TheNorthCydeRises

So let's see . . . in the past 7 days . . - Killer tornadoes sweep through the Southeast - Flood waters taking over the Midwest - Navy SEALS kill Bin Laden - Memphis and Atlanta not only win their 1st round matchup against their arch rivals, but turn right around and win Game 1 of the 2nd Round on the road. - JJ pulls a Kanye West AND GOES HAM - and MVP gives JJ props, after years of trashing the dude like he's Royal Ivey I guess the world IS about to end. Just let it hold off untip July. Let's see how far the Hawks can go, before everything goes to heck.

With all due respect to Drew, Woody NEVER got a superstar performance out of JJ in the 2nd round. And who knows how this game turns out, had Hinrich been healthy and Teague not gotten all of those minutes. But technically, Drew won a 1st round game, and Woody didn't. So I guess no matter what the circumstances were, he did something Woody never did.

A . . the problem is that altough Jamal has the ability to do it, he doesn't do it. You can't give credit to people for having the ability to do something, if he doesn't use that ability. The difference between Jamal and Derrick, is that Derrick will go relentlessly to the hole when his shot isn't falling . . while Jamal will continue to take the same types of shots that he's currently missing. That makes Derrick the better scorer over Jamal. Now if you want to say that Jamal has the better jumper, then OK. But he's not the better scorer. An ice cod Jamal will shoot you right out of the game. An ice cold Derrick will still get his points at the FT line, to offset the cold shooting.

Maybe Teague is the better defensive matchup on Rose anyway. When you look at the fact that Hinrich played great in the 1st meeting vs the Bulls, then got torched in the next 2 meetings, maybe Teague is the guy that should've been getting more time against Rose in the first place. That's not to say that we won't miss Hinrich's defense, because we will. But Teague has a golden opportunity now. Step up and play big, and you will be the PG for the Atlanta Hawks for years to come. Play horrible, and you may only last one more year in ATL. If he's a baller, Teague will seize the opportunity.

Start Teague and initially play him like you would Royal Ivey. 6 - 7 minutes in the 1st and 3rd quarters. If he makes an impact, you give him bonus minutes during the 2nd and possibly the 4th quarters. This is Teague's chance to prove his worth. If LD doesn't play him now, it's either because he hates the kid, or has no confidence whatsoever in his ability to even contribute. I've thought all year that there was something extra going on with Drew and Teague. Now Drew seemingly HAS to play Teague. So you play Teague with the safest group you could put around him . . the group of JJ - Marvin - Smith - and Horford.

How was Josh more disappointing than Horford, who despite playing PF for the vast majority of the series, couldn't even take advantage of Brandon Bass and shot 40% FG . . well below what he did during the regular season.

Don't some of you dare bail out on the Hawks now. You play in the playoffs for this situation. We took the Home court, and held it last weekend. They still have to win a game on our floor, something they have done only 1 time in 4 tries this year. And as for the law of averages . . do you know that the Illusion ( I'm calling the Magic, the Illusion, from now on ) have only shot over 40% from 3 point range in ONE GAME vs the Hawks this year? ONE GAME . . last night. In the previous 8 games, that team has shot horribly from the outside, and we've won 5 out of 8 of those games. So which is the REAL MAGIC TEAM? The team that finally found their shot last night? OR the team that has been shooting bricks against us all season? Yeah . . the Hawks had their usual WTF type game. But this team has been bouncing back from those types of games all year. So until they can prove that they can do it again, I don't believe that the Illusion can get it done. The 1st round trend of the Hawks when faced with an elimination game on their home court, is to BLOW THE OTHER TEAM OUT. We did it to Miami in 09, and we did it to Milwaukee last year. Let's add the Illusion to that list.

