Crank

He gets 25 minutes a game yet is second on their team in shot attempts despite shooting absolutely terribly. And to say he passed up shots because they weren't in his spots? Wtf?! Did you not watch Jamal the two years he was here??? Name a spot on the floor where he wouldn't take a shot from repeatedly?

It's not a matter of structure because watching their games he's the one guy who is given leeway to play his game unless, like last night, he decides he doesn't want to play his game. Seems more like a case of people reading too deeply into a tweet, him just not being that good and playing on a team with less talent to hide behind.

Dude Jamals been playing POINT GUARD for them and Felton has been good god awful . It seems jamal trying to be the team guy and do whats asked has been trying to play the point for them but the problem is that for a while it seems none of there guards were making shots so besides LA there was no one to actually step up and take those shots and allow Crawford to just focus on playing the point until Felton got going .

Jamal shooting started slow but it has picked up in the month of February and he has been playing well the problem it seems from chatting with a few Blazers f ans that Nate Mcmillan gives the other guards Wes Mathews and Felton there 30+ mpg no matter what where as Crawford even when he was playing well and they were not struggled to get more than 26 .

Jamal when he was here played 31 minutes you could pretty much set your clock by it and when all of our guards had it going we found ways to get them all on the court However the Blazers guards just are not as good as Joe and Kirk because they simply cannot play the drive and kick game .

You cant really say the Jamal we know is given the same leeway when hes FORCED due to Feltons incompetence to play PG the majority of the time hes in . We actually seemed to find the right mix of PG/SG usage for jamal the Blazers not so much it seems . I think Nate Mcmillan has trouble adjusting .

The scary thing from just checking espn is that if jamal was actually given the same 31 mpg he was given here he would be putting up top 5 sg numbers this year lol . Gotta love that lockout lol

Tmac is probably thinking since Marvin aint doing anything why cant I get a closer look in some of these games . I dont know what type of kryptonite Marvin has on these coaches lol

We need another shooting guard to run with Teague

hes not done hes just........paid.

Typical LD when asked about Ivan "That's what Ivan does, he's tough and does the dirty work. He was terrific in camp and the pre season."

THEN WHY DONT YOU PLAY HIM? Oh yeah, you're Larry Drew.

not much he can say when he knows weve invested a gazillion dollars into our starting frontcourt so theyve gotta play

All Ivan has shown is just how entitled Al,Joe,Smoove,and Marvin really are.

When there is no threat on your minutes and no threat on your status this is the type of effort that you end up with.

Good thing I dont bother listening to Hollinger on any topic ever or I might be worried

Now that Denver has the newly re-minted Nene AND Chris Andersen AND Timofey Mozgov AND Kosta Koufos... any way to get a deal going to spring free either Birdman or Koufos? Can the expiring TPE (Chillz') be used to make something work?

~lw3

Sund has already stated he cant go over the luxury tax and we are right up to the limit with the additions of Tmac,Stack,and Radmon

Cmon now he didnt regress and he as in a no win situation with some of you anyway

He took fewer shots and became more of a facilitator because the new coach asked him too as well as Joe and they both shot the ball poorly .If he decides to ignore that and focus on on keeping his numbers up youd be claiming how selfish he was .

Jamal has nothing to do with Teague minutes thats the whiny parents excuse some of you love to use for Teague .

I think its obvious that Crawford wants a deal this year. If he goes for the opt out and his game is on the decline ( he will be 32 in March ) that 5 million opt in clause may look pretty good next season.

Crawford can still score but the question is for how much longer will his legs allow him to run up and down a court for 30 plus minutes a game? I think a contender should try and lock him up for two years. But he wants more than what most real contenders have. Pacers are decent but they will not get past the 2nd round if that. Why would they invest 6 to 8 million in him for a 1st round exit?

NY, Miami, LA, etc are the type of teams that he may put over the top. But at his age by the time the Pacers are ready for that type of run, Crawford will be 33 or 34 years old.

