TheNorthCydeRises

Quote: I think it's faulty logic to say that Woody has to pull Law when he makes a few mistakes in a short time span. It suggests that if a player makes 4 mistakes at the beginning of a game, and then plays 20 minutes of error free basketball, he is less willing to make a mistake in the following 10 minutes than a player who plays 20 minutes of error free basketball and then makes 4 mistakes. I don't believe this is true at all. If Acie Law turns the ball over a few times in a short period of time, that is just a coincidence, not some sort of trend that you can use to extrapolate how he'll play the next 10 minutes of the ball game. He's a rookie and will make mistakes, but every thing about him suggests that he's a gamer who is mentally tough and is not going to be rattled when he makes a few errors. The team is better with him in the game than Lue and Woody is going to have to learn to turn the team over to Acie. Lue doesn't commit many turnovers because he rarely tries to pass the ball in a way that sets up his teammates for easy shots...that low turnover rate does not make him a better player than Acie who is actively getting his teammates involved with his penetration and dishing. BDawg, it's hard to make a case for Acie staying in that game, when the Pistons scored 4 points directly off of his miscues in that short of a timespan. I think we ran two legitimate offensive plays in the 4 minutes that JJ was out. Detroit turned up the defense on us, and they started to run people out at Acie, which made him play a little bit faster than he should've. And it's one thing if this happens in the 1st or 2nd quarter. You could justify leaving him in during that time. But this was happening in the 4th quarter. There's no way any coach would've let their rookie PG stay out there, when you have a proven vet like Lue on the bench. Lue might not run the offense as well as Acie, but Woody trusts that he'll at least not turn the ball over trying to set up the offense. The kid just had a bad stretch, that's all. But you don't leave him out there, when you can easily go to a vet. Not in that situation, and not on the road.

Well if he's over Redd, but below Kobe, that makes JJ a top 10 - 15 player in this league . . that sometimes plays like a top 10 player. So he was a superstar in the Dallas game because: - he guarded Dirk on his last 2 shot attempts, in which JJ played great defense on him to force 2 misses - he made the great pass to Marvin for the lay-up, when he could've taken a much tougher shot over the double team, to put us up 5. - then he ices the game with the 20 foot jumper. Those are superstar like plays in every facet of the game. No one-trick pony there.

Quote: Ray Allen and Paul Pierce were never as good as Kobe, Wade, Iverson, Tmac (before his Rocket days) The top SG's right now are: Wade LeBron Kobe I know that is a very short list. But that's the way it is to me. Don't change up your argument now Hot. You're calling JJ a "2nd tier SG" on the level of Redd and Rip. So I guess JJ would be somewhere over Redd, but not as good as Wade or Kobe? But Hot, here's when I knew that JJ was the ish. And here's another "stat" for you. In the 2005 - 06 season, there were only 4 players to have 1600 points, 500 assists, and 100 steals. - Iverson - Wade - Lebron - and Joe "friggin" Johnson Kobe would've been in this group, had he not gotten hurt that year. T-Mac, maybe. Arenas got close that year. But that's a damn impressive list of players to be under, for a "2nd tier SG". Quote: The west is way tougher than the east. The Lakers would win 50+ games in the east. So while Kobe has a better second guy than JJ, he makes the playoffs in a much tougher conference. Really? One more "stat". Last year, the Lakers went 42 - 40 overall, and 28 - 24 in the West. That would make them 14 - 16 vs the East. But what about the 05 - 06 season? Lakers go 47 - 35 overall, and 27 - 25 vs the West. That would make them 20 - 10 vs the East that year. So they actually digressed as a team last year vs the East. And the East is DEFINITELY better this year. Not buying your argument for one minute.

