Atlantaholic

D'antoni's team has a better defensive rating than any team Woodson has ever coached... and a lower offensive rating. Strange.

I wish that move was as much a fixture in the league as a crossover

1 bad game or 2? It's like you guys just listen to whatever you want to hear. Josh Smith Ranks TS% - 11th (Only Hinrich is worse among rotation players) FT% - 14th (dead last) FG% - 6th (seems decent, except that for a player that gives you nothing from 3 point land this is bad) 3P% - 9th (out of 10 players who have attempted 3s. again only Hinrich is worse) Win Shares per 48 minutes - 8th. (no rotation player other than T-Mac and Hinrich are worse) Sad part is that overall, he has definitely been our best player this season... only problem is that we SUCK this season. What frustrates people is that with his length and athleticism there is NO REASON at all that the guy should be as inefficient a scorer as he is. He continues to take horrible shots (every single game, not just 1 or 2 games), and instead of being a Kevin Garnet the guy is being a Rasheed Wallace. He could be a nice piece for a team with superstars and a coach that can subdue him, but we need him to be a superstar and a leader, otherwise we are better off trading him and looking for a star elsewhere, because without one we aren't going anywhere other than home early during the playoffs.

Don't we go through this at least 4 times a season every season? Josh plays great for a few weeks, all the jock-riders come out thumping their chest insulting all the people who are critical of his game, and then as soon as he starts sucking again all these people crawl back under their rock never to be heard of again... until, that is, another 9-10 game streak comes along. Call me when he plays at a high level during an entire season. The guy is a 7 year veteran, and a team captain, it should not be an unrealistic expectation for him to play with intelligence, poise, and consistency.

Don't fall for it. Name me ONE player that has changed their entire mentality after 7 seasons of playing the exact same way?? It's like expecting Jamal Crawford to suddenly become more of a passer than a shooter. Josh has ALWAYS had stretches where he playes great, and as surely as the sun rises every morning, he eventually reverts to playing like a complete loser. This entire fan base needs to give up on this guy so we can move him and start building a new team, because this one is really tough to watch.

It's an attitude problem. The man thinks he is above the coaches, and obviously it is also a coaching issue because the coaches let him do it.

*sigh* This team sucks. Fans really do deserve better.

He was my favorite player for a long time, but the guy lost me. Officially it was the moment when he was walking back on transition against the Magic in the playoffs two years ago that made me give up on him. The guy is selfish, and so arogant that he can't see when he is behaving idiotically. He won't change. The guy cares about winning the same way AI did, problem is he doesn't have the basketabll skills of AI.

What good would Josh do in a game where defense doesn't matter? The guy has been an abomination on offense this season.

the team should have been blown up after the Orlando debacle. We should have cleaned house on the coaching staff and gotten rid of Josh and Joe, build our team around Teague, Horford, + lottery picks.

Just in case anyone was wondering whether the shooting stars contest is a complete joke or not.

Niether us nor the Magic are the same team this season. What's your point?

The Magic lost by 30 to New Orleans. They aren't doing anything this season other than make the playoffs as a top seed in an anemic conference.

I don't know about 50, but if Josh lived in the block we would be a different team, man. If the guy played in their with a consistant purpose he would be an elite, franchise type guy. But that just isn't going to happen. Dude, could average 20 on 48-50% shooting, easy, but he would rather prove he can shoot the ball. He is being a douche. The guy is honestly not even a better shooter than Dwight Howard right now, and he could easily put up better scoring numbers than that guy because even though he isn't quite as big he is definitely more skilled. The day Josh Smith grows up (and Teague grows balls) is the day this franchise is going to be relevant again. If that doesn't happen Joe ain't carrying this team anywhere other than out early in the playoffs.

Holman is the Zeus of Atlanta Hawks homers, so yes, that's a great point.

Dude spends all week complaining about not making the all star team and you think he's gonna be happy when he's asked to shoot the ball 8-9 times a game? He'd be pouting in no time and becoming a distraction. At least that's what most of those GMs are gonna be thinking. Only way he gets traded to them is if they give up nothing more than mediocre talent (mike miller + chalmers) in the deal.

Bad teams would take Josh. Teams gunning for a championship or a playoff run will probably look somewhere else.

Anybody who watches our games consistantly and isn't a homer can tell you this. Josh should be fixture in the all star game with all his talent... he hasn't made it, maybe never will, and he can blame no one but himself.

