cool with ZaZa starting and playing the "Ivey" role.

Quote: Quote: If you read my post, you'd see that the problem is that this is an upward trend. It's getting worse. Again, overreacting from one game. Let's check it at the all-star break and I guarantee it won't look that way at all. Quote: That's the problem - his missed shots should be going down, and his rebounds up. Rebounds up? He's been in great position to grab boards and that's all that matters. So many defensive rebounds are completely up for grabs by at least 3 teammates, and the first one that grabs it gets the board. Those particualar boards are not meaningful at all since any of his teammates around him could've gotten it. To backup this point, I have seen him and Horford BOTH have their hands on numerous rebounds this year, and Smith will just let go and Horford will have it. Horford's presence has taken alot of rebounds away from Smith, and that's not a bad thing. Have you ever noticed that teams with great rebounders on their team rarely have OTHER great rebounders on their team? Atlas, he's averaging less than 7 rebounds a game now. And the reason for that is he doesn't like mixing it up against guys more physical than he is. And when he doesn't have the ball on offense, he's always out on the perimeter, instead of going to the basket once a shot is taken. That's why Marvin and Chill have more offensive rebounds than he does. What we're seeing in a guy like Horford, is that it doesn't matter who he's going up agianst. ( We'll really get to see if that's true tonight ). Smith's athletic ability alone should enable him to grab at least 9 boards a game on a consistent basis. What we see Smoove going through this season, is the exact same thing that Kirilenko went through last season. It's almost a carbon copy. I called this in this thread. I knew that it might go down like this. It's the Kirilenko situation all over again. I think Kirilenko has his head on straight now, in the sense that he's accepted that he's not going to be a 16 ppg scorer in this league. He's accepted that he is the "do-it-all" guy on the team. He knows that it's not his job to score. It's his job to do all the little things on both ends of the floor. I think Smoove can be a better scorer than Kirilenko. But I don't think he's cut out to be the #2 option on this team. I was hoping that he could be, but I think Marvin is better suited for that role. I think Bill Simmons of ESPN reads this board. 2. Josh Smith has evolved into a southpaw version of Andrei Kirilenko -- he fills up stat sheets, he's exciting to watch in person, he lives off those weakside blocks, he's moody and hard to read, and it's unclear whether his team would be better off keeping him or trading him. The only difference is Smith scores more than Kirilenko, which is strange because he's one of those guys who only scores on dunks and tip-ins. Other than that, they're the same guy. And, yes, I'm aware I just broke the unwritten rule that you're not allowed to compare white guys and black guys. link

But in year's past, he was definitely looking to shoot that shot, more than he is now. That's all I'm saying. But if you take the 6 threes away this year in which JJ and Lue have passed him the ball with like 3 seconds on the shot clock, he would only be 3 - 13 from three, instead of 3 - 19. And those 13 shots would translate to around 1.4 threes a game. 1.4 of 15.6 shots = just under 9% of shots are threes. But like everybody else, I'd wish he stop shooting jumpers altogether. When you look at Smoove's "hotspots" shot chart, the only spot on the floor where he's making a jumper consistently, is from the left side at about the elbow of the FT line, out to the 3-point line. So he's knocking down that 18 foot jumper about 1/2 of the time from that area. And of the 3 three pointers he's made, two of them have come right at the top of the key. Everywhere else, as far as jumpers go, he hasn't hit more than one shot outside of 15 feet. Woody's future as the coach here, may hinge on if he can corral Smoove into becoming a more consistent player that plays smart basketball. If he can't, Woody will be gone . . and Smoove might not be far behind him.

Quote: Quote: LOL . . that's complete BS. If it wasn't for this coaching staff, Smoove would still be trying to be a 2-guard that shot a ton of threes You're clueless man. 3pt attempts per game: 04-05: 0.3 05-06: 1.4 06-07: 2.1 07-08: 2.1 Smoove has taken about 6 - 8 of those three pointers, with the shot clock running down, so I don't fault him for some of those shots. Lue and JJ have a habit of passing it to Smoove, who is hanging out by the 3-point line, when they have nowhere to go when the clock runs down. But even with that, the number of overall threes that he's taken, in relation to the overall number of shots he's taking, is down considerably. 04-05: 0.3 on 8.1 shots = 3.7% of shots are threes 05-06: 1.4 on 9.7 shots = 14.4% 06-07: 2.1 on 13.8 shots = 15.2% 07-08: 2.1 on 15.4 shots = 13.6% So per shot, he's shootin less threes than he was 2 seasons ago. We need that number closer to his rookie year average per shot.

