TheNorthCydeRises

Slight edge goes to Al . . simply because he's the only legit guy who we have that can play the center position. When Smith is playing at a high level, there is no one on the team more valuable than Smith . . including JJ. But Smith's "feast or famine" type of play is what makes people uneasy about Smith. Al's consistently ( normally ) makes him the more important player. The playoff performance this year ( especially offensively as a PF ) is definitely one to be concerned about in regards to Al.

Smith has had a few games in which the stroke was really going from the outside and he looked really comfortable shooting the ball from about 20 feet out. Unfortunately, those games came few and far between. Like AHF, I would've loved if he were showing off an array of post moves. I mean, unless we're going to start asking JJ and Marvin to post up a lot more on the inside, either Josh or Al are going to have to start scoring a lot more in the paint. Why are all of our guys ( JJ, Josh, and Al ) allergic to playing more near the rim? ( sigh ) . . it is what it is though. I refuse to call Josh Smith "Smoove" anymore. I don't want him to be "Smoove" . . I want him to be "Smash". Embarrass and strike fear in your opponent by driving into the lane and dunking on them, not out-finesse them by shooting long jumpers in their face. He greatly diminishes his chance to become an All-Star in this league by continuing to try to be a finesse player.

This was on 2 weeks ago. I had caught maybe 15 minutes of this, but I didn't know he was on for an hour. If you want to hear the Owners/League side of the NBA compensation issue, click on this link. It's from the Bill Simmons ESPN podcast. They even talk about the Hawks for about one minute. http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=6856992

Melo is one of the best ISO players in the league with Amare being a very capable #2 option. He'd love Landry Fields and is already familiar with Chauncey Billups. It's a perfect fit for Woody. At least he'd play to the Knick's strengths as a team, instead of trying to run a system to get non effective offensive players involved in the offense.

I think it was because I didn't delete my cookies, like you suggested in the post. Once I did that, I was able to see the site. As far as the look of the site now, I actually like this look. But I do think the previous look was better. This is simply a cleaner look.

I was wondering why I couldn't access this site the other day. I actually think the previous site looked a little better, but this one functions way better. The text editing features are great and there are a lot of things that people can do here now, once they explore all of the options. If the overall look of the previous site was an 8, this look is a 7 ( it's a much cleaner look, but maybe not as colorful as people would like ). But the functionality of this is a 9. We're fortunate as fans to have you put so much work into this every year or two. A lot of fan boards are nowhere near this quality. Props to you on this.

Let me correct something right off the bat. I got my National TV numbers wrong for the Hawks. I counted both ESPN/TNT/ABC games for the Clippers + games on NBATV. I didn't count the NBATV games for the Hawks. So actually, the number is Clippers 20 - Hawks 12. The networks could've cared less about the Clippers ( despite the huge L.A. population ) until they got a box office attraction that people would want to see live and on TV. Blake Griffin. And yes, Griffin is a bigger "star" than anybody on the Atlanta Hawks. The game the Clippers played on Feb 4th in Atlanta proved that. Crowd was listed at 19,363 . . on a Friday night . . for a Clipper team that was 19 - 29 at the time. He's basically the Clippers version of Dominique. Believe it or not, that game was the 3rd most attended weekend game for the Hawks last year, only behind the March home games vs Miami and Boston. That game drew more fans than weekend games vs the Hornets ( with Chris Paul ), the Knicks ( with Amare Stoudemire ), and the Thunder ( with Kevin Durant ). Shoot . . a Sunday evening game vs the Suns back in November ( when the Hawks were 6 - 1 and had the best record in the league ), only drew 13,000 people. That L.A. population was still there before Blake got there, yet, the networks had little desire to put the Clippers on TV. Even when the Clippers were a playoff level team 5 or 6 years ago with Elton Brand - Sam Cassel - Corey Magettee as their 3 stars, the Clippers still weren't featured on national TV much at all. And this after that team had won 47 games, beat Denver in the 1st round, and was a Game 7 win away from beating the Suns to reach the Western Conference Finals. Why? Because Elton Brand and Sam Cassell as your two main stars didn't "move the needle" to the average NBA fan, and definitely didn't to the TV execs that want to put on games nationally. But those same TV execs are willing to put the Clippers on 20 times next year, despite them not making the playoffs or even being an above .500 team. Why? Blake Griffin. This is why the owners' demand for the players taking less than 50% of the revenue is ridiculous. This league has been marketed since the arrival of Magic and Bird around stars, and preferably superstars. And this is exactly what the fans come out to see. Basketball is not like football, in which being a good team will guarantee that fans will come out and support you in droves. Heck, our fan base proves that ( with our 22nd in total home attendance number in 2011 ). In this league, unfortunately, you need star players to get fans to consistently come out . . or you need to be good enough to let them THINK that you can win a championship. And this belief also permeates to the network execs that put these games on. If the owners have their way, the NEW NBA will be a league in which star and superstar players will still get paid top dollar. But because of the reduced cap number, those mid-level type players are going to either have to take drastic pay cuts, or get squeezed out altogether. What the Miami Heat are today, may be exactly what the NBA looks like in the future. And if you're a franchise who can't secure those two or three top level players, you're still going to be left behind.

