spotatl

Buzzard- do you think the hawks should win 100% of the games against teams like that at home? 90%? Where do you draw the line for where you think the hawks are playing below expectation level.

Just out of curiosity buzzard, for the Hawks playing at home against the Bulls what percentage of the time do you think the Hawks should win before you will start blaming the coach?

Since the biby trade I don't complain about the ASG spending money on the player (though I still maintain there is no chance they will go into the luxury tax and I can't blame them for that) but repeatedly in other areas they have skimped. They signed Woodson when he was cheap. They refused to let assistant coaches leave for better offers because they didn't want to spend the money to replace them. They didn't field a summer league team. They aren't filling out a full roster this season. As I said- I'll be happily surprised if the ASG do spend for a quality HOF level coach. But if Woodson gets replaced I'll bet serious money that the new Hawks coach is in the bottom 10 in the league in salary.

I seriously doubt that the ASG would pay what it takes to outbid anyone. They didn't even field a summer league team and you think they would pay a coach a big salary? They wouldn't even let their assistant coaches leave when they had better offers elsewhere. I absolutely get why people who want to see Woodson Fired are OK with letting him finish out the season without an extension- but given the team's success I do think you should consider how it looks to an outsider and I have to think he would generate significant interest this offseason.

Lets say that the Hawks do win in the second round and get to the conference finals. You doubt that he woudl get a big offer from another team?

Buzzard- you are looking only at PPG. I am looking at points per possession which I think is far more accurate. I don't care if a team scores with 16 seconds left on the shotclock or 4 seconds left on the shotclock. All that matters to me is how often the team scores when they have the ball. Thats all I can ask for on offense. The Hawks are middle of the pack in assist percentage. The Hawks are middle of the pack in 3 pointers taken. Your complaints about the offense just are not connected to the actual results. They are based on the fact you don't think the offense is elegant enough. Avoiding turnovers isn't elegant. Running the same things repeatedly because you think you have an advantage isn't elegant. But as long as its effective I think its absolutely ridiculous to complain about it. In the end you wouldn't care if the hawks had the top offense in the league- you would still want Woodson fired. You have already admitted you would be fine if the Hawks had a worse offense as long as it meant getting a new coach in here. I really think you are going to regret this when the team ends up with someone worse.

For how much people b*tch about the offense its just astounding to me. They are completely ignoring the results the Hawks are getting this season and want the team to emulate other teams that have better personnel on offense that aren't getting as much production. The hawks are a top 4 offense in the NBA this season. They are limiting the touches of the more limited offensive players and becuase of that they are by FAR the least turnover prone team in the league. To give you an idea the difference between the hawks and #2 is the same as #2 and #18 in the league. And the hawks are also #11 in assist percentage so its not like they aren't passing at all. I just find it fascinating that people complain so much about the Hawks offense at the same time they are having so much success with it.

Maybe thats where we diverge on this. I think its RIDICULOUS to treat grown men like children and a micromanaging disciplinarian is the last thing in the world I want in the NBA. I think that Avery Johnson is just about the worst coach possible and far too often coaches screw up by trying to get too involved (don nelson) instead of just putting their players in position to succeed and letting them go. Plus its my belief that the ASG would NEVER pay the money it would take to get a HOF quality coach in here. The team won't even field a full roster or a summer league team but you think they are going to drop major dollars on a coach?

Honestly I think Boston would be pretty thrilled to play the Hawks in the second round of the playoffs since that would mean missing the cavs and Magic.

Just talking about offense I'd easily take all of those pairs over SMith and Horford except for Hill and Barbosa. (And I think that Nash and Amare are a little more important to the Suns offense) Don't mistake the fact that Smith and Horford are good players who are severely flawed on offense.

I'd love for you to make a point worth responding to. I'd prefer to play Teague against backups- when he can do decently against backups then I'll give him more meaningful minutes.

Teague has struggled this year playing against backups and you want to see his role expanded. Evans has been TERRIBLE this season against backups and you want to see his role expanded. And the first time that Woodson sits Crawford, Bibby, and Joe too much then everyone here woudl crucify Woodson for it. If you are willing to lose games to get these guys more PT then thats great but I think you are nuts. If the team wasn't too cheap to field a summer league team maybe Teague would be closer to being able to help at this point. If the team didn't waste money on Collins then maybe Woodson would have better options on the bench.

