TheNorthCydeRises

I agree, although I do think they need change up their defensive schemes from time to time. I don't like the unnecessary double teaming that they do sometimes, because if they don't get a steal or a deflection, they leave people wide open. Bibby, early in games, almost refuses to fight through screens, or even know if they're coming. His defensive awareness is non-existant at times. But you're right, in the 4th quarter, even he plays better defense. At 6 - 5, Jamal may be a better PG to employ the switching defense with. But he doesn't have the greatest defensive awareness either or the desire to fight through screens. Hopefully, Woody can put him in positions to make his defense better. And the intensity shown from his teammates at times, should force him to want to be better. When Smoove is focused defensively though, it's a beautiful thing. He may not be the best "on the ball" defender, but his awareness is great at times.

Well . . we've already have seen the backlash when Woody tried to give JJ rest when he was on fire, and played the bench ( including Teague ). The fan base had a fit. Even though the move didn't affect the game much, people went crazy. vs Indy, JJ plays 39 minutes . . the fan base has a fit vs the Blazers, he plays JJ 46 minuttes, and the fan base has a fit. Then he plays 37 minnutes last night, and the fan base still questions that, because our beloved rookie only got 5 minutes of PT, instead of a DNP No other coach in this league would DARE reduce the minutes of their star player, or their star 6th man, just to make time for the 10th man on the roster. That's what Teague is folks . . the 10th man. If anything, most coaches would be playing EVANS more with Crawford, in order to get JJ the extra "rest". At least with that move, you put a guy out there who can adequately defend the 2, while leaving Crawford at the point. So fault Woody for not playing Evans more to give JJ more "rest". If you pair Teague with Crawford, Teague is going to have to start making some defensive plays, to justify the type of playing time people want to see. Especially if Crawford is dominating the ball and has complete control of the team. I agree that if anything, Teague needs to be playing alongside JJ more, and not Crawford. This allows Teague to play the point and control the action. But somebody's PT is going to get cut somewhere. Even if you cut JJ's PT by 4 minutes last night, and give it to Teague, he's still only playing 9 minutes. If he cuts Crawford's time, when Crawford is having another great game, he'd get criticized for that. Ish, I haven't been Jamal's biggest fan over the years, and even I would criticize Woody for reducing his time just to play Teague last night. If you cut Bibby's time, it means the Teague - Crawford backcourt plays together more . . . a backcourt that has yet to prove that it can slow down anybody, let alone stop. If Teague comes into that game late in the 3rd, and the 5 point lead Sacramento had, balloons to a 9 point lead, guess who gets the blame? Despite being 4 - 1, for Woody, it's damned if he does . . damned if he doesn't.

Joe hasn't said "show me the money". All JJ has said is that I'm not foolish enough to sign a 4yr - 60 mill extension, when he knows that he could potentially lock down a contract that could pay him an extra 15 - 40 million over the life of a contract, because of an extra 5th or 6th year. That's why NONE of the UFAs in 2010 signed extensions. I think it's going to take a minimum 5 yr - 80 mill deal to bring this dude back ( which is what I've been saying all along ). All you have to do is look around the league, and see what is up and look at what teams need. The better JJ plays, the more desperate they will be to get him. The key to all of this will be how successful of a year we have durng the 1st half of the season, and if JJ will get major credit for it. And the big question: If we have a real successful season, could he be enticed to stay here for less money, to keep the team intact? Sund has to do what Babcock was afraid to do back in 1994 with Dominique . . . and that is let this thing play itself out. He and the ASG CANNOT be afraid to lose JJ for nothing. If the Hawks are showing that they're right there at the top of the conference, you have to see if JJ and the Hawks can get it done and at least get us to the ECF. As great of a talent Crawford is, his talent is offensive ONLY. JJ has offensive and defensive talent, a rareity in a player in this league. That's why he'll be so valuable to teams. If you trade him, you can't trade him for a complimentary player. You have to trade him for a bonafide scorer. I said before the season that the guy we played last night, Kevin Martin, might be the dude they try to get in a JJ trade. But Sacramento would be CRAZY to give him up. So management just needs to let this thing play itself out, and don't bite on any "fools gold" type deals that may come their way at the trading deadline ( like bringing in a Monta Ellis or somebody ) It's early, but I think the move they may consider making, is trading Marvin for decent, but expiring contract(s). If they do that, they may not disrupt the chemistry of the team that much, but it'll also mean that Joe Smith and especially Mo Evans ( or whatever player we'll get in a deal ) will have to step up big time. If they go that route, trading Marvin for a deal(s) that expire next summer should free up enough money to re-sign JJ at all costs, if it came to that. We WON'T get equal value back in a deal like that though, so we shouldn't expect it. Just like Sacramento didn't get back equal value when they traded Bibby to us for Shelden, AJ, and Lue. All they wanted was the extra cap room. Personally, I wouldn't do a damn thing. Worry about all of this when the season is over, hopefully, after a very deep playoff run. But overpaying for JJ ( if they view it like that ) isn't a bad thing, if it keeps us a playoff caliber team and near the top of the EC.