Great post Diesel. JJ is the one that teams fear the most. They don't even gameplan to stop Smith or Horford. It's JJ and then Jamal. Having the ability to create and make your own shot on the NBA level is arguably the most important thing that separates role players from stars and superstars. And people talk like shooting 45% on floaters is easy to do in this league. Most of the league isn't even creative enough to get into the lane to shoot a floater in the first place, let alone make them at a 45% clip. But you're right Diesel. Until Smith or Horford have a "target" put on their back, with opponents doing everything possible to sto them, JJ will be the most important element on this team.

Legree is convinced that Horford and Smith are the Hawks 2 best players. The problem though, is that neither guy has the ability to be even a medium volume scorer ( especiallly in the playoffs ) on his own. people are simply in denial about the importance of JJ on the team. If he is the 3rd best player on the squad, why don't the other guys step up to take the #1 role more often? Why does a 6 - 15 fg performance from JJ almost guarantee a loss, if he's simply the 3rd best player? Heck . . if we can't get close to a repeat in the playoffs from Teague, even Jamal isn't expendible. When Horford or Smith can prove that they can be even a part-time go to scorer, that's when people can talk about if the Hawks can do without JJ ( even at that elevated price ) or even do without Jamal. It's funny that the 2 guys people think we can do without, were the two guys ( when they balled ) almost guaranteed a win during the playoffs. Hopefully Teague will step up enough so that Jamal won't be missed. If he doesn't, people will be crying for Jamal back.

Hawks losses in the 2011 playoffs - 6 points in Game 2 ( ORL ) - 25 points in Game 5 ( ORL ) - 13 points in Game 2 ( CHI ) - 17 points in Game 3 ( CHI ) - 12 points in Game 5 ( CHI ) - 20 points in Game 6 ( CHI ) Average margin of losses in the 2011 playoffs: 15.5 points So is that really a coaching problem that we lost like that in the playoffs . . . or a personnel problem? I guess the fact that we're "only" losing by 15 ppg is better than us losing by 20+ ppg? Instead of getting destroyed by 30+ points in a few games, we only get destroyed by 20+ points in a few games. Progress, I guess. Even when we were getting destroyed during the regular season, you can't put those losses solely on Drew. One of the things that kills this team is that when we start going south, we can't get easy buckets or points at the FT line. As solid as Smith and Horford are, we just can't throw the ball to them down on the block and see them score at the rim or draw a foul. As solid as JJ is, he's still going to rely on the floater when he drives to the hole, rather than going hard to the rim looking to draw contact. Same with Jamal. As for the Milwaukee - Atlanta series, we all know that whatever went down before Game 3 of that series ( including Josh Smith's comments, which lit a fire under Milwaukee ), had a factor in that series. They simply outplayed us in Milwaukee, despite not having Bogut. Then when we came home, our backcourt ( JJ and especially Jamal ) sold us out. It wasn't until we took control of that game defensively in Game 6, that we regained complete control of the series. That's why I'm not going to totally villify Drew as a coach. It's also the reason why I didn't totally villify Woody as a coach either. Both, in my eyes, are C level type coaches with B- level talent ( as a whole ). I just can't prop up Drew over Woody, seeing that the major difference in our 2nd round wins vs Chicago, was JJ finally playing like an All-Star in that round, instead of a guy that played like he didn't belong on that level. The Hawks are just too flawed as a team, until we get the right pieces in here to compliment what our stars don't give us.

