Woodson will likely stay (Gearon comments)...

[AtLaS]

Link to Terrence Moore's AJC article

Quote:

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This ongoing disaster called the Hawks is the fault of everybody involved with the ownership and management of Atlanta Spirit, LLC.

Well, everybody not named Mike Woodson.

In other words, Bob Knight was correct three years ago when he wrote me that letter on Texas Tech stationery to say of his favorite player during the Indiana portion of his career: “I think you will really enjoy Mike Woodson being there.”

Knight’s reference to “you” was meant for the enlightened — those back then, and those right now when it comes to understanding the mess that Woodson inherited. Imagine the reincarnation of the two Reds (Holtzman and Auerbach). Now clone them with Pat Riley and Phil Jackson. That combination still wouldn’t have spent this season keeping another disjointed group of Hawks from ending with 50-something losses and more questions than answers.

The Hawks mercifully finished their season Tuesday night at virtually empty Philips Arena against the Indiana Pacers. As usual, the Hawks played hard, because Woodson won’t settle for less. It often hasn’t mattered. This time, the Hawks’ diligence turned into a 118-102 victory after spending Monday night in Milwaukee as 102-96 losers to the ghastly Bucks.

Woodson got sick before the Bucks game, presumably from food poisoning and not from coaching one of the NBA’s worst teams.

Take it from Michael Gearon Sr., nearly 30 years into serving the Hawks as everything from general manager to chairman of the board. “The question you have to ask yourself is, are the players improving under his coaching?” said Gearon, now among the Hawks’ nine owners. “The answer is that there isn’t a guy on this team who has played better anyplace else, and that includes a veteran like Tyronn Lue. You look and you see that Mike has all of these projects, and every one of them has consistently gotten better.”

The two Joshes (Smith and Childress), along with the two Williamses (Marvin and Shelden). Zaza Pachulia, considered as worthless in Milwaukee as stale beer. Even Joe Johnson, now an All-Star, who was just another good player in Phoenix.

This is the same Woodson who would have succeeded his NBA mentor, Larry Brown, as head coach of the Detroit Pistons. The timing just wasn’t right. With an opening in Atlanta during the summer of 2004, and with Brown spending another year coaching a championship-caliber team, Woodson left as Brown’s assistant to take his first head coaching job. He has grown with that job, and he’ll continue to do so, either here or elsewhere.

So this is encouraging news for those around the dwindling Hawks Nation who want their team to have its best chance to join the living again: Despite serving as coach during the last three of the Hawks’ eight-consecutive seasons as a lottery bunch, Woodson will return for at least a fourth season as head coach.

Won’t he?

“I appreciate what he’s done, and I really think we do as an organization,” Gearon said. “It’s a very difficult challenge. I mean, he had a kid out of high school in Josh Smith, and a couple of rookies. You can’t expect him to knock people dead, because you don’t have a team that is as mature as an expansion team. You’re starting as close to ground zero as you can.”

Makes sense to me. So do the other eight owners (minus Steve Belkin, who is suing his colleagues for control of the team) agree with Gearon and myself? “I haven’t seen anything to the contrary so far,” said Gearon, who nevertheless admitted next season is the key for Woodson.

There were a slew of injuries this season that kept damaging the Hawks’ projected rotation.

Still, here was their biggest problem: a ridiculously flawed roster, which was the fault of Billy Knight, their general manager. Among other horrors, Knight acquired three backup point guards after failing to draft either Chris Paul or Deron Williams, both available at the time, both prospering elsewhere.

Knight picks them.

Woodson just coaches them.

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I agree with the green, STRONGLY disagree with the red..

This article just proves how clueless (or cheap) the Spirit is. JJ was just another player in PHX?? Cmon. No mention of Diaw performing LIGHT YEARS better in PHX. No mention of Woodson getting in arguments with 4 of our players. No mention of his timed substitution patterns.

The most telling that Woodson will likely stay..

So do the other eight owners (minus Steve Belkin, who is suing his colleagues for control of the team) agree with Gearon and myself? “I haven’t seen anything to the contrary so far,” said Gearon, who nevertheless admitted next season is the key for Woodson.

[pimp]

Thinking like this is why we suck and will keep sucking.

I guess X's & 0's on the court don't matter.As long our young players improve every year.

I can't believe they are giving Woody so much credit

the young guy improving.

Has any of our player ever said that, Woody was a big part of their improvement??

I Know i have seen interview where Smoove has given credit

to Larry Drew for his improvement, but not Woody.

They think Woody MADE JJ AN ALLSTAR lol

Prepare for a 9th straight year without the playoffs

[pimp]

He can be in charge of "player development"

But never allowed to coach.

Yea, that sounds good.I mean where would Diaw, Salim, and Shelden be without Woody's development style.

