TheNorthCydeRises

That's exactly what I'm talking about. When you listen to that team, it's almost like Blake Griffin is announcing the game, with all of the whining they do. That announce team even got suspended some years back, for making fun of Hamed Haddadi, who was from Iran. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN5zyimKsp4 I listen to a lot of opposing teams announcers, because I can't get all of the Hawks games on TV where I live. The Hawks easily have a top 10 announce team, even with all of Nique's catch phrases and so-called "terribleness". Respect the Hall of Famer.

You guys REALLY need League Pass . . or just need to listen to some of these other announce teams, if you really think Nique is so terrible.

The entire membership here should be liking this post. But they love Ferry so much, that they'll diss the Hall of Famer who is STILL the face of the damn franchise, over a guy that STILL hasn't had the balls to apologize to the fan base face to face. Had to issue a dang statement, and hasn't shown his face around here since September. Yet, Nique continues to be the ambassador for this franchise through thick and thin. Traded him on the best team he ever played on in ATL, and he STILL came back. No one is more loyal to the Atlanta Hawks than that guy. But the fan base talks about him like he's Eldridge Recasner or somebody. Just a lack of respect all the way around. This should be a flat out celebratory week for this fan base. Instead, people still hold grudges toward Nique because he doesn't speak well, is TOO SUPPORTIVE of the Hawks, and aligned himself with a guy who has been a longtime friend and supporter. It's sickening, to be honest.

When you listen to the other guys around the league, the Hawks announce team is not only one of the more entertaining duos, they're also one of the more HONEST groups when announcing a game. Rathburn plays a more homer type, while Nique gives you the type of commentary that you'd expect from a former player. And when Nique announces a game and says that's the "dagger" or the "back breaker", the fan base should rejoice, because the Hawks win 95% of those games. I think the only game we lost after Nique said that, was the Orlando game in which Tobias Harris beat us at the buzzer. Oh . . and the Boston game right before the All-Star break. I'm on the opposite end when it comes to Nique. I think a good number of fans simply don't give the guy the respect that he deserves. So what if he mispronounce names at times. So what if he isn't giving out some in-depth X's and O's type of analysis. We COULD have a completely annoying guy like Stacy King as the color commentator ( Bulls ). We COULD have a straight up homer like a Tommy Heinson as the color commentator ( Celtics ). Instead we have Nique, a living legend to a franchise that pretty much denied him of his only legitimate shot to win a championship. And despite all of that, he's stayed loyal to the franchise. Honestly, Friday night should be one of the greatest nights in this franchise's history. Nique gets his statue, and I'm sure one of of the best highlight tributes ever seen. AND we play the league's darling Cleveland Cavaliers in the process. We could have a chance to celebrate that win PLUS knock off King James and his minions on the same night. Respect the Hall of Famer . . .even if he annoys you.

It really took that display last night for the rest of the people to see what the true colors of Josh are. He's always been a talented player that was capable of playing team ball . . . but he wanted to play it like HE wanted to play it. He wanted desperately to be the man offensively, without the offensive arsenal to be just that. And because he wasn't tough enough to live on the inside and not take jumpers, his game would always be hella flawed. But it's like I told ya'll when JJ made that infamous comment during the 2010 playoffs vs Orlando, it was actually Josh who said something about the guys playing for each other and not the fans, 2 years prior. JJ said his comment out of frustration for how the team was playing, and because the crowd booed the Hawks for about 3 straight quarters ( which I always thought was BS ). But even JJ, with the lack of love that he receives every time he comes back to ATL, has always been complimentary of his former teammates and had high praise for the Hawks the last time Brooklyn played them. Josh, on the other hand, came in here like he was a superstar, and thought for sure he was going to leave out of here with a victory . . . and tried to show us up in the process. Then when he loses, he takes a shot at the Atlanta crowd . . like they didn't desperately want that guy to succeed, being the hometown product that he was. If Josh wants to call the crowd "bandwaggoners", that's cool . . and may have a lot of truth to it. But they were also HOMERS for you Josh. People defended your style of play to the death, even convincing themselves that you'd be better off taking a ton of 3s, than long 2s . . despite you not being able to shoot from either area. It's just sad that he had to go out like that. I hope they make the NBA Finals though, and play us. I'd LOVE to see that series now, with the Rockets at full strength.

