Al Has Officially Replaced JT As The Board's Scape

[Traceman]

goat for all our problems. The only difference is that Diesel hated JT and likes Al.

Both guys are very good players with flawed games who can be key contributors on a good team but neither is good enough to be THE MAN on a good team. As a result, the board blames all things bad on their shortcomings while failing to acknowledge the things that they do well. Watch Al either get traded to another team or leave as a FA and become a key contributor on a championship contender just as JT has.

I think our best chance for longterm success is to draft a superstar (hopefully it will be Smoove, Marvin or whoever we get in this year's draft) to go along with JJ and then surround the superstar and JJ with guys like Al, Chillz, JT and whoever doesn't become a superstar between between Smoove and Marvin.

[Plainview1981]

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goat for all our problems. The only difference is that Diesel hated JT and likes Al.

Both guys are very good players with flawed games who can be key contributors on a good team but neither is good enough to be THE MAN on a good team. As a result, the board blames all things bad on their shortcomings while failing to acknowledge the things that they do well. Watch Al either get traded to another team or leave as a FA and become a key contributor on a championship contender just as JT has.

I think our best chance for longterm success is to draft a superstar (hopefully it will be Smoove, Marvin or whoever we get in this year's draft) to go along with JJ and then surround the superstar and JJ with guys like Al, Chillz, JT and whoever doesn't become a superstar between between Smoove and Marvin.

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I have no doubt that Al can contribute to a really good team... The same role he had in Indiana. He isn't good enough to do anything else on a good team.

[Lascar78]

you're right. But I think part of the reason is nervousness over his status as a FA. People who don't want him re-signed do their best to discredit him to convince the rest of the board that he should be let go.

He definitely gets more crap than he deserves. He certainly is flawed, but he's also our second best player.

I'd also keep him for the right price, but I highly doubt that he will settle for the right price. Someone will be willing to overpay.

[Plainview1981]

he cares more about padding stats than he doesn't winning.

[Lascar78]

prove it

[exodus]

Count how many times Al contests a shot in the lane the rest of the season.

Last night- 0

[DJlaysitup]

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...I'd also keep him for the right price, but I highly doubt that he will settle for the right price. Someone will be willing to overpay.

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Can't blame him for going for all the dough he can get. This should be his big contract that will set him up for life (along with his kids and grandkids). Hopefully we won't be left with nothing when it's all over.

[Plainview1981]

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prove it

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He wanted to leave Indiana didn't he? Playing 30MPG, winning, a 6th man of year type of player. He according to the people here doesn't attempt to play defense and I didn't see him playing much last year.... Why if he puts forward some effort on defense he might be less effective on offense!

He should be linked to Glenn Robinson. His game might be different, but I think his way of thinking is the same.

[Traceman]

holes. If it comes down to that, we need to just let him walk and use the available funds to fill a need via trade or free agency.

[swolehawk2]

Al is nobodys scape...people are nervous that we might pour lots of dollars into a player that does not deserve it...while we have capable players on the team that can do what he does at his position. He can't play PF well and he can't play SF well....he can't play defense ....he does not pass very well...the fact that he can't pass very well negates the fact that he has a post game because he can't pass out of a double...especially when teams double with a big.

A Smoove/Marvin combination can give u everything that Al is giving plus better defense.

Please don't say Al is a leader becasue he is not....he was easily replaced by JJ as the go to guy and Smoove is gaining fast.

Why dump a bunch of money into AL...when we need bigs.

Just does not make sense.

Especially for a player that everytime he gets a mic in his face in Chicago, Indiana, NY...he talks about how great it would be to play for them.

If we resign AL ....it would be a huge mistake for a franchise that can't afford anymore huge mistakes.

[Traceman]

Al is not a leader, he can't play PF or SF, he can't defend, he can't pass and his post game is negated because he can't pass.

As for JT, he wasn't a leader, he couldn't play PG or SG, he couldn't defend, he couldn't pass and his shooting ability was negated because he couldn't pass.

Al is horrible and yet he is widely considered to be the best UFA on the market after Ben Wallace and most of you think someone will pay him a salary starting at $10M a year. Yep, he must suck.

[Lascar78]

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prove it

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He wanted to leave Indiana didn't he?

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So you'd say the same about Joe Johnson who left a contender to come here and have a bigger role?

[swolehawk2]

Teams paid Foyle and Dampier a bunch of money....hell Greg Buckner got money....Ira Newble got overpaid...

