Wake up Fans JOE is who we need to GO!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TheNorthCydeRises]

LOL . . someone forgot to take their meds today.

So let me get this straight. Your solution to our shooting woes, is to trade JJ to acquire Gasol, and depend on Salim's cousin?

Just how many shots does Salim's cousin get to take per game?

(( calling the psych ward ))

[LastDon]

JJ

Salim

ZaZa

FOR GASOL/ D.STOUDAMIRE/ HAKIM WARRICK

AND SHELDEN FOR GARCIA OR SHELDON FOR ANY SHOOTER

WHERE IS ME TRADING SMOOTH AND DOING ALL THESE DIFFERENT TRADES COMING FROM?????

READ THE VERY FIRST POST PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LastDon]

THEIR WOULD BE FAR FEWER FANS AT THE GAME THAN IT IS ALREADY AND PLUS THE SALARIES FOR SMOOTH AND GASOL DONT MATCH.

SMOOTH IS ON A ROOKIE CONTRACT, GASOL IS ON A MAX CONTRACT.

[LastDon]

THEY ARE IN THE WESTERN CONFERENCE AND BECAUSE THE COACH WANTS TO PLAY LIKE THE SUNS AND HE ISN'T RUNNING THE OFFENSE THROUGH PAU!!!!!!!!!!!

[LastDon]

DAMON STILL CAN PLAY HE'S JUST A VICTIM OF MEMPHIS GOING WITH A YOUTH MOVEMENT AT THE POINT GUARD SPOT THAT'S WHY HE WANTS OUT SO BAD!!!!

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Quote:

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DAMON STILL CAN PLAY HE'S JUST A VICTIM OF MEMPHIS GOING WITH A YOUTH MOVEMENT AT THE POINT GUARD SPOT THAT'S WHY HE WANTS OUT SO BAD!!!!

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If Damon can still play why aren't teams calling Memphis, trying to cut a deal with them?

Oh, and who is the playmaker on your "improved" Hawk team?

You know what I think? I think you're MemphisX under a different username. You add Hakim Warrick to our mix . . Hakim hardly plays for the Griz anymore.

Ish, just move the Hawks to Tupelo, MS, since you want 1/2 of Memphis' team here . . LOL. Call them the Mississippi Hawks.

[Plainview1981]

Quote:

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THE PROBLEM

Joe lacks the athletism to be a go to guy in this league. If you look at any wing player that has been successful at being a number one option over the last 10 years they all were skillful and athletic.

In order to consistently be a go to guy you have to be able to draw fouls on nights when your jumpshot is not falling and Joe is incapable of doing this.

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Done said this along time ago.

[TroyMcClure]

That pretty much explains it. Your post was accurate, as well.

[Vafan]

Trade Joe for Pau?? Only if we get Mike Miller. Joe/ZaZa/Shelden for Miller and Pau. Our lineup would be AJ, Chillz, MW/Miller, Smoove, and Pau. Off the bench would be Miller/MW, Horford, AC.

[TheFormerJJBacker]

LastDon (and others on this site that think similarly):

There are only a few Kobe/LeBron/DWade (when healthy)/TMAC (when healthy) players in the league!

I don't understand why Joe is contstantly compared to them. He's not them! You want to compare Joe to someone? Larry Hughes, Ray Allen, and Michael Redd.

For those in need of a history lesson - Joe, Hughes, Allen and Redd were the UFA and RFA 2's that were seen as "top-shelf) in the summer of 05.

Allen - making $16 million this year

Redd - making $14.52 million this year

JJ and Hughes - both making $13,488,377 this year.

If I had to pick one of the 4 - I'd take JJ. Joe must go? He's not LeBron nor Kobe nor Steve Nash? No kidding. Other than the Hornets, Pistons, Jazz, and possibly the Warriors and Spurs - who has a PG in the class of Nash? That means on 24 message boards there's complaints that the given team doesn't have Steve Nash?

Honestly, other than the Cavs and Lakers - every other team can [censored] that they don't have Kobe or LeBron.