Saying nice things about players in the offseason is great- playing guys who will hurt the team is a whole different matter. The team screwed up by signing Collins- Woodson shouldn't make the mistake worse by actually playing him. The team screwed up by drafting Acie Law- Woodson shouldn't have made the problem worse by playing him. Evans Has struggled. Woodson has gotten what he can out of Zaza. Teague just doesn't look ready. I'm sorry but when the backups are already killing the Hawks then I don't see the rationale for giving them more minutes. When Teague is off the floor the Hawks outscore the opposition by 7.4 points/100 possessions. When he is on the court the Hawks are outscored by 2.2. When Evans is off the floor the hawks outscore the opposition by 12.4 points/100 possessions. When he is on the court the Hawks are outscored by 11.7!/b] Last year the Hawks were significantly better with Murray on the court and Woodson gave him more minutes to reward the good play. This is a serious question- how many games are you willing to lose to give Teague and Evans more minutes? Because maybe you do think that losing a couple extra games during the regular season will mean winning a couple extra games in the playoffs which would easily be worth it. But you shoudl at least say that now.

I'll say once again that I trust Woodson on his judgment of Rookies more than I would anyone else here. When people were bitching about Salim not playing enough people blamed woodson- it turned out Salim just wasn't good enough. The exact same thing happened with Acie. I do like Teague more than I ever did Acie but I am not ready at all to say that Woodson is making a mistake by not playing Teague. This is a team that intends to get home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs- you need to pick and choose the spots to play a rookie. And when the second unit is getting killed (unlike last year) then I think we just need to give it some time. And if Teague is still not ready as the season goes on go out and trade for a backup PG from a team thats destined for the lottery. The Hawks don't ahve a ton of salary filler which is the biggest problem with that plan.

I'd LOVE the team to go after Mike Conley. The Grizzlies are an inept organization and I think that Conley has done good things when he has had the chance. Not quite sure what his value is at this point but I'd love to see the Hawks make a move.

I'm sorry... if you think that the Hawks SHOULD have (unless they get poor coaching) a better offense than a team with Carmelo, Billups, JR Smith, and Nene then I think you are just a blind homer. Same with a team that has Nash, Amare, HIll, Barbosa, and Richardson And a team with Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, and Jefferson And a team with Howard, Carter, Nelson, and Lewis And a team with Deron Williams, Boozer, Okur, and Millsap And a team with Pierce, Rondo, KG, Allen, and Rasheed. Given good coaching for every team I think the Hawks SHOULD finish with worse offenses than all of those teams. When Woodson has the Hawks in the top 5 in the league in offense I think he deserves a lot of credit.

Buzzard- do you really think that the Hawks have better players on offense than The Nuggets? Do you think they have better players on offense than the Magic? The Suns? The Spurs? I just don't think its realistic to expect the Hawks to be a top 5 offense when so many other teams have been willing to spend the luxury tax to create a better roster.

Buzzard- do you really think the Hawks have the talent where they SHOULD be a top 5 offense?

And I'll once again say that I love the switching defense late in the shotclock. But early in the shotclock its just betting for a smart team to be able to set the exact matchup they want. Watch when the Spurs play the Hawks. They will come down and set a screen to get Parker matched up on whoever they think he can most easily exploit and then they reset the offense and he just eats them alive. Switch late and fight through the screen early!

MacDaddy- you have to be kidding me. Its not guards who are killing the Hawks with offensive rebounds. Against Detroit Wallace had 11 offensive rebounds, Jerebko had 5 and Maxiell had 4. Against Orlando Howard had 6. Against New Orleans West had 5 and Okafor had 3. How on earth can you blame the offensive rebounds the Hawks are giving up on the guards?

The team was a top 10 offense last season and people were complaining just as much. I think that people simply have impossible expectations if they are complaining about the offense and the only teams who have been better this season are Toronto, Denver, and Phoenix.

Never have so many fans complained about their team having a top 4 offense in the league before.

I'll take a cold shooting Joe Johnson over Maurice Evans.

I'm not sure that the Hawks have a single player who is an above average rebounder for their position. Josh Smith hurts the team badly on the defensive boards because he gets out of position so much going for blocks. You need the SF to compensate and hit the boards harder and Marvin simply isn't getting the job done this season. Zaza isn't the answer- he has always been strong on the offensive glass but not so much on the defensive side. Really its just that Smith needs to pick his spots better on when to go for the block and when he does Marvin and Horford need to work harder.

I don't think there is much explaining necessary- you only make $24,000 a year in the NBADL- in China he will make a ton more money. I'm pretty surprised he went to the nbadl at all.