macdaddy

Troubleman. Good job pointing out the inaccuracies. I don't know why the national press loves to hammer Atlanta sports. The Nique/moses/theus team as you point out was very good and won a lot of games. I don't get why he says the Hawks teams have sucked for 20 years and then says they have been 'successful and entertaining' And how offensive is it to say Hawks fans don't deserve a winning team. Its the same shiite with the Braves. If were not pooring out $50 a game for crappy seats then we are bad fans. Since most team revenue comes from TV contracts I think the best thing you can do is sit at home and watch it on TV. But really I want to hear examples of other cities fans who get trashed on a regular basis. Did these folks notice the packed house when tickets were $7.50 on Monday. One big reason the Hawks and Braves don't draw is that upper level seats in both places are way too expensive and are terrible seats.

No class is an understatement. Reggie is the king of cry babies. Without a doubt one of the greatest shooters in the game, but he was considered a star player only because of his big mouth. It amazes me that he's not treated more physically. Artest is a really good player but mentally he's a joke. He probably forgot that fans don't make millions of dollars to buy $45 bball tix and sit in sucky seats and drink $8 beer. But the funny part is that guys like Miller and Artest will keep you from winning a championship. 'Mr. Clutch' is staring at a career with not a lot of real important games, and is desperately trying to hang on for another chance at taking a real clutch shot. Hitting open 3s against one of the worst teams in the league to barely get the win is not really all that clutch.

I thought it would be impossible to have a worse back court than we do now, but the Tinsley/Diaw combo really accomplishes that. I can see them just passing it back and forth until the shot clock expires. The only thing I like is getting Radmanivic. The worst part of the deal is making the Pacers much better.

I agree. He gets way more playing time than he deserves and pulls the offense away from Reef and JT. I'd rather see CC or Hansen in there.

I'd do that trade in a heartbeat. It would at least give us a different look. Ratliff is wasted on a bad team and by the time we're good he won't be. We need to trade him while he has value. I'd most hate to see Hendu go even though getting rid of his contract may be good.

I don't get that. I thought JT and Dion had 2 year deals. And I though Brandon's contract 'came off the books' in Feb 2004? Little help.

"I'm proud of the way we fought," Stotts said. "The effort we showed the last two nights against two of the best teams in the league is what we need. We didn't quit." This sounds like Kruger. I'm no longer proud of losing by 7 points with no chance to win at the end. I would have been proud if the 2 teams were the Kings and Lakers but Indiana is certainly beatable even by these Hawks. The culture of losing starts at the top.

He's thinking Lenny will take his talent and make them a good playoff team. Then he can get a new coach to make them a championship team. Someone has to get you there before you bring in Phil Jackson. You may think Lenny is no good but the Knicks will be one of the top teams in the East next year and probably be competing this year.

They did good though. The Spurs are one of the best teams in the league and we were able to stop their surge (just barely). But that's a huge step. If we play that way against East teams we'll be looking a lot better. The spurs couldn't hit a shot because we forced them to take a lot of bad ones under pressure. It was great to see some of our guys in foul trouble. It could have been a disaster if they fouled out but it shows that they were putting on some pressure. My complaint is why have Dion in for so long at the end of the game. He kept fumbling and stumbling and NOT scoring. I know Diaw was in foul trouble but why not Hansen or Crawford and let Jax play 2. The biggest problem we have is lack of a good shooting guard.

I agree. He is totally under utilized. He has a nice jumper and can take it in strong. Starting would help give him his confidence back.

Even if Stotts has the best plan in the world if the players aren't responding you either have to bring in a new coach or attempt to trade the majority of the team and hope you get something in return. Which makes the most sense? If you don't think there are coaches available who could make this bunch play better then you're crazy. [censored] they played better under Kruger. We've had essentially the same players for 3 years and this year they are playing much much worse. Have they just forgotten how to play? Or maybe they were always horrible players but somehow Kruger's masterful coaching caused them to actually look competitive. Or they have a master plan to play so poorly that good teams will want to trade for them. I'm not saying Stotts is horrible as a coach, but this isn't working! TRY SOMETHING ELSE. Make Nique interim coach. There is no way he can do any worse. They hire Fratello and move Nique to Prez next year.

Now you're talking.

