I don't think we'll miss Al? Am I the only one???

[CBAreject]

There's so much talk about "replacing Al's production". I really don't get it. As I remember, Al put up a lot of bad shots. Not only that, he hampered ball movement and defensive teamwork, and he increased our turnover numbers. There were nights when Joe Johnson and Al Harrington combined for 70+, and they looked like a great tandem, but for the most part, I just wanted Al to sit down and let the younger guys chuck some shots.

I'm not going to miss Al Harrington one bit. I think we'll see that not only will we score just as much without him, but we might play better as a team on both ends of the court.

[gsuteke]

Al "matador"

[Vafan]

Al whooooooo?

[Packfill]

It remains to be seen. Al was a good player for the Hawks. He has deficiencies but his scoring and positive attitude will be missed.

I am expecting much bigger contributions this year from Smoove and Childress. Marvin is still a question mark but hopefully he will show us why he was the second pick in the draft.

[CrawDaddy]

Al blows. I think the majority of the board thinks we'll be better without him. Personally, I can't wait to see Marvin play more minutes.

I expect our defense to be exponentially better without Al.

[Iman]

I agree, a pessimist could worry about replacing Al's offense, especially given that we really wont a post threat that could demand a double team. However, once defense, rebounding, etc are taken into account, by my estimate Al might go from being the best forward on our team this year to being our 4th best forward if he was on our team next year. The last half of last year Smoove was definitely better. Shelden projects out to be a little weaker due to less offense but who knows, he might surprise. Realistically Al would better insure we'd be a good team next year if we dont use him to get us a better fitting player but overall with player moves and improvement we should be just as solid this year at forward as we were last year.

[Lascar78]

[BusBoyIsBack]

Being realistic I do think Al's offense will be missed next season. I mean we're talking about replacing the guy who was a part of the 1-2 punch of our offense. The 2nd leading scorer on the team. Surely we don't expect our young players to step right in and not miss a beat. It's going to take some time before his offensive production is not missed. I say near the end of the season when Shelden and company get their feet wet we can talk about not missing him on the offensive side of the ball, but at the beginning of the season we will definitely see improvements defensively.

[Peoriabird]

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Being realistic I do think Al's offense will be missed next season.

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Haven't you notice that you are the only one that feels this way? Don't you find that strange?

[BusBoyIsBack]

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Being realistic I do think Al's offense will be missed next season.

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Haven't you notice that you are the only one that feels this way? Don't you find that strange?

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On the contrary I can find it strange that people think overnight we can replace close to 20 points a game offensively from a player that represented 50% of the bread and butter of our offense.

[Peoriabird]

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Being realistic I do think Al's offense will be missed next season.

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Haven't you notice that you are the only one that feels this way? Don't you find that strange?

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On the contrary I can find it strange that people think overnight we can replace close to 20 points a game offensively from a player that represented 50% of the bread and butter of our offense.

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At the end on the season, Al Harrington missed 4 games. And in those 4 games, the Hawks averaged over 106 points per game, Shot over 50% in 3/4, 49.5% overall, 22 assist or more in 3/4 22.5 overall, out rebounded 3/4 opponents and this is short handed. Now we have added 2 players that will contribute right away plus further maturity of Al Harrington's scoring replacements. let me stop because this is a dead discussion. Nothing will change your mind.

[BusBoyIsBack]

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At the end on the season, Al Harrington missed 4 games. And in those 4 games, the Hawks averaged over 106 points per game, Shot over 50% in 3/4, 49.5% overall, 22 assist or more in 3/4 22.5 overall, out rebounded 3/4 opponents and this is short handed. Now we have added 2 players that will contribute right away plus further maturity of Al Harrington's scoring replacements. let me stop because this is a dead discussion. Nothing will change your mind.

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Ok I won't rule out the possibility of our team right off the bat replacing Al's offensive production. But at the same time, let's remember it was just 4 games at the end of the season.

[Peoriabird]

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Ok I won't rule out the possibility of our team right off the bat replacing Al's offensive production. But at the same time, let's remember it was just 4 games at the end of the season.

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O.K. I've offered evidence to support my argument. Now you should do the same or is it just a hunch?

[BusBoyIsBack]

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Ok I won't rule out the possibility of our team right off the bat replacing Al's offensive production. But at the same time, let's remember it was just 4 games at the end of the season.

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O.K. I've offered evidence to support my argument. Now you should do the same or is it just a hunch?

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So because our team was productive offensively in four games at the end of the season (when a few teams didn't even have their starters) it is proof we wouldn't miss Al Harrington's offense at any point in an 82 game season?

I'm not saying 2-3 years from now we will miss his offensive production but I can easily see us having to adjust at the first half of the season with all the inexperience in the front court.

[TheDude]

agree to disagree. both have valid points. you can't automatically expect one of main scorers to be replaced without an affect. but then from the progress of our youngsters you can see where they can fill that role sooner rather than later.

[BusBoyIsBack]

You're right. We'll find out soon enough. Well unfortunately not that soon. STupid off-season!

Anyways, obviously I hope I'm wrong and there is no drop off whatsoever offensively which means there won't be a drop off period because we all know there won't be one defensively.

[Diesel]

I think what we mean to say is that we won't miss Al's defense. If you're honest about the matter, if Al played defense better let's say like Sean Marion.. then Nobody would want him gone because he'd be the perfect player.

But we won't miss his defense.

However, we will miss his offense. Like him or not, he was consistently putting up his points. When JJ would have a night off we could expect that Al would carry us.

We hope that one of our young guys will step up and fill the loss... BUT that's just HOPE. We shouldn't believe that hope is reality. I believe that there will be some nights when our young guys step up and play very well and others where they disappear all together. So our bet is that while our offense is learning to be consistent, that our defense shuts down the opponents.

Our model right now has to be the Bulls. They were a very good defensive team and young even though they couldn't always find the offensive output.

[Peoriabird]

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When JJ would have a night off we could expect that Al would carry us.

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There were many nights where Al was down right awful on offense. He wasn't as consistent as you make him out to be.

[gsuteke]

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I think what we mean to say is that we won't miss Al's defense. If you're honest about the matter, if Al played defense better let's say like Sean Marion.. then Nobody would want him gone because he'd be the perfect player.

But we won't miss his defense.

However, we will miss his offense. Like him or not, he was consistently putting up his points. When JJ would have a night off we could expect that Al would carry us.

We hope that one of our young guys will step up and fill the loss... BUT that's just HOPE. We shouldn't believe that hope is reality. I believe that there will be some nights when our young guys step up and play very well and others where they disappear all together. So our bet is that while our offense is learning to be consistent, that our defense shuts down the opponents.

Our model right now has to be the Bulls. They were a very good defensive team and young even though they couldn't always find the offensive output.

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Al would carry us to what?

[mrhonline]

Guys, be realistic.

I'm one of Al's biggest detractors, but you can't ignore the fact he exploded offensively in quite a few games last year.

There will be nights when we wish Al was still here. The hope is that those nights will be fewer than the nights we're talking about Marvin's progress, Smith's explosiveness, and Shelden's toughness.