NO. But while I'm a BIG supporter of Bud, he isn't beyond criticism. It's just that this fan base acts like we have no alternative other than Antić, despite the Hawks being 10 - 3 this year when he doesn't play, and have won the last 7 games in which he hasn't played in. It's easy for Bud to keep throwing him out there, because we ARE winning. But let's not try to justify how needed he is, because he just isn't needed. Not with the way he's playing. He's more likely to cost us a game, than win a game for us.

No jersey retirement for Josh now. He just burned whatever bridge he had back to Atlanta.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/a/anticpe01/lineups/2015/ When you look at the lineups that Antić has played with, his on court success this season has been HEAVILY tied to playing with Thabo Sefolosha. Even the stat that most people champion him on ( the +/- stat ), that has fallen completely off of a cliff with no Thabo in the lineup. He was a whopping -11 in February in +/-. I personally don't put much stock in that stat, because that -11 was probably not Antić's fault . . . just like +15 he posted in December wasn't because of his good play. Antić needs the most talented players on the team around him, to be successful, because he's normally not going to produce much of anything in the box score. This is why people tout his "hall of fame" like screen setting and his ability to stand outside and draw centers from the paint, as reasons why Bud plays him.

2 - 15 on threes 4 - 15 on twos 6 - 30 overall ( 20% FG ) in only 117 minutes. For those of you who act like he doesn't affect a game offensively, He's basically averaging a shot every 4 minute . . or 15 shots per 100 possessions. That's a higher shot rate than DeMarre, Korver, Bazemore AND Sefolosha.

Only Joffrey Lauvergne of the Denver Nuggets ( I know . . . who? ) is a center playing at least 10 minutes a game, that has a lower FG% than Antić. And Joffrey has only played in 5 games. Of the guys playing 16 minutes a game, he's the poorest rebounder at 3.0 a game. You'd have to extend it down to 14 minutes a game, to find a center rebounding at a lower rate ( Jason Maxiel . . at 2.9 per game )

He basically gets hot for a 7 - 10 game stretch about 2 times a year. The rest of the time, his shooting is abysmal.

I'm the best screen setter of all time, thank you very much.

Did you hear Payne say . . . "Give me that sh!t" . . when he blocked the shot. Oh boy. If this dude turns out to be a player, while we're holding onto Antić for dear life, it would cast a little doubt on Bud's ability to be a GM. The offensive and defensive plays he made in those two clips are something that Antić, nor Muscala, nor even Brand can do.

27 - 1 now, when the Hawks win the defensive rebounding battle. And we needed it too, especially in that 4th quarter of the Houston game, to make sure that the Rockets were 1 and done on their offensive possessions. Definitely didn't need Josh's misses turning into extra possessions. The Dreb% rate in that quarter was 75%. Rockets only scored 3 second chance points in that game, which was absolutely huge in that game.

But I thought rebounding is insignificant? Thabo is the best rebounding wing in the league on a per 36 min.basus. I'm sorry, but that's simply excuse making for Pero. A guy like Josh Smith was far more impactful than Pero, and this fan base KILLED JOSH for the horrific shots he took. Hell, even Marvin didn't get a pass, and he shot better than both Josh and Pero. Pero is at his best when he's playing with Teague, Korver and Sefolosha. And that's because they handle all of the production and rebounding. And it's really playing with Thabo that makes Antić look more important than what he really is.

So let me ask you this Dol. When you're not shooting the ball well, how do you win games? I mean, because the Hawks aren't going to shoot 47% FG and 38% 3FG in the playoffs. Almost all shooting percentages drop during that time.

The irony of that game? Horford grabbed 5 offensive rebounds that game, with 4 of them coming in the 4th quarter . . . . and had 3 on a single possession alone. On that possession, the Hawks had a 5 point lead with about 4:30 to go. Horford's 3 offensive rebounds enabled the Hawks to have the ball for about 50 seconds, which ended in a Teague alley-oop to Horford for the dunk. The Hawks only had 12 2nd chance points. But 7 of them came in the 4th quarter of that game off of 5 offensive rebounds. And it wasn't due to the Hawks sending extra people toward the offensive glass. It was simply guys being in the right spot to get the offensive board. Rebounding is about effort, positioning, and desire. If you choose not to go for offensive rebounds, that's one thing. But not securing defensive rebounds is unacceptable. And in a good number of the games that we have lost, not securing defensive rebounds was a major issue. If we shore that up, we're winning an NBA Championship. If we don't, people are probably going to look at rebounding as for the reason why we lost a playoff series.

