jaywalker72

Sothron, what's up man?!

Childress as one of our slowest people? No way! Maybe you have him confused with Cal Bowdler---quirky shooting or not, he was effective.

Nice video.

Yeah--it's a good one--- I miss the guy---

Flubber West?? LOL that is pretty funny! It was definitely nice seeing Al get 17 shots and as expected he produced in a big way. I am certain that if we got him 12+ shots every game that he'd be a 20+ scorer and we'd be far more balanced than we have been lately during our awful 3pt shooting streak.

We'd be in better shape going into the playoffs and there would be no doubt as to Al's all-star status as well.

Al's a nice player and we need his rebounds and put backs. His offense is improving but suggesting that we should run our offense through him is a little generous to his offensive ability. Our 3 guards are assassins. We need Bibby to get out of his slump and continue to be our general. Crawford and Joe are sick off the charts. I would agree when we go into those lulls on offense that we can start dumping it into Horford to try to get something going but please let our scorers score.

The point isn't that Horford should be doing all the scoring, but that he should get more possessions (he's way behind in Usage rate) and run the offense through the post. When you have a big man who can score and pass, it opens up those "assassins" for better shots, making them MORE efficient, not have less impact. Doing the isolation, one-on-one dance does not lend itself to success against good half court defenses, as we have seen in the recent past.

You wouldn't do this with Hilton Armstrong, but you can with Al. He's is effective inside as his percentages will indicate. He passes well and makes mostly good choices--it makes sense to run your offense through this channel primarily as it will scale better than the pass-along-the-perimeter approach will against tight defenses. Make the defense move and you will get better shots. Working inside-out is a great way to accomplish this---especially when you have the scorers to make them pay, which the Hawks do.

The Hawks are a great team right now---with the opportunity to be greater with some change to their offensive approach. It's up to them. Either use a guy like Horford completely or get something for him before you pay him 10M per to be your ballboy on the court.

The whole thing spun off our commentary on Trading Al Horford:

THHB Special Commentary: Trade Al Horford

I love Al and think it's a travesty that folks have to really make a case for him instead of using him enough to be a no-brainer, but Smoove comes in ahead of him. I would put both frontcourt guys in this year over Joe (who deserves to go, too).

Thanks for the feed-in, DF----I don't think that Drew over @peachtreehoops would mind at all if you fed this site with P'Hoops material.

The reason why is all about $$$

We want him on the cheap, likely around the same type deal Mo Evans signed last season.

I absolutely didn't take it personally---thought they were good points and why I wanted to respond.

Bibby's AST% is going to be the lowest of that group because they didn't have to endure the endless iso plays and dribbling the Hawks employ--lol---I figured the categories, punched in the numbers and out popped the results. Taking the eFG to .500 and expanding the field to include all ages and experience showed that this wasn't an exclusive club. Jay Humphries, Dana Barros, and a number other luminaries appeared in the some 142 instances of these thresholds since 1981-1982.

I like those ideas too mrh---I am afraid of the time I would spend on that site if they expanded the functionality of that tool. Yikes!

On the RealGM board, I was called out for manipulation of numbers---but I understand where that's coming from.

Really wasn't trying to be disingenuous, simply trying to figure out the following:

1. Was there anything unique about the season Bibby had last year?

2. Is it easily repeatable?

3. Was this an outlier season for Bibby?

PER, Assist Rate, Minutes Played and Effective Field Goal percentage were chosen because we felt it best captured what the point guard position on the Hawks was looking for: A facilitator who can shoot, play a lot of minutes (though we only used 30MPG * 82 as the measure here, Bibby played over 36 MPG last season--Billips was the only player who wouldn't have made the cut @ 36 MPG), and overall offensive effectiveness.

We chose the age (30) and years in the league (11) to gauge how common it is to do this later in one's career, effecting repeatability. This was Bibby's age and experience last season.

Whether or not you felt it did, it gave me a sense, especially after I backed it out to .500 eFG and included all ages and years, that Bibby could do it again, that the season was one of some uniqueness, and that paying him what I thought to be 3 years and 20 million, would be a good thing as long as the Hawks insist on playing offense the way that they do.

He's a good fit, the stats seem to prove that out, and could be worth what he will be compensated with.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/psl...mp;order_by=per

Good points guys---but I believe eventually the Mavs will make an above the exception offer to Kidd along the lines of a Sam Cassell deal in 2005--2 years, 16-18 million or so---

I would welcome any legit point guard like Kidd, who would instantly make our shooters better and his defense would be better (by default) than either Bibby and Crawford. He is definitely down a tier from his NJN days, but he is still very productive.

