TheNorthCydeRises

HIS SHORTS !! Dillard's shorts, at times, looked to be down by his ankles. They were at least 2 - 4 inches past his knees. As long as the waistband were at his waistline, no one could say anything to him. Commentators used to joke all the time about how long his shorts were. Jordan popularized the long shorts look, but Dillard took it to the very extreme. I bet the ball would get caught in his shorts, if he tried to dribble between his legs.

Quote: I want to think that the player's name is Al Dillard, but it could have been Clint McDaniel. It was definitely Dillard. Do you remember what made him distinct . . besides the fact that he was 25? ( hint: clothing )

He's talking about the nine 3's he jacked up tonight. And to think, the kid was 9 - 17 FG. But of his 8 misses, 6 of them were from 3 point land. To me, that ish is unacceptable for Smoove. I don't care if he does make a few, he should NEVER have the green light to take a 3 whenever he wants. Pump fake, and take the damn ball to the hole and see if you can draw a foul. Either that, or go by them and dunk on somebody. He is not Dirk. Ish . . he isn't even Rasheed. So he should quit acting like it.

Don't worry about Sniper. He'll be just fine. Most rookie guards struggle mightily with their shooting when they first come into the league. McCants - 44% Paul - 43% Salim - 42% Jasikevicus - 41% ( and he's the guy that killed Team USA in the Olympics ) Jarrett Jack - 41% D. Williams - 39% Felton - 39% N. Robinson - 39% Luther Head - 38% Salim will probably be one of those career 42% shooters from the field, that knocks down 37% - 40% of his 3 pointers. There have been a lot of guys in this league who have shot like that, and become very good players.

I agree totally. All we need are a couple of quality vets on this team. We're not that far away people. If we can win 25 home games next year, all we'll have to do is win 15 on the road to possibly get that 8th spot. You guys are going to have to start looking at this team from the 19th game on. That 2 - 16 start had everything to do with JJ and the new players on the team trying to find some chemistry between each other. Since that time, we're 17 - 21. That may not sound like much, but that record would put us at the 8th spot, if the season began after the 18th game of the year. That's how we have to look at things. We're not going to the playoffs, and I think any reasonable fan never expected to be a playoff caliber team this year. But I have enough confidence in this team that even if we don't add another quality person to this current roster, that this team could finish close to .500 next year. If we do add some quality people, that number could go above .500 To put it in perspective, this is the best 38 game stretch the Hawks have been on in 7 YEARS. Even the 02 - 03 team with Big Dog, Terry, Shareef, and Ratliff couldn't manage to win 17 games in a 38 game stretch. I think the closest they got was 16 wins in 38 games. Stop worrying about what could've been, and look toward the future. Our future is as bright as it has been in a long time.

Saying that Phoenix is a good defensive team, is like saying that the Indianapolis Colts were a good defensive team last year in the NFL. The Colts defense feasted off of horrific offenses to boost their defensive numbers. But as soon as they played a potent offense in the Cincinnati Bengals, they got lit up like a Christmas tree. Because Phoenix is so efficient and so explosive offensively, mediocre to bad teams routinely find themselves down by 10 or more points early in the game. To catch up, those teams start to force a lot of things on offense, which plays right into Phoenix's hands. The Colts forced teams to do the same thing, offensively jumping all over teams, which forced them to abandon their run game and go strictly to a pass attack to get back in the game. In Phoenix's case, if you take a bad 3-point shot or a long jumper, they're grabbing the rebound and fast breaking the other way, even taking 3's off the break. If you can't keep pace with them offensively. Or if you can't slow them down, they'll devour you by the time the half comes around. ( see tonight's game vs Milwaukee, in which Phoenix shot 56% while the Bucks shot 43%. Oh yeah, the Bucks were 5 - 20 from 3-point range because they tried to shoot themselves back into the game ) To that team's credit, they are better defensively this year, than they were last year. But a decent offensive team has no trouble running their offense and scoring on Phoenix. It's just that Phoenix's offense is too hard to stop. Take our two meetings for instance. In game 1 out in Phoenix, they jumped all over us after starting out slow to begin the game. When they started to pull away, our guys started taking bad shots and forcing everything to try to stay in the game. Before we knew it, we were down 20, on our way to being down 30. We ended up with 22 turnovers in that game. And it had very little to do with what Phoenix was doing to us defensively. In game 2, the Hawks went toe to toe with Phoenix. Why? Because we were much more efficient on offense, even though we still shot 41% in that game. Phoenix shot 51% by the way. But we grabbed 19 offensive rebounds in that game, which gave us extra possessions. More importantly, we only had 12 turnovers in that game. And that was because we were under control for most of the game. Like Diesel said. When Phoenix plays a great defensive team, or an efficient offensive team, that's when you'll see them lose games. The reason why we lost games early in the year, had a lot to do with our offensive ineptitude, as well as our defense. In that stretch in which we went 2 - 16, we failed to break the 80 point mark 5 times. We failed to break the 90 point mark 8 times. Since then, the Hawks have failed to score 80 points just one time ( the debacle in the first Washington game in January ) . . and failed to score 90 points 5 times in the last 38 games. We lost all of those games by the way. So that means that in the games in which we've scored 90 or more points since starting out 2 - 16, the Hawks are 16 - 15. When we score 100 or more points, we're 12 - 6