Hotlanta, please. You're talking to the wrong person about not watching games. I travel almost 300 miles 5 - 10 times a year, just to see the Hawks . . LIVE, no matter how good or bad they are. This year, I'm making it a point to RECORD every single SportSouth game that comes on. I can't get the FSN South Hawk games here in Tennessee. I definitely watch this team. And I'll re-watch games and certain segments, to see what exactly is going on. Stats should be used to only back up what you already know in the first place. JJ is equal, or close to what Ray Allen and Paul Pierce were in thier primes, than 2nd tier guys like Michael Redd or a Rip Hamilton. But JJ may even be a little more versatile of a player, than Allen. You try to reduce JJ to some "one-trick" pony, which is absolutely ridiculous, if you've seen this guy play live. And Hot, you know good and well it takes more than one player to win in this league. Even Kobe has Lamar Odom, a guy that would be a godsend on this team. Give JJ Antoine Jamison and Caron Butler, and he'd be in the playoffs Give JJ Yao Ming, and he'd be in the playoffs. LOL . . the best player JJ has played with in his 3 years in ATL, has been Al Harrington.

Quote: Where do you even find info like that? It's all on 82games.com Click on the Hawks, then click on JJ's name. Then, click on the "player stats" link. It'll tell you all you need to know about different statistics. 82games is pretty good for stats like that. They're kind of shaky when you look at stats by position. Last year, they almost insisted that Smoove was our SF and Marvin was our PF. This year, it looks like they're getting it right.

No problem Bus. Like I said, I don't like calling people out like that. But it seems as if people just flat out hate on Woody, without actually seeing what's going on. Sometimes, like in a movie, you have to watch it 2 - 3 times, to actually see why he's doing what he's doing. Personally, I would've loved to see him put in Salim to start the 4th quarter, and tell him to see if he can bust the game wide open. But that's just me. Salim might have actually got them back in the game quicker, but who knows?

Quote: Smiths best year here was 97/98 when he averaged 20 pts shooting 44%. He got the the line 6 times per game. Last year JJ averaged 25 ppg shooting 47% and got to the line 5.5 times per game. Smith wasn't even close to JJ. Even Smiity admits that JJ is a better player than he was. And Ex, what's amazing about those numbers you posted here, is that JJ did that WITHOUT a decent PG passing him the ball. It's almost unheard of for a SG to shoot that high of a percentage, without a good to great PG getting him the ball in the right spots. Here's a stat to show just how good JJ is. 40% of his shots were assisted. That's the same percentage as Kobe Bryant. T-Mac was at 42%. The great Dwyane Wade was at a ridiculous 27%. Michael Redd saw 57% of his shots coming via assists. A guy like Rip Hamilton saw 68% of his shots coming via someone else passing to him. That's a big difference. JJ's assisted shot numbers are in the superstar range, not star range. In these 2 games, JJ has seen only 33% of his shots coming via an assist. That's in the same category of a Lebron or a Wade JJ's problem might be that he doesn't take enough bad shots, like most of the other superstars do. Instead, he'll try to find a more open man, instead of taking an off-balance shot. I know for a fact that at least 3 of Smoove's long jumpers in the past 2 games, have come off of JJ passing him the ball as the shot clock is windind down, instead of taking the tough shot himself. But yet, people will praise that goofball Arenas, before they do JJ.

