Thoughts on the game

[Admin]

First off let me just say that I am proud of the effort that the team gave last night and in the series as a whole, sans game 4 of course. Last night was a heartbreaking loss with plenty of "blame" that can be spread around for a play here or a play there but I am damn proud of the way that the guys fought back against all odds and probably deserved to win last night. I am honestly mixed in my feelings about whether we should break up the core or give them another shot with a few new additions to the bench. We probably don't have what it takes to win it all with this core group of players but it's also possible that we could trade away Josh and come to seriously regret it... or we could keep him and he could leave as a FA and we'd seriously regret it. Or he could re-sign long term and we'd seriously regret it. Josh took that awful fade away jumper and it just kind of sums of the things that we complain about him and the decisions that he makes sometimes, but it's easy to only remember that play and forget the HUGE plays he made defensively around the rim in the prior minutes and the awesome alley-oop to Al or the big jumpers he made earlier as well. He's a maddening player but he's just too young and impacts the game so positively in multiple areas to get rid of unless we bring in someone equally as talented via trade.I think we need a young defensive and rebounding backup C to play behind Al or Zaza, someone like a Steimsma or Asik who can come in and bring energy PLUS have the size to make a difference in the minutes that they play.As much as I love what Teague / Hinrich brings to the team I honestly think that we need to try and bring in a veteran PG who has more traditional PG skills and who can make the rest of our starters better. I don't know how we'd attain said player but I'd be open to sacrificing Teague as long as said player isn't too old. Joe isn't going anywhere because he's overpaid and would be nearly impossible to move without taking on an equally bad contract or getting back far lesser underpaid player(s) so we'll probably see him in Atlanta for another year or two at least. As long as his skills don't degrade any more over that time period we should be fine at the SG spot.Marvin proved that he's good enough to start at SF for us with his performance... unless we look to make a move for a SF like a Carmelo who'd be a #1 option since 99% of the guys we'd plug in at SF would have to defer to Joe and Smoove and even Al. So unless a big trade is made for that position I'd move Marvin back into the starting lineup for next season and ask him to continue working on his 3pt shot.As long as the ASG continue to own this team I don't think we're going to be able to do much better than LD / Sund, who have done a pretty good job considering their constraints. LD improved quite a bit in year 2 and deserves another year to grow as a coach. Sund has done a terrific job finding talent on the cheap and making shrewd trades. I think the best we can hope for here is that the ASG finally realize that they need to spend more money on scouting and decide to go into the luxury tax and bring in more talent to add to our group.I want to thank our team for not quitting and for being mentally tough and fighting against the odds down 3-1 against a team who could easily win the championship this year. I'm sad that we lost and our season is over but I'm damn proud of the effort and I'm not embarrassed to say that I'm a Hawks fan.Finally, I expect this place to get pretty quiet until draft / FA time so I want to take a second to say thanks to all of our great fans for devoting so much of their time to Hawksquawk and I hope to see all of you back next season!

[AHF]

Good post and I agree with 80-90% of what you say. It is hard to see much progress being made with the ASG in the picture.My #1 offseason goal is to help the ASG find a new, energized buyer for the Hawks!

[EazyRoc]

You can be upset with that busted play and terrible shot, but I still think Joe should have been screaming..jumping up and down for the basketball. There were 2 plays late in the 4th that disgusted me. One (IIRC) he caught around the top of the key behind the 3 pt line with plenty of time on the shot clock and passed it to either Teague or Tmac as if he just didn't want the ball. The play when Josh heaved that bad shot should've been Joes shot. He played god awful the entire playoffs because he was taking bad shots and missing wide open shots.

[Admin]

Good post and I agree with 80-90% of what you say. It is hard to see much progress being made with the ASG in the picture.My #1 offseason goal is to help the ASG find a new, energized buyer for the Hawks!

Man if only it were that easy!

[lethalweapon3]

Aside: From the mouths of babes...

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwxYQw-TzMw

~lw3