Man people overrated this teams depth

[Plainview1981]

It's amazing that NOBODY has been steady off the bench other than Childress. Really, who is the Hawks 7th man? Lue? Law. The fact that the team wins more when they only play 6th guys than when they play 8 or more really shows the lack of depth.

Is it that Woodson can't develop players, or is it that Lue, Shelden, Lo, ZaZa suck this bad? Billy Knight needs to get off his butt for once in the last two years and make a move for some bench help.

[swolehawk2]

Correct. Nobody expected ZZ to play like this. Lue has lost all of his quickness. Shelden looks like he takes games off, often times giving not much effort. Looks like we are better when we play eight guys, Law, Chillz and Lo off of the bench. We need some vet bench help.

But one good thing, in years past this bench would have been our starters!

[macdaddy]

I'm not going to blame Woody for everything but this has certainly been a pattern for him. He doesn't give guys 7-9 much time or responsiblity for them to get in a comfort zone. But, he's in good company with this problem (see Lenny Wilkens).

I think our depth is a lot better than last year though. Its not 2 deep at every position but Chill, Law, Shelden are all contributing well. Lue, Lo and Zaza are starters from last year who can't find many minutes.

[DJlaysitup]

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...But one good thing, in years past this bench would have been our starters!

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Exactly!...now we need to get improved depth if possible. Like Parcels used to say (paraphrase): 'everybody else is trying to get better too, so if you are standing pat you are actually losing ground to the field'.

[Diesel]

I hear what you say overrate... However, by that same token... we have guys off the bench who are very serviceable.

Acie, Chillz, Zaza, and Shelden are all serviceable. None of those guys are star players, but for 15 minutes... and in some cases 30 minutes, they can play and won't be a total embarrassment.

I think we're so used to not having a bench and looking around and not seeing a bench on other teams that it makes us feel good.

For instance... What's on Cleveland's bench??

What's on Boston's bench??

What's on Orlando's bench??

I think when you survey our competition, we're not so bad.

[DJlaysitup]

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...I think when you survey our competition, we're not so bad.

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If Shelden would step up and raise his game a bit I would agree. As it stands right now (big-wise) there seems to be an aweful large gap between Horford and Lo/Shelden/Zaza/Solo.

[Dexmethylphenidate]

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...I think when you survey our competition, we're not so bad.

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If Shelden would step up and raise his game a bit I would agree. As it stands right now (big-wise) there seems to be an aweful large gap between Horford and Lo/Shelden/Zaza/Solo.

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We lost some post game with Lo/Solo (in for Horford) but we lost post game and help defense with Shelden; we lost all hope with Zaza.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

I definitely overrated them. Speedy being unable to play this year, didn't help matters. The guy that disappoints me most, is Shelden. I expected him to be much, much better and more consistent coming off the bench. I've always thought that he'd surge ahead of Zaza on the depth chart and really be solid off the bench.

Woody is doing what he has to do, when shortening the rotation. Right now, we really only have a core 7 in the rotation: starters + Chill and Law. The 8th guy depends on who gets in foul trouble and the 9th guy depends on what type if team we're playing. On any given night, Lue, Lo &, Shelden will be that 8th man, with those other guys + possibly Mario and Zaza being 9th.

With Speedy, I thought we'd easily go 10 deep, possibly even 11. But right now, I'm very content going 8 deep. I just hope we don't wear the guys down too much. Chill is more important than ever now.

[Plainview1981]

Lo has a gave some good minutes a few times this year, but I was talking about production wise. How often does a bench player other than Childress score 10-12 points? I expected that

Zaza could at least give solid bench production.

He has been a total bust so far though. I do believe Woody is somewhat at fault since ZaZa, Lo, Lue and these guys have been productive players in the past. But under Woody they're basically useless.

[yardbird]

Weren't all those guys productive under Woody? I think Lo is about as effective now under Woody as he ever was since rejoining the Hawks. Lue has struggled to regain his form after injuries, and I think ZaZa's confidence has suffered because he cannot start over Horford. That's not a Woody problem.

[Atlantaholic]

Zaza stinks. He was never very good, but now injuries and lack of confidence have brought his play to a new low... Lo is old, and his numbers were dipping hard before he came to our team, so it should have been to nobodies surprise (except to mastermind Knight who gave him that contract) that his play would have become what it is... Lue is obviously DONE... the man can't even move out there... It's just too bad we didn't move any of these players when we had the chance to get good value for them.

[Plainview1981]

Nobody other than Childress has scored off the bench tonight.