TheNorthCydeRises

I agree. Tree was the only legit shot blocking presence on that team. Keep him around at least in a backup role over Koncak. That 88 - 89 team that had Nique, Moses, Rivers and Theus pretty much choked in the playoffs. What they did that year, would be the equivalent to us losing that series to Miami last year. No way they should've lost to Milwaukee that year, especially seeing that we had swept them in the regular season. The Hawks were 4th in offense and 9th in defense that season. They were one of the most well-rounded Hawk teams we've ever had here. Also, Kevin Willis didn't play that entire season because he broke his foot or a toe or something involving his foot. With Willis in the mix, that team had a chance to be really special. But even without Willis, that teams was good, and should've beaten Milwaukee that year in the playoffs.

Like who?

I mean . . . when you look at the amount of no-calls JJ gets while going to the lane, you have to question if something is up or not. You saw what they did in Cleveland. Forget the shot clock, they shot 16 FTs in the 2nd half. How many did we shoot? 3.

The Sacramento Kings would disagree with you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVfZ-CU-bx0 ( part 7 ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpPCKn9ZX3w ( part 8 ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CARPuq4Bew ( part 9 ) ( if you have time one day, go through the entire series. . I think they have 9 parts to this ) Make no mistake. If we were to play the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals, we would damn near have to hope that either the Cavs were ice cold, or we played the perfect game . . or at least significantly better than Cleveland, in 4 games. Lebron is the cash cow of the league. Having him in the NBA Finals is in the best interest of the league. If they can't have Kobe in there, they definitely want Lebron. They would rather have both. I'm watching the highlights of the Cavs - Knicks game tonight, and they're ranting and raving about Lebron scoring 25 straight points for the Cavs. But they also highlight a sequence in which Nate Robinson goes into the lane and challenges Shaq. Shaq blocks his shot, but literally hammers Nate . . . NO CALL. Nate, being the Mighty Mouse that he is, ended up getting a block on Shaq later in the game. A clean block. Still . . . Shaq's foul wasnt called . . and it was a blatant foul. The easiest way to kill the Hawks, would be to either get JJ or Josh Smith in foul trouble. We probably would be hurt worse by Smoove picking up cheap early fouls.

I'm actually glad they postponed this game. It would've been kind of hectic trying to fly into DC, then trying to get to the hotel and to the game. The storm is still going on in that area, and all of D.C. is basically shut down. Looking at our schedule and the Wizards schedule, I see that we have a 5 day rest period in early March. We play on Monday the 8th @ New York, but don't play again until Saturday the 13th. The Wizards, during that time, play in Boston on Sunday the 7th, have a home game with Houston on the 9th, and then go to Detroit that Friday on the 12th. To me . . the obvious time to make up this game, would be that Wednesday on the 10th, in Washington. That way, we can leave New York that Monday night and arrive in D.C. and chill for a day, and play Wednesday. For the Wiz, it would force them to play a back to back, but since they play Tuesday, and don't have a game until Friday, they could actually play that Wednesday night as well. So my prediction . . . the makeup game will be Wednesday, March 10th in D.C.

In no way, shape, or form should Laettner even be in this conversation. Those other guys? Dajuan Wagner was clearly a bust. While he was a dynamic player in college, he was an undersized 2-guard who wasn't even as good as Salim. So if he couldn't play the point, he had to be lights out as a scorer. He couldn't do either on the pro level. Darko is clearly a bust. He actually had a chance to resurrect his career, and become a defensive stopper type player. But if he can't even get playing time on a real bad New York team without a true center, then he's a bust. Ferry is a bust. He parlayed that one decent season into another 4 - 5 year deal. A deal that Cleveland regretted tremendously. Ferry was no more than a wannabe spot-up 2 guard, in a PF's body. Marvin isn't a bust . . . yet . . . but he can't keep seeing his numbers fall off like it has. Even if he has a reduced role on the team,he still needs to be efficient and active. There's no reason why Marvin shouldn't be shooting 47% FG or more from the field, seeing that he's basically an open spot up jumpshooter. 44% FG and 34% 3FG, is pretty much unacceptable from him. He has to raise those numbers significantly, even if he isn't scoring a lot of points. Diesel, what you said 3 - 4 years ago, has come true, even though most people were against you back then. Marvin has essentially become Derrick McKey . . . a guy who was a quality starter in this league that played on teams that had 2 - 3 all-stars or borderline all-stars. McKey, during his prime years, was basically a 13 - 14 ppg . . 5 - 6 rebound guy . . who shot in the in the high 40% FG range, and was a good defender. McKey wasn't the 2nd pick in the draft, but he was a lottery pick. I don't know if many people would consider him a bust. Having said that, Marvin can't keep playing like he has for most of the season. The effort he's given in the past 2 days, is really how he has to play from now on. McKey played with . . . SEATTLE . . . McKey was a starter alongside Tom Chambers, Dale Ellis, Xavier McDaniel, Ricky Pierce, Eddie Johnson, Shawn Kemp, and Gary Payton INDIANA . . . McKey was a starter alongside Rik Smits, Dale Davis, Reggie Miller . . . and moved to the bench as he aged, and saw Jalen Rose take his spot.