Woody

[Sothron]

I can not believe anyone who knows anything about the NBA can watch this sorry Hawks team for the last four years and honestly think the coach is doing a good job. Nor can I believe anyone can look at Knight's tenure and say he has been anything OTHER than a complete disaster to this franchise.

Oh well. If Woodson still has another year left on his deal then he'll come back because the ASG won't spend the money to pay him to sit home and hire another coach. Not to mention firing Woodson and Knight might be impossible legally because they need all the owners to agree on it, including Belkin...

[Packfill]

If Gearon really believes what he said then then this team is doomed regardless of whether Belkin or the Spirit group win. Hopefully if the Spirit group wins the investor they bring in has enough sense to get these guys to see the light.

[pound4pound]

The problem with judging the development of our players under Woody is that we have no other coach to guage their development by. Is it that far of a stretch to think rookies would improve under any NBA-caliber coach. Is it that far of a stretch to think when ZaZa and Joe were brought in off of other teams to be the Hawks inside/outside presence that their production wouldn't go up?

The coach is held responsible for one thing alone = wins. That is the only control group we have. Any NBA coach has to take tha players he has and develop a rotation, put them in a situation that best fits their skill set, and make sure they play their heart out for you.

Has Woody done that? Billy gives Woody the youngest and most atheletic team in the leauge - yet we slow the ball down. Our big men can't shoot still Woody insists on the high screen and roll for 85% of our plays. No one gives a damn on this team and you can tell it by all of the suits that were on the bench in April.

13, 26, 30.

[CBAreject]

Maybe they're setting up for another tank if we lose out on our pick this year. Then again, maybe they actually believe their own bs?

Babcock and his group kept lying to themselves right up until the time he got fired. We kept saying "This is working. We're getting beter. Kukoc is our point-forward."

[GST]

I have to believe that the court case is what is driving this. No way Woodson goes this far with a normal organization. With all these second chances, maybe he will eventually become a decent head coach. We can call this "the great head coach experiment".

[Guest Walter]

Quote:

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This ongoing disaster called the Hawks is the fault of everybody involved with the ownership and management of Atlanta Spirit, LLC.

Well, everybody not named Mike Woodson.

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So let's go through Terrance's reasons for Woodson not bearing responsibility for this abject failure of a season/squad...

1) Bob Knight said...

2) More Bob knight said ("enlightened fans will like Woodson")

3) According to Gearon the players are improving under his coaching

4) Woodon would have succeeded Larry Brown as Pistons Head Coach only the timing wasn't right

5) He has "grown with this job"

6) Gearon says he's as close to ground zero as you can be.

7) Slew of injuries this year

8) Knight gave him a flawed roster

It almost sounds like a Woodson press conference. There is always truth to be found in a lie or misleading statement. Of the above Bob Knight nicities don't mean [censored], "grown into his job" don't mean [censored], and "would have been the Piston's head coach if not for" doesn't men [censored]...I'll take them out

1) According to Gearon the players are improving under his coaching

2) Gearon says he's as close to ground zero as you can be (youth and inexperience).

3) Slew of injuries this year

4) Knight gave him a flawed roster

1) No one disagrees with this save but the questions "why" (meaning is it Woodson or the natural evolution of a young team) and "to what extent". I don't believe Woodson is improving the young players anymore than any other coach would HAVE TO and would, AND I believe there are considerable examples of crapping on younger players like Diaw and Batista.

2) No doubt.

3) We didn't have slews of injuries last year. In fact we had less than the league average. Perhaps when judging last season we should penalize Woodson. Our injuries weren't season ending until the season had "ended" and the whole league suffered them this season.

4) No doubt.

Still, when you watch Woodson coach you aren't inspired to believe that without these reasons he could EVER coach a contender, much less this team to much better than 35 wins. Truth is in all lies. I just hope this all one big lie from Gearon.

W

[AtLaS]

Quote:

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1) Bob Knight said...

2) More Bob knight said ("enlightened fans will like Woodson")

3) According to Gearon the players are improving under his coaching

4) Woodon would have succeeded Larry Brown as Pistons Head Coach only the timing wasn't right

5) He has "grown with this job"

6) Gearon says he's as close to ground zero as you can be.

7) Slew of injuries this year

8) Knight gave him a flawed roster

It almost sounds like a Woodson press conference. There is always truth to be found in a lie or misleading statement. Of the above Bob Knight nicities don't mean [censored], "grown into his job" don't mean [censored], and "would have been the Piston's head coach if not for" doesn't men [censored]...I'll take them out

1) According to Gearon the players are improving under his coaching

2) Gearon says he's as close to ground zero as you can be (youth and inexperience).

3) Slew of injuries this year

4) Knight gave him a flawed roster

---

I thought the EXACT same thing, I just didn't point it all out. All they do is make excuses for Woodson, they say nothing of his ACTUAL coaching.

