http://www.hawksquawk.net/community/index.php?app=blog Community Blog List Syndication Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:39:22 +0000 dolfan23@hawksquawk.net (Hawksquawk) IP.Blog 60
Some may disagree with this strategy; but if you look at the free agents that were available this past off season it is a sound strategy. 1st off, all three of our core are still young veterans by anyones standards. 2nd, all three have shown the ability to improve some part of their game throughout their short NBA careers. And 3rd, Sund was able to improve our bench depth and leadership via free agency and one draft pick two consecutive seasons.

We as fans always want to see the home run season; problems are many with that strategy and here are the two that standout for me. 1st, you may miss as his the case in my opinion with Kenyon Martin and for more than one full season both Baron Davis and Carlos Boozer. 2nd, there are not that many home run hitters available in the NBA. Guys who can put you over the top just with their signing. We only need to look at next seasons bumper crop. With all the expectations and excitement concerning 2010 free agency, only three to five players are considered franchise type players. 3 to 5 to be divided by 30 teams and this is a great year.

Putting all your bets into free agency is as much a crap shoot as the draft. More so when you take into account the player has the choice and not the team. If the Knicks strike out next season there could be riots at the Garden. Even if they don't, the Knicks may very well have to over pay dearly to convince one of these high profile players to come there. Same for all the teams in the free agent running next season.

Sund's direction is much more sound than betting we can sign a player to put us over the top. All we need is for our core group to continue to improve, while players like JJ and Bibby continue to show the leadership that is needed for such a young group of veterans. If they do this and Sund maintains the quality depth he has shown us the last two seasons, it could very well be Josh, Marvin, or Al who are being sought out as franchise changers five to six years from now.

I am holding off including Teague in this as far as a core player goes. But he does have some serious skills and hops. Now that would be something to behold as a Hawk fan next season, when as many as ten teams or more are scrambling for one of five core players, we are talking about our core four improving for another season!

Sund is doing as good a job at GM as anyone in the league; especially considering the budget and players he began his stint here with. Lets just see what lays ahead for our young core and vet leaders before declaring the winner of the Lebron etc sweepstakes the real winner.]]> Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:02:00 +0000
I would like our lineup to look like this...

PG: Bibby / Teague
SG: Johnson / Crawford / West
SF: Williams / Evans
PF: Smith
C: Horford / Pachulia / Andersen

This list was made by...
Resigning Zaza
Resigning Marvin
Resigning Bibby
Resigning Andersen
Resigning West

This is possible, Rick!]]> Mon, 06 Jul 2009 02:55:00 +0000 In the first round...
1. C Hasheem Thabeet
2. PG Ty Lawson
3. PG Jeff Teague
4. PG Eric Maynor
5. PF DeJuan Blair
6. PG Jrue Holiday
7. C BJ Mullens
8. PG Darren Collison
9. SG Wayne Ellington
10. PF Tyler Hansbrough

In the second round...
1. SG Jodie Meeks
2. PG Patrick Mills
3. PF/C Garret Siler
4. PG/SG Toney Douglas
5. PF Jeff Adrien]]> Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:52:00 +0000
Mike Woodson needs to go. I'm not one of those Woody haters who get on his back after every loss, but the way Woodson has coached this team has really annoyed me. I could list the many things that he doesn't do well, but I'm sure you could find that out for yourself by either watching a Hawks game or reading the HomeCourt forum. I will, however, point out the few things that have really grinded my gears about Woodson.

1) The development of Acie Law... I know he's been injured recently, but since we're looking at the big picture here, I want to rant about how terrible Woodson is when it comes to developing his young players. Acie Law may not have the jumpshot of Bibby or Murray, but he's still a much quicker player than either of them. Law's got the size and athleticism to be a great defender in this league, but when he's averaging barely 10 minutes per game, you can't expect much from him at this point. I think it's terrible what Woodson's done to Law. I'm one of the fans who holds Law very highly, and I think he has/had the potential to be something very special in this league. It's too bad Woodson never felt the need to develop his lottery-picked point guard.

2) Lack of offensive plays, if any at all... I think there's only two plays Woodson teaches his players: Iso Joe or Iso Bibby. The isolations work at some extent, but when you're always running them every single play of the game, the defense is bound to find out.