NO. At least 75% of you can't be trusted as a credible eyewitness. Not when you see some of the comments made about how the Pistons got back into the game. Before I blow the innacuracies about that stretch right out the water with FACTS, I must commend the Hawks on playing a gritty, gutty game last night. Like most of you, I thought the Hawks might be in for a long night when they fell behind by 10. But Woody and the players didn't panic, and really put on one of the best defensive efforts I've seen out of the Hawks in a long time. Remember guys, this is the same Pistons team that went to the "supposed" up and coming team in the East, Orlando, and literally blew them out of the water . . without Hamilton in the lineup. Take your hat off to the Pistons, who buckled down defensively, and made life a living hell for us in that 4th quarter. But back to the topic at hand. I don't like calling out people personally, but BusBoy especially, and some of the other normal "Woody haters", did this board a total disservice last night, with their railings on Woody after the game. They put total blame on Woody for the Pistons coming back into the game. So let's explore what REALLY happened during that stretch. First off, the stretch the Pistons got back into the game, was actually only a 3 minute stretch in the 4th quarter, not some 6 - 7 minute one. But that's just a trivial sidebar to what really caused the Hawks mini-meltdown last night. FACT #1: The Hawks held their own against the Pistons starters for the rest of the 3rd quarter, even after JJ went to the bench. At the 2:02 mark of the 3rd quarter, the Hawks had a 66 - 60 lead, with Shelden Williams at the FT line after a great feed from Acie Law led to him being fouled going for a lay-up. Between the 1st and 2nd FT, Joe Johnson goes out of the game, replaced by Marvin Williams. Hawks lead 67 - 60 after Shelden hits 1 of 2 FTs. Lineup for both teams at this point: Starters are in bold Hawks: Law, Chill, Marvin, Smoove, Shelden Pistons: Murray, Billups, Prince, Maxiell, Wallace The only points scored the rest of the quarter, was via Sheed fouling Shelden, after Smoove found him on a good pass along the baseline. So that group actually held their own against 3 of the Pistons starters. Hawks lead 69 - 60 after 3. FACT #2: At NO TIME during this stretch, was JJ, Smoove, and Horford ALL out of the game at the same time. Start of the 4th quarter lineup: Hawks: Law, Chill, Marvin, Smoove, Shelden Pistons: Murray, Hamilton, Hayes, Maxiell, McDyess This pretty much means that Smoove was in the game as the 4th quarter started. And remember, we're up 9 at this point. And when Horford came in, he came in for Smoove at the 10:17 mark. By this time, Maxiell is making his 2nd FT, to cut the lead to 71 - 67. FACT #3: The rookies, Horford and especially Law, made mistake after mistake during this stretch, to get the Pistons back in the game Horford had 2 turnovers in this stretch. One happened in the 3rd quarter, in which Horford had received the ball off the backboard from a deflected pass by Smoove. He then tried to quickly outlet the pass to Marvin, but it was way too far out in front of him. His 2nd turnover came when the Hawks were only up by 4, almost immeadiately after he came back into the game. It was a very lazy pass to Chill, in which Hamilton stole and was fouled by Childress. As much as I love Acie Law, he was flat out HORRIBLE during this stretch. Acie had 2 of his 5 turnovers during this stretch, and probably should've had 3 turnovers. In consecutive plays in the 4th quarter, Acie - tried to drive too fast to the hole, tripping over Hamilton's feet. Luckily for us, the called the foul on Rip. - The very next play, Acie tries to throw the ball to Chill, but the pass was behind him and it goes out of bounds. Chill says that it was his fault for the turnover, but Acie's pass was behind him. - The very next play, Acie fouls Murray going to the hole. It was at this time that Woody calls Acie over to him, and literally tells him to SETTLE DOWN. Even after this point, the Hawks are still up by 5, and if they execute just one time on the other end, they can buy JJ some more time on the bench. Acie's last turnover, was the turnover that got him out the game. It was his hesitatin drive, then slip, that cause him to lose the ball. Murray then converts the lay-up on the other end. Because of this, Woody calls a timeout, and goes to Lue, to get Acie out of the game. Hawks are now only up by 2, 71- 69. FACT #4: NOT A SINGLE DETROIT STARTER SCORED A POINT DURING THIS STRETCH!! It was ALL Jason Maxiell ( 5 points and 2 offensive rebounds ) and Flip Murray ( 4 points ). FACT #5: JJ re-entered the game at the 10:02 mark, which means that he was only out for exactly 4 MINUTES. This also means that the Hawks still have trouble surviving without JJ on the floor. Hell, you can make an argument that they can't even FUNCTION, without JJ on the floor. And some of you want his minutes cut? Well, someone else MUST STEP UP, in order for that to happen. FACT #6: Neither Smoove nor Marvin scored during this stretch As a matter of fact, I think Marvin LITERALLY touched the ball just 2 times during that stretch. Smoove's only attempt was directly from an offensive rebound off of Shelden's missed FT back in the 3rd quarter, right when JJ went out of the game. ******* As for Lue staying in the game during the 4th quarter, people can only make a slight argument for that. Forget about Woody, would ANY COACH stick with a rookie PG, after he had made 4 consecutive mistakes in a little over a minute span? If Woody didn't go to Lue, his only options were to either put Salim in the game, and go with a JJ - Salim backcourt, or play a JJ - Chill backcourt, with Marvin, Smoove, and Horford in. If you go the JJ - Chill option, you either have to trust that Chill can handle the pressure at the point, or that JJ at the point can find the open man and have that man knock down a shot . . something that only Marvin was doing at that time. It would've helped on the defensive end, because Hayes or Billups wouldn't have been able to post up Chill, like they were doing Lue. If you go with the Salim option, you literally would have to tell him to shoot the ball as soon as he got it, becuase outside of JJ, he's the best on the team in creating a shot. Of course, on the other end, you still have the matchup problem because Detroit would've immeadiately posted up Salim, just like they did Lue. Woody played the early stretch in the 4th quarter EXACTLY how he should've played it. We needed JJ to rest as much as he could, so that he'd be fresh at the end of the game. The Pistons got away with doing that, because Maxiell, Hayes, and Murray allowed Prince, Billups, and Wallace to rest a full 6 minutes in that quarter, while Prince rested almost 8 minutes. Remember what I told you Hawksquawkers . . . RECORD ALL OF THESE GAMES!! It'll keep you from making ridiculous statements about what went on.

