Hawks Roundup: Final Thoughts on the FakeSeason

[jaywalker72]

http://hawks.realgm.com/showarticle.php?artid=486

The HFO, as promised, eagerly watched the last preseason game for the Hawks, and now brings the random thoughts about the game, the players, the broadcast, and the latest transaction that included what can only be called the upset of the entire training camp.

It’s All Over, Except for the Ridiculous Analysis

The fake season is now over, courtesy of Cleveland beating the home team by 5 in Pittsburgh Thursday night, but what did we see and what does it all mean?

Glad you asked.

It Gets Chill-y on the Bench

You can officially start the “We’re Worried about Josh Childress this year” discussions for three reasons.

One is that he didn’t play at all against Cleveland, and didn’t start Wednesday night against Charlotte.

Two is that he hasn’t been able to make shots. Call it confidence, adjusting to the league, or whatever, the bottom line is that the ball isn’t going through the net for the Stanford standout.

But the third, and maybe the most interesting reason, is the comment that Hawks Master Billy Knight said while visiting with Bob and Grant (more on them later) during the game Thursday night.

Knight, during the course of answering a related question, basically said that he was surprised that Childress wasn’t adjusting as fast as his other pick, Josh Smith. Knight explained that Chill’s skinny frame is still not NBA ready, leading to his struggles during the fake season. Smith, meanwhile, is using his 230 pound frame to his advantage, thereby gaining more playing time. His ability to jump over the backboard also helps.

HFO believes that Childress will become the Shane Battier type player we have been touting since the pick was made in June, but there is no denying that Childress is behind schedule thus far, while understanding there is no rush.

Bo Knows, or Does He?

We admit to being quite surprised when we talked to Diaw this preseason about his well known aversion to shooting the basketball. Everybody associated with the Hawks, heck, everyone who has ever watched Bo play, knows that the man needs to stop with the over-generosity of his game, especially when around the basket.

We noted that Jon Barry, the Hawks sourpuss backcourt vet, got all over Diaw in the game against MIN when Bo received a pretty feed from JB, only to make an ill advised dish despite being a turned hand from flushing the ball through the hoop.

Barry’s response? Not printable.

So it was with great shock when the second year Frenchman informed HFO that he didn’t feel like he needed to shoot more. Diaw told us that he wanted to continue to build on his first season, a campaign filled with aborted layups and wide open stares at the basket gone undisturbed by shooting.

After 7 games and an abundance of bench minutes, it seemed that Diaw got a different message from Mike Woodson.

Against Cleveland, we saw Diaw (gasp!) shoot the ball a little, including a rare posting up of a smaller player and converting. We saw a layup, we saw attacking the basket, and lo and behold, it made his passing that much better and teammates that much more open.

Example #918356315 of the power of taking away playing time to prove a point.

Don’t Sell Yourself Short, Peja…You’re a Tremendous Slouch

The Hawks surely thought they had acquired a center when they made a deal to get Peja Drobnjak over the summer. They must have hoped that the center’s big body could help fill the massive gap they have in the middle of their lineup and defense.

Throughout the preseason, the Hawks fans have gotten a good look at the big guy and the consensus is that…well, he isn’t what people thought he’d be.

Aw heck, if nobody else will say it, we will:

Is it possible to be listed at 6’11 when you slouch the whole game?

Much like when the NBA measures the players without their shoes on during the combines, shouldn’t there be a separate height for players who consistently slouch?

Drobnjak shuffles around like a grandfather looking for his slippers, and while he can sometimes show a nice touch from the outside, we have seen him get beat for rebounds right above his head, leading us to wonder what kind of player he would be with average posture.

Maybe his notorious body odor has led him to hunching, to try and keep the stench from affecting his teammates, and possibly himself.

We are kidding, of course (or are we?), but we have noticed that Drobnjak is a slight cut above former warm body Michael Bradley, who was atrocious during his run as a “Hawk” last spring.

And that, dear readers, is not much of an endorsement. Tell us if you think we’re wrong?

Walker Reunites with the Lane….Good Times

The biggest criticism of Antoine Walker, much larger than even his 55 percent free throw shooting last season, is of his affection for the trey, the bomb, the three point launch. Too often, critics have noted, Walker has settled for the easier, longer, and less likely three point shot rather than get into the paint to score.

We remember seeing young Walker with the hated Wildcats in college, where he tormented SEC opponents by killing them inside. Yes, he was a part of Pitino’s crazy “3 is better than 2” approach, but his inside game was gold.

Well, we know it’s early, but we have seen Walker get re-acquainted with the lane under Woodson and we like….we really, really like. Walker can sometimes get into a rut of rolled out layups and poor foul shooting when going inside, but we like his ability to get his shot off almost every time to positive results.

And, in case you haven’t noticed, when Walker has that game going, Woodson has made sure he is the main man during every trip down the floor. Coming into the season, you could have wondered whether it would be Walker or Al Harrington who would get the ball down the stretch. And while there is no bout adoubt the fact that if Al is hot, the team will feed/fan him, it’s clear that Walker is going to be the go to guy down the stretch for the Hawks.

Again, tell us if we’re wrong.

Have You Heard Us Mention Josh Smith?

