niremetal

The Yao argument is kinda like the "Nadal is better than Federer because Nadal usually beats Federer" argument in tennis. It's faulty because their one-on-one matchups are just a tiny fraction of the games each has played over the course of their respective careers (the logic is wrong in the case of Nadal and Federer for a variety of other reasons, but I digress...). The Bobcats have dominated the Lakers during the last couple years, but I don't think anyone would say the Bobcats have been a better team. For the same reason, you can't judge Yao/Dwight and Nadal/Federer just based on their head-to-head performances. Now who has been the better center in the NBA during the past couple years between those two? Well Dwight almost wins by default because of Yao's injury difficulties. A fully healthy Yao versus a fully healthy Dwight? I don't think there's a right answer to that one.

I agree with the sentiments around here that the fact JJ dominates the ball is primarily Woody's responsibility, since JJ isn't the one who designs our offensive "system." I'll also say that unlike certain other All-Star shooting guards who shall remain nameless, JJ consistently used "we" in his comments - he included himself in the criticism. That's a big step up from said nameless SGs and also a big step up from his "young guys just running wild" comments after the Boston series.

Yeah, because we all know how many times Wade, LeBron, and Kobe have thrown hard fouls during a game...

He's done this a couple times in the past, as I recall, and both times the Hawks came out of the gate strong after his comments. But as always, we weren't able to sustain it. C'est la Hawks...

It's almost like an extreme case of Marvin Williams Draft Critic Syndrome - he's focusing on where Horford was drafted and comparing him to what he'd hoped out of someone picked in that draft position rather than focusing on his game compared to the game of the actual players he's comparing him to. But in this case, Horford is not exactly underperforming what you'd expect from a #3 pick in his second year, particularly one stuck in an offense that never gives its big men touches, so you can't blame this absurd post JUST on that... And this post is absurd. Ask all 30 NBA coaches and all 30 NBA GMs which player they'd rather have between Horford, Anderson, and Collins, and all 60 would say "Horford." Well, at least that's what they'd all say now that Isiah Thomas and Kevin McHale are gone...

Not a fan - I don’t like the big “ATL.” Looks jarring to have lettering that much bigger than the uniform number.

Uh...I've heard that plenty of times. True, not from a teammate or coach (although see below) - but I've also never heard a teammate or coach praise his effort on D. And to be blunt, you're the first person I've ever heard say that Crawford gives 100% effort on D. I guess we can agree to disagree on that point, but to me, Jamal shows excellent quickness, speed, and ability to change direction on offense, but not on defense. That indicates a lack of effort. And I'm far, far, far from the only one who thinks so: Draftexpress: Sports Illustrated (from an NBA scout): Hoopshype also says he "doesn't play much D." And this is from when he arrived in Golden State. Gee, whaddya know - a coach noticed that he doesn't play much defense too: You can also go chat with all the Knicks fans who watched him on a nightly basis for 5 years and ask if they think he gives his best effort on D; heck, you can just go check their message boards. And you can go ask Golden State fans or check their message boards to see if they thought Smart's off-the-court work with Crawford led to him giving more defensive effort on the floor last season. But I guess you're right and all of us are full of "BS."

I'm sorry, but did you even read my post before you posted that response? I explicitly said I expected it. I just don't think that expecting a player to not give his all makes it ok to not give his all or means that we should overlook that aspect of his game when assessing that player's performance. Jamal Crawford doesn't give his all on defense. Everyone who watches him knows this, but that doesn't make it ok. How is that "acting like I did not expect it?" It's starting to look like you have little-to-no interest in actually reading and responding to my posts, so if you're not going to do that, let me know so I won't bother responding to you anymore.

He's been slowly inflating for a few years now. As for who can guard Howard 1 on 1...I seriously haven't seen anyone who can do it consistently. I woulda liked to see Divac in his prime try to get under his skin, though...

