TheNorthCydeRises

And for the record, I'm not against Sund waiting to re-sign Woody. It's just like the JJ situation to me. The more successful season we have, the more it'll take to re-sign him. So to avoid that, try to lock him up right now. But of course, Woody is not JJ. Woody is viewed as highly expendible because of the lack of respect he gets from the fan base. But no matter how much people dislike this statement, Woody is one of the MAJOR reasons why we're in the position we're in right now. So if he can get this team to win on the road, and turn Crawford into an efficient player, then he's going to be deserving of a SIGNIFICANT contract upgrade. That's just reality folks.

LOL Anakin. Don't tell them that man. Have them keep believing that the ASG can and will get any coach they want, if Woody is fired. That's the mentality us Tennessee Vols fans had when they fired Philip Fulmer. We fire Phil, with the fans thinking we could hire or steal away a big name or up-and-coming coach from another good program. So what do we do? We go the cheap route, and hire a coach who failed miserably in his ONLY coaching stint . . Lane Kiffin . . a loudmouth punk that the fans either love or hate. The ASG isn't spending 4 million a year to bring in Avery Johnson or anybody else. If they would, they'd already done it by now. Woody, on the other hand, may very well accept a 2-year extension worth 5.5 - 6 million RIGHT NOW. But let the Hawks reach the ECF, that price tag goes UPWARD into the 3 year - 10 to 12 million dollar extension range. If the Hawks get off to a bad start, they'll opt for an assistant coach ( take your pick ), to coach the rest of the year. Then once the season ends, they'll go out and get a guy who they can pay a 3 year - 7 million dollar deal to. I can see it now . . the fan base trying to spin the hiring of Eddie Jordan or Billy Gillespie as a massive upgrade over Woody. The fact is that if this team plays to its maximum potential, it's gonna cost even MORE MONEY to retain Woody..

This needs to be a poll question. The interesting thing about the people totally opposed to Iverson, is that Jamal Crawford could be described in the exact same way ( playing wise ). The ONLY thing that he doesn't do, that Iverson does, is all of that whining. And he's 5 inches taller than Iverson. So call Crawford . . "Gigantic Iverson". Then again, AI is a future Hall of Famer who has played in the playoffs . . .while JC hasn't played in a playoff type game since Michigan made the NIT ( I think they made the NIT in his one and only season there. I'll have to look that up ).

The Chicago Bulls announcers will see their heads explode now. They used to routinely call Joe Johnson . . . Joe Smith. Jeff Van Gundy was bad about that too. Now they'll mess up all of their names. JJ will still be "Joe Smith" . . Josh Smith will be the 14 year vet from Maryland . . .and Joe Smith will be 23 years old again.

LOL, Smoove always sometimes put the team before the stats, ( until he gets frustrated or tries to do too much ) , so save it. Obviously the genius who wrote this article doesn't watch the Hawks play much if at all... but knows some of Josh's tendencies. corrected

It's not flattering at all to be on this list. Look at the guys that they're talking about. Almost all of those guys could be characterized as being "overrated" . . which is why the "stat stuffer" title is kind of tongue and cheek. They're saying that these players put up stats, but may not be guys that you want to add to build a winning team. If anybody went through this entire list, look at what the first page says: Their numbers just don't add up In basketball, not everything is quantifiable. That's why it can be misleading to judge a player's value solely by his statistics. Stats don't measure small but significant things like setting a solid screen or playing good positional defense. They don't measure intangible qualities like competitiveness or a positive attitude. FOXSports.com NBA editor John Galinsky lists 10 current players who put up big numbers but aren't as valuable as their stats suggest. Some are All-Stars. Some aren't. But for all these guys, the whole really is less than the sum of its parts. It just goes to show just how much of a "wild card" Crawford is, if he's #2 on this list. We all know that Smith is a wild card. It's like I said at the time this move was made . . if Woody gets fired, it's gonna be Crawford who gets him fired, with his poor shot selection and defense.

