Dsinner

So shouldn't Fantasy talk be on another forum as well?

I stopped reading @ "Joe Johnson has the gaudy numbers..."

So Joe scoring 23 points should share the headlines with Kobe scoring 42?

That's what Kobe puts up on an off day.

Anyone else tired of Josh's lazy transition D? It's actually getting worse.

Why are all of our guys ( JJ, Josh, and Al ) allergic to playing more near the rim?

Because they haven't had a coach with the cojones to tell them otherwise.

Off topic....what is this "Warn Status?"

Noah, Boozer, Thomas, Asik and Taj Gibson took turns punking Al. Al grew more and more timid as the series went. He Faded to the 15 foot area. He shrunk at the absolutely wrong time.

Then maybe you should rephrase what you said to Smoove having the better series. On a nightly basis, throughout their careers, Al has shown more heart. In fact, that is Smooves main problem. He gives no consistent effort. Effort=Heart. Al had a rough series but has shown more heart (effort) in his little pinky than Smoove has in his whole inflated head.

The past season proved that these guys were NOT a better defensive team when they didn't do all of that switching. The defense didn't get better until we got Kirk on the team, a guy who could acutally guard and stay in front of most PGs. Before that time, Bibby and Jamal were defensive liabilities, and Teague hadn't proved that he could come in and be a defensive stopper.

Woody did what he had to do to try to maximize what this team could do defensively. Player personnel had a lot to do with how Woody coached defensively. Even a guy like Jason Collins is only effective against centers who play with their backs to the basket. In today's NBA, he can't be your full time starting center, because of his lack of mobility.

Give Woody a defensive minded center like a Marcus Camby or a Joakim Noah to team with Al, Josh, and JJ, and the Hawks would've been a much better defensive team. I mean, unless people believe that a guy like Thibs can even make Acie and Jamal much better defensive players?

Complete BS. So what you're saying is coaches need good defensive players to be good defensive coaches? These were all young guys that Woody helped draft. They were young athletic guys who should have been able to be coached how to play D. You're giving players way too much credit for defensive schemes/philosophies. Even then those were the players Woody wanted.

The problem wasn't our young players. The problem is you have to make up for the weak defensive players Bibby. And you have Smoove who doesn't play on-ball very well and Horf who doesn't play strong against big bigs. The matchup was his way of dealing with all those holes. I like LD's big lineup better. And Captain Kirk...

Too bad we ran that switching D no matter if Bibby was on the court or not. Or no matter if that put Al guarding a PG or not. Our D was well below what it should have been and that had everything to do with a coach that couldn't or wouldn't make defensive adjustments based on situations. He wanted it done his way and was going to coach that way no matter who was on the court. Well, his way got himself a demotion that he was lucky to get.

Like you said he could have easily put a legit C in to guard legit C's. He could have also used Teague to guard PGs. Did he do that when a PG started abusing Bibby? No, he let Al guard him. Like I said, He's simply not the "defensive guru" that some make him out to be.

2 words: no defense

Umm, he was fouled on 4 of those shots.

don't put the pressure of having to be the best player in a Hawks uni on him yet.

If he's the best player in a Hawks uni next year we are screwed.

Yeah, I stopped shooting people a long time ago. I didn't even need Stern to suspend me.

Swat... really though...

This looks bad.

What the hell is this Multimillionaire (with the potential to make millions more) doing toting guns and having shoot outs like this is freakin dodge city? Over What?? Some stolen Jewelery? This woman lost her life because a Millionaire was robbed of a couple thousand dollars worth of Jewelery and he felt the need to go all GUNSMOKE and shootout at the OK Coral in the streets?

He propagates the stereotype and you have Stern and others sitting around talking about "I told you so!"

Instead of being sensitive and defensive, you should be pissed too.

Too bad you didn't start this thread to talk about the propagation of the stereo type or the loss of a poor innocent woman. You made this thread to say "nanny nanny boo boo" to those who were wrong about him. So step down sir.

Did you just say Josh has more heart than Al? Wow, see I think it's the exact opposite. Josh has more natural talent than Al but Al does more with what he has. The reason Al does more with what he has is because he has more heart.

For all the Woody hate, and I am a HUGE Woody hater, the one thing I will not hate on is his defensive resume. He's not a good head coach, but he's a very good defensive coach.

Despite having one of the youngest and most athletic teams at his disposal, we were never that good on D. In fact, it's arguable that our switching D was an actual negative. Never mind, it's not really arguable.

I prefer "The Princess Bride." Excellent book and the movie is a delight.

Plenty of other good and bad translations as well. For good, some are: Fight Club, Lord of the Rings, Stand By Me, A Clockwork Orange, The Wizard of Oz, The Godfather, etc.