A hard cap would destroy the Atlanta Hawks. We have a gross history of not drafting well at all, along with a history of top name free agents not wanting to play here, even when we have a ton of cap space. Neither Bibby nor Jamal would've been able to be acquired, if the Hawks were operating under a "hard cap" . . unless that hard cap is set at where the current Luxury Tax is set, which wouldn't make much sense to do. If the owners wanted to do something dramatic, and set a hard cap at 55 million, that would destroy the Hawks.

I've long said that Joe Johnson was the 21st century version of Mitch Richmond. Others like to say Michael Finley, although I don't think the comparison fits, seeing that his game is more athletic. But JJ and Mitch? Their games are eerily similar with the exception of Mitch being able to get to the FT line about 6 times a game, compared with JJ getting to the line a little less than 4 times a game. For those of you worried about JJ's age being a detriment in the future, Mitch had one of his best years as a pro at age 31, averaging 24 ppg while shooting 45% from the field and 43% from 3 point range. Matter of fact, 3 of his best years as a pro came at ages 30, 31, and 32. For JJ to continue to play at a high level as a player, he'll probably need to become a more deadly 3 point shooter, like what we saw in the playoffs . . along with him developing a way to draw more fouls. If the future for him is transitioning to play more SF than SG, maybe the FTA per game will go up. His numbers do show that this maybe can be achieved if he played more SF. In the 2010 - 11 season, JJ attempted 6.1 FTs per 48 minutes. That's about 4.5 FTs per game if he got 36 minutes. That's still a little under where you'd like him to be. You'd like him to be around 6 FTA. But it's a lot better than the dismal 3.2 FTA per 48 minutes that he averaged while playing SG . . which comes out to a pitiful 2.4 FTA per game. That's pretty much unacceptable for the amount of times he handles the ball. Mitch was better than JJ. Anybody whose watched both players play would agree. What JJ can take from Mitch, is to stay in ATTACK MODE . . whether it be driving the basketball, or just shooting the open jumper. I want Josh Smith to play more like Shawn Kemp . . . and I want JJ to play more like Mitch Richmond.

Damn . . . I totally overlooked Haslem and Okur. Those would've been much better picks than Jermaine O'Neal and Jason Collins because both are decent defensively and aren't complete liabilities on offense. PG: Miller - Davis G: T. Evans - OJ Mayo - Stevenson F: Gallanari - Carter PF: Griffin - R. Evans - Gibson C: Bargnani - Haslem - Okur . . Jer. O'Neal - Jas. Collins On that squad, I probably would've started Haslem or Okur over Bargnani, opting to bring him off the bench. That would've been a very nice balanced team had I had on my thinking cap. Great picks by Supporter and Capstone

Just keep it real with the comparisons Had the Hawks had a 7-7 guy that they could throw at Dwight Howard, and moved Horford to PF and Smith to SF . . . maybe the 2010 Hawks would've given the Magic a better series. And I know people around here think Josh Smith and Al Horford are a great tandem ( they're a good tandem ) . . but they weren't better than a young Chris Webber and Juwan Howard back in the day. They just aren't. Webber and Howard ( especially offensively ), were far superior players to Smith and Horford. And they rebounded the basketball just as well. Had Webber not fouled out in Game 3 of that Bulls - Washington series, they beat the Bulls in that game. But Chicago had a superstar that saved them.

