sillent

I hate to believe it too but I saw how Josh just made himself vanish in the second quarter. On the other hand sports are not just physical it's a mental game. Whether it's trash talk, to misdirection, to mismatches, to players leaving the game in a wheel chair giving opponents a sense of relief just to pop back out after the opponents guard is let down. Boxers taunt. There is a lot of mind games that go on in sports that is strategy. Josh knows the consensus on him and he knows what other teams expect from him. It's easy for him to catch them off guard but keeping the consensus in a certain prospective is a weapon for him. Teams don't necessarily count him out but they can't gauge how he'll attack their team on a nightly basis. Look at the Bobcat highlights where he faked the 3 and dished it to Teague wide open. He's known to take ill advised shots but he was a scoring threat that night so they had to respect the fake. Being predictable is the easiest way to lose in sports. Specially if you have to go against the opponent on multiple occasions. It's risky for us to play such close call games but teams are not going to know what to expect when we switch it up on them. The best weapon is the unknown and teams or fans for that matter do not know what to expect from Josh or our team. Our team is versatile and anybody can step it up on any given night. As long as our defense stays consistent I think we'll be alright.

If Boston keeps their play up they'll have 1 to no players. We have to keep up our good play and consistency. If we do we'll have at least 2 allstars!!

I think he was just placing the top forwards overall. Sure their are others that might lead in one or another statistical category.

Coaches get to choose the bench if I'm not mistaken. We only get to vote in the starters. I don't think Tom, Eric or Larry will snub Josh if they are selected to coach the East. The competition would love to get a taste of him and you know Drew would recruit him. If good Josh shows up more consistently he shouldn't have a problem getting in especially if we're still in playoff contention. Other coaches will look at that and with us mainly just having Josh and Joe to be our stars he has a good chance. Teague is still under the radar and will be a reach depending on where we place in the East before the break.

And let's not forget that end game interview was classic. He will definitely need to start practicing because he might see a lot more of those. I actually saw the grills he plays with as well. This is a good time to have somebody like this on the team. With enough vets and good all around leadership to keep his head on straight. Even Josh has been a mentor for mister Ivan Johnson. Not making that part up it came from Ivan in an earlier interview.

Obviously not a rivalry or I think Josh would have went a lot harder than that. More of a playful respect or disrespect for that matter. Hence the lack of care even in his made jumpers and the 3 at the end.

Yeah yo bad and I suggested Gad because he is a quicker/defensive big that would fit better in the scheme of our team. You've punished ya self enough though so I'll leave you alone.

Gotta give you credit for your reasoning. I wouldn't take either for the simple fact of wasting an already full roster space and not fitting within our schemes and system. I was a Rasheed Wallace fan but if he retired on the aging Celtics I don't think he has much left but jump shots. Priz is slow and injury prone. If y'all haven't noticed we've been picking up our pace and plan to run even more. Joel could be a Collins on our team (of course with better D) but is not worth changing a roster spot for a big that is commonly injured. Collins has proved he can hold his own (for the most part) against Dwight which is all we would really need a slow aging big for. Our style of play doesn't cater to a traditional center.

Don't know if anybody answered you but we got the draft pick that got us Josh Smith with the trade. Pistons won a championship. Win win with our portion being more on the latter side.

On top of all that us showing how good we are without him is actually a motivator for him so expect a fresh and motivated Al Horford. This is one of our main players begging for more guys or big guys to make this team successful. If he sees we can get it done as small as we are without him he will have no doubt we'd be unstoppable with him at full force. I think that's another reason ownership isn't reaching for big's. We gotta show Horford that with our system him playing on all cylinders can put us over the top. Again a fresh and motivated Horford can be a secret weapon come playoff time.

I'm not the Biggest fan of Horford ( meaning he's not my favorite player on the team) but I give credit where credit is due. Horford gives us good spacing because of his shooting ability and is a good compliment to Josh. They don't crowd the whole on each other and they play pretty good defense together as well when their both engaged. Horford can knock down his free throws and doesn't slow down a fast break being able to be on the passing or receiving end. We underestimate Horfords talent because we have so much talent on our team but he compliments our team well. We can ask for a Dwight Howard because of the nae size and talent but he's not going to hit key free throws consistently. Jump shots either meaning he is going to have to crowd the paint leaving Smoove more of a reason to stay on the outside via Rashard Lewis. Dwight doesn't have the handles to take it coast to coast on regular either so he would change up a lot of our game plan which Horford actually compliments well. We still need a center and Zaza is not the answer for a contender.

