Acie Is Looking Better But He Still Missed

[Traceman]

a few opportunities last night in my opinion. I am glad to see him looking for his shot more and I thought he made a couple of nice feeds for his teammates but I also thought he missed a couple of things last night that a good PG has GOT to see.

First of all, he drove the lane one time and he had Chillz WIDE OPEN waving his arms for the ball and Acie never saw him. Chillz is so great at getting free around the basket that Acie HAS to see him when he is open. It should have been an easy dunk and instead, Acie forced up a tough shot and missed.

The other thing I noticed is that right after JJ hit a deep 3 from the top of the key to "cut" the lead to 90-67 (hey, we were down 41), on the next possession, Acie didn't see a WIDE OPEN JJ standing at the 3pt line waiting to launch another 3. Instead, Acie penetrated too far and Gasol blocked his shot. We were in the middle of a 14-2 run at the time and if JJ had made that shot, we might have cut the lead to 20. That 90-67 deficit was as close as we would get for the rest of the night. Even if JJ had made that 3, there is no way we were winning the game last night but the point is that Acie HAS to recognize that JJ was 4-4 with 12 pts in the 3rd quarter (including 2 3's and 2 3 pt plays) up until that

point and he had just hit a LONG 3. He was HOT. The PG HAS to recognize that situation and get him the ball at all costs.

Bottom line is that I think that Acie is showing signs that he can run this team and be our PG of the future but he still has a ways to go when it comes to understanding situations and making his teammates better.

[Murat]

Come on now, he can't be perfect. Acie was playing awesome last night, that's exatcly how he played at A&M.

[AnakinJoe]

Law has played 676 minutes this season. If he were averaging 24 minutes per game, he would have about 28 games of NBA experience. So don't think he is playing his 51st game tonight. I think the last 2 games he has been able to recover some lost confidence and has played well. I'm looking forward to him starting tonight and getting some crunch time minutes.

[jerrywest]

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Law has played 676 minutes this season. If he were averaging 24 minutes per game, he would have about 28 games of NBA experience. So don't think he is playing his 51st game tonight. I think the last 2 games he has been able to recover some lost confidence and has played well. I'm looking forward to him starting tonight and getting some crunch time minutes.

Woody was just making sure that Acie doesn't hit the rookie wall at playoffs time.

If it was 28 games with 24 minutes, he would be better off. It was sporadic like 10, 5, 0, 16, 3.... or something like that which could Sheldenize any player.

[exodus]

I couldn't care less about missing a couple of open guys. Acie has been too tentative all season looking for his own shot and has been looking for other guys too much.

We need him to score. Our halfcourt offense is a joke an nobody has been playing that well individually. JJ is having his worst season as a Hawk. He has been hounded by double teams. We need someone else to score and Acie can do that, he just hasn't been looking to shoot enough and hasn't gotten enough playing time.

Acie has hit so many guys for wide open looks only to have them miss that I don't mind him looking to take it himself at all.

[TheDude]

One thing that jumps out at me is that he seemingly cannot be stopped driving to the basket. He is unbeleivable quick in my opinion and really could get to the basket anytime he wants. Once he gets his shot more consistent (which seems to be happening) and gets better at finding people from the drive, he will be a monster.

Honestly the more I see his quickness the more I feel that he won't just be a solid guard in the league but rather a borderline allstar.

[Traceman]

I like Acie a lot. I think he has a lot of talent and I think he is going to benefit tremendously from playing behind a guy like Bibby. It is just clear to me that he has a ways to go to figure out that "balance" between when to aggressively look for his own shot and when to create a shot for his teammates. Still, I would MUCH rather see him mess up while aggressively looking for his own shot than to see him look tentative because he is afraid that Woody is going to pull him out the first mistake he makes.

[Traceman]

I also would rather see him aggressively look for his shot than to see him deferring to his teammates all the time but the two situations I relayed indicate to me that he still has a ways to go in his development (as if we all don't know that already). There is a BIG difference between not creating a play for your teammate and not throwing the ball to a WIDE OPEN teammate in a position where they like the ball.

[jerrywest]

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I would MUCH rather see him mess up while aggressively looking for his own shot than to see him look tentative because he is afraid that Woody is going to pull him out the first mistake he makes.

Can't do that tonight.

I think his passes create more free throws than usual.

[Traceman]

games too. He is showing signs of being the guy we saw in the summer league and in preseason before his injury. We are going to need a significant contribution from him if we are going to make the playoffs this year even if Bibby is relatively healthy.

[dalamchops]

DISCLAIMER: YES I KNOW HE IS A ROOKIE.

I honestly saw nothing more than what a young Jason Terry did back when he was here. I don't know if i like that or not. He really lacked vision and anticipation of a true pg.

[Traceman]

for playing a lot like JT did when he was here. Acie has clearly picked up his scoring but he only has 5 assists in his last 61 minutes of action. 13/2 and 16/3 is a LOT better than what we had been getting from him but I would certainly like to see those assist numbers up around 5 per game if he is going to be on the floor for 30 minutes or so.

On another note, it certainly wasn't Acie alone but we looked HORRIBLE against LAL's full court pressure last night. We are going to need for Acie to show poise when teams press us. Teams are going to press Acie just like they pressed JT until he proves that he can handle the pressure. The good news for Acie is that JJ, Marv, Chillz and even Smoove and Horford can help him with the ballhandling responsibilities while JT was stuck with the likes of Ira Newble, Dion Glover, Dog, Reef and Theo. Good grief!

[exodus]

So far this month Acie has 18 assists and 3 turnovers. I can live with that.

Remember he usually comes in with guys who can't score. Last night it was Zaza. He hits guys when they are open all the time but they just can't make open shots. He used to play a lot with Shelden and Wright and they couldn't shoot a lick. Wright has only made 4 baskets on the season.