Woody:Most Qualified Coach Available or BK's Buddy

[Wurider05]

I am really starting to wonder why he even got the job. I mean I really wanted us to keep Stotts or go after Del Harris, somebody with head coach experience. A ROOKIE COACH AND A ROOKIE TEAM JUST CAN'T WORK IN THIS LEAGUE-SOMEBODY HAS TO KNOW WHAT THE HELL THEY ARE DOING!!!!!! Woody just looks like he is over his head out there. You see what happens when you hire your friends. How many of you guys have gotten a friend a job with you and you end up regretting it?? Hell I got my friend a job with me when I was a teenager and he ended up being a complete failure and embarassed the hell out of me.

[Diesel]

Just to be straight...

BK and Woody were not buddies and maybe not buddies now. I remember BK stating that Woody is not a guy who would hold his tongue with BK.

Moreover, Woody was the most qualified young assistant coach if you consider this:

Woody was the archietect of the Pistons defense. The Pistons had just won the title over the Lakers when we hired Woody.... It's very similar to Joe Dumars hiring Rick Carlisle. Carlisle was the top assistant under Larry Bird.

I myself personally wanted Fratello... However, I understand the Woody pick. I think Woody is the kind of guy who has the patience to work with the young guys... BK's plan all along might have been to have Woody develop this team and if they play well keep Woody if not, go after more experience.

The other thing that made us get Woody is the fact that we were trying to save Money. Fratello's asking price was 5 million per... Woody came significntly cheaper and he had good references.

[BornandDieHawks]

If we remember Woody was one of the top candidates for a head coaching job. BK's relationship with him may have been the one thing to luring him here. We didn't have a roster which most coaches may dream of taken over. Everyone's advice to the season and the players are to be patient. We need to do the same with Woody. He had nothing last year and has a big turnover with this year's roster. We can see him trying to find some common ground with all of the line-up changes. Once we get the right personnel in place, then we will see if he is the right coach for this team.

[clrumph]

BK set Woodson up for failure by signing JJ and relying on him and Chillz to play the PG and SG positions and by not signing a defensive post presence (heck I'd even take Diop at this point, at least he's rebounding and blocking shots for Dallas and of course he was a FA in the offseason so BK could have signed him cheaply).

Now BK and Woody are caught with their pants down without a legit PG while Chris Paul and Deron Williams are having excellent rookie seasons so far. On top of that we signed Lue to a 3yr/10M contract but didn't spend any money on a defensive minded big man like Diop or Steven Hunter. Ridiculous!

That is what makes it so frustrating for me to follow the Hawks this year knowing that there were two quality PG's at the top of the draft and we passed both of them up. Now we deal with the consequences until BK can find a legit PG and defensive post presence from somewhere else this year. Otherwise it's time to look forward to the draft again next year.