chillzatl

Earlier, when big dog was putting up BIG numbers, we were always finding him in the right spots. It seems that after he dropped 3 30's in a row, we figured he's so good we can just give him the ball, stand there and wait for him to score. Big Dog can't do that. He's a [censored] of a scorer. But he's not a creator. find him in motion where he can catch and shoot or at least catch the ball in motion and continue on with it and he'll be money every time. Otherwise we are going to see a substandard Big dog.

Win or lose this road trip was nothing more than a litmus test. We've shown we can win against bad teams and lose badly to bad teams. We've also shown that we can match up pretty well with some really good teams. Mind you, this is all on the road. But You can't forget that this is team needs some time to come together. Too many NBA experts agree that a team needs 10-20 games to come together and know each other. Why are the Hawks any different? Because we are their fans?? NONSENSE! We have several new pieces on this team and they can't be expected to just come out and win based on what they can do individually. It's a team sport and it takes a team to win. Honestly I feel that the games we have won were won solely on individual talent. We have yet to have a consistant team effort. Personally that makes me feel good. Because we've all seen stetches where this TEAM really plays as one and in those times they've been nothing short of unstoppable. If we come back from this road trip 4-4 or even 3-5, I'm not going to cry about it. We let a few games get away from us. But that happens to teams trying to find an identity. Once this team finds their identity and I believe they will, they will be a good team and a fun one to watch.

PRO BASKETBALL: 'It's time to let me go out and play' Big steps: Hawks' Ratliff asking for increased minutes. Jeffrey Denberg - Staff Tuesday, November 12, 2002 Los Angeles --- For six games Theo Ratliff worked skimpy minutes. He was in constant foul trouble and his coach and general manager also wanted to protect him from a too rigorous playing regimen after a year and a half away from the game. Ratliff, living with a reputation that says he is fragile and needs coddling, was frustrated and eager to test his wings for the first time as the Atlanta Hawks center. Before the team played Sacramento on Sunday he went to his bosses and begged to be unfettered. They agreed. The results were pleasing. Ratliff had 12 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks. He worked 38 minutes, double the combined minutes of his two previous games. "I told coach it's time to let me go out and play," Ratliff said. "When I get winded and need to come out, I'll tell him, but I've got to be able to go out there and get tired if I'm going to build my stamina and really help the team." Ratliff has been away so long he said, it's an effort "for me to get into the flow of the game where I can really help the team, so I've got to play to do that." But for an exhibition and three regular season games last season, Ratliff had not played since he broke a bone in his wrist Feb. 14, 2000, on the eve what was to have been his first All-Star starting assignment. Surgery for a broken hip socket, then a winter and spring of rehab followed. Now, Ratliff wants to find out where his game is. The Hawks would like to know as well, with backup Nazr Mohammed out with a stress fracture. Sunday represented some of Ratliff's best minutes since his return. And it was the aggressive, reasonably well controlled game that will help the Hawks turn around three seasons of utter misery. So, the slender 6-foot-10 Ratliff hopes he is finally on course, with his return as a primary player and with a firm understanding of how he has to play. "Just let me go," is the message he gave his coach. "I'll let him know when I need a break. I was able to get in the flow of the game, be active and help my teammates. They've been trying to monitor my time. "I feel better when I'm on the floor because I get a chance to get loose. But every time I get loose and I have to sit down I stiffen up and when I come back I have to get loose again." He said of his extended minutes, "I felt pretty good and I felt a little winded but that's good for me right now. I'm still in the healing process." Still, the news that Shaquille O'Neal is unlikely to play tonight when the Hawks visit the Los Angeles Lakers did not displease Ratliff in the least. "If he doesn't play, that's a very good thing. I wasn't looking forward to trying to push him with my bad hips."

some people say why, he says why bother...

this is unmitigated nonsense. last year the guy scores 50 "he's great". He hits shots in the clutch when nobody else could and "he's awesome!". But this, four games into the season ith a sore back "he's heartless". What a crock! Some of you guys need to wake up and smell the friggen coffee. Pointing at Karl malone and saying "he never won a ring" is equally chock full of BS. Karl only had one team capable of winning it and unfortunately he ran into a better team. If Reef finishes his career in atlanta with stats anything close to what Malone will, I will pity him for playing his heart out for fans like you who lack the ability to appreciate it.

Am I the only one who is just giddy about what these guys are doing this year? Dion is stepping up and scoring consistantly with a great fg%. Sometimes single handedly energizing this team back to life. Hendu is simply doing what he did to earn himself his contract many years ago. He's playing like he enjoys the game again and it's fun to watch.

