TheNorthCydeRises

Conversation Pau Gasol‏ @paugasol After many days of a lot of thinking, I've decided to join the @spurs!Looking forward to this new chapter with the best aspirations!Jul 5, 2016, 9:29 AM

So does this move JJ to #4 on the most hated Hawk list? 1) Michael Gearon 2) Horford and his daddy 3) Josh Smith 4) Joe Johnson Jeff Teague should get a standing ovation when he comes back to ATL.

My rants on how terrible Pero was, didn't help me over there either. A lot of those dudes were Pero fans. I've always spoke out against Pero, and that caused a lot of problems for me over there too. As Pero started playing like garbage though, they all started to see the light. I believe I got banned right before last year's playoffs.

Basically I was too outspoken over there. I started posting over there more frequently when Ferry became in charge. I was one of the main negative voices about Ferry. I had differences of opinion with Kris Willis ( head writer ), to the point that anything I said in which he didn't like, he responded to it negatively or sarcastically. In times in which he agreed with me, he said nothing, which I thought was hilarious. The posters on Peachtree ( at that time ) were a carefree, joking type of bunch, and really didn't get hardcore like we do over here. The regulars are a great group, much like over here. So my "long rants", whether people agreed or disagreed with them, didn't go over well over there. I was even accused of being a "troll". But as I kept posting, more people started to agree with my opinion. I can't prove this, but I think that Kris even raised the limit to "green light" a post, from 3 to 5 likes, because I was starting to get a lot of likes from my post. People on there asked him about it, but he just blew it off. Toward the end, I let a few posters get to me, with some of the pot shots they'd always take at me. I would be the one getting the warning from Kris whenever I responded, but no warning was given to them. I finally unleashed a tirade on one of their posters ( who is now a contributing writer, "J. Lane" ). Wish I remembered exactly what article I unleashed on him on. I'd post the link of it here. But after numerous warnings by Kris, that was the last straw for him. That post deserved to get me banned, because technically, I violated the "terms of service". Honestly, it was a situation where I should've kept my cool, despite the trolling from others on me, and just stuck to talking about basketball. But it's also a situation where Kris pretty much picks and chooses who he targets, while he lets others get away with murder. And if you're too negative about the Hawks, that's a no-no over there . . . unless everyone is negative about something, or a particular Hawk. It makes me appreciate the mods over here. Personal opinions are never suppressed. But when personal attacks happen, you guys step right in and try to squash that. A guy like Hotlanta could never post over there, with his negative slant on things. He'd instantly get banned. But at least here, he has a voice, whether we agree with him or not.

The Peachtreehoops guys are solid. For the most part, they do give a fair analysis of what is going on with the team. They're not supposed to be kool aid drinkers. Despite me getting the lifetime ban from that site, their writers are fair in what they write about the team. The AJC, on the other hand, are straight garbage. Vivlamore disappoints me more times than not. Lazy may be too harsh of a word to describe him. Maybe better words would be lackadasical .. nonchalant? LOL .. then again, those words are often used to call a person "lazy". Schultz and Bradley shouldn't even write about the Hawks. They don't follow the team nearly close enough to even form opinions. And 85% of the time when they write about the team, it's in a negative light. They're more positive to a Braves franchise that has easily been the most disappointing pro franchise in Atlanta the past 10 years, than they are about the Hawks. The Hawks may be "playoff mediocre", but we don't suck like the Braves do.

I don't know if Dennis will shoot that high of a percentage, but I agree that he's aggressive enough to be a 15 ppg - 7 assist guy. If he's being forced to score more, that may be a bad sign for us as a team. I'd much rather see his assist number go up than his ppg total.

The realistic best case scenario is the #2 seed in the East. Because "best case" means that Howard returns to being a top 3 center in the league. While the Rockets did struggle last season, that was a team that won 56 games and went to the Western Conference Finals the season before. One of the most overlooked things about Dwight, is that he's one of the few players in the league that has always played better during the playoffs, than in the regular season. He's a career 19 ppg - 14 rebs performer in the playoffs. Even in the 5 game loss to Golden State this year, he averaged 13 ppg - 14 rebs. Horford is a career 13 ppg - 8 rebs guy in the playoffs. This past playoffs, he was a 13 ppg - 6.5 rebs guy. Can you imagine Horford grabbing 14 rebs a game? Yeah, I can't either. If the Euroleague PG is even halfway decent, the Hawks are going to be MORE than alright. Millsap is still the best all around guy on the team. Dennis and Baze are young, and now get a chance at a larger role. Korver can still shoot, although he needs to come off the bench. Thabo can still defend. Mike Scott, if he stays out of jail, can still be a shooter off the bench. Splitter is a solid backup center, if he can stay healthy. The rookie Taurean Prince can shoot and play tough defense. And the other rookie Deandre Bembry may be the new Josh Childress. Both are athletic as hell. And I haven't even mentioned Edy. If we can get anything out of him, that's an added bonus. So when you talk about "best case scenario", our ceiling is very high. Summer League will have a lot of you buzzing about these young guys.