Horford and Smoove vs Rasheed and McDyess I think if our kids can win the rebounding battle, and get one of these guys in foul trouble, that we might can steal this game tonight. It's so critical for Josh Smith to not bail out teams with those long jumpers, if he's not making the shot. And I want to see Horford make either Antonio or Rasheed work tremendously hard to contain him. 28 points and 22 rebounds is probably what we need from Smoove and Horford tonight. And it doesn't matter which one has the better night. They just have to collectively get this, to make that Detroit frontline work.

Quote: I know what your talking about, I'm currently in Clarksville. Ever since the Grizzlies and Predators came about I can't catch a Hawks game on FSN. For that matter, I shouldn't blame the Grizzlies but I will anyway. They just about always throw on a Predator game....or something else stupid. Charter always puts it off on the local station. I can't count the times I got prepped for a game only to be disappointed. WOW . . I thoguht I was the only Hawk fan in Clarksville. I agree, we kind of live in a bad area to see Hawks games on the regular. Thank God for Turner South switching to SportSouth, and putting over 1/2 of the Hawks games on there. For a while there, we only got like 10 Hawks games a year on TurnerSouth. We may not ever get to see an FSN South Hawks game, because of the territorial restrictions, even though the TV listing do list the Hawks as coming on. We live in Predators country, so the Predators always get top priority. We used to get all of the Grizzlies games on FSN South, but we don't even get many of those anymore, partially due to Griz games ( I think ) being on SportSouth as well. We will get an occasional Griz game beign shown on FSN South though. They also have strange territorial rights regarding college games as well. I remember one time last year in which a scheduled SportSouth Hawks game was not shown . . to show an Arkansas Razorback basketball game where they were playing some scrub team like Gardner-Webb or something. My question is this . . and some of you who have called SportSouth in the past, might want to ask them this. Why don't they just show a replay of the Hawks games during the day on SportSouth, that we can't see on FSN South? Ish . . I've seen where the previous night's Thrashers and/or Carolina Panthers game have been on SportSouth. I wonder if Nashville Predator games are replayed in ATL on SportSouth. That would be a viable solution for us. Just replay the Hawks FSN South game the following day in the areas that don't get to see them live. If ESPN can replay their games in the early morning hours, surely FSN or SportSouth can replay the Hawks.

It still doesn't mean that you shouldn't take a chance on acquiring one of the best big men in the game. I don't think that deal was serious in the first place, so it's a moot point. JJ needs to see how this will play out . . at least until January. Making a move right now would be pretty counterproductive, if you don't add and subtract the right piece. Right now, it's hard to say which piece we need to subtract, in order to get the right mix here. Those expiring contracts will come in real handy by the trade deadline. So if some team wants to get rid of a disgruntled player that can help us, the Hawks may pull the trigger. Until then, JJ and the rest of the Hawk faithful, need to just chill for a while, and see how this develops.

