lethalweapon3

Not having to hear "Here's the presentation of the trophy to Mark Cuban!" was kind of a salve for the Miami fans who stuck around for the presentation. Cuban knew he'd be booed, so the Carter move was classy, but crafty too. ~lw3

I'm in wait-and-see mode with MJax, but I absolutely believe he's looking at Joe as a guard to pair with Curry. There's not much from that roster I'd want (Udoh? Wright?), so a bunch of picks would help stir the pot. One way or another, David Lee and Monta Ellis will be gone from that roster before whenever the next season starts for the W's. ~lw3

How great is it to have a player approaching his 30s (back in 2007), developing into a prolific shooter after starting virtually every game after his rookie year, and willing to accept the assignment to come off the bench and excel at it? So many players feel entitled to a starting spot, regardless of its benefits to the team, based on ego-tainted views of their past production. Terry fully embraced the bench role and is now rightfully lauded for it. Congratulations to him. ~lw3

Right on time for the remake of "The Invisible Man". ~lw3

http://www.nba.com/hawks/news/Marvin_PR_060811.html The press release from the Hawks came out first. The sportswriters (including TSN, and those not-so-local papers trolling TSN for news) just reported on the press release from Hawks' PR as they wished. No investigative reporting by the crack staff at the Biloxi newspaper. ~lw3

Well, he is the reigning NBA Shooting Stars champion. So that's a start. ~lw3

Smoove steps back and launches a 3333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333 ~lw33333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333

I don't want a mindset that we can plug-and-play with any low second rounders. I want to see young talent sent to Provo-Orem to develop their pro game... and to stay there until they do. ~lw3

As much as I'd love to see Rubio exiled on the bench for seasons on end, I hope to see Woody in our conference. Whichever Pistons vets remain after this year will love him, or anybody, after Qstr. ~lw3

Bump. Add Austin Peay and Mississippi State to the growing list of victors at the annual Atlanta Butt-Whoopin' Invitational. Another top-10 ranking, a co-division title, at least one other Top-15 first-round MLB draftee tonight, and another round-robin tourney in front of the home fans, once again all for naught. Despite my continued protests, Hall is probably still safe since preseason expectations were tepid. But until he's gone, no more NCAA regionals here, please! I don't care where they're ranked. Please Stop Playing This Movie! ~lw3

Fun first game! The cheap-seat side was pretty packed. It was good to see the arena filled with more people to see the Atlanta team than yahoos city-reppin' for the opponent. And we got another banner up there in them rafters. Without Angel, they pushed a highly underrated Liberty squad to the brink. New York got bailed out by a great shot following some good hustle and good fortune with just 3 seconds left. The Dream was giving up way too many offensive boards, didn't close out on open shooters, and didn't handle the Libs' pick 'n roll terribly well. That's pretty much what doomed them, even moreso in OT. I get worried Sancho may have Smoove Disease, she was way too far from the basket on too many occasions when it was clear the bigs needed more help on the boards (She could've had like 20 rebs yesterday). And do we really need all those 3-point shots, Sancho? Izi is Izi. Totally lost on defense, but that's nothing new. But when she gets the ball, everyone in the arena knows what she's gonna do. Harding struggled defensively with Nicole Powell and Leilani Mitchell but she'll improve... some wonderful passing was displayed by her and Shalee. Everyone was leaving free throws on the table, points that otherwise would have kept the game out of reach. Armintie Price looks eons better than last year. She'll be a great asset off the bench. A promising start despite the OT loss. Angel's presence will help mask a lot of this team's shortcomings once she returns. It will be interesting to see how all the teams cope once the EuroBasket player withdrawal kicks in in another week. Also keep an eye out for Collins Hill's Own, Maya Moore, she's looking great for Minnesota already. ~lw3

Only if Billy Knight was still here. I'd love to see him refuse to shake The Diesel's hand. ~lw3

My bad, I need to retract that whole WHIP mess though. I saw it as a batting stat somewhere which makes no sense (per IP?), plus the Braves are middle of the pack in combined hits+walks. A Murderer's Row full of low-contact bombers can indeed make even a record-low number of SBs worthless... IF they're actually bombing. Health issues are there, of course, but the Braves are simply middle-of-the-NL-pack in homers, slugging, and extra-base hits (including dead last in triples)... yet second in the NL in ground balls, and ground ball-to-fly ball ratio. So if they're not bombing, and they're not running, what are they doing? Is Woody managing this offense? ~lw3