Big Dog has been floundering. IMO, it's very easy to explain why too. The first few games we were finding Bid Dog in motion. All he had to do was catch the pass take a step or two and shoot, MONEY. It seems that after about 2-3 games of that someone decided that big dog can create for himself against double teams. Now, I like Big Dog and I think that he's a heck of a scorer. But I DO NOT see him as a guy who can put it on the floor against a double team and create. He's having to work too hard out there for his shot and it's hurting his game. The blame for this has to go on the coaching staff. It almost seems like they put out a mandate to "get the ball to dog" without giving thought to how it should be done. Last night they were giving him the ball on the perimeter and letting him try to create and he looked very bad. Once JT and others started hitting him in motion, he warmed up. I know there are cases where he can create his own, man to man or against a double. But against a good team he's going to get shut down more often than not. Without Big Dog we are only marginally better than last season. If he isn't scoring 20+ or at least doing the other things that go with scoring 20+, we aren't going to win many more games than last season.

Webber had the better team. I like our team and I think the more we play the better we are going to be. But those guys are just darn good. If big dog could have gotten off I would have been a different story. BUT, i'm very content with what I saw. We went on the road against one of the best teams in the league and the best home team over the past few seasons and pushed them to the wire. A great, gutsy effort.

you need to make up your mind. Just a year or so ago JT was nothing but a scorer, He coudln't defend, couldn't pass and had no heart. This year he's the only player we have with heart. A year or so ago Shareef was your lover, as evidence by your name at the time (Abdur-Rahim Rules). But now he's a pansy who even though is a near 20/10 player, isn't really very good. You wanted to have big dogs child for the first four games then he has a few bad games and you start calling him names. One game you'll say we need winners, though you can't describe exactly what a winner is. The next game you'll say we need toughness and the next you'll see we need people who can handle the ball. Somewhere down the line i'm sure you'll say we need guys who can shoot the three or block shots also. You are the worst fan, as has been the case for years now. Scratch that, you aren't a fan at all. A fan may hate it when his team loses. But a real fan doesn't punk out on his team because they lose a few games, then jump back on the bandwagon when they win, as you've done for years. So make up your mind. Are you a fan or aren't you? Can you intelligently discuss the losses or can you do nothing but make weak, negative comments towards whatever player had the last bad game? C'mon man, make up your mind!

and all I can do is laugh. ANYONE who says he's not a game changer HAS NOT bothered to watch a hawks game this season. The entire look of the game changes when theo is in there. That's been the case in every game this season. Theo is in, a few people challenge him and get packed, then NOBODY challenges him any more. THeo goes out and it's a free for all walk to the basket. Anyone who thinks he's not a game changer is either blind or a hater, take your pick. Also, the warped theory that he is foul prone is nothing but hater-aid. The guy has a career average of 3 PF's per game. How is that foul prone? He hasn't played in a year and a half. Give the guy a chance to get his legs back under him and get back into the flow of things. Everything he's done so far is pure natural talent. Once he's back in game shape, both physically and mentally, nobody will be disappointed with what he brings.

Do we need tougher players or do we need winners? Do we need more scorers or do we need better defenders? You flip flop ever other week. Make up your mind.

He has a bad game or two and you look at him to say he's not as good as someone else. This only AFTER he was named the most efficient player in the league through 4 games. whatever! Three near triple doubles and diesel keeps his mouth shut, Lurking in the shadows waiting for Kobe to mess up so he can say something Pierce is NOTHING without walker, period. T-mac is the only one of your lust players that gets it done without another 20ppg player standing next to him, and T-mac might well have one of those this year. Kobe: 3 fewer points, more considerably more rebounds AND more assists on a team with a much weaker supporting cast? yeah, whatever. You say that Kobe isn't as good as other guys because he has shaq. next thing you'll say that his stats are inflated because he's the only guy on the team. laughable.

Malone is a competitor, without a doubt. If a sub 100% Reef and Hendu are all we have to put on him, it could be a long night. By seasons end malone will still be averaging 20+. He's just stuck in an unfortunate situation, as is stockton. As many have said, when the two best players on your team are 40 years old, you are in trouble.

You talk about looking at both sides. But you follow that up by only looking at one side. That side happens to be the diesel "lon sucks" side and it's a cop out. You want to push the credit for the teams late season performance in every direction as long as it doesn't involve giving the coach any credit for it. That's a cheap cop out. I've never suggested that he deserved ALL the credit for it. But refusing to give him any credit, as you do, totally invalidates any point you might have on the subject.