If we're the "Atlanta Birdbrains" . . they're the "Orlando Illusion" . . because that team isn't magical, and they're not nearly as good as they think they are. (( bleep )) Orlando

I would love to blow this team out tonight, like they did us last year. Do to them exactly what Memphis did to San Antonio last night. I want to see Dwight on the bench with 5 minutes to go in the game, looking all sad, because the Magic are down 24 points and he knows the season is over . . as well as realizing how sorry his squad really is. Get that dude out of our division ( or better yet, out of our conference ) as soon as possible. We understand . . but we also understand the Hawks. No sense in giving the Magic any hope of life . . and no sense putting extra pressure on the Hawks to win a Game 6. Because if it goes 7, we probably don't win that game in Orlando. So while your suggestion was "cute", lol, the fans know better when you talk about this team. We looked to be cruising against Milwaukee, then the wheels just completely fell off. So let's end this tonight before we get a flat tire or something.

Excellent help defender Average perimeter defender Below average on the ball defender Above average off the ball defender Just to nitpick, the poll isn't symmetrical. You needed a 5th option "poor", to offset "excellent". But you did address the right categories to assess his defense. It's kind of hard to praise Smith's defense this year, seeing that he wasn't the same impactful player that he was last year on D. Less steals, less blocks, and he's had trouble holding people down this year. He's been decent in this series versus Turkoglu. But I have to give him low marks on his on the ball defense, because instead of keeping his man from scoring, he'll give the man room to drive so that he can go for the block shot. Instead of making the fundamental play, he wants to make the spectacular play. His mentality is that of a shot blocker, not as a lockdown defender. That's why he gets high marks as a help defender, and lower marks as a man defender.

LOL . . yeah. Sly and Drew should NOT be used in the same sentence. Nice thread though. Although that shoulder won't prevent him from rebounding, even if he does get less touches.

I don't live in Atlanta, and I'll be there. Team Jumpshot MUST WIN ALL OF THEIR HOME GAMES to win this series. No way we can win a Game 5 ( if we're down 3 - 1 ) or a Game 7 ( if the series is tied 3 - 3 ) in Orlando. Everything from a jacked up Orlando squad, to the refs, to the networks, to that leprechaun running the NBA, would be against us winning the series. Game 7 in Orlando is almost certain doom for the Hawks. So we need to hold serve at home, and win this thing in 6. If we somehow blow this series, the team may be shook up a little, which may make us better . . or worse. May as well see the Hawks while they're a playoff caliber team. Like with how just about everyone wanted Woody gone, people may get their wish about a few players leaving the Hawks. Be careful for what you wish for.

That's cool Crank. But like I said, it's not like Kirk had been playing well since he's been here. The entire "he who's name shall not be mentioned" craze was a result of Kirk's poor play. Had Kirk been playing halfway decent, people wouldn't have been freaking out about losing Jordan. Like I said . . I just want to see something similar to this on a consistent basis. If Kirk goes 2 - 8 for 5 pts . . and gets destroyed by Nelson in Game 2 . . what then? It's not too much to ask from a guy that we traded 2 draft picks for, to play consistent basketball at the point. If he does, I like our chances to take this series in 5 or 6 games. If not, this may go the distance. LOL . . I read the thread about Dol's "Possum Theory". I hope he's right, and these guys were just coasting, waiting for the playoffs to get here. LMAO @ that edit of "you know who's name". That's hilarious. Is that put in automatically everytime someone types his name, or did you edit that on the fly? That's hilarious.

OK . . I stand corrected then.

Dol . . Mike Bibby a few weeks ago was abusing him. Bibby drove to the hole at will on Kirk. Kirk overall hasn't meshed with the starting unit since he's come here. Why do you think the Teague bandwagon has grown so much over the past few weeks? I just need to see this more from Kirk. Not sporadically. I just don't know which is the "real Kirk Hinrich". The guy who played stellar defense on Rose for one game and then Nelson? Or the guy who let Mike Bibby, John Wall, and Darren Collison make him look like a backup PG. No way I'm going to act like Hinrich has played consistent basketball on the defensive end, because that would be a lie. His Per-48 mintue opponent counterpart numbers at PG while with us, were pretty horrible. So I need to see consistency from Kirk.