Silly comparison AHF. All of those comparisons show is that the NBA is a game of MATCHUPS . . . and not necessarily seeding. That same Washington team was responsible for one of the Bulls regular season losses, and had played them tough throughout that entire season. They had 3 legit guys who could score on that team ( Webber, Howard, and Strickland ) . . with a 4th guy who could score in Tracy Murray. Honestly AHF . . if you were to do a side by side comparison of that team vs the Hawks, you might be surprised at who had better talent. The 1996 Bullets . . or the 2010 Hawks PG: Bibby vs Strickland . . . edge Strickland ( better scoring and passing PG ) G: Johnson vs Chaney . . . edge Johnson F: Webber vs Marvin ( because Webber was the SF on that team ) . . . edge Webber PF: Howard vs Smith . . . Push ( Smith was the better defender, Howard the better scorer, especially in the low post ) C: Horford vs Muresan . . edge Horford ( but Muresean was 7-7 and took up a ton of space in the lane ) 6th man: Jamal vs Murray . . . edge Jamal ( Jamal is more dynamic and an electric scorer ) That Washington team talent wise, wasn't so far behind us. Actually, all they were was young as hell. But what they did was pose matchup problems for the Bulls, seeing that they had nobody that could guard Strickland, and Webber was a matchup problem on the other end, whether he played SF in the big lineup, or PF in the Howard - Webber - Murray frontline. But their "Big 3" of Webber - Howard - Strickland was no slouch. And some may say that they were better than our "Big 3" of Johnson - Smith - Horford. They were definitely better offensively. As for the 2009 - 10 Hawks, we could see that playoff beatdown coming if we didn't take Game 1, seeing that Orlando had constantly beat this team down for about 2 seasons prior to that playoff series. Orlando not only posed a matchup problem for us, they were completely in our heads. Even the game we won during the 09 - 10 regular season had more to do with them being ice cold from the outside, than us flat out beating them. But the big fact remains that Joe Johnson ( whether hurt or just flat out in a slump ), played like garbage during that Orlando series. He wasn't even close to his normal production, which killed us. This year, it was Orlando's shooters who were garbage, while JJ played close enough to his normal output to help get the job done. Even the Cleveland series, JJ just didn't get it done, and the other guys weren't good enough to compensate for JJ playing bad. People can say what they want about LD's coaching in the playoffs this year. The fact is that JJ came up HUGE in Game 1 ( on the road ) in both of those playoff series this year. Huge as in SUPERSTAR huge. Had he sustained that level of play throughout the series, it would've been enough to take down both Orlando and Chicago. His play had nothing to do with Drew's coaching. Just like him sucking in the previous two 2nd round matchups had nothing to do with Woody's coaching. In the NBA, when stars step up, the team usually have a good shot to win. If Drew would've made some great strategical move in both of those playoff series, then that's one thing. We had already proven during the regular season that we may have overcome our problems with Orlando ( with their new personnel playing like garbage not helping their cause one bit ). So when the playoffs came around, they didn't have the same psychological edge that they had in the previous season. JJ and Jamal step up huge in Game 1 . . Hawks win JJ, Josh, Al, and Teague step up huge in Game 4 . . . Hawks win In the 4 losses to the Bulls . . . the Hawks lose by an average of 15.5 ppg And fans are supposed to act like LD did such a superior job of coaching in the 2nd round over Woody? Nah . . . the players finally did what they're supposed to do in the playoffs . . . STEP UP. The Game 6 loss to Chicago had nothing to do with Drew. That was all on the players. Just like the Game 1 win had nothing to do with Drew.

I think it's hilarious that in the picture in that column that JJ is on ( playing Sacramento ) . . . he played 41 minutes that game. Then he played 45 minutes the next game in an OT game vs Miami. Then only logged 30 minutes in that New Orleans beatdown we took right after the Miami win. That's what I'm talking about. In the normal course of a game, JJ was still logging close to 40 minutes per game. If a game was close, JJ was getting major minutes. If we were winning by a larger margin or getting the brakes beat off of us, JJ got his rest. It just so happened that the 2009 - 10 Hawks didn't suffer a lot of regular season beatdowns, so JJ played a lot more minutes. And in that 2009 - 10 season, the reason why games stayed closer, was because the bench would routinely blow leads that the starters made, forcing Woody to bring his main guys back in. In 2010 - 11, the entire squad may have played bad, making it no need to put the starters back in the game because the game was already over. Drew said a lot of things last year that he didn't necessarily follow up on. When push came to shove, he played JJ major minutes to win games.

The bottom line is that those two 2nd round victories had very little to do with coaching, and more to do with tremendous shotmaking by JJ. Drew didn't make some great tactical decision in those games that won it for us. IF he did, I'll gladly give him credit for it. NO . . . those games were won because of JJ, Jamal, and Teague in Game 1 . . and JJ, Smith, and Horford in Game 4. LOL . . so the 10 full games that he missed due to injury didn't aid in him being fresh? How about the fact that this team would routinely get blown out ( especially after Jan 1st )? Did that lead to JJ's reduced minutes too? You act like Drew had some sort of master plan to keep his minutes down. And insert who into the game to take his place? Mo Evans? Damien? It's not like Drew was giving Teague major run throughout the season. Jamal was essentially our backup PG on most nights, and JJ switched from playing SG to SF. The truth is that JJ was on track to easily play at least 37 - 38 minutes a night, if this team wouldn't have gotten routinely blown out during the season. I'm sure the 300 minutes less he played during the regular season did help him be more fresh during the playoffs. But to credit Drew for that reduction of minutes, isn't looking at the real reasons why he played less minutes.