Mace . . . what I'll say is that basketball ( especially playoff basketball ) is indeed a "micro" type of game. When you're playing a team over and over again in a series, you tend to find matchups and weaknesses that you want to exploit. You treat 4th quarter possessions like pieces of gold. So when you "overthink" a situation like Popovich did by taking out Duncan, a guy that represents the anchor of your defense, you leave yourself exposed to things that ( analytics wise ) shouldn't be happening to you. And the fact that he didn't keep Duncan in the game when Chris Bosh came back in, is almost as bad of an error as Pete Carroll not giving the ball to Marshawn Lynch at the 1 yard line in the Super Bowl. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hcE6H1LpaQ The real sad thing about this clip, is that Vlade Divac probably played the best paint defense of his life in a span of 3 seconds. He comes off Shaq to challenge Kobe, making him alter his shot. Then he quickly goes back to Shaq, who has a point blank layup, and challenges his shot to make him miss.' All Vlade had to do is grab the rebound, and the Kings have a commanding 3 - 1 lead in that series, with 2 possible home games to close them out. Instead, Vlade failed to end the defensive possession, and volleyball tapped the ball out to the most clutch 3 point playoff shooter of all time. Horry drains the shot, and the series is tied. Then Vlade has the nerve to call it a "luck shot" in the post game press conference. No sir. What was truly lucky is you playing excellent defense on BOTH Kobe and Shaq, and didn't even have to flop to do it. But you had a brain fart and didn't grab that rebound. And it cost you the game and possibly the series. Here's a current rebounding stat for you and DatWerkk about the Hawks. They are 17 - 10 when they have less defensive rebounds than their opponent. There's a lot of ways you can interpret that stat. - The Hawks still won 17 out of 27 games when losing the defensive rebounding battle or - Of the 12 games the Hawks have lost, 10 of the losses came when they lost the defensive rebounding battle But here's a definitive stat about rebounding concerning the Hawks. They are a whopping 26 - 1 when they have more defensive rebounds than their opponent. The one game that we lost? It was this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2y-ijUXs-I So let's review the raw data so far this season when it comes to rebounding: When the Hawks have more total rebounds than their opponent, they're 19 - 1 When the Hawks have more defensive rebounds than their opponent, they're 26 - 1 When the Hawks have more offensive rebounds than their opponent, they're 12 - 3 When the Hawks have less total rebounds than their opponent, they're 24 - 10 When the Hawks have less defensive rebounds than their opponent, they're 17 - 10 When the Hawks have less offensive rebounds than their opponent, they're 34 - 8 Deduction: When we're rebounding the ball . . we're damn near invincible. When we're not, we're good, but not great.

