TheNorthCydeRises

Ability wise? Well for one, and it's the biggest one, Karl Malone could dominate people in the post, even if they were much bigger than him. He also played in an era in which they basically allowed defenders to put a "chicken wing" in your back, to either hold position or to literally steer an offensive player whatever way you wanted him to go . . . and he still dominated. Malone's post game was light years ahead of Horford's right now. If Horford could score and draw fouls in the post even remotely like Karl Malone could, we might be still playing in the playoffs right now. Horford's post game is easily the weakest part of his game. And his inability to draw fouls keeps him from becoming a true go to scorer. Stockton got tons of assists credited to him because after he delivered a simple post pass to Malone, Karl could then immediately do a move or two, and score the basket without taking a lot of dribbles. Horford doesn't even have a reliable go to post move. His jump hook is simply OK, and not something he can rely on. Karl could get you in the post, and straight power through you. The dude was unstoppable at times, like in this game, 3 years later . . . at age 36 And the dude was virtually indestructible Keep in mind, these are PLAYOFF games that I'm posting, not regular season games. As for the David Lee comparison, he scores almost exactly like Horford does, via a plethora of midrange jumpers off the pick and roll, slow methodical post ups, and by receiving passes cutting to the basket . And Lee gets position a little better than Horford does for rebounds. I was at this damn game last December. It was easily the worst game I've ever seen the Hawks play live and in person. And Josh Smith just flat out laid down on us. I believe this was the game that kind of started the fans turning on Josh. But check out David Lee, and the way he played in this game. He's almost an Al Horford clone, minus the athleticism.

I could've sworn that we had a practice facility in the past. If we didn't, that just goes to show how much this ownership has cut corners. The ASG finally did something right last year, when they replaced the stats scoreboard with the big LED-like stat board on both ends. But that scoreboard is kind of outdated. I can't speak enough about the visual show that they put on in Memphis. They use their scoreboard and the advertising boards that separate each level in fantastic fashion. This is the type of visual atmosphere I want to see at Philips. Kiss Cam should not be the highlight of the fan experience, other than the game.

Karl Malone's 37 point game in the 1997 NBA Finals Al Horford's career high vs Utah last season The difference is that Malone could put up games like that much more frequently, than Horford could ever dream of. And the reason for that is because Malone was a triple threat PF. He could post you up and score. He could shoot the midrange jumper and score. And he can run the floor in transition and score. Al Horford is good. But to compare him to Malone is kind of crazy. Don't be comparing him to arguably the best PF of all time.

Honestly, a better comparison to Horford offensively, is David Lee. Comparing him to Karl Malone in any way, shape, or form, is almost blasphemy.

Oh wow. Somebody bookmark this post and bronze it. It may be the only time in Hawksquawk history that we'll see Diesel even remotely post a favorable post about Marvin, even if it was more of a diss on another guy.

I wouldn't be mad at that either. This draft should not be about filling a need. It should be about drafting a guy who has the potential to be better than guys who have been drafted before him. Despite being drafted #17, Josh Smith turned out to be one of the top 5 best players in the 2004 Draft, and will end up having a very nice NBA career. Those are the types of players we need to identify in this draft with those mid round picks. And I think both Muhammad ( if he falls to us ) and Tim Hardaway Jr can be those types of players. What I don't want to do is feel we have to draft somebody because they fill a position of need, and possibly pass on a guy with more talent.

I said a couple of weeks back that if he fell to us, we almost have to take him. His game may be a lot like Marvin's, with one exception . . . he did experience what it felt like to be the lead dog in an offense, while Marvin was a 6th man that never was the focus of an offense. And Muhammad's all around offensive game is more advanced than Marvin's was after his freshman year. At least Muhammad has a nice post up game to go along with his ability to knock down spot up jumpers. And drafting a talent similar to Marvin is far less detrimental at #17, than it was at #2. If at minimum we come out of this offseason with a backcourt of Teague and Jenkins, wth Muhammad at the SF as a starter or a 6th man, I can't complain too much about that.

LOL . . I was forced to root for Jamal Crawford. Please don't force me to root for Paul Pierce.

Where is that Captain Picard "facepalm" GIF when you need it?

And if other free agents who are still technically still under contract with the Hawks until July 1st are doing various things "Hawk related", why isn't Smith doing these same things?

Joe Johnson was on there when he was still a free agent back in 2010. They never took his pic off the site. Smith HAS to be gone, if you want a shot at Paul and Dwight. No other way around it. The thing is, if he isn't gone, will Smith accept a 2nd or even a 3rd option in the offense? If the answer to that question is NO, then you have to let him go regardless of who we bring in.

