Insider Article on Hawks' defense

[Johnnybravo4]

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/col...%26id%3d2661391

Could some kind person hook us up

[vdunkndunk]

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Atlanta's defense. Much of the attention for the Hawks' 4-2 start has focused on the play of Joe Johnson. Although that's certainly a good place to start, the real transformation has been at the other end.

Atlanta has been playing about as well as it did a year ago offensively -- actually an impressive feat considering the loss of Al Harrington -- but it's the defense that's been the key. A year ago, the Hawks ranked 26th in defensive efficiency, but this year they rank 11th.

It's not hard to figure out the major difference -- the Hawks have an actual frontcourt rotation now. No, Shelden Williams and Lorenzen Wright aren't exactly setting the world on fire, but being able to turn to them instead of, say, John Edwards and Esteban Batista has made a world of difference for Atlanta. Throw in a year of experience for the kids, and Atlanta is providing enough resistance to allow Johnson and the rest of the offense to win games.

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This goes back to what many of us who actually watched the Hawks last year have been saying for a while now. The biggest problem last season wasn't our lack of a PG, because our offense was actually pretty respectable.

Our biggest problem by far was our defense.

And the biggest problem with our defense was our pathetic lack of big men. Now that we have a competitive front line (I'm not saying it's great, but it's a lot better than last year's), we actually have a chance at winning some games.

I'd still love to have Deron or Paul, obviously, but I think it's just stupid that most people can't even mention the Hawks without mentioning how badly we need a PG.

[TheDude]

agreee totally..the point guard thing has been run into the ground. could we have some insane offense with Paul running the show? sure...but as far as winning, our pg position isnt all that bad, it was our defense that suffered.

[Packfill]

I agree to an extent. It was not the lack of an adequate point guard that was keeping the Hawks from becoming respectible. That said, for the Hawks to become an elite team, as in a true title contentder, I think having a really good point guard would be helpful.

[vdunkndunk]

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I agree to an extent. It was not the lack of an adequate point guard that was keeping the Hawks from becoming respectible. That said, for the Hawks to become an elite team, as in a true title contentder, I think having a really good point guard would be helpful.

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I agree with you whole-heartedly. It's not that I don't want a PG, it's just that I get sick of people constantly harping on the wrongheaded idea that we need a PG more than we need anything else in the world...like the only reason we're losing is because we didn't draft Chris Paul.

[Sothron]

We needed Deron Williams, not Chris Paul. Deron can stop dribble and drive penetration from the perimeter, man up on the post and is an excellent passer, leader, and can score as needed. We made a big mistake in not taking him.

That being said, the main reason IMO we are doing better on defense is shutting down the perimeter and making teams work to get off outside shots. Lo Down and Shellhead are certainly better than Edwards (laugh) down in the post. No question. They deserve some credit but so do Bozeman and Johnson for their work on the outside.

[Johnnybravo4]

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I agree to an extent. It was not the lack of an adequate point guard that was keeping the Hawks from becoming respectible. That said, for the Hawks to become an elite team, as in a true title contentder, I think having a really good point guard would be helpful.

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I agree with you whole-heartedly. It's not that I don't want a PG, it's just that I get sick of people constantly harping on the wrongheaded idea that we need a PG more than we need anything else in the world...like the only reason we're losing is because we didn't draft Chris Paul.

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You know why people say we need a point guard? It is because for the past two years we have been giving NBDL 3rd stringers the starting job so that they can play 12 "scorching minutes of defense" only to be sat down for the rest of the game. Instead of starting Tyronne Lue, we have to go with this charade of starting a big slow point guard who cant shoot, in the name of defense....then we fall behind and then we bring in Lue to save the day and bring us back up again.

If you hear a big WHO? at Phillips tonite...that will be the fans when Cedric Bozeman is announced. Thank God for the ATL drumline, I'd hate for the kid's confidence to be shot.