spotatl

but as a fan I simply want the best players on the rosters, period.

So what you are asking for is for the players to decertify the union. This would be the pure competition you are looking for- unfortunately that also means that the draft, salary cap, luxury tax, maximum salary, and maximum contract length would all be illegal and teams could offer the players whatever they wished to. Somehow I don't think this is exactly what you have in mind.

The question is "IS Jeff Teague a starting Caliber PG" and the answer to that is clearly no. He an OK backup PG right now. Maybe he could develop into a starting quality PG but currently he is not there.

Moving screens are almost never called. I mean seriously... watch a pick and roll and see how often it happens.

lol you're probably right but I would just be toooooo damn nervous doing anything else. at least at the game I'm in my comfort zone lol

Dude... trust me. If this is your answer then you should NOT be doing it at the game. IF you are nervous then it just makes the story better for her. Here are the rules:

Put some effort in

Make it special for her

Give her a story to tell her friends.

Pick the place where you guys met, where you went on a first date, or where you guys had a memorable night.

To me it comes down to predictive value. if I pick between trying to decide who is goign to win a game then I'll absolutely go to stats over someone's personal observations. There is no question that you can use stats to be misleading of you want to, but at least for me when I am looking to predict whats going to happen then I'll lean heavily on stats.

I have a friend who runs a website selling sports picks. I went over 80% on my picks against the spread this season and I used stats almost exclusively. (or more accurately I looked for trends where I thought that people who don't look at stats would be wrong) I didn't put out a ton of picks and waited for the very best spots but it worked for me. Maybe there are other people who have good predictive value without looking at stats but in my experience I just laugh at people who act like statistics don't matter.

Don't do it!!!! I don't know a single girl who wants that kind of proposal. If the girl had Hawks season tickets before you met her then MAYBE but otherwise just do something else.

This to me is pretty much the definition of a C season. I expected the team to take step back but they went even further back than I thought. (outscored on the season... wouldn't have ever expected that) But its hard to give them too low of a grade considering they still got the 5th seed and were never in serious contention to miss the playoffs.

But on a possession by possession basis, I'd much rather see these guys take long 2's ( even contested ), than for them to jack up 3's.

Crawford long 2% . . . 45%

Crawford 3 point% . . . 33%

JJ long 2 % . . . 39%

JJ 3 point% . . . 29%

Uhhh... I think you are REALLY missing the point here. For both situations you posted the team is far better off with the 3 pointer than the long 2. Look at it as points per shot using the percentages you posted.

Crawford long 2- .90 PPS

Crawford 3- 1.0 PPS

JJ long 2 .78 PPS.

JJ 3 pointer .87 PPS.

How on earth could you post these numbers trying to show that hte team is better off taking long 2 pointers? With long 2's the team doesn't get the other team in foul trouble and the team gets few offensive rebounds. Its easily the worth shot in basketball.

The funny thing is that the Magic have some pretty putrid 1 on 1 defenders. THe Hawks have guys who can beat the first guy- to me the question always is about what happens next. Do they settle for long 2 point jumpers or do they take it into the lane, draw contact and then dish to the open guys who can attack an unsettled defense.

I think that most fans don't expect the Hawks to get to game 6. I didn't say that all Hawks fans think this.

Why does that matter if they make them?

Because long 2 point jumpers are the worst shot in basketball. You don't get many offensive rebounds, you don't get to the line, and you don't get the other team in foul trouble.

To me it always comes down to whether the Hawks are taking it inside and drawing contact or content to shoot long 2 point jumpers. The problem is that Orlando is a team that wants you to take long 2 point jumpers and the Hawks have players who want to take long 2 pointers if given the opportunity.

For the most part they all believe that Orlando wins by game 6

Lol... I think that for the most part people here believe that Orlando wins by game 5.

If I had to bet between the Hawks getting swept and the Hawks advancing I'd bet on the hawks getting swept.

It will definitely be interesting to see if the Hawks end up keeping Jamal Crawford now. Many of us thought that Jordan Crawford was being brought in to be a cheap replacement for when Jamal signed elsewhere.

People who are cheap enough to buy the .69 cent bulbs don't ever throw it away before it burns out.

I don't think there is any chance the team fires Drew. THey cheaped out on hiring him and I don't think there is any way they would pay 2 coaches during the lockout.

I do think that the Hawks may be able to move Joe depending on what the new CBA looks like. But I don't think the Hawks would have to pick between salary relief and talent. Maybe someone like Loul Deng for Joe Johnson. I'm not sure that that kind of trade is what people are hoping for when they wish that Joe would get dealt.

Unfortunately I think the most likely trades will be the calls to trade Josh Smith for a "real center". Unfortunately I think the "real center" will be worse than the current all star center the Hawks have and the team will take another step back. Something like Josh Smith going out and Kaman coming in return. I really thought that Jordan Crawford was drafted to be a Jamal Crawford replacement. I don't think we can assess the odds of Jamal Crawford coming back until we see what the new CBA looks like.