. . this lineup has been working for the Hawks recently: G - JJ G - Chill F - Williams F - Smoove F - Harrington In a league that is absent of a plethora of dominant big men, don't be surprised if Knight would prefer this lineup in the future. A lot of you believe that whomever we bring in, will start right away. I don't think that'll necessarily be the case. And if they do start, they may play spot minutes, much like Ivey does for us. I can't see a guy like Cato logging 30 minutes a night on this team. Nor do I see a guy like Foye doing the same thing, if we were to get him. Even a guy like Aldridge may not play 30 minutes a game, even if he were the starter on this team. But I do see Chill, Marv, and Smoove playing those 30 minutes a game, along with JJ and Al. When that lineup has been aggressive, they've created matchup problems for teams on both ends of the floor. And that's how you justify keeping Al around. You play him at multiple spots, like you do Smoove and JJ, to keep them out on the floor.

LOL !!(( shaking my head like the kid at the end of the new Jordan commercial ))

Can't say that I wouldn't have been happy if I woke up this morning and saw . . Harrington and Delk traded to Orlando . . for Steve Francis. Because he may have been our best option in acquiring a very good player. And yes, Steve is still a very good player. That whole "Steve is a cancer" is just BS. Steve only becomes a problem when things go terribly wrong. In Houston, they tried to blame him for not getting the ball to Yao. Now that they have T-Mac, Yao still doesn't get enough touches. But now we see the reason why . . . because Yao is soft as tissue paper. So that situation in Houston wasn't Steve's fault. Even in Orlando, the Magic traded away his boy, Cuttino Mobely . . for Doug Christie. The Magic weren't having a bad season. They just thought that Christie could bring them a better defensive player. LOL @ that ish. When Mobely was traded, Steve took it hard. That was his boy. Pros: - can play the 1 and the 2 - super athletic - is a tremdous slasher to the hole - can knock down the 3 ball Cons: - is too emotional - takes ill-advised shots at times - not clutch in critical situations - a turnover machine when he tries to do too much Like I said, I wouldn't have been upset to see Steve in a Hawks uniform. But I also see the point that Trace made. And I'd love to see the Hawks throw a major deal at Ben Wallace, and see if he blinks about signing an extension with the Pistons.

Exactly. People fall in love with Iggy when they see his highlights. But they can easily find fault in Chill's game because they see him night after night. Iggy is the stronger defender. Childress is the better offensive player. Overall, Chill may also be the smarter player. Chill is becoming more and more productive as the year has gone on. Let's hope that trend continues.