When he's playing SF with Crawford and Bibby in the backcourt, he's really making it a point to get in position to get defensive rebounds. It helps that he actually blocks people out. JJ is really grinding this year on offense and defense.

And yet, we're only up 1 at halftime . . because we can't stop them either . . and those damn turnovers that go the other way for easy points. We need Horford and Smoove to really turn the intensity up on that frontcourt on both ends of the floor. That's where the advantage should be. This 3rd quarter needs to be the time where we get a little separation. If not, Kevin Martin is much too dangerous of a shooter, and we might have to fight like hell for letting them stay in the game.

Yep. It's frustrating too. Because like he's been showing with the Hawks, he can damn near take anybody off the dribble. He's gone to the basket more than I've ever seen him do it in his career. You have to wonder if someone is in his ear, telling him to drive the basketball whenever he can ( like the coach ). Because when you look at his jumpshooting, he's only 3 - 14 from 3 point range. And that's even after hitting 2 last night. So as long as he keeps driving the ball into the lane, and not constantly settling for the jumper all the time, we'll be OK. However, when "Crawful" does emerge, Woody cannot hesitate to put that dude back on the bench. He has to really watch Crawford every game, to make sure that he doesn't shoot us into a deeper decifit. And he can't have in his mind that he has to play Crawford 25 - 30 min a game every night. I can't wait for 82games.com to finally update their site for this season. Crawford has to be seeing at least 25% of his shots be from close range. If that's the case, that's great.

I've always liked Oakley far more than Ewing. Of those players in that Knick frontcourt, Ewing was the most talented, but easily the softest. And he's definitely telling the truth on how a team should be constructed. He mentioned the outside-inside scorers on a team. Those are usually the most successful teams, if they have players around them that don't mind playing defense and doing all of the little things to help you win. And he's dead on about Toronto. They have way too many offensive guys, and not enough guys who are willing to defend people. If their offensive people could play D, then they'd be OK. But if they sign Bosh, they may have to think about dealing Bargnani to get better pieces around Bosh. If they don't re-sign Bosh, use that money to get other people. Turkoglu was defnitely the wrong move, in my opinion, because he needs the ball just like Bargnani, Bosh, and Calderon do That's a team that would've been better off going after a defender/shooter like Trevor Ariza, than Hedo The mid 2000s T-Wolves are probably the best example of this. PG - Cassell G - Trenton Hassell ( perimeter defensive specialist ) F - Spreewell PF - Garnett C - Ervin ( not Magic ) Johnson ( good man defensive center that kept KG at PF at times ) And had bench players like Mark Madsen ( rebounder, energy guy ), Fred Hoiberg ( shooter ), and Eddie Griffin ( soft big man, but could block shots ). Hudson and Szczerbiak were hurt most of the year. That Minnesota team won 55+ games and made it to the WC Finals, losing to the Lakers ( mainly because Cassell was hobbled ). But by no means did they have a team full of stars. Trenton turned reputation as a premier defensive specialist into McHale giving him a 5yr - 25 mill contract in 2005. Now, he's rotting on the bench in Jersey . . but because of McHale, he'll make around 5 mill doing it.