My wife is from Cleveland. Her whole family complains that the Cavs signed Hughes instead of Joe in 05 to a max deal. They all think that LeBron and JJ would be Jordan/Pippen 2.0. (I tend to agree)

I just don't know what you people expect from Joe. Do you watch any other teams play (other than when they're playing the Hawks?). Some numbers:

(1) Joe's 16th in the NBA in scoring (8th in the East)

(2) His current shooting percentage (41.3%) is the worst among those 16.

(3) Of those 16 - only Caron Butler is taking fewer FT's per game than Joe.

(4) We've all said that Joe doesn't get the superstar calls (read: Unlike DWade, LeBron, TMAC, AI and Melo - Joe doesn't get bailed out on misses.) If you agree with me and feel that Joe gets hosed out of 4 FT's a game (i.e., typically there are about two plays a night in which Joe gets enough contact that if he were LeBron, DWade, TMAC, AI, and Melo, etc. he'd be going to the line) - Joe's shooting percentage would be 46% and he'd be 5th in the league in scoring (all I did was add 3 points to his average and take away 2 FG attempts). Whow would be complaining then?

(5) Of those 16 - Joe has a higher shooting percentage from 3 Pt than: LeBron, Kobe, AI, Melo, DWade, Richard Jefferson, Michael Redd, Dirk, and Baron Davis. (I didn't bother listing folks like Yao and Boozer and Bosh b/c that would be silly). The only player in the NBA among the top 16 in scoring with a higher percentage from 3? Caron Butler (by a whoping 1%).

(6) Joe's 5.3 assists would trail only AI, LeBron, DWade and Baron Davis among those 16. AI and Davis are more PG than Joe, and both play in offensive systems in which running is the name of the game. Don Nelson and George Karl are their coaches. We've already established Joe isn't DWade nor is he LeBron (because only Kobe can hang with those two right now as "swingmen.")

I guess the way look at it is as follows: What do you want from the guy?

He's the best player on the Hawks. He's well-respected by his peers (did anyone read about "Our Family" on Team USA - a clic that included CP3, JJ, DWade, LeBron and Melo?), he's well-respected by opposing coaches. Any game in which he goes off - the quotes in opposing papers are always, "Joe's really good.. yada yada yada." When we lose it's, "we made it our priority to take Joe out of the game... yada yada yada."

He's not Kobe. He's not DWade (Just curious, how are the Heat doing these days?). He's not LeBron (Didn't we just beat the Cavs?). He's Joe Johnson. He's not a mega-watt superstar, but he's an All-Star.

Another list:

Michael Finley, Shaq, Marbury, Webber, Steve Francis, Ray Allen, Ben Wallace, Redd, GASOL, AK-47, Lamar Odom, Mike Bibby -- they all will make more money than Joe Johnson this year. You don't think Mavs would rather be paying Joe to play for them than for Finley to play with the Spurs. You don't think the Knicks, Celtics, Bulls, Bucks, Griz, Jazz, Lakers, Kings, etc. wouldn't rather be spending less money on Joe than one of their own players?

Every one of the teams above (save the Celtics and Lakers) doesn't have Kobe nor LeBron.

Another thing - I live in Phoenix. Most hoops fans in the know (that aren't corrupted by the local media and Robert Sarver) would rather have Joe back instead of Shawn (who will likely opt out of his contract this summer and want a long-term deal to the tune of $17 million per year) AND Amare (who local radio talk show hosts - the same guys that first had the dish that Joe wasn't coming back in the summer of 05 - are predicting will be traded before the end of the year because Amare has a max deal, has bad knees, doesn't rebound, doesn't play D, and has a terrible attitude).

I guess it comes down to this... when you watch a team every day... you get annoyed about things. You pick your team apart. You ride every win, and cringe with every loss. Last night's game was terrible - I almost fell asleep trying to watch that garbage. Joe didn't play well. He started the game 2/7 in the first quarter. Does anyone realize that for a long time (before 3 late misses in the fourth) that he had taken 6 shots total in the 2nd, 3rd, and half of the 4th quarter combined? How the heck is he supposed to be in some kind of rhythm at that point?

