tremor

, True. You probably mean as long as he stays here (he might be gone after this season). Most likely but it doesn't have to be that way. This role doesn't suite him. Crawford second best? No way, he's a one dimensional player. I don't think that anyone would pick him over Horf or Smoove. Al is played out of position. As a center he doesn't provide enough offensive presence down low and is too short to defend top league bigs, but he's also having great season so far. BTW he also leads team in +/- stat (which tells a lot about our subs at C), Mike is second and Josh third. For me - Josh wins.

Get your facts right first. Josh is rebounding 10.1 rebs per 48mins, Joe - 7.6. Smoove's figure is quite low for PF and JJ's at least decent for SG (but not very impressive considering his size and strength). Remember however that Josh gets his blocks mostly from help defense. Most defensive rebounds for big guys come from taking position inside and outboxing opponent's bigs. It is resonable to demand from other player to fill this gap. Joe has inclination to leave his man open to shoot 3 and try to help inside which is bad idea because he's neither shot blocker nor good stealer. This is one of the reasons why our perimeter defense sucks. Now, offensive rebounding is a different story. JSmoove avarages 3.1 per 48mins while JJ - 0.8. It's not very impressive but not so bad for PF and nothing to whine about in case of shooting guard either.

+1 and I'm not even fan of Bryant. Elite players take over the game when it matters the most, commend double team and when it happens - they use it as and advantage making plays for their teammates. JJ plays best in first quarter. It might be because of fatigue, why is he demanding more minutes then? He has tools to score 25 (maybe more) ppg as he used to, but he to do so he needs to pick up his 3 pt shooting and carry the team late in the game or when other guys struggle. He needs also to learn to pass quickly to open man when doubled. Don't get me wrong - I want him to be elite because it would make Hawks contender. Stop whining Joe, just improve your game and good things will come.

JSmoove so far is making his case for the best current Hawk. Without him Hawks are 0.500 team. He's unselfish, versatile, mentally tough and game changer. His block on Anderson killed Nugget's momentum. He did it many times before by blocking shots, stealing the ball and/or going strong at the rim. I know Josh Smith is not perfect (he was hearing for three years that lack of 3 point shooting is what keeps him away from being all star caliber player in this league, so now he needs another three to realize that it's not his way to greatness) but nobody is.

Zaza's defense is overrated in that sense that some think that it's better than atrocious.

It's not about whom to start, but whom to play the most. There's a lot of factors: defensive match ups, disposition on given day, health, fatigue, foul trouble, players potential and so on. I believe Marvin will pick up his offensive game, he's a proven 14/7 guy. If it doesn't happen after 20-25 games then it's time to make adjustment (limit his minutes or start Evans). Not only Ginobilli, but other offensively minded and defensively not liable players (often former or potential starters) are played like that - Terry, Ben Gordon, Marquis Daniels, Nate Robinson, Anthony Morrow, J.R. Smith (in the past Barbosa). One can make case that Crawford is better than any of those players, but Johnson and Crawford don't click together on the court, they shouldn't be played along each other in long stretches because both require ball in their hands to be effective. Jamal as sixth man seems to be the most reasonable solution. And I think it's working. Limiting Bibby's role should be gradual process. He's been great for Hawks and is viable part of frenchise progress.

And he played really well hitting jumpshosts and being aggressive. No sign of any health problems.

Lol @ Fish. Teague started to accelerate about 8fts away from him and he could only try to grab him and even was too late to do this.

Wizards were picked by many to qualify to play offs (some "experts" have them even above Hawks). They won first away game against Dallas. They have big, athletic and deep frontcourt and volume scorer in Arenas. They won't be whipping boys as long as Hibachi is healthy. It's just Hawks defense made them look not that good. And Wizards won second half playing without Butler.

He's my best SG on Fantasy Yahoo :(. Hope he'll get healthy quickly.

Of contender teams I think Orlando is the worst fit for us. There's simply too much factors for Hawks to click to win against Magic: JJ has play his best to counter "Vince effect", Collison needs to be healthy to slow down Dwight and perimeter defense has to be good (Hawks usually struggle against good 3 point shooting teams), Al and Josh needs to bring their best rebounding etc. So I say 1-3, 2-2 being the second probable outcome.

Hawks are bashed to much for the style of the win. Game was in control starting early in second quarter, they simply didn't have to do more to win. Plus JJ couldn't find his stroke.

I'm not worried about our frontcourt - without Gasol we're overall better than Lakers . But if Joe continues to struggle I'm seriously hoping Woodson will limit his minutes, Bibby will take more threes and we'll see more Crawford.

Smith showing his potential in longer stretches than he used to = great season for Hawks. JJ stil struggling with his shot. Marv invisible, forcing things at times, which might cost him injury. Horf had to play longer to secure boards but other starters played around 30mins as Woody promised.

Bench match ups: Zaza vs Gortat JoeS/Hunter vs Bass/Anderson Evans vs Barnes Crawford vs Redick Teague vs Williams. On paper only Crawford is better but I have high hopes about Jet-T, Evans is quite underrated, Joe still can do his thing and Zaza's hustler. Biggest issue with our second unit is defense. Who's going to protect the paint?

It'll be really hard to improve over last season but when everybody stays healthy even ECFs are possible. Very exciting season with the highest expectations since over a decade.

Big, experienced bust.

My vote goes to Josh. No one expects any improvement from him this year. But I hope he'll grow up and show significant improvement not only over his last season.

Iverson is seriously undersized SG. He needs to score a lot to overcome his deficiencies. He still can do a lot but everyone is focused on his problems.

Garcia, Villanueva and Horford? That's pretty nice lineup. They will level up in international basketball.

Interesting stats from Crawford's last season: FG% 3P% wins 44% 41% losses 39% 33% [/code] JJ's numbers for comparison: [code] FG% 3P% wins 45% 38% losses 42% 34% Crawford is very streaky shooter, will frustrate us many times during upcoming season. Both shoot much better when they're rested, esp. JJ 3 Pt shooting differs dramatically: 31% when playing day after day vs 44% with 3+ days rest! So there's hoping they can help each other in that regard (you hear me Woody!).

His shot looks so nice but he shoots with such low FG% (he's often critisized for bad shot selection). I bet we'll see a lot JC-iso when JJ is on the bench. Teague - Crawford - Evans - Hunter(?) - Pachulia will be entertaining second face of the Atlanta with no D up tempo game. And JJ >>> JC because of defense, consistency and leadership.

I agree with you both. Remember also that Nelson was having All-Star season before injury. Boston's vulnerability is health. With healthy Garnett they're contenders. Without him Hawks have a shot in playoffs thanks to good matchups but in RS we're still behind. Cleveland's problem might be team chemistry after PO exit. But they won 66 games last season and they got better in off season. Repeating last season success will be really hard.

46 wins, 5th spot, 1st round exit. Already better teams got even stronger which means they're out of reach and Bulls, Raptors, or Heat will take away 4th place in the East. I'm afraid Crawford as a 6th man won't work. Teague is an upgrade though, hopefully he'll see some minutes..