One of the things that I said when we acquired Joe Smith, is that I thought that Marvin was still a better PF than Joe was. Whenever Smoove was hurt, most of the time it was Marvin who started at PF. It's bad enough for Marvin to have to look at 3 guards who like to shoot the basketball. Now, he even has Joe Smith taking his minutes at PF. When Marvin plays the 4, he can do all of the things you talked about. He played well last year when he played the 4. Technically, he could still do it at the 3. The problem though is spacng. If you post Marvin, and have Horford on the other side, and have Josh Smith somewhere out on the wing, 2 things could happen: 1) the defense simply decides to play Marvin straight up, with maybe help coming from Horford's man on the other side, and see if Marvin can score. 2) Marvin catches the ball in the post, and the man guarding Josh Smith races over to double Marvin, leaving Smoove wide open. If I'm the the opposing team, I'm doing #2, and leaving Smoove open for the long jumper. I'm making him make that shot, instead of letting Marvin go against a smaller SF. But I think what Marvin has to do ( and I mentioned this in another post ), is to adopt a Josh Childress mentality, when he's not having plays called for him or the ball swung his way. Because Chill used to camp out by the 3-point line on the baseline as well. But when that shot went up, he was crashing the offensive glass HARD. With Marvin's length and bulk, I don't see why he couldn't do the same thing. As the season progresses, he's going to have to become our "energy guy", while still knocking down open shots and taking the ball to the hole. If Woody isn't going to make a point to use him on offense, he needs to find ways to get his offense on his own. You would think that since he plays the wing, that he'd get a lot more fast break dunks by filling the wing. But it's Smoove and Horford that seems to be out on the break receiving passes for dunks. Sucks for Marvin, but he's just going to have to start converting on every limited opportunity he gets. If he takes that 1st three, make sure he makes it. If he makes his 2nd straight three, you may see his teammates start looking for him, to make that 3rd straight three. He's just going to have to help himself out. If I'm Marvin, I'm taking every wide open jumper or path to the hole I see, to try to generate offense. But he's going to have to want to do that.

But Rondo didn't have a Mike Bibby or a Jamal Crawford playing in front of him, that could take some of his minutes at the point. With a combo guard as good as Crawford can be at times, you can easily justify not playing Teague AT ALL. If Bibby played 30 minutes a night, and JJ 35 minutes a night, you could easily justify giving Crawford the rest of the 18 minutes at PG and 13 minutes at SG, so that Crawford plays 31 minutes a game. If JJ couldn't also play the 3, we'd probably do just that. Most teams, I think, would do that. If Crawford works out for us the entire year, teams that could've used a creative scorer like Cleveland, Miami, and New Orleans will be kicking themselves. The "superstar version" of Crawford, along with Lebron, would be absolutely scary.

And comparing our situation to Cleveland's is silly as hell. We have JJ, Crawford, and Bibby . . guys who would ALL be starters in Cleveland. Even if you just put Bibby in Cleveland, he starts over Mo Williams . . . and plays 28 - 32 minutes a night. - then you'll have Mo Williams, who would get his playing time ( 20 - 25 minutes a game ) - then you'll have Delonte West, who can play both the 1 and the 2, so he might see 10 - 15 minutes a game. - so who's the odd man out? DANIEL GIBSON . . . just like he was the odd man out last year in a few of Cleveland's playoff games. With a guard the caliber of Bibby, no way Cleveland tries to play 4 smallish guards every night. I mean heck . . even Jordan Farmar of the Lakers got some DNP's in games last year. And he's proven himself at times for Phil Jackson and the Lakers. But in his situation, Shannon Brown played so well at times ( and proved he can play a little PG ), that Phil didn't even get Farmar into games last year. As long as Teague proves he'll be an asset, he'll play. But no sense in having concern, just because he didn't play last night.

Nobody is against the kid getting minutes. But after we fall behind by 12 points in the first quarter, and was losing the entire game until the 3rd, it's pretty easy to see why Woody went with Bibby and a red hot Crawford at the point, rather than give Teague time. Teague needs the ball in his hands to be effective. Bibby doesn't. Bibby can play off of people and knock down shots. So when we're basically running everything through Crawford, Teague's effectiveness is limited . . until he can prove that he can affect a game on the defensive end. When he does that, Woody will definitely give him spot minutes. I think it was more of the situation we were in last night that kept Teague off the floor. The decision to keep him off, so that Crawford and JJ could keep the ball in their hands, was OBVIOUSLY the correct decision last night. Bibby playing the minutes he played can be debated. But Bibby's presence on the floor always puts an opposing defense on notice. You can't risk leaving him open for 3's. The threat of that prevents teams from doubling Crawford, when both JJ and Bibby are playing with him. It also makes it easier on JJ. It's funny though. This is the EXACT lineup that people were looking forward to before the season started. The Bibby - Crawford - JJ attack. So instead of Woody being praised for going with that lineup . . the lineup that helped win the game . . he gets questioned because he didn't play the rookie. Like playing in that particular game is going to kill Teague's confidence or something. It's just some in the fan base, digging under garbage cans again, trying to find fault with something . . even though we got a big road win.