It's a very well written article. It's too bad that basketball isn't decided on seasonal rebound percentage rates or per 100 possessions. It's decided like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE7RCNjx22g It has been well documented that Miami was the worst rebounding team in the NBA that year. They were also the best FG% shooting team. Now anyone can look at this clip and determine what cost the Spurs this game. Bad FT shooting. Bad defense. Etc. But there's one element to this ending that affected everything Tim Duncan being taken out of the game with 28 seconds left. He's the guy that disrupted Lebron's 2 drives into the paint and saw the Spurs push their lead to 6 points. But once Duncan was taken out, what did they lose? - Their best paint & rim defender - Their best defensive rebounder With Miami being down 6, Spolestra took Bosh out and put in Mike Miller. Popovich countered by taking out Duncan and put in Diaw. Lebron misses a 3, but without Duncan in the paint looking for a rebound, Wade was able to out battle Kawhi Leonard for the rebound, which ended up in Mike Miller's hands. He passes it to Lebron, and he knocks down the 3. The worst offensive rebounding team in the league got a critical offensive rebound, and cut the lead to 2. Duncan comes back in to inbound the ball only, and is taken out again by POP, after Leonard is fouled. He makes 1 of 2 FTs and the Spurs are up 3. Oh . . and one more point. Chris Bosh just came back into the game. Now what does he represent? - A capable 3 point threat - The tallest person on the floor at 6-11 Now listen to what Jeff Van Gundy says at 7:21 . . . "With Duncan out . . attack the rim. They're not going to come off of the 3 point shooters. You can score quickly." With 19.4 seconds left, this would be a good option. Attack. Cut the lead to 1. And foul again. Maybe the Spurs miss again. But Lebron is a "hero", so he's going to play "hero ball" and take a 3 on the next trip down the floor. He rises up and is challenged by Parker and Diaw. Only one problem with that. 6-11 Chris Bosh is now drifting toward the lane . . unguarded . . and only has to battle the 6-6 Danny Green ( who is being pushed underneath the basket by Ray Allen ) and the 6-6 Manu Ginobli ( who has already let Bosh drift in front of him to get the rebound ). The 6-7 Kawhi Leonard is in a daze on the other side of the rim, just staring at the ball. So let's go back to analytics at this point. They tell you . . - Miami is the weakest offensive rebounding team in the league - The Spurs are the 4th best defensive rebounding team - Offensive rebounding isn't important at all - Defensive rebounding is just slightly more important . . but not really important. But as Lebron's 3 is in the air, the team that grabs the next rebound ( if he doesn't make the shot ), has a chance to either seal the game, or get another shot. And the 6-11 Bosh with not a body on him ( and no Tim Duncan in the game ), is about to get the easiest "in traffic" rebound of his career. And his pass to Ray Allen in the corner is about to become one of the biggest 3 point shots in NBA Finals history. Now listen to what Jeff Van Gundy says at 8:27 . . . "Tim Duncan . . out of the game . . . leads to the 2nd shot" Remember . . .Tim Duncan? - Lane / Rim protector - Best Defensive player - Best defensive rebounder And both Van Gundy and play by play man Mike Breen would correctly deduce that the lack of Duncan's presence. And Breen's point at 8:48 is the most important in this clip. "That's 2 possessions in a row that Duncan came out and they FAILED to get the DEFENSIVE REBOUND." All of you who don't think that rebounding isn't that important, should always remember that the last part of playing defense, is grabbing the DEFENSIVE REBOUND. Without that, you open yourself up to give a plethora of 2nd chance points to your opponent. Don't think missing a defensive rebound can cost you a game? How about this one, from the "so-called knucklehead" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuDDiPwJxW4 That's simply effort and desire on his part, to go get that ball and win his team the game. Or how about this "knucklehead" that you all know and used to love. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SxJldJdYUE He actually did it twice that season https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wkn01olV9I

That winter storm shouldn't affect tonight's game. The storm should only affect the northern outskirts of the Metro area.

I bet Shelden Williams is somewhere like ... "why didn't yall defend me lIke this?"

True. Levenson was the point man for bringing in Ferry. I think the problem Gearon Jr had, was the control given to Ferry, which would diminish his input in daily operations. And the fact that Ferry ( technically ) had to report to Levenson FIRST, before talking with anyone else. That's why Gearon struck at the first chance he got, to bring down Ferry. Like how Gee Money tried to do Nino Brown in New Jack City, by cutting a side deal with the Dominicans. And Levenson is still part of the ASG . . . and one of the more toxic members at that.

Bud is President of Basketball Operations right now . . . so that means he has the final say, correct? Even if Wilcox is doing the wheeling and dealing behind the scenes, it's Bud that has to sign off on any move he makes. Then ownership has to financially approve the move ( if it will cost them money ).

And how about this: What if the ASG turns around and claims . . . "Why do you want US gone? It was WE ( with Levenson in the lead ) who brought Ferry here. We should get credit for our turnaround too." And they would technically be right. I like how Ferry supporters call out people who aren't fond of Ferry, and give Bud a lot of praise . . . but they don't give the ASG any praise whatsoever for bringing in Ferry. If Ferry -----------> Bud = Good . . . . then . . . ASG --------> Ferry ----------> Bud = Good . . right? ASG gets credit for hiring Ferry Ferry gets credit for hiring Bud Bud gets credit for developing players Is this a fair assumption? If so, why does the ASG have to go?

Management = Owners Like what Ferry was doing on the conference call . . . talking to management. Bud, if he wants to make a move, need the financial blessing of ownership to get anything done. Same went for the exiled GM.