Is that the ABA or JamBall? I'm surprised its not the XBA. Its scary that people find regular basketball boring.

"Yes stotts could bench guys. But who is he going to play that gives more effort AND has a decent amount of skill and knowledge? NOBODY!!" If you lose every night anyway I'd rather see scrubs busting their butt than slackers not showing any 'heart'. If Stotts thinking is that he can't stand up to star players for fear of losing his job then he will never get another job. He is going to lose his job anyway and the only way he'll ever get another one is if he shows some authority. The point about Silas was perfect. How long was he out of work this summer? We've had almost entirely the same team now for 3 years but now the same players are much much worse than they were last year and the year before. That is why Stotts should go. We shouldn't be going backwards. Fair or not coaches are measured on results and no one can stand up and say that Stotts has produced positive results.

McDavid was actually consulted on some moves this summer. I don't know why Knight can go ahead and make some moves with a behind the scenes nod from new management. We've got to make some kinda move just to save face with the few fans left.

Its the coaches job to not tolerate lack of effort. Why watch the talent sleep their way through a loss when guys on the bench will at least bring the effort. They'll lose too, but a loss is a loss. Stotts is not totally to blame but at some point you have to make some corrections.

N.O., Denver, Seattle are decent teams but its not like they are elite teams. We can't even compete against Kings, Spurs, Lakers, Dallas, Minn. Lenny's teams struggled against the elite teams too, but they never stepped on the court thinking they couldn't win. That's what we have now. With just 10 wins it baffles me why we don't play a more physical game. We don't have the talent to keep up with the Kings. I only chance we have is to clamp down on them on defense.

I'm seeing a report that the spurs want Ward. I think he would be a great pickup for us if we get him cheap. I like this deal. It gets us a legit shooter, gets rid of guys who are easily replaceable, gets rid of salary, and is a step up from the starting back court of JV JT. Ward/Diaw isn't a bad backcourt with JT,Person,JV picking up minutes off the bench. Make it happen...

We need to make something happen on the trade front. Its getting boring. I'm not saying have a fire sale but try to get someone in here for a little boost.

The perfect thing about the Kings getting Miller is now they have a much better chance against the Lakers. Where Divac relies on trickery and flopping against Shaq, Miller will hammer and actually get Shaq to take a swing at him. When that incident happenned in Chicago I thought 'every team in the league will want this guy'

The reason Kwame is exciting to us is that he is young with star potential whereas are guys are just young. Bringing him to Georgia would be a great trade if we could pull it off. I don't see how though. At least we kept some ball movement last night even when there was a HUGE scoring drought. SJax is a good nba player but he gets too many touches on the offensive end. I wish we could find a way to get rid of Dion and bring in a reliable guard.

I have to agree with trouble on this. Why play DD in place of JV in the hopes that he can 'at least equal' JV. JV is already better in every aspect of the game so why should he ride the bench just so DD can try to become as good as JV already is.

I was thinking about the game tonight and how the Kings are probably going to destroy our (lack of) defense. I don't understand why we don't play more ...spastically. Some call it hustle but when nothing else is working get up on your man. JV does it but why not JT, Dion. Then I thought how many times have you seen an opposing player pick up his dribble and our defender just continue to play off him 2 feet like he's going somewhere. I've seen that at least 5-10 times this year. Stotts likes to talk about how we are playing poorly in so many areas that its hard to fix. But, if you only try to fix perimeter defense by making the guards work harder the rest will start to fall in place.

Diesel, that's the simplest best plan you've had yet. One trade, one coaching change, much better team. I think the problem right now is that Knight know Stotts is getting a raw deal. He may not have been dealt the best cards but its the fans who are really getting screwed by letting him stay in a situation that is not working out.

I'm with you. Reef deserves better. I'm a life long Hawks fan. I loved when we had Moses and of course Nique. But I became a fanatic once Lenny got here. I remember in one of his first seasons and we were playing Orlando. I think it was the playoffs. We were down by a lot of points and mounted a huge comeback based of course on great D. With a couple minutes left Grant Long hit a long jumper from the corner and ran down the court with both fists in the air. It was a great comeback BUT.... we were still down by like 10 points. I can't even remember if we won but I thought 'these guys play hard for 48 minutes no matter the score'