TheNorthCydeRises

JJ could go for 40, and it wouldn't matter one bit if the rest of the team plays like ish. You guys need to make up your miinds about JJ. Do you want him to be a team player that gets everyone involved . . or do you want him taking 30 shots a game? Instead of wishing for JJ to go for 50, how about asking Smoove and Marvin to step up. It's like I said folks. It's the frontline that's keeping us from getting to that next level. They're the ones to most likely disappear in games like these. Not JJ or Bibby. Odom is killing us AGAIN on the boards. I wonder why?

We had 3 so-called statement games early last year ( @ Orlando, @ New Orleans, and @ Boston ). We won 2 of them and lost to Boston at the buzzer. Those wins helped us get to the good start, but those wins didn't translate to the Hawks being a good road team. The Hawks lost way too many road games against mediocre and bad teams. The elite teams in this league feast on the lesser teams at home and on the road. Those same elite teams usually struggle on another elite team"s home court. That's why when some of our fans freaked out over a preseason road beatdown, I downplayed it. Stuff like that happens on the road . . to EVERYBODY. But when you lose like that at home, it may be more psychologically damaging. If the Hawks lose by 2 or by 20 against the Lakers, it really doesn't matter. It's still a loss. But if they lose tonight, and turn around and beat Portland Tuesday night, that'll say a lot more to me than a Laker win. It's games against teams who are below or at our level, that we usually lose way too many on the road. So if we beat the Lakers, but lose to Sacramento, will the Laker win really mean anything?

Buit having said that, if Crawford is hot, Woody will do just like he did with Flip last year, and extend his minutes. The fact that both guys can play 2 positions, makes it easier for Woody to leave a hot Crawford in the game, while playing JJ at the same time.

Do some of you guys even watch the games? Even if JJ is cold, who is going to at least try to keep Kobe in check? Crawford? Evans? Oh I know . . let's ask Marvin to guard Kobe, while trying to guard Artest at the same time. People routinely forget that JJ is by far our best perimeter defender. But 75% of Hawk fans only worry about offense, and not the defense. And when has JJ EVER turned into a ball hog when he's played one of those elite teams? If anything, he defers a little TOO MUCH and needs to look for his shot a little more against those caliber of teams. Even with that, he still plays within the team concept and racks up the assists. In the Boston game ( @ Boston ) last November, JJ shot the ball 23 times ( which is a hell of a lot for him ), making 9 shots. That's under 40% shooting. But he . . - went to the line I think 8 times - had 7 assists - scored 28 points - would've had the game winning assist on Marvin's 3 pointer, if not for Paul Pierce's incredible shot over Horford. I mean damn . . either some of you guys really don't like JJ, or you just don't watch the games. Crawford was hot in the 1st half of the Washington game. In the 2nd half, he missed all 5 of his shots, had 1 free throw make, and 0 assists. So Woody did the right thing and sat him down. Unlike JJ, Crawford can't be trusted to contribute on the other end of the floor.

LOL . . I'm surprised that he didn't describe this as a "must win game". It's obvious that those guys aren't even thinking about that preseason debacle . . . mainly because it was a PRESEASON GAME. Asking JJ to score 35 points . . in LA . . is silly, mainly because JJ is a playmaker type on the Hawks, and not a volume scorer. A great game for JJ in LA, would be for him to score 20 - 25 points, shoot close to 50% FG, and get 7+ assists. Teams usually beat the Lakers with a great TEAM EFFORT, not a great individual effort. I'd much rather see JJ go for 22 pts - 9 assts . . . than to get into a shootout with Kobe. Woodyball is a team oriented concept . . not a one-man scoring show. But no matter how well JJ plays, it won't matter if the Hawks frontline doesn't step up big time.

Good thing that JJ isn't as scary as the fan base. That dude willingly guards the best SG or SF on a nightly basis, so having to go up against Crazy Ron or Kobe isn't going to phaze him one bit. If anything, it'll motivate him. On the road and in back-to-backs, Crawford becomes the X-factor. If he plays aggressively, but under control, he can do some serous damage against that Laker 2nd unit. Hawks must contain Bynum. If we let him go for 16+ points and 8+ rebounds, Hawks probably lose. The more telling game for the Hawks will come on Monday night vs Portland. Having to play the night after we play the Lakers, will show just how much we can depend on the bench.

Good 4th quarter from Marvin, after being non-existant the entire game. 7 pts - 3 rebs in the qtr. And how about that 20 second sequence from Smoove. - cuts to the basket, catches feed from JJ, and makes a great pass to Horford for the dunk. - 15 seconds later, he blocks a 3 from Arenas ( whick gave him block #900 ) - 5 seconds later, he's catching a great alley-oop dunk from Bibby.