If his game was on the decline ? cmon thats reach considering the other players whose recently signed bigger contracts at a older age than him .

If he goes to the knicks and plays well he could get a 3 yr 18 million dollar deal even next year . The key here would be signing with the pacers means you are not a lock to make the playoffs while signing with the knicks does and the knicks have more national tv games .

If he helps the knicks out of the first rd he will get his deal he wont break the bank but a 2/3 year deal would be there for him

The market has spoken on two points: (1) big men are getting overpaid this winter and (2) no one wants to pay Crawford 6-7 million.

Thats not really true the teams that want to pay him that much can only do it via S & T and we are not willing to do it it means going anywhere near crossing the luxury tax threshold . Heck if our cap was 7 million lower we probably wouldve resigned him .

If I am Jamal I would take the pacers offer, since this seems like the most teams will pay him currently and he can become a free agent again with the opt out clause.

I wouldnt Id take the knicks offer simply because the Pacers are lowballing him when they can afford to pay me more . No way Kwame Brown should get more than him and the market says he is worth about 6-7 million .If the pacers were serious about it they wouldve offered him that .

When you consider the pacers play no national tv games at all and even with jamal are a bottom 5/6 seed . I would take the knicks offer play on national tv all year make it a point to bust the Bulls,Pacers,and hawks butts and make NY a top 3 seed.

At this stage if should be all about the wins the money will bounce your way if you do that .

The NBA shot down Scola ( almost equal to Smoove production wise), Kevin Martin ( night and day above Teague production wise ), Lamar Odom, and a 1st round pick. Where do you see Teague and Josh as being something Stern would approve? You need to laugh at this one man, not take it serious.

Odom is 32 Scola 31 and martin is 28 with a history of missed games due to injuries ...what teams could possibly be built from that ?

Josh is 26 and Teague is 23 at least you can say they can be apart of at he future of the franchise . If you add a couple of picks it would be a good deal . If we could add one more young player to that it would be a great deal .

I can't believe the Pacers just gave West $20 mill over 2 years.

the key to success under the new cba according to Cuban is year to year flexibility . After this season West becomes a 10 million dollar expiring contract which they can use at next years deadline if needed .

I’m kind of tired of reading all of the negative comments about our Hawks the last couple of days and I wanted to provide perhaps some fresh optimism on a position by position basis.

PG - Last season we began the year with Bibby, Crawford, Teague. Our other 4 players on the floor ran themselves into circles trying to cover for Bibby defensively. Teague’s confidence at the start of the season was shot. Although a fine scorer with the ball in his hands, Jamal had a Jordan effect on the rest of the team. When he had the ball, the rest of the team just stood around and watched. Try to remember that there were nearly as many games last year where Jamal shot us out of games as into them. He had the lowest rebound rate among guards last year even though he is 6-6 and is a defensive liability.

This season, Teague is/should be the starter or will be the off rotation guard filling the spot of Jamal last year. Missed in the whining about chemistry with Hinrich last year is the fact that we were light years better defensively with him in the game. Just check the message boards from March/April last year. Once Hinrich was on the team, he was beset by injuries that hampered him. Defensively, PG will be a strength compared to this team last year.

SG – Last year, Joe Johnson was hiding the severity of his elbow at the start of the season and was essentially ineffective, out or recovering for about a 25 game stretch. His backup was Jamal and this caused defensive nightmares when he and Bibby were on the floor together. In addition, Mo Evans complained openly about playing time at the two feeling slighted. The Crawford that is who of which we do not speak was buried on the bench and shooting without conscience when he did play. At one point, Drew put Marvin in at SG when JJ was out just to stop the horrendous D and Marvin actually played the spot quite well.

This season, JJ is healthy and spent the entire off-season working on his game with Durant. Tracy McGrady will back him up. Although not the lightning in the bottle of Jamal, he is much steadier offensively, taller and generations better defensively than Crawford.

