RedDawg#8

Yeah and also I think it was either the end of the 1st or 3rd quarter and it was under 2 minutes left and there was a stopage of play and he put Joe back in the game, it may seem like nit-picking but minutes add up over time, its the difference of him playing 39 mins tonite when it coulda been 36 and sum change. I know that the game was close but joe doesnt need to be in the game to finish 1st and 3rd quarters, just 2nd and 4th's (only in a close game). When he pulled Bibby and Horford, I was curious why he couldnt just take Joe out too, it almost makes me think he wanted JJ to take that 3 to pad his stats a little (to make the all-star game of course)

I think we have the ability to drive....but what about being able to establish a post presence. We will be able to go to the post and expect to come away with points, or will we simply pass back out to an open 3-point shooter even if we are ice-cold. In the past we have done just that, not jus against ORL. Can we feed Al and Josh and Zaza the ball down low and EXPECT to score?

Do we have the ability and presence of mind to drive, bang and score inside when our shots arent falling? When we have a lead we seem to score anyway we want but when we get down and are FORCED to score inside because our shots arent falling, will we be able to do it, or will we simply keep shooting until something hits? The best teams work inside out, we seem to work the opposite way, most of our "inside" points come on fast breaks or put backs, but not from designed plays. Our post game doesnt seem very effective.... but will this hold us back or not? can it be improved THIS Season as our roster currently stands?

sad but true, and it rubs off on the other players, outside of Zaza and sometimes Horf, we arent very scrappy as a whole. We lack desire, hunger, emotion and drive. Its like the more we improve, the less our players have the will to do the little things, we have become full of ourselves and forget that if we dont push for every minute in the game we arent any better than any other team in the league. Potential is one thing we have tons of, but it takes effort and commitment to capitolize on it.... thats were you look at a Coach or Captain to point the finger, somebody has to be a leader and bring it out of the team. In my eyes, Joe= Carmelo, an all-star, super talented, but not a superstar or true team leader. We need the equivalent of a Chauncey Billups to impact this roster and make this talent play together to their true potential.

Thought Id bump just for the sake of hopefully adding more positivity around here, despite everybody's recent frustrations we still have this to look forward to, plus the paint the town event looks like it will really be a blast, check out the video from the hawks homepage. I wonder what color they will be, probably red but Im prepared to be surprised.

It bothers me that Woodson doesnt hold Joe more accountable. Joe isnt "elite" but because for so long, he was the best player on the roster, he gets a pass on night when his presence isnt even felt on the court. Woody has to get on him the same way he would Smith, Williams and Horford if they werent doing their job. Joe's job is to score and lift the players around him. Now if you feel he cant do this consistently, then find a new role for him, let him just be another peg in the offense and not the center of it, but if you want to have him do this and be your teams leader, HOLD HIM ACCOUNTABLE for this. Kobe Bryant is diving for loose balls against the Nuggets and playing with intensity. He isnt too good to play hard in the pre-season so neither is Joe. Champions make their presence felt whenever they are in competition, they dont allow themselves to get outworked by anybody on the court with them. If you get beat, its because they were better, not because they wanted it more or outworked you.

I really underestimated Ryan Anderson (or Kevin Anderson accourding to the game announcer). He looks like he can be their next Turkaglu over time, maybe not as a ball handler, but dude can shoot and score in the post, plus he's tall....and white, (lol j/k.) Seriously, how painful was it to see this cat killing us and we couldnt get any of our starters to slow him down. What I do not like about our team is that there is such a sense of entitlement with the starters, but they tend to come out flat alot of nights. And when this happens Woody is slow to replace them. This year, our bench is deep and talented and in a game like this where Joe was flat, and Bibby was getting abused, why did it take for us to be down big before they got replaced. Woody has to pull the trigger sooner this year, if Bib and Joe aint cuttin it, either give Marv and Horf the ball or take them out the game and put Teague and Craw in. Even tonite with Teague shooting poorly, at least he could get into the paint, Bibby wont do that.

im only hoping he played Joe that much because he hasnt touched 30 mins all-preseason and wants him to feel where he is at conditioning wise. If we handle our business early in games, Joe shouldnt avg more than 34 mpg all year, esp with Craw, Mo and Teague contributing.

