TheNorthCydeRises

If 10,000 were there, I'd be impressed. I haven't been to a game this year, so I forgot that they had basically blocked off all of the suites and some of the seats in the 2nd and 3rd levels. Capacity this year is only 15,700. So even the dead games will seem to have a few more than normal.

LOL @ the post game show and the people in the background acting a fool. You would think in the age of cellphones and videos of everybody all over the place, that being seen on TV wouldn't be that big of a deal. But I guess it is. Good win for the Hawks. The "Little 3" all played great tonight.

Baze with the best 3 minutes of basketball of his life, on both ends of the floor to close the game. Good job man. Honorable mention goes to Sir Foster in the final minute of the game, with his 3 song melody mix during that replay to see if the ball was off of Ellington, which it was.

I doubt Ben can beat Hoopz

That's what they want. They want him to make the "right play" instead of being "the man". I didn't see the end of the 4th quarter, so I'll have to see what went on in the highlights of the game. The last time Bud was involved with a team this bad, Dominique was jacking up 3s as a Spur.

Baze having the offensive game of his life.

LMAO Taylor . . . WTF was that?

Dennis made some fantastic passes in that 1st half, while not shooting well at all. Guys were converting on layups and knocking down shots. But would you frown on it if he had 18 points and 5 assists? Because that's basically the same thing. As for this game, it feels like we should be up by 16 . . but we're only up by 6.

Bud was probably ready to lose his mind when Dennis pulled that 3 on a mini fast break. Thankfully he made it. 9 pts - 9 asst . . . +15 for the game.

Bud never spazes out and pulls him out of the game though, after plays like that.

Dennis +9 Taylor -8 Wow . . this is a bad game. Come on guys ( on both sides ).

One of the better Good Times episodes. When TV addressed REAL subject matters.

That's because he's playing against a PG that isn't looking to score in the paint. But I agree. Great defense so far.

Brickfest so far.

And he's missing the one element that Dennis has That's why he was traded in the first place.

"I'm just waiting on someone to get fired."

So why isn't Jeff Teague particularly strong when it comes to making an impact on winning, despite his elevated shooting percentages?

The videos were posted for the exact reasons I stated. And that is sometimes, you simply have to let players "play their game", in order for the team to win. The NBA is not college, in which the offensive system is the most important element to win games. The reason why just about everyone around here wants a superstar player, is because superstar players sometimes play out of their minds and take over games offensively. And the players who are great in this league, exhibit this ability sporadically at first, then do it on a more consistent basis. We got a team full of journeymen players and guys barely out of college. Most of these guys wouldn't crack anyone's starting lineup, and would be fringe rotation players. Yet, when Dennis takes it upon himself to try to help the team win by scoring the basketball, there's an issue with that? Even if he's forcing the issue, that's actually a POSITIVE, not a negative. This means that Dennis cares about the outcome of a game, and his ability to affect that outcome. This should've been the year in which Bud and the organization should've tried to see just how much of a leadership role Dennis could handle. Let him be a leader, and let him be free to play to his strengths as a player. Don't try to pigeonhole that dude into playing "system" basketball 100% of the time, with a bunch of guys who WILL NOT be on this team ( or in the NBA ) in 2 - 3 years. No, this season should be all about Dennis, Prince, and Collins, and their development into high level basketball players. Challenging them to be better in certain areas is fine. But Bud only reacts harshly toward one individual on the team when they do something detrimental to the team ( in his eyes ). Even Bazemore and Delaney gets more of a pass from Bud, than Dennis, and that's absolutely incredible. Despite Bud being a good ( not great, but good ) coach, he is set in his ways and is stubborn as hell. Maybe even more stubborn than Woody.

Player 1 is Dennis 19.7 ppg - 6.5 asst - 2.8 rebs - 2.6 TOs 45.4% FG - 32.3% 3FG - 85.2% FT 18.9 PER - 52.6 TS% - .078 WS/48 Player 2 is ( current NBA starter ) 13.6 ppg - 7.1 asst - 2.8 rebs - 3.1 TOs 44.2% FG - 40.9 3FG - 81.2% FT 14.9 PER - 55.3 TS% - .076 WS/48 Which one would be better for the Hawks?

Sometimes, you do though. When you have a team that is devoid of real talent, and you only have 1 or 2 players who are truly talented, you sometimes have to let them carry the team. Or with good teams, you may have one person that can get their shot anytime they want, and that is your best path to win games. The most disappointing thing about Bud in the last 1.5 years, is that he's not trusting his PGs to be the floor leaders. Bud wants to micro manage the entire offense, like a college coach. Instead of using this season to let Dennis have more of a leadership out on the floor, he's griping over little things with Dennis that is causing even more friction. The trust has to be there to let Dennis figure all of this out for himself. This is what it looks like, when a coach trusts the ability and decision making of a player. Ironically, he used to be one of Bud's assistants. JJ got just about every shot he wanted in this game. And when the Jazz needed points, Quin had absolutely NO PROBLEM letting him go ISO on multiple possessions in the 4th quarter. But when it really came time to put the game away, JJ used his threat as a scorer to set up others for dagger 3 point makes. At some point, Bud has to start trusting Dennis to do the right things, even if he doesn't do them all of the time. And he can't keep acting like his defense is the issue with the team, when the whole team sucks defensively. This is what it looks like, when you let Dennis be Dennis . .

He played well tonight in garbage time. ESPN has him at +9, but their scoring was off earlier. Whatever nba.com says, that's what we'll go with.

Just noticed on the schedule that the MLK day game was against the Spurs. Why couldn't we get a quality game like that, when we were good? We would always get stuck playing a Milwaukee or an Orlando or some other non playoff team. But when we suck, we get the Spurs? Dang.

Coaching decision. Or . . . tanking decision.

Dennis with 9 seconds on the clock . . . . sizes his man up and takes him off the dribble for a layup Delaney with 9 seconds on the clock . . . freezes for 5 seconds, then tosses it to the PF 35 ft away, who passes it back to Delaney, who has to jack up a 30 footer. But hey, at least he's +5 for the game right now.