AScentCalledZaza

Watching Smith with the ball in his hand on the perimeter kinda reminds me of looking at somebody's dog with a muzzle around it's mouth. You see Smith hesitate for just a second, and you can tell he wants to throw it up sooooo bad. But just like with the dog, the muzzle is there for a reason, and as soon as you remove it, somebody is liable to get bitten. Still though, I can't help but feel a weird measure of sympathy for him, lol.

Sure, you can post it. I didn't mention Acie Law in this, anything concerning Roe V. Wade is bound to divide.

Joe Johnson(Dad) Strong but silent, can appear cold and distant. Has carried the weight of the family on his shoulders for years and it shows. Deep down he loves his family but might decide to run out on us. Still, can't deny that he is our provider, steadily bringing home the bacon for years. Mike Bibby(Step-mother) Not quite as beautiful as in her youth. Embraced us with open arms after our biological (Speedy) was never there for us. She's got a lot of faults but is a good one, who stood up for us when we were being mugged during a trip to Bean-town a couple of years ago. When we tend to get arrogant and think we can do better without her around, we are usually reminded how quickly we can lose ourselves when our "security-blanket" isn't there to keep us calm and confident. Josh Smith(twin-brother) Born first. Been here from the beginning, grew up through hard times. Disgusting amount of potential that has been flashed for years. However, he is a hot-head who has made some stupid mistakes over the years, gives everybody head-aches, but only because we know how great he would be if his head caught up to his body. Has recently showed a steady amount of maturation, and is quickly growing into a man we can all be proud of. Marvin Williams (twin-brother) Second-born. Seems to have a bit of middle child syndrome, with confidence issues that need to be confronted for him to grow. Is almost certainly a secret genius, who is capable of moments of brilliance, and has demonstrated so in the past. Ironically, seems to thrive when dad isn't around, might be able to help shoulder the family's burden should dad abandon us. Al Horford (little brother) Youngest son but never acted like it. Came out with a bang, took on an almost father-like role very early on, a very bold kid. Makes sure the homework gets done and the chores get finished, we feel more comfortable confiding in him than we do from our dad. Could never truly replace his father, but does an admirable job making sure we don't miss a fatherly influence when dad's not feeling up to it. Jamaal Crawford (uncle) Dad's brother. Didn't know he was our relative until he showed up here. A bit of a drifter, came in from a stint on the West Coast. Now that he' s here, it's hard to imagine him anywhere else. A cooler version of dad, who lets us ride on his motorcycle and can do lots of cool stuff. Still, if he had to be our provider, we'd be in big trouble. Zaza Pachulia (adopted son) Adopted from Georgia, lives in Georgia. Fiercely loyal, an emotional reservoir for the family who continues to surprise. A classic over-achiever who is unintelligible yet irreplaceable. Jeff Teague (baby girl) Very precocious youngster who already shows signs of being a beauty, like her mother in her youth. Still, being so young, has be watched very closely to not get herself into trouble, as she doesn't yet know her own limits. Mike Woodson (Family Station-Wagon ?) Not the newest or most impressive car on the road, but it's OUR car. Been wanting to upgrade for years, but over time has proved it's worth by steadily getting us where we want to go. Holds a deep amount of sentimental value, has been here through some tough times. Even now though, when things go wrong, is one of the first things we want to get rid of.

Note: If you are absolutely opposed to running the offense through somebody other than Joe and aren't open to trading him, this scenario isn't for you. Actually, I'm still not completely sure how I feel about him, so this scenario might not be for me. Hawks let Mike Bibby go after the season, re-sign Flip, and Marvin Williams. Hawks sign Ben Gordon to play point guard. Next year, Hawks trade Joe Johnson and future picks for Derrick Rose, move Ben Gordon to SG and Derrick to PG. Personally I like the part about getting Ben Gordon, and think it's possible, but I LOVE the idea of getting Derrick Rose, although honestly it is unlikely. I don't really have a problem with Joe, but would like to see us use SG as a flex position, something you can't do with Joe Johnson, his huge contract, and his All-Star talent/ego. I still feel like I don't truly trust him until the game is absolutely on the line, and even then he can be a little to night to night as an offensive weapon. And as a de facto leader, I think his strong and silent act isn't fiery enough to help out this young team. I like alot of the things Bibby does in this regard, but he is old lol. This of course is only if you take the positive signs of guys like Marvin, Josh and Al absolutely dominating games at times, and feel we could do well as a team that runs it's offense through Marvin. If we can't use Joe to bail us out (and he tends to only want to at the end of games) it forces us to develop our raw youngsters, and with Ben Gordon being so adept at being a 6th man, I think he would be better accepting of sharing his spot with Mario West. In case you don't get my Mario West idea, it's in the thread labeled "please prepare to flame me" The gist of it is we have to many scorers out of our starters, which is bad for us developing an identity, as well as giving guys enough scoring opportunities to improve their game. The addition by subtraction would be that Mario plays as a starter, with his role being defense and passing the ball, with the offense running through Marvin. Once Marvin and Josh get the feel of the game early, we can sub in our scoring SG Joe Johnson (or in this case Ben Gordon) and force the other team's defense to account for the change in dynamic of our offense. Once again I'm not sure how receptive Joe would be to this, which is why I am in favor of Ben Gordon (I hope we can afford him once Bibby is gone) What do you think? I'm still trying to decide where Acie Law fits into this, as I haven't given up on him yet, but we may be looking to replace him in the draft this year, which I feel is a tad premature.