I agree. I think that may be the reason why the Hawks never sent Solo to the D-League for an extended period of time. Because the overseas market is so lucrative, the D-League can't even stake claim to being a viable "minor league" system to the NBA. You might have 1 - 3 guys a year from the D-League. And they all seem to be guards or small forwards. The players that have talent, but maybe can't come to contract terms with an NBA squad, will opt to go to Europe to play for a few hundred thousand to a few million . . instead of playing for the tens of thousands that D-Leaguers play for. IT may be better for Siler to go up against Horford and Zaza in practice, than it would to go up against D-League centers. I think of how the Raptors sent Pape Sow to the D-League a few years back to develop him. Who . . . you say? Exactly. Pape looked like a demon in the D-League. On the NBA level, his game was weak.

Beecause JJ, while unspectacular at times, is one of most solid and versatile players in the league. This enables him to make the people around him better. And like I've been saying for 3+ years around here, Woody is nowhere near as bad of a coach that the majority of Hawksquawk thinks he is. He knows his team, and what his players can do.

Without JJ, this the 06 - 07 Hawks all over again. - Crawford might not be the best player on the team, but he'd be used like he is the best, because he's the guy that can get his own shot at any time. At the end of games, it'll be up to him to either take the final shot or pass the ball. No way we can throw the ball down to Smith at the end of games and live and die with him making the right decision on offense. - If the "JJ Rules" are applied to Crawford ( i.e. - he sees constant double teams ), will he make the correct play more times than not? JJ cut down on his turnovers this year, even though those double teams did bother him at times. With Crawford, he'd look to take quick long jumpers to keep from getting doubled, which is why the guy shoots a low percentage. - Defensively, a Bibby - Crawford backcourt would be one of the worst in the league. Remember, Woody started to have a tendency to go with Flip at the end of games, if the opposing teams PG was torching us. So imagine the situation the Hawks would be in against a team like say . . . Orlando. Bibby on Nelson . . Crawford on Carter. That's not good folks. - Because of the lack of offensive firepower on the bench, Woody would be tempted more than ever to go with a short rotation that heavily depended on the starters. Part of our success last year was the fact that a guy like Flip could score in those middle parts of each half, taking some of the scoring pressure off of JJ during that time. This year, Crawford hopefully will be able to do the same thing. But take away JJ, who will be the guy off the bench to score if Crawford is starting? Teague? It'll have to be him, because those other guys aren't dependable offensive players. And if it can't be him, it means that the starters would have to carry the load. - You'd have to trade for a pass-first, penetrating-first PG, and get Bibby outta here, to be able to maximize what Smith, Marvin and Horford could give you on offense. Bibby is a good compliment to JJ, who will freely wait for the double team to come, to pass to a wide open Bibby. But without JJ, Bibby might find it more difficult to get those wide open jumpers ( especially from 3-point range ). This might be a playoff team if a guy like Andre Miller or a Jason Kidd were our PG. Miller would drive the ball while keeping others involved, while Kidd would get others involved first, while knocking down the occasional jumper.

First and foremost, this team has to learn how to consistently win on the road. Any talk about contending for anything is kind of far fetched, until that happens. As of right now, this is a 50 - 54 win team MAX. But a puncher's chance means that: - JJ must play at least at a 3rd team All-NBA level - 2 of the 3 kids ( Smith, Horford, Marvin ) must play highly efficient ball - Crawford must shoot at least 45% FG The so-called 2-deep at every position is a nice luxury, but it won't be the reason why this team gets over the top. It's going to be because of the play of the starters and Crawford. Even with Crawford, our bench is only OK. If Bibby goes down, we can at leasr replace him with Crawford. Matter of fact, if JJ or even Marvin goes down, you could insert Crawford into the starting lineup, and move JJ to the 3 ( in the case of Marvin being out ). But if Horford or Smith miss significant time, this team is in trouble. The guys backing them up are far less effective. Joe Smith will be lucky to average 6 pts and 4 rebs a game next year. He's better than Solo though, although he isn't the shot blocking presence that Solo was at times. As for a trade to upgrade the team, everybody should know who that person is. Problem is, the fan base loves him too much to move him for a top line frontline player . . . . ( cough ) Amare ( cough ). Ish, they didn't even want to trade him for Pau Gasol when that idea was flying around 2 years ago. They probably wouldn't trade him for Shaq.

