this does not sound like a coach who wants to run

[Guest Walter]

http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/ha...hawks_0227.html

"We've got to start taking care of the basketball and milking the shot-clock a little bit," Woodson said. "Because we're not doing that."

I realize that we need to take care of the ball better. I also realize that if you don't fast break you may want to set up your offense, but "milking the shot clock" just doesn't read well for our team at the minimum.

W

[exodus]

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http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/ha...hawks_0227.html

"We've got to start taking care of the basketball

and milking the shot-clock a little bit

," Woodson said. "Because we're not doing that."

I realize that we need to take care of the ball better. I also realize that if you don't fast break you may want to set up your offense, but "milking the shot clock" just doesn't read well for our team at the minimum.

W

That makes absolutely no sense. If you are a team that can't take care of the ball the last thing you want to do is "milk the clock" because then you are much more likely to turn it over or be forced to take a bad shot at the end of the clock.

Milking the clock works better for a team that executes well in the half court and takes care of the ball. The reason it works for teams like Detroit and SA is that they force the defense to play for the whole clock and usually can find good shots when the defense breaks down.

Woody doesn't seem to realize..... he ain't got it like dat.

On the plus side he actually addressed the offense for the first time in recent memory. Usually it's "We just need to play defense and rebound. The offense will take care of itself."

[AnnArborHawk]

I think Woody's point (which he's actually right on), is that we can continue to run if we can't protect the ball. If you want to run, the last thing you can do is turn the ball over in transition because that = easy points for the other team.

So the logical thing to do would be to slow things down, but of course the Hawks have no half court offense either, so it's a catch 22.

[TheDude]

not to mention that one of the reasons we sometimes give up big leads is we start playing scared and trying to milk the clock...it's fine to milk the clock under 2 minutes....but why the hell would you want to milk the clock in the 3rd quarter or beginning of the 4th...

just take care of the damn ball and run WHEN YOU CAN.

[Plainview1981]

It seems like he changes his mind every other day. Didn't he just say he was going to let them "run" when they first traded for Bibby? It just goes to show he has no damn clue what he was doing and if he was the coach of any other than he probably would have been fired by now.

[Admin]

Exactly, I don't think he expects us to be making precision passes and running the whole clock making the defense work until we find an open guy, I think he is stressing that running isn't working because some of our guys start playing recklessly when we run thinking they are Magic Johnson. The best thing that we can do is slow things down when the players are moving too fast for themselves, at least under the philosophy that any player can bring the ball up court that we employ.

Personally I would rather have a traditional method of having the PG handle the ball up and down the court and throughout the half court but that's not how we do it.

[Admin]

If you can't protect the ball when you run it will lead to easy points the other way and we are getting killed trying to run.

[Plainview1981]

But if Woody knew what he was doing, he would have known the Hawks can't play like the Suns along time ago.

[exodus]

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I think Woody's point (which he's actually right on), is that we can continue to run if we can't protect the ball. If you want to run, the last thing you can do is turn the ball over in transition because that = easy points for the other team.

So the logical thing to do would be to slow things down, but of course the Hawks have no half court offense either, so it's a catch 22.

Woody's only point is the one on top of his hat.

The vast majority of the Hawks turnovers are in the half court set. Guys jumping to pass or throwing a no look pass to the fans or throwing a pass with a defender standing right there waiting for the steal or driving head down into 3 people.

The Hawks have been running much less the last couple of weeks.

[dalamchops]

we're just beating a dead horse here, woody does not even sound like a coach period.

[Packfill]

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Exactly, I don't think he expects us to be making precision passes and running the whole clock making the defense work until we find an open guy, I think he is stressing that running isn't working because some of our guys start playing recklessly when we run thinking they are Magic Johnson. The best thing that we can do is slow things down when the players are moving too fast for themselves, at least under the philosophy that any player can bring the ball up court that we employ.

Personally I would rather have a traditional method of having the PG handle the ball up and down the court and throughout the half court but that's not how we do it.

I think even casual fans of the game of basketball realize that the PG should be bringing the ball up the court when the other players on the team are not capable of doing so. It just baffles me why Woody does not realize this. It baffles me that the players do not realize this as well, and pass to the PG regardless of what Woody has mandated (or hasn't mandated).