Nothing about:

- His TIMED substitutions

- His "doghouse"

- Getting in fights with 4 of our players

- Benching Diaw and watching him blowup elsewhere.

- no offensive gameplan whatsoever

- His insistence on holding one of the most athletic teams to a limited half-court scheme.

- Playing Lorenzen Wright 15 mpg.

- His "stare" that has never accomplished anything.

All they say is about what "other" people said about him, and what he was supposed to be. Everything else is an excuse. Frankly, these owners know nothing about basketball. It seems as if you want to be a successful owner, you'd at least learn a little about your sport, or at least hire some1 to help you out with these matters.

Honestly though, it could just be the Spirit being cheap, so they won't fire him, but will make excuses until his contract is up. ACTUALLY, they MIGHT have encouraged the AJ trade since they wouldn't be held accountable for not going after big FA's this year since we don't have the cap to do so..

[WraithSentinel]

This doesn't surprise me. I said awhile back I wouldn't be surprise to see him return. Perhaps he will pull a Sam Mitchell.

[AtLaS]

Quote:

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Perhaps he will pull a Sam Mitchell.

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Well, we'll need to add a TJ Ford equivalent (15 and 7) to the mix at PG to make that happen. Frankly I don't think BK has it in him to draft a PG.

IMO a good PG for this team is MUCH more important than getting a big man (unless of course it's Oden).

[Plainview1981]

Quote:

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Thinking like this is why we suck and will keep sucking.

I guess X's & 0's on the court don't matter.As long our young players improve every year.

I can't believe they are giving Woody so much credit

the young guy improving.

Has any of our player ever said that, Woody was a big part of their improvement??

I Know i have seen interview where Smoove has given credit

to Larry Drew for his improvement, but not Woody.

They think Woody MADE JJ AN ALLSTAR

lol

Prepare for a 9th straight year without the playoffs

---

I don't think I'll be watching the team next year. and we can only hope they don't retain the team. They have no business owning an NBA team.

[GST]

Quote:

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I thought the EXACT same thing, I just didn't point it all out. All they do is make excuses for Woodson, they say nothing of his ACTUAL coaching.

Nothing about:

- His TIMED substitutions

- His "doghouse"

- Getting in fights with 4 of our players

- Benching Diaw and watching him blowup elsewhere.

-

no offensive gameplan whatsoever

- His insistence on holding one of the most athletic teams to a limited half-court scheme.

- Playing Lorenzen Wright 15 mpg.

- His "stare" that has never accomplished anything.

---

Does anyone else remember that in Woodson's first press conference after he was hired, he said something to the effect of "If you take of the defense, the offense will take care of itself"? I was hoping he was just glossing over what he was actually planning to do, but it looks like he meant exactly what he said.

[GST]

Here it is:

http://www.nba.com/hawks/news/Woodson_Pres...Transcript.html

"I’m a defensive guy and I think offense takes care of itself. We will figure out the offense, but I just came off a championship season with a team that played defense."

[AtLaS]

Quote:

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Here it is:

http://www.nba.com/hawks/news/Woodson_Pres...Transcript.html

"I’m a defensive guy

and I think offense takes care of itself

. We will figure out the offense, but I just came off a championship season with a team that played defense."

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Defensive guys that have no offensive scheme should be assistants. Yeah I took that quote the same way you did, that he would preach defense but just kind of exaggerated the offensive quote. To his demise, he's proven true to his word.

[AtLaS]

Quote:

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Yea, I remember him saying something similar to that. Keeping Woodson around drives me nuts, but what pushes me over the edge with this team is keeping Billy Knight because I know that without BK, I wouldn't be annoyed by Woodson.

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Exactly, BK makes Woodson look like a respectable coach. BK is completely off the charts when it comes to GMing. On a scale of 1-10 BK is about -20.

[pimp]

Quote:

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Here it is:

http://www.nba.com/hawks/news/Woodson_Pres...Transcript.html

"I’m a defensive guy

and I think offense takes care of itself

. We will figure out the offense, but I just came off a championship season with a team that played defense."

---

Lowest scoring team in the NBA.It's taking care of itself

alright.

The Hawks are the only team in the Nba that needs to hire an offensive coordinator.

This is just sad...

[SmooveTheFuture]

The fact that Woodson refuses to turn this team into the mini warriors or suns. A team that runs everytime the down court is really wat ticks me off about this guy. Every announcer when they do the games say this Hawks team is a team that should be looking to run why they arent running I dont understand. I knew for a fact when we are running we a much better and dangerous team out there.

[pimp]

The Suns Have Nash

The Warriors have Baron Davis

The Hawks have .... Well Josh smith starts a fastbreak , sometimes after rebounds.