I think people need to hold off on the Sund "love fest" until we see how Crawford and Joe Smith play in a Hawks uniform. When it's all said and done, the mistake MAY be that he let Flip get away from us. And we'll see just how good David Andersen is in Houston. Let's just see how this plays out. His moves look good on paper though. But if the Crawford move blows up in our face, then his offseason was a disappointment. Please don't misinterpret this as "I wish we had Billy Knight back", because it isn't that. LOL . . lord knows it isn't that at all.

Vick will be the 3rd string QB ( emergency QB ) . . . if he's even a QB. The 2nd string guy, Kevin Kolb(sp) is actually decent. If I were the Eagles, I'm using Vick as an "offensive specialist", in the mold of how the Steelers used Antoine Randle-El and Kordell Stewart. I'm running screen passes ( both RB and WR screens ), reverses, HB pass plays, the WILDCAT, deep fly patters, etc. I'd make it a point to get him at least 5 touches a game, to see if he can make a gamebreaking play. OH . . and guess who the FALCONS are playing on Dec. 6th IN THE GEORGIA DOME! Yep.

Gotta love the haters. These are probably some of the same people who talked bad about Marvin going to summer school at UNC, instead of solely focusing on his b-ball game. It's a shame that even when our players do something positive, people can still find a negative. As far as Smith as a high school student goes, all I'll say is that if he didn't jump to the NBA, I believe he signed a letter of intent to play at Indiana University. They just don't accept anybody at that school, even if you're an athlete. As far as State schools go, Indiana is a notch below the U of Virginia. It DEFINITELY isn't like being accepted at UT or UGA, from an academic or historical basketball standpoint, that's for damn sure!

If he doesn't see the court, his name will be "Master Splinter" . .. as in "riding the pine". Big League Teague is catchy though.

1) When looking at Siler last year, how was he able to grab a high number of offensive rebounds ( compared to his overall number of rebounds )? Is he putting himself in great position to grab an offensive rebound from other guys missed shots . .. or does he grab offensive rebounds simply because he was so much bigger than everyone else? http://www.aug.edu/athletics/sports/mbasketball/08stats/teamcume.htm#TEAM.CMB 2) And just for a lighter question . . . did Siler have a nickname at Augusta State?

I think the one thing you need to understand about Howard, is that he is a great player . . . but not necessarily a great "offensive" player. Howard is a great "all-around" player. But he's not a guy who demands the ball in the post, ala what some of the great scoring post players did in the past ( Moses Malone, Olajuwon, Kareem, Shaq [ in his prime ], etc ). Howard's offensive game should keep getting better and better, but we'll see if he's a guy that is going to consistently dominate a game offensively. Believe it or not, Lewis, Nelson, and Hedo had more FGA per game than Howard did last year. I think the same thing may occur this year, with Lewis, Nelson, and Carter. Carter will definitely take more shots than Howard, and he'll be the guy the Magic go to at the end of close games. If anything, Howard will make Carter an even more efficient player, because if Carter drives the ball, and Howard's man rotates over to stop him, Carter will pass that ball to Howard. On the flip side . . if Carter's man cheats off of him to go double Howard, it'll be up to Howard to kick the ball back out to Carter for the wide open jumper, which Carter will knock down. But that's not really part of Howard's game yet, seeing that he didn't even average 2 assists last year. I'd be shocked if Carter didn't have a fantastic season next year, because Howard should make the game much easier for him . . . like how Gasol did for Kobe.

Carter needs the ball to be effective? Kind of like how JJ needs the ball to be effective? And Kobe? And Lebron? And any other star caliber player? Don't get it twisted man. Carter is on the same level as JJ, when it comes to an NBA player. Some may argue that he's better than JJ. Hedo was a vastly overrated player that Raptor fans will quickly learn to despise. Don't be surprised if Vince leads the Magic in assists next year . . . from the SG spot . . . just like how JJ does for us. He won't have any problem at all playing with Howard. And he'll have no problem getting Howard the ball either. 2 of 3 things need to happen, in order for the Hawks to be able to challenge the Big 3 ( discounting a major injury to one or more star players on those squads ): 1) JJ needs to play like a top 10 player in the league, and have more GREAT nights than highly inconsistent nights. 2) 2 of the 3 out of Smith, Marvin, and Horford must become highly efficient players that the other team must account for 3) Crawford must shoot at or above 45% FG, and be a killer on the road. Without 2 of those things happening, we're basically the Utah of the East. Not a bad team by any standards. But nowhere near a championship contender either.