And props to Teague in 2011-12. That was his first year as the starter. 13 points - 5 assists - and 48% FG that season.

2011-12 was the strike season which only went 66 games. Horford played 10 full games with the Hawks going 6 - 4. He got hurt early in Game 11 vs the Pacers, so we won't count that game toward Horford ( which was a loss ) So in those next 56 games, the Hawks went 34 - 22. Josh Smith really became more assertive as an offensive player with Horford gone. He actually had more 20+ point games than JJ. ( 29 to 24 ). He and JJ took turns having big offensive games for the Hawks. Zaza was solid in the middle, averaging right at 8.5 points and rebounds a game in Horford's absence. The biggest thing is that the Hawks became a very good defensive team. Finished 6th in the league on defense. And a good deal of that had to do with the bench holding their own. Guys like T-Mac, Willie Green and Janerro Pargo really helped to stabilize the team, and had decent games themselves. Moving Marvin to the bench in place of Kirk Hinrich helped a little too. Marvin played better coming off the bench. Oh ... I forgot one guy. A journeyman overseas player who the Hawks found out of nowhere, who would become a fan favorite and one of the hardest workers on the team.

Still a top 4 team with the potential to rise to #2, if everything falls into place. Hawks were 21st in offense last year. The only playoff team that was worse, was Indiana. We've added around the rim scoring in Howard, a shooter in Prince, and a Euroleague PG that can score. Defensively, we're a top 5 squad.

Kenneth Faried He's a shorter version of Faried . . . with a jumpshot and handles.

Golden State isn't winning anything next year. Because you know which guy is going to be looked upon to take a lesser role? This guy And when he starts to get frustrated with his role, he'll mess up the chemistry of the Warriors. He's still the defacto leader of that team. And once he gets pissed off, you'll see chinks in the Golden State golden armor.

If you don't understand the post, I'm sorry. But you were talking about who impacts a game. You can't legitimately sit there and talk about how Dwight doesn't impact the game, but Horford does, when Horford averaged 15 pts - 3.5 rebs - and had a 121 Defensive Rating in the Cleveland series. You just can't do that. The stats. The eye test. Everything says that Horford is simply very good, not elite ... at anything. If you disprove of the stats I produced, so be it. Those same efficiency vs counterpart stats used to show Horford and his impact on a game, in a much favorable light. I think Horford and Howard, overall, are equal. But when it comes to what the Hawks need, Howard gives us more of what we need to improve the team. We don't need our centers shooting 3s. We need him doing the dirty work around the rim.

What are Dwight's impactful strengths? - Elite rebounding . . . on both ends of the court. When you're the Hawks, and you finish 28th in overall rebounding and a horrific 25th in defensive rebounding, you need help on that frontline. Dwight instantly gives you that. To try to dismiss the importance of rebounding, is to close your eyes as to what happened in the Cleveland series as uneventful. Game 3 was a very winnable game for the Hawks, but they blew it by giving up 18 offensive rebounds and letting Cleveland storm back in that 4th quarter. And despite Horford having a very good offensive night ( 24 pts on 11 - 15 shooting ), he only grabbed ONE REBOUND in that game and was a whopping -26 for the night. That was the game in which everyone was begging Bud to keep Humphries in, even if he played him alongside Al and Paul, because we all saw what was going on with the rebounding. Offensive rebounding kept Cleveland within striking distance. And once the Cavs got hot, the Hawks went ice cold with our lack of a go to scorer, and Mr. Horford not scoring a single point in the last 10 minutes of the game. - Around the Rim scoring Interesting that you cite a 2 dribble ( 39% stat ) to try to discredit Dwight. Especially when that only equaled 6.9% of all of his possessions. When you extend that to 3 - 6 dribbles, that FG% increases to 46.7%. But even that only equaled 7.5% of his possessions. His bread and butter is scoring at the rim, whether it be via pick and roll, the lob, or off of an offensive rebound, in which he's one of the best in the league at getting. 73.1% of his possessions are no dribbles at the rim. And he shoots 68% on those shots. So it's kind of disingenuous to focus on a 2 dribble stat, when 93% of his other possessions show that he is an effective around the rim scorer. So what do the Hawks need? - A go to scorer - Much better rebounding - A post scorer to get easy buckets Dwight gives us 2 of the 3. And because he's not playing with a guy in Harden, who believes that he has to do all of the scoring and make all of the plays, the potential for Dwight to make the Hawks better exceeds what Horford by himself could bring. It would be GREAT if we had them both, to really match up against anybody. But when outside shots aren't falling, we do have an option now to throw it inside and see if Dwight can get a bucket or get fouled, to stop momentum.

When @NBASupes does find the time to reply to my original post, I hope he comes with more facts than emotion. Until that time, enjoy the rest of the day with the fam. I'll do the same. ( edit: reading his rebuttal now )

Agree 100%. Like @JayBirdHawk, I wanted to see Horford with Dwight and Sap. But if given the choice of Dwight or Horford, I now have to side with Dwight. I definitely wasn't of that mindset before the playoffs. But expecting Horford to be that alpha dog just wasn't realistic. As for Teague and Dennis, the transition was obvious in the Cleveland series. His willingness and ability to take over 2 of those games in the Cleveland series, showed the difference in heart and desire between the two. Bud couldn't keep trying to coax Teague to be aggressive. At the end of the day, either you have it or you don't.

