TheNorthCydeRises

It should be Horford AND Jefferson abusing someone else's frontcourt.

I remember that game. Horford was a flat out BEAST from start to finish. He and Jefferson were going back and forth at each other for a time in that game, but Horford won the battle. Smith had a great night as well.

We didn't get out of the 1st round for ONE YEAR from 2009 - 2012 with Joe, since initially making it back to the playoffs in 2008. We had gone to the 2nd round for 3 straight years, including just coming off of pushing the Bulls to 6 games in 2010 - 11 in the 2nd round. That team coasted through the regular season, but turned it on in the postseason. Had they held on to win Game 5 in Chicago, we would've had a chance to close out a 2nd round series for the first time since 1988. But they didn't, and the rest was history. People talk about treadmills, but what are we on now? If not a treadmill, a hamster wheel. We simply bet on the wrong guy. The exiled GM had initially put all of his eggs in Smith's basket, but wanted him gone after seeing him play just 3 months. At least a trade for Smith before the start of the 2012 season could've brought the team back decent value that may have been a better fit for JJ, Teague, and Horford. But like I said, it's a little too early for this thread. As of now though, that trade is a failure.

It's worst that that Diesel. JJ was on that 40 - 26 team back in 2011 - 12. So the Hawks are a game under .500 since he's been gone. ( 81 - 82 ). The worth of a star is that a star gets a good shot off with little time on the clock . . or can take and make impossible shots to keep his team alive . . and he can keep saving you on a nightly basis. The sickening thing about the following video clip, is that ALL of these shots have occurred since after the 2012 All-Star break. I don't know what starting happening with JJ and his penchant to make a plethora of big shots, but it started at that time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsRSSOaLUPY He's gone from being ISO JOE to being JOE JESUS, because he is undeniably the BEST ISO player in the league right now. It's too early in the season to give up on the Hawks. But if this team falls short to get out of the 1st round this year, that Joe Johnson deal would've been all for nothing. Cao space didn't yield us a player either equal or over JJ, nor did it make us a better team. Let's see how the team develops throughout the year though, and revisit this thread come February or March.

So who is better? Bazemore or Mario West?

Ya'll saw what happened last night, right? Lebron and Kyrie carrying the team. Only one problem though. Mr. Irving felt that he didn't have to pass the ball . . at all. 0 assists for Kyrie, the PG. Matter of fact, he hasn't had an assist in the last 6 quarters . . while taking a whopping 36 shots. 6 assists as a team for the Cavs ( Lebron with 4 of them ). 20% assist percentage, the lowest in any game that Lebron has ever played in, and the lowest assist % by a team in 4 years. And what does "selfish Lebron" say? "There's a lot of bad habits, a lot of bad habits been built up the past couple years," James said to the media moments after the exchange. "When you play that style of basketball, it takes a lot to get it up out of you." The "exchange" is supposedly he and Kyrie having some words after the game, about shot selection and getting teammates involved. So is that Lebron throwing a teammate under the bus, or trying different styles of leadership?

Lebron didn't give up. He knows exactly what he's doing. He's got 2 young guards that have never won anything in their lives and refuse to play team ball. 2 guards that couldn't even get along with each other last year. Instead of talking to them ( which I'm sure he and the coach has ), he's letting them do what they do, to show them it's not the right way to play. It's funny how people say that Lebron quit, but also acknowledge that the real problem is the play of Irving and Waiters.

Lebron should volunteer to come off the bench, just to appease his teammates and send a shockwave across the league. LOL @ Bayless accusing him of quitting last night. See, that's the type of stuff I'm talking about.

All of you national media writers/bloggers who lurk on this website for information, should make lethalweapon's pre-game write-ups REQUIRED READING before you watch ANY Hawks game. Same goes for you in Atlanta media as well. Tremendous write-up as usual, lethal.