Terrible: The Scarlett Letter, Queen of the Damned (much worse than the bad Interview adaptation), Bonfire of the Vanities, any Asimov adaptation (Bicentenial Man, I Robot, etc.), How The Grinch Stole Christmas (live version), The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy , Hannibal, etc.

I agree with all of it except HItchiker's Guide. That movie was fantastic. Sam Rockwell and Mos Def's performances were brilliant.

On the good side, I have the Godfather and Malcolm X. The Godfather is probably the best Read AND movie I've seen. Malcolm X was a good read but BETTER Movie.

Continuing the bad side:

Fear and loathing in Las Vegas and Trick Baby. Both were very good reads but fell far short in it's movies.

Fear and Loathing is one of my top 5 movies ever. Depp was spot on and Del Torro should have won an award. Book was great (I love Hunter's works) but the movie was even better. One of the few times I'll ever say that about a movie. Not hating though cause you've nailed everything else.

Of Mice and Men was another great read and great movie as well (the one with Gary Sinise and John Malkovich).

That is fair, but if you are going to blast some movies for reinterpreting the source in a way that makes it worse for the wear I think you should recognize that they did an excellent spin on the Body in making Stand By Me. I'm definitely someone who enjoys Stephen King as an author but his movies rarely translate as well. We'll see if Peter Jackson takes on the Dark Tower for his next big project! :D

I agree. I love King but his movies usually make the straight to DVD list. I hate that Comcast killed his latest project. That one should have been interesting.

Whoa, I've been away too long. First North not stoked about any Hawks's lineup and then D saying we should keep Marvin. In the same thread. My head hurts.

But we do need a trade to make it past the first round again. Barring Teague playing like an Allstar (which is possible) this team, as formed, will have an early exit once again.

It's getting a lot of criticism and, the more I think about it, rightfully so. To those of us who are semi-normal caring parents who, for the most part, do all we can to protect our children, this is a very entertaining book. Unfortunately some kids actually live with their parents doing more than thinking these thoughts and actions out. There are plenty of children living in this world that actually live out the fantasy. I can see how many would be offended by it. Unless you've lived it, it's got to be hard to understand their POV. Plus, imagine if a youngster who's just learned to read accidently finds the book thinking it's, as it's marketed, a children's book. Can you imagine what would go through their minds as they read this? They're not old enough to grasp the concept and would probably be horrified thinking their parent's think this way about them. Not saying I agree one way or another but definitely some food for thought.

Please stop with the Dwight *ss kissing. He is the enemy right now. Last thing on my mind is worshipping his *ss.

Am I really that old?!? Some of you have never seen Damien play? Good pick up. I'd have traded Mo for him strait up.

Why would you want to party with the enemy? These young punks in the NBA today would get their *ss's handed to them if they tried this stuff back in the days. Sound's like Drew's on to something. Let's see if our "GM" has the fortitude to do anything about it.

I don't know. I think what we are seeing is a hallmark of a Sund GM'd team. It's not that Sund isn't trying, but he does the same thing. He takes a team, pay maybe overpay to resign it's players and never really sets a vision for where he wants the team to go. In Seattle, he did that. The interesting thing is that Sund had a good coach in Nate McMillan but he gave him a team with bad chemistry and no center. He spent three drafts looking for a C. He squandered Lewis, Allen, and Collison. His Seattle teams wasn't bad, they went 52-30 but they never did climb over the hump and then he started paying (even overpaying) people. That's a Sund trademark. I think at the end of the day, Sund will not do a deal that will get us the player we need. I give him credit for Gary Payton for Ray Allen. However, it's very hard to see what his major move will be with this team. I just hope that we can find the right mix of players to give LD a chance if LD is the right guy for the job. I think LD has good plans, I just don't know if he has enough of the players respect (not admiration) to make them work as hard as they need to work in order to be a winner.

I think if you bring in a coach that can flash a ring and who can dictate, that this team will be much better. Maybe this is a good time for Mike Fratello to come back to coaching for one last ride?

LOL @ you thinking this is a Sund controlled team. What you're witnessing is a Spirit controlled team.

Why are we using average statistics to declare this trade a wash? It's not really that simple. Fact is Marvin isn't getting any better. In this system, he is actually getting worse. Given the system we are running I'd make the trade. He certainly couldn't play any worse than Marv in it and if he did we could actually trade him. Question really is why wouldn't we? The players are a wash at the very least (with one possibly being better in our offense), only we can actually trade one of them if he doesn't perform. To me it would seem like a good move for the team's possible present and definite future to make the trade. Just my 2 cents.