Damn . . Haywood doesn't have a rebound yet? Playing lazy like Eddy Curry. Hawks had a chance to end this game. Smoove getting that 4th foul hurt, along with sloppy play. LOL . . Philips Arena is like a day care center tonight. I got about ten 7 - 11 year olds on my row. Lead down to 8 . . pick it up ATL.

Teague got the quick hook . . lol. Oh well. He needed to be a little more under control. Evans definitely earning his minutes so far.

The crowd here is WEAK. Maybe 8,000 - 10,000 here at start of 2nd qtr. Surprising with this being a Friday night and the first weekend home game. I'll give them the benefit of the doub, and say that they went to Jacksonville for the Fl - G game. 2nd unit needs to hold the lead, if people want Woody to rest the starters.

I'm at the game. I LOVE Crawford's energy when he entered the game. Randy Foye has no chance in checking him. He can get past him anytime he wants. After that slow start, they really picked it up on defense. Arenas will have to play 40 minutes, and might have to score 40 points, to keep them in the game. Goood 1st quarter.

Wow . . . that site instantly becomes a top reference point for me the rest of the year. You can say that Woody panicked . . or that he did the right thing. Fact is, the 2nd unit was doing little to stop anybody in that game last night. So to win the game, Woody went to his starters. When you look at the "rest" JJ got in the middle of the 3rd, it seems like Woody had every intention of playing him the entire 4th if need be. When a guy is your best offensive and defensive player, that's just the way things will be when the games are close. I've been telling you guys about Crawford. If that guy doesn't have it going offensively, he becomes a liability, because he's NOT going to get the job done defensively. And to be honest, Teague has to be decent defensively as well. I'm like Hotlanta . . you can't let Earl Watson, of all people, go off like that. Woody will just have to keep experimenting with the lineup, to get the right mix in the game. Playing the entire bench in the game at the same time, probably isn't the way to go. He'll proabably have to keep at least one starter in at all times. Either that, or reduce the miniutes of either Teague or Joe Smith. But that game flow chart shows exactly why Woody did what he did. Like Woody said . . . he's not sacrificing games in order to get guys minutes. Good for him.

The quotes and all of those names being dropped definitely did that book in. If the referees named in the book wouldn've sued him, the NBA definitely would. He'd end up paying whatever profit he made off the book, back to the League when he lost the lawsuit. I like the pro werstling analogy. It may not be all the way real, but you can't admit that, in order to keep fans excited about the actual match and the eventual outcome. Having said that. - Steve Javie obviously didn't like Iverson, and would routinely let him get beat up driving to the basket. - Make-up calls definitely exist ( on both the NBA and NCAA levels ) - Superstars getting the benefit of the calls has existed since the NBA really became popular back in the 80s. - The Lakers - Portland playoff series was definitely a travesty ( although Portland has to blame themselves for missing all those shots in the 4th quarter ) My beef with the refs is the inconsistency. If you're gonna the call the game one way on one end, call it the same way on the other end.

It's amazing how people still doubt the best Hawk player since Dominique Wilkins. JJ will have a 11 point ( 4 - 15 FG game ) down the line though. So I guess the hate will return then.

Totally agree with you. Any shot of us possibly winning 50+ games depends on how we play on the road. Hubie Brown, on the Denver - Utah game, was talking about that very point in referene to Utah. The Jazz are one of the top home teams in the NBA, but they haven't posted a .500 or above record on the road since the days of Stockton and Malone. They're a totally different team on the road, than at home. Then he points out that what separates the BIG 3 in the East, and the Lakers, is that they win 26+ road games. Expecting 26 road wins may be asking too much from the Hawks. 21 wins is reachable though.

AMEN WOODY!!! Don't let the fact that you can go 10 deep, pressure you into playing someone more minutes than they should be playing. You do like Herman Edwards said . . ."You play to win the game." JJ played 39 minutes? Oh well. We won. Just don't play him that many miniutes on those back to back games, and he'll be fine. He should average 36 minutes a night minimum.

Wow . . I guess Smoove was serious about laying off the jumper. The play he made with under 2 min to go, when he passes up a wide open corner 3 . . drives to the hole . . and passes to Mo for a wide open 3 in the other corner that he makes, was one of the best fundamentally sound plays I've ever seen him make. This team needs to play better D on Granger and keep Hibbert off the boards in the 2nd half. And good lord, don't let Troy Murphy look like an All-NBA PF.

LOL . . we're all thinking the same thing. I was to about to title a thread called . . "The unofficial Hawks - Pacers game thread" ( with the subheading . . "until gsuteke creates one" ) Teke is the Joe Johnson of game threads, and we're just waiting to see what he'll do, like the rest of the Hawks do.

This is a potential "Thread of the Season" right here. Maybe even the greatest thread in Hawksquawk history, depending on if we win a lot of games when other teams have core guys out, but lose when a team is at full strength. I predict the thread will be at 12 pages by Christmas.