I mean, it's really not a big deal if people like Lebron or not. I just wished people had a legit reason not to like the guy, instead of finding some small reason to hate him. Tim Duncan is arguably the most unassuming, robotic-like superstar of all time. He definitely gets respect from everybody, partially because people forget about him. He purposely stays out of the spotlight and doesn't bring attention to himself. And the media doesn't care about him because they feel that he's not 'interesting enough'. For that reason, they don't follow his every move and report on everything he does or doesn't do. But it's like everything Lebron does draws a Skip Bayless-like overreaction from people. That same 'douche' is one of these biggest givers to charity amongst ALL athletes. And not just his money, his time as well. That same douche left Miami to go back home to Cleveland, even after the fan base and the owner damn near wanted to murder him. If a trade went down this afternoon that sent Teague, Millsap, Korver, and 2 first round picks to Cleveland for Lebron, this entire fanbase would lose their damn minds . . . in a good way. The city would be buzzing like The Messiah himself had come back to save the Earth. And all of that talk about him being a douche, him being not genuine, him being full of himself, wouldn't matter one dang bit. When I think of true doucehbags, I think of guys like Paul Pierce and Ron Artest. Lebron is nowhere near on their level of doucehness. People simply find ANYTHING to be mad at Lebron about, much like Skip Bayless does.

People have always disagreed with me on here. Some have agreed with me as well. The ratio of people who agree/disagree hasn't changed drastically. I'm negative when it comes to the GM. I'll admit to that. Looks like I had good reason to doubt that dude too. Everything else is just normal. I'm not overly down on the team. I simply think they're mediocre 7th or 8th seed playoff team. People just want to be overly positive about everything, even when they KNOW we should have a better squad than is currently constructed. I still say that Lebron "hate" is mainly out of jealousy of not having the dude. And jealousy is a natural fan reaction.

Was I negative when I defended Woody, despite everyone else wanting him gone? Was I negative when I defended Marvin, but everyone else hated him? Was I negative when I said that a young Teague wasn't a true PG? Am I negative now, when I'm actually one of Teague's supporters, but others rip him every time he plays a bad to mediocre game? Am I negative when I give Bud my full support, but don't believe in our self-exiled GM at all? And look what you typed. You have no expectations for the team, while I still have expectations for them. It's just hard to be over enthused when your GM has 15+ million I'm cap room, and his priced free agent signing is Thabo Sefolosha. Is that being negative? Or is that being real?

I'm sorry, but I haven't changed one bit. I think what has changed though, are the expectations of this team from a number of you guys. In fact, I would go as far to say that a number of you have absolutely NO expectations. This is in sharp contrast from 3 and 4 years ago, when it was EC Finals or bust around here. And I know this was a topic to clown Lebron, but now you and others are telling me that you wouldn't want him with the Hawks? Really? I'm just calling BS on all of that, including the notion that the vast majority of the fan base wouldn't put up with LeBron's character flaws, if it meant that the Hawks would become instant contenders.

I'll agree with this. He was a douche there. But what about if he would've done something like this . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvq0axLrr2o Only a few people and media gave Blake grief from this. But had Lebron did that, you would've thought he actually shot that dude and killed him. It is what it is though.

LOL. I graciously accept my award. All I know is that if Lebron was a Hawk, anything that he did wouldn't matter, as long as he had us on national TV and contending for championships. All of the dancing, the picture taking with teammates, the tossing powder in the air, the "I deserve every foul call mentality", wouldn't matter one bit if he had on the Red .. the White .. and the Blue. Atlanta is the same place that celebrated Deion's TD dances, and had no problem with Jamal Anderson doing the Dirty Bird. But people have a problem with Lebron and his personna? If that's a bad post as well, give me another award.

Can you give a specific example of this "douche-like" behavior?

