TheNorthCydeRises

No . . what's silly is looking at an April performance, where he plays well above his head, and use that to show how inconsistent he is. Then you're comparing him to a guy who will be a 1st ballot Hall of Famer, and has 2 of the best finishing big men in the game . . . with Teague not having the big man that used to knock down jumpers off of the pick and roll to pad his assist numbers. Like I said, Teague is playing about at the level where he was picked, compared to the people who are considered to be better than him. He played good ball for most of the year, but had one horrible month in January from a shooting standpoint. This is like expecting Paul Millsap to turn into Karl Malone or Al Horford to turn into Tim Duncan. I'm sorry man. Teague isn't going to turn into Chris Paul, or a 2008 Tony Parker. He's a good player that, if he plays to the utmost best of his ability, could be a borderline All-Star. He's probably playing about as well as he can right now. All I know is that Horford, Teague and Millsap were the only 3 guys on the team, that consistently outplayed the guy they were going up against at their position, during the regular season. Teague http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/atlanta-hawks/players/jeff-teague/profile/14/1/14/7 Millsap http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/atlanta-hawks/players/paul-millsap/profile/14/1/11/7 I mean, what would be a good season statistically from Teague, that will satisfy people? Even if you have to do it month by month, would would be an acceptable season from Teague from a points - assists - FG% - eFG% -TS%? Less sub 10 point games? ( 14 last year ) Less 4 or less assist games? ( 17 ) More 20+ scoring games? ( 23 ) More 10+ assist games? ( 13 ) As big of a critic I was of the kid in his first few years in the league, I'm just happy that he can play at the level he's playing now. If he became a top 10 PG, that would be fantastic. Unexpected, but fantastic.

Why? Because he told the truth? I was at Game 3 of that Orlando series. And it kind of sickened me at how the fans started booing that team as early as the end of the 1st quarter. And as Orlando kept sticking it to us, the boos just got worse. So instead of the crowd trying to will us back into the game, the majority of the crowd simply gave up, and started booing the Hawks as loudly as they've EVER booed any opponent in that arena. Then with microphones and tape recorders shoved in his face after that horrible loss to go down 0 - 3, a somber JJ was asked questions about the game and the mindset of the team going forward. His infamous quote occurs at 1:54, with the question about hearing the boos in the crowd. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u01z0bbfPXg Sometimes, the truth hurts. The Hawks were playing like crap, and the crowd booing them shouldn't make or break them. So JJ simply said that he hoped that the boos didn't bother his teammates, and he could care less if the fans showed up or not. If the fans weren't going to try to cheer on and try to will the team back with cheers, why would any Hawk player want to hear a chorus of boos on their home floor? The boos were even louder in Game 4. So while the 2009 - 2010 Hawks, despite showing much promise during the regular season, ended up being a major disappointment to the fan base . . . . the booing fans just made us all looked bad as fans to the rest of the nation. They booed that team like they hated them. Then those same fans wonder why the players had an apathetic view of the fan base as a whole?

Was it just a coincidence that both Teague and Millsap had their low TS% month in January, when the schedule got significantly tougher and when both were adjusting to the loss of Horford? Teague essentially had one bad month and one great month, and is getting ripped for being inconsistent. Ironically, take away the one great month, and see him be around his normal .540 TS%, and his variances would be a lot closer to Millsap's. But because he played great in April, that skews his variances. It took me 3 years to come around on Teague, but I've accepted what he is. His jumper will never be good enough to be the type of player to take over a game. But he's a solid enough PG to lead a team. If the talent around him was a little better, maybe he might be too. On that great dunk that Mike Scott had in the playoffs, people overlooked the perfect bounce pass delivered by Teague on that play. Too bad we didn't have this level of Teague at PG during the WLOC era.