That's fine. But the thing I was disputing is the idea that Crawford "showed up" last night. In my book, you don't show up unless you show up on both ends. It's something that ticks me off to no end - a lot of people judge whether a player "shows up" by how aggressive he is offensively, without regard to what happens for the other 50% of the game. As for whether I expect it from Crawford...yes, I do. I know he does not lay it out there on defense, and I've come to expect that from him after watching him on WGN and the MSG Network (I've lived in Philly for 6 of the past 8 years and both are part of the digital cable package around here). But just because he never "showed up" on defense before doesn't mean that we should pat him on the back for continuing to do it. And that's what it seems like you're doing when you applaud someone for "showing up" when he is aggressive offensively even though he didn't give an effort on the other end of the floor. And that annoys the hell out of me. (This is all aside from the fact that he threw two of the worst passes I've seen in quite awhile and didn't set anyone up to score all night) I've also come to expect these types of games from the Hawks every once in awhile, so I don't know about how dissonant last night was with expectations for the rest of the players... In any case, you know what they say about people who assume. So don't do it.

Dude, you don't know me or anything about me. I am no casual fan, and have watched Crawford plenty. Don't get personal if you don't know someone. I agree he gave "basic effort" and "showed up" on offense. But he "showed up" and gave "basic effort" only on offense. On defense, he was barely making an effort to deny penetration. To me, it doesn't count as "showing up" if you only do it on one side of the floor.

Funny. Crawford didn't seem to "want it" much on defense. Amazing how people seem to completely ignore what happens on that side of the ball.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/basketball/nba/hawks.scout/ My only quibble: While I agree that his ceiling is that of a "Rodman with some offensive game," I actually think they're a bit hard on Josh's mentality. He doesn't just go for the spectacular dunk or block anymore.

I agree, but the man had a point re: Woody's "system"

I hate it when people say someone "played hard" when that player gave zero effort on D - which was the case with both Teague and Crawford tonight. Defense is 50% of the game. Sorry, but you're not "playing hard" if you're not trying for 50% of the game.

Yup: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore?gid=2009102209 (G.S. beat N.O.) http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore?gid=2009102005 (Cavs beat Dallas) http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore?gid=2009101303 (Magic beat N.O.) Not that that excuses it, but even the best teams get their asses handed to them sometimes and this IS the preseason. Rather it happen now to give them a wake-up call.

Something tells me Sasquatch won't be cheering JJ anytime. He has "hater" written all over him. There are people like that on Sekou's blog - there's a resident Bibby hater, Horford hater, and Marvin hater. My guess is that he is a JJ hater, and it'll never be out of his system.

Thank you. I'm sorry, but this thread is laughable. If Crawford is so much better than JJ, why did JJ average more points on better teams while shooting a higher percentage from the floor and getting more assists? Please.

Co-sign.

Phew. For a second there, I thought you were gonna say that he had predicted that we would win 50 games - in which case, of course, we would actually headed back to the lottery. I'm glad to see he predicted Portland to do so poorly though - that means my second-favorite team is a lock to win 60.

BRILLIANT! That gets five JTOs.

Yawn. Three years late to the parade, and obviously didn't watch any Hawks games before Marvin got hurt and probably hasn't looked at anything but Marvin's stat sheet if he thinks that he "didn't show much improvement from the year before" last season.

One or two extra minutes makes a big damned difference over the course of a full season - even more if it starts 2 games early in the preseason. Yeah, Woody said he'd be giving his starters more burn in the last two games of the preseason. But he gave JJ more burn last night than any of the guys you listed (Billups was closest at 0:38 less). That's not a good thing to see this early considering that JJ already has a higher MPG over the last 5 years than any other player in the league. You want to say this is just one game and not a sign of things to come? Fine. All I'm saying is that if JJ is averaging more than 38mpg over the course of the full season again, I'll point to this as the first indication. And if you want to argue that averaging "just" 1-2 extra MPG over the course of a full season doesn't matter, then I don't know what world you're living in.

Uh...yeah. That's exactly what I expect. BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT EVERY OTHER GOOD TEAM IN THE DAMNED LEAGUE DOES WITH THEIR STARTERS.

I don't care if it's the backyard of his beach house when he's drunk and high. NBA players have no excuse for missing 9 of 10 free throws.