MW . . . they don't hear you man. It's like some of these fans completely forgot how Childress played in the final 2 months of last year, when Walker was gone and Al was hurt half the time. The reason why people were on Childress so much earlier this season, was because we ALL THOUGHT that he was a much better player than what he was showing back in November. I was CONVINCED after what I saw last season, that Childress could come right in and average 15 ppg and 7 rebs as a starter on this team. Why? Because that's basically what he did in March and April of last year. The same argument people use for Smoove starting in place of Al when he leaves, seems to not apply to Childress. Like his production would stay the same or fall off even more when he left. LOL. Chill will probably end up being a high quality 6th man on this team, but he's also a guy who could easily average 14 ppg and 6 - 7 rebs, if he took more shots. And people act like Iggy doesn't benefit TREMENDOUSLY from playing with Allen Iverson. LOL . . Imagine Chill playing with Iverson in Philly. How good would the guy be then? Iggy's per 48 minute stats: 15.1 points 7.5 rebounds 3.4 assists 1.9 steals 2.1 turnovers Chill's per 48 minute stats: 15.5 points 8.7 rebounds 2.8 assists 2.1 steals 2.2 turnovers Plus Chill shoots almost 55% FG ( almost unheard of for a swingman ) and 50% from 3. And he does all of that without the services of a dominant ball handler who commands all types of attention like Iverson . . and a big man who is still one of the best passing big men in the game, in Webber. Yet, some of you will argue until you are blue in the face that Iggy is easily a better player than Chill. To me, they're damn near equal. Question: Would Iggy start for the Hawks, and if so, where, and who would currently be coming off the bench? And if he didn't start, what would be his numbers? Chill was the obvious pick for this franchise, seeing that he was an experienced player coming out of Stanford, and widely regarded as one of the best players in the country at the time. Chill's role in the NBA will be a lot like Shane Battier's, in the sense that neither will put up explosive offensive numbers. They'll just be soild players that you can depend on night after night.

That team has a damn good shot at making the playoffs next year. Al wouldn't want to go to a playoff team with a PG that could make him an even more potent scorer?

Johnny, I guarantee you that Salim TRULY BELIEVES that he is the best player on the Hawks. That's his mentality as a player and it's not necessarily a bad mentality to have. But when you take the type of shots that he takes, and you're constantly missing them, that mentality can destroy a team. Johnny, the only way this team could survive with Salim at the point, is if you had a true PG here that he could play alongside, and put JJ at the 3. Salim can play with JJ, but putting JJ at the point limits what he does best as well. Put a PG out there with the option of having him get the ball to Salim or JJ out on the wings, then you may have something. Diesel said it best . . Salim is that gunner at the rec center that thinks his shot is falling every time. But when it doesn't, he plays that matador defense when that fast break is coming back at him. If the shot does fall, his entire game picks up. You'll never see him pass when he's on, but at least if he hits a couple of shots, his rebounding and even his poor defense will pick up. ******* As for you Ivey lovers . . LOL. Ivey should thank the Lord every day that he's still in the NBA. I don't think there is one team in this entire league in which Ivey can step in and be the backup PG for a team, let alone the starter. It just illustrates how bad our PG situation is here. It's not that Ivey's defense is great, because he isn't shutting down anybody when he's in the game. It's just that his defense is far and away better than Salim's and Lue's, who are horrible. Ivey's "average defense" makes him look like Ron Artest, compared to Salim and Ty. I would be SHOCKED if Ivey was on this squad next year. Seeing that we need a starting PG, and that we already have Lue locked up for two more years, re-signing Ivey to a spot where he would be the 12th man at best, would be a waste of money. Ivey "holds his own" on defense. Calling him a "good or great" defender, is a stretch.

I got 2 that should be considered to be in that top 10. Rodney Monroe: For those of you who don't remember Rodney, he was part of the great "Fire and Ice" backcourt at N.C. State during the late 80's - early 90's. Rodney was the 2-guard while Chris Corchiani(sp) was the point guard. They are arguably the best college backcourt of the past 20 years. Rodney averaged 27 points and shot 44% from the field and from 3-point range his senior year at NC State. Q: How does a guy like that not only get passed over by every team in the 1st round, but ends up being a one-year wonder in the pros? A: Because he couldn't get his shot off against NBA defenders, and he couldn't create his own shot or play a lick of defense. Doug Edwards: The 1992 - 93 Florida St. basketball team had 4 legitimate pro prospects on the squad. - 2-guard Sam Cassell - point guard Charlie Ward - dynamic swing man Bobby Sura ( a freshman at the time ) - and power forward Doug Edwards ( the All-American candidate on the squad ) Doug was a very good college player, averaging 18 points and 9 rebounds, while shooting 52% FG. We take him with the 15th pick overall, while his teammates Cassell go 24th and Ward goes undrafted ( because he was also a great QB at FSU. So how does Doug flop in the ATL? He flops because while he was a PF, he was a 6-7 PF. And because he didn't have the strength or desire to battle with bigger PF's, his career never got off the ground. Doug would end up scoring a grand total of 110 points in 2 seasons as a Hawk.