What another team can and will pay Al has nothing to do with us....a good team can pay what they want for depth, a role player, a team that lacks what Al brings..we don't.

Why would THE HAWKS pay Al when what he brings we already have on the team and cheaper.

It makes NO sense.

[Nicholasp27]

al is a good player, but we won't contend with him on our team...other teams may be able to...and again, most here are fine to re-sign him for 6-7.9mil/year, but not for the 8-11+ that he may get

[Traceman]

I don't want to pay big money to keep Al either. I think anything over $8M a season would probably be a mistake and anything over $10M would DEFINITELY be a mistake.

[Diesel]

Actually, if you want the difference..

The true difference is that I realized that JT couldn't change how he played and we couldn't find enough pieces to make up for JT's shortcoming.

WHILE

With Al, remember, at one time, I wanted to trade Al too.. However, after we got JJ, I concluded that it's better to keep Al and build with Al than to leave JJ with a bunch of inexperience inconsistent. I will say this. Al has been good at what he does and recieves no credit from Hawks fans...

Our defense is not bad because of Al alone. It's a combination of a lot of things... Moreover, changing Al out especially for some of the things we have seen mentioned previously will have a bad effect on us offensively and it will change our defensive woes only a little...

Good defense isn't built overnight. However, some people on this board feels that we are 1 player away from being a good defensive team. That's laughable.

These people have no idea that good defense is about timing and technique as much as it is about effort. Hell, Ivey gives good effort everytime he hits the floor but would anybody call him a good defender. Same goes with Josh Smith. Smoove plays good coming from the weakside but as G Wallace showed, if you don't have the BBIQ or the footwork or the positions right you will get smoked..

So the real question is how do you get those things. You get those things with time. So I'm not so quick to point the finger at Al and say if we just change him we will be a good defensive team.. that's naive... especially when you look at how we play.

Right now, I'm not willing to give up scoring and leadership for a minute increase in defense.

[Diesel]

The problem is you don't watch games.

He does play defense. He's not a help defender. He's not going to go for the block shot.. But he does stay in front of his man. That's defense. Most of the time when we go zone, he will match up with much quicker players in the high post and he does a good job of staying in front of them. Most of the time when he matches up with big men in the low post he doesn't let them get their position easily.

Hell Last night, he went diving into the stands trying to get a steal...

NOBODY on this board murmured a word about that.. But if he doesn't block a shot like Smoove.. oh, we hear it for days...

This is what Lascar is talking about.

His efforts go uncredited.. Especially by guys like you and Exodus who don't watch the game but give second hand reports from other people who don't like AL.

[exodus]

How many shots in the lane did Al contest last night? Zero.

In fact several times he simply moved out of the way to let someone score.

How many shots in the lane will he contest next game? Odds are again it will be zero.

Pretty much anyone that bring in will be a significant defensive upgrade over Al. The Hawks give up 5.6 more ppg when he is on the floor which is the worst mark on the team by far.

[Diesel]

Last night in the first quarter AL did contest a shot..

Did you watch the game??

It was right before they started talking about how well Al plays against Indy and how he seems more active..

Did you watch the game??

Did you hear what Woody said at halftime?

There were some atrocious defensive moments.. but hell, every player in a Hawks uni has had some atrocious defensive moments.

Luefan the point is that you only see one side of anything that Al does.

I guess when Al played defense and went diving into the stands, to you it was a coincidence because he wanted to get back at Carlisle for not playing him huh??

I guess when Al gets steals... it just happens by accident right?? Guys just accidentally come up to Al and put the ball in his hands... I mean, there's no effort on Al's part because Al doesn't play defense.

Am I right Luefan?

[AHF]

Defensively, the problem isn't Al so much as it is Al and Zaza, IMO. Neither player is a valuable help defender and neither is a particularly good shot blocker or defensive rebounder. Alongside someone who could cover those weaknesses, neither would be as much of a problem as they are together. Someone like Tyrus Thomas would be a big help, IMO. If you recall the Duke game, the Duke guards beat their men down the lane on numerous occassions but either had their shots blocked or altered when Thomas came to cover. Neither Al nor Zaza can do that and you really are a vastly better defensive team if you have someone in the post you can "funnel" players into. Right now it is pretty much a free pass to the basket once our 1-3 players are beat as we saw with Wallace. Other than JJ, our 1-3 players aren't good enough to shut down people on their own most nights so the team's defensive issues compound one another.

Stick Al on a team with Okafor and he is a much better fit, IMO.