State of the Hawks
Entry posted by mattlanta
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Last night's game against the Celtics made me realize a few things about this team. It also confirmed some of my older thoughts as well. These thoughts are...
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).
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