It's scary that Arenas actually played like a PG last night, than a gunner. Friday night, Arenas will probably look to shoot over the top of Bibby. But if he drives the lane, somebody needs to put him on his azz one time. We can't let that dude just penetrate at will. I do agree about Dallas though. JT had a horrible shooting night and they don't drive the ball at all. They have Arenas back, but Brendan Haywood being back helps that team as well. Wish we had a guy like him to bring off of our bench.

I read the thread all the way through. I guess I should've quoted the OP, instead of responding via fast reply, because my comment wasn't directed at everybody. It just kind of bugs me that people will freely criticize the core, but have so much of a high opinion of our scrubs and bench players, that they feel that they may be the difference for our team. Just because JJ isn't a rah rah, in your face guy, doesn't mean that he isn't a leader. And if Marvin ever got the ball passed to him in critical situations, he'd shoot the ball. But you have to touch the ball, before you shoot it. All I know is that if Teague struggles out the gate when the games actually count, this board will turn on that dude in a heartbeat. He'll get a quick baptism by fire, with us having to face Ford, Arenas, and the vet Derek Fisher. And in November, he'll have to go up against the likes of CP3, Billups, Rondo, Nelson, and Andre Miller. So we're all going to quickly see how good or bad this cat will be. All I'm saying is that before people start comparing Teague's potential game to future hall of famers, we should maybe just see how good he can make us first in REAL games. We all ( well, some of us . . myself included ) kind of hyped up Marvin to be more than what he really was. And I definitely did that with Law. So this time, I'm definitely having guarded optimism about the 7th PG taken in the draft.

54 wins isn't going to get us the #3 seed though. People must despise Vince Carter, if they think that adding him isn't a major upgrade over Turkoglu. Adding Shaq apparantely has no effect on Lebron's game when you look at last night's performance. And Rasheed Wallace gives Boston an extra frontline defender and shooter. I just don't get why people think those teams didn't do things to improve their squads. But Bradley values the collective contributions that Crawford, Joe Smith, Collins, and Teague will have on this team more than the former star vets that those other teams added? Nah. Not buying it. Our additions should make us better. But the Big 3, in my opinion, got better as well. It's almost like people are putting these lofty expectations on this team, so that they can blast Woody and the rest of the squad, if we aren't quite that good. I still say the key for us depends on how well the starters play. - Can JJ be a more consistent shooter? Or better yet, can we get the 2006 version of JJ, that was damn near a sharpshooter? - Will Smoove completely abandon the long jumper, and get back to being the stat sheet stuffer where he impacts the game in many ways? - Can Marvin become a 40% 3-point shooter, while also driving the ball to the hole? - Can Horford become a 12 rpg guy and a legit threat on the offensive end? - Can Bibby make more open shots and make people pay dearly for doubling JJ? If the starters can do that, the season may get very interesting.

LOL, if Solo goes for 18 pts - 12 rebs - 4 blks. That would be terrible. Shelden had a solid 4 pts - 3 reb game with Boston. David Andersen looked real good in Houston with 11 pts. Hopefully "Hack" Solo won't try to spoil opening night.

( praying to God ) God . . . please let the Hawks win tomorrow night, so the hysteria will stop. We all want to be elite so bad, but we all know deep down that we're not nowhere close to there yet. So Lord, please ease our minds as we watch the Hawks this week. Restore our confidence in our playmaking but emotionless SG, our athletic but inconsistent PF, and our sharpshooting but non-defense playing PG. Let us watch in delight, as our undersized C grabs rebound after rebound and flexes his muscles. Let us celebrate, as our much maligned SF knocks down a plethora of open jumpshots, while occasionally going hard to the hole. And if you could Lord, please let us beat the Lakers on the road, so that the fan base can forget the Orlando preseason debacle and worry about games that actually count. As you bless us with a LAKER WIN, our delusions of becoming a championship caliber team will return, and Hawksquawk will once again be a place of tranquility. These are the things we pray in honor of you . . . In ( insert whatever deity you choose to worship, or none at all ) name we Hawks fan pray . . . Amen.

You just gotta love the Squawk. Diss the core of the squad . . the squad that got us here in the first place . . but hype a rookie that missed all 15 shots in a game, but made ONE hustle play . . and wonder if he can be the next CP3 or Tony Parker ( who may be both future hall of famers? ) Wow. And go watch last November's gane @ Boston, before you diss JJ or Marvin. If it wasn't for Pierce hitting an incredible shot, JJ gets the game winning assist and Marvin hits the game winning shot. I'll be glad when the season starts, so all of this negativity and ish talking about our core guys will stop. NEWS FLASH . . . Without Bibby last year, we barely make the playoffs, if we even make it at all. As bad as his defense is, that guy hit some HUGE SHOTS since he's been a Hawk. Teague should work to be as good as Aaron Brooks in Houston, before he even thinks about being as good as Tony Parker.