SF – Marvin spent 80% of last year looking like the hunchback of Notre Dame. In one game, he shot 3 point jumper flat footed and fell over the 3 point line. Just when he started to look better, he was slammed…not once but twice in 2 weeks re-aggravating the back. The afore mentioned Mo Evans was his backup and was eventually replaced by Damien Wilkins. Wilkens was a breath of fresh air for our squad because he was the only guy under 6-8 to play D.

This season will see our first glimpse of a healthy Marvin Williams in 3 years. That alone is an improvement at the position. However, the club added a desperately needed 6-10 3 point shooter in Radmonovic who will play at least average D based on height alone.

PF- The 2 biggest criticisms of Josh Smith last year was the re-emergence of the 3 point brick and his ballooning weight. His backups are currently hoping to make the rotation on other clubs. Not known to everyone, Josh suffered through knee tendonitis the last 25 games of the year, severely hampering his play on the court.

This year, Josh has lost 30 lbs and again spent the entire offseason working on different aspects of his game receiving rave reviews from everyone in attendance at Hawks practice so far.

C – The most consistent player on the Hawks last year, Al Horford. Most consistent that is until about 25 games to go in the year when a hard foul by Blake Griffin had Al landing flat on his back. His production dropped noticeably after that point as did the consistency of his mid-range jumper.

Al is back, healed and ready to go, as is Zaza. The noticeable improvement is a muscled up, toner Jason Collins.

All is not lost in Hawk land with the departure of Crawford and Wilkins. I for one see our club as stronger, not weaker with some tweaking left to go. I saw our season last year of one with players trying to play through injuries due to a lack of team depth. We started the season on fire when healthy and I expect the same.

I dont see optimism in this post I see excuse making . You blamed last year totally on jamal giving excuses for nearly every single player you mention except him .

All is certainly not lost but last years struggles were not simply the result of jamal,injuries,and learning a new offensive system .

All we need to do is hear from the Celts and Heat and then that will be every contender in the east after him . We need to be sending him out west or saying no thank you to a sign and trade . I get the feeling that playoff positioning and homecourt will be extremely important and I dont want to help out anyone in a short year

Im sorry but I would stay away from any current or former Pistons under the Dumars era they all seem to be disruptive and never live up to there contracts. Where ever they go trouble seems to follow . Big Ben ,Rip,AI,Charlie V,Billups ,Prince etc are just bad investments nowadays.

14 years in the league will do that to ya .

trade our entire frontcourt or basically 4/5 starters for Paul ? What you have to ask if how far could Paul take NO with no help ? hesn ot a guy that can do it by himself so he would need help and we would trade away all the help he would have to get him .

Kinda glad that he is gone. Don't get me wrong, we all love when he comes in a puts up 15-20 and hits the GW shot. What we hate is what happens way to often, craw coming in dribbling it out for the shot clock and heaving a long jumper. A team cant have two players that rely on ISO and I would rather have Joe than craw.

Looking at the numbers Crawford didnt rely on isolation nearly as much as Joe did . Crawford gets his off pick and roll which is why he and Joe could co exist .

One things for sure we wont have a choice but to be stronger defensively because we lose what was a huge advantage for us in regards to bench play .

We might be a better team defensivly but one thing that JC did was he made other teams guard him and Joe so they couldn't double team.

yep strategically it will take some adjusting

One year vet min deal is a great deal for us

I think a package involving Al would be the only viable one to the Hornets but hes BYC so he really cant be moved .

Can we dig up old pre-season threads on the impact that Joe Smith and Etan Thomas were going to have on the Hawks. I feeling some deja vu all over again.

And lets keep in mind that when you're an old injury prone player without a contract your knees, back, ankle and everything else is going to feel like your younger days and your athleticism will be back. No player looking for a contract ever said 'well i'm feeling ok but my back hurts every day and i can't jump very well' or closer to home 'everythings great but my elbow hurts everytime i shoot the ball'.

lol Tmac is actually older than Crawford and has 14 years of wear and tear on his knees along with a injury history and people think hes going back to pre microfracture days ?