Joe would be coming off the bench, but it would still be him getting starter minutes. The goal would be for us to get our young, less experienced guys into to game early, as they would be forced to drive the offense without Joe there as a security blanket. A defensive, non-scoring SG West increases the offensive duties of every other player, and could be helpful to disorient the opposing team once our extremely capable multi-range SG Johnson comes in, and it also reduces the pressure placed upon him, as he seems to too often disappear early in the game, as though he is just accepting his fate of being double teamed until he knows he absolutely must produce in order for us to win.

I am not a basketball expert, as many of you are, but I am a Hawks fan, and have been since I first went to a game at a young age. So keep this in mind as you read this. It's kinda long, but I hope you will read it an open mind. I think we have some issues on this team, and while many are a function of coaching, even more are a function of our over-abundance of talent. I personally think the Hawks have the most talent of any team this side of the Lakers. The problem is it is young talent, and is therefore very raw. I have seen games where our three young guys, Al, Marvin and Josh have absolutely torn it up. At the same time, it rarely is a consistent thing. It certainly helps to have coaching that helps you improve as a player off the court, but I think ultimately the only way to develop a player is to give them the ball. We have too many people to give the ball to. On the other hand, we run our offense through Joe Johnson, and while he is a great player, we far too often live or die on him being able to score on double teams. I realize it is his M.O. but I think he is too quiet to be the true leader of this team, which needs one badly (for the long-term). What I would do 1. Either get an assistant who specifically designs offensive plays for us, or get rid of Woodson and pick up Avery Johnson. I say this with less enthusiasm than many people on this board, because he stuck around while we were garbage, and certainly has improved the record every single year he has been coach. However, I am really disturbed by what seems to be a lack of respect some of our players seem to have for him, which is terrible for team chemistry. Also, I think he is possibly retarding the growth of some of our younger guys, and aside from Flip, has seemed very conservative in his use of the bench (before Marvin went down). I think Avery Johnson could bring some needed discipline to our team, and could possibly help Acie Law learn the position at PG, with help from Flip and Bibby (if we keep him) 2. Use this starting line-up SG- Mario West PG- Mike Bibby (with the goal of phasing-in Acie Law) SF- Marvin Williams PF- Josh Smith C- Al Horford I know alot of people are like WTF about the SG part. Personally, I think we should start Mario West for a specific reason. I want us to run our offense through Marvin Williams. I really think this young cat has the tools to be a very versatile weapon for us, as he seems keep improving in all aspects of his game, and is very impressive when he shows aggression. Not having Joe in establishes Marvin as the primary shot tacker, a role I think he could soon thrive in. Also, putting Mario in gives us an aggressive defensive presence, and opens up the offense for our other guys to take more shots. Basically addition by subtraction, as we have seen when one of our forewards goes down. Here is where it gets tricky. Mario starts, but gets fewer minutes than Joe. In fact, Joe gets near starter minutes. Mario is used more as decoy who adds a few free fouls, and due to not being much of a scoring threat, routes the defensive pressure away from the SG spot early in the game. I think this could be a very helpful thing for Joe mentally, who sometimes seems to buckle under the pressure of being the primary scoring option every quarter, and seems to me like he would be best served as being second man in a tandem, rather than carrying the team alone, and us running ISO after ISO. To me, Joe seems to usually heat it up later on in the game, when he goes in attack mode. Our goal would be to become a team that plays an offense based on match-ups. Depending on who we play, we would increase the scoring duties of Horford and Josh Smith, and eventually Acie Law. I think he is a good passer right now, which is pretty basic positive attribute for a PG, and as we develop him, we would bring him along as a more aggressive (and accurate) playmaker, in the vein of a Rondo or Devin Harris. Ideally, we would know before hand, having scouted the opposing team, what position they are weak against, and essentially "activate" person, telling them they are needed to step up, knowing that as soon as they try to send help shut them down we massacre them with Joe. I know this is a game of streakiness, and if we have a player or two that is in a funk offensively, we have enough talent to "deactivate" them for a while, and put the ball in somebody else's hands. Of course this largely hinges on whether Joe would feel comfortable essentially being a starter, who doesn't play the opening minutes. I actually think I prefer this to Marvin coming off the bench, because I am growing to like the match-ups we get with Horford at C, and am not ready to trust Josh's potential jumpshots at small foreward. Also, I think this works out better because Joe being pretty much fully developed at his style of play, opens up the offense for both Marvin and Josh to get into a rhythm early, while Marvin coming off the bench might need to get warmed up a bit more, and depending on what we are doing at the moment, could potentially deprive us of Josh's defense. I love that Joe is a classic Mr. Everything, a guy who has range enough to do it all, and i really want for Marvin to be put into a position where he can develop into the same sort of player, especially with how well he was shooting threes for a certain time earlier in the season. For Josh, I would hope Avery would take a special interest in him and work on rebuilding his jump shot from scratch, and give specific times to show-off his freakish natural ability. For Acie, I'd hope Avery would straight up develop him into a solid PG with range, as I don't think with the talent we have he'd need to a superhero like Chris Paul, but would greatly contribute as a solid 3 pt. shooter. For Horford, work on his fluidity and being more consistently aggressive in the low post. Mario as a starter should just be good enough to be counted on to sink them when he's wide open, and he won't be looked at much offensively in our scheme. And of course everybody work on free throws (we are weird that way) Oh and Bibby walks with our utmost thanks, so we can afford to re-sign Marvin and Flip. For those of you who lasted this long, my thanks. What do you think? I am open to constructive criticism, as, like I have said before, I likely don't know as much about basketball as you.

I don't know about Marvin not being able to "get going" off the bench. I think if he came off the bench and understood he was the unquestioned first or second scoring option, he would be aggressive like we have seen in some of his games this year.

Hopefully this close loss took away the anxiety of playing in Cleveland. I remember last year we just seemed to lose our nerve in Boston, hopefully we have grown enough as a team to stop looking so scared when we play playoff basketball on the road.