You're taking your usual contrarian view by saying that aquiring Howard won't matter in the end. And you may be correct. He may not be enough to get past a Cleveland. Having said that, Dwight is the kind of big man this team has always needed. A guy who is an active enough force around the rim on both ends of the floor who has to be game planned for. His acquistion changes our potential destiny. We now have the interior player to compliment BudBall's obsession with the 3 point shot. When this team needs a basket outside of the system, we have the option to throw it inside and see if Dwight can score or get fouled, instead of giving us an empty possession. You, more than anyone on Hawksquawk, has always talked about our smallish frontcourt and our inability to rebound. We've addressed that now. Let's see if that takes us in a different path.

LOL ... this is old school Hawksquawk ... when long winded rants were the norm around here. Hawksquawk has literally improved my laptop and phone typing skills over the years. But I will adjust. Protect that paint Dwight.

Yes sir. She did. Pat understood that championships are won in the trenches. Limiting your opponent to one possession on offense, while getting a few extra offensive possessions of your own, will aid you in your championship goals. All of a sudden, we now have 2 of the top 20 rebounders in the league on the roster in Howard and Millsap. Expect 20 rebounds per game from that duo. If they can also give us 33+ points a game, that'll be big time for the Hawks.

Horford was my boy. I appreciate everything he did here in his 9 years in an Atlanta uniform. And while I dislike Dwight's childlike personna and non-professionalism at times, we need to simply tell the truth about Howard and Horford. This is Howard's NBA Efficiency peofile from last season ( regular season + playoffs ). Remember, NBA Efficiency is a pure production stat, and really an indicator of who is REALLY impacting games. http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/houston-rockets/players/dwight-howard/profile/16/10/159 When you talk about his impact, you are somewhat correct. In the games he logged at least 25 minutes, Dwight head to head was only 25 - 26 - 18. He lost head to head matchups to the likes of Mahinmi, Len, and our very own Kris Humphries. And he got destroyed head to head by Cousins and Jordan in 2 of those games. In the 25 games in which Dwight won his matchup, the Rockets were 16 - 9. In the 26 games in which he lost his matchup, the Rockets were 8 - 18. Dwight winning his matchup was more of a barometer for the Rockets winning, than Harden, who posted a gaudy 64 - 15 - 8 record in his matchups, but in those 64 matchup wins, the Rockets were only 33 - 31 in those games. Now let's look at Horford. http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/atlanta-hawks/players/al-horford/profile/16/1/4 25 - 36 - 22 record vs his center counterpart. Horford in his losses rarely got dominated, but he did get outplayed by the likes of Tristan Thompson, Tyson Chandler, and a particularly embarrassing performance vs Cody Zeller, in which he scored 2 points and grabbed 2 rebounds in 27 minutes. Here's the dusturbing thing about Horford last season. We were only 13 - 12 when he won his matchup. Now you can blame orher players on the team for those losses, but Horford rarely decisively won his matchups. And when he lost his matchup, the Hawks were 13 - 23. Unlike Dwight, whose play impacted wins and losses, Horford winning or losing his matchups normally determined if we lost the game. Contrast that with Paul Millsap http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/atlanta-hawks/players/paul-millsap/profile/16/1/7 46 - 25 - 15 overall matchup record. A 34 - 12 record in those 46 matchup wins. In the 25 matchup losses, the Hawks were 6 - 19. This means that HE was the true impact player for the Hawks. The main problem with Horford is that he was consistent as hell, but rarely elite. So when his opponent raised his level of play and had a great game, we really needed Al to cancel that out. And on most nights, he just didn't. And it really was evident in the playoffs. If Dwight gives us 17 pts - 11 rebounds, it'll surpass anything that Horford could've given us, and will have a tremendous impact on games. At the end of the day, you, @Hotlanta1981, and @KrisWillis will end up being DEAD WRONG about losing Horford and replacing him with Dwight. All Bud needs to do is keep that dude engaged on the offensive end, so that he'll rebound and rim protect. The system and coaching will take care of the rest.

I'm glad people are calming down and seeing that we still have a good team, with the potential to be a great team. Defensively, we're still a top 5 squad. Offensively we can play multiple ways.

Honestly, most of us hated Paul Pierce more than the Celtics team/organization as a whole.

I like to watch winning basketball. The prospect of keeping 2 of those 3 guys on the floor almost all of the game would be tremendous So hell yeah I'd take him back.

That ball hogging SG has essentially played PG ever since he's been in the league. And despite Wade's injury history, he has ALWAYS been ready to go by the time the playoffs started.

I loved the pick. My Syracuse bias would've preferred Malachi Richardson, but Prince's energy and passion reminds me of Kenneth Faried. He's better now than Demarre was coming out of college. He seems to be a coachable kid that Bud could really develop rapidly.