It's funny how all 5 of our starters (including Horford not Zaza) are constantly in debate amongst fans. Either you love and praise them or are blaming them for every loss or problem our team has. I guess that's a good problem to have!! Not many fans can debate amongst each other about so many star quality young players on one team. I think something we all can agree on is that if all of our core players played to their potential consistently opponents would be in trouble. Al Horford when in beast mode has a knack for finishing a play but who can boast a center able to take it coast to coast on a consistent basis. If he plays like he did last year in that come back on the Bulls or the way he does against the Pacers(prior to injury) he'd be an undeniable beast.To top it all off he has an automatic jumper but consistency with all of this is key.It discourages me that he doesn't want to man up and embrace that center role when he is only second to Dwight in the east. When Josh Smith is playing at his best he controls the game at both ends of the floor. He is easily our biggest contributor to wins and losses on our team because he can do it all and fill up a stat sheet. If he consistently played to his potential I wouldn't be surprised if he starts posting quadruple doubles. Our frustrations with Josh is he has the most ability's and energy to be our game changer and he still has a knack to change the game in our opponents favor. That's still a pretty good problem to have as long as he does the good parts consistently. A lot of people try to box Josh in a category and place him in the post but his game/versatilty spreads like his contributions. Just ask the stat sheet. Marvin Williams will forever be unfairly judged until we win a championship with his contributions and Teague becomes miles ahead of Chris Paul and Deron Williams. All that seems like a long shot but point is don't blame Marvin for situations he couldn't control. Plus because of the so called "draft mistake" we acquired Al Horford and Jeff Teague and it all now looks to play in our favor. Now that I spent a paragraph going nowhere with his critics let's actually get to Marvin. Marvin Williams has probably been the most consistent starter this year. He's versatile,athletic, a good scorer and good with cleaning up on the offense boards. That's just on offense. Marvin is a critical piece being able to contain the Lebron's, Carmelo's, Pierce's guarding then one on one. Barring any serious injuries this will be Marvin's breakout year with the post season being the show case of his contributions to the rest of the world. Marvin gets bashed for being a team(role) player and pulling vanishing acts but on a team with this much talent, sacrifices have to be made.Marvin has definitely came out aggressive this year and you can see flashes of why he was drafted so early. Every year teams choose players that shouldn't be chosen over another player but with our team constructed as is this wrong pick might just be right after all. I think a lot of us forget to understand that Joe Johnson is a 6'7 shooting guard. Not too many shooting guards are that big, strong and crafty in the league. He's Lebron's size at shooting guard!! If I was an owner that might be a tough choice that I might have made as well. Joe Johnson contract aside has been a workaholic since he got on our team.It was a tough decision but you don't let an attribute this rare go for nothing. He has been our best player for most of our early years and still is a deadly force on this talented team. We don't need him to play like his contract would demand. We would be overjoyed if he did but we don't need him to be Kobe during the regular season for us with all the talent we have. Now in the playoffs we do need him to earn his money and be a closer. Practice makes perfect so I wouldn't mind him starting early though. Jeff Teague, well he's not Deron Williams not Chris Paul either but I'll take him. He's starting to look like one of the best finishers on the drive at his position. How long have we longed for a point guard that can dribble and penetrate. He's a pretty good defender as well and should battle for the steals leader eventually. Once he learns to set guys up better with his passes and stay in front of his man consistently he could be a nice phenom. He reminds me of Rondo when he took over the reigns for controlling the tempo for Boston's Big Three. That's the same year when Rondo and Rose had a sensational battle in the playoffs. Like Rondo, Teague has to eventually steer this ship and lead this team like great point guards do. So far so good seeing as this is his first real season. If we can put this all together consistently I can see us being contenders for a long time.

Praising Joe for a game where Josh and Teague also played outstanding and posted all across the board is an insult to Joe. If you personally talk to Joe I'm pretty sure he'd be more excited about the win then the stats he put up in that game.

