DS17Fanboy

I hate to be this guy all the time, but I dont really blame Dennis. The PG vs PG setup is the most prone to aquire help-d and Dennis overall does a relatively good job at that, even if he gets beaten at times in all games. He's also extremely good at going over screens, so making such situations even more likely, but all in all he and Al have it under controll, also since Dennis is doing allot of irrritating help stuff to help out the bigs in return. MCW who Dennis played most the time only came up with 2 assists the whole entire 2OT game. That MIL went for him in the 4th was no coincidence, scoring a bunch after a quite game where he only shined trough rebounding. It took ATL by suprise and went after Dennis's straining fatigue he was prolly saving more for offense, after MCW not being a factor the whole entire game. The dribble penetration went much more trough the wings, which is where they are hard to beat from the PG position with all those young long armed guys, so what needs to happen is having wing players of our own who can keep them in front of them after those plays being innitiated. Also why Baze looked like a total D-league player out there. Scott is nice when he's scoring but in these situations vs fast/talented SF's he's terrible. And Sap. I praise the man, but he's asked to do to much. His season-fatigue is already showing. We need a reliable SF who shows up every night.

I agree the issue is more than dribble-pentration. But the dribble-penetration also caused for allot of offensive rebounds and easy put-backs for Milwaukee. The many TO's on that end are also caused because of them milking that end relentlessly. So causing many TO's there as well as being productive from there. TO's stand out more then when things go right. Its that way with many things, like selling news stories. No one cares for good news. Also Middleton was very quite last night because the game didnt go trough him(shooting). Really a truckload of offensive rebounds came after dribble penetration. Which makes our bigs look bad, but really, before rebounding they have to come out and cover the penetration, hence creating a rebounding advantage for guys like Monroe and Parker.

He's doing the common sense lines because he isnt good at it but wants the pay-check. He's doing the wrong naming on purpose, because it is his way of adding a bit of his own flavour to the common sense lines. He really is that corny. But I think its funny.

Crowder is a man's man, but not very good at basketball. Overrated.

Thats all fine and well, but did you see the acne on Pachulia's back?

Nique is just a corny guy, having corny humor, having corny 90's swag. I think if it wasnt for his wife, he would go out the house each morning in hammer-pants and wearing earrings. But somehow I respect that.

I once went to Split where Kukoc is from. You see lots of basketball playing for sure. Go there on vacation. Split was just a one day trip passing trough. My mainstay was on the island of Krk(lol), Best effing food and the girls....

Ummmmm...wait what's that now? Did you just ummm..wow...lol Lately the Dallas Ovcharka is doing pretty decent in the Texas sun as well, looking like a tanned oil-wrestler these days. I thought you'd appreciate this fascinating info.

Yeah, just try him out like that. He has some winner-genes. They need to be tested after being humiliated for quite some time. See how he does.

The problem with Baze all year has been that his team-mates are often not entirely sure what he's up to. He gets things stat-wise done at a good clip, but that element in the team-game is like a vortex of said team-game. Couple that to Korver being a vortex allround by himself, and you got yourself two positions that traditionally bring big parts of offensive-production being below par.

Sefalosha is born and raised Swiss, father S-African, mother Swiss. Geneva(Genf) born Capela however went at a young age to a grand old sports-institute in France to develop his talent. Thing is that they indeed both come from western Switzerland, but Switzerland is a tiny place and German the most used language on TV/in parliament/etc and is taught in school there. You come in contact with German all over the place. Especially in cities like Geneva. I wasnt saying it is their first language. However there is a connection of communication, in that they can understand each other on some level verbally, but also on some level culturally, even though Braunschweig/Saxony is very different from the Swiss Helvets in many ways, there are similarities, especially regarding pop-culture for youngsters with minority backgrounds. I for one noticed last year that Sefalosha meant allot for Dennis's development and that they communicated allot on the court. You know it would be different for a Capela coming here in another place on the other side of the planet when he has some guys who he can connect to in some pretty destinct ways. Btw, I once heard from a Yugoslav a theorie why Yugo's are so good at b-ball. He said that it is because of the many mountainious areas in the Balkans. In most of Europe every village has a soccer-pitch, but there it is more feasible geographically to build smaller basketball-courts, so every Balkan village has a basketball-court creating a bigger emphasis for the sport. Same could count for tiny Switzerland, with now two great players in the NBA.

He's surely a great prospect and already a big help to (f*** them!) Houston. Also with Thabo and Dennis, we would have a little German speaking core. But Im all about SF's who can score and defend right now. We are not far away from outweighing CLE. f*** blowing good things up.

I like Crowder, but only for what he is, which is no where near Teague. Srsly..but I'd like Stretch-5 Olynik, if only because of his hsitory with CLE Love and the scare he might still have going up against him.

Ibaka been a much better Ibaka than Capela. Fact lol. Also Capela cant shoot. He doesnt even try. And I dont see him having an "olympic" mindset like Ibaka, trucking year after year, contract after contract and stay out of trouble of and on the court, leading away when stars are hurt. Capela is a pure role-player close to the basket with his limits and few destinct strenghts. Hes more like the next Noel. OK Noel is the next Capela....