Al and Smoove are tweeners. Al could have easily moved over to Sf. I think he actually perfers that to playing PF. Remember, Al started with us playing next to AWalker. Walker played PF. The only person who benefited directly from Al leaving was Marvin and Marvin has done NOTHING worth talking about but managed to siphon another contract out of the Hawks and make himself untradable. He's our discount Eddy Curry.

What I miss about Al is having somebody in the low post with low post offense. I think Joe wishes he had that now. We have both Horf and Smoove, one will be an allstar this year, but offensively neither has a goto move in the low post. We can't work an inside out game (that works so well) with guys who can't be a threat inside.

If Al was our starting 3 both Horf and Josh would foul out of every game.

What was the difference between Josh guarding Beasley at the 4 the past two seasons and guarding him at the 3 on Friday? Nothing, they were both out of position so don't use that matchup as proof of anything. Of the teams we've already played, the Cavs, Pistons, Wizards, Sixers, and Grizzlies all could of started Jamison/Hickson, Speights, Villanueva, Blatche and Arthur at the 3 against Smoove then the Suns could play Hak at the 3 tonite and it still wouldn't prove anything because those guys are all better suited for the 4 and absolutely do not have the mobility, handle or speed that most 3s in the league have despite their predilection for taking jumpers.

Because shorterm memory is also a problem on the Squawk', especially when it comes to Smoove, people have already forgotten that the last time Smoove saw extensive minutes at the 3 during the season was in the Sixer game matched up with Iggy in the 2nd quarter. That was also Iggy's highest scoring quarter that game with 10 quick points before Drew had to bring both Joe and Marvin back in.

Will I use that as definitive evidence against Smoove at the 3? No, there's plenty of other evidence that can support the argument against that that has been done to death but that is still a small sample size same as the Minny game.

Marvin is to be out a week or more and Mo might be as well so I say let's wait and see how well Josh can not only perform against but also defend the upcoming Hills, Carters/Richardsons, and Salmons/Maggettes before we start crowning him a decent 3. He may luck out too because we don't even go up against an allstar SF until 11 days from now in Granger and soon after Pierce. Hopefully our actual SFs are healed up by then.

Speaking of short term memory read my last sentence in my last post concerning matchups vs Josh playing the SF position..

If the majority of the NBA is starting PF's at the SF position then WTF does it matter if Josh is a SF? or better yet, obviously the rest of the NBA has a different opinion that some of you as to what a SF's abilities should be. So, in short, if he's only facing a legit allstar SF every 20 games then who cares if Josh can guard a "legit" SF?

The drop in FTs is definitely a negative but the line that drives the point home for me is really "as long as it stays like this." If I were a betting man, I would take that action.

Why is Josh shooting less FT's a bad thing? The guy can't shoot them. He keeps shooting like this and he'll officially become a better jump shooter than free throw shooter.

Minny is the worst shooting team in the NBA. Smith didn't have to worry about closing out on shooters. Beasely missed 7 of his 8 jumpers.

Smith wasn't guarding the "team" he was guarding a normally good shooting SF. Plus you have to give Josh some credit for him making Beasley shoot those long jumpers/threes.

Did you already forget the Cavs game? Hickson dropped his career high on Smith by making midrange shots and blowing past Smith off the dribble. Those are skills that most 3s possess. Even though Hickson plays inside he plays a face up game, like most 3s, that Smith has trouble with.

Like you said he had a career game. No one, including myself and Josh, expected Hickson to shoot like that much less keep making it. He did the right thing initially playing off of him not expecting him to keep it up. However, he should have got in his face a little more after he realized he wasn't going to be missing any time soon. By then it was too late. That was def a poor adjustment on defense by Smoove but that was a freak performance that was properly game planned for.

But you're right in that he shouldn't be considered a SF and I think it's a matchup issue whether or not Josh can play SF successfully during a game.

That was my post on another thread citing the same quote. When was the last time KG did anything to anyone tough or high profile? Wouldn't it be the first time?

Oh no. KG is smart enough to not cost his team games/title by getting into a fight with another player. The things we criticize players for. I much prefer KG's trash talking team oriented loyal persona to a rooks look at me selfish dance crap. Guess we have a difference of opinions about who should represent the NBA in this thread. John Wall can suck it.

If Wall did that in Atlanta, and he was a Hawk, people would absolutely love it. That dude is the new face of that franchise. If he wanted to dance for 2 minutes for his home crowd, I wouldn't have a problem with it.

Part of the appeal of the NBA, is the entertainment and personalities of the players.

Instead of worrying about Wall, maybe the ATL talk show personalities need to be worrying about how to get more fans to weeknight home games. Maybe if Horford was dancing, we could get more than 8,000 live bodies to the Pistons game.

I wouldn't. Can stand "me first" players in ANY sport. They don't win championships. I'd take 5 KG's in his prime over 5 Wall's in a heartbeat. So would any other GM.