It's because he isn't a Hawk. Easy to root against a guy who will more than likely prevent your favorite team from getting to the EC Finals or the NBA Finals. The other element is partly rooted in jealousy. If he were a Hawk, hardly anything would be said about his on the court antics, his ego, or his will to win. People really see his move to Cleveland as him "running away"? If he had stayed in Miami, the Heat would be contenders to win the East again. Instead, he goes to a Cleveland team with 1 young star. Then a star on another bad team joins those 2. If we had a player here that could attract high quality players to play with him, he would be beloved in Atlanta. Hating Lebron is like hating your neighbor if he bought a Maserati or a Lambo, thinking that he only bought that type of car to show off in. Forget that may have the money to buy that type of vehicle, people hate him for even having it .... when they know they can't have one.

TI peforms at 7? Oh no!! 65% of the crowd will miss that then, and blame it on traffic ( on a Saturday )

Exactly. Imagine if that was Horford setting a pick on Paul Pierce, who got dropped. Then Pierce comes flying back with an elbow, hitting Horford in a defenseless shooting position, damn near knocking him out. This fan base would have a damn fit. LOL @ Chill being an "enforcer" in the Australian league, looking like Sideshow Bob. Even has the goatee, like when MC Hammer went "gangsta" for a minute. Speaking of that, this was the jam though. http://ww.youtube.com/watch?v=yNz225f1230 Scratch that, let me get the MTV 1994 Spring Break version of this song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZl0k8DFVPQ Chillz . . . you ain't hard man. Stop being gangsta in a league you should dominate.

Punk move by Chill. There was nothing illegal about that screen. That's no more illegal than some of those screens big men set on pressuring defensive guards at half court, to free up their ball handling PG. His team was getting killed by the other team and he got caught not looking for the screen. The highlight of his NBA career was Game 6 vs Boston

And look at how those current teams acquired those players. Paul - via a blockbuster trade that saw the Clippers give up their 2 best players at the time Harden - in a "jack move" by Houston, that exploited the cheapness of OKC ( which will cost them a title ) Durant - same team Lebron - because he wanted to "go home" Noah - same team Curry - same team Parker - same team Griffin - same team Love - by trading 2 young #1 picks after obtaining Lebron Howard - by paying the max and convincing him that he and Harden would be a dynamic duo. Dragic - modest contract free agent signing Lillard - same team Aldridge - same team George - same team Jefferson - significant free agent signing with teams not willing to "overpay" for him

Losing doesn't necessarily help you win, but losing helps you get a shot at an elite talent. A franchise changing talent. The problem is that all drafts aren't created equal. And all top 5 lottery picks aren't potential superstars. But there's no denying that if you look at who are the stars on elite teams, most of them are very high lottery picks. These are the 3 All-NBA team player selections from last season, and where they were picked in their respective draft. Lottery picks are in BOLD. Top 5 lottery picks are in BOLD RED 1st team Paul . . 4th Harden . . 3rd Durant . . 2nd Lebron . . 1st Noah . . . 9th 2nd team Curry . . . 7th Parker . . 28th Griffin . . . 1st Love . . . . 5th Howard . . 1st 3rd team Dragic . . . 45th Lillard . . . . 6th Aldridge . . 2nd George . . . 10th Jefferson . . 15th We have a 3rd pick in the draft. He's a very good talent, but not an elite or franchise changing talent. But it's not like we're trying to maximize all of his talents either. The organization seems to be content with Horford being exactly what he is right now, and not trying to get the most out of him. It's all about the system, and not about the system possibly turning him from a very good player, to a borderline elite player. So if it's the system that is most important, we need as much top level talent as we can get. IF that means trading some of your mid level talent ( or even a draft pick ) for better talent, that's what you do. If you have to overpay for free agents to get higher level talent, that's what you do. And you don't have to cripple yourself financially to do this. When you're a gazillion dollars under the cap, it's not going to kill a team to overpay a higher level talent that can help them more than going to the Dollar Store and buying up a bunch of cheap talent. Hopefully Bud, in his new role, will realize this.

That's a confusing sentence, but you guys know what I meant. It should say . . . Why did you wait to buy tickets? They were at record low prices.

Why did you wait to buy tickets, when they were at record low prices?

Please don't get my hopes up with a rumor like this.