Quote: Quote: Quote: And what's up with him and the layups? Just Dunk it on people dude! I don't understand why he was able to get so many more dunks his first year in the league than he does now. Is that just a matter of my misperception? I can't imagine any physical problem that is keeping him from dunking with the league's best. Not at all. I watched last night and on several occassions, he would beat his man off the dribble, have th opportunity to dunk but would take some circus layup that didn't go in. Somebody got to sit Josh Smith Down, pull out some old Shawn Kemp footage and tell Smoove that he's not a fineese player!!! I'll start. Footage for Smoove to watch.. Exactly. That's why I had that in my sig for about 2 months. I want to see MORE SHANW KEMP, and LESS RASHEED WALLACE out of Josh Smith this year. Instead, he's not playing like either of those guys. If defenders knew that he was looking to dunk it on somebody's head everytime he drove down the lane, they'd get out of his way instead of trying to block the lay-up. When LeBron has that full head of steam going, no one gets in his way. Maybe Ms. Smoove, or some of the other people that know Josh, can tell him to play more like Marion and Kemp. Just go out there and embarrass somebody and dunk it on their heads. LOL . . maybe Billy needs to hire Kemp as "big man" coach, seeing that we have all of these hybrid big men here, instead of Alton Lister.

Quote: Josh Smith has not received a lick of coaching since he arrived in the NBA. Neither have the other Hawk youngsters but at least they had the advantage of a year or more of solid coaching at the collegiate level. LOL . . that's complete BS. If it wasn't for this coaching staff, Smoove would still be trying to be a 2-guard that shot a ton of threes, instead of an attacking offensive player. He's just needs to know when to attack, and who to attack. LOL . . you can't attack an all-NBA 1st defensive team player like Duncan. Young players just don't develop on their own in this league.

Quote: Quote: I think its a recognition that the balance of the team is not working. Smith at PF with Marvin at SF and Horford at C is not the right rotation. We need a post player in the worst way. I think this was the point about whom to draft this offseason. I-F you want a 2 small forward rotation like JS and MW then you MUST have a true, preferably 2-way dominant center (i.e. Bynum). Horford can play some center in a pinch, but he d@mn sure isn't one even next to a true Pf. The two together at the 4/5 are simply too undersized and underskilled. This draft didn't provide a center solution for us. Two years in a row we've tried to stretch players to play the center position and it simply will not work. But drafting Horford isn't the problem. Horford has proven that he can play both PF and C, without hurting the team. It's the inconsistency of Josh Smith that's hurting us right now on the frontline. It's Smoove refusal to mix it up on the inside, even when he's having bad shooting nights, that's hurting us. Also, the fact that Smoove is 2nd in shots attempted, isn't helping us either, because he's not in position to get offensive rebounds when we do miss. Horford has been a consistent rebounder and defender, no matter where he's playing. Of course, neither guy is going to stop a good PF or C, but they can at least put forth the effort to defend the paint, block shots, and most important, REBOUND THE BASKETBALL. The fact that Smith is averaging less than 7 rebounds a game now, and Marvin has 6 more offensive rebounds, and Chill has 10 more offensive rebounds than Smith, absolutely blows my mind right now. Rebounding is about good positioning, effort, and desire. Right now, Smoove only does those things when he has to, or when he has a tremendous athletic advangage over his man. On the flip side, Horford is doing exactly what a guy like Jamal Magloire, Joel Przybilla, Brendan Haywood, even your boy ANDREW BYNUM or any other average center in this league, could do here. He's shooting over 50% FG, he's grabbing 10+ boards a game, and he's even blocking shots . . ALL FROM THE CENTER POSITION. I thought Horford could average 9 points and 9 rebound at season's end. The most I expected from him, was to be a 12 point . . 8 rebound guy. He's already doing that in MONTH 1. He could literally be a 12 point . . 10 rebound guy by Christmas, if he got more looks on the offensive end, and if he'd cut down on the travels. Quote: Quote: Smith has a lot of value and so might get us the best return. Yes, he has value. Yes, however we got here we need to make a change. Lastly, I still believe that whatever change we likely make, we will not have enough talent to contend because of BK's incessant mistakes. As far as Smith...he is also a player I would least like to see traded within our conference because he will do everything in his power to own us when his team plays us. If you trade him, trade him FAR away. Personally, I'd rather trade MW or if a true center prospect can be had like Bynum, Horford. W W So you'd keep Smith out on the floor at SF, and trade either Marvin or Horford instead to make the team better? Amazing. What we need to do, is get Smoove's head on straight. No one needs to be traded at this time. Smoove just needs to let go of this idea that he can be a good offensive player against tough defenders. When we go up against Chicago next week, and he has Tyus Thomas on him, then by all means, go at that kid. But don't try to be a superstar against Tim Duncan.

