I am one of Woody's biggest supporters ... but

[AHF]

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Coach, these are professional players. If they need some sort of rah-rah speech with a 7 point lead going into the 3rd quarter, then I truly don't know what to say about them.

I guarantee better 3rd quarter performance if we bring in a real coach. Woody isn't to blame for everything but a coach should be able to make effective adjustments at half-time and should be able to inspire effort out of the gate. If we had Phil Jackson in the lockerroom, you would see a world of difference in the 3rd quarter from what we gotten this year, IMO.

The players bear responsibility for what they do on the floor but they sure aren't getting a lot of help being put in position to succeed in many, many instances, IMO.

[Guest Walter]

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There are so many problems with this team, especially when they go on the road, it isn't even funny.

So what you are saying is that the GM has done a pretty bad job putting together this team?

These are the truest things said.

The problems with this team start with the GM. It is a fatally flawed team. A team without enough talent (no matter what naive people want to believe), without superstars or mismatch advantages, lacking a significant amount of skill-sets, without a center (and Pg until recently, although I'm not as high on Bibby as most), and all about to diminish further as the rookie contracts are up! BK is the "architect" of this house of cards and should have been fired yesterday for it.

Woodson was another BK decision and for that reason alone is highly questionable. Aside from that Woodson has shown mostly incompetence. Forgetting players on the bench (and publically acknowledging doing so), playing injured players 43+ MPG until they breakdown, publically stating the obvious, that the players are too tired to play well, yet playing them even more MPG in the following 5 games, indicating we need to run and then not adhering to it, and seemingly having no offensive strategy. Undoubtedly, Woody is a coach that has LOST more games for us than he has won for us.

The players. It's so difficult to fully assess how these players would perform on a more traditional, talented, balanced, etc. team (BK) with a competent coach (Woody). We may never be able to assess them within a proper team as BK's errors are d@mning but fire him and let another GM do the assessing. Fire Woody so the assessing can be done with another coach/system. Then perhaps we can better assess the players. This includes even Marvin Williams for me whom I consider almost a lost cause relative to his pick position.

W

[TheNorthCydeRises]

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I guarantee better 3rd quarter performance if we bring in a real coach. Woody isn't to blame for everything but a coach should be able to make effective adjustments at half-time and should be able to inspire effort out of the gate. If we had Phil Jackson in the lockerroom, you would see a world of difference in the 3rd quarter from what we gotten this year, IMO.

The players bear responsibility for what they do on the floor but they sure aren't getting a lot of help being put in position to succeed in many, many instances, IMO.

You guarantee it? How?

I love JJ, but JJ makes some of the laziest passes I've ever seen. Smoove tries to make Magic Johnson type passes. Marvin can't dribble or hold onto the ball in traffic. I mean, how does a coach correct those types of things on the professional level? What about Salim?

Usually, if a player comes into the league a fundamentally sound player, he's going to stay that way. I don't know of too many examples where undisciplined players, became good to great players down the road that play smart.

Ricky Davis immeadiately come to mind. Talent wise, he has it. BBIQ wise, he's never gotten it. This is the same argument that we're having with ZaZa these days.

The only option we have, is to literally take the decision making away from some of these players. Maybe a healthy Acie can do that. But even things like blocking out for rebounds seem to go by the wayside with this team. Horford consistently does it, which is why he usually leads us in rebounds. The other guys do it every once in a while. You know Woody stresses rebounding and defense, so you know he stays on them on these issues.

Woody needs to be fired, if for anything, to illustrate that these players need to take accountability. I'm not against firing Woody at all though. I just think it probably won't solve the problem.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

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So what you are saying is that the GM has done a pretty bad job putting together this team?

EDS, this entire team is f'd up at his point. From the players, to the coach, to the GM, to the ownership. To blame it on one single entity, and think that ish will change, is kind of being naive.

[coachx]

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Coach, these are professional players. If they need some sort of rah-rah speech with a 7 point lead going into the 3rd quarter, then I truly don't know what to say about them. There are so many problems with this team, especially when they go on the road, it isn't even funny.

You talk about 3rd quarter adjustments?

- JJ and Bibby had consecutive turnovers to begin the quarter.

- Then they missed their first 4 shots

- Then JJ and Bibby had consecutive turnovers AGAIN

- By the time Smoove finally hits a little bunny shot, the game is tied at 39.

- We didn't hit a shot outside of 5 feet THE ENTIRE QUARTER and were 3 - 17 overall in the quarter.

I mean, seriously. What would you have done differently to start the 3rd, as far as a lineup?

It wasn't like Chill was playing like anything, so why even take the time to bench Marvin? Unless you bench Marvin for ZaZa, and move Smoove to SF, which is a disaster in itself.

So do you bench Smoove in favor of ZaZa? I say that, because Horford did have a pretty good first half, so the logical person would be to bench Smoove, right? I'm sure people would've had a fit if Smoove didn't start in the 2nd half.

The problem with this fan base, is that most people think the answers are so simple. You guys should know better. Most of us either watch or follow very closely what this team does on a nightly basis. This team has found every way possible to lose a game this year, from bad coaching moves/plays/decisions, to players just playing like garbage after playing great the quarter or half before.

We get a legit PG who is also a shooter, but now we turn the ball over like a 9 year old YMCA team?

Everybody's favorite bench players finally get some time, yet, they can't hit or do ish when they get in a game?