This team has no soul. I was excited at the beginning of the season thinking that if there was ever a year were a well rounded veteran team could contend for a championship it was this lockout shortened season which has favored (at least early on) the squads that play better team ball... but after the Chicago - Miami back to back choke jobs I stopped watching the games (this is the first season since I was 10 years old that I have watched less than 90% of the games). I've seen this team play for 5+ years and it is the same damn s*** over and over again... we are all waiting for this team to take the next step but we have been going sideways since the 53 win season. Josh and Joe are what they are, but we need them to be more, Teague lacks the cojones to be a major factor (and some of the skiills) and after that we have a bunch of nice veterans, but unfortunetly our best players are either dumb as rocks or heartless. Maybe if we had Al I'd be more on board, (with Al we could contend for a top 2 seed IMHO because this is truly the most stacked team we have had ever 1-12), but not that much more. This teams' problem is in their heads and unfortunetaly after seeing the same crap replay itself for a better part of a decade, you have to be a complete fool to think it can turn around magically. I'll still watch the playoffs, but not with any sort of expectation of us doing anything.

The guy doesn't have much left in the tank. He isn't gonna give us much more production than Ivan and Zaza are giving us right now.

I always thought his defense was a tad overrated around here, but I confess that judging him when he was asked to guard his + Bibby´s guy all game was misleading. Teague's defense is not stellar but at least now we can play 5 on 5 on the defensive end. Probably the biggest difference in our D is no more Bibbs.

I have not seen this posted: Thursday, February 02, 2012 AJC.com: Cunningham: Joe Johnson’s D has been strong, too Michael Cunningham crunches the numbers on Joe Johnson's defense so far this season: <a href="http://www.mysynergysports.com/" target="new">According to Synergy, Johnson has allowed just .71 points per possession, ranked No. 42 among all players. (Synergy had him allowing .93 points per possession in 2010-11 and .89 in 2009-10). This season Joe has been very good when defending in isolation (.56 ppp allowed, ranked 13th), against screen-roll ball-handlers (.69 ppp, ranked 33rd) and chasing his man off screens (.69 ppp, ranked seventh). Joe’s only defensive weakness this season, according to Synergy, has been defending spot-ups: .94 ppp, ranked 113th. Opponent PER tells the same story. According to 82games.com, Johnson’s foes at shooting guard have posted a paltry 8.6 PER and small forwards have managed just a 12.6 PER. (The opponent PER is ugly when Joe has been at point guard but that has only been a couple minutes, according to 82games.) Last season Joe’s opponent PER was 11.6 at shooting guard and 12.9 at small forward; in 2009-10, those numbers were 15.3 and 14.4, respectively. Joe’s on-court, off-court numbers at basketballvalue.com also are positive. The Hawks have allowed 6.24 fewer points per 100 possessions with Joe on the court. And it doesn’t appear as if his strong numbers here depend on having Al and Josh Smith behind him: Joe has been part of strong defensive units that featured Zaza Pachulia or Jason Collins at center and even one lineup with Vladimir Radmanovic at power forward. A healthy elbow has returned normal Joe Johnson service to the offensive end. Reasonable defensive assignments for Johnson, after years of being asked to chase around far quicker players, have also helped the Hawks survive the absence of Al Horford, thus far. Obviously, Johnson deserves his share of credit for his generally effective defensive play but this provides us another moment to be thankful for Jeff Teague receiving regular playing time. http://www.hoopinion...sons-d-has.html

I can't handle these type of games man. Too much sucking.

We don't have a star, we are slow paced, outside of Josh and maybe Teague no one is really explosive and exciting, we have no history of championships (have NEVER even made it to the conference finals), so why is this surprising? If I hadn't grown up watching this team I wouldn't care much for it either. We are playing very well right now, but can we keep it up throughout the season and, much more importantly, in the playoffs? Until this team picks up a Carmelo, Amare, Lebron, Wade, Kobe, Nash etc. or wins a championship no one is going to give two craps about it, and it's fairly understandable.

The guy has no jumpshot.... It truly is a mystery to me how you can have so many years of playing basketball everyday under your belt, go to a top university, get drafted in the first round and start for a professional team, and at no point in your career do you learn how to: dribble jump and shoot, or catch, jump and shoot. They guy is a straight set shooter. At least he can shoot a good % when no one is guarding him and he has time to get his feet set. If he had a jumpshot, he would be putting up All - Star numbers by now. Good thing is his athleticism is so off the charts that he can make up for it to a decent degree.