"Hack!" "Why doth Yi hackeths me so?" exclaimed Dwight Howard as he makes his 5th trip to the line. 4 fouls in 16 minutes so far for Yi. As for Marvin, just make it simple, and call him "Deuce-Four" or "Deuce-Fo'"

Quote: I vote for calling Marvin "Hype". I think you're stuck with J-Smoove and J-Chill, can't see ever getting enough momentum to change those... LOL . . "Hype" Williams is a music video producer. Can't use that one.

Quote: If Woody wants to show his team that he has changed his hard-core ways, he'll start Law. Dallas is Law's home team and you get the sense that the vets have been excited about Law being the floor general of the team. I'm guessing that Woody is hoping that Law can get back to where he was pre-injury so that he can justify starting him ahead of AJ (who has probably asserted himself as the savvy vet). Starting Horford and Law against Dallas would certainly be a bold statement to start the season. I agree. You just saved me two minutes of typing.

Quote: I'm shocked he hasn't responded. I love it when people throw out totally different situations and then act like their the same. The free agent rules now are extremely restrictive for the players. The market will set Smith's value after the year and if he has a problem at the end of the year he can sit next to Varajeo...although I highly doubt it comes to that. Great article on that very subject right here

Quote: Seriously, if he read this thread, he'd go out of his way to drop 40 on us every game this season. And he'd probably do it too. The dude is crazy. You mean like this game, in which Arenas scored 37 and Kobe scored 39 . . but the Wiz still lost by 16 points? http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=270203027 I'll take games like this from Gilbert any day of the week.

Quote: You realize you just typed that huge essay to show how bad Gilbert's BBIQ is and how bad his shot selection is yet he is still a more efficient scorer than Joe WHILE taking tougher shots. There is no way Joe is as good as Gilbert. Gilbert takes tougher shots because he is a chucker . . plain and simple. He doesn't even try to get his points within the flow of the offense. And because he's the PG, he can dang near shoot the ball anytime he wants. Gilbert is almsot a master of getting to the hole. He can dang near do it as well as D-Wade. That's the big difference between JJ and Gilbert socring-wise. Gilbert can get to the hole almost anytime he wants, and get fouled in the process. JJ gets his points by being an efficient shooter. But this is then where you have to factor in Gilbert's BBIQ as a player. His BBIQ almost eliminates the points he gets from the FT line, because he's liable to miss 15 - 20 shots in a game. And most of his misses are via long jumpshots, which turn into long rebounds that can be more easier to retrive by the other team. And those misses give the opponent more scoring opportunities on the other end. That's why when Gilbert is off, but still gunning and getting his points, he's not helping his team at all. He's making his efficiency numbers look good though, even though the team is losing. If he's hot, everything is cool. If not . . the Wiz almost always lose. There is almost no in-between with Gilbert. He's either on, or off. So I guess it's what type of player you prefer. Do you prefer a player that can get you 30 points a night, regardless of how he's shooting? Or do you prefer a player that can get you 25 points a night, and have the comfort of knowing that he's not going to shoot you out of a game on most nights?