Quote: How can that not be considered a diss against Nique? A hall of fame player, one of the best scorers, dunkers and all around players EVER and you hope Josh Smith isn't like him? Give me a break. The fact that there is a clip in there if josh blocking a shot owes more to the internet and the recording of EVERYTHING than it does to any shred of defensive prowess he may have. Niques shots were HIGHLIGHTS, many of josh's, including his blocks, were little more than screen caps from the game. That may be the most short sighted comment i've ever read on this site. LOL . . . he's obviously a guy too young to remember just how great Nique was to this franchise. Player wise, there isn't any comparison. Nique was a better shooter, passer, scorer, rebounder, free throw shooter, anticipator ( as far as steals ), and overall basketball IQ. The ONLY thing Smoove could do better, is block shots. Nique even had a better post game than Josh. I wish Smoove had 35% of the heart and desire that Nique had. LOL . . this is like someone saying that they hope Jordan was a good of a shooter as Ben Gordon.

I bet a lot of "fans" didn't know that he was the best shooter % wise on the team. Chill's play in the past 2 months, as a guy coming off the bench, has been very good. It wouldn't surprise me one bit to see Chill become a 15 ppg - 7 rbg guy, if Harrington was dealt AND if Chill made a point to take 10 - 13 shots a game. Those numbers would put him on par with Tayshawn Prince.

Joe wouldn't be overpaid if he got his 20 - 25 shots a game, like the other guys in that tax bracket do. It's not his fault that he's not looking to shoot 23 times a game. He could very easily be a 25 ppg scorer in this league, if he had a gunner's mentality and shot the ball every time he touched it. I know one thing. IF I had a choice between Michael Redd and Joe Johnson, I'm taking Joe any day of the week.

Quote: I really think the lion's share of the credit goes to Zaza. Down the stretch, I thought Zaza had been replaced by the ghost of Vlade. He was making vet moves on vet. He hooked Rasheed and got it to look like Rasheed fouled him on the rebound!!! That is what set the stage for us to win. Without Zaza getting those two points with the clock off, I don't think we would have won. I don't know about "lion's share", but you can give ZaZa his props. He got dominated in the first Detroit game, but he held his own tonight. You're right about those 2 free throws down the stretch. It was the difference between us getting a stop and going for a 2 . . or trying to tie the game with a 3 and still having to get a stop.

Hawks played better when they saw Phoenix the 2nd time around. We won't win, but I say we cover the 10.5 spread Pistons by 7.

LOL . . people talk like Marbury is garbage or something. Marbury would instantly make us a better team, and make some of our young players better. It wouldn't bother me one bit if this team picked up Marbury and tried him for 1/2 of this year and the first half of next year. If he doesn't work out, you can always trade him for lesser players that may fit our needs better. Q: Who would take on Marbury's contract? A: A borderline playoff team that is in desperate need for a PG, which is about 1/2 the league.

Quote: If Andre Miller can play D then that is my choice. Although I know Ben Gordon is talented but I haven't seen much of him since he has been in the NBA. I'll definitely give him a closer look now. If the Hawks do go after Ben Gordon, then they definitely want JJ to be their PG. Like someone said earlier, Gordon can always bring the ball up, while JJ takes on the role as the playmaker in the half court offense. For JJ to be successful at the point, he'd need a big time 2-guard beside him. Gordon would provide that, while being the main ball handler up the court. But I agree with you. Give me Dre Miller any day of the week in an Al deal.

Quote: I just hope Woody doesn't try and have Joe run the point while keeping Ivey and Salim on the bench. Seeing that we play the Pistons, It's a good bet that Chill will see a significant amount of time at the 2, while JJ plays at least 30 minutes at the 1. At least you Ivey fans may get a chance to see if he can really prove himself as more than a 10 minute a night player. If he can, he may have a future in this league. If he can't, this may be his last year in the league.

