Mark Bradley hits the nail on the head with a bowling ball

[RedDawg#8]

There isnt much room to keep going up when you get 50 wins, Drew does only have to tweak things here and there to make a good thing better.

Coaching changes are 2-fold, Players must like their new coach, and the coach also must like the players. We know our roster is flawed as constructed. Why bring in a new coach who will have undoubtly wanted his own players to fit his own style, and would have used that as his excuse for the next 3+ seasons as to why he couldnt succeed when we have a guy who believes he already has the pieces to be successful, knows how to motivate such players, and already had a plan for how to use them and make them better than they were before.

Again: 2010-11 Atlanta Hawks= not rebuilding, plan on keeping the same players from 53 win team.

Drew= Best person available to evaluate the problems of a 53 win team and help maximize the potential while not disrupting chemistry and the things that got them to 53 wins in the first place.

If Drew and or Hawks prove that this team cannot get it done as currently contsructed, we CAN rebuild in the future.

[lethalweapon3]

Bradley's opinion makes me feel better than ever about Drew now.

~lw3

[sturt]

As much as I want to tell NJ and Bradley, "get over it and move on," I also have to recognize that no matter who was hired, there would be someone telling the rest of us just how stupid the decision was. Should they get over it and move on? Sure. Should I be perturbed if they don't? No, not just two days after the hire. Give it a week. If they haven't gotten over it by then, then there's probably gruonds for some antagonism.

[99PROBL3MS]

Let's not try a new coach. Let's hire one who has already been a head coach and failed.

If these former head coaches were so great, why don't they still have their job? Woody

is a fine example. He won with the Hawks, year after year the win total increased. Surely,

when the Hawks didn't renew his contract, all the other NBA clubs who were loking for a new

head coach hurried to be first in line to offer him their position.

Dang Atlanta team. The Hawks hired a new head coach who has never failed as a head coach.

How about that! And, he is already familiar with all the players on the roster. They know him too.

What if they won't listen to him? They had, many of them, quit listening to Woody, or so we hear.

About the Joe Johnson problem. JJ has three things facing him. He can and must do one of

the three, and only one. (1) Lead, (2) Follow or (3) Get out of the way.

Will JJ stay with the new coach? Or, will he demand that he be sent somewhere else where he

can dump on the fans? If he stays, is he willing to change. Can he become a real leader? If not,

will he be willing to be a follower of some one else who becomes the Hawk leader? The choice is

his and his alone.

If JJ doesn't want to be in Atlanta, if he is unhappy being here, he needs to pack up his ditty bag

and be on his way. Hawks don't need or want a player who doesn't want to be a Hawk.

I believe, for the most part, fans want JJ to stay here, to remain a Hawk. However, I believe most

of us do not want to break the bank to pay for his services. He's good. He's very good. He is needed

here - - But, only if he's happy.

:conversation:

This is a very good post but is it fair to consider Woody a "failure"? The team improved every year. We all can agree that a change was needed to progress further BUT we won't know if Drew can take us further unless he actually does. I will definitely take a wait and see approach. Drew deserves a fair shake. I just don't know what to expect and won't until they hit the court this fall.

[Gray Mule]

:thumbsdownsmileyanim:

Woody is a complete failure only if you say, "If his team can't win it all, then he is a complete failure."

All these other coaches that were available - - How many championship teams did they coach? The

ultimate goal is to win it all,

What I was saying, All the candidates with experience which were available, had failed to win a

championship with their former team and if they were great head coaches, why were they out of a job?

:write a letter:

[GST]

Woodson remained a head coach 3 years longer than he should have. How can you call an overachiever a failure?

[sillent]

No matter what coach we hired there would have been pros and cons, Drew is no different. BUT the biggest fear concerning him is that he will be the same as the coach that was not brought back after a 53 win season and 3rd best team in the east record wise????

People need to realize that this team is not and was not planning on rebuilding. Therefore there only needed to be tweaks made, not wholesale changes. You take the same roster from a 50+ win team, and bring in somebody who can get better results from those players. That is the goal of the Hawks new coach regardless if he may have worked on the last staff.

The advantage that Drew has over any candidate that we could have brought in is that the players he will be coaching in a few months already RESPECT him, Enjoy the scheme he ran in practices, and want him to succeed. Where as any new guy would not know where he stood with this roster until midseason next year Add to that he already KNOWS where the problems are and has been probably planning solutions to our deficiencies for years.

(Woody: I dont give s--t about offense." Drew: well, there goes all the work I put into this years new offensive sets, maybe I'll get to use them one day")

The thing ppl arent seeing is that Drew's hire is another litmus test for this team which I already stated is not rebuilding RIGHT NOW. Managemnt will see now if Woody was really the problem or if this roster needs to be blown up someday. In which case a brand new coach can be brought in, bring in the players he wants for his system instead of being forced to make it work with somebody elses players. The best thing about this deal is that we arent obligated alot of money to Drew, SO EVEN IF HE DOES FAIL, we can let him go with not much burn.

:thumbsupsmileyanim: Now this is a man that understands basketball concept and is definitely a Hawks fan. Why would you blow up your young 53 win franchise. Being able to grow together with familiar faces is always a plus for chemistry. Other NBA teams are starting to remodel using our blue prints( OKC, Blazers) and you are seeing the success. I don't think there is one true Hawks fan that really knows basketball think that any of our young core has peaked (Al, Smoove, Marvin, Childress, Teague). Why would you bring in some one who is unfamiliar with the talent level, personalities and personnel of the team when you have some one that is familiar with all of these aspects and believes he can bring out a lot of our untapped potential?

[Buzzard]

And here again we see the problem with the Atlanta Spirit. Gearon Jr. is the principal basketball man among ownership, and he’s a fine fellow who knows the sport. But he — like his father Michael Gearon Sr., once the Hawks’ president and now a co-owner — tends to fall in love with the talent on hand. And when the Gearons hear that a few minor alterations are all that’s warranted … well, they’re the Amen Corner swooning to string music.

Can anyone deny this is 100% on the money?

Why would anyone doubt that a young 53 win team is only a move or tweak away from the next level? If we can keep JJ, I honestly think all we need is a Coach and PG to run our show in order to compete with anyone in the east including the Magic who have owned us.

[Sothron]

Why would anyone doubt that a young 53 win team is only a move or tweak away from the next level? If we can keep JJ, I honestly think all we need is a Coach and PG to run our show in order to compete with anyone in the east including the Magic who have owned us.

I'd argue we need a MLE type small forward/guard like Mike Miller to give us more scoring punch to go with that PG you mentioned. But we do have tools to win. We beat every team in the NBA at least once last season except for the Thunder. That includes Orlando. We swept Boston. This team can win. I do hope Drew can install a consistent ball movement offense.

[Buzzard]

I'd argue we need a MLE type small forward/guard like Mike Miller to give us more scoring punch to go with that PG you mentioned. But we do have tools to win. We beat every team in the NBA at least once last season except for the Thunder. That includes Orlando. We swept Boston. This team can win. I do hope Drew can install a consistent ball movement offense.

Agree Miller would be a great get. And we may have that PG already in Teague. Just finished listening to all the interviews and two stood out. ZaZa talking about 2nd team ball movement, beating the 1st team sometimes and laughing about it, and LD talking about Teague being a good PG with special talents who will play in this league for years to come.

If Teague starts, we will have a solid vet in Bibby leading our 2nd team; add in Craw , Mo, and ZaZA and we have a pretty veteran 2nd team. Miller would be a good get but so would a PF to play opposite ZaZa.

[AHF]

They found their new head coach in an assistant who has worked here for six seasons, an assistant whose most persuasive argument was, in essence, “Mike Woodson never listened to me.”

This quote from Bradley echoes my biggest questions out of the gate:

I hate this hire out of the gate and hope I am wrong. My concerns are:

(1) What has he been doing about the offense for the past several years? If he was the top offensive mind on the staff, was Woodson just ignoring him? Was he an emasculated guy sitting on the sideline that he wasn't able to impact the offense at all? If so, are the players going to buy him as an authority figure to respect and fear?

(2) Again, why hasn't he been "reaching" Josh Smith and Marvin Williams already? What was he waiting for?

(3) For the players, Drew is going to be connected to the Woodson regime until he proves otherwise. Hopefully he does that, but I am concerned that bad habits will be tougher to break for an in-house hire than for someone who comes in front the outside with a fresh voice and fresh perspective.

(4) As far as assistant coaches, I don't know how he is going to get a standout group of assistants in place. Does he have any real connections? Many of the very best coaches in the league today like Phil Jackson and Greg Popovich are known for having to standout assistants on their staffs. We are going to need some of that here with an inexperienced head coach like Drew. Can he convince anyone like that to work under him? Will he have the self-confidence to hire someone with an equal or possibly better resume to work under him (and potentially threaten to usurp his job as he did Woody's)? I hope so, but I am pretty pessimistic on this point.

(5) For the fans, Drew is going to be connected to the Woodson regime until he proves otherwise. It sends a bad message to hire a Woody assistant on the cheap. The only way to overcome that is to go out and win and overachieve. Coming out of the gate, though, most coaching hires give some energy and bounce to the fan base. This one is deflating.

Again, I'll be rooting for Coach Drew to really blossom now that he has been hired but he was my very last choice (even below Mark Jackson) because of my concerns about what he was not able to accomplish as an assistant coach here and because of his connections to Woodson. I really hope I am wrong.

[Buzzard]

They found their new head coach in an assistant who has worked here for six seasons, an assistant whose most persuasive argument was, in essence, “Mike Woodson never listened to me.”

The proof is in the pudding. If he installs a 1/2 court offense other than ISO, no one who has ever watched us play under Woody can say he did listen to Drew.....

[AHF]

The proof is in the pudding. If he installs a 1/2 court offense other than ISO, no one who has ever watched us play under Woody can say he did listen to Drew.....

As I mentioned above, being an impotent assistant coach who can't implement any of your ideas over 6 years with the team doesn't seem like a big selling point to me. I don't doubt that Woodson turned down some of Drew's ideas. My point was more that since Drew was known as an offensive assistant and he is now claiming that his offensive ideas were ignored, what did he actually accomplish as an assistant?

You are right that the proof is in the pudding and I will certainly root for him to succeed. I am just coming in hoping that my gut is wrong.

[Buzzard]

As I mentioned above, being an impotent assistant coach who can't implement any of your ideas over 6 years with the team doesn't seem like a big selling point to me. I don't doubt that Woodson turned down some of Drew's ideas. My point was more that since Drew was known as an offensive assistant and he is now claiming that his offensive ideas were ignored, what did he actually accomplish as an assistant?

You are right that the proof is in the pudding and I will certainly root for him to succeed. I am just coming in hoping that my gut is wrong.

I get your point but Woody did not change any of his ways of doing things over six years. Examples: Smoove shooting threes ( Smoove himself said he made this change but he still shot outside of 15 ft), ISO JJ, Switching D. Woody just seems to me a guy who was regulated to what he knew works; even if that meant being out coached when others made adjustments especially in the playoffs.

The man can read a newspaper and I am sure heard all the grumblings about these things; yet never attempted to adjust. I think he was just pig headed and more concerned with beating inferior teams than adjusting to the better teams who could compete with us. And that almost backfired wth the Bucks this season.

As far as assistants go. I hope he keeps Mark Price and promotes him. I am a Tech homer but also think Mark can help a lot. He played for some great coaches in his career who were known to adjust on the fly...

[AHF]

I get your point but Woody did not change any of his ways of doing things over six years. Examples: Smoove shooting threes ( Smoove himself said he made this change but he still shot outside of 15 ft), ISO JJ, Switching D. Woody just seems to me a guy who was regulated to what he knew works; even if that meant being out coached when others made adjustments especially in the playoffs.

The man can read a newspaper and I am sure heard all the grumblings about these things; yet never attempted to adjust. I think he was just pig headed and more concerned with beating inferior teams than adjusting to the better teams who could compete with us. And that almost backfired wth the Bucks this season.

I see these as good reasons to let Woodson walk but not good reasons to hire Drew.

[Buzzard]

I see these as good reasons to let Woodson walk but not good reasons to hire Drew.

My point was don't blame Drew for Woodys stubborness. If every Hawks follower is saying these things in print and radio, there is no reason to think Woody is going to listen. If you have a boss and make a suggestion...your boss says no...how many times are you going to keep suggesting it?

Drew probably liked his job, I cannot imagine him telling Woody its my way or the highway. And the bottom line is it is up to the head honcho to use all his employees strengths. If Woody did not do this, why blame Drew lol

If Drew impliments a decent 1/2 court set, it will be obvious IMO that Woody did not manage his assistants strengths properly. Which is another weakness of his. A reason to hire Drew...

He knows the team, he was a PG in the league and understands it from both a coaching and playing perspective, and his resume is just as good as any other assistant we were looking at.

Edited June 21, 2010 by Buzzard

[AHF]

He knows the team, he was a PG in the league and understands it from both a coaching and playing perspective, and his resume is just as good as any other assistant we were looking at.

What other assistant were we looking at? I thought we were looking at former head coaches or a guy who wasn't an assistant at all (Jackson).

In any event, I think it is weak to hire someone who was not only an assistant but was an assistant with no meaningful responsibilities on the team. If Drew didn't contribute to the offense due to Woodson's shutting him down, what exactly did he do?

[Admin]

What other assistant were we looking at? I thought we were looking at former head coaches or a guy who wasn't an assistant at all (Jackson).

In any event, I think it is weak to hire someone who was not only an assistant but was an assistant with no meaningful responsibilities on the team. If Drew didn't contribute to the offense due to Woodson's shutting him down, what exactly did he do?

I would say that running the 2nd team is a meaningful responsibility and plus LD was the calming voice in the locker room and supposedly is the one guy that was able to get to Josh Smith in a way that he would listen. If that is the case then I can only imagine what would have happened if LD hadn't been around to be the mediator. But getting back on topic I don't think that you can fault LD simply because Woody didn't listen to him. I don't have any problem with giving the guy a shot since there weren't any other candidates out there who were reportedly interested in the Hawks that were no brainers to hire. Give the guy a 2 year contract for a low salary and if he looks like he is in over his head then you replace him after the season and have a much easier time eating his salary for a year than if you had given a guy like Avery Johnson a bigger salaried deal over multiple years and had to eat it.

[Admin]

My point was don't blame Drew for Woodys stubborness. If every Hawks follower is saying these things in print and radio, there is no reason to think Woody is going to listen. If you have a boss and make a suggestion...your boss says no...how many times are you going to keep suggesting it?

Drew probably liked his job, I cannot imagine him telling Woody its my way or the highway. And the bottom line is it is up to the head honcho to use all his employees strengths. If Woody did not do this, why blame Drew lol

If Drew impliments a decent 1/2 court set, it will be obvious IMO that Woody did not manage his assistants strengths properly. Which is another weakness of his. A reason to hire Drew...

He knows the team, he was a PG in the league and understands it from both a coaching and playing perspective, and his resume is just as good as any other assistant we were looking at.

Yep I fully agree with this Buzzard although I do believe that Drew did try and leave after the first or second year under Woody but BK blocked it. So at that point maybe he just decided to keep his mouth shut and try and work on improving the players the best way that he could without rocking the boat. I'd like to think that Woody wasn't ignoring his assistants or being too stubborn to let one of them run the offense but it wouldn't surprise me if that were the case.

[Buzzard]

What other assistant were we looking at? I thought we were looking at former head coaches or a guy who wasn't an assistant at all (Jackson).

In any event, I think it is weak to hire someone who was not only an assistant but was an assistant with no meaningful responsibilities on the team. If Drew didn't contribute to the offense due to Woodson's shutting him down, what exactly did he do?

Casey, Demopoulos, and Corbin right off the top of my head. He ran the 2nd team in practice and probably broke down film ( this is just a guess ).