I was worried that he wasn't gonna get that triple-double. Thank God for Bibby. Excellent game by him tonight. If someone drops out of the All-Star game, this performance on national TV may have gotten him in. Great job Smoove.

What do you suggest as a Plan B? I'm not particularly worried about matching up with Cleveland and Boston in the playoffs. Honestly, we should've beaten Cleveland twice. We may not beat either team in a series, but I like how we match up and attack them. Orlando is the main problem. I think Plan B against them, is to actually go ISO against them, seeng how JJ normally tries to be a facilitator against the Magic. I don't know man. Just simply saying that we need to move the ball more against the Magic, is kind of a moot point, if the complimentary guys can't make open jumpers, and the post guys tense up challenging Dwight at the rim. Would Plan B, be a lineup change, rather than an offensive scheme change? Like starting Crawford instead of Bibby or Marvin? All I know, is that the next time we play Orlando, I want to see JJ take 25+ shots, whether it be within the flow of the offense, or it be ISO-JOE basketball.

Rose will be in full attack mode tonight. He'll definitely try to hang 40 on us. Chicago is a jumpshooting team, so as long as we defend decently on the perimeter, we should be OK. This does open the door for Tyrus Thomas to play a little bit more, if he isn't hurt. Hawks just need to secure rebounds and not play stupidly tonight. The game we lost up there in December was a stupid loss.

No . . .Woody wouldn't change up much. He'd get Perkins the ball down low on occasion, to see what he can do. 6 - 8 FGA sounds about right for him, if he got Horford type minutes. Maybe slightly more, if Perkins proved he could be a slightly better option than Horford down on the blocks. Perkins wouldn't be shooting 15 foot jumpers though, like Horford does.

Phoenix has been manhandled almost as much as we have by those squads, but they also have some nice wins. But we all know why the Hawks struggle, and mainly against who. We've split with Charlotte so far, and definitely played well enough @ Cleveland and @ Oklahoma City ( 2 games in which JJ was brilliant in ) to win games. It's just that team down in Mickey Mouse lane, that we can't figure out yet. It is nice to see that the defensive PPG numbers are virtually unchanged though, even though our bad matchup, Orlando, drives that point total up as well.

So your argument with Sheed, is that instead of him taking an insane amount of threes, he's only taking a lot of threes, which proves that the three pointer by him really isn't part of their scheme? We're talking about a Power Forward here . . . not a guard or even a small foward. Doc can't design a scheme that keeps his power forward down on the blocks . . an area where he's actually more efficient at . . and prevent him from jacking up 5 threes a game? Nah. . . not buying it. Doc may not want him taking that many threes, but he sure doesn't mind him taking them. And it's a detriment to the team because he shoots such a low percentage on that shot. If keeping him happy means that he allows Sheed to take threes, then yes, it is a part of Boston's scheme. People say that Josh Smith being out on the perimeter for the Hawks, is part of our scheme, so the same applies in Boston. It's pretty obvious why the Hawks perform poorly against the top defensive teams at times. It's the same reason why the other top offensive teams tend to struggle against the top defensive teams. It's because that team has a problem scoring and rebounding against the defensive team's frontline. It's not a coincidence at all that teams like Phoenix, Toronto, and Denver ( the teams ahead of us in offensive efficiency ), have also struggled at times against the top 6 defensive teams Phoenix: averages 110 ppg . . . but is 4 - 8 vs top 6 defensive teams ( 3 wins at home ) Toronto: averages 104.3 ppg . . . but is 4 - 8 vs top 6 defensive teams ( 3 wins at home ) Denver: averages 107 ppg . . . but they're the exception, 5 - 2 vs top 6 defensive teams ( all 5 wins @ home ) And each one of those teams have had some horrendous games vs some in the top 6. Outside of the frontline issue, our other problem is jumpshot consistency, especially on the road. We've missed a ton of wide open jumpshots in a lot of those games in which the offense isn't clicking. I'm not even talking about the forced jumpers off of isolation. I'm talking about missing wide open looks, that our opponent will turn around and make. You just can't do that against good defensive teams, especially not on the road. The Cavs, Magic, Lakers, and Celtics aren't going to give you a lot of good looks on the inside, so you must make your open jumpers. People also know that while JJ and Crawford can be great at times, they also can be highly inconsistent shooters. If both JJ and Crawford start out slow, we can and will get blown out because of the lack of offensive weapons in other areas on our team. Against a team like Orlando, JJ has to look to take over early. He has to look to be assertive early on the road, to see if he can get himself going first, instead of trying to get his teammates going. He's done just that in a few of our losses to those teams ( Cavs, Lakers, OKC ). In other games, he wasn't aggressive enough, and ended up shooting a bad percentage. It's also no secret that defensive rebounding is a key to our offense, because it fuels our running game. When we don't get that, we're in trouble, because we don't have the consistent firepower on offense to keep pace. The real problem though, is OUR defense . . not our offense. When you're not stopping teams and allowing 2nd chance possessions because you can't secure a defensive rebound, you're asking to lose games. We need to be a top 10 defensive squad. Us improving offensively is still not going to solve this problem with defensive rebounding and getting stops in general. Us improving offensively will simply have us be more like Phoenix . . more efficient offensively, but still lose games they shouldn't, because they can't secure rebounds and get key stops. Shore up the defense, and this team goes on another long win streak.