I guess you're right...but I think we might need to put that line-up back on the shelves for a while.

OMG, the small lineup is getting crushed. they almost handed the game to the Heats 2nd unit. why did Woody leave them in so long, forget that Miami was playing small position wise, they still had 3 guys 6'8 or taller on the court. C-Smoove vs. Magloire (6-11) C PF-Joe vs Wright (6-9) G-F [according to nba.com] SF-Evans vs Jones (6-8) SF SG-Crawford vs Cook (6-5) SG PG-Bibby vs Arroyo (6-2) PG The fact that it wasnt working since we lost the lead, im really confused why he stuck with it. AL wasnt in foul trouble, I hope nothing happened to him injury wise, Joe Smith had 4 fouls and coulda played. I hope this wasnt a pre-view of his "offensive" or "shooting" line-up, cuz they definately didnt fit the bill tonite.

looks like they decided to become male models this season, probably figured they had a better shot of being succesful doing something other than basketball lol j/k James Jones Chris Quinn is the funniest lol D-Wade Dorell Wright Beasley Jermaine O'Neal Magloire there are many others,jus see for yourself lol edit: Gotta add Arroyo

we are 50% from FT and up a not so safe 12 pts on the road. I know its jus the preason but if Smith hit jus 7-10 we would be up big heading into the fourth, and shooting 75% as a team from ft. im nit-picking tho, but a team with our potential has to focus on improving all the little things to make it far this year.

Man,.......im speechless. As all rec-coaches would say "Make the d--- free throws son, they're FREE!!!" this is gonna be another long year for him at the stripe....its very dissapointing and frustrating that he hasnt improved the most glaring weakness in his game a year ago :brick wall: :

When we first got Crawford I wasnt as happy because I thought it meant we wouldnt be drafting a pg in a pg rich draft. Then when we drafted Teague, I felt ok but figured it meant the end to Bibby in ATL. THEN when we resigned Bibby I felt really great about the entire situation as it now meant we were VERY deep in the backcourt, and probably have the most talented guard unit in the league. I must admit, it takes patience when dealing with Sund, but so far he is working out. Crawford is in a good situation with the Hawks, and the Hawks are in a good situation with him. Works well for both parties, and that only increases the chances of sustained on-court success this season.

So far it seems as if hes has been doing that. he has shot poorly but has kept his teamates involved. If his 2 outing are examples of what the fans of his former teams meant by him going awfully cold most nights then I can live with it. we all keep saying that if his shot isnt falling he needs to defer and he has been doing just that. Hate to be an opponent when he has a hot night.

He has better individual talent than Ginobali, but he has never been on playoff team where his skills were of actual importance other than stat stuffing. I think ppl are goinged to be shocked by us this year, to the point that by the end of the season, they will ask themselves "what were we thinking before the season started by sleeping on Atlanta, how did we miss all that talent?" lol

That was pretty bad, I never read so many compliments that were immediately taken back right after. "So and so is good this and can do that, but not likely or not enough." By the sounds of it, we are the worst good team in the NBA. It as if he is afraid to fully commit to us being a legit contender, as if our team has more liabilities than the Senior Citizen Celts, The new and UNproved Orlando Magic, or the H1N1 Scitzo-gaurd Cavalebrons. What really let me know that this guy was reaching to make us appear worse than we are was when he posted the excerpts to the different blogs and what they said about us, and when I clicked the [more] link on the one from DIME, that entire section was from the part of their article on us that said BASEMENT, they had an entire article saying some pretty good things about us and he chose the section that described our worst potential outlook, not how they realistically expect us to finish. Some ppl gotta let go of the Early 2000's Hawks and realize it is safe to cheer for this team again, we are in better shape than alot of franchises and we are still on the up-slope. theres no way a team whose core of players are in their mid 20's has peaked, we havent even seen their prime yet.

