TheNorthCydeRises

But Rose still needs to be the stabilizer of the offense, seeing that he's the guy on the Bulls that can create his own shot when the shot clock is running down. Even if it's Rose making the pass, the ball does need to eventually get back to him in a motion offense. Drew wants a "dog" in Teague, because Drew knows that Teague will have to have sigificant control of the flow of the game. And when push comes to shove, Teague will have to break down the defense himself, and create a shot for himself or for someone else. Let me ask you a question. Do you want JJ's shots to be reduced to 15 shots a game, just so Marvin's shots per game can be increased? Because that's what we're talking about with this motion offense, seeing that the offense isn't going to feature just JJ. Drew has to be flexible if this offense doesn't work for us. At that point, he has to play to our strengths.

The problem, is that we really can't afford to struggle in November, trying to learn the offense. We have 7 very winnable road games in October and November that we really need to win. We do have some tough home games during that time, but we've traditionally been a good home team. But for all of the talk about offense, it should be the defensive play of the Hawks that should scare people. People are getting their wish with the abandoment of the switching defense, but that's the move that may be the most detrimental for the Hawks. While the switching defense was nowhere near perfect, it did cause opponents who didn't have high quality PGs major problems. Drew wants us to be a hard-nosed man to man team. But if we can't play that way, Drew simply must go with what works the best. The bottom line is that Philly didn't have the personnel to play a Princeton style offense, because you need good shooters to make it work. And while the Hawks have better shooters than Philly, the truth is that we're not a great outside shooting team either . . nor do we have a legit low post presence to throw the ball to. Drew better be extremely careful. We can't waste the first 20 or so games trying to make Drew's systems work. If we don't take advantage of the "easy" road schedule next month, the Hawks may find themselves fighting to stay just above .500 all year and fighting for their playoff lives..

Hate to be the bearer of bad news. . .but I hope you guys haven't looked at Sekou Smith's NBA Hangtime blog on nba.com 11 teams have finished the preseason with 0 or 1 win. Only one of those teams ( the 07 - 08 Cavs ), made the playoffs. Sekou's blog cites that Atlanta and New Orleans may be in trouble, if that stat holds true. New Orleans lost again tonight @ Charlotte. Not granted, both the Hawks and Hornets can cite injuries as the reason why we only have one preseason win. But what the injuries have caused for both teams, is for them to start out behind in their cohesion. For us, the preseason was supposed to be the time that Jeff Teague really got his feet wet and developed some chemistry with the starters. But he's only played in one game all preseason. Smith's "don't worry about the preseason" attitude isn't comforting at all, seeing that he's a notoriously slow starter to begin every season. Take away the 1st half of the Memphis game, and this team hasn't looked good at all for the most part. These guys better be at least a little concerned, or Lebron will try to embarrass the Hawks later on tonight.

JTB . . . what Orlando did is what they always do to us . . make us take long jumpers and contested shots. And that's how you beat this offense, by forcing those types of shots. And especially if you're Orlando playing us, because we're scared of challenging Dwight Howard by going right at him. They know that we'll settle for jumpers, rather than get something going toward the rim. Dwight definitely knows it. Drew is NOT running anything groundbreaking here. Eddie Jordan tried the same thing in Philly last year, and it failed miserably. The movement is very nice. But as we saw last night, a good defensive team can defend it. At one point late in the 1st half, the starting 5 + Jamal Crawford were a combined 2 - 22 FG. Let me repeat that . . 2 - 22 FG . . . that's 9% shooting. We don't have great outside shooters on this team. Jamal and JJ are streaky from 16 feet and out. Jordan looks to be just like JJ and Jamal in his streakiness. Marvin's shot was off last year. Bibby's shot was off last year. Mo Evans' shot was off last year. Teague couldn't make the few jumpers he got. And Josh Smith can't shoot at all. Al Horford was our best midrange shooter last year. But in this offense, he may not get an increase in touches. It may even go down, if we also have to cut his minutes for fear of overfatiguing him. When ran correctly, this offense can definitely work. But we can't settle for open jumpers all the time. We have to cut to the basket and go all the way to the hole as wel. At the very least, fouls have to be drawn and points scored at the FT line, for this offense to work. The most important thing that Drew has to do, is recognize what is working. If it's motion, stick with it. But if it isn't working, he better have the flexibility to run what does work, and stick with it . . . even if it's ISO-JOE.

It's just sad to see. Beatdown after beatdown. Orlando knows that they only have to punch us in the mouth one time, and we're done.

After another lackluster game vs Dwight Howard, his asking price may have to be adjusted.

