spotatl

What on earth makes you think that Teague is a good defender?

I don't think the Hawks are as good as the top 3 teams in the east. Those teams are all paying major luxury tax $$, I think those teams probably shoudl be better. The Hawks could have closed the gap by spending the MLE in the offseason. Unfortuantely the Hawks just don't have many options for tweaking the roster at this point.

As a coach the way I'd attack cleveland is to attack Mo Williams. take their PF and Centers off the dribble. And to have a SF that can occupy Lebron so he can't help on defense and has to use extra energy in that area. The problme is that Bibby cannot exploit Mo WIlliams. Josh Smith and Horford are lousy at exploiting slow defenders in the halfcourt. And Marvin doesn't do anything to make Lebron work. The Hawks don't have great options because they don't really have the roster to exploit the weaknesses on the Cavs defense.

I'd much rather have Woodson than Any of the guys you mentioned. You have seen teams QUIT on Byron Scott and Mitchell. Bryon Scott is the last coach in the league I would actually hire. I can't believe anyone would actually want him. He is the worst coach in the league at dealing with young players- look at how much better the Hornets are now that they fired Scott and are actually playing their young guys. Contrast that to Woodson where even after the young players move on they still don't do anything.

You think that Joe had turnovers last night passing the ball to himself?

Since I KNOW people are going to blame ISO joe lets go ahead and go to the play by play of the critical stretch of the fourth quarter to see how much the Hawks were going to other players. Joe Johnson misses 24-foot three point jumper Al Horford misses 8-foot two point shot Zaza Pachulia lost ball (Delonte West steals) Al Horford misses 17-foot jumper Al Horford bad pass (Anderson Varejao steals) Jamario Moon blocks Maurice Evans's dunk Jamal Crawford traveling Joe Johnson bad pass (LeBron James steals) LeBron James blocks Joe Johnson's layup Jamal Crawford misses 17-foot jumper Josh Smith misses 21-foot jumper Al Horford misses 6-foot two point shot Joe Johnson bad pass (LeBron James steals) Joe Johnson misses 23-foot three point jumper Joe Johnson bad pass (Delonte West steals) Jamal Crawford draws shooting foul- misses both Mike Bibby misses 24-foot three point jumper This was the critical stretch where the Hawks went scoreless. The turnovers are what stand out- the Hawks have such a strong offense in large part because they have such a low turnover rate- those turnovers were absolute killers. Also notable is the Hawks total lack of offensive rebounds even with all the missed shots.

Historically the teams that are able to blow the doors off bad teams tend to do better in the playoffs than the ones that win close games against good competition. Margin of victory is a much better predictor of playoff success than record is but many fans don't at all realize it. When you beat a team by 2 it was a coinflip. You didn't prove you were better- you proved that you were pretty much equal to that team and it could have gone either way.

Since they Hawks don't care about the 2010 free agency (except for the whole Joe thing) normally they would be in PRIME position to acquire someone with 2010 salary to put them over the top. The problem is they already fired that bullet when they gave up all their expiring contracts to get Jamal Crawford. The Hawks have VERY little trade fodder they could use to acquire someone to put them over the top. Zaza has a long term deal its not clear he is worth. Evans has a player option for next season. The better he plays the more he is likely to want to be a free agent but a team trying to get 2010 caproom can't count on him opting out. Other than that its pretty much down to trading Marvin and Bibby which people are mostly hesitant to do. And once again Marvin has played below his contract- its not clear how much trade value he has. The Cavs have a TON of options for trades if they decide to go that route. The problem is that the Hawks are sort of hamstrung by the fact that they won't pay the luxury tax and it makes it tough when there are 3 teams in the east that are more than happy to do so.

coachx- are you under the impression that the hawks let Marvin play Lebron 1 on 1?

You can't give Knight credit for drafting Horford- If the Hawks didn't win the lottery that season then the Suns would have gotten the draftpick. And when midseason the Hawks did their best to convey the pick since they have up a significant amount of caproom to trade for Anthony Johnson in a desperate push to try and make the playoffs. If Knight had his way Horford wouldn't be on the team.