As to the historical relevancy of stolen bases, the Braves are on pace for 31 stolen bases by season's end. Over the last 40 years, only two MLB teams (2005 A's with 31, 1983 Red Sox with 30) managed as few in a non-strike-shortened season. Actually, only ONE team in the strike-shortened season managed as few (the 1994 Mets with 25). Now thankfully, a paucity of stolen bases, by itself, doesn't mean you're doomed for losing baseball. Last year's bottom-dweller for this stat, the Giants (55), would happily tell us so. But "epically-low" in this category would indicate a team is not doing what's necessary around the basepads to be a playoff-quality team. It's true: you can't steal first base. But once you get there... ~lw3

Also, below the Braves in OBP at the moment: San Diego, Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Swap L.A. for Pittsburgh for batting average and you get the same list. And that's just the National League. That's not the bottom of the league. The Braves are indeed in the bottom HALF of the National League in those categories, but they are possibly at a record-breaking pace for the VERY bottom of MLB when it comes to SBs (and SB%, right now at 42%). Make those few paltry hits count for something when they stay in the yard. And they're actually in the top half of the NL for walks (8th in MLB)... why can't these convert to more runs? ~lw3

That's why I said WHIP (not the pitcher version, the batter version), which they are in last place at as well as SBs. Get on base... then stop standing there waiting for the longball! Make the pitcher do a little more than throw at the plate, and the catcher a little more than throwing it back to the pitcher. ~lw3

Marvin Williams could not be reached for comment. ~lw3

Woody > Weiss... for whatever that's worth. ~lw3

http://www.hawksquawk.net/community/index.php/topic/350296-jason-collins-expects-to-resign-with-hawks/page__st__45 July 2010 was not a good time for my laptop. This poor thing was nearly dropkicked. With the tastes of the Magic smackdowns, the rookie coach hire, the draft flameout, the Chillz punt, and the "A$G paid what?" all still sour on my palate, I was sitting there watching Boston court the great Shaquille O'Neal to shore up their needs upfront, Z deciding to take his aging talents to South Beach, and the Mavs wheeling and dealing for Tyson Chandler. As for the Hawks? Well, they were about to announce they've replaced Jason Collins with... Jason Collins! Ohhh, good for you! Way to address the need for a big man to hold up against Dwight and Gortat, guys! I went at the news on my computer screen like McEnroe went in on some poor umpire. You Cannot Be Serious! LD and Sund harped about Collins' improved conditioning, familiarity with this new coach's "system," and positive locker room presence to justify the re-signing. Yeah, whatever. When we get bounced in the first round, while Shaq and Perkins and the Celtics are throwing their weight around in the Eastern Finals, we'll be kicking ourselves... As the season progressed, though, many of us were pleasantly surprised to see how well bringing JaCo in to start games worked against bigger lineups, particularly allowing us to see how Horf fared at the 4 and Smoove at the 3. And the strategy paid off handsomely in the first round against D-Ho and his self-assured, second-round-bound Magic. Now a free agent again, he's a reasonably healthy 7-foot-body, won't demand or require major minutes to be productive, and is somehow not even 33 yet. Post-lockout, will he be worth the trouble of another vet minimum contract? Would signing him be a sign of stagnation? Are there vet minimum contract players you feel would be an appreciable upgrade? Wouldn't a major-minutes big still be needed besides Horf and Zaza, even if they re-signed JaCo? ~lw3

If there is any one thing more dreadful than the Bleacher Report, it is the Yahoo! Contributor Network. Are these 6th grade writing composition projects? Who is Lenny Wilkins, Nique and Dykstra's love child? Is there an editor in the house? ~lw3

Sad to see he's not coming baq. Happy trails, and good luq! ~lw3

My only fuss was his illusion with the quality of his playoff play. "I think I did a good job... I think I was solid defensively." For a guy near the top of the league in regular-season FG%, shooting 42% is not doing a good job. Letting the likes of Taj Gibson come off the bench and have their way with him on the other end of the floor was not solid defense, and not comforting for someone who wants to be handed the PF spot full time. To be fair, he tried to clean up his statements, saying he struggled at times offensively, and that there's always "room for improvement." I just wish he'd stop trying upfront to cover his $*** with sugar. Also on the bright side, he did pass the ball about as well as any big in the playoffs, so at least that's congruent with his stated desire to continue "buying in" to LD's ball-movement schemes. ~lw3