Go to Marvin more . . when he's only shooting 36% FG and has failed to score in double figures in 5 games this month . . after having only ONE sub 10-point game the entire year before February? His eFG on his jumper has now fallen below 40%.

So seriously man, what would you have done differently, that would've prevented the cold shooting and the dumb turnovers that caused them to rapidly lose the lead last night?

Ok, Ok, one at a time.

1. I don't buy the whole "professionals" don't need motivational speeches bit. There is a time and place for everything. When a team is wrapping up a brutal 5 game road trip vs. the NBA Champs (and the Hawks are known for their 3rd quarters lapses )some extra motivation could be in order to be sure lack of focus and concentration is not an issue. The Spurs came out hungry and we came out asleep. (After all it was 10:00 EST. )Through an 82 game schedule and especially at the end of road trips even professionals lose focus and need pep talks to remotivate and "finish the drill" if you will. ( Football analogy) March Richt has just mastered the art of motivation. He has alwayse been a great X & O coach but now that he can motivate whith the best of them he is becoming an elite coach. Motivation is needed in all sports. Just ask the "Zin Master" / Phil Jackson. (Woody could be giving loud and obnoxoius pep talks like Bobby Knight style since he has been exposed to that, or he could be giving more philosophical speeches like Phil Jackson, or no speech at all. We will never know b/c we are not in the locker room. I will say this: if Woody does much at half time the players must zone it out or he gives bad instruction b/c our 3rd quarter lapses are well documented.

2. As far as adjustmets go......How about some quicker substitiutions in the 3rd quarter when the starters where sleep walking. How about a quick time out to snap them out of the haze and remind them there is still alot of basketball to play. How about pulling Marvin to the side and demanding that he drive the ball and at least get tot the foul line. Marvin did this right on time in the middle of team scoring slumps earlier in the season. Whenever the Hawks were struggling to score Marvin would just take it to the hole and get 2 free throws. Help out our new PG by telling him this and remind to Marvin to do it and not shoot a jumper vs. opposing bigs like Kurt Thomas.....if anybody is going to hack you and give you some free throws it's Kurt Thomas. That is Marvin's fault but at 21 Woody has to remind Marvin how to be effective and more efficient.

It is hard to diss Woody b/c no one knows what truely comes out of his mouth. It is a tough job to manage all these kids on the floor. Everyone can't have your attention at the same time.

One problem is that Woody has 3 guys on the floor that needs constant attention at all times. Most coaches only have one or 2 guys on the whole team who are practical rookies.

1. Marvin (21), Horford (21) and a brand new PG nursing 2 injuries in Bibby. That is 3 guys who need special attention and direction throughout the game. (then there is Law and Smith). Maybe Alton Lister has the job to watch Horford and instruct him while Drew has the job of instructing Bibby and the PGs. Who knows ? Smith still needs instruction thoughout the game too (though he does not seem to take advise well in the heat of a game).

Woody gets more blame then he deserves and the job is much harder then many of us pretend that it is. I admit that. Plus it is much easier to do the whole (would of / could thing) after the fact then to for-see the proper adustments ahead of time. One thing about Woody, I cannot recall one game where he came out with a different line up to start the 2nd half barring imnjury as the reason. However, other coaches seem to do this as a halftime adjustment fairly frequently. Woody just refuses to push that button. Would I have come out with a different line up to start the 2nd half vs. the Spurs ? Probably not, after all the starters got the lead for us. However, quicker timeouts and adjustments should have been made when the team was in the the early 3rd quarter free for all. An early time out could have snapped them out of it and restored their focus and concentration much earlier b/c that is all it really boils down to.

[Packfill]

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So what you are saying is that the GM has done a pretty bad job putting together this team?

EDS, this entire team is f'd up at his point. From the players, to the coach, to the GM, to the ownership. To blame it on one single entity, and think that ish will change, is kind of being naive.

Couldn't agree more.

[pound4pound]

How does one measure Basketball IQ? Is it like a wunderlick score?

[AHF]

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I guarantee better 3rd quarter performance if we bring in a real coach. Woody isn't to blame for everything but a coach should be able to make effective adjustments at half-time and should be able to inspire effort out of the gate. If we had Phil Jackson in the lockerroom, you would see a world of difference in the 3rd quarter from what we gotten this year, IMO.

The players bear responsibility for what they do on the floor but they sure aren't getting a lot of help being put in position to succeed in many, many instances, IMO.

You guarantee it? How?

I can't guarantee it in any real sense. I don't own the team and can't offer a "money back guarantee" or anything like that. However, I very strongly believe we will see significant upgrades once we upgrade the coaching spot. There is no question that there are deep problems with management and that the roster is not perfect. However, the roster does offer a lot to work with at this point. There are a half dozen very talented players and basically no attitude problems.

At the end of the day, I have nothing to guarantee better 3rd quarter production other than the fact that the team's performance in the other quarters suggests that they are capable of much better performance; other coaches put their teams in positions to succeed in the third quarter by making adjustments and getting people focused/fired up; and Woody's track record suggests he is not capable of changing the pattern of 3rd quarter problems. From this infer that changing the coach to someone who has delivered those adjustments and focus on other teams will lead to improved play from our team.

[TroyMcClure]

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How does one measure Basketball IQ? Is it like a wunderlick score?

You have to have played the game for a long time to be able to understand something like that. It's an innate understanding of everything that could or should happen depending on the varying circumstances. It's also what you've done with that knowledge and how you've grown from it. But at the root of it, you either instinctively get it, or you don't.

The other thing is just a measuring stick to draft players by.