My observations about the Hawks thus far

[Elijah]

1. Woodson still does not trust players in foul trouble and needs to fix this. How many times have Hawks players fouled out in the last 4 years? 20? If a player picks up 2 early fouls, sit him out, but don't let him rot there until the 2nd half.

2. Al Horford gets the ball so sparingly on offense, that when he gets it, he is set on shooting and will not pass

3. Same for ZaZa, Flip, and Smoove--they are always set on shooting when they get the ball

4. Smoove does not know where he's shooting from in the post after he's done his moves half the time. His hook shots are off balance.

5. Smoove's turnovers are still awful--he's still trying to do too much

6. Flip Murray is the truth

7. Flip Murray is better than Josh Childress

8. Flip Murray is probably also better than Marvin Williams.

9. Mike Bibby still does his "get hot in first 1.5 quarters, do nothing in 2nd half" routine

10. Mike Bibby needs to take over in 4th if we are ice cold. We cannot let poor teams outplay us since we're so cocky that we are so talented.

11. Marvin, noticeably bigger, is so much more composed this year--he isn't trying to force everything--he gets called for traveling a bit, but his shot selection is great right now

12. Why is Philips Arena still so empty for home games?

13. We need to start Flip at SG and JJ at SF if we have any chance against Boston on Wednesday

14. Solomon Jones REALLY DID do some work this offseason. His hands actually hold onto the ball now

15. Acie Law is not getting enough minutes and is not being developed properly to be the next PG of this franchise.

16. Joe Johnson's floater in the lane is UNSTOPPABLE

17. I wish Flip was signed for more than a 1 year contract.

18. Last year, who makes that 3 and that clutch 2 in the 4th qtr that Flip hit?

19. Flip Murray is a more athletic Tyronn Lue

Cheers

Edited November 10, 2008 by Elijah

[Wurider05]

1. We need to run more plays for Marvin. He just hovers around the 3pt line waiting for JJ to kick it out to him.

2. Bibby takes too many ill adivsed shots. He shoots before the team gets setup sometimes.

3. We play like pit bulls on defense. Everyone has stepped up their defense.

4. We are in the bottom of the league in Free Throw%. That will eventually cost us close games.

5. We are a top 10 rebounding team.

6. We are top ten in steals, blocks, opp. 3pt fg%

OUR BREAD AND BUTTER HAVE BEEN OUR DEFENSE BUT WE HAVE GOT TO IMPROVE OUR FT %. THAT IS OUR MAJOR ACHILLES HEEL RIGHT NOW.

We are a pretty solid team but we need to improve on some things to stay sucCessfull in the long run.

[Admin]

4. We are in the bottom of the league in Free Throw%. That will eventually cost us close games.

This is the thing that bugs me the most about this year. We were a pretty solid FT shooting team last year if memory serves. Now we're lucky if Al splits his FTs and I'm not confident that any of our players will hit both when we need it.

[AtLaS]

Seriously, the fact that we suck at free throws and are still undefeated speaks volumes of how well we've been playing, especially defensively. It will eventually bite us though.

So far I have definitely been impressed by Flip and he's given us a needed boost, but I don't want him to get too shot happy.

Philips hasn't been that empty, everyone is just late. In the 2nd half it's much more full. Traffic must still be a problem, when I went to a playoff game last year, we left 2 hours before the game started (I was about 30 miles away) and still couldn't get there until the start of the 2nd quarter. We literally sat in one spot for almost an hour.

I've also been impressed by Marvin's composure this season. He's hit a few big shots on the road LATE in games which is something he's never done before.

Edited November 10, 2008 by AtLaS

[exodus]

I am not worried about the foul shooting. It will pick up. They shot 73% last night which is ok.

Keep in mind though that childress, Lue and Salim could shoot foul shots well. Flip isn't that good at the line.

I agree that Bibby takes too many quick shots.

[dthomas34]

Love me some Flip.

[LOL_Hawks]

I know it's a completely different level of ball, but y'all saw what happened to Memphis in the NCAA Finals last season? Their atrocious FT shooting finally caught up to them and it was the reason why they couldn't salt down that lead they had in the final 2 minutes or so.

So yeah, the Hawks had better remedy their FT shooting woes, because it will come back to bite them in the ass sometime soon.

Other than that, and Bibby's ridiculous hot-cold-hot-cold junk and Smith's injury...I've definitely been impressed with the Hawks in these first 5 games, there's no way I couldn't be...and Flip Murray is looking like he's probably the best offseason non/draft acquisition we've had since Joe Johnson.