That article was from November. I guess you missed that though. And guess what? Sheed is still jacking up threes. LOL . . matter of fact, the night after that blog article was posted, Sheed jacked up 8 threes . . and missed every single one of them. And he's been jacking up 3s ever since. As a coach, don't you think he can tweak his scheme to not have Sheed out on the perimeter so much? It isn't hard to do. KG isn't all the way out to the 3 point line, so why is Sheed? at rim . . . 61% FG . . 1.2 attempts < 10 ft . . .52% FG . . 1.3 att 10 - 15 . . 52% FG . . 1.1 att With those types of shooting percentages from within 15 feet, why hasn't Doc adjusted his "system" for Sheed to take more of those types of shots? Instead, you see this: 3pt: . . . 30% FG ( 45% eFG ) . . 4.8 attempts Doc knows that if he give Sheed too much grief, that he may start pouting and not play well overall. So he lets Sheed do whatever he wants to do. And that hurts the team. But Doc doesn't adjust his scheme to prevent Sheed shooting him out of a game? Hawks fan love what everybody else does, even if what we do still makes us a very good team, and more efficient ( because our efficiency rating is higher than theirs ). The grass ain't always greener on the other side folks.

Perkins shooting: at rim . . . .78% FG ( 4.2 attempts ) . . 78% assisted < 10 ft . . . 52% FG ( 2.1 attempts ) . . 45% assisted 10 - 15 . . .16% FG ( 0.5 attempts ) . . 75% assisted 16 - 23 . . .38% FG ( 0.5 attempts ) . . 50% assisted Horford shooting: at rim . . . 71% FG ( 4.0 attempts ) . . 61% assisted < 10 ft . . .50% FG ( 2.4 attempts ) . . 65% assisted 10 - 15 . . 40% FG ( 1.4 attempts ) . . 59% assisted 16 - 23 . . 47% FG ( 2.0 attempts ) . . 93% assisted Perkins touches would go down, because he can't or doesn't shoot beyond 10 feet. Horford can score from more areas than Perkins. And like Horford, Perkins' post-up game isn't that reliable enough to just throw the ball down on the blocks to him, and look for him to score on his own. He needs to be set up by someone else, more often than not, to score.

I was assuming that the number stated of Sheed shooting 34% from three was correct. If he were, that would mean that his eFG% on his 3 point shot would be a little over 50%. Instead, Sheed is 63 - 210 FG . . . which is actually 30% from three. THAT'S why his eFG% on threes is 45%. AND THAT IS NOT GOOD AT ALL. And the updated numbers show that Sheed has actually taken 45 more threes than Pierce ( who is shooting a whopping 47% from three ). Of course Sheed should play in the paint more. That's exactly the point. He shouldn't be taking threes at all if he misses 2 in a row. A 30% three point shooter is Josh Smith like. No way he should be jacking up almost 5 threes a game. If that's what the Celtic offense produces, that is absolute insanity. But here's what you have to ask yourself. Why is Sheed always out on the perimeter, if Doc doesn't want him shooting so many outside shots? Isn't that the same beef that most of the fan base has with Woody, when we see Smoove constantly 15 - 23 feet away from the basket? So when he gets the ball with the shot clock running down, he's usually 18 feet away? At least now, Smoove won't jack up the 3 pointer, but he'll occasionally take that long 2. I mean damn . . . over 50% of Sheed's shot attempts come from 3 . . . despite that he's shooting 30% ( oops . . I mean . . . 45% eFG on his jumpers ). I understand the eFG perfectly. I understand that if the league eFG average from three point range is for a guy to take around 2 threes a game, and make about 0.7 of them ( which turns out to be a 52.7% eFG . . or roughly an actual percentage of 35% 3FG ) . . that a guy shooting 30% eFG ( oops . . 45% eFG ) and taking almost 5 threes a game, has NO BUSINESS doing that. The offensive system shouldn't even be putting him in a position to do that. That's not a strength . . . that's a GLARING WEAKNESS. That's taking the ball away from the players who can be more efficient scorers.