I think it's a moot point since he likes the motion offense in Dallas and has a bigger offensive force to play with in Dirk there. He is going to be shopping himself to make sure that DAL doesn't let him go.

atlanta_hawks@THHB I see the intertubes are a'twitter - word is the Hawks gave QO to Marvin, Chills, Mario, and Solo

Hawks Restricted/Unrestricted Player Update: http://www.humanhighlightblog.com/2009/06/...ted-player.html

Nothing yet on Marvin being tendered, but we've asked the questions--we're waiting to hear....

Dr Z---you can follow me @thhb

The Bill Shanks Show @ foxsports1670.com needs your calls today as we dive into the 2009 NBA Draft and all of the trades/rumors that are pumping through this afternoon.

Call in @ 478-471-1670!

Yeah--Heard Bob and Nique talking about how frustrating it is that we haven't gained any ground on the Magic, but they have to really cheesed that they have put any distance between us and them while THEY have been on fire as well.

I like us vs. them and as long as we make the playoffs and stay healthy in the starting 5, I don't fear any matchup.

Guys, having Joe out of the Top 10 in voting in the East is as inexcusable as not having a sellout at home for the NBA Finals. It will be a straight felony if he is not in the All-Star game this year, but it will be our shame if he doesn't show better in the voting.

Really, a lot of fan bases would give a lot to have a scorer on the level of Joe on their team. We just wrote over at the HHB that he is really this Hawks generations' Bernard King, and if folks are focused on where his warts might be, they are going to miss one of the all-timers here.

That is all.

:angel19:

Do you remember the last shot of the game? Sure you do, if you

were paying attention. The game was ending. Hawks had the

win in hand. Nothing could change that. Clock was almost to the

point of lighting up the basket, which means "the end."

Then, the unexpected happens. A 3 pointer! Not from one of our

known 3 point specialist, but from our #3 center, Jones. Nothing

but net! Didn't change the outcome of the game. That was already

decided. What a great way for him to end our last game before the

Christmas break. I'll bet he got a lot of friendly razzing from all the

other Hawks about becoming our latest 3 point specialist!!

:offtopic2:

To all of you here on Hawksquawk, from the lod man:

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND MAY GOD BLESS EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!!

:angel19:

I was stunned when he launched it and amused when he hit it. Good call GM! Merry Christmas!

I doubt he ever considered signing with anyone other than detroit. This whole thing with him "considering" these teams is made up BS to avoid getting detroit into trouble for doing the deal knowing he would be back.

I mean, all teams could offer was the same deal, so its not like there were real negotiations going on. What was there to talk about with the other teams?

They did the trade having agreed he would sign back with them, and then he floated these rumors to avoid a situation like that with stackhouse and dallas last year.

Bingo.

Thanks to those who send notes after reading the blog---but some have noted that because we had to take so much time off in the offseason, many may have thought the blog was closed.

But au contraire, mon frere, the Human Highlight Blog is moving with full force (sorry, no Cult Jam). While now it's just thoughts and analysis, the HHB hopes to add some interviews, etc to the mix in the future.

Thanks to DF for keeping the News Link on the home page--plenty of materrrrial---a good year to start a Hawks blog, no? You can hit it @ The Human Highlight Blog

5-0 baby!!! Fire it up!

BTW---Starting a blog led to me a couple of good Hawks sites that some may not be familiar with (and some obviously do). The guys at Peachtree Hoops and Zaza's Playground have great blogs and make us feel like we are not alone out here. Great stuff.

Thanks again to those who have been coming by---Can't get enough Hawks stuff right now!

The Official Word from the Hawks as of last night:

The Atlanta Hawks will be without the services of forward Josh Smith for an estimated time of 2-4 weeks, after suffering a high ankle sprain in the second quarter of tonight’s game against Toronto. Smith suffered the injury attempting to block a shot and landed awkwardly.

exodus, I give you that, at some point, the price is too high and you can't overspend for someone that is not part of your starting core or if you have to spend that money to address other needs (center, point guard).

However---

Childress was productive, productive in a way that Mo Evans has never been, and the point of whether or not Evans was signed to replace Childress or not, Childress' production in the 29+ minutes per game he played must be filled---And if Evans is the first step, it's already a downgrade in production.

I am completely for fiscal responsibility, especially in the cap era, but if you choose to go that route, you must be ready with productive alternatives when players leave.