Quote: Josh Smith has a bad game now everybody wants to trade him,lol The trade talk is a little ridiculous though. Smoove does need to be restrained on those nights when he's killing the team. LOL . . but the problem is, who are you going to put in his place? Shelden? ZaZa? Wright? LOL. Ish, he has to play, even when he's making tons of mistakes.

Quote: I know Smoove better than most on here, and I am one of his biggest fans. But he SUCKED big time last night. He made bad decisions the entire game. So did Joe but everyone seems to overlook that. Smoove needs to realize that he can do certain things and he can't to others. He frustrates me at times. Because he has superstar written all over him..... It's the same thing every year though, It's always Smoove's fault and that will never change. Someone has to be blamed. You know who Smoove reminds me of? And I know people have compared him to Andrew Jones. But to me, being a Cincinnati Bengals fan, he reminds me a lot of Chad Johnson. He doesn't remind me of Chad personality wise, but he reminds me of Chad in how inconsistent he is as a ballplayer. Chad will make the spectacular play, but not always make the routine plays to keep a drive alive. He probably drops more easy passes than anyone in the NFL. Maybe even more than T.O. But there is no doubt that when Chad is on his game, he's a top 5 receiver in the league. But when it comes to consistency, our other less hearled receiver, T.J. Houshmanzedah, is far more consistent and makes just about ALL of the routine plays. In essence, he could be compared to Marvin Williams, if Chad is comparable to Smoove. When Carson Palmer needs a big play, he looks for Chad. When he needs a completion to keep a drive going, he almost always looks for T.J. Last night was a game in which Smoove and the coaches should've realized that it wasn't going to be a good matchup for him. Tim Duncan is the best defensive big man in the league. The stuff Smoove did against Milwaukee was NOT going to work against Duncan. On those nights, I wish the coaches and Smoove would concentrate on him hitting the boards and being a distributor, instead of trying to be a primary scorer. We needed a 10 point . . 12 rebound . . 5 assist . . 3 block game from Smoove last night, instead of a big scoring game. Like you said. It's all about him knowing what he can and can't do. And he also has to realize who he can do those things against. Tonight, he's going to be matched up against Haslem. Now he should have a better game against Udonis, but you always have to worry about Shaq in the middle coming to help out. So if he doesn't get it going early, the matchup we need to exploit is Marvin vs Ricky Davis or JJ against Hardaway ( when D-Wade isn't in the game ). But most important, Josh needs to ALWAYS hit the boards. That frustrates me more about his game, than the inconsistent scoring. We need Smoove to make a concerted effort to grab 10 rebounds a night. We can do without his 20 points, if he gets those 10 boards.

The bet was that I would leave, until December 1st. So if we lose tomorrow night, you won't see me until after the SEC Title game. Hopefully, my Vols will be playing LSU in that game in ATL. LOL . . it was a wild bet, but I'm no fool either. It's pretty much just a week and a half vacation from Hawksquawk.