You can say that about EVERY PLAYER in this franchise's history, with the exception of the St. Louis Hawks guys. Dominique, in all of his greatness, played in the playoffs in 8 years and in 11 playoff series. His record: 3 - 8. Matter of fact, let's go down the list of all of the franchise "greats". Pettit: 8 - 8 . . . ( .500 winning percentage - 16 playoff series - 9 years ) Hagan: 8 - 8 . . . ( .500 winning percentage - 16 playoff series - 9 years ) Beaty: 5 - 7 . . . ( .416 winning percentage - 12 playoff series - 7 years ) ******* NOTE: The above players were all key cogs of the St. Louis Hawks ************* Dikembe: 2 - 3 . . ( .400 winning percentage - 5 playoff series - 3 years ) Willis: 4 - 6 . . . ( .400 winning percentage - 10 playoff series - 6 years ) Joe Johnson: 3 - 5 . . ( .375 winning percentage - 8 playoff series - 5 years ) Steve Smith: 3 - 5 . . ( .375 winning percentage - 8 playoff series - 5 years ) Blaylock: 4 - 7 . . . ( .363 winning percenage - 11 playoff series - 7 years ) Josh Smith: 3 - 6 . . . ( .333 winning percentage - 9 playoff series - 6 years ) Horford: 3 - 6 . . . ( .333 winning percentage - 9 playoff series - 6 years ) . . take off the 2012 loss to Boston if you want, because he came back hurt. That would put him at 3 - 5 . . the same as JJ and Steve Smith Doc Rivers: 3 - 6 . . ( .333 winning percentage - 9 playoff series - 6 years ) . . wasn't a starter in his first playoff appearance Hudson: 3 - 7 . . . ( .300 winning percentage - 10 playoff series - 7 years ) Dominique: 3 - 8 . . ( .272 winning percentage - 11 playoff series - 8 years ) John Drew: 1 - 3 . . . ( .250 winning percentage - 4 playoff series - 3 years ) Roundfield: 1 - 5 . . . ( .200 winning percentage - 6 playoff series - 5 years ) Eddie Johnson: 1 - 5 . . ( .200 winning percentage - 6 playoff series - 5 years ) Pistol Pete: 0 - 3 . . . ( .000 winning percentage - 3 playoff series - 3 years ) Did I leave out someone? There's your list folks. And it's a great look at how futile this team has been over the years. That's 6 decades of players that you see there ( 5 decades with the Hawks in Atlanta ). And people want to diss Joe Johnson, when only Deke and Kevin Willis can say that they have a better playoff series winning percentage amongst ATLANTA Hawk players than JJ? You'll never see a Milwaukee Bucks fan say "f-ck Michael Redd" or a Charlotte fan say "f-ck Larry Johnson".

Luou is a stand up dude. He's the type of dude that might go back home and run for political office.

First off, the exiled GM should've known good and well that we had absolutely no shot at Dwight and Paul. NONE. If he didn't, then I really question his judgement. So what other "home run" was coming here? Second, if you say that Al Jefferson wasn't worth it, how did he make 3rd team All-NBA and was an instrumental part in Charlotte winning 43 games? A 22 game improvement from the previous year. The facts are that there was a high quality center on the market that the exiled GM could've realistically brought to this team. And not only did he not get him, he didn't even go after him. The one guy who could've relieved some of the physical pounding that Horford takes while playing center, and he didn't even look his way. He gets his teammate, at a cheap price, and he plays well. But that acquisition didn't solve any of the problems that plague this team ... namely rebounding. Instead, he plugs the center position with Brand, Antić, and Ayón. And yet, people thought we were OK at the center position. A 34 year old big man in the twilight of his careee ... a reserve Euro schizophrenic 3 point shooting PF/C .. and a end of the bench NBA player is who we had backing up Horford. And people wonder why the Hawks went into the toilet when Horford got hurt I tell you what though. He better be willing to "overpay" SOMEBODY that's a 2nd tier talent, if he wants to improve the talent on this team. Yall praise that dude when you think he makes a good move, but act like he's helpless when he misses out on higher quality talent that can actually help us. Hold that dude to just as high of a standard as we dud Knight and Sund. And you're right. He's not any more mediocre as the previous guys. He's not better either.

Forget the comment he made about Deng. He was a mediocre GM to begin with. And the one trump card that he's had ( cap space ) has meant nothing the past 2 offseasons, partially because he refuses to target players that can actually help us . . and even overbid for their services, if need be. So here we are . . with Thabo Sefolosha as our prized free agent signing of the summer . . and still have close to 4 million in cap space to spare. Fans will celebrate that, because we're not over the salary cap. But if you can't get 1st and 2nd tier free agents, being under the cap doesn't mean a thing.

Here's his game log from last year. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/t/teaguje01/gamelog/2014/ , And here's my point. While people were blaming Teague during that time for going scoreless in that March 26th game, Paul Millsap goes 4 - 13 FG in that same game . . . and followed that up with a 3 - 15 FG and a 5 - 15 FG game. Meanwhile, Teague in his next 2 games was was 10 - 18 FG and 8 - 17 FG. So why was Teague the target for being inconsistent, when the entire dang team was inconsistent last year? We all know that Teague isn't a #1 caliber scorer, so why expect him to make the "leap" to be that? Millsap isn't even capable of being a #1 scorer ( although he can do it on occasion ), but people are mad at Teague because he's not playing up to the level of high lottery pick PGs?

And when I started that thread, there were at least 2 Teague hate threads started in that week. I knew the hate was coming, because people want Teague to be the next Tony Parker, so I went ahead and started the thread. The next game, he played pretty good, while his teammates sucked . . . and you didn't see a thing about Teague's good game, or his teammates' inconsistencies. Teague isn't any more inconsistent than anyone else on the team. He's simply become the lightning rod for anything that goes wrong for the Hawks, since people can't blame JJ, Marvin, and Josh Smith.

A top 10 player in franchise history is a "clown" huh? And Hawks fans wonder why we as a fan base have a reputation as being a bad fan base.