Dre doesn't tire out. Dre would've posted Teague up down on the blocks, or backed him down, forcing us to double Miller. He racked up a lot of assists last night. If Teague had to guard him, he may have had even more points and assists. As for "Channel Zero", that's one of the more underrated rap/rock songs in music history. Not a big heavy metal fan, but Rick Rubin's guitar rift in that song was hardcore. Public Enemy were geniuses with their social commentary in their songs.

I agree. We all didn't like how we lost to the Lakers, but I don't think anybody expected a Hawk win in that game either. So winning @ Portland and being 3 - 1 is exactly where we want to be. Just have to avoid the upset at Sacramento tonight. If we drop that game, the Portland win is somewhat tarnished. I think the Charlotte game, after having to travel all the way back cross country, may be a far tougher game for us. Damn . . I wish I could be at the Denver game on Saturday. Hopefully, the fans will show up and have Philips rocking that night.

Let's keep it real about Teague for a minute. He played very well . . in gargabe time . . in a blowout in LA. Has Teague done anything to warrant Bibby seeing his playing time cut? Or better yet, has Bibby done anything to see his PT cut? He's only more athletic and faster than Bibby. He's not a better passer . . or a better shooter . . or a better ball handler . . or a better guy to run the team. I forget who pointed this out, but after the Washington game, somebody said that it may not be a good idea to play Teague with Crawford, because they are similar style players. I don't totally agree with that, but I do see where he is coming from with this train of thought. In that game, Teague did struggle a little, in terms of picking his spots to be aggressive. And when Crawford got it going in that quarter, it was easy for Woody to pull the kid, and just go back with Bibby at the point, or keep Jamal at the point. He had a play where he was a little out of control, and Woody got him out of the game immeadiatey. If a game is tight, Woody is simply going to trust his veteran PG ( Bibby ) over the rookie, or he's gonna let Crawford run the show. ( edit ) Good point Traceman, about Miller's post up ability in regards to Teague. Miller is like how Anthony Johnson was down on the blocks ( especialy during AJ's days in Jersey and Indiana ). For a point guard, Miller does a real good job posting smaller guards up and scoring on them. The more you look at the game, the more you have to appreciate how the coaching staff really thought out everything, especially on defense. Putting Marvin, of all people, on Miller for a short stretch, was a damn good coaching move to protect Crawford from possibly picking up cheap fouls.

LOL . . it's obvious isn't it? Like you said . . . damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

That's how this team has to win games. When things aren't going right for you, you can always stay within striking distance if you defend and rebound. When you do that, all it takes is for one guy to get hot, to get you back in the game. The fact that Jamal came into the game and IMMEADIATELY started making shots, when we were down 10, was big time. And the defense just kept getting better and better as the night wore on. Superstar Jamal was definitely on display last night. And you gotta love JJ. Shooting like crap in the 1st half, then stepping it up on both offense and defense in the 2nd half. Shutting down Roy in that 2nd half, a guy that most people think is better than JJ, was the deciding factor in that game. Tonight, let's see how we defend Kevin Martin, because that dude can shoot the hell out of the basketball. Their frontline isn't the strongest, so this may be a game in which Smoove, Horford, or even Marvin may break out offensively. Good good win last night.

Give this man a prize. He has the right answer. Brandon Roy would've eaten Crawford alive, and may have gotten him in foul trouble, reducing his effectiveness. The move also prevented the Blazers from all out doubling Crawford, allowing him to go one on one and stay aggressive offensively. Yeah, Woody could've played Teague, but he played it safe tonight. If anything, Woody could've given Mo Evans more minutes, and rested JJ whenever Roy went to the bench. With the starters playing heavy minutes @ Portland, we'll see if the bench will be more of a factor tonight vs the Kings.