Quote: Quote: Butler is shooting the best he's ever shot since playing with Gil so Gil must be doing something right from the PG position. Not to mention Larry Hughes also had a career season playing with Gilbert and they had 3 all-stars that year. That team was absolutely nothing until Gilbert arrived. Quote: I just happen to think that Gil is a borderline top 10 player in this league. Gilbert is a top 10 player IMO. Obviously he's inconsistent, but it doesn't mean he STILL isn't top 10. Washington's problem is defense and coaching, they SUCK at defense and Eddie Jordan is on Woodson's level. Jamison, as good as he is offensively, is probably WORSE as a defender, he is just beyond bad. Caron Butler also sucks at D, and Gilbert is no saint either. It's funny that they don't play Heywood much because they are so much better with him, but I guess that can be attributed to EJ's stupidity. Classic quote from Gilbert last season: "I'm a goof. C'mon, everyone knows that," Arenas said. "I look at my elders as the leaders. I don't want nobody looking at me. How can I tell somebody 'Don't shoot that shot' when I'm out there chucking 'em?" classic! This is your "top 10 in the league caliber" player saying this. Could you imagine something like this coming out of the mouth of Kobe? Lebron? Wade? Even JJ? But let's give some background to what set all of this up last February. Jamison goes down with a knee injury. He's pretty much the UNDISPUTED team leader of the Wiz, not Arenas. By his own admission, Arenas doesn't WANT to be a leader. So now, the Wiz have to do it for a while without their 2nd leading scorer. The Wiz promptly go 1 - 4. Arenas' stats during those 5 games: 23.6 ppg 4.8 rebs 4.2 asst 85.7% FT ( 42 - 49 ) Great numbers for most people . . . until you look at what he shot. 33.7% FG . . ( 101 shots ) 20% 3FG . . ( 40 3-point attempts ) Also during these 5 games, the Wiz as a team gave up: 119 points to Toronto 118 to the Lakers 108 to the Sonics 110 to the Spurs and 94 to Portland, a game in which the lost by 21 points . . at home. Because of this, Eddie Jordan was trying to stress to his team to play defense. I know. A foreign concept in Washington right? But that self-proclaimed "goof", halfway rips Jordan after the Portland loss, saying that the coach's overemphasis on defense contributed to the Wizards' fourth loss in five games. Are you (( bleepin )) serious? They gave up all of those points in that 5 game stretch, and he doesn't think defense is the main reason why they lose? And that Portland game was the infamous "I'm going to score 50 points on Portand" prediction game, to get back at Nate McMillan for cutting me . . like he's Uma Thurman in Kill Bill or something. Remember why he made that prediction? It was in reference to him being left off of TEAM USA in the summer of 2006. I bet you forgot that about Arenas. He got left off of Team USA because the guy is NOT a team player AT ALL. He let so-called lesser players like Hinrich, Battier, Paul, and even JJ, beat him out for a spot. And you know why? Because the guy just isn't a team player. He's a ME player. Much more of a ME player than Kobe or Iverson. And the only top 10 . . even top 15 players in the league, that didn't make Team USA, are the ones tht didn't receive an invite in the first place, or the ones who flat out declined the invitation, because of various reasons. All of the other top players made the team . . except Arenas. Yes, Gilbert is a good player, because he does have stretches where he's literally unstoppable. Yes, he's one of the more clutch players in the league. But when you actually sit down and watch him play, you constantly wonder why he does what he does. If you're a guy that can literally get to the hole anytime you want, why are you taking threes, after you've missed 6 consecutive three-point shots? People talk about Smoove's BBIQ being low. Smoove is a basketball Mensa member, compared to Arenas.