It is hilarious, and they'll never give Woody credit. Even with Crawford, a guy who is having one of his most efficient seasons ever, he'll get no credit whatsoever. And you're exactly right. Our PG can't beat anybody off the dribble. Our post players struggle to create their own offense down on the blocks. And we really only have 2 players who can create off the dribble ( 2.5 players, if you count Smoove being somewhat successful in taking PFs off the dribble at times ) Yet, people want us to run a Phoenix style offense or some sort of pretty type offense with ball movement. Bring in Eddie Jordan, and his Princeton offensive system, was the cry from some over the summer. LOL . . we see how that is working out in Philly. They had to bring back a NOTORIOUS ISO PLAYER in Iverson, to help that offense out. The main goal should be offensive efficiency, no matter which offensive approach we take. People hated the grind it out, low risk of the New York Jets offense at the end of the year. But they went to that after their young QB really started to struggle. So the Jets played to their strengths as a team . . . run the ball extensively . . . and play shut down defense. The result saw the Jets make it into the playoffs, and make an improbable run to the AFC Championship game. Of course, the better team won, because they have a superstar running their offensive system and a solid defense around him. But Because the Jets played to their strengths, and didn't try to do what everyone else was doing, the made the most out of their season.

WHAT??!!! That's pure insanity right there. Isn't Pierce shooting in the mid-40s from 3 point range? WOW @ that stat for Rasheed. But then again, this is the same fan base that believes in thr eFG% so much, that they view a 34% 3 point shooter as being "good", because the eFG% on his threes is equal to a little over 50% FG when compared to 2 point shots. No . . a 34% 3FG shooter is usualy a very streaky shooter who shouldn't be jacking up no more than 2 threes a game. The fact is that a guy who is shooting 34% from three ( and especially if over 30% of his total shot attempts come from 3 ), will literally shoot you right out of most games. Sheed's three point bricks enabled us to come back in one of those Boston games. Boston fans ripped Sheed because he kept jacking up jumpers. People love Boston's system because of the movement. But like you said, if they're getting guys the ball who probably shouldn't be taking a number of shots in the first place, how good is the system really? You switch out JosH Smith and Kevin Garnett, and what do you have? You'll have Smoove taking more open 15 - 20 foot jumpers, while also doing more cutting to the basket to try to get layups. If he got the ball out on the perimeter, but the shot wasn't there, he'd be encouraged to pass the ball, rather than take his man off the dribble. On our side, you'd have KG ( if healthy ) down on the blocks, going ISO on his man to shoot his patented baseline jumper . . . or passing out to one of our shooters JJ, Bibby, Jamal, etc, if the opponent doubled him. Which player would be more successful if they were to switch teams?

Well it took awhile, but some of those guys finally heard you. Thank goodness too, because a nuclear bomb was about to go off on this board and on the AJC.com Hawks blog.

No doubt. I love this version of JJ. "Facilitator JJ" is a good player that can score and also set up his teammates. "Scorer JJ" is a good player who looks to take over the game with his scoring. It's Scorer JJ that I want to see in the playoffs. The guy that doesn't hesitate to put the team on his back if need be. He's playing like a top 5 player in the league for the last 3 or so weeks.

. . . for another PLAYERS ONLY meeting. This rebounding situation is getting ridiculous. We're making Camby look like Dkiembe Mutumbo.