I recall last year the Bulls passed on him despite the condintioning coach and the Bulls head coach having worked with Tmac in Houston and Rose sharing an agent . Im a big Tmac fan but anyone expecting him to have pre-surgery athleticism are reaching here . This is one of those he signs cheap because we are a playoff team and we will give him a set amount of minutesituations or we simply pass

This is a tough call. Crawford is a great scorer, no doubt, but his defense is a liability. Like all players he can go on cold streaks but since scoring is his specialty he might as well not be on the floor if he isn't making buckets. I think I'd rather have the Hawks pick up a consistent scorer with good defense.

Crawford sure if fun to watch and he seems like a great guy which I'm sure is part of the reason he's getting player support.

The only people who worry about the 6th man having cold streaks are people who ignore that there stars dont bring it everyday .

Gus like Lebron or Rose etc not showing up for weeks just doesnt happen so if they add someone like Crawford they are not worried about him having to show up every night in order for them to have a chance to win because thats the guys making max money job.

I dont think Crawford is worth 10+ mil at his age but I also think hes better than people want to admit as well . I would love to have him back but fiscally I dont see how we can . Our course and what is the next step for them now that they have all been paid is a bigger concern to me than a Crawfords cold streak.

Of course Joe,Josh and Al want him back hes been a good teammate and is a well respected player around the league amongst the players they also know that he basically won that Orlando series offensively and if he hadnt they all would be squarely behind the eight ball if they had added a first rd exit to the magic with the lackluster regular season that we also had.

With Kirk out they would love to keep some continuity as well . With Marvin walking upright and Teague growing in this shortened season keeping him is actually a no-brainer as far as team growth and challenging the Bulls and the Heat goes but we simply cant afford him in our market .

RE-sign the Crawford . . and the Teaguen will be suppressed, because Drew will opt to go with Jamal than Teague.

Jamal had one great season with us ( for him ), then regressed back to his career averages last season. No way you re-sign Jamal for 5 years. Three years at the max. And not more than 5 million then.

If Jamal Crawford was the difference between us getting to the NBA Finals or not, then I'd say go ahead and re-sign him. But as of right now, most people don't even believe that we're a top 4 team in the East anymore. The "experts" will probably still have Orlando ahead of us in their preseason predictions.

If we're not going to go BIG in free agency, and bring in Howard or Paul . . . we may as well continue to be fiscally responsible, and not be locked into potentially bad contracts.

LOL yeah Jamal is the one holding back Teague lol . The excuses you guys come up with for our players is ridiculous . How would jamal coming off the bench hold back teague who should be starting ?

As Ive said for two years now our starting core has peaked so no I wouldnt bring jamal back because of that because all we we will be doing is treading water anyway .

Jamal also didnt regress the team asked him to not be as aggressive offensively and to give up shots and play through the bigs which is what we did and the entire team sucked at it because our bigs are not the offensive forces everyone ants them to be .

If he ignores Drew and says hey Im the 6th man of the year Im not changing a thing and Im certainly not deferring cause I need to keep my numbers up for my contact well then youd be claiming he selfish and not a team player..

He helped us win the most games for this franchise in 17 years and then the next year won a series for us so Id say we got a good investment out of our 6th man . In fact anyone in the league would so I dont get the reaction to try and knock one of the few moves that have really worked out in our favor.

As i said I dont believe he will be back because I dont believe we can afford to keep him at any price not when we have the giant elephant in the room to worry about

The only trade that comes close to working is Joe + Josh + Teague for Paul and Okafor . Al is a Full BYC player and is essentially untradeable until next summer.

I just dont see a league owned team accepting a deal with Joe because of his contract nor Josh because of his rep . They would take AL + picks/ salary but hes essentially off the table .