Quote: team for them to win and that he is able to carry them more often than not. Both his efficiency rating and his PER are more then 4 pts higher than JJ's (He was 13th in the NBA in efficiency and 11th in PER while JJ was 40th and 38th respectively). I love JJ and I think he is a terrific player but he's not as good as Arenas. Areans can be unstoppable at times no matter what the defense does and as good as JJ is, he is not that type of player. If you put JJ in WAS in place of Arenas the last two years, I don't think they make the playoffs. Trace, what would the Hawks look like, if we had Butler and Jamison on this team? Do you think that JJ would be compelled to throw up 20 shots a game, even when he's off? I would understand Arenas doing what he does, if he didn't have anybody else on the team. But he has two guys who are borderline all-star players in Butler and Jamison. Jamison has once put up BIG scoring numbers in this league, when he was top dog in Golden St. Butler has been stedily improving as a player, turning into one of the better young SFs in this league. JJ on the Wiz would be a GODSEND for them, because you could now put on the floor 3 of the better mid-range shooters in the league, without worrying about either of those guys shooting a poor percentage from the field. You could even get away with Antonio Daniels playing heavy minutes at the PG spot, because he can defend the position and he can get the ball to people in the right spots. I could easily see him averaging 7 assists at the starter at point, with JJ on the team. Now, put Arenas on the Hawks. We'd effectively solve our PG problem, and have the ability to start Chill, Marvin, Smoove AND Horford, if we wanted to. That would be a GREAT team, if Arenas shared the ball with other guys, especially on the fast break. But if he doesn't freely share the ball with the likes of proven players like Butler and Jamison, what makes you think he'd share the ball with the kids we have here right now? We'd look great at times. But I could easily see a guy like Smoove getting frustrated at Arenas, because he refuses to pass the ball. And in those times in which ATL would be down in a game, Arenas would take it upon himself to get us back in the game, even if it meant jacking up horrific shots ( which is exactly what he does in Washington ). Even a so-called "selfish" player like Stephon Marbury, had no problem sharing the ball back in the days where he was considered to be a "star PG". http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/gamelog?statsId=3540 When you look at this cat's game log, you see a lot of great games. You also see a lot of games in which this guy is missing 12 - 20 shots and shooting sub 35% FG in the process. He's not in the same situation that Iverson was in Philly, in which he was only one of maybe 2 guys who can get you 15 - 20 points on a given night. In Washington, both Jamison and Butler can get you 20 on a given night. Jamison can even get you 30. When you have teammates like that, you should always become more playmaker, than scorer, on those nights in which your shot isn't falling.

Quote: Quote: To me, Arenas is EASILY the most overrated "star" player in the NBA. I disagree, sure he may be slightly overrated, but Washington is nothing without him. People just look at his FG% (which means NOTHING for a player like him) and assume he's not helping his team. The fact is that he has a high TS% and gets to the line about 10 times a game. He's still a very efficient player because he has a high TS% which is much more relevant than FG%. His only problem (as you said) is not knowing when he's off. He doesn't know when to stop shooting. Atlas, I would suspect that his TS% is that good because when he plays great, he plays FANTASTIC. Like I said, he's almost a top 3 player in the league, when his game is on. But when he's off, he's an absolute GAME KILLER for you. The Wiz almost have NO CHANCE of winning when he's off, because he won't pass the ball at all.

Quote: North, I couldn't agree with you less. Arenas is one of the few scoring PG's that actually makes their team better. Washington has thoroughly overachieved since he got there. Arenas' 2006 - 07 stats in wins vs losses: IN WINS ( 39 wins ) 32.4 ppg 6.6 assists 4.8 rebs 1.9 stls 48.5% FG 42.7% 3FG 85.5% FT Those are ELITE SUPERSTAR type numbers IN LOSSES ( 35 losses ) 24.1 ppg 5.3 assists 4.3 rebs 1.8 stls 33.9% FG 26.7% 3FG 83.2% FT Those are I DON'T KNOW WHEN TO STOP SHOOTING type numbers. You'd be hard pressed to find one other superstar or even star player in this league, that has that dramatic of a falloff in shooting, than Arenas. His teammates don't have that type of dramatic dropoff in shooting when they lose, so the blame has to go on Arenas when that team loses . . which is about 1/2 the time. The only other guy that even remotely comes close to Arenas as far as playing good or bad in wins and losses, is our very own Joe Johnson. But even his numbers don't come close to the falloff that Arenas does. And his numbers only really fall off in the 3-point range category and in assists. He goes from an incredible 52% shoter overall from the field and a 49% shooter from 3-point range in wins . . to a 44% FG shooter and a 31% 3FG shooter in losses. He also dips from 5.5 assists, to a little over 3 assists a game. If the Hawks were offered a deal to trade JJ for Arenas, straight up, there's no way in hell I'm making that deal. None. If the same deal came up for Kobe for JJ, I'm packing JJ's bags as we speak.