I do think that Knight scores extra "points" on the bad pick scale because he bypassed a guy at a position of need because he was so convinced that Marvin would become the better player. I don't think you will often mess up by taking the best player available- but you are basically doubling down on the pick to skip over a player of need in order to take someone else. And I am in the camp that bust is an official term now for guys who don't have their third or 4th year team options picked up. (or rarer guys who don't get extended a qualifying offer) These are guys who were shown to not at all be worth their draftslot and were absolute busts. I don't think Marvin should be thought of as a bust but he was clearly a terrible pick.

Bogut is a borderline allstar center. Marvin williams is a below average starting small forward.

The thread is about who will go- not who should go. I think Josh and Joe will be there.

I don't get how anyone can blame Woodson for not being able to get more production out of Acie Law and Salim Stoudamire. Acie had his 4th year team option declined after being traded and Salim is out of the league. Those were bad draftpicks- not a bad job from Woodson. I think its to Woodson's credit that he recognized the limitations of those players LONG before people here did and didn't waste as many minutes on them as people here would have wanted. If the GM makes a poor pick what you WANT is for the coach to recognize that early.

Bynum is a force on defense that turns the Lakers from an good defensive team to one of the top defenses in the league. Bynum is also better on offense than Horford. If you want to say health is more important to you then I am OK with that but Bynum is a much better player. I think people here are in a little bit of denial about Horford's limitations on offense.

Bynum is better on both offense and defense than Horford.... That sort of tips the scales in his favor for who I'd rather have. And I don't care about "consistency" as far as I am concerned Collins is the Hawks most consistent player. I'll take dominance over consistency.

I'd take Howard, Bynum, Al Jefferson, Bogut, and Lopez. I'd have a tough time picking between Horford, Gasol, and Nene. Perkins probably is also in the discussion.

If I were a coach I'd rather have the rosters of Boston, Cleveland, and Orlando over the Roster of the Hawks. I think all 3 of those teams SHOULD be better given equal coaching. The Hawks have just 1 guy who is a top 5 player at their position. They have guys who are below average starters at 2 of the positions. I think Woodson has done a remarkable job this season and I hope he gets rewarded for it. I sort of wish he would to go a different team just because I think thats the only way people here would appreciate the things he does well.

The Hawks have a top 2 offense in the league- their offense has been much better than their defense.

Whats interesting is that the hawks had to win the lottery and finish in the top 3 that year or else the Suns would have gotten the pick. This team would have been far different if the ping pong balls fell differently.

You don't have to be great on D to be better than the Hawks. For how much people b*tch about Woodson's offense its the D that should give people worry for the playoffs.

Actually Denver's defense has been (slightly) better than the Hawks this season. I don't know why you'd be surprised about this. Denver was also better on Defense than the hawks last year as well.

The Lakers plan B is Pau Gasol. THeir plan C is Andrew Bynum. If you want to tell me that the Lakers aren't utilizing those guys right then absolutely thats a valid POV. But the Hawks don't have a Gasol on the roster. The lack of options is a GM problem, not a coaching problem.

Come on AHF- lets hear you tell everyone that the Hawks should scrap their offense and run the ball more through Josh SMith and Horford.

If the Falcons had the #1 offense in the league and you were here bitching about how the Hawks don't throw deep enough damn right I'd be on here saying that what you are asking for is the Falcons to throw more interceptions and have a lower completion percentage. You would be focusing on just one aspect without at all looking at why the team is not doing them. You have your head in the sand and results are not enough for you to reassess things. If you want Josh Smith and Horford to handle the ball more against a settled defense then the downside is that you will get more turnovers. If thats what you want then maybe you think the offense will overall be better off for it but thats a tradeoff you need to be willing to admit to. I realize that you were put in an awful position trying to say the Hawks offense sucks when they ahve the top offense in the league so I guess your right that the most reasonable position for you to take is just to drop it.