[tmac13]

I find it hard to be anything but positive on a 5-0 team but there are a few things that have jumped out at me. Our interior offense and defense seem to be weakness thus far. We rebound the ball very well but we have no one outside of a glimpse from Morris that shows a hint of a real post game. Solo rebounds well and blocks a few shots but still gets pushed around by stronger players. Horford is totally disconnected on the offensive end. Hopefully Woody can use a combination of players to get a little more production inside. I would like to see more of Morris along with Horford at the 4 and see how that combo plays out. I think the free throw shooting will work itself out.

[hussamga]

Is it me, or is Flip everything people wanted out of Stoudemire?

Come off the bench, undersized but tenacious, score in critical spurts to keep the offense chugging, and not be a huge defensive liability.

You gotta love the matchup of putting Joe on the the penetrating PG's and not worry about our PG getting abused by the opposing SG. Will see how this works out against Rose and Rondo without Smoove redirecting penetrating players. I think against chicago, with Gordon loving his jumpers and Sefolosha being more of a defensive presence, it should work out good. Ray Allen however will be more capable of losing his defender if he wishes to.

[Plainview1981]

Is it me, or is Flip everything people wanted out of Stoudemire?

Come off the bench, undersized but tenacious, score in critical spurts to keep the offense chugging, and not be a huge defensive liability.

You gotta love the matchup of putting Joe on the the penetrating PG's and not worry about our PG getting abused by the opposing SG. Will see how this works out against Rose and Rondo without Smoove redirecting penetrating players. I think against chicago, with Gordon loving his jumpers and Sefolosha being more of a defensive presence, it should work out good. Ray Allen however will be more capable of losing his defender if he wishes to.

Ray Allen is past his prime. Still a good scorer, but I don't seem him as being as explosive as he used to be.

[Iman]

Flip is a nice pickup. He plays hard. But I think people are overestimating his outside shooting abilities. No way is he as good a shooter as Tyronn Lue, but of course he's a better player overall due to actually playing defense. If he was as good as he's started the season we would not have picked him up so easily.

[josh_pwns_newbs]

this last game was the first in which flips "green light" mentality started to worry me. It will come back to haunt us eventually but we needed an aggressive offensive player off the bench. wish granted.

[DrReality]

We are doing so great and still so many opportunities for getting better. And I have some hope that we can get better with how we've played. That's reason for hope.

[JackB1]

only concerns....

1) Acie's lack of development. Sounds like a broken record. If Flip continues to shine, Acie will never see the floor.

2) No inside/out game through Al. This really needs to be developed. The 3 pointer won't always bail us out.

3) Smoove's mentality - Why this guy shoots so many jumpers with his inside/above the rim skills is maddening. Seems like no mindset change from last year offensively. Defensively he's been outstanding.

4) Woodson - He still pulls guys out when they are hot. Sits guys with 2 fouls too long. Doesn't develop the entire bench. Let's Smoove do what he wants. Doesn't run enough plays for Al.

[crimedog]

All my my nits come on offense (except for last game but thats a bit of a different story).

We are still too Joe-centered. Running more plays that take advantage our guys' strength requires using Joe as more of a catch-and-shoot type of player. For the most part we either let Joe or Flip iso on the perimeter.

We are putting too much into Flip. Granted, he's been great and I hope he continues to be so in perpetuity (or as long as he's on this team) but historically he's always been hot and cold and if we need him to hit 43% from 3 to consistently win all season, we might be a bit of trouble a little later on.

Josh is shooting too much from outside and his inside shots aren't falling. The latter is less of a concern because it took about 2 months for his shooting % to get up into the 40s last season but at least he was getting to the line 6 times a game. He has too much confidence still but I think the coaches need to find a way to get him some good looks in the half court early in the game so he doesn't try and force it because we he forces it on offense, he's a big minus.

Al isn't calling for the ball enough and too often he tries to overpower guys. His back to the basket game isn't great and its not just when he's backing down centers, he doesn't do great against guys smaller than him. He looks best on offense when he's playing off someone else or driving past his man, he does have a solid first step and a decent handle so when he puts some power behind it, he can usually get inside.

Acie has just been bad.

The other guys aren't really doing anything other than what I expected which means I can't complain.

My criticisms above aren't meant to say those guys aren't doing well, Al has been limited by foul trouble but as usual has been great while he's in. Josh was one of the most insane D forces I've ever seen while he was in. Flip has been great, I just don't like the thought of putting so much of our offense on his shoulders.