My choice is arguably the best rebounder in the league. He is a teammate of Bargnani and did most of the dirty work on the boards and defensively on the inside for them.REGGIE EVANSThis moves give us 2 top 5 caliber rebounders in the league, in he and Blake Griffin. Honestly, he's more of the type of player that we need on the inside, than guys like Bargnani and Gibson. We may even throw a small lineup at people, and go with a grouping like this- Miller- Evans- Carter- Griffin- EvansI feel better about our team now. We have enough niche players and scorers to be one of the top 8 teams in "this" league.Mr. Supporter . . . you are on the clock.

You give Woody Kirk Hinrich for the last third of the year, and I guarantee that this team doesn't finish 8 - 14 in their last 22 games.

OFFENSIVE RATING 2010: 111.9 ( 2nd in the league ) 2011: 106.1 ( 20th in the league ) DEFENSIVE RATING 2010: 106.7 ( 13th in the league ) 2011: 107.0 ( 13th in the league ) So the numbers are lying that much to say that Woody didn't have this team running a better offensive AND defensive system, than LD did? The offense much better suited the abilities of our players last year, and the defense didn't change much at all, even though LD had a defensive upgrade at PG for the last third of the season. So two 2nd round playoff wins . . . wins that occurred because JJ finally stepped up to play like an all-star player in the 2nd round . . . negates all of the bad that happened during the season? Sorry guys . . not buying it. The so-called horrible offense we had here last year saw JJ make 3rd team All-NBA . . Jamal win the 6th man of the year . . Horford become an All-Star ( although he had a better year this year ) . . and Smith shoot a CAREER HIGH 50.5% FG with only 7 three point attempts. But this year, everyone regresses . . . EVERYONE . . with the exception of Horford? There's no way you can give a coach who saw his team regress from the previous season and post their first sub .500 months in 3 YEARS, a B- . . . but see a coach who won 53 games ( 5th best all time in franchise history ) a D. Honestly, one of the things that killed us in that Orlando series in 2010, is that JJ and Jamal flat out missed wide open jumpshots, and couldn't make the shots they normally make. In 2011, the reverse happened. On the flip side, the Orlando shooters, while challenged better on the outside by our guys, flat out missed open jumpers themselves. And I don't know what great adjustment LD made in the Chicago series, other than lucking up having Teague finally play to his potential. I don't want to drag Drew through the mud, but he's not the better coach. The one thing Orlando complained about all throughout the 2011 series, is that they couldn't handle our guards in isolation. It wasn't some elaborate offense we were running. Drew simply gave the ball to his main scorers, and they delivered. Those same scorers didn't deliver in 2010.

I'll check back on this thread later on tonight. I got my pick ready. Whenever you guys give me the OK to go, I'll be ready.

Exactly. Who are the knuckleheads? People around the league ( media wise ) must really love LD. All he did was continue what Woody did here, with the exception of installing a new offense ( that actually made us a little more inefficient offensively ). LD deserves a C at the highest. This team was in a straight freefall from early Feb. to the start of the playoffs. He was even questioning if his players could "turn it on". Luckily for him, they did. And the PG who barely played stepped up big time , even though had Hinrich been healthy, coach would've had him buried on the bench. There's no way you can put Drew over a guy like Scott Brooks. None.