3) No bench play?... Solomon Jones, Acie Law, and Mario West have a lot to offer when they come off the bench. Mario has shown that he will play his *ss off when he's on the court. When Bibby is facing a much quicker guard, I'd rather we put Law or Mario in instead of letting up that many points. (Bibby may be a great offensive PG, but he's far from great on D.)

I wouldn't mind going after an offensive-minded coach. I think someone like Avery Johnson would do wonders to the development of our players.

We need to pick up a few key players this offseason. I think it's a top priority that we pick up not one, but two bigs this offseason. It was pathetic seeing the guards on the Celtics go after the ball harder than our bigs. You can't expect to go far in the playoffs if you don't have players who are willing to sacrifice their body to grab the board. I wouldn't mind signing Marcin Gortat and then drafting another big in the draft (second round perhaps).]]> Sat, 28 Mar 2009 17:47:00 +0000
I noticed as early as the Hornets game that the Hawks were switching nearly every ball screen no matter what players were involved. This was fairly effective in the second half of that New Orleans game as the switching really kept Chris Paul out of the lane after he had had a huge first half. There are many options for tactics when defending screens. The Hawks are one of the few teams I have seen that switch on every screen. I believe to be able to switch all screens then you have to go back to BK's plan of having 5 guys on the court that are athletic with long arms that can defend. As you can see on many nights when the Hawks have brought a defensive intensity to the game this plan has been able to work. Many times however this has not been the case. In this Texas series we ran up on coaches that were able to manipulate the match ups. The Spurs in particular ended up with ZaZa trying to guard Ginobli on the perimeter simply by setting a high screen.

Over the next few days I am going to watch some other NBA games and I want to see their tactics on ball screens and see the differences.]]> Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:33:00 +0000
When looking at the Hawks right now I have to admit it is hard to find anything positive to take from this. Like all tortured Hawks fans I am afraid that a rough road trip could once again put us at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings and force us to have to fight just to get in. I haven't seen the consistent defensive effort on a night to night basis since the first 6 or 7 games of the season. Players like Iguodala that are shooting sub 30% from three have big nights from the outside because we don't make a commitment to guard them. Save the first half of the home opener against Philly I believe those first 6 or 7 games was the most complete basketball that we have played. Now Horford is hurt and may be out for some time and we weren't exactly intimidating in the middle to begin with.. How do we survive?

I don't have that answer? I believe with a lot of franchises Woody would be in trouble just due to the lopsidedness of the scores. Getting down by that many points questions effort and effort in my opinion is one of the things that can get a coach fired quickly. However, this is the Hawks and we are not firing Woody nor do I think we should. As a group we have to come together again. Players, coaches, everyone. They have to hold each other accountable. As individuals I think it is on Joe and Smoove. Joe has been doing a good job moving the ball around as his assist totals will back up but when it is crunch time this team needs him to come through. Whether it be hitting a jumper, making free throws, finding the open man, or getting into the paint. I think it is on Smoove now to take up Horford's stats and presence. We need Josh Smith now!! We can't wait. His rebounding and at times effort have been unforgivable. I don't want to hear that he is hurt because right now this team is hurt. It is time to step it up. We need him to be his own form of superman again.

Its gut check time for the Hawks. I want to see them bounce back but the last few years have bruised me so I don't really know how this team will respond. I will be watching every night though.


]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:36:00 +0000

Some random Basketball thoughts:

Watched the Hawks defeat the Pacers last night, during the telecast they said this was the most wins (21) the Hawks have had before Jan 1st since 1979. Is this the best Atlanta Hawks team ever?

Read a good basketball book by John Feinstein called "The Last Amateurs". I have always liked Feinstein from his appearances on the Sports Reporters on ESPN. This book covers the Patriot league as one of the last college basketball conferences that at the time all of the teams didn't award athletic scholarships. It was a very fun read especially if you like small conference basketball. I am sure I will be talking some more about this book in the near future.

Some great College Basketball games on New Year's Eve starting a noon today on ESPN2 and running I believe most of the night.

The Basketball team that I coach made up of 9 and 10 year olds open our season on Monday and I am hoping for a successful season.

