TheNorthCydeRises

82games.com tracks shot clock usage 43% of Smoove's shots come within the first 10 seconds of the shot clock ( mostly transition baskets ) 16% of his shots come in the last 3 seconds of the shot clock

Cause he'd foul out? Mario played 14 minutes in the Milwaukee series. He committed 6 fouls. That's a foul every 2.3 minutes So whose playing time you're gonna cut, in order to get Mario 15 minutes of playing time?

hahahahahahahahaha

It may be the truth, but that's usually something that you hear AFTER a person leaves, or the team is broken up. Fact is, 70% of the people who follow the Hawks, and 95% of the people who don't, thought that this team would roll over and die for Game 6. If we were up 3 - 2 in the series, I doubt Sekou even speaks on that at all. So I agree with Nine on that aspect.

LOL @ Sekou Snitch. You saw right though dude, huh? I agree that the whole "only Zaza and Morris showed up to Crawford's 6 Man of the Year award presentation", was a snitch move. He thought, like a lot of people, that the end of the Hawks was imminent. That, and other comments, had this fan base at odds over who was at fault, if these guys really liked each other, and if we should just blow the whole thing up and start with only a few pieces. I think he's a decent writer. And that interview he gave was a good one. But I think you calling that "nugget" he dropped as a "snitch move", is the right description.

This is how good JJ is: He's seen as NOT being the MVP of the series, despite - scoring 20.9 ppg ( team high ) - grabbing 5.4 rebs - dishing out 5.7 assists ( team high ) - shooting 42% FG - shooting 87% FT - and shutting down Salmons the last 2 games That's how good the dude is. The low shooting percentage is really the ONLY thing that kept him from being the MVP. But he still didn't let other aspects of his game suffer. His defense on Salmons in the past two wins, will be the one thing that will be overlooked.

In a 7 game series, it'll be up to JJ and Jamal to carry us through the Bucks. It's unfair to expect the frontline to put up the numbers against the Magic's frontline, that they did against the Bucks' frontline. So it's up to our guards to really be consistent scoring the basketball. What our frontline needs to try to do, is rebound the basketball and defend in the paint. Smoove vs Rashard Lewis will be a critical matchup, because both players are so different. Smoove at least has to play Rashard to a draw, if not beat him, for us to have a shot. I just want to see what happens if both JJ and Jamal are on, and they both go for 25+ points. X-Factor is always Marvin. If he steps up . . it'll get VERY INTERESTING.

I kind of agree with this. JJ was great for the first 4 games, but his shooting fell off big time the final 3 games of the series. Smoove started strong, struggled, but finished strong. Horford started strong, fizzled in Milwaukke, but finished strong at the end. Crawford started slow, but came on in the final 2 games. Hard to give it to any one person on this team. LOL . . so I'll give it to Woody, for finally making the correct adjustment to win Games 6 and 7. And he wasn't about to let that team just roll over and die.

When this team needed you the most, you showed up and contributed big time. Great game today man. LOL . . now if we can get you and JJ to have good games AT THE SAME TIME, we may have a puncher's chance in this Orlando series. Let's go to DisneyWorld on Tuesday night, and see if we can steal Game 1, seeing how the Magic haven't played in a week. Let's get their UNDIVIDED ATTENTION right away.

LOL .. . any valid criticism of Smoove is met by . . . "but . . look at what those other guys aren't doing"? The thread is correct. It's nothing major, it's just something that if they did a little better, it would give them better opportunities to score the basketball. Especially in this series, in which both Smith and Horford are being guarded by guys either their size, or a little smaller.

LMAO @ this thread. It's killing people to give Woody any kind of credit. It's like pulling teeth . . haha

Marvin had 8 rebs. 6 in the first half. If he has trouble scoring the ball, he at least needs to do this, in order to contribute to the team. The Hawks were great on the boards tonight.

He knows that. That's why he didn't have anything to say in the first 4 games of the series. I'm just happy that his boy Jamal Crawford finally showed up tonight. We definitely needed Crawford with JJ being off.

C- offensive game from JJ tonight. I thought he was going to put up a big number after making his first 3 shots. But then he proceeded to miss his next 16 out of 20 shots. When he's running that cold, he has to find a way to get to the FT line. He needs to work out with Paul Pierce this summer, and pick his brain on how to draw fouls. The stat line is solid: 22 pts - 5 rebs - 6 asst . . . but it was definitely a C to C- offensive game for JJ. His defense was on point though. Salmons was a non factor tonight. He just needs to turn that 8 - 24 FG, 4 - 4 FT, 22 pt game . . into 8 - 21 FG, 8 - 8 FT, 26 pt game . . . if he's going to be that aggressive on offense.

That's not true at all. With this bunch, almost every single bad stretch they've had, has bee followed up by at least a 3+ game win streak If we win tonight, we're not losing a Game 7 in Atlanta. Beat the Bucks tonight, and they'll be dejected that they couldn't get it done on their home floor. If we get back to Atlanta . . you could very well see Game 7 go just like it did vs Miami last year. I mean damn . . our core is due to have a good game all at once, including Crawford. On the road, your stars must show up. So that means JJ, Smoove, Horford and Crawford.

Definitely more of a center than he is a smal forward. But is pretty much right where he needs to be, as a power forward. Woody did play him at center in those days before Horford. Guys like Ben Wallace and Dennis Rodman put a body on somebody everytime a shot was attempted. That enabled them to play much bigger than what they really are. Smoove plays big when he's away from the ball handler, trying to measure him for a block. But when a body is put on him, he hasn't learned how to use his size and athleticism to his maximum potential yet. He's still young though, so he has time to develop that. If Smoove were a little tougher and had more of a mean streak to him, he could be the All-Star version of Shawn Kemp If Smoove hustled and played with energy the entire game, he could be the All-Star version of Shawn Marion. Personally, I'd wish he'd play more like Shawn Kemp, with the type of aggressiveness and power that he brought to the table during his prime. Calling Smoove lazy probably isn't the right word to use for him. Undisciplined is probably a better word. Just doing someting small like boxing out, could see his rebounding totals raise by about 2 per game. I personally get frustrated by his rebounding, more than the jumpshots. Marion and Kemp would flat out dominate the boards ( 14+ a game ) sometimes. Instead of working on his shot, improving his rebounding is the one area in which he could possibly become elite in doing. Overall, I think fans have to be real happy at how far he's come along. It's now up to Smoove to improve on those little things, in order to take his game to the next level.

Wow @ those numbers. Unacceptable.

Preach it Bama. And I'll make that 4 hour trip to Philips myself on Sunday night.

As evident by Bibby, while giving us nothing offensively in Game 5 . . . still managed to post a +3 plus/minus rating.

But I thought these players won games by themselves? If that's the case . . .why can't they THINK FOR THEMSELVES? Some of you say that the players don't listen to Woody . . so why can't they think on their own? Did Woody take their brain or something? Man . . I've played organized basketball both on the high school level as an All-Region player and was rooted to the pine for one year in college. Moving without the ball is one of the fundamental parts of basketball. That ish is taught in HIGH SCHOOL. Josh Childress had no problem whatsoever moving without the basketball. That's why he found himself in position to get lay-ups and grab offensive rebounds out of nowhere. Just because a dude is in an ISO situation, doesn't mean that you have to watch him. You CAN still keep moving. And you don't need a coach to tell you when to move. That's the biggest thing a player like Marvin Williams could do to help himself as a player. These players are not robots that have to be told EVERYTHING to do. Some stuff should just come from the thousands of hours that they've played basketball all their lives. But if Horford has the ball down on the block, and the other 4 guys are just sitting there watching him, what do people expect to happen? Make a cut to the hole and see what happens. People don't even crash the boards when Horford shoots. That's why when he misses, it's almost always a defensive rebound for the other team, instead of an offensive rebound for us.

Play smart basketball Jamal. None of that wild ish. Just play smart. If you have an open jumper . . take it. If you've missed 3 long jumpers in a row . . get as close to the rim as possible and leave the 3 point shot alone. Don't dribble into double teams. If you have to be a playmaker for a short stretch, go ahead and do that. All I know, is that you were 1 - 10 FG in the 2nd half of that game on Wednesday night. All I know, is that Jennings, a rookie, is having a much better playoff series than you are. All I know, is that you have underachieved more than ANY HAWK in this series. So personally, I'm not interested in seeing any fluff articles on your supposed arrival, when you're FLAT OUT SELLING US OUT IN THIS PLAYOFF SERIES. It's time to show and prove . . not talk about what you're going to do or have to do. The way you're playing in this series, is why I've ALWAYS HATED YOU AS A PLAYER, and didn't want you here in the first place. You have been the ultimate piece of "fools gold" the NBA has seen in the past 20 years. That's why no playoff caliber team last offseason wanted to trade for you. The "tricky dribbles" . . the 4 point plays . . the lucky out of control jumpshots . . . that's all well and good for fans that like flash. But I appreciate SUBSTANCE. Give me some SUBSTANCE Jamal. So I'm not interested in how you're the "Golden Child", if you're going to shoot 33% in the playoffs. I'm not worried about seeing how you're possibly overtaking Josh Smith in popularity. (( BLEEP )) popularity. JUST SHOW FRIGGIN UP!! I respect Scoop Jackson as a writer. He's usually on point with what he says. But I think he's writing this simply because he's cool with Jamal. With all of the heat that Woody and JJ and Smoove are taking these days . . . it's been JAMAL CRAWFORD that has flat out played like CRAP. No talk man. JUST SHOW THE HELL UP TONIGHT !!

Jerz . . . people see what they want to see man. And you're right about Horford not passing the ball out when he gets the ball into the post. People DO have to move around though. Just don't stand there like statues, waiting on the guy to make his one on one move. Move around, and give that player a reason to pass the ball to you. If people moved when Horford had the ball in the post, maybe he'd pass it out to them.

That was Game Time actually reading what he wanted to into JJ's statement. Here is the quote from JJ. You make the decision on what he means. "People like to blame you for everything that goes wrong but you have to get some of the credit, too, right?" Johnson said recently when asked about the tumultuous nature of both he and Woodson's careers with the Hawks. "We've won a lot of games around here the past few years and everybody has had a hand in that. From where we came from to now ... you can't just dismiss that." To me . . . I think JJ is simply saying that no one person is to blame around here. And if you place the blame, you also have to give those same people credit for the success we've had as well. That's how I interpret the statement.

And out of spite, I took away your +1 and gave him a -1 to bring him back to zero. Because if we're playing the Cavs, everybody shows up on time for some reason. Hmmm . . . I wonder why? The excuses ATL fans give for not showing up on time to games, is just flat out unfounded. If you WANT TO get to a game on time, you'll get to a game on time. Even if you don't want to drive into the city, you can always take MARTA into the city, and it will take you right to the arena. So you don't have to drive and wait in traffic if you don't want to. If your job ends at 5 PM, make the commitment to leave from your job and go straight to the game. Or . . if you live close to your job, go home, take a shower, have your clothes ironed and ready to go, and be on the road by 6 - 6:30 PM. For a 7:30 or 8 PM start, you'll have plenty of time to be in the arena by tip-off, or at least at the beginning of the 1st quarter. People act like traffic going into downtown Atlanta is far worse than traffic going out of downtown Atlanta between 5 - 7 PM. Thousands of people DO manage to get to the game on time. So why can't the other thousands of people can't do the same? Showing up late to a playoff game that starts at 8 PM . . and doesn't probably tip-off till 8:10 PM . . shows that while they want to see the Hawks, being there on time just isn't a priority.

I think this is the most accurate description for Woody .. "he coaches not to lose games". Gray Mule calls it the "prevent offense". Sekou saying that the Hawks do what Woody wants them to do 100% of the time, has a double edge to it. Because if the average fan believes that Woody is to blame for 100% of the losses, what percentage of the wins are because of him? Seriously . . . objectively answer that question. The notion that the Hawks lose because of Woody, but win because of what they do themselves, is a severely flawed mindset. If the players are the cause of wins, why aren't they the cause of losses? Or how about this question . . . what if the Hawks DO WIN these next 2 games, and advance to the next round. Will it be because of Woody, or the players? Sekou's interview was a good one. The Jennings question needed to be properly challenged, seeing that the same coach that people say hates rookie PGs, was starting Acie Law by the 6th game into his rookie year. When you're still a ballclub trying to get good, and your other PGs are Anthony Johnson and Tyronn Lue, giving Acie Law a chance to get significant PT was the way to go. And if Brandon Jennings was our PG 3 yrs ago, Woody would've done the same with Brandon. We all know what the deal here is about Teague. Mike Bibby signed a 3 year deal to be our PG. Crawford, while not a true PG, can play a scoring 1. The decision to stick with the Bibby/Crawford rotation at PG, led us to 53 wins, and saw Crawford have his most successful season ever as a player. So Teague was on the outside looking in for the most part. No matter how this turns out, Woody will have to live with the decision on if he did the right thing with Teague and the team in general. To play Teague more, you either had to reduce Bibby's minutes . . or Crawford's minutes . . or both. Taking minutes from anyone else on the squad just to play Teague, may have been detrimental to the Hawks. But if Woody is to blame for all that is wrong with the Hawks, give him some credit with what went right with this team for the past 3 years. LOL . . it won't happen though.