Hawks - Magic

[macdaddy]

Seeing the game in person definitely gives you a better perspective. Last night was my first game of the season and here is what i learned:- Lou Williams is by far the best offensive player on the team- Anthony Morrow is a really good player- Neither Lou Williams or Anthony Morrow have the size to guard the top wings in the league (I know this is obvious but it really hit home watching the game)- Josh didn't take any long jumpers but struggled all game to score- Al has a good stat line but his hands were like bricks last night. Seemed like he fumbled every pass- Deshawn is still an excellent defender. We will need him in the playoffs.- Zaza and Ivan controlled this game. - Jenkins and Scott looked terrible. I realize they are rookies and haven't played but they looked lost. Its not like they were competing against the celtics either-

[Jody23]

I can't figure out for the life of me why it is important to posters and Larry Drew that Josh Smith is one of the teams leading scorer! The guy can't shoot so why try and make him into one? He is Dennis Rodman reincarnated and the Bulls could care less whether Rodman took more than 3 shots. If Smith focused on what is good at i.e. rebounding, defense and blocking shots, he would be an all star and the Hawks would be in the hunt. But y'all want him to score for some inexplicable reason. If we signed Al Jefferson in the off season and had a front line of Jefferson, Horford and Smith with Teague and Korver in the back court, we could compete with Miami if Smith stayed in his lane! And for those of you in favor of letting Teague go to some how make Josh Smith a better offensive player, You are retarded!

I agree with some of what you said, but Josh is nothing like Rodman and is no where near Rodman's uncanny skill and ability to rebound the basketball although Josh is a better rebounder than what he showed last night. But even if he focused on more on the things he's good at, I'm not sold on him being an all-star player.

[Peoriabird]

Why in h_ll would you play Morrow at small forward? The guy is a shooting guard!

[Peoriabird]

I agree with some of what you said, but Josh is nothing like Rodman and is no where near Rodman's uncanny skill and ability to rebound the basketball although Josh is a better rebounder than what he showed last night. But even if he focused on more on the things he's good at, I'm not sold on him being an all-star player.

Josh is not as good only because he hasn't made it a priority! He has twice the physical skills of a player like Rodman and could be a better rebounder and defender than Rodman if he either got his head out of his arse or received better coaching.

[ag82]

They say that Wilt was the same way. He could make 85 - 90% of his free throws in practice but in the games he shot around 50% for his career. (Not implying that Smith is comparable to Wilt.)

Dwight is the same way too. They say he makes them consistently in practice, but it doesn't translate to games. I think I even heard the same about shaq at one point, but that doesn't seem right.

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

Ben Wallace made it to the All Star team... A guy that is a historically bad free throw shooter and couldn't make anything that wasn't right under the goal. Wallace was an amazing shot blocker and rebounder and he got to the All Star game because he worked under his limitations and focused on his strengths. Josh just needs to do the same and stop worrying about being a scorer. The man is a defensive & rebounding machine. He has enough offense and shooters around him to be able to do just that and be successful! I think everyone on the Squawk would be happy with a 14.5 pt, 11.5 reb, 3.5 ast, 2.0 blks, and 1.2 stl average out of Smoove this year.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Ben Wallace made it to the All Star team... A guy that is a historically bad free throw shooter and couldn't make anything that wasn't right under the goal. Wallace was an amazing shot blocker and rebounder and he got to the All Star game because he worked under his limitations and focused on his strengths. Josh just needs to do the same and stop worrying about being a scorer. The man is a defensive & rebounding machine. He has enough offense and shooters around him to be able to do just that and be successful! I think everyone on the Squawk would be happy with a 14.5 pt, 11.5 reb, 3.5 ast, 2.0 blks, and 1.2 stl average out of Smoove this year.

Yeah we would be happy, because there has not been a single player in the history of the NBA who has done that. That stat line would truly make Smith a "5 tool" player. For all the people that acted like Joe Johnson didn't make people better on this team, you're definitely seeing this in Josh Smith. Because more times than not, it was JJ who was finding Josh for easy baskets in transition or for wide open jumpshots. The other thing with Josh is that he would score in transition sometimes, when he kept the ball himself and went coast to coast. Of course when he did that, you don't know what kind of a play he would make at times. Without JJ here, all of those easy baskets he used to get are gone. He now has to work for those baskets in the halfcourt offense . . and it just isn't his game. So even though he's posting up more and taking more shots closer to the rim, it isn't resulting in better offense for him. Add to the fact that he's in a horrible FT slump, it's not making it any better.

