Who are the Hawks Top Defenders in Order?

[SmooveTheFuture]

I believe this team will start winning more once we can actually defend and stop opponents from doing whatever they want on offense. It starts with defending the paint and not letting teams come in there and score at will. We need to turn this ship around starting with stopping teams. Who do you guys think are the teams Top 12 Defenders in order from best to worst. Im curious to see who everything thinks our best defenders are maybe we can weed out the players that need to play less in critical parts of the game. Ill hold my thoughts until later.

[Nicholasp27]

i'll group them into 2 groups...

strong defenders:

perimeter:

speedy

jj

chill

marvin

inside/help:

smoove

landlord

solomon

weak defenders:

lue

slim

zaza

now, some of the players in the 'strong defenders' list are still inconsistent or are good at help defense but not as good at man defense, but they are all young and will only improve...slim/zaza have a ways to go and lue is OK when he tries but is never gonna be a great defender

[Popeye]

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i'll group them into 2 groups...

strong defenders:

perimeter:

speedy

jj

chill

marvin

inside/help:

smoove

landlord

solomon

weak defenders:

lue

slim

zaza

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I agree, Ivey is also good perimeter defender though.

[exodus]

No question the biggest problem guys defensively are Zaza and Lue, in that order.

When Speedy gets healthy and Childress gets back that will limit Lue's defesive issue somewhat. But in order to solve th problem with Zaza the Hawks need to bring someone else in.

[Nicholasp27]

yeah, ivey is on the strong list as well, but i was just doing the main people who play

bozeman/frieje can play d as well and batman could if he didn't foul everytime someone got within 3 feet of him

[DJlaysitup]

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No question the biggest problem guys defensively are Zaza and Lue, in that order.

When Speedy gets healthy and Childress gets back that will limit Lue's defesive issue somewhat. But in order to solve th problem with Zaza the Hawks need to bring someone else in.

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Exactly

[VarsitySlacker]

I wouldn't necessarily call Smoove a good defender so much as I would call him an impact defender (I know you wrote help, but you categorized him with Solomon and Shelden)

I think my tier structure looks something like that

Good Defense:

Shelden

Speedy

Above Average Defense:

Joe

Chill

Marvin

Solomon

Average Defense:

Smith

Below Average Defense:

Salim

Lo

Abysmal Defense:

Lue

Zaza

Ivey, Bozeman, etc. don't really get enough time for me to really count them. Salim has REALLY stepped it up this year in D, even if it is just more hustle. I see him get more steals and somewhat pretend that he cares on D, even though he still lets people blow by him. Smith is half great defense and half below average, which I'm going to standardize as just average. He's the only fast break defender I trust, but if someone is working him anywhere further out than the paint he's going to get beaten. Solomon could be the same way, but he tends to guard the center when he's in, so it's not as much of an issue.

[DJlaysitup]

Good defenders - JJ

average - JS, SW, MW and Speedy

below average - the rest. all of em.

[Popeye]

Solomon and Smoove are help defenders and neither is good at man to man defense. Solomon may became a good man to man defender, but right now he is too thin.

You should put them in same category.

[Nicholasp27]

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Good defenders - JJ

average - JS, SW, MW and Speedy

below average - the rest. all of em.

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chill is our best perimeter defender outside of speedy and u neglected to put him in the good (or at least average) category...

[Popeye]

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Good defenders - JJ

average - JS, SW, MW and Speedy

below average - the rest. all of em.

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chill is our best perimeter defender outside of speedy and u neglected to put him in the good (or at least average) category...

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Perimeter defense and man to man.

Chill>>Smoove

Help defense

Smoove>> Chill

Chill is better defender that Smoove bottomline.

[HawksFan87]

Speedy is the best defender on this team everybody else is average, Smoove, Chill and Joe have the potential to be shut down defenders but that will happen in due time.

[Popeye]

I actualy think that Joe is our best defender, but we need him on offense more than so on defense. It's hard to be best on offense and defense, it takes so much out of you. If we ask Joe to just play shutdown D on some star player and don't care about offense he would be one of the best defenders in the league.

[Gray Mule]

Mostly, some parts of the Hawks defense is very good

and some of it is horrible.

Zaza is horrible inside, they score on him a lot. Yet,

he has quick hands and will steal the ball. He doesn't

play POWERFUL enough when the ball is inside. Teams

have a tendency to run over all our defenders inside.

Josh Smith is very good inside, he too can use his hands

to steal the ball, can jump with the best of them.

He gets caught out of position, however, just as Zaza

does. His outside defense leaves something to be desired.

Using their long arms, quickness and those fast hands,

Hawks put on a clinic on how they CAN play defense last

night. This continued throughout the first half.

Defense is a matter of being at the right place at the

right time and then applying the right amount of pressure

to stop your opponent from doing what he wants to do.

Defense also requires teamwork with everyone doing their

part - Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't.

[Johnnybravo4]

Are you out of your mind. Josh Smith is by far the best defender on the team. He gets criticized because he gets pounded on by big PF's. But he has the ability to recover and still make a defensive play, like he did to Camby a few times last night. Solomon and Shelden are just a collection of fouls, which is why they spend so much time on the bench.

And another thing, how in the hell can an impact defender be an avg defender? The are mutually exclusive.

[AHF]

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And another thing, how in the hell can an impact defender be an avg defender? The are mutually exclusive.

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A defense that produces a high number of turnovers is impact. However, it may end up being an average defense because it gives up too many easy points. An example of a player like this is someone who gets a high # of steals but doesn't play good fundamental defense. High impact, average overall.

[Packfill]

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And another thing, how in the hell can an impact defender be an avg defender? The are mutually exclusive.

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A defense that produces a high number of turnovers is impact. However, it may end up being an average defense because it gives up too many easy points. An example of a player like this is someone who gets a high # of steals but doesn't play good fundamental defense. High impact, average overall.

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Reminds me of someone who has been the topic of much discussion lately . . .

[VarsitySlacker]

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The are mutually exclusive.

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I don't think that phrase means what you think it means.

[Johnnybravo4]

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The are mutually exclusive.

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I don't think that phrase means what you think it means.

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Yes it does, In my opinion you can't be an "impact defender" and an avg defender at the same time. If you are avg then you by definition aren't an impact, you are avg.

We are not talking about one incidence of impact, if we were then I'd agree. But if a player consistently makes an impact on defense to the point where he could be classified as an "impact defender" then he can't be an avg defender.

[VarsitySlacker]

Have you been watching the game? Smoove has been beaten to the basket over and over again today. He is a great helper (because of his ability to block shots), but once you take him out of the pain he's absolutely useless.

This does explain why you're infatuated with Iverson, though. Steals != Defense, the same that Blocks != defense.