Noone notices when Kobe has 40+ points on 40+ shots... Noone notices when Kobe goes 5/20...

These things will happen. Going into last night's game, Joe was shooting 44% from the field in January (including those horrendous 3/11 and 4/16 nights against Indy and the Nets). From 3 - 46.7% over the same games.

They play 82 games, fellas. Everyone has some stinkers.

Lastly - some of you may talk about or have some sort of argument along the lines of "Of course he scores and has assists - he always has the ball!" This might be true... but it's true for all of the "swingmen" in the game right no: Kobe, TMAC, DWade, etc...

Take a look at Assist to Turnover ratio:

Joe: 1.93

Kobe: 1.63

DWade: 1.48

Iguodala: 1.46

Redd: 1.43

LeBron and AI are above Joe... but we've established there's only one LeBron...

Be thankful for what you have. If we had a better coach - we'd be just fine.

Sorry for the the length...

Mark

PS - I didn't spell check, so don't bust my balls.

[NJHAWK]

We do not have a log jam of all stars.

[DrReality]

I've hinted at this and at the same time realize it will never happen. If it did . . . . we'd have to get ONE HELL OF A DEAL IN RETURN. Chances are slim to none.

[TheFormerJJBacker]

Trading Joe to acquire Pau would be ridiculous. How many playoff games has Pau won? The same amount as Smoov, Marvin, Chillz and Joe as a Hawk. Zero.

Pau's not at a point where he can carry a team. He's no better a leader than Joe. If we had him in the post, it would limit Horford's growth and it wouldn't allow Smoov in the post at all - and we all know how good Smoov is as a perimeter player :-)

Just thought I'd add that...

Mark

[pound4pound]

This is a good post: You have pin-pointed the problem - Joe isn't a true first option - but the solution isn't to trade him but compliment him.

It really boils down to coaching: Becuase we MAY have the players already on the roster. I would love to see us run our offense through a two man game of Marvin Williams and Al Horford and let JJ sit on the wing waiting for the open shot.

Marvin has the one-on-one skills to get by his man on the wing AND hit the open J. Horford has shown steady improvement on the low block. Run the offense through Marvin, and if he doesn't get fouled then he gets doubled by Joe's man.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Quote:

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This is a good post: You have pin-pointed the problem - Joe isn't a true first option - but the solution isn't to trade him but compliment him.

It really boils down to coaching: Becuase we MAY have the players already on the roster. I would love to see us run our offense through a two man game of Marvin Williams and Al Horford and let JJ sit on the wing waiting for the open shot.

Marvin has the one-on-one skills to get by his man on the wing AND hit the open J. Horford has shown steady improvement on the low block. Run the offense through Marvin, and if he doesn't get fouled then he gets doubled by Joe's man.

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It's like some of you have lost all sense of reality. LOL . . how does a guy who last year scored 25 ppg and shot 47% WITHOUT a damn PG to set him up, not have the ability to be a 1st option?

The only problem this year with JJ, is that he's having a lot of bad shooting games. And the difference between JJ and the other stars in this league, is that he doesn't keep shooting the ball when he's off. A 4 - 16 night for JJ, would be a 7 - 26 night for Kobe, because Kobe would keep shooting, hoping he could string together a few baskets in a row to pull a game out. Because of that, Kobe would still get his 20 - 25 points, even if the Lakers lost.

But when JJ is off, he usally goes into playmaker mode. He had a horrible game in Milwaukee, no doubt about that. It's just so funny to see some of you totally disregard what JJ does when we win games, but cry to the heavens when we lose and he hs a bad game.

JJBacker's post is EASILY the Post of the Year on Hawksquawk thus far. Yet, none of you have even bothered to comment on the FACTS he presented about JJ. It's like his post doesn't exist. You all should copy, paste, and even print out that post, and tape it to your computer monitor.

LOL @ run the offense through Marvin. GTFOH !!! If we could do that, JJ wouldn't have to play 40+ minutes a night, just to give us a shot to win. The vast majority of Marvin's points come via assists. Less than 1/2 of JJ's points come via assists. Yet, we should run the offense through Marvin? Good Lord.