The ASG this offseason pretty much just blamed Woodson for the disappointing playoffs and now its been shown that was a total mistake. This is a flawed roster and was a flawed roster under Woodson as well.

I can't see the ASG paying 2 coaches during the lockout when they cheaped out on Hiring Larry Drew to begin with. Though I'll also say that they have surprised me in the past on what they were willing to spend money on and what they weren't.

Everyone is very quick to point out how right they were about something or how they were the first to realize something. But my question is...what were YOU dead-@ss wrong about? Anyone willing to step forward and eat crow?

Sothron- I do think its pretty funny that in a thread talking about what you got wrong you still felt the need to say how much you got right.

If we are going further back- I was wrong the summer that Josh Smith was going to be a free agent. I would have traded him at the trade deadline because I was convinced a team would grossly overpay him trying to get the Hawks to not match. I thought that the Sixers would 100% be throwing a huge pile of money at him to try and make the ASG blink and not match an offer. They threw the money at Elton Brand even though he had a serious injury (And we all knew how that worked out for them... I do think they badly regret not going after Josh). Then the Clippers had the caproom and I thought that THEY would throw their money at Josh Smith- instead they just pretty much absorbed Marcus Camby.

I consistently have overestimated how much it would matter when a PG was a poor shooter coming out of college.

Jamal Crawford last season was far more effective than I ever thought he would be.

I honestly never thought that the ASG would pay the money for either the Bibby or Crawford deals. THose were "open the checkbook to improve the team" deals I never thought they would make.

I'd say Jason Collins. He didn't make a ton of money as a player so coaching would be attractive to him. (GUys who make 100 million dollars in their career likely wouldn't want the hassle of coaching) He is a smart guy with big academic credentials so I'd think he would be attractive to many colleges.

I thought Marvin would take the step this year and be considered an "important role player" if people could forget about the sunk cost of where he was drafted. Instead he has regressed.

I thought that the team would ahve dealt Crawford just because I don't think they intend to bring him back. So keeping him through the deadline may mean that they actually do have some hope of keeping him.

I never thought the ASG would offer Horford a contract that he would accept. And they would make him go out and set his market value as a RFA like they did with Josh Smith.

I never thought Josh Smith could shoot .330 on so many 3 point shots. He only took 7 last year- I expected him to shoot more from the outside with the new offense but I still never saw that coming.

Going back Further Horford is far more useful on offense at this point than I thought he would be. I thought in the new offense he was going to end up shooting more long jumpers would give him a bump in PPG but at the expense of his efficiency. Instead he has been shooting 4.7 long jumpers a game and hitting at a 56% clip. Thats just unreal. I still don't an offense that tries to generate so many long jumpers but I can't argue with his results.

I'll just stand by my predictions for the season from October 25th:

47-35. First round exit in the playoffs.

The offense takes a big step back and turnovers are a constant issue all season. People blame Woodson for this.

Josh Smith starts shooting more from the outside again as he gets the ball on the outside in the motion offense and just can't help himself. The Hawks crowd starts openly booing everytime he gets the ball outside- instead of him taking the hint he tries to prove everyone wrong. He wins at least 1 game this season by nailing a long outside jumper and in the postgame press conference he talks about how no one believes in him.

Bibby starts over Teague as the offense bogs down when Teague is in the game as teams are content to pack the middle and let the Hawks shoot long jumpshots. Teague looks good in garbage time of some games which causes many people here to still call for him to be the starter. Woodson is blamed for Teague's issues.

Jamal Crawford takes a big step back this season yet continues to complain he hasn't gotten extended even as his numbers regress. He is traded at some point in the season for a veteran PG. Chauncey Billups is traded for expiring contracts plus a pick but the ASG are not willing to pay the tax to bring Billups in.

I was wrong and it was Bibby that was traded for the Veteran PG instead of Crawford- though to be honest I just never thought that the Hawks would trade bother their 2010 and 2011 first rounders in a deal like that. Other than that I think this season has gone pretty much how I expected it to.

AHF- what you posted has nothing at all to do with what I said. I didn't say he would be a free agent. I said he wouldn't be bound by the Rookie Scale contract meaning that he could demand more money from the Timberwolves than he is currently scheduled to make. 3 seasons after drafting a player teams are allowed to pay a player more than the Rookie Scale contract if the player needs more incentive to come to the NBA. Tiago Splitter is an example of this. He was taken 28th in the draft and was scheduled to have a rookie scale contract starting at under a million dollars. Instead he signed a 3 year contract starting at 3.4 million dollars.

Rookie Scale contracts are exceptionally team friendly. THere are 2 guaranteed years, team options for the third and fourth season and at the end of it the player is still a restricted free agent. Rubio would be far better off waiting another season where he could hold the timberwolves over a Barrel and sign a more player friendly deal.