Anyone out there read "The Last Amateurs"? I would love to hear some comments.]]> Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:24:00 +0000
The JT, Shareef, Theo, Big Dog fiasco that Babcock bet would make the playoffs had many fatal flaws. First and foremost, who was the leader and who was the distributor. Flawed teams have flawed players and JT was that. He was a guy who could not take control of the offense. He didn't make those around him better. Instead he would allow guys like Big Dog and JR Rider do the job he was supposed to do.... And people blamed Lenny for making him sit the bench until he learned how to run an offense.

The start of the change came with BK. BK's vision was long, versatile, and athletic. This is what he sought in players. Unfortunately, it was his Achilles heel too. Long, Versatile, and Athletic bypassed Chris Paul in the draft. But what did we get from BK? Well, first and foremost Josh Smith. If he remains healthy, Smith may be the best non-center Shot blocker this game has ever seen. The next hit in the BK hit parade was Josh Childress. Gone now, but maybe the most efficient non-center in the game. Then there is Might Joe Johnson. I say it like that because he is a beast. Unfortunately, the media has yet to catch on. MJJ is right now one of the most underrated 2 guards playing. Then there's Marvin. Even though there's a lot of complaining that can be done about the pick, he is a good set shot shooter. To round out the list of hits, there's Zaza and Horford. These guys are pretty good energy guys. Zaza is a great BU C and Horford is a competitor. It makes for good team dynamics.

Sund came in and with him came the lost of Chillz and the entrance of Mo Evans and Flip Murray. These guys are experienced Journeymen who really bring energy and some talent to their games. It is too early to say what place Bibby will have on this team and the same can be said for Acie. Still the roles have been defined now. As I look at this team, I think a little to that old Hawks team from years gone by:


Bibby----------------------------------Mookie
JJ--------------------------------------- Smitty
Marvin---------------------------------Corbin
Smoove-------------------------------Deke
Horf- -----------------------------------Laettner
Acie------------------------------------Mays
Evans---- -----------------------------Augmon
Flip-------------------------------------Recasner
]]> Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:18:00 +0000
Yes, you who have followed the series knew that this was to come. And because of it's importance, I have decided to blog this one. So here's the question. How important is Marvin to the success of the Atlanta Hawks? Well, the dieselputer has your answer.

Marvin is very important to the success of the Atlanta Hawks. However, that's not a good thing. First, let me go into why he's very important to our success. I think the loss of CHillz will have a big effect on this team. Chillz was really our low post game. Horford nor Smoove have come into their own in the low post. People talked about Chillz cherry picking, but he was the one guy who we could count on offensively to go down in the post and fight with bigger players. It came to pass that when other teams played us they had to respect Chillz working the baseline. Not only could he work down low, he also patrolled the baseline waiting to posterize somebody on a baseline drive. Somebody says well, Chillz was replaced by Evans! Well, in what way? Will Evans provide low post scoring and low post rebounds? No. We don't even Know if Evans will provide the OG ball handling that we got from Chillz. IN my memory, I remember Evans as a set shooter/slasher.
'
So how does this fall back to Marvin? Marvin has to step up and hold down the space that Chillz left. With that part of our offense, defenses will just ignore the post and will double our shooters. What can Marvin do? Marvin has to take the clumsy out of his game, get some fire and learn to be effective driving the ball. I don't expect Marvin to work down low like Chillz did. Nor do I expect him to be a good rebounder. But if Marvin can add three point shooting and driving (without charging) to his game, he can make defenses respect him and stay off of our shooters.

Another reason why Marvin is important. We have placed too much into his development. We have squandered players, trades, and starting minutes for this guy. He has to show up and earn everything he has been freely given. This is YEAR 4. We have heard all the excuses in the world from the Marvin loyalist. However, this year should be filled with impact. That means when we need a score, if JJ and Bibby can't get it, Marvin has to step up. No more excuses.

The one thing I hate about this is that I can already hear the excuses... Well Woody has to call plays for Marvin... Bibby has to pass to Marvin.... Smoove has to throw it to Marvin.. JJ has to give Marvin a chance... All of that means nothing. Marvin has to step up and earn it. The same way Smoove did, the same way Chillz did. If we look around and Marvin is 5th option, then there's nobody to blame but Marvin.
]]> Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:03:00 +0000
Here is my list
1.Dominique
2.Pistol Pete
3.Joe Johnson
4.Steve Smith
5.Shareef Abdur Rahim
]]> Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:28:00 +0000