Ownership, if they really wanted to make a run at a title, or at the very least generating revenue, could've made a tremendous splash in the offseason. It would've taken a financial commitment from them. Just remember folks, this is what the front office passed on: - hiring Avery Johnson as coach - using the #31 pick on a young big man - finding a way to re-sign Josh Childress, or at least get a player for him - trading someone on this team, or using the full MLE to acquire Shaq Had ownership just done 2 of these 4 things ( especially if they would've hire Avery as coach and acquired Shaq ), fan apathy would be minimal and the buzz around the Hawks would've definitely be at a high level. And that's including what we kind of see in Jordan Crawford. Instead, this is what the Hawks did: - hired Larry Drew as coach - traded the #31 for 3 million - traded Childress for a 3+ million trade exception - re-signed Jason Collins - signed Josh Powell - signed Etan Thomas When you look at those moves, compared to what we could have realistically done, you see why people are upset and even expect less out of this Hawks team. Contrary to popular belief amongst Hawks fans, it was the defense that was the main problem last year, not the offense. Even in those games in which we couldn't score in the 4th quarter, those games were also times in which our defense broke down the most. If the Hawks are up 11 points in the 4th, they should still be able to win a game, even if they only score 15 points. But what would happen, is that we couldn't stop the other team ( usually the other team's PG ), and we'd lose by 6, because we'd given up 32 points in the final quarter. Tonight's game vs Orlando, has to be a little more than a "it's just preseason" game. Orlando has been steamrolling people this preseason, basically playing their main 9 to 10 man rotation. This is the Hawks first dress rehearsal against the team that has dominated them for the past 2 seasons. Can they prove to the fans, and most importantly, to themselves, that they can compete against this team? We all know what happened last preseason . . . the completely embarassed us on national TV. Let's see what happens tonight. Injuries or no injuries, I want to see this team at least compete tonight . . both starters and the bench.

After this ad, I will never cal him "Smoove" again. He's either "J-Slam" or "J-Smash" from now on. Out of all the ways the word "smooth" and "light and fast" could've been protrayed in that commercials, the ad agency chose to do it THAT WAY? No more "Smoove" for me. He's either "Slam" or "Smash" from now on.

I forget that NBA.com and NBATV is headquartered in Atlanta. Ol Woody may be making a lot more appearances on NBATV.

I won't be at the home opener, but I'll be at the season opener in Memphis that Wednesday night. Oh, and make sure you go on the 30th, not the 31st.

The scary thing is . . . Jordan ALREADY has "the dog" that the coaches want Teague to have. But I think some of the fans, and definitely Drew, are afraid to admit this, because it may hurt Teague's confidence. I don't like Drew and his comments about "reigning him in". No. If you have a guy who can be that explosive of a scorer, there's no way in hell you reign him in. You let that dude "do what he do". All I know . . is that Bibby still looks to be in decline. And while Teague looks better, he hasn't definitively proved that he should be the starting PG of this team either, seeing that he didn't run the squad at Wake Forest, nor did he do it with us last season, sans one great end of the season game. And with Jamal being injured ( or playing 'possum ), I say let the kids battle it out. Whomever proves to be the better defender at the point, should start. At the very least, I hope Jordan makes the services of Mo Evans no longer needed on this team. That way Jordan can get the 10 - 15 minutes that Mo was going to get. PG: Teague ( 24 ) - Bibby ( 12 ) - Jordan ( 12 ) G: JJ ( 22 ) - Crawford ( 26 ) SF: Marvin ( 33 ) - JJ ( 15 ) Easy rotation at PG: * Teague plays 1st 6 mins of the 1st and 3rd qtrs * Bibby plays last 6 mins of the 1st and 3rd qtrs * Jordan plays 1st 6 minutes of the 2nd and 4th qtrs * Teague finishes off the 2nd and 4th quarter * NOTE: if either Bibby or Jordan have it going, you extend their mins

It's funny though. Teague needs a "dog", while Jordan is already a Rotweiller. Having said that, I'm starting the guy who plays the best defensively at the point. And I don'tknow which one that is yet.

Bibby's complete inactivity in these last 2 preseason games is cause for concern. And now that Drew isn't protecting him on the defensive end by switching everything, Hawks beat writer Michael Cunningham feels that Bibby simply doesn't have the lateral movement to play straight up defense. Bibby was one of the main beneficiaries of the ISO offense, in that JJ would readily pass the ball to a wide open Bibby, especially when Bibby's man would go to double JJ. It's hard to really know without seeing the team function in the offense more, but the things that made Bibby successful as a player in the past, has been taken away. Is he done? And if he is, should Teague be the starter and Jordan the backup PG?

http://www.atdhe.net Anybody who isn't using this site during basketball season is crazy. Yeah, you may have some issues with stopping streams and flat out seeing a game being disconnected during the 4th quarter of some games. But just about every game I couldn't get on SportSouth ( seeing that the Nashville Predators take precedent over the Hawks 90% of the time on FSN South ), I saw for FREE on adthe.net Unless you just HAVE to see all of your games on HD, watching games on the net for free is definitely the way to go. You better believe that I'm using this site at work to watch the Reds - Phillies game today. A lot of soccer games are shown on this site as well.

AHF exactly. At that point, you would almost have to bring Smoove off the bench, and play him in a Lamar Odom-esque role, just so that he could still play the majority of his minutes at PF. But to flat out move him to SF would have a Kirilenko effect that would severely affect his game. As talented as Smoove is, there is a distinct reason why he didn't make the Team USA "B-Team". The SFs on that team would absolutely destroy Smoove out on the perimeter. The last thing we want as a team, is Smoove 22 ft from the basket, trying to guard Andre Iguodala or Paul Pierce or a Danny Granger or even a Luou Deng.

People need to stop using Teague and Rondo in the same sentence. They are nowhere near the same player. Teague wasn't a true PG at Wake Forest. He was more of a scoring guard. So he's probably going to assume a similar role with the Hawks. Expecting him to be a playmaking PG right from the jump, is probably unrealistic. If his role in the beginning is that of a scoring guard than a true point guard, it's OK . . . as long as he's somewhat efficient in the scoring role. Maybe Teague will be more like Jeryad(sp) Bayless in Portland.

So I guess you forget what happened in 06 - 07, with a team that could've won 40 games that year, but the projected starting lineup of Speedy - JJ - Marvin - Smoove - Zaza only played like 5 games together as a unit? Even Chill missed 10+ games that year. 07 - 08, we were finally above .500 around Christmas. Then Smoove goes down for 8 games and we went 1 - 7 during that stretch. We get him back, then Horford goes down for about 2 - 3 weeks. I think in all, we went something like 6 - 15 as a team, from the time of Smoove's injury to the All-Star break. LOL, then we trade for Bibby, who had hand problems. The fans routinely cite injuries for ruining both of those seasons, including the injuries suffered by Marvin going into the 08 playoffs, and the injury to Horford during the 08 - 09 playoffs. Last year, we barely had anyone with even a sprain or a pull . . . but you say that we weren't lucky? The most significant injury last year may have been JJ's thumb injury at the end of the season, which he played through when the playoffs started. The fact that we didn't lose any of the core to even a nagging injury that would've kept them out of a game for even a week, is dang near a miracle in the NBA. Sir, we were EXTREMELY lucky last year, when it came to injuries.

FYI . . . Hollinger lives in Atlanta and actually goes to Hawk games and watches them. So it's not like he's some clueless national writer that doesn't know jack about the team. Hollinger is about 75% dead on with what he said, but fans don't want to believe it. Hollinger does have a history of selling us short though, so a 46 win prediction by him really means that we'll probably win 51 games. - JJ's contract isn't an issue now, but it may be by Year 4, which may hamstring the team ( if ownership doesn't want to pay luxury tax ) - We WERE lucky not to have any significant injuries to the core - Our biggest weakness IS money, due to lack of deep pockets and more fan support - Jamal may have very well had a "fluke rule" season, because he's NEVER played that well for an entire season. - We DID go the cheapest route on everything this offseason ( minus the JJ deal ). It's not much to dispute in Hollinger's analysis of us. It doesn't mean that we have no shot. But people have to be realistic as well. Those additions we added were basically throwaway type players, not guys who can crack the rotation and help us on a nightly basis. It's no sense hyping them up to be anything else. Honestly, the only way I think we get better, is if Drew's new offense turns JJ into a truly lethal scorer, and if Teague can run the point on offense AND defend the position on defense. The Hawks should still dominate the sorry teams and at the very least split with the teams that are on their level. We were 21 - 9 vs the West last year, and I don't see much changing with that. Even if Orlando and Miami dominate us, no other team in the East should sweep the Hawks or even win a series. Barring a string of injuries or an extended injury to JJ, Smoove, or Horford, the Hawks shouldn't have much problem winning 48 - 52 games. But does that help us in the 2nd round? Unless we prove in the regular season that we can win more than 50% of our road games, and beat Orlando and Miami ( and not get trounced when we do lose ) . . . then it probably won't help us get past Round 2.

Smoove will never become an offensive superstar, because of his limited skillset as an offensive player. Where he can improve offensively on the stat sheet, is in the assist category. He does possess the skillset to maybe have a 6 assist/gm season. But his worth is on defense He can become a defensive superstar, especially if he commits to being a dominant defensive rebounder. Horford's mid-range jumper was great last year, but wasn't utilized enough. In Drew's new offensive system, it'll be interesting if Drew recognizes that, and gets Horford more mid-range shots. Having said that, his back to the basket game is inconsistent . . . it's better . .. but inconsistent. Until he plays significant minutes at PF, he doesn't have a shot at becoming a superstar either. So it's all on JJ, and Drew's offense, to turn JJ into a legit top 10 player, that the Hawks can count on during the playoffs.

Teague is not the key to us getting to the Finals . . . JJ is. Because the bottom line is that JJ must take his game to the next level, in order for us to get to the Finals. He's the guy that is playing far worse in the playoffs, than any other player on the team. I seriously doubt that the Hawks are going to become a top 5 defensive team, so a guy like JJ pretty much has to be a hybrid between Kobe and Reggie Miller, to carry us in the playoffs. If the new offense works, it's gonna work because it has made JJ a much more dangerous offensive player. There's no way he can shoot 40% FG in the playoffs, and we can advance deep into the playoffs. No . . . he has to shoot close to a 50% clip and get easier looks at the basket in the playoffs. And the likelihood of us trading for a superstar is almost zero, because most everybody wants the two players that we're not willing to trade . . Al Horford and Josh Smith. As long as we're not willing to trade either guy for a superstar, one of THOSE GUYS ( or JJ ) have to become the superstar.

Frank . . no we didn't. The only way Shaq could've gotten 8 million out of us, is if we traded Marvin to Cleveland. We only had the MLE to offer for Shaq. Shaq is simply doing what he always do, with the mind games. Boston came at Shaq at the last minute, when Rasheed Wallace officially retired. And they only had the minimum to offer. The national media are too lazy to do some research, so they'll believe Shaq's story. And the ASG won't dispute the story, because it gives off the perception that they did go all out for Shaq, which they didn't.

The Dream are the best rebounding team in the WNBA ( see the sig to see what that potentially means )

I just don't get the logic of . ."we might lose more, but we'll be a better team". I guess the hope is that the Hawks can finish the 2nd half of the season as a team clicking on all cylinders. Problem is, we can't start off too slow. If we do, we're playing @ Orlando, Boston, and Miami in the 1st round, instead of in the 2nd round. As Bill Parcells once said . . "you are what your record says you are". A 45 - 48 win Hawks team is in GRAVE DANGER of getting bounced in the 1st round. We'll see how good of a season people thought we had at that point.

If this team wins less than 47 games this season ( if our core guys stay healthy ), something has gone terribly wrong with the Hawks. I'll say 51 wins, if we stay healthy, and 4th in the East. The only reason this team will fall off, is if they don't totally buy into, or simply can't run Drew's offensive and defensive systems. We played about as well as we could at home, by winning 34 games. So for the Hawks to post a better record this season, we either need to become the best home team in the league, or start winning more road games. And to me, that will be the REAL indication that we're a better team . . . winning more road games. I mean, if we're not winning 50 games, this team is probably still having major problems on the road . . which means that something is amiss somewhere. People erroneously look at the Celtics, and feel that the Hawks can do what they did. But people forget that the Celtics started the season RED HOT . . before the injuries started. Once they got everybody back healthy, they became a dominant defensive team once again.

Like Diesel said . . . this is an 8th grade mentality. And it's not like Shaq was wrong. When you look at the Cavs last year, the one guy who didn't play up to his perceived level ( especially during the playoffs ), was Mo Williams. I mean, God forbid that if Shaq was on the Hawks, that he would call out Josh Smith for taking too many long jumpers . . or Joe Johnson for not drawing enough fouls and getting to the line. That would destroy "team chemistry". But he'd be telling the truth. It's like some of you don't even watch playoff basketball. For the most part, you need a dual inside - outside threat to get to championship level . . . unless you have Jordan on your team. Shaq has 4 championships and has played in 6 NBA Finals. I would think he knows a little something about what it takes to win in the NBA. All of that fake picture taking didn't do crap for Cleveland, as soon as Boston punched them in the mouth. Mo Williams will get all the shots he wants this season though, seeing that it's essentially his and Antwan Jamison's team now.