Doesn't work? Maybe not for you, but for most NBA fans, it definitely works. And there is a difference between being a fan of your particular team, and being a fan of the league itself. Of course a fan of a particular team will watch his team before another team. But if he's not a season ticket holder, what will compel him to actually go to a game live to see his team? If what you say is true, the average NBA fan would have no problem watching his/her team play the Washington Wizards or the LA Lakers. Unfortunately, for the average NBA fan, who their team play DOES MATTER. It's the reason why these NBA teams have started to do practice variable ticket pricing. The ASG knows that fans won't be compelled to see the Hawks play New Jersey on a Saturday night than they would the Mavericks on that same night. So they'll lower the price for the Nets game, and raise it for the Mavs game. http://espn.go.com/nba/attendance/_/sort/awayAvg When you click on that link, you see exactly what I'm talking about. Top 10 in road attendance: 1) Heat . . . Lebron, Wade 2) Lakers . . . Kobe 3) Celtics . . . Pierce, Garnett, Allen, Rondo 4) Bulls . . . Rose 5) Knicks . . . Amare, Melo 6) Thunder . . . Durant 7) Clippers . . . Blake Griffin 8] Suns . . . Nash 9) Magic . . . Howard 10) Kings . . . the true surprise on this list 19) Hawks Last year, the Cavs were the #2 road draw in the league, behind the Lakers. This year, they're dead last. The LeBron effect. That link has the NBA attendance numbers since 2001. And you can see the "star effect" in each of those years 2001 . . . Lakers with Kobe and Shaq are the undisputed top draw in the league. Sixers with Iverson are 2nd. Kings with Webber, Bibby and the gang are 3rd 2002 . . . Washington Wizards are the #2 draw in the league. Why? The return of Jordan, of course. 2003 . . . Washington overtakes the Lakers as the top draw in the league. 2004 . . . LOL . . Jordan retires again, and the Wiz drop all the way down to 28th. Meanwhile, the birth of "King James" sees the Cavs move from 27th in 2003, to 2nd in 2004. Miami is 20th 2005 . . . LA and MIA make the Shaq trade, which instantly moves the Heat to #1. Lakers are still #2. Cavs #3. And the Rockets with the emergence of Yao Ming are #4 2006 . . . Top 5 is predictable . . Heat, Lakers, Cavs, Pistons, and Sixers ( who still have Iverson at the time ) 2007 . . . Heat, Cavs, Lakers hold down the top 3 spots. The Iverson trade sends Denver from 10th to 6th. Celtics are 15th. T-Wolves with KG are 10th ( despite being terrible ) 2008 . . . The KG and Ray Allen acquisitions vault the Celtics to the #1 draw on the road. Lakers are 2nd. Nuggets with Melo and AI are 3rd. T-Wolves plummet all the way down to 25th 2009 . . . Nuggets lose Iverson, and drop from #3 all the way down to #17. Lakers, Celtics, and Cavs are the top 3 road draws. ( Notice how the Lakers stay in the top 5, because they still have Kobe ). 2010 . . . Top 3 are still Lakers, Cavs, Celtics. Clippers are 29th 2011 . . . Lebron move puts the Heat at #1 and drops the Cavs to last. Rise of Blake Griffin vaults the Clippers to 7th. Durant's rising star elevates OKC to 6th. The anomaly are the Mavs, who despite winning 57 games, only ranked 26th in road attendance ( partly because people until now didn't respect Dirk as a superstar ). Look for the Mavs to be a top 7 draw next year though.

Horford by the numbers: PF versus C POWER FORWARD +35 plus/minus number, but lineup with him at PF was only 31 - 32 ( 49% ) Offensive rating: 91.4 Defensive rating: 89.6 48 minute production 21.2 pts 11.5 rebs 4.8 asst eFG% - 54.2 PER - 19.6 Opponent 48 minute production 18.3 pts 10.4 rebs 2.4 asst eFG% - 46.4 PER - 13.1 CENTER Only a +11 plus/minus number ( due to those regular season blowouts ), but lineup was 41 - 33 when he played center ( 55% ) Offensive rating: 97.6 Defensive rating: 97.3 48 minute production 20.8 pts 13.4 rebs 4.6 asst eFG% - 56.8 PER - 23.4 Opponent 48 minute production 18.6 pts 13.2 rebs 2.3 asst eFG% - 50.3 PER - 17.7 ***************************************** Horford's offensive numbers at center was top 3 in the league, only behind Dwight Howard and Amare Stoudemire. At PF, even Josh Smith's numbers at PF was slightly better than Horford's. Horford's defensive numbers at power forward are very good. Top 5 good last year. His defensive numbers at center were mediocre at best. So offensively, he's better off at Center, where he can use his speed and his outside shooting ability to get easier attempts on offense. And while he's no slouch at PF ( unless it's the playoffs ), his offense is still better at center. Defensively, he's by far better playing Power Forward. He's big and fast enough to handle most PFs in the league, while he has trouble with the post scoring bigger centers. Everybody probably knew this, but the stats back it up.

2011 - 12 Hawks schedule at a glance Back to backs: 20 4 games in 5 nights: 3 Longest stretch of consecutive home games: 4 games Longest stretch of home games in a month: 7 out of 9 ( Dec 14 - Dec 30 ) Longest stretch of consecutive road games: 6 Longest stretch of road games in a month: 10 out of 13 ( March 2 - March 26 ) Toughest month ( in my opinion ): November . . . 9 of the 13 games that month are against 2011 playoff teams, which includes the world champion Mavericks, and the top 4 teams in the East ( Miami, Chicago, Boston, Orlando )