2 small guards in the backcourt sucks. Dennis is best served with Bazo/Thabo types on that SG spot. The SF then should be able to put up shots. Come on Durant. ATL is a sure upgrade to OKC with you at the helm.

Rockets and Clippers are just weird organisations with lots of weird people. Im srs, from the players to the announcers, they just stink. But their heads up in the clouds talking about winning championships.

We clearly needed a rim-protecting/rebounding big in that game. Not just on D, but if you want to "box out, drive to the basket, instead of jacking up 3's" then you have to box-out Len, Tucker and Chandler in the process. Good luck Al "Solo" Horford. Man I wished we had Chandler. I suggested him in the off-season. We could have had so many more options and adaptive qualities with him, now that he also doesnt mind coming of the bench. He'd have a much better shot at a ring here as well. At this point Mack, Muscala, Patterson and Holiday are just dead weight on the bench. Money better spend elsewhere.

For all the negativity in bad games, I'd like to raise some more awareness of that old workhorse with the sof touch that is Paul Millsap never taking a night off. If it wasnt for his 14 points, 14 rebounds, 4 blocks, 5 steals and 3 assists, this would have been a shameful night. Kudos Paul Millsap. That dude deserves a dedicated nickname by now.

Bad officiating. Bad Atlanta play. Bad Schröder. Worse Teague. But where the hell is our PnR play? I've been missing it last few games.

Jeff was 6-16 against Portland and played a messy 1st half where once he was subbed back in for Dennis, a 10 point lead came back to two. Likewise Dennis did so in the 3rd and early 4th. Jeff being the starting PG has the chance to shine and make up for things in the 4th, like Dennis did in the 1st and 2nd. But the 4th stands out and stays with peoples interpretation and imagination.

The offensive production was a Tale of Two Halfs with Dennis. In the first he was +10, in the second -10. Where Atlanta got a 10 point lead with Dennis, which evaporated quickly under Teague. Same story the other way around in the 3rd. But all in all, the words of the Blazers coach at the end of the 3rd say enough, who laid out the penetration of bothe Teague and Schröder hurting them. Dennis did some good things to help earn this win. However. I do have a real concern, in that this game was broadcasted nation-wide and I did see some wannabe-star reckless moves by Dennis in the 3rd. I think Dennis thought he has some leverage to do some crazy things on nation-wide TV to gather attention, after his actually stellar but maybe somewhat subdued first half. This on it itself isnt so worrysome, specially as we wone the game. But he needs to be called out for that now, as this could be his idea of playing a second half in a play-off game on nation-wide TV. You could see how after one stupid Dennis action, you see Splitter doing something stupid, as if its OK when everybody does it and if not getting touches from your PG otherwise. Be a grown up when leading Dennis. Let the game come to you and so the attention will.

I see the hawks bench outscore the opposing bench almost every game these days and it was a big reason for last years succes as well. Heck Dennis and Splitter are both +3.7, Scott +2.8, THJ +5.9 and Thabo +0.1. Scoring itself is an issue with any of the new SG/SF not panning out well, but at least between Dennis and Scott alone, they get you 17 points a game of the bench. Hope THJ keeps it up. He has it all in him.

^Looking at Rondo's form, it is no where comparable. Rondo just can not shoot from anywhere, not even the FT line these years. Dennis had 51% from 3 in Germany(thats a crazy number in Germany as well) and he has 40+% from 3 trough various stretches in the NBA. So when he has a comfort-level going he can be a very potent 3 point shooter. His 3 and his mid-range jumper dont come automatic though. He isnt doing a Kobe out there. He shoots mostly good shots out of set-ups and triplle-treath situations that the game gives him. At times his shot is to static, going trough the motions and messing up somewhere along the way up ending up in air-balls. Dennis either hits, rims out or makes high arching air-balls. Its never just hitting bricks like Rondo. Teague is more creative in this department but not elite at it either. But all comes with pro's and cons. Regarding Teague's ankle. If it is so, he's at a stage of his career where his ankle is part of his game. A problem we had last year as well. Oh, I hate to be like this...but it is true, it is no longer something extraordinarily that just goes away in a week or two. Even when these things heal they haunt you making moves on the court, afraid of coming back. Youthful Dennis always plays hard like he's immortal.

Indeed. When Jeff was subbed back in the 2nd, it wasnt the offense so much that suffered, but suddenly BKN was piling up points. Likewise in the 3rd quarter. BKN scored one FT in a stretch of 5 minutes or whatever when Dennis came back in. But it has to be said: Larkin is better of playing baseball. But its a theme I noticed often, even when Dennis is chucking on offense, he mostly plays solid D 90% of the time and gets great coverage by his team-mates(usualy Al and Thabo) when calculating to let the opponent drive to the basket. He rarily ever fouls his man driving to the rim. When he fouls its usualy him helping in double-teams. That works out great. He also seems to improve his offense with Millsap and Scott.