Jody23

It says the Hawks need more size up front to match up with the elite teams. It says some other things as well, but that's the one thing that sticks out in my mind.

You are spot on. I hope the Hawks figure this out instead of proclaiming "hey, we beat Boston 4 games in the regular season". The playoffs are a different animal than the regular season.

If they think that approach will work, they're sadly mistaken. This team has more problems than just Mike Woodson. I really believe Boston will perform well against Orlando because of their size and the options they have to get easy high percentage shots in a half court set. I hope the Hawks organization is not foolish enough to think that because the Hawks beat the Celtics four straight in the regular season, that they should still be playing in the playoffs. Until they learn playoffs and regular season are two different animals and being able to matchup in the playoffs is key, this team won't go far.

According to Sund, the Hawks do want to retain JJ as they will not have the flexibility to sign a comparable player if he leaves.

According to Jalen Rose on twitter, Joe Johnson has played his last game as a Hawk. He says he has this information from a "reliable" source. If this is true, unfortunately, I don't have a hard time believing it.

While I don't think he's a # 1 option, I do think he has the ability to do more offensively. I agree with nbasuperstar40 in that I also believe (as do many nba folks) that Al is a power forward. If you put him in a position where both his quickness and his size become positives in his favor, he will produce more offensively. I don't have any numbers off the top of my head, but if you look at the games where Al has played against teams (New York, Toronto, Chicago) who play guys who are really power forwards at the center spot, Al goes from good to dominate. If he ever is allowed to play the four full time, I think those type of performances become a regular staple. Al is very talented and versatile.

I would agree that it's up to Josh as to how hard he plays, but he definitely has his limits as a player. I think Orlando is a tough matchup for him and he allowed it to fustrate him in addition to taking some tough charges and elbows to the face. I'm not excusing the poor play, but 98% of the time, the young man busts his hump for the team and produces more not sheerly on ability, but because he works hard. I'm not accusing you of this Dolfan, but when Josh has a bad game, too many folks quickly want to forget how much he's done for the team and try to tear him down. At the same time, the same people readily accept the lack of production from Marvin despite their insistence that he has this tremendous ability. They insist it's because he's not being included or he's being used improperly. I would just like to see things looked at more objectively. With that said, GO HAWKS today and props on the new banner sir.

Maybe this could be done for Marvin too. Seeing as how he has totally underacheived since he's been in the league and Smoove has over achieved, maybe it will move him to want to be a factor on the floor.