What Rasheed does, is give Josh Smith fits. He not only can defend Smith when he posts up or when he tries to drive, he talks junk to him at times and almost dares him to shoot from the outside ( ala what KG tries to do to people . . KG also does this to Smith ) Smith's last 7 games vs Detroit and Rasheed 4 - 17 ( 13 pts ) 5 - 10 ( 13 pts ) 4 - 15 ( 14 pts ) 12 - 21 ( 30 pts ) . . . Smoove's outside shot was going in 3 - 13 ( 11 pts ) 5 - 12 ( 10 pts ) 6 - 17 ( 19 pts ) Rasheed is a defensvie addition to Boston's rotation, even if his offense is going down the drain.

My targeted games ( I'm possibly looking at 7 - 8 this year + the playoffs ) * Oct 30 vs Washington - ( perfect that it's on a Friday night. I'll attend that game in ATL, then go to the Magic City Classic in Birmingham that Saturday. A perfect NBA/Classic Weekend football trip ) * Thanksgiving night vs Orlando - ( There's my TNT game. LOL . . I'll tell the fam to have dinner ready by 1 pm CST, so I can leave TN by 2:30 CST and zoom down to ATL that night ) * Jan 1st vs New York - ( tenative . . . . this is all dependant on if I'm in town for New Years Eve. If I am, I'll stay the whole day in ATL and attend the Knicks game ) * Jan 18th vs Oklahoma City - ( This is the traditional MLK Day game. Wish it were a better opponent, but then again, it'll be my first live look at Kevin Durant. ) * Jan 31st vs Boston - ( Definitely a must see regular season game, as we will probably know how good the Hawks are by now ) * Feb 24th vs Minnesota - ( The schedule really works out perfectly here. The CIAA Basketball Tourney will be in Charlotte that week, so before I go to Charlotte, I'll catch this game in ATL on Wednesday night ) * Feb 28th vs Milwaukee - ( This will be the game I hit as I leave Charlotte, returning home on Sunday. Hopefully I won't run into a damn snowstorm this time . . lol ) * Mar 31st vs LA Lakers - ( Playoff seeding will probably be in play here, plus it's the Lakers. Game is on a Wednesday night, but I still plan to be there )

Exactly. That's what I've been trying to tell some of these guys all summer. SOMEBODY is gonna pay JJ big bucks. If not the Knicks, it'll be Minnesota. If not Minnesota, it'll be Cleveland ( if they lose Lebron ). If not Cleveland, it'll be the Nets ( especially after they got rid of Vince for those expiring contracts ). And like I've been saying all along . . . if the Hawks really think that JJ is the key piece to the future success of this team . . . they should throw a 5 yr - 90 million deal at him RIGHT NOW, and see if that's enough to get him to re-sign. People say that's too much. I say that even that might not be enough. One thing is for sure . . . he's not making less than 5 yr - 80 mill . . . unless he takes a 4 yr deal that pays him 65 mill ( with a player option after year 3. ) Either way, you're still talking at least 15 mill a year.

I still voted JJ. Partially because the "Jordan Rules" haven't been applied to Brandon yet, like they've been applied to JJ. It wouldn't suprise me one bit though, if Roy had a better year than JJ ( stats wise ) once again, and overtakes JJ as the better player. It would be interesting though, to see Roy have to constantly be double ( and sometimes triple-teamed ) on a nightly basis, and see what his numbers would be then. I think Brandon will see a lot of double-teams this year. He's good enough to beat most of them though.