I'll give you a +1, because I think that's exactly what it is. He probably gets ragged on from his boys from losing to the "lowly Hawks". . as ESPN used to call us back in the day. Orlando had dominated us for 2+ years, so I'm sure he doesn't respect us at all. Add to the fact that when he was a teenager, the Hawks were sorry, and he probably never even rooted for the Hawks, despite us being the "hometown team". Not only does he not have our respect, he's probably always rooted against the Hawks.

I'm sorry . . but I need to see this consistently from Kirk. In my eyes, he's in the same light as Marvin right now. When Marvin has a great game, people want to believe that he can consistently play at that level, only to be disappointed in him regressing back to being non-existant. Honestly, this is the same reaction that most of us had after the Chicago win in early March, in which Kirk looked like the answer. Then he basically sucked for an entire month after that game. So until he puts together a string of games in which he plays well or decent, the jury is still out on him. No doubt that I'm happy for the win. And I like what I saw from Kirk. But my response to him is . . . "do it again, to prove that it wasn't a fluke".

Right now, the correct comparison to Jordan, in my opinion, is Rex ChapmanHere's a Player Season Finder on Jordan, and how he compares to other rookie guards who were 6 - 3 to 6 - 5. These are the parameters:- minimum 40 games played- PER of at least 10 ( which is important, because it may show that he's more than a gunner . . lol . . even though that's what he is )- 10 FGA per game- usage% of over 25To me, these parameters are important, because they illustrate that those teams were trying to see just how good those guys were, by giving them a lot of playing time and shots.Comparing him to a guy like Adam Morrison, who couldn't even create his own shot, or create shots for others, is an inaccurate comparison. Dajuan Wagner, because he was a guard, is a more fair comparison. But Dajuan was only 6 - 2.Rex, at 6 - 4 . . . and a gunner who could get his shot off at any time . . is probably the right comparison to Jordan right now.

Philly was an absolute dismal team back then . . just 5 - 13 at the time we played them. Jersey was dismal . . . 6 - 15 Memphis was still trying to find their groove as a team . . . 8 - 10 Indiana was just above .500 . . . at 11 - 10 And we all know about Cleveland's struggles Even with Orlando . . the "excuse" is that we beat them when they were sick Fact is . . . we need all 3 guys ( JJ, Smith, Horford ) . . and for 3 different reasons Smith - the QB of the defense, and one of the few energy, game changing guys we have on the defensive end Horford - usually the steady rock on offense and defense that keeps our frontline one of the best in the league ( not lately, but normally ) JJ - the leader of the offense in which most plays flow through, coupled with his ability to create and make shots, plus create offense for others Take away any of those guys, and the Hawks are a .500 or below team throughout the course of the season. Maybe if Jamal plays at an extremely high level, his loss may not be as impactful. But we need all 3 of the precious "core". It's the fringe players around the core that need significant upgrading, so that we don't miss too much of a beat when one of the core is out. Maybe if we had a Jamal Crawford equivalent at PF/C, we wouldn't miss Smith or Horford as much. But when your replacements are Collins, Pachulia, and Josh Powell . . . that's a huge problem.

Excellent summation.

That means his opinions on anything Hawk related shouldn't even be counted. LOL @ hearing that Howard and CP3 wants to come here. From who? Some blogger like us that hope and wish they'd come here? What's next? Did he hear that Albert Pujols wants to be a Brave too?

Diesel . . the difference is that there SHOULD be no Jamal Crawford here after this season. They had every intention on not giving him a contract extension so as to let his contract expire. Unless he comes back for a significant discount, Jordan was lined up to take over the backup SG spot. In fact, Jamal and Mo expire this year. Both are technically our backup SGs. Teague's DNP's SHOULD end too, with the departure of Jamal. So his departure, plus the shedding of Mo, would've opened up playing time for both Teague and Jordan. The sad thing is that in the brief times these two played together, they seemed to have much more chemistry with each other, than Teague has with Jamal. This is what we would've had signed, had the Bibby trade not gone down. C - Horford PF - Smith F - Williams G - Johnson PG - Bibby PG - Teague SG - Jordan C - Zaza That's it. 8 players would've been under contract. The only way Jordan and Teague WOULDN'T play next season, is if the minimum vet guys we bring in are better than both Teague and Jordan. And contrary to popular belief, a guy like Damien Wilkins is NOT better than Jordan Crawford and arguably not better than Teague.. And their potential clearly is much higher than Damien's. Damien shouldn't even be on the team anyway. When JJ went down in December, that was the time to work both Teague and Jordan into the lineup. Sund messed this up every which way he could, by panicking. Overpaying for what is essentially a high quality backup PG may very well come back to bite us in the butt. God forbid that 3 years later, we're talking about Jordan Crawford in the same way that we talk about Deron or Paul or Monta Ellis. Players that we definitely could've had, but our incompetent front office didn't know how to properly evaluate talent, so we didn't take them. In the case of Jordan, we simply gave him away for an overrated Hinrich that hasn't been a high level PG since the "Baby Bulls" days.

But on a possession by possession basis, I'd much rather see these guys take long 2's ( even contested ), than for them to jack up 3's. Crawford long 2% . . . 45% Crawford 3 point% . . . 33% JJ long 2 % . . . 39% JJ 3 point% . . . 29% Both guys will literally shoot us out of games if they settle for the 3. And with the way we've been offensive rebounding these days, it doesn't matter what shot we take, we're not getting the rebound anyway. Hawks need to get the ball to players in their favorite spots. JJ - the floater in that 3 - 10 feet range Jamal - midrange from about 18 feet AL - midrange from about 18 feet Smith - anything going to the rim ( note: both Al and Smith cannot play the finesse game. One of them are going to have to be willing to get their hands dirty in the playoffs. None of that passive ish. ) And tell Marvin to attack and see if he's successful. He shouldn't be settling for 3s either. Tell Teague ( if he gets into the game ), to DRIVE THE BASKETBALL as much as possible. Zaza . . you just be the garbage man around the rim and collect boards Hinrich . . you try to do what Bibby did, and knock down timely 3s, and maybe run the team every once in a while.

I agree. WE need our MAX player to play close to what he is paid to play, even if he isn't worth it. The key has ALWAYS been JJ. In the playoffs, you need your ballers BALLIN. If JJ balls, we'll take out the Magic. But to do that, he's going to have to get up his shots, while others do the dirty work at times. So if JJ goes 9 - 21 FG and scores 23 points, we need our bigs rebounding some of the 12 misses that he clanked off the rim, and put it back in the hole. 2nd chance points. And solid defense. Defense especially. Don't let their shooters go off. And if Collins can continue to neutralize Horford, we have a good shot at beating him. But JJ needs to ball. Can't have him going 5 - 13 FG for 13 points, and expect us to beat Orlando. No. He needs to get his shots up, so that he can be a factor scoring the ball. Hopefully, that will open up things for other people.

Hinrich was overrated from the jump. He's a decent, mediocre PG at best now. People want him to play at the level he played at 4 years ago, when the "Baby Bulls" were the talk of the league. Well, he hasn't played that well in a long time. Even tonight, he was no match for Wall. And he was awful offensively. The real question is knowing what you know now, would you trade Jordan Crawford for Kirk Hinrich straight up . . forget Bibby. The fact that we gave them Bibby + Jordan + Mo ( cap space ) + a 1st round pick, puts them in position to really assemble a nice young nucleus. If they get lucky and win the NBA Lottery, they REALLY get to upgrade their young talent. Honestly, the main card that the Hawks could play regarding Hinrich, would be to trade him for a better player, or group of players. The 8 mill expiring contract he has going into next summer should be traded as soon as the lockout is over. You don't do what you did with Jamal, and keep him around and not possibly upgrade the team. You trade Hinrich, or trade him + another player, and really try to upgrade this team with a better player(s). Doubt that this ownership group does that though.