[Admin]

I think it has to do with the players think that they actually can do it and to be honest when it works it's pretty damn successful and exciting, but when it doesn't work it's very costly and pitiful looking.

[HawksFan87]

Nothing new here woody is still an idiot so NEXT......

[Wretch]

The last thing this team needs is to embrace tentative basketball...clock watching. When we get a lead, we need to go into attack mode. It really is a mindset thing.

[AHF]

I read that in the paper this morning as well. Woody is just painful. A team of athletic players with young legs led by a veteran point guard who, as a group, suck in the halfcourt game and he wants them to bleed the clock. Not to play under control, but to literally try to shorten the game by running down the clock and executing a precision halfcourt game. It hurts to be a Hawks an sometimes.

[Dexmethylphenidate]

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I read that in the paper this morning as well. Woody is just painful. A team of athletic players with young legs led by a veteran point guard who, as a group, suck in the halfcourt game and he wants them to bleed the clock. Not to play under control, but to literally try to shorten the game by running down the clock and executing a precision halfcourt game. It hurts to be a Hawks an

sometimes

.

More like everytime with Woodson around.

[Admin]

We have looked better in the half court than we have running since Bibby was acquired so I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing. I would love for us to run more but we turn the ball over so damn much it drives me nuts. The 2 man game with Bibby and JJ has been very impressive other than Bibby struggling to shoot against San Antonio.

Personally I don't care whether we run or grind the clock, as long as we are protecting the ball and having good possessions on offense.

[exodus]

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We have looked better in the half court than we have running since Bibby was acquired so I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing. I would love for us to run more but we turn the ball over so damn much it drives me nuts. The 2 man game with Bibby and JJ has been very impressive other than Bibby struggling to shoot against San Antonio.

Personally I don't care whether we run or grind the clock, as long as we are protecting the ball and having good possessions on offense.

I have to wonder what games you are watching because they can't be the same games i have been watching. Just from last game:

-Bibby standing unguarded throws a pass to the 3rd row, thinking Marvin would be there.

-JJ throwing a jump pass(no look back over his head) to Horford which is nowhere near him.

-JJ throws a perfect pass to Horford underneath the rim. Horford watches it sail over his head thinking it was to someone else.

-Smith throws a pass to a wide open Marvin but it is well in front of a stationary Marvin who makes a half-hearted effort to get the ball, barely getting a hand on it.

-Childress is at the top of the key and throws a pass to a heavily guarded Marvin that is easily stolen. Marvin barely even had a chance to get the ball.

And that is just off the top of my head.

In recent games how many times have we seen Smith or Zaza lose the ball when posting up? How many times have we seen guys dive head down into traffic and lose the ball? How many times have we seen guys jump to pass and get cuaght in the air when the defender jumps the passing lane?

Way too many times.

To say that the Hawks are turning it over so much because they are running the break is a joke. They haven't been running as much because Bibby has been hobbled and they don't have another pg.

They were running far more several weeks ago. In fact i kept track of their fast break points for six weeks and they were averaging 20 fast break points per game. At the time of the Cavs game the Hawks were 4th in the league in fast break points.

At one point they had back to back games with over 30 fast break points per game.

[exodus]

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I read that in the paper this morning as well. Woody is just painful. A team of athletic players with young legs led by a veteran point guard who, as a group, suck in the halfcourt game and he wants them to bleed the clock. Not to play under control, but to literally try to shorten the game by running down the clock and executing a precision halfcourt game. It hurts to be a Hawks an sometimes.

To me this is even worse than the time when Woody admitted that he forgot about Smith sitting on the bench. Basically he just came out and admitted he is clueless.

[Traceman]

in the half court AND on the break. For this team to be successful, we need to think defense first and protect the ball on offense.

That said, you CAN run and protect the ball at the same time, it just means that you make high percentage plays rather than spectacular plays. Making the high percentage pass might result in getting fouled and going to the line versus getting an easy layup or dunk but in the long run, we will come out ahead.

I think we need to run off missed shots and TOs, but we are not even CLOSE to being ready to run off made baskets. Teams that can run off made baskets generally take care of the ball fairly well and we have not reached that point yet. If we have to play in the half court, so be it. We all know that Woody's half court offense sucks but really, it won't matter as much with Bibby and JJ on the floor because teams won't be able to zone us NEARLY as easily anymore. Let Bibby do what he was brought here to do - run the team.