I gotta agree with Diesel on this one. Even if you did a lateral swap of the 07 or 08 TOR playoff team to the 08 Hawk playoff team, you still have to take: - Ford over Bibby - Calderon over Law/Salim ( because that's who were the backup guards on the 07 playoff team ) - Mo Pete over Childress ( that could be argued either way though. I'll take Mo Pete because of his shooting ability. ) - Bargnani for Solomon Jones - Garbajosa over Mario West 08 ATL Squad G - Ford G - JJ F - Marvin F - Smith F/C - Horford G - Calderon G - Garbajosa F - Peterson F - Bargnani C - Zaza LOL . . . ummmmm . . . I think that squad still wins all of its home games vs Boston in the playoffs, and has a damn good shot to pull off at least one road win Meanwhile, in Toronto: C - Nesterovic F - Bosh F - Childress G - Parker G - Bibby G - Delfino ( I think ) or Salim G - Law G/F - Joey Graham F - Kapono F/C - Solo ISH . . .Toronto might not even make the playoffs with that squad. And if they did, they'd get swept ( unless Chill and Law played to their maximum potential . . . and if Salim played like Ben Gordon off the bench )

Diesel, the problem is that people seem to forget why that Toronto team won. They won, not only because of Bosh, but also because of Ford and Calderon. People seem to forget just how great of a duo they collectively were. Ford was the relentless penetrator that you had to try to stop from getting into the lane. If you collapsed on Ford, he'd kick it out to guys like Parker, Mo Pete and Kapono for wide open 3 pointers. He was the accelerator on that team. Calderon was the highly efficient backup PG who always has a PER just as good as Ford. While Calderon didn't drive as much, he was just as efficient of a playmaker and a far better outside shooter than Ford. They were a flat out lethal 1 - 2 combo at the point that made the entire team better. So when they lost Ford for O'Neal ( because they didn't want to pay 2 PGs top dollar ), they thought Calderon could handle the full time duties. And he can. But they lost their identity as a team when the lost Ford. I'll never forget the game in the 06 - 07 season, in which Ford and Calderon basically murdered this team in Atlanta. We couldn't stop either guy, especially Ford. And I won't forget the game in the 07 - 08 season, in which JJ had 28 pts - 11 assists - 7 rebounds against the Raptors late in the season. A game which pretty much got us in the playoffs. Like JJ, Bosh is a very good player. But also like JJ, he can't win anything without another star caliber player alongside him.

That's a good article from Dime. What's ironoc though, is that this article was written after Game 4 of the Miami series. If he had waited a week, and peeped out Games 5 & 7 when JJ dropped 25 and 27 points, I wonder if the article would've been written a little differently. On those nights, JJ looked like a top 5 player. The next step for JJ, is actually the next step for the Hawks . . . and that is to become KILLERS ON THE ROAD. The 5 - 7 or so "great" players in this league possess the quality of being able to kill a raucous home crowd with his shotmaking ( kind of what the article was talking about ). To me, that's one of the last steps JJ needs to take, in order to become feared like those top level guys ( although the coaches around the league gameplan to stop him like he's already one of those guys ). Is JJ a GREAT player? Of course not. But if I were to measure his overall game on a 1 - 10 scale, in which guys like Kobe and LeBron would get 10s . . . JJ is a solid 8. JJ - 8 Smith - 7.25 ( if he's playing top level defense ) Bibby - 6.75 Horford - 6.75 Crawford - 6.5 Marvin - 6.25 Zaza - 5 Evans - 4.75 Teague - n/a And when you compare our team with the LAKERS . . . Kobe - 10 Gasol - 8 Odom - 7.75 Artest - 7 Fisher - 6.5 Bynum - 6.25 Walton - 5 Brown - 4.5 Farmar - 4.5 You kind of see what the problem is for the Hawks, in regards for being a legit title contender. As for JJ: ( still LOL @ that 35 foot BOMB that he shot in Wade's face in Game 7. That's one of the most incredible jumpshots I've ever seen. JJ actually shot a pull-up jumper from that range., in which he measured the guy up first, before taking the shot I still shake my head whenever I re-watch Game 7 )

I guess this is your answer. So be it then. But as the great Eddie Murphy said in the barbershop scene in Coming to America, when talking about what to call Muhammed Ali . . . "His mama called him Garrett . . . Ima call him Garrett" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdjblkRkoPU