Dear Mike Woodson, I'm truly sorry.

[High5]

I can respect either opinion of Woody: love or hate. I personally liked the guy and think he is much more equipped to discipline the players and simply wouldn't allow the pathetic blowouts we've had far too many of this year.

I shouldn't post in these silly threads, but it's shocking to me how people say stuff like this. The Hawks were blown out constantly in the playoffs against all different levels of competition so where does the opinion that the Hawks never laid down under Woodson come from? It seems like some of you don't care about the playoffs as long as the Hawks win 50+ games.

[RedDawg#8]

We lost plenty of games to teams we shouldn't have under Woodson, that aint new to this team. Our M-O has been the samr under borh coaches:

we back down from teams who are more physical

we live and die by the jumper

we don't attack and get to the FT line

the rebound battle usually determines the games outcome

we start games slow on defense

this is our team in a nutshell

[bonethugz]

i wonder who's going to hire woody as their head coach

[AHF]

So because the team struggles under Drew that suddenly erases all of the miserable (historically and nationally-televised miserable) losses under Woodson? Woodson had to go. We could lose every game the rest of the season and that fact wouldn't change.

Plus we're only 3 losses behind last season with the adjustments and many more injuries. And we haven't played the most important part of the season - the playoffs - where Woodson's Hawks were a colossal failure. The Hawks have already beaten the Magic twice after having a point differential of about -500 against them the last couple of seasons.

I have never been on the Drew bandwagon, but I'm going to at least give him an entire season before I curse him. Woodson got 6 years to prove he couldn't get it done.

Great post. Woodson underachieved in the regular season for most of his time in Atlanta until the last season when he coaxed a very good record from this same bunch (just healthier). He then led two of the worst playoff series in NBA history.

The Orlando series was the #2 seed v. #3 seed and resulted in a historic series that was the worst sweep and worst series differential in NBA history.

And the Milwaukee series was worse than that from a coaching perspective.

Drew may have been the wrong hire but that is independent of whether we should have kept Woody.

[ATLSmith]

Yea... No thanks. LD may not be the right guy but I wouldn't want Woody back.

Can we get a freaking hard-*ss coach in here with some charisma? That type of thing goes a long way in the locker room. Take Mike Smith of the Falcons for example. He's a hard-*ss but his players love him. That probably has as much to do with his success as his knowledge of the game.

[Popeye]

Saw Woody tonight, he was wasted and he drove............lol

[Atlantaholic]

So lets rank our last four head coaches. I'll go first

1. Woodson,

1b. Stotts

2. Larry Drew

3. Long Kruger.

Larry Drew has been awful. That is just the plain truth. Despite inuries there is no excuse for this team to be playing the way it is. Teague has seen no time whatsoever, (he should have been getting at least the same amount of minutes per game as Bibby) Mo Evans has been our seventh man (He is literally the worst player in the NBA this season) our motion offense is god awful, Josh Smith is completely out of control and does absolutely whatever he wants whenever he wants, the players consistently look less interested than they did a season ago... Just failing marks all around the way I see it. We are currently ranked 19th in Hollinger'

s power rankings and 17th in Basketball Reference's SRS rankings.

Last year we were in the top 10 in both of those... Good news is that now we have the TOUGH part of the schedule to contend with. :help wanted3:

Edited February 25, 2011 by Atlantaholic

[AHF]

So lets rank our last four head coaches. I'll go first

1. Woodson,

1b. Stotts

2. Larry Drew

3. Long Kruger.

Larry Drew has been awful. That is just the plain truth. Despite inuries there is no excuse for this team to be playing the way it is. Teague has seen no time whatsoever, (he should have been getting at least the same amount of minutes per game as Bibby) Mo Evans has been our seventh man (He is literally the worst player in the NBA this season) our motion offense is god awful, Josh Smith is completely out of control and does absolutely whatever he wants whenever he wants, the players consistently look less interested than they did a season ago... Just failing marks all around the way I see it. We are currently ranked 19th in Hollinger'

s power rankings and 17th in Basketball Reference's SRS rankings.

Last year we were in the top 10 in both of those... Good news is that now we have the TOUGH part of the schedule to contend with. :help wanted3:

My ranking for Drew is "incomplete." You are evaluating Woody on 6 years and Drew on a matter of months and without the critical dataset - playoff performance. The earliest possible date for a Drew grade or rank for me is after the playoffs this season. Drew will never have the luxury of getting 3-4 years under his belt before he has to actually start winning but any coach deserves a longer window than he has had so far.

[bird_dirt]

i'm sorry lon kruger.

[Atlantaholic]

My ranking for Drew is "incomplete." You are evaluating Woody on 6 years and Drew on a matter of months and without the critical dataset - playoff performance. The earliest possible date for a Drew grade or rank for me is after the playoffs this season. Drew will never have the luxury of getting 3-4 years under his belt before he has to actually start winning but any coach deserves a longer window than he has had so far.

Oh, I agree with that completely. Obviously the jury is still out on Drew. However, the coaching he has done up to this point (distributing minutes, not keeping Josh in check, benching players who are not in foul trouble, allowing the team to revert to ISO's and switching etc. etc.) is not very encouraging IMO.

Edited February 25, 2011 by Atlantaholic

[AHF]

Oh, I agree with that completely. Obviously the jury is still out on Drew. However, the coaching he has done up to this point (distributing minutes, not keeping Josh in check, benching players who are not in foul trouble, allowing the team to revert to ISO's and switching etc. etc.) is not very encouraging IMO.

Agreed. He has allowed too much regression to the problems of the past regime (of which he was a part), has me shaking my head over the perimeter freedom with Josh and has continued to inane "2 foul" rule that effectively implements your worst case scenario for you (i.e., that the player will miss time due to foul trouble if they pick up more fouls). He needs to do a better job matching up what he says with what he does.

[terrell]

I already made a Woodson apology thread. Your're late, lol!