First off, we're not going to be able to afford Rudy in 2010, because we won't have enough cap room to do it . . unless his value drops significantly . . or we trade somebody(ies) to free up money for the summer. And Memphis will probably match any reasonable offer sheet for him. He's the "Smoove of Memphis". He's not their best player, but easily their most exciting and most marketable player. But you know why Memphis is letting the market decide the price for Rudy? They did it for the same reason why we did it with Smoove and Marvin. He's a good player, but not a guy you want as your #1 scoring option, because of his inconsistency. He's a guy that you want as a complimentary player to a star. Rudy is far more athletic than JJ, but you're not going to get the playmaking, defense, and decision making that you get from JJ, out of Rudy. That's going to be the major problem, if the Hawks decide that JJ is too expensive to keep. That dude can pretty much do it all . . at a level lower than Wade . . but better than 85% of the rest of the guards/small forwards in the league. Plus he plays defense on top of all of that. And his size and bulk makes him even more unique and difficult to replace. I wonder how much he and his agent were asking for? No way was he getting anything over 10 million. Knowing the Griz, they probably want to pay him Marvin type money. On the Hawks, we'd have to start Crawford, and bring either Rudy or Marvin off the bench. Marvin is probably the guy to go to the bench, if we got Rudy.

After what happened Sunday night, when Woody rested JJ in the Laker game, I don't think many people are going to be upset after JJ played 46 minutes tonight, and we get a win in one of the most hostile buildings in the league. Or maybe they will. No sense in enjoying a rare road win against a good team. Might as well bytch about JJ's minutes in the 4th game of the season, and blame Woody. I'm sure the "why didn't Teague play" thread is next. The cycle continues.

Very good win by this team tonight. This is definitely the one game on this trip that I was looking forward to. Portland, for right now, is the right team for us to measure ourselves by. This is a very good home team, with one of the loudest arenas in the league. For once, we didn't get rattled, we battled the entire game, and we finished the game off. To win 50+ games, we don't necessarily have to win in Boston or LA, but we do have to win in places like Portland, Dallas and Miami. Eventually, we do need to pull off one or two wins vs the top level teams, but I'll settle for a win @ Portland for right now. Very good win by this team tonight. This is definitely the one game on this trip that I was looking forward to. Portland, for right now, is the right team for us to measure ourselves by. This is a very good home team, with one of the loudest arenas in the league. For once, we didn't get rattled, we battled the entire game, and we finished the game off. To win 50+ games, we don't necessarily have to win in Boston or LA, but we do have to win in places like Portland, Dallas and Miami. Eventually, we do need to pull off one or two wins vs the top level teams, but I'll settle for a win @ Portland for right now. Very good win by this team tonight. This is definitely the one game on this trip that I was looking forward to. Portland, for right now, is the right team for us to measure ourselves by. This is a very good home team, with one of the loudest arenas in the league. For once, we didn't get rattled, we battled the entire game, and we finished the game off. To win 50+ games, we don't necessarily have to win in Boston or LA, but we do have to win in places like Portland, Dallas and Miami. Eventually, we do need to pull off one or two wins vs the top level teams, but I'll settle for a win @ Portland for right now.

Yep. This is reminiscent of what he did in the Washington game. He came in and did a great job in scoring the basketball in a variety of ways. LOL @ how this dude always manages to draw fouls on his jumpers. Good job JC. ( just don't also do like you did in the Wizards game, in which you missed all of your 2nd half shots, and scored only 1 point ) 1st half notes: - JJ . . . ICE COLD . . . and not the good ice cold either. But he has to play D on Roy to at least slow him down a little ( that isn't working either ). Just keep playing. If the shot ain't falling, keep dishing and rebounding. - Zaza . . . I kind of had a feeling that Zaza may could do some damage tonight, but I wasn't sure. Good energy by him. - Crawford . . . fabulous performance in that 2nd quarter. That's why you're on the squad. When JJ is cold, we need you to pick up the slack. - Marvin . . . hit the boards early in that 1st quarter . . leads us with 6 boards and has 5 points ( Webster . . . 0 points - 1 rebound ) - Horford and Smoove . . . we need you guys a little more active in that 2nd half. If the scoring isn't there ( Horford ), just do the little things. Smoove, please continue to stay in the paint and get your points. - Bibby . . it'll be nice if you heated up a little to start the 3rd quarter.

Right. Marvin is the one guy on the team that doesn't shy away from contact. His problem is getting him going in the first place. If Smoove can't be the "energy guy" on a particular night, Marvin needs to look to see if he can be the "energy guy". Too bad we can't channel some of Josh Childress' rebound energy and hustle into Marvin. He'll probably bounce back and have a good night, like Smoove probably will.

