chillzatl

this is unmitigated nonsense. last year the guy scores 50 "he's great". He hits shots in the clutch when nobody else could and "he's awesome!". But this, four games into the season ith a sore back "he's heartless". What a crock! Some of you guys need to wake up and smell the friggen coffee. Pointing at Karl malone and saying "he never won a ring" is equally chock full of BS. Karl only had one team capable of winning it and unfortunately he ran into a better team. If Reef finishes his career in atlanta with stats anything close to what Malone will, I will pity him for playing his heart out for fans like you who lack the ability to appreciate it.

Am I the only one who is just giddy about what these guys are doing this year? Dion is stepping up and scoring consistantly with a great fg%. Sometimes single handedly energizing this team back to life.

Hendu is simply doing what he did to earn himself his contract many years ago. He's playing like he enjoys the game again and it's fun to watch.

Big Dog has been floundering. IMO, it's very easy to explain why too. The first few games we were finding Bid Dog in motion. All he had to do was catch the pass take a step or two and shoot, MONEY. It seems that after about 2-3 games of that someone decided that big dog can create for himself against double teams. Now, I like Big Dog and I think that he's a heck of a scorer. But I DO NOT see him as a guy who can put it on the floor against a double team and create. He's having to work too hard out there for his shot and it's hurting his game.

The blame for this has to go on the coaching staff. It almost seems like they put out a mandate to "get the ball to dog" without giving thought to how it should be done. Last night they were giving him the ball on the perimeter and letting him try to create and he looked very bad. Once JT and others started hitting him in motion, he warmed up. I know there are cases where he can create his own, man to man or against a double. But against a good team he's going to get shut down more often than not.

Without Big Dog we are only marginally better than last season. If he isn't scoring 20+ or at least doing the other things that go with scoring 20+, we aren't going to win many more games than last season.

Webber had the better team. I like our team and I think the more we play the better we are going to be. But those guys are just darn good. If big dog could have gotten off I would have been a different story. BUT, i'm very content with what I saw. We went on the road against one of the best teams in the league and the best home team over the past few seasons and pushed them to the wire. A great, gutsy effort.

you need to make up your mind. Just a year or so ago JT was nothing but a scorer, He coudln't defend, couldn't pass and had no heart. This year he's the only player we have with heart. A year or so ago Shareef was your lover, as evidence by your name at the time (Abdur-Rahim Rules). But now he's a pansy who even though is a near 20/10 player, isn't really very good. You wanted to have big dogs child for the first four games then he has a few bad games and you start calling him names. One game you'll say we need winners, though you can't describe exactly what a winner is. The next game you'll say we need toughness and the next you'll see we need people who can handle the ball. Somewhere down the line i'm sure you'll say we need guys who can shoot the three or block shots also.

You are the worst fan, as has been the case for years now. Scratch that, you aren't a fan at all. A fan may hate it when his team loses. But a real fan doesn't punk out on his team because they lose a few games, then jump back on the bandwagon when they win, as you've done for years. So make up your mind. Are you a fan or aren't you? Can you intelligently discuss the losses or can you do nothing but make weak, negative comments towards whatever player had the last bad game? C'mon man, make up your mind!

and all I can do is laugh. ANYONE who says he's not a game changer HAS NOT bothered to watch a hawks game this season. The entire look of the game changes when theo is in there. That's been the case in every game this season. Theo is in, a few people challenge him and get packed, then NOBODY challenges him any more. THeo goes out and it's a free for all walk to the basket. Anyone who thinks he's not a game changer is either blind or a hater, take your pick.

Also, the warped theory that he is foul prone is nothing but hater-aid. The guy has a career average of 3 PF's per game. How is that foul prone? He hasn't played in a year and a half. Give the guy a chance to get his legs back under him and get back into the flow of things. Everything he's done so far is pure natural talent. Once he's back in game shape, both physically and mentally, nobody will be disappointed with what he brings.

Do we need tougher players or do we need winners? Do we need more scorers or do we need better defenders? You flip flop ever other week. Make up your mind.

He has a bad game or two and you look at him to say he's not as good as someone else. This only AFTER he was named the most efficient player in the league through 4 games. whatever! Three near triple doubles and diesel keeps his mouth shut, Lurking in the shadows waiting for Kobe to mess up so he can say something

Pierce is NOTHING without walker, period. T-mac is the only one of your lust players that gets it done without another 20ppg player standing next to him, and T-mac might well have one of those this year. Kobe: 3 fewer points, more considerably more rebounds AND more assists on a team with a much weaker supporting cast? yeah, whatever.

You say that Kobe isn't as good as other guys because he has shaq. next thing you'll say that his stats are inflated because he's the only guy on the team. laughable.

Malone is a competitor, without a doubt. If a sub 100% Reef and Hendu are all we have to put on him, it could be a long night. By seasons end malone will still be averaging 20+. He's just stuck in an unfortunate situation, as is stockton. As many have said, when the two best players on your team are 40 years old, you are in trouble.

You talk about looking at both sides. But you follow that up by only looking at one side. That side happens to be the diesel "lon sucks" side and it's a cop out. You want to push the credit for the teams late season performance in every direction as long as it doesn't involve giving the coach any credit for it. That's a cheap cop out.

I've never suggested that he deserved ALL the credit for it. But refusing to give him any credit, as you do, totally invalidates any point you might have on the subject.

I have to agree wtih his answer, somewhat. Lon did an AMAZING job of keeping the team focused and positive. I never saw them playing like I've seen the Clippers, Cavs and grizzlies play in the final weeks of the season. In that respect he did a great job. His players gave him props in that respect as well. So I take that as a good.