While I think it's highly unlikely that we'll land both Paul and Howard, I have no problem with the wallpaper on Hawksquawk. Honestly, when we traded JJ and Marvin to give us all of this potential cap space once free agency begins, THIS is what fans intended it to be used for. We only have 3 people under contract right now. So should the wallpaper consist of Horford, Jenkins, and Williams? Should Smith's face still be on anything Hawk related? Should Al Jefferson and OJ Mayo in Hawks uniforms replace Howard and Paul? This is a fan website, so the administrator can do whatever he wants. I think it gives a great touch to the site, and gives fans at least a little glimmer of hope for the next month or two, even if we all deep down don't believe that it will happen. Seeing Paul and Howard on the wallpaper doesn't get my hopes up any further than what they were 2 months ago. But even I have to admit that they'd look DAMN GOOD in Red, White, and Blue. If we land those two, we're stealing the Braves "America's Team" slogan, and daring them to take it from us.

What made those Bulls teams so great in the early years, is that you had Michael and Scottie who could literally guard 3, sometimes even 4 positions, and guard them very well. The other thing was that they were always 2 of the top 5 all around offensive players in the game. I honestly HATED Scottie Pippen. And when people try to say that he was better than Nique, I'd always try to talk people down. But the truth was that Scottie was a GREAT talent. In his era, the only guys who were better all around players . . were Clyde Drexler, and Scottie's teammate, Michael Jordan. Scottie was actually the PG of the team, while also being able to put the ball on the floor and score, or hit the midrange jumper. The season Scottie had in 1993 - 94 when Michael left ( 22 ppg - 8.7 rebs - 5.6 asst - 2.9 stls ) was so good, that only 2 other players in history had that type of season . . . . Larry Bird . . and Scottie's Teammate, Michael Jordan. When you talk about Jordan vs Lebron, the 2 major differences in them are 1) their ability to absolutely WILL his team to a victory, and 2) the midrange jumper. People say that the long 2 is "effectively" the worst shot in the game. The thing is, when you master that shot like Jordan did, and can make 45% and higher on your midrange shots, you become almost unguardable. Lebron is almost at that level on his midrange jumper. But he still doesn't trust it enough to take that shot anytime he wants it. Jordan would absolutely take your heart out with a pull up 18 foot jumper in your face. That's why people dogged Lebron out for passing to a wide open Chris Bosh for a 3 pointer. Jordan would've NEVER passed that ball to him. Maybe if it was Ray Allen out there, yes . . . but not to Chris Bosh. It doesn't matter that Bosh had been shooting the 3 very well in the playoffs, he doesn't get the ball in that situation. (( NOTE: Bosh's new found success shooting 3 pointers has seem to cause a tremendous dip in his midrange shooting. Because he's always going to be a player that takes more midrange jumpers than 3s, this is actually causing him to be less of a factor in these games. Regardless of how well he is shooting the 3 in wide open situations, he needs to go back to his strengths as a player. Remember this, when you start thinking about taking more 3's with Smith possibly gone . . AL HORFORD )) When Lebron broke open in the clear, Jordan would've stopped and took that wide open 12 foot jumper that Lebron had. Kobe would've taken that shot. Hell, even John Jenkins takes that shot. Lebron trusting Bosh to make a wide open 3 in that situation, when his team needed a score . . . is like Ice-T in New Jack City trusting Chris Rock ( Pookie ) to come through for him in a project building full of crack.

Without a big man AND a point guard.The best big man he played with was Horace Grant and the best PG he ever played with was actually a broken down 2 guard in Ron Harper.He prevented 1st ballot Hall of Fame guys from getting a ring.If Lebron can't beat the Spurs, thar will be his 3rd Finals lost, and a major negative mark on his legacy.Instead of Montana, Lebron is on track to be Elway ..... a guy with a ton of talent, but not good enough to beat the greats.

T-Mac's one shining moment as a Hawk, was his 2nd quarter "explosion" vs the Celtics. Then he could do no more, because his fragile body broke down. LOL @ him still holding grudges against the Hawks. Not our fault that his knees are made up of the same stuff they make gummi bears out of. As for the "Using Lies as Alibis", nice En Vogue reference. Speaking of them . . . for your viewing pleasure. They don't make music . . or girl groups, like this anymore. Damn.