To be fair your culprits Love and Griffin(at least before Paul) are arguably the best players on their team. Their stats don't contribute to many wins though. They are more of a complimentary player that would go well with another star. Joe had a good game but it's not like Donald Sloan posted those stats. We don't even get too excited when Teague post similar stats. Why would we hoorah over our highest paid player against the starless Bobcats. BJ Mullens had their game high. If he did it to win a decisive game or in the playoffs I understand. I do agree though their has to be a balance and if you can criticize then you can praise. I've done neither. As far as Josh not making the playoffs he was snuffed twice. The talent,stats and contribution was there but the potential to play smarter and control games like he's done of late (excluding the T Wolves game) might of cost him an allstar spot.

It's nothing about sidekick it's more about Josh not having respect for that team. Him and Kevin Love played/practiced with the USA team so it may be something more to that. I remember Josh either dunking on Love or blocking Love's dunk and Love down playing it by saying Josh does that to everybody. It's so many factors that come into play from game to game we won't ever no where people's heads and hearts are at when their on the court. Maybe Josh bet Love our bench could beat them or that the Hawks could beat them without him doing nothing. Pride and ego play a lot into sports and that looked like an ego move by Josh. I'm surprise Drew didn't bench him early in the 2nd quarter as Josh just slid to the side and tried to avoid almost every play.

You can easily do that. Trade yourself to another team. Every team has their frustrations. Lebron, Wade, Kobe everyone gets ridiculed for something. You have to learn to take the good with the bad or find out the hard way that the grass is not always greener on the other side. He decided to quit this game after the 1st for whatever reason but he still did a good job containing Love. Love still got his shots and rebounds but was not able to control the game. Smoove is/was the highest ranked player on our team this season when it comes to winning games. Trade him for who? Another headache in a different way? Why not just make it simple and trade yourself. This isn't to you personally but everybody that thinks this way about our most exciting and best(when he wants to be) player.

He stepped it up when it counted and made clutch free throws. Ivan also stepped up his intensity in the second half. Since we're giving props gotta show love to Willie Green,Rad, Teague and Joe for all there key contributions in the second half. Josh bailed out of the game after the first quarter. I guess he thought it was too easy. I watched him stay away from plays,rebounds and etc. in the second quarter. Marvin had a good showing. A little bit too far and pretty inaccurate in a lot of ways but I agree with your post for the most part.

I'm being very selective this year and only voting in players that deserve my vote for that day. Of course Hawks players come first and our J's "Josh, Joe and Jeff" got my vote today. Let's give them credit where credit is do and at least push their numbers up. This might encourage coaches to take a second look at our players when it's time for them to select.

I think I was one of the high scores!!

How do we expect the players to be tough and play through adversity and when the fans are soft? If we fold through adversity and don't expect our team to step up to the challenge how do we expect respect from anyone? Glad y'all aren't on the courts. This is what an NBA team was built for. A lot of teams will lose key players through out the course of this season. You got to suck it up and play ball. This is why they get payed the big bucks!!

I think he's a businessman. A smart one at that !!

Dan Gadzuric would probably be the best match as a free agent big for our team. Who do we let go if we are trying to pursue him. Or do we stand pat until some injuries blow over. We should be more of a running and active team reguardless since Horford is out. The most likely release candidates in no order are: Jerry Stackhouse is a strong locker room presence. It may seem like a small contribution (when thinking about on court) but it goes a long way on championship teams. Jannero Pargo is a decent back up point guard but who is better him or Donald Sloan? Donald Sloan is a nice young prospect but Pargo is a veteran and also a friend of Joe's. Sloan might lose a slight edge on a team that already has a pretty good vet that can be a debatable starter once he heals from his injury( Kirk Hinrich).

Let's go!! It's time to show where our heads and hearts are at. I've always liked Bj and I'm glad he's getting a shot. With that said I still hope the Hawks keep him and the rest of the Bobs in check.

Some of you all are sounding like quitters and I hope our team doesn't act/feel this way. Yeah we are even smaller now but that doesn't mean we can't make it work. We just have to run and hustle more. We know how to run and we still have good individual defenders. The Suns played good short ball for many years with no defense.

He played it before the Bobcats game. They had to go to overtime but they made sure they won it. They definitely closed some mouths after they beat the Bulls. Sorry I missed the Pacers game.