LOL. First off, I agree with Diesel in the sense that in NO WAY can you compare Marvin right now with Jamal Mashburn when he was coming out of school. Jamal was the ABSOLUTE TRUTH at Kentucky. Multi-talented . . could play 3 positions and excel at each one . . and could flat out take over a game. Having said that, I'm not a bit concerned about Marvin. Almost all of those players in the rookie game, had a chance to immeadiately come in and log major minutes. If Chris Paul was taken by a team that had a veteran PG, he'd be in the same situation that Marvin is in. Jermaine O'Neal was in that situation in Portland, behind Wallace Kobe was in that situation behind Eddie Jones in LA T-Mac was in that situation behind Carter in Toronto Al was in that situation behind the Davis boys in Indy Michael Redd was in that situation behind Ray Allen Mike James was in that situation And you can say that Marvin is in that situation behind Al, Chill and Smoove. One thing is for sure. No matter if we trade Al or keep Al, Marvin WILL start next year. And if Al is here next year, the guy that is going to the bench will be Smoove. Going back to Paul. Let's say Jason Terry was still here, along with JJ in the backcourt . . but the Hawks drafted Paul to replace Terry in 06 . . when he became a UFA. The Hawks wouldn't come out the gate and start Paul. They'd still probably go with a JT/JJ backcourt at the beginning of the year. As the year progressed, Paul would've seen more time at the PG position. Then, if it was seen that Paul is becoming a difference maker at the PG spot, the move would be made to go with a Paul/JT backcourt, and move JJ to SF ( limiting the time of Smoove and Chill ). By the end of the year, Paul would be entrenched as the Hawks future PG, making the transition easier to take over the team full time next season. A scenario like that could very well go down with Marvin, even if Al isn't moved. He's putting himself in position to be the starter at the 3 by March. Smoove will then hope to see Al gone by that time, or at the very least, have to work harder to see major playing time on the court. Make no mistake about it. When Marvin gets his chance to be a major contributor with the Hawks in the immeadiate future, you'll see his numbers rise significantly and his critics turned into believers more and more. Whether he becomes a superstar or not is wayyyyyy premature though.

Knicks potential lineup: G - Marbury G - Rose F - Q-Rich F - Frye C - Curry The one thing I see about this trade is this. Rose is being brought in not to help the Knicks, but the stabilze them at the guard position. Brown obviously doesn't trust Nate Robinson to get heavy minutes, and A. Davis was basically doing nothing for the team. And Rose coming to the team instead of keeping Davis and letting his deal expire does nothing for N.Y.'s cap situation. So why not get a player like Rose to try to keep the Knicks respectable, while acquiring another draft pick. Personally, I was afraid that BK was going to bring in Rose for Harrington, and try to once again force feed the "big" lineup. A move like that would make no sense for us. But for New York, it isn't a bad of a deal as people would think. And I think this is more of an indictment on Jamal Crawford than anybody. He's the guy that should be the #2 guy on this team, yet, he still plays like he's in Chicago. One other thought. A deal like this makes you wonder what exactly we can get for Al in a trade?

Jaric is a bit slow to be running the point here. He would be an upgrade defensively, but his offense is horrible. And that contract? YIKES !! Jaric could easily become a backup on this team if we acquired a guy like Speedy Claxton. Paying a backup PG that much money is counterproductive to what we're trying to do here. At least Hassell can knock down an open jumper and take the ball to the rim, while playing stellar defense. And Griffin can at least board and block shots, although Griffin is a lot like Smoove in the sense that he doesn't have the highest basketball IQ in the world. He is notorious for taking bad long range shots, when he should be working on his post game. Hassell, Griffin, and a 2nd round pick for Al . . would work for us to strengthen the team overall. Then you could go out and get Speedy and/or Przy . . or address both of those needs in the draft. G - Speedy G - Hassell F - JJ F - Marvin C - Przy Bench: G - Lue G - Salim F - Chill F - Smoove F - Griffin F/C - ZaZa 2006 1st round draft pick