The entire "2nd unit" is playing together now, Collins in instead of Zaza though. I dont know why but im really excited that they finally get a chance to play together against an opponent. Im listening over the radio and everything sounds pretty good so far. GO HAWKS!!!!!

Crawford also plays for the first time since game 1 of the preseason. Its good to see these guys getting some action

Marvin was a set up pick in my mind. It was like the entire world kept saying he was too good to pass up that even we as fans believed it and didnt want to "take a chance" the undersized Paul. I honestly dont remember what made him so much better than everybody else at the time. I think cuz he could do a little bit of everything. As far as Chillz, I really didnt want to draft him because I didnt like his afro, thats all I had against him tho. Shelden was the MOST painful of all of those misses because I think he was the only one that everybody could agree before hand wasnt worth the pick that high. It hurt so much knowing we were going to select him, praying when our pick came up that a miracle would happen, then we still picked him. I was so mad at our franchise for that one. He truly was overkill on another 6'9 forward. Acie didnt bother me as much because it was a weak point gaurd draft. I woulda been happy with him or Crittenton at 11 because of Critts size and being from Tech, and Acie's supposed "sharpshooting". The jury is still out on Critt and Conley but Acie's days may be numbered in the NBA.

here it goes: bibby = nelson, teague vs. johnson (u decide) johnson = vince, crawford >> pietrus Marv < Lewis, Evans = Barnes Smith > Bass, Joe S > Anderson Horford < Howard, Pachulia = Gortat i think Teague would embraress johnson but i may be being biased. overall i think we are even with Orl, they're respect is based off of last seasons team which is a totally different look than this one. if Carter doesnt pan out then this offseason was a bust for them. and by pan out i mean stay healthy. we were 12 games back last year, they have to at least match their win total and im sure we can make up 8 or so games on the road. i like our chances of catching them.

Im not sure how acurate the depth charts are on ESPN.com but as far Orlando stands: pg: Nelson, Johnson sg: Carter, Pietrus sf: Lewis, Barnes pf: Bass, Anderson C: Howard, Gortat I originally thought Bass would come off the bench behind Lewis, with this starting unit they arent as deadly from deep as they were last year, plus taking Lewis even further away from the basket helps us out rebounding wise. Nelson is overated, the East had no true all-stars at pg but a bunch of fringe all-stars. I dont fear his game or him being an "all-star". Gortat is also overated, as skilled as he is, the Magic do not use him alot because Howard will stay on the floor so much. He has a decent game but his contributions are minimal. Their bech doesnt blow me away, esp with Bass starting. Joe Smith > Anderson

What if we end up keeping 2 gaurds and not adding to our bigs? Our roster contains several froncourt players but not as many backcourt players. the frountcourt is: Marv, Smoove, Horf, Zaza, Joe S., Collins, RandMo (thats 7) Joe, Evans will also see time at SF so thats 2 more potentials = 7 true with a possible 9 The backcourt however is only: Bibby, Joe, Teague, Crawford, Evans = 5 (and only 5) If we end up keeping both Dixon AND West, that will give us 2 more definate guards, and another possible SF which would bring us to: 7 true fowards (10 possible's) and 7 true guards Im very interested to see which route we go, as long as the last spots go to either combination of Dixon, West, and Hunter, ill be happy.

Thats real, and something I think all people who are still looking at the Marvin over Paul mistake as something thats holding us back. As great as Paul is, Marvin may very well get a ring before him, and be a significant reason why, not just some bench-rider who doesnt play. The team has let it go, its time for the media and some fans to as well.

Prince has been in the league alot longer on one of the best defensive teams of our recent history that by the way happened to win a championship. Anybody with a ring usually gets more notoriety for doing the same things as a player without one. Case in point, the superlatives on NBA.com for different categories voted on by coaches, there wasnt a single Hawk to make the top vote getters, NOT ONE, but i can think of several categories where one of our players were worth mentioning. As our team continues to get better and better, you can expect our players to recieve such honors that they currently dont get recognized for.