Hawks vs Heat, post game review

[JTFan31]

Ok guys this is what I saw, I had the luck of watching the game last night because I live in Miami. here goes my break down of players and the team.

Toine Walker- Toine is d@mn good, he plays with so much energy, he plays with a lot of intensity, he makes a lot of plays, he was posting up, driving in a lot and the only 3’s he shot was because he was wide open, none of them were forced. He has lost a lot of weight and he seems just so quick and so fast. Defensively he can play defense, no he is not known for it, but he can stick his man.

Al Harrington – Al is a load on offense, he has a vary of different moves, he is very aggressive and that was the problem tonight, he was trying way too hard and the Heat were swarming him when he touched the ball in the post, he has a lot of quickness, runs the floor very good and good rebounder. He plays tenacious defense and plays with a lot of energy. He will be fun to watch.

Josh Childress – Josh is going to be a very good player in this league. Come December Chill will start rolling, he can score when he wants, he can make a lot of plays, plays with tremendous energy, he blanketed Eddie Jones all night. One thing I saw about Chill that I like is that he really knows how to play the passing lanes and times the pass very well, he picked up 3 steals that way. He also crashes the board on the offensive end. He wasn’t really looking for his shot last night, so his 7 points was not bad at all. He is not afraid to take it to the big guys, he is d@mn tough, on one play he got an offensive board, bodied up shaq and laid it in……impressive.

Jon Barry – Barry will help this team so much off the bench, he can really shoot that 3 ball. Barry plays tenacious defense and he scrambles for any loose ball, he plays with a lot of energy and heart. Barry can handle the rock and make some nice dishes to the open man.

Kenny Anderson – Well we all know that this guy can run the point and that was what he did, he knows how to pass to a man in good scoring position, of course he has great handles, Kenny also can shoot the ball pretty good from the perimeter, not 3 point range, but we all knew that already. Kenny is not a shame to take the ball in on drives.

Kevin Willis – one word for Kevin…..physical. He bodied up Shaq all night when he was in. Honestly Kevin looked d@mn good, he was rebounding, He has a beautiful fast break thunder dunk, he ran the floor extremely great. IMO he should be the starter this year. He outplayed Collier and Peja put together.

Jason Collier – he can just the ball from the perimeter pretty decent. He is just an ok rebounder and he can play lick of defense, not physical at all. Should be the 3rd center off the bench after Willis and Peja. His points came at garbage time.

Royal Ivey – This guys will definitely make the team, WHY? He can play one heck of a defensive game. Plays tenacious defense, can run the point decent. Decent outside shooter, and is tough as nails. Will take the ball in with toughness and is not shy at all.

Peja Drobnjak – Peja can hit the open shots pretty decent. He plays physical which was what I like of him most, he was throwing his weight around. He didn’t play much , but played enough to get evaluated by a fan, hehe.

Josh Smith – Smith looked lost out there, but what do you expect from an 18 year old. He had a great block underneath on Doleac. He had some tough rebounds, but other than that he looked just a bit lost, but that is expected of him.

Boris Diaw – I think Boris just had a bad game, he was stripped by Wade once and didn’t look that good running the point, is expected, is a brand new team. He did look very aggressive and very fast and quick, much more than last year. Good rebounder and great defense.

Lonny Baxter – he didn’t score but one thing he can do is throw his wide body around and grab rebounds, both sides. He can run the floor exceptionally well and plays good low post defense. He fouled out , because he was playing very aggressive

Team offense – at times we looked very lost, mostly when Diaw was running the point. We do have 2 horses on offense and that’s Al and Toine, these two will make one heck of a scoring tandem and will be tough to stop for opposing teams.

Team defense – this team can play Detroit style defense, in the 3rd quarter we came back from a 27 point deficit and made it a game. This guys were playing the passing lanes and picking up steals after steals. Chill was the one that came alive in the second half and in the 3rd quarter defensively, so was Ivey, Al and Toine.

[Nicholasp27]

thanks for the review...good to hear from someone who actually saw the game

did danta not play last night?

yeah, i'm still unsure of chill...he at times looks like he could be good, but other times *shudder*...however, i think it's a matter of him getting comfortable out there and used to the NBA game, at which point he should be a fine starter-quality player (i hope)

smith has the moves and legs and can block some shots, but i think the reason he's gotten limited time and will continue to get limited time this year is that he is kinda lost out there many times...he'll figure it out eventually

peja didn't look good at all at the Sunday practice, so good to see him looking better now...i agree that Willis is our best player, but i dunno how many minutes he can really play...i'd play him the first 8 mins or so of the game to get the tone started and cause he'll be vocal and help the team settle down and play their game...then play him the last 10 mins or so of the game cause we need his play and experience at the end to close out the games

i still think ivey will be a decent backup pg by the end of the year

[JTFan31]

I agree Willis should start and finish the game, these are the most crucial times of the game. Willis should start for 8 mins, then 6 minutes to start the 3rd and 6 minutes to finish the game, 20 mins per game for Willis is good, and yes he is our best center.

Donta played the last minute of the game, he actually came in with 40 secs left in the game, so there was no real evaluation there.

[emeans]

My evaluation:

Kevin Willis is our best center hands down. Collier and Drobs didn't show me anything.

It is refreshing to see a true point guard Kenny Anderson in a Hawks uniform. He ran the offense very well. Very impressive with the handles at 34!!

Al Harrington just got triple teamed every time he touched the ball. He forced too many shots. He should have passed out a lot of times but he chose to force shots. He is the truth however and will be a force on this team.

Toine is a guy the Atlanta Hawks need. We don't need to remotely think about trading him. He takes the ball and tries to score when everyone else seems tentative on offense. He is very much needed on this roster. He missed too many open shots last night however. His shooting percentage was not good last night. If he hits his open shots he will be extremely valuable to this team.

Josh Childress plays well without the ball. When he gets the ball he shows that he is a rookie in this league. I hate is shooting form. He shoots like Shawn Marion and he misses most of his shots (terrible percentage). If your shot looks that bad at least make them!!

I have to agree Josh Smith looked very lost on the offensive end. He rushed all of his passes. He was obviously nervous. Playing time will help with his nervousness. I think he is pressing too much. He didn't look that way in the Summer Games. He showed what he can do on defense which is block shots!! He will improve with more minutes.

For the first time in my eyes, Royal Ivey looked like the best rookie on the court. He played very good defense. Hit some open shots. He played well especially on defense.

Barry was nice off the bench. He was the only player that could sink a jump shot from the perimeter last night. This team is lacking shooters.....AGAIN!!

Crawford will be missed tremendously!!

[Employee8]

emeans,

you can't have your cake and eat it too, you know....

Walker isn't the only one in the league that misses wide open shots...And if you take away those 4 3-point-attempts, He would be 6-13 for 25 points. Hell even 6-17 for 25 is just as good.

Trust me....He's much better now than he was in his Boston days where you would see boxscores of 8-22 for 23 points or something like that....If he stays conservative as far as taking 3-pointers go, the Hawks have themselves a real GEM here. But of course I'm a bit biased...Guess why?

[Gray Mule]

Thanks everyone.

Isn't it great to FINALLY have some real basketball to

talk about instead of wondering who we will have on

the roster to start the season!!

So little time to work on everything until the real,counting games start.

Again, thanks for all the good stuff.