Now, I don't think any of us agree with his substitutions. But again, you have to look at what he had to work with. When you have a lineup that was constantly changing for the first 2/3 of the season, you really can't get a feel for who can give you what and when they can give it. Once our injury situation evened out and he got some healthy players back, we finished the season well.

As for the X's and O's, I don't think it's a GM's place to give his feelings on that matter. Well, unless you want to send a message to the coach that he's going to be fired. But I will say that once his lineup stabalized and they learned how to play together we got some wins. We did finish the season strong and it's not just raw talent doing that. You can't give credit to the players without also giving some to the coach.

This season we've seen some shaky lineups on the floor again. But again, we've had injuries to key players. PLayers that WOULD have been on the floor had they been there. Nazr would have been coming in for Theo instead of Harvey. Dion would have been coming in more for E-mail. Though I still think E-mail would get some minutes, they wouldn't be as significant.

lastly, you should be patient! We've seen this team play stretches this season where they were simply dominant. Again, that's not just raw talent. Give credit where credit is due. We've had enough of those good stretches to be 2/1. He can't be unfairly judged until he has his team. Plugging big holes with Emanual Davis and Antonio Harvey and expecting 48 minutes of prime ball is unreasonable. I'm willing to give it time. I like what i've seen so far and I feel it will only get better as the season progresses.

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Simply because over the course of the season other teams are going to step up and push themselves into the spotlight. That will bring out the fans. If Vince Carter can get the Raps going, they will sellout a game.

Some might think me crazy. But I think we can take 3 of 5 on this road trip. Granted, a lot of things need to go right for us. But looking at the lineups I think we can do it.

Denver: They just don't have the firepower to out shoot us and they don't have the defenders to shut our scorers down. We should be able to get the W here and if so, it'll give us a good start to the road trip.

Suns: I also think we can get this one. The suns are better, IMO, than Denver. But I just don't see them having the firepower to out score us. JT matches up very well with Marbury. Marion can't stop BIg dog and they don't have anyone capable of containing Reef. two of our Big Three, should have big games here.

Jazz: We are clearly the better team. But the Delta Center has been one of the hardest places for anyone to play over the last few years. No reason we can't win with the same gameplan we used in our home opener with them.

Kings: Who is going to predict us to win this one? Not I. The Kings are the best right now, period. This is a watermark game for us, IMO. To see how we play with the best AND on the road against the best.

Lakers: They are STILL a good team without Shaq. If shaq comes back, I only hope that his being in the lineup disrupts the chemistry they were developing without him. Whether he's there I think we have a chance of getting the win. But I won't cry if we lose. I'm looking more to see how we play against the best in this one, a win is just a bonus.

Talent and chemistry are two different things. You know that. They've had plenty of talent for the last few years and have had ZERO chemistry. Why would anyone be surprised if they don't do anything this year?

I'm sure not having Nazr and Dion has caused some havok on Lons planned rotations. Didn't think of that one.

in the 1st qtr and even part of the 2nd, he was doing solid subs. Bringing in Hendu and harvey while still having JT and BD out there. Then bringing Reef back in while resting JT. That's the time when we built up our biggest lead and it looked like we were going to knock them out very early. Then inexplicably he starts going crazy with the subs. At one point we had a floor lineup of nothing but bench players! Hendu, Harvy, Ham, dickau and glover. WTF IS THAT? Now I like those guys. But you can't have all those guys on the floor at one time!

I'm going to give Lon the benefit of the doubt for now though. I can accept the logic that he wants to see what everyone can bring to the table in a given situation. We did have solid leads each time he started his wild sub patterns. This is the time of season to scope out your players and see who fits in where. We're only 3 games into the season and we have several new players on this team.

I've said it before. I'm not a big football guy. But Mike Vick is exciting to watch. 2nd quarter he shakes off a sure sack with a little spin moves and launches to finneran on teh 1 yard line. It's been a LONG time since any Atlanta team had a player that was this electric.

and that's what he's given us so far, nothing. He may have made a good play or two, but otherwise he's been a void out there.

I'm willing to chalk that up to the time of year. He's feeling out what everyone can bring to the court in a REAL GAME situation. I agree that the subs are WACK, at best. But it's early. Antonio Harvey has no business being in the game. He's bringing ZERO to the team, as is E-mail. Give Mcaskill a chance at least. If the sub patterns are this way 10 games from now, I will join you in the "fire Kruger" chants. But as of now I'm on "wait and see" mode. Go Hawks!

Great to see the "best player in the NFL" at a hawks game!! That's great publicity for this team. Brian Jordan was also at the game (two games in a row I might add). It was good to see some star power in attendence tonight, despite the small crowd.

I was at the game tonight and I fully agree. We should have won this game buy a minimum of 20pts. Lons substitutions were WACK. But I will chalk that up to it being early in the season. If he had left Theo in a bit longer and called more plays for Reef, this game would have never been close. I was sitting right in front of Reefs family and I heard them say it several times when the bulls were making a run. "why isn't reef in the game?". He went a little far with his rotations, but it's early in the season. He HAS to see what each player can bring. At this point I say bench E-mail for the rest of the season. He has contributed nothing of worth so far this year. Maybe he will find his game. But I say give those minutes to someone else. Otherwise it was a great game that got a bit to tight there at the end. Go Hawks!

Back in MJ's prime, I remember reading something where he said that Glen Robinson is the only person in the league he couldn't guard. That's some pretty high praise to be getting, especially at that time in MJ's career.

Props to Kudzu for getting all the stats straightened out. our leaders, standinds and schedule boxes up top there should all be accurate and updated withing an hour or so of each game (without user intervention I might add).