Truth, that's what Woody has been preaching since he's been here. That's why he doesn't give a (( blank )) about the offense . . because he constantly preaches on the importance of rebounding and defense. That's the reason why he's always told his frontcourt players to grab a rebound, and push the ball up the floor if they have the opportunity to do so. The frontcourt rebounding was an issue even before the season started though. It was honestly a problem last year. But we chose to address the PG issue, because of the uncertain status of Bibby. We just can't catch a break with these draft picks. When we draft a guy who was a big time rebounder and a supposedly tough defender, he turns out to be a soft dude who doesn't have the athleticism to be a force on the NBA level ( Shelden ). When we draft a PG to run the team, he can't shoot or finish when going to the rim ( Law, Teague ). LOL . . and we're missing out on the better player each time. Who wouldn't rather have Dejuan Blair on this team right now, than Jeff Teague? Even if Dejuan's knees won't hold up for more than 5 years, he would be great to bring off the bench for this team, or even insert into the lineup when the Hawks are struggling to rebound.

JJBacker . . when I saw that Bradley article, I made it my mission to tear that ish apart piece by piece, because it was pure BS. It's almost like people are deliberately trying to cause some sort of rift on this team, to either sabotage the season, discredit Woody, or run JJ out of town. You see the article that Bradley wrote, and compare it to the article Schultz wrote a few days earlier, and you really have to wonder what the hell is going on in Atlanta. I know those guys ( especially Schultz ) have spent years ripping the Hawks. But now that the Hawks are a legit team, and having their best season in over a decade, they still can't write any positive articles about this team. Then you have some in the fan base who are hypercritical of JJ for some crazy reason right now. They're acting like a jealous boyfriend or something. JJ hasn't offensively played this well since he first got here. The games he's having on the road alone ( especially in big games ), shows how he's improving as a player. Just take a look at some of the games he's had when he's led the Hawks in scoring, but we end up losing the game. This is for those people who say that JJ doesn't show up for big games. - Nov 1 @ Lakers: ( JJ – 27 points, 8 – 16 FG, 9 rebs ) - Nov 26 vs Orlando: ( JJ – 22 points, 9 – 21 FG ) - Dec 4 vs Knicks: ( JJ – 29 points, 12 – 24 FG . . also had 8 rebs and 8 assists ) - Dec 19 @ Chicago: ( JJ – 40 points, 16 – 32 FG ) - Dec 30 @ Cleveland: ( JJ – 35 points, 15 – 25 FG ) - Jan 1 vs Knicks: ( JJ – 28 points, 12 – 30 FG, 8 rebs, 5 asst ) - Jan 27 @ San Antonio – ( JJ – 31 points, 15 – 26 FG ) - Jan 30 @ Orlando – ( JJ – 19 points, 8 – 16 FG . . 7 assists ) - Feb 2 @ Oklahoma City - ( JJ - 37 points, 13 - 20 FG )

It's always funny to see how our opponents view us. Some of you guys need to get into the habit of reading our opponents blogs right after we play them. They way they view the Hawks, compared to the way Hawks fan view the team, is like night and day. Dang near everyone fears the Johnson - Crawford duo . . . but Hawks fans spend time worrying about which guy is trying to outdo the other, and why that is a selfish act.

That's kind of the worst case scenario for us . . . or a great one, if Boston played Cleveland or Orlando in the 1st Round, and knocked them off. I remember the year in which the Knicks had major injuries ( I think in 1999 ). They were a real good team at full strength, but because of injuries, ended up being the #8 seed in the East. I believe that was the infamous Allan Houston shot in Game 7, that beat the #1 seeded Heat that year.

LOL @ this thread. It's just shameful. I've pretty much disproven everything that has been said in this thread . . . but I did it in Bradley's blog in that article. If I weren't at work right now, I'd copy and paste everything I wrote over there this morning, and post it here ( outside of my first post . . which I basically copied and pasted from my first post here ). If he leaves, it's not because of his play. He's playing better than he did last year, contrary to popular belief. if he leaves, It'll be partially because the writers and some of you fans don't appreciate the guy at all. Hopefully the Hawks management doesn't share the same views as some of our fans. LOL . . his usage is the same, but his "nimbers" are up despite playing lesser minutes . . yet . . people have a problem with that? I guess people don't want JJ playing or trying to play at a superstar level for some reason. And why do people continue to have this JJ vs Jamal discussion? Why can't people view them as a lethal scoring combination that compliments each other . . . instead of players who are supposedly jealous of each other? When you view the highlights of the Boston game on NBA.com, he sure didn't look like a jealous dude to me. He was the first one off the bench when Crawford hit the half court shot. And you saw him stand up on the bench and say something to him as he was making one of his threes in that game. Crawford reacts the same way when he's on the bench and JJ has it going. You fans and you media writers trying to creat some JJ vs Jamal thing really need to cut that out. Start viewing them as a duo, if you have a hard time appreciating each player's individual game.