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

Yeah we would be happy, because there has not been a single player in the history of the NBA who has done that. That stat line would truly make Smith a "5 tool" player.

When I made up that stat line, I just used an average of his career stats, outside of the rebound category which I made his career best. Prolly around 9 rpg is more reasonable. My point is that everyone would be happy if he scored less and improved upon the things he does well. I think part of Josh's problem is now that he is the man, he fells he has to put up these Kobe-like numbers and that just isn't him. Do what you do and play defense, get rebounds! And I agree with you on Joe. Joe gotta so much attention that it made everyone's job easy. That's also why I am saying that Josh needs to be lower on the totem pole and Ferry needs to get elite scorers ahead of him, even if that means bringing in guys like Evans or Ellis. Dwight would be best though...

[Peoriabird]

We have enough scoring right now! And me personally don't care what Josh averages per night as long as he scores efficiently. Play Teague more minutes and ride his coat tail on offense not Smith.

[MaceCase]

Yeah we would be happy, because there has not been a single player in the history of the NBA who has done that. That stat line would truly make Smith a "5 tool" player. For all the people that acted like Joe Johnson didn't make people better on this team, you're definitely seeing this in Josh Smith. Because more times than not, it was JJ who was finding Josh for easy baskets in transition or for wide open jumpshots. The other thing with Josh is that he would score in transition sometimes, when he kept the ball himself and went coast to coast. Of course when he did that, you don't know what kind of a play he would make at times. Without JJ here, all of those easy baskets he used to get are gone. He now has to work for those baskets in the halfcourt offense . . and it just isn't his game. So even though he's posting up more and taking more shots closer to the rim, it isn't resulting in better offense for him. Add to the fact that he's in a horrible FT slump, it's not making it any better.

I'm beginning to think that he's just suffering from a broken heart. It's a lil too coincidental that both Joe and Josh are tremendously struggling to the degree that they are to start the season. Guess their chemistry went a lot deeper than we all thought.

[GameTime]

We have enough scoring right now! And me personally don't care what Josh averages per night as long as he scores efficiently. Play Teague more minutes and ride his coat tail on offense not Smith.

No we don't, Our offense is 25th while our D is 2nd in the NBA

[macdaddy]

No we don't, Our offense is 25th while our D is 2nd in the NBA

Wow. I didn't realize that. I think i'd rather have that issue right now than the other way around. LD needs to figure how to make Teague and Lou coexist without getting killed defensively. Offensively Teague/Lou/Korver/Josh/AL is pretty strong but i'm not sure that team can guard anyone on the perimeter.

[Peoriabird]

No we don't, Our offense is 25th while our D is 2nd in the NBA

Don't you think that our 25th rank has something to do with the offense running through Josh Smith while Teague languishes on the bench only averaging 27 minutes per game. Teague is our most efficient offensive player but yet one of our least efficient players takes all of the shots. Fix that and you'll fix the offense.

[Peoriabird]

Wow. I didn't realize that. I think i'd rather have that issue right now than the other way around. LD needs to figure how to make Teague and Lou coexist without getting killed defensively. Offensively Teague/Lou/Korver/Josh/AL is pretty strong but i'm not sure that team can guard anyone on the perimeter.

You are thinking like LD! Offense can be created in other ways beside shooting a bunch of jump shots in the half court you know. But every offensive possession starts with a rebound and if you can't rebound the ball on the offensive or defensive end, You ain't scoring without the other team either scoring or turning the ball over. So Zaza should be on any starting line up that you put out there because he is our most efficient rebounder. So I'm not in favor of a Teague/Lou back court because they don't compliment one another and certainly our ability to rebound the ball goes significantly down. Plus why is Lou getting so much love anyway for his offense? The guy's shooting percentage is worse than Josh Smith so he ain't that good of a shooter.