Jenkins had the same ws /48 number as JJ Redick and Jason Terry..Honestly, Jenkins should've been the starter last season.

(( hitting buzzer )) Is it . . . . "Marrietta"? Edit: I see i was slow on the buzzer.

I've always believed that people around here loved and watched the Hawks without hesitation . . . but they didn't watch the rest of the league. You can see it in some of the comments they have about good players, that they really don't follow the rest of the NBA all that closely. A lot of fans are like that though. Parker's play down the stretch of that game was MVP worth. I thought he was a borderline Hall of Fame guy that would eventually get in, but if they can beat the Heat in this series, and he wins an MVP award while doing it, he'll almost be a 1st ballot lock for the Hall of Fame. That would be 4 titles for him, and 2 Finals MVP awards.

Oh Lord

LMAO @ Cal Bowdler . . . wow. Who else is working for the Hawks that we don't know about? Hanno Mottola? Ed Gray?

Exactly. I mean, this is a franchise destiny changing move, if we were to land Howard and Paul. So I'm doing everything possible to bring those two in. None of the guys in the middle of 1st round are projected to be stars. Even the former possible #1 pick, Shabazz Muhammad, is freefalling so fast, that he may even fall out of the 1st round altogether. This time last year, he was dang near the consensus #1 player. So ima sacrifice the chance to get Paul and Howard, simply because I don't want to pay them however much money I can to secure that they'll come together? Sacrifice them, because I value 2 mid 1st round draft picks, and a good, but undersized 2 guard? Nah. Hell nah.

So if Lou was ( +8 ) playing with Horford - Smith - Korver - Teague for 16 minutes ( -6 ) playng with Horford - Ivan - Korver - Harris for 4 minutes ( -4 ) playing with Zaza - Smith - Tolliver - Teauge for 5 minutes And was a ( -2 ) for the game in 25 minutes . . . did Lou really help us? In Lou's W - L profile, he'd be credited with a loss, despite the 1st group playing well. The question is . . was the game won or lost, when Lou played with the other guys for those 9 minutes? Or did they end up posting a +8, when they were already down in the game, and were simply trying to fight back? That's why a player's overall W - L profile can matter. You can have the last word on this if you want, from a "Lou Williams is important" standpoint.

Great drop. The modern day athlete ( that is serious about his body ), trains year-round, and has all the top technology at their fingertips. The question is . . are the Hawks paying for all of this, or is Jenkins doing all of this on his own. If he's doing this on his own, that's impressive.

They aren't going to say ok we aren't teaming up because of not being able to get an extra 2 million or so per season that we'd get from moving Lou for cap space. Dol . . . that's EXACTLY what they're going to say. They'd already be giving up around 30 million in that 5th year salary by coming to Atlanta. So if they asked for as close to the Max as possible, you're going to ask them to give up another 8 - 10 million on a 4 year deal, just because we want to keep around Lou Williams? Nah . . . you don't even play around like that. Neither Lou, nor the mid 1st round picks, are worth not giving Paul and Howard exactly what they want. You get those stars in here, then build from there. Lou Williams isn't winning a title in ATL without Howard or Paul. But I bet Howard and Paul can win one without Lou Williams. LOL . . . so we're going to pass on giving Howard and Paul all the money we can give them, because we want to keep around Lou Williams, and have the privilege to sign Mason Plumlee and Jamal Franklin? That's not even clear thinking man. Every other team vying for the services of Dwight will literally sell their soul to get him. So we better be willing to do the same thing, if not more, to get both Dwight and Chris.

It's not disrespectful . . . it's reality. The overall W - L record for a player is calculated for what you did for the entire game. The fact is that Lou can play well with some people. But if you're looking at his overall effectiveness for an entire game, it tells a different story. Flip Murray in the 2nd half of the 2009 season was basically doing the exact same thing that Lou was giving us. So why hype up Lou like he's some irreplaceable type of player? Tyronn Lue did it. Flip did it. Jamal did it. And Lou simply did what they did. Nate can do what Jamal and Lou does. And the same applies to Nate, that his effectiveness would be much higher, had he played with better people. And Nate's situation is like Lou's in Philly, in that Nate was really the only guy who can create his own shot at times. That "3rd string PG" had to be the #1 option scorer many times last season. And Nate definitely played with far less offensive talent around him in Chicago, than Lou played around in Atlanta. That's not even a debate. But to act like the Hawks couldn't survive without Lou . . come on now. OJ Mayo and Jarrett Jack can come right in and do what Lou did.