Quote: North, your one game away from the 0-3 trifecta and I believe that this team will lose again in MIami. Hmmm . . . 18 road losses in a row. You think? LOL. Quote: Honestly, your a good guy and intelligent poster so I'm baffled why you would believe this Woody coached mess could possibly go 3-0. Taking your bet was an absolute layup. I never believed that we could go 3 - 0. I just didn't believe we'd go 0 - 3. I just did it to spice things up a little. I knew hte possibility of us losing 3 in a row, was much higher than us winning 3 in a row. Quote: But your heart is in the right place as an optimistic Hawks fan so I hope you don't leave till December. There's no need for that... But, I hope you realize how stale we are and how desperate this team is for a new voice. Woody needs to do something drastic, before this gets completely out of control, and he's looking for a job. Maybe start Mario alongside JJ, until Acie gets back, for defensive purposes. LOL . . it sure would be nice to have Ivey about now. But I do agree somewhat, that he may be falling on deaf ears in that locker room right now. I think the guy he can't reach, is Josh Smith. Good or bad, Smoove is doing his own thing out there. Almost Ricky Davis like. Sometimes, Ricky looks great. Sometimes he looks like straight garbage. But Smoove looks like a wild horse out on the floor, whether he's playing great or playing bad. If he can't reign him in, either Woodson has to go, or Smoove.

Quote: 3) Joe Johnson needs to call someone out SOON You know, I was just thinking that. Either JJ or AJ need to call someone out. At the very least, call a "player's only" meeting so that everyone can air out their differences. When it happens, be ready for the reprocussions. But it may have to be done.

LOL . . they haven't given up. They just got ran off the court by the World Champs. The problem, is that they're a soft basketball team that doesn't play smart at times. When we're playing weak defensive teams, we're going to look good. When we play physical teams, we'll look bad. It's just extra bad, that they put up an effort like this at home.

Quote: Josh Smith: The dumbest man alive. But in his defense, if he has a weak defender on him, he can definitely expose him, like he did in Milwaukee. But he just has to learn to pick and choose his spots.

Another offensive board. What bothers me most about Smoove, is the inconsistent effort on the boards. He has to mix it up. I can live with the usual Josh Smith-like plays, as long as he's active and hitting the boards. 4 rebounds is unacceptable from him. And I won't even mention ZaZa. he should NEVER start again . . ever.

LOL @ JJ . . . 4 - 4 this quarter. Like I said . . Padding his stats.

Aww damn . . he put JJ back in. JJ will pad his stats now.

Quote: Down to 14... LOL . . I was about to say . . watch this group make a run. And if they do, Woody better keep them in there.

Quote: Quote: Quote: I think Smoove and Joe should be embarassed , Marviin is outplaying them both. And he is sick... Smoove just throwing up any shot, I think he has the most potential on this team. But he is not making it easy for himself... Be patient and stop throwing up bad shot after shot... WOW . . . this needs to be bookmarked !! Both Smoove and JJ out the game. That might be all for them tonight, unless we miraculously cut into this lead. Might as well put Salim in . . let him gun. Salim is hurt And on Smoove I will criticize him when he plays bad, and tonight he has just sucked tremendously him and Joe both I see that . . and I agree.

Quote: I think Smoove and Joe should be embarassed , Marviin is outplaying them both. And he is sick... Smoove just throwing up any shot, I think he has the most potential on this team. But he is not making it easy for himself... Be patient and stop throwing up bad shot after shot... WOW . . . this needs to be bookmarked !! Both Smoove and JJ out the game. That might be all for them tonight, unless we miraculously cut into this lead. Might as well put Salim in . . let him gun.

(( singing like Kirk Franklin )) T.P. are you wit' meeeeeee !! Parker is putting on a clinic out there. LOL . . it's a friggin lay-up drill. I have to laugh, to keep from getting pizzed off.

Quote: I like Joe, but right now he is being a selfish son of a b1tch. Smoove is playing his regular out of control basketball, Chill can't play any defense. Marvin and Aj are the only two playing well so far. JJ is doing what every star player would do in this situation, try to take it upon himself to get us back in the game. If we get back into this game, more than likely, it's going to be because of JJ. NORTHCYDE STAT of the NIGHT: ( so far ) Smith + Horford + ZaZa = 5 rebounds ( 1 offensive ) Matt Bonner = 5 rebounds ( 3 offensive ) Rebounding and defense people . . . rebounding and defense. Playing uptempo means jack, if you can't defend anybody.

LOL . . I'm going to lunch/dinner. Hope the Hawks aren't down by 28 by the time I get back in about 30 minutes.