Thoughts on the Dallas Lakers game

[Admin]

Interesting to note that Avery Johnson made a pretty big deal of saying he wanted Kidd having the freedom to run the offense without having to call plays all the time and Mark Jackson backed him up saying that he hated when coaches called all of the plays and hopefully that will be something we see more of in Atlanta. Bibby definitely has the ability to call and make plays on his own and if we let him do that and the players can react to him it would make us a lot better on offense.

Is there a better team in the league than the Lakers? Even without Bynum they look great and this is the best I have ever seen Kobe look and I can honestly say that I really appreciate him as a player this year with the way he is being so unselfish.

[Admin]

Something else, how funny is it to hear Jason Terry mic'd up sounding like a country bumpkin talking trash to Jack.

[KB21]

Yeah.

I saw a blurb in an article either last night or this morning that was wondering if Atlanta will start using Mike Bibby and Al Horford like Sacramento used Bibby and Brad Miller out of the high post set. The article talked about Horford being a good passer and how it would open up the cutting lanes for the Hawks cutters to the basket.

[KB21]

I don't really trust those computer guys. They might be too tempted to become a sabermetric basketball team, and someone would probably hire John Hollinger as a GM.

[Admin]

The only problem with that is Horford has yet to show that he can consistently hit the outside shot which is what makes having him out at that spot especially dangerous. I think he can develop that shot but it will take a couple of years.

As for the sabermetrics, that is very much what Cuban does and I really like that because it keeps your team full of intelligent productive players. I like the stat they referred to with Brandon Bass being the 3rd best shooter in the NBA from 17'. If you can convince your player that he excels at a particular thing you can get him to focus on doing just that. Perhaps if we had some statistical evidence to show how much better Smoove is in the post he might be more motivated to stay down there.

[pound4pound]

I was thinking about the evolution of Horford's game after we beat NY. Al ot of people think that he could be a Carlos Boozer, Al Jefferson, Elton Brand type player. I don't know if he is as fluid as those guys. They have a certain amount of finesse to their game where Al brings raw strength and power. He also isn't wildly athletic - like Amare Staudamire or Kevin Garnett. I also don't think the center comparisons work either due to Al's height.

The one player I see the most in Al Horford is Karl Malone. Someone who had a great feel for the game, maximized his talent, and could be depended upon to give 110% every night. The mailman became deadly from outside and Big Al has become dependable within 15 feet. He runs the floor as well as any big especially when he starts the break on a board.

Maybe Bibby Horford could be our Stockton Malone

[KB21]

The thing with Al is that while he may not be extremely explosive around the basket and is a little mechanical, he is very fast when he's running in the open court. He can get from one end of the floor to the other as fast as any big man in the league.

It is a small sample size, but Al Horford has probably benefited the most from the Mike Bibby trade. His shooting percentage was around 46% without Bibby, and with Bibby, it is 50%. He is starting to see more scoring opportunities because Bibby is finding him. Bibby has a lot of confidence in Al at this point.