Teague and Millsap were the only players on the team that consistently outplayed their man. He wasn't anymore up and down than anyone else on the team. People may want to look at the list of PGs ahead of him, then look where they were picked in the draft. You'll see a few mid 1st round picks, but the majority of the PGs ahead of Teague are high lottery picks.

For the record, I never thought that he was a racist. And when I did finally heard the tape, it sounded like he was somewhat paraphrasing. Both seem to be true. But I've also said all along that he has some of you fooled as to how good of an executive he is. And things are coming out ( that's really been out already ) about how he operates and how he can be difficult to work with. Hard to be positive about the dude when he's had 30 mill and 15 mill in cap space in consecutive years, and the lineup still hasn't addressed major issues on this team. If we show the progression of the "WLOC" Hawks that people supposedly despise now, you'll see more positivity out of me. Just promise me that if they don't progress, you won't hesitate to rip right into the exiled GM, like we all do with ownership. At this point, I'm just rooting for Bud to coach up these guys, and have the authority to make a trade to help himself.

If there is even an ounce of truth to this, the exiled GM may as well resign right now. And this would further validate my belief that Nique didn't mind one bit what Gearon did. And he may also still be tight with Gearon, which is what I suspected all along. How about this. Instead of acting like a national reporter with sources all over the country, is just making this all up ... what does this mean if he's exactly right? Seeing how the exiled GM only was required to report to Levenson, and how Gearon felt that his input was dimished, is it out of the realm of possibility that Nique's input was diminished as well?

Really? How so?

No you couldn't. Because those 3 extra players would have to be playing alongside an All-Star talent. Millsap, Teague and Korver are the 3 player equivalent of Melo's salary. And they were easily a sub .500 team as the best 3 players on the Hawks ( without Horford ).

And yet, I'd trade Horford and Teague in a heartbeat, to bring Melo here. Just understand that with the rest of the league, a star needs high quality help. Asking Melo to win anything with guys like JR Smith as the 2nd best player on the team, is completely unfair to Melo.

LOL ... now that's true.

I was there from 1991 - 95. The university itself ( to my knowledge ) wasn't doing that. From what I can remember about Thompson-Bowling Arena, independent vendors used to sell merchandise at tables around the concourse of the arena. The stuff I saw was all UT merchandise. But we all know that Kentucky travels well, and for those early 90s games in Knoxville, 1/2 of the arena would be Blue. So if you saw vendors selling UK stuff during that era, it would be hard for me to doubt that, even if I didn't see it.

Man please. As an Advertising major from UT, I know for a fact that we were taught the basics of Marketing and how to use a wide array of media, focus groups, and concrete data to formulate an effective ad campaign and/or marketing strategy .. including proper branding of your business/product/company. I don't know if he's still there, but Dr. Haley taught us well in the 90s. LOL @ selling Alabama gear at the UT Campus Bookstore ... or saying that they needed less hip hop at UT games ... when the student body goes absolutely crazy when Lil Jon's "Turn Down For What" comes on. No no no ... Our football team may be struggling, but we know the basics of Marketing.

He'd have to throw in the 1994 version of her ... then I'd make a deal http://i.imgbox.com/adq2pcv6.jpg Not the 2014 version though. Something has happened to her over the years.

In a city that has so many professional women, I don't understand why they don't try to have a night ( or even a ticket package ) that targets exclusively that demographic for certain games. A lot of those women make 5 and 6 figures around metro Atlanta. And they have disposable income everywhere. And the front office is too worried about another demographic that, for the most part, is apathetic not only toward the NBA, but toward the Hawks as well. Target those women, and maybe they'll bring their kids and/or girlfriends to the game. It's just a fail on all levels. I'd love to see the makeup of their marketing team, and what they do to target people around Atlanta. I've gotten a few calls myself from ticket reps telling me about upcoming games. No offense to my fellow man, but if you want to sell something to a man, how about getting a female with a real sexy and soothing voice to try to sell it to me? I may be quick to hang up on "Zack" trying to sell me tickets . . . but I might listen to "April" with a sexy voice and an enthusiastic attitude.

The crazy thing is this. Even if they didn't do one single thing to encourage fans to go to the marquee games, they'd still go to those games. I understand the mentality behind it. I just think it's ass-backwards. The question for the Hawks should be ... how do you increase attendance for non-marquee games? How about a "Family Package" of games, in which you can see the Hawks play "decent" competition at a reduced price. To me, those are the best type of Hawks games to attend anyway.

Vogel should definitely not be in the top 10.

This should also let everyone know what the marketing dept. and the front office REALLY think about this team. If the team can't sell itself, then how appealing is the team to the fan base? 28th in attendance last year. The hard core fans supposedly love this team and their team ball makeup. The soft core and casual fans could care less, and frequently bypass seeing them at Philips.

I almost said .. trade them for Blake Griffin, but that may have been too easy to make a decision on. So I'll stick with Westbrook.