(Convo from yesterday) Me: “Safe to say ‘Don’ won’t come down for Hawks games?” Friend: “He said, ‘Not on your life.’” In the mid-90's, a friend of mine invited another friend (“Don”) to a WCW event at the Omni. Bearing a standard-issue nWo cutoff tee, Don met us after work near Five Points station and we trotted down Marietta Street to the show. The entire time, he was craning and swiveling his neck, pointing at stuff. “It’s really kinda neat around here,” he offered repeatedly. “Is that the Peachtree Plaza hotel? Man, that thing’s huge! And what is that over there?” “Centennial Olympic Park,” I responded, glancing out the side of my eye at my friend with a raised brow. “Wow! Nice!” “So… first time in Atlanta, huh?” “Yeah, it’s my first time in town! Rode MARTA for the first time, too!” “Cool! Welcome! So, where are you from?” “Doraville.” I was floored. Don, then comfortably into his 30s, grew up in Doraville and had last set foot downtown when his folks took him to ride The Pink Pig in the 70's as a child. He professed to never having a legitimate reason to come downtown (he claimed “inside the city limits,” not technically true, since our common friend grew up with him and lived in north Buckhead) on his own free will. The MARTA rail line to Doraville being relatively new (3-4 years, maybe?) was also a factor. It took the nWo -- and a free ticket -- to draw him out of his suburban confines. Which is why I found it strange to find Don, a couple years later, as a multi-seat season ticket holder for the expansion Atlanta Thrashers. Decked out in the Thrashers’ sweaters-du-jour, Don would go on to invite us to Thrasher games (usually the matchups against my Flyers and Penguins) over the course of the next decade. While he detested the NBA or anything about basketball, it turned out Don was a huge fan of the NHL (Mario Lemieux in particular). He claimed to be too young to have attached himself to the Flames, and the competition level for the Knights didn’t intrigue him at all. But he vowed long ago that once Atlanta got an NHL franchise, he would be committed for the long haul. Don routinely complained the Thrash should move north of I-285 (“There’s more hockey fans out there”), yet dutifully spent the lion’s share of his disposable income on hockey nights at Philips, cutting back to half-season plans after the year Hartley got fired and Waddell took over. Without fail, he also would high-tail it back to Doraville after the final horn, even on weekends. My friend and I would coax him occasionally to Hooters, The Varsity, or a sports bar in a veiled pre-game attempt to expand his intown experiences, but he made clear he doesn’t come into Atlanta for this stuff. We did get Don to a Sunday afternoon Hawks game on a lost wager, but he spent most of his time swilling beer at the food court and buying more Thrashers items at the fan store. “Just not my crowd,” he’d say. Now with no more NHL and, thankfully, no more Hall ‘n Nash, Don will be a hard sell to get back downtown for much of anything. In time, he’ll probably settle for becoming a Gladiators fan. Over the years, attending Thrashers games on my own volition as well as with Don and his associates, I got the sense there are many more “Dons” out there than fans of all-things-Atlanta-sports. Beyond maybe crossover between the Braves and Falcons, Atlanta’s local fan support gets pretty stovepiped among pro teams, and the instances of dual-fandom between the Thrashers and Hawks seem small in number. For every “Don,” I’ve got even more “Donnas” and “Dans” who couldn’t be dragged to a Thrashers game for free, but will jump at the chance to go check out the Hawks if they’re playing someone good. Even with the A$G fiasco, I can’t foresee a major bump in Hawks ticket sales from the hockey fans with newly disposable income, and I can’t foresee a major drop in ticket revenue from disaffected Thrashers fans boycotting everything A$G remains associated with. ~lw3

Peppered among the immediate reactions by now ex-Thrasher fans are vows to never support anything related to the members of the A$G, either individually or collectively. A couple 'squawkers have chimed in already in this regard. Unfortunately for the Hawks, this impacts their already paltry attendance at NBA games. But how much? I think most Hawks fans assumed that A$G's principal players were not in this investment for the Thrashers, at least not long-term. Also, I never got the feel that there was any strong overlap amongst us Thrasher fans and us Hawk fans. Does the Thrashers' abandonment, combined with the management's many NBA-related bungles, erode trust in A$G to a level that significantly drops ticket sales (i.e., far worse than it already is)? ~lw3

The complete lack of baserunning is what's holding this team back. 10 steals total, and we're going into June. The only MLB team caught stealing more often than stealing bases. After two months of baseball, the leading base stealer has 3... and is on the DL. Only one other player has 2. The Braves have gone back to the home-run-or-bust offense that we all know and love. We got a bunch of Charlie No Hustles. Lowest WHIP and fewest steals won't get it done on offense. Chipper is right in putting the onus on top-of-the order players like Schafer to quit digging the longball so much, urging them to get on base and make things happen once they get there. The middle of the order shouldn't have to knock balls out of the park just to get guys home. ~lw3