I have to agree wtih his answer, somewhat. Lon did an AMAZING job of keeping the team focused and positive. I never saw them playing like I've seen the Clippers, Cavs and grizzlies play in the final weeks of the season. In that respect he did a great job. His players gave him props in that respect as well. So I take that as a good. Now, I don't think any of us agree with his substitutions. But again, you have to look at what he had to work with. When you have a lineup that was constantly changing for the first 2/3 of the season, you really can't get a feel for who can give you what and when they can give it. Once our injury situation evened out and he got some healthy players back, we finished the season well. As for the X's and O's, I don't think it's a GM's place to give his feelings on that matter. Well, unless you want to send a message to the coach that he's going to be fired. But I will say that once his lineup stabalized and they learned how to play together we got some wins. We did finish the season strong and it's not just raw talent doing that. You can't give credit to the players without also giving some to the coach. This season we've seen some shaky lineups on the floor again. But again, we've had injuries to key players. PLayers that WOULD have been on the floor had they been there. Nazr would have been coming in for Theo instead of Harvey. Dion would have been coming in more for E-mail. Though I still think E-mail would get some minutes, they wouldn't be as significant. lastly, you should be patient! We've seen this team play stretches this season where they were simply dominant. Again, that's not just raw talent. Give credit where credit is due. We've had enough of those good stretches to be 2/1. He can't be unfairly judged until he has his team. Plugging big holes with Emanual Davis and Antonio Harvey and expecting 48 minutes of prime ball is unreasonable. I'm willing to give it time. I like what i've seen so far and I feel it will only get better as the season progresses.

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Simply because over the course of the season other teams are going to step up and push themselves into the spotlight. That will bring out the fans. If Vince Carter can get the Raps going, they will sellout a game.

Some might think me crazy. But I think we can take 3 of 5 on this road trip. Granted, a lot of things need to go right for us. But looking at the lineups I think we can do it. Denver: They just don't have the firepower to out shoot us and they don't have the defenders to shut our scorers down. We should be able to get the W here and if so, it'll give us a good start to the road trip. Suns: I also think we can get this one. The suns are better, IMO, than Denver. But I just don't see them having the firepower to out score us. JT matches up very well with Marbury. Marion can't stop BIg dog and they don't have anyone capable of containing Reef. two of our Big Three, should have big games here. Jazz: We are clearly the better team. But the Delta Center has been one of the hardest places for anyone to play over the last few years. No reason we can't win with the same gameplan we used in our home opener with them. Kings: Who is going to predict us to win this one? Not I. The Kings are the best right now, period. This is a watermark game for us, IMO. To see how we play with the best AND on the road against the best. Lakers: They are STILL a good team without Shaq. If shaq comes back, I only hope that his being in the lineup disrupts the chemistry they were developing without him. Whether he's there I think we have a chance of getting the win. But I won't cry if we lose. I'm looking more to see how we play against the best in this one, a win is just a bonus.

Talent and chemistry are two different things. You know that. They've had plenty of talent for the last few years and have had ZERO chemistry. Why would anyone be surprised if they don't do anything this year?

I'm sure not having Nazr and Dion has caused some havok on Lons planned rotations. Didn't think of that one.

in the 1st qtr and even part of the 2nd, he was doing solid subs. Bringing in Hendu and harvey while still having JT and BD out there. Then bringing Reef back in while resting JT. That's the time when we built up our biggest lead and it looked like we were going to knock them out very early. Then inexplicably he starts going crazy with the subs. At one point we had a floor lineup of nothing but bench players! Hendu, Harvy, Ham, dickau and glover. WTF IS THAT? Now I like those guys. But you can't have all those guys on the floor at one time! I'm going to give Lon the benefit of the doubt for now though. I can accept the logic that he wants to see what everyone can bring to the table in a given situation. We did have solid leads each time he started his wild sub patterns. This is the time of season to scope out your players and see who fits in where. We're only 3 games into the season and we have several new players on this team.

I've said it before. I'm not a big football guy. But Mike Vick is exciting to watch. 2nd quarter he shakes off a sure sack with a little spin moves and launches to finneran on teh 1 yard line. It's been a LONG time since any Atlanta team had a player that was this electric.

and that's what he's given us so far, nothing. He may have made a good play or two, but otherwise he's been a void out there.

I'm willing to chalk that up to the time of year. He's feeling out what everyone can bring to the court in a REAL GAME situation. I agree that the subs are WACK, at best. But it's early. Antonio Harvey has no business being in the game. He's bringing ZERO to the team, as is E-mail. Give Mcaskill a chance at least. If the sub patterns are this way 10 games from now, I will join you in the "fire Kruger" chants. But as of now I'm on "wait and see" mode. Go Hawks!

Great to see the "best player in the NFL" at a hawks game!! That's great publicity for this team. Brian Jordan was also at the game (two games in a row I might add). It was good to see some star power in attendence tonight, despite the small crowd.