Damn . . I wanted Aldridge to be able to go tonight. If we win, we'll have to add this game to the Hawks opponent injury list thread. A lot of interesting battles and focus points tonight. JJ vs Roy . . which has for the past 2 years been a very interesting battle. These guys have gone right at each other. They both pretty much play the same role for their team. Marvin vs Webster . . to me, this is the deciding matchup of the night. Webster looked good at times in the opener vs Denver. And although Carmelo ended up torching him, he was very aggressive on defense guarding Melo. Marvin can't let Webster outplay him tonight. Even if Marvin struggles scoring the ball, he has to prevent Martell from chipping in 12 - 15 points. It'll be nice to get a 15 point - 7 rebound from Marvin tonight. Horford vs Oden . . Al definitely won't back down from Old Man Oden, but Oden does pose a problem with his shotblocking. Al must be aggressive and make Oden work on both ends of the floor. Crawford vs Andre Miller . . these are the types of matchups that Crawford must win. Miller can take Crawford to the hole anytime he wants, while Crawford shouldn't have any problem shooting over Miller. Crawford has to at least slow Miller down, and not let him take over the game when playing with the 2nd unit. The problem is going to come when Crawford is at the 2, JJ isn't in the game, but Roy is. This forces Crawford to guard Roy . . . not good . . unless Woody instructs Evans or Marvin ( if he's in ) to guard Brandon, and Crawford to guard the SF ( which still may not be good ) Smoove vs Outlaw? . . usually, Lamarcus gives him major problems, because he simply wears Smoove out with the midrange jumper. But Smoove is able to get his too, because Lamarcus doesn't play defense. He'll have his hands full with Outlaw, if they start him at the 4. Travis will make Smoove guard him out on the perimeter, which could expose Smoove defensively and take him out of rebounding position sometimes. Smoove is going to have to make a point to either drive the basketball, or go down on the blocks and make plays from there. If he has trouble scoring, expect another high assist game from him ( 5 or more ). He needs to grab 8+ rebounds tonight as well. Bibby vs Blake . . they play alike, so this is a secondary matchup. Blake plays off of Roy well on offense, so Steve will get some wide open looks from 3. Mainly, Bibby just can't let Blake get 2 or 3 uncontested looks at threes, because Blake will knock the shot down. Bibby just needs to be Bibby. Run the squad, don't turn the ball over, and knock down open shots. I've always looked at Portland as a team that most mirrors the Hawks. They're like our twin brother that lives out West: - they had to gut their old team around the same time we did, and start from scratch with a bunch of young talent - they don't really have a guy that can consistently score down on the blocks . . or is willing to do it. - they tend to fold against powerful frontlines, especially Aldridge - they are great at home, but struggle mightily on the road. - they have a young talented PG that isn't ready for primetime yet ( Bayless ) - they have an All-Star 2 guard that pretty much dictates the flow of the game and has the entire offense ran through him . . and asks him to do way too much on both ends of the floor. - they have their version of Marvin . . in Martell Webster, a young guy who was taken too high based on his "potential", but has yet to breakout as a player. Like Marvin though, he's solid enough to be a starter and contribute on most nights. - they have a well known PG that they acquired from another team who has talent, but is widely criticized for his inconsistent shooting. - they have a talented PF that many think can be a star, but doesn't rebound as well as he should, and doesn't give Portland an inside scoring presence. - they can easily go 10 deep, because of the plethora of talent on the squad. - and like us, they have aspirations of getting to that next level, but have MAJOR OBSTACLES standing iin the way of that.

Your boy, Zach Randolph ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED Jason Thompson last night to the tune of 30 points and 16 rebounds. Zebo looked like Karl Malone in that game, scoring down on the block and knocking down mid-range jumpers. If Memphis can somehow become a 30 - 35 win team this year, Zach is going to get some Most Improved Player votes. He's playing great in Memphis so far. On the Hawks, he's instantly be our go to guy on the interior on offense. He's also a better rebounder than Smoove and arguably just as good on the boards as Horford. The main thing with Zach is defense. People would have a fit if we traded Zach for Smoove. The trade would instantly make us a more efficient halfcourt team and a better rebounding team, but worst defensively.

Our "bigs" have to look to draw fouls and get to the free throw line. That's the one way they can neutralize the big men they go up against. I'm really looking forward to seeing how they will attack Greg Oden tonight. That guy fouls as much as Solo. But the Blazers usually look to get him involved early in games. NJHAWK called it 3 years ago, when he stated that Oden's ceiling as a player might be as good as Dikembe Mutumbo on offense . . instead of the all-time great centers he was being compared to. He's not even close to Dikembe right now. But if the Hawks play soft, he'll get his points and may get Horford in foul trouble. So I think we need to attack him first, before he tries to attack us.