Alright, just to make sure the HFO is still the all-time leader in Josh Smith mentions, let us say that we are tickled every color that the kid is making the most of his opportunity to play in the wake of Chris Crawford’s injury.

We have obviously been in this kid’s corner since we first talked to him, and we know that Smith has soooo much to learn, but we definitely got our much discussed, pound it into the ground, comparison to Shawn Kemp vibe again while watching Thursday’s game.

Smith dunked, rebounded, showed activity, and hey, even bricked a jump shot like a young Kemp, though we know Josh is probably a better shooter already than the Rain Man was his first season in SEA. Kemp had more of a post game than Smooth, but shoot, if you rewind to Kemp’s first season, and then watch this kid fly, you might see what we mean.

Smith is going to fill into his 6’10 frame rather nicely, thank you, and we would be greatly pained if Smith doesn’t eventually realize his massive potential.

Ah shoot…y’all don’t hear us…..but the Guilty Pleasure is getting more and more burn….and we like it, obviously.

Upset of the Camp

We would love to say that we cashed in our 1000-1 odds that Pig Miller would beat out Lonnie Baxter and Donnell Harvey to make the team, but like everyone else except the Pig himself (or maybe not) we didn’t think that would even be close to coming true.

Truth be told, we forgot he was on the roster, obviously blinded by the light of a Gator finally gracing the court for the Hawks. (First Zook, now Harvey…a Gator Nation mourns).

Pig looks as good as we have ever seen him, which varied from out of shape to fat. He still doesn’t have any lift, we can’t see him contributing offensively in any way, but hey, there must be a reason to hang onto him while letting the limited, but bruising Baxter go as well as Harvey, while the ink was still wet on his non-guaranteed contract.

We reiterate, good for Miller, but has to be the surprise of the camp.

Broadcast News

We knew Grant Long would be likeable on the airwaves despite his total lack of experience, and catching him for the first time on FSN South’s (did I miss the memo on that cumbersome name change?) coverage did nothing but encourage our good feelings toward him.

Sure he is going to make some flubs and will explain things we didn’t need to have explained to us….

(We interrupt for a brief example….Down 6 with less than a minute left, Long carefully explained how you should pressure the inbounds to try and steal and then immediately foul if unsuccessful. Thanks, Grant…but just so you know, the only people watching a FSN South preseason broadcast of a 1-6 team that haven’t been to the playoffs since 1999 are the hardcore Hawks types that already get this sort of thing. Everyone else was more likely to be watching “Joey”.)

….but Long entertained with some home town type griping about the officiating, straight talk about the players like Diaw with stuff to work on, and even took 100 bucks out of his jacket, offering it to the first person to buy a Hawks full season ticket during the telecast.

Sadly, he still had the Franklin the last time we checked, but the thought was nice.

Long also seemed to raise the level of Bob Rathbun, who is now exclusive to FSN South or whatever their designation (can’t we just call them SportSouth like we used to?). Rathbun was enjoyable to listen to, maybe refreshed by the new blood of Long.

Commercially Scared

Since we are talking about the telecast, was anyone else as disturbed as the entire HFO was while watching the sinister looking Hawks promo commercial?

We like the change in approach to marketing the team from “Watch the NBA at Philips Arena!” to the whole “Restart” campaign, but that commercial, the one where we can see the pores on Billy Knight’s face among other ominous visages, flat out frightened us.

It all smacked of an attempt to hypnotize the viewers…

“We are Different This Year….”

“Come Watch the Hawks This Year….”

“You Will Like What you See this Year”

“There is No Hockey, so Watch Basketball This Year”

“Obey Us….Obeeeeeey Us!!!”

Of course, it didn’t work, though we did find ourselves in the car, heading down to the arena when we came to….

HFO is pleased that the phony season has come to a close so now the losses can really count. All cynicism aside, if you disagree with what we said, feel free to contact us @ jwalkr72@bellsouth.net or, as always, leave a stinging Message on the RealGM Hawks Message Board. Every dissenter gets a free hypnosis session with the close-up of Billy Knight’s face. Enjoy.

[OGRat]

Jay,

Have you heard ay talk of possible deals, or do you think we are done (literally)?

[jezmund]

We should just look at it as we picked Smith at #6 and Childress at #17 since many of us were expecting Smith at #6.

[Nicholasp27]

back when we got smith at 17, most here were complaining, saying we shoulda taken jameer instead...

i told them then, "2 weeks ago u were all saying we'd get smith at 6, now suddenly he's not good enough for 17?"

so good luck getting people here to think of it as smith 6, chill 17, cause they'll just say "jameer is better than chill"

[JTFan31]

Guys just give him time, Chill will come along, I dont believe that skinny frame thing, Reggie is skinny as a nail and look what he has done with his awkward shot.....now i'm not saying Chill will be the next Reggie but skinny frame means nothing. Look at Kittles he is also and was a very important part for the Nets. Chill has skills, he can fly up and down the court, he can shoot the ball pretty decent and will get better, he drives to the basket and has handles. Give him time and he will be a big part of this team come December.

[emeans]

I was one who truly wanted to draft Josh Smith at 6 for real....people called me crazy.

Josh Childress is not the player we should have draft with the 6 pick. I think Deng will turn out to be a much better player than Childress. He is proving that right now.

Childress is not ready!!