Quote: An Arenas -for- Bryant swap makes sense for both teams, and it makes the Wizards a better team. Why did the East have to pick this year to get so jam packed? If this happens, this could change everything in the East. And it could put a major obstacle in our playoff hopes. Instead of possibly getting 2 - 3 wins vs the Wiz, we'd be looking at just trying to get 1 win against them. To me, Arenas is EASILY the most overrated "star" player in the NBA. When he's on, he's fantastic. But when he's off, he's no more than a glorified chucker that doesn't elevate other parts of his game to compensate for his horrific shooting. He reminds me a lot of when Steve Francis was considered a "star" in this league. Great half the time . . and a player that will kill you with bad decisions half the time. If I'm Washington, I'm doing everything possible to make this deal happen. And if I'm Kobe, I'm definitely contemplating making the move to D.C., considering that he'll be playing alongside Butler and Jamison ( two borderline all-star players in the East ). I think Kupchak, who is a worse GM by FAR compared to Billy Knight, would end up making this deal. Then watch L.A. win 32 games with Arenas chucking up shot after shot, while NOT making his teammates better.

In this East last year, this was pretty much the formula for making the playoffs. Only New Jersey didn't win 25 home games, but they did win 24. If you look at all of the playoff teams last year, only Jersey and Denver were able to make it in the playoffs, despite winning less than 25 home games. On the flip side, only the Clippers didn't get in the playoffs, despite winning 25 home games. 25 home wins is pretty much the "magic number" for getting in the playoffs. Toronto and Golden St made their leap last year, by winning 30 home games. 05 - 06: All but Chicago ( 21 wins ) . . missed: Orlando ( 26 ) 04 - 05: All but Jersey ( 24 wins ) . . missed: Cleveland ( 29 ), LA Clippers ( 27 ) 03 - 04: All but New York ( 23 wins ) and Boston ( 19 wins ) . . missed: Utah ( 28 ), Portland ( 25 ), and Golden St ( 27 ) . . Note: the East was HORRIFIC that year ) 02 - 03: None of the playoff teams had less than 25 home wins . . missed: Houston ( 28 ), Atlanta ( 26 ), Seattle ( 25 ), and Chicago ( 27 ). Those were the "playoff guarantee" Hawks, that went 26 - 15 at home, but went 9 - 32 on the road. And that Chicago team that year went an incredible 3 - 38 on the road The past 3 years, our road wins have totaled 4, 8, and 12 respectively. LOL . . I guess if you follow the pattern, we should win 16 road games this year. 25 + 16 = 41. And 41 wins should get us in.

The start is brutal, but definitely workable. Like thompson said, 2 - 3 would be an acceptable outcome. But if we go 2 - 3, I want to have us talking about how they could've gone 4 - 1, if not for a key play or two. If we can play well, especially on the road, it'll go a long way for this team's confidence. If we go 2 - 3 in those 5 games, I definitely want to go 3 - 0 in the home games after that vs Washington, Charlotte, and Seattle. To me, this is what is going to get us in the playoffs . . becoming a very consistent HOME TEAM that wins.

Did you watch the game? If you did, you would've seen that Vince should have at least been 4 - 6 in that first half . . and 10 - 14 for the game. But when you have receivers flat out dropping balls . . . (( playing violin )) While he does need to up his prodcution a bit, you can say the same thing about the receivers. And Vince was completing 64% of his passes, going into today. 5 worst starters in the league? LOL . . not even close. I can name 5 guys right off the top of my head, that I would rather NOT have, than Vince. - Mr. Harrington ( who makes critical mistakes at the worst possible time ) - Any of those Chicago QBs ( who make a TON of mistakes to kill you . . see Griese today ) - None of the Minnesota QBs ( Jackson, Holcomb, or the kid from Wisconsin ) - None of the young Buffalo QBS - I would mention Miami, but of course they're screwed with the Trent Green injury situation - Neither Alex Smith, nor Trent Dilfer out in San Fran - Definitely not Matt Leinart - I think I'd want Vince over guys like Jason Campbell ( Washington ), Damon Huard ( Kansas City , and even Steve McNair ( Baltimore ) at this point. The one thing about Vince, is that while he may not have great production days, he doesn't kill you with mistakes, like most other young QBs do. When you don't make critical mistakes, you'll have a chance to keep your football team in the game. And he'll always give you that x-factor of running with the ball when a play breaks down.