pathway23

I couldn't agree more...lets take the wait and see attitude, these guys are so young and promising and there are still a few holes we need to fill, thats obvious, but I'm not going to beat myself up as these guys suffer growing pains anymore..I'm going to enjoy watching these young guys develop right now.

I doubt that Larry Hughes or Michael Redd would be very successful with the Hawks at this point either, too much pressure on them to be the man.

I don't care if Belkin gloats, he isn't part of this organization anymore, and for good reason, he wasn't the majority owner and he tried to behave as if he was, and he made the team and its GM look bad at the time. It wasn't so much about agreeing or disagreeing with the deal, it was on the principle that Belkin violated which was the agreement he made with the other owners on the resolution of disputes among the owners. Now, to answer your questions. Quote: (1)Do you not think JJ is playing out of position? Is he a floor general yet? I don't think JJ is playing out of position. I notice that JJ is not a leader. Do you pay a 70 million max contract to a guy who is not a leader? Well, this depends. I don't think Larry Hughes is a leader and I don't think Michael Redd is a leader. The thing about Redd is that he has better talent around them and they have played with the players around them. Hughes had his best season playing next to Arenas, Redd had his best season playing next to Ray Allen, and then when Ray Allen left, it wasn't as much of a problem because he took the reigns, and still had the same players around him. Give JJ 20 or 30 games with the players the Hawks have and I think his shooting will get closer to what it was in Phoenix, do I think it will be the same as it was in Phoenix, no, because he has more defensive attention. Do I think he can be a floor general? I don't think he can be, but again, I think it is on Woodson to fit Joe's personality into the offense, if Joe isn't a floor general, than Woodson needs to formulate an offense that isn't geared around one guy, that is team first offense, more of a passing game/motion offense, which imo JJ can thrive in. Quote: (2)Now with a changing of position, has Diaw played above our expectations? Diaw has had very little pressure on him to perform in the Phoenix system. I have seen him make some of the same mistakes he made in Atlanta, but the difference is now that he doesn't get yanked for it. He is allowed to play through those mistakes. Some of that is on Woodson, and some of that is that Phoenix can afford to let Diaw play through those mistakes because they have so much other talent on their team that it doesn't hurt them too bad. Diaw is the guy being left wide open and he is taking advantage of that. With the talent deprived Hawks, Diaw had more attention, and more pressure on him. I am not surprised he is doing better, but I still think he is the same player with the same faults, they are just more covered now. Quote: (3)Do you think we gave up too much for JJ? No I don't think we gave up too much for JJ. We can't keep relying on developing talent through the draft, eventually we're going to have to keep a core together for some time and add pieces to it through free agencies. Any necessary role playing holes on the roster can be filled late in the draft / or 2nd round. Quote: First of all, do we have that much under develop talent on the team? Yes we have a lot of underdeveloped talent, the average age of our team is 22 and on top of that we have an inexperienced head coach. But I think this coach is good at developing talent, perhaps not showing up in the win column, but it has been shown on how Smith/Childress improved over the course of the season last year. Just my 2 cents take it for its worth and I apologize for the lengthy post.

Yeah I really like Rondo. He looked good tonight,everywhere on D, showed more offense, but man he is a monster on the offensive glass...if the Hawks added him they would be murder on offensive boards, even better than they already are which is good..

Defense wasn't so much of a problem in this game as it was turnovers and limiting opponents second chance points..

Defense involves more than just athleticism, it requires experience and knowledge of the game. Young team like the Hawks can fall for the veteran tricks of teams like the Rockets who are veteran teams (Wesley, McGrady, Howard)...it takes experience and knowledge not to fall for those vet tricks.

Why the hell are you here? Go back to the Bulls boards.

I have no problem with it except for underage people perhaps seeing it...as for political agenda, looks like Vol4Ever started it...Personally, I'm sick of all the hypocritical moralizing that comes from the right. Most of them are the complete opposite in their personal lives of what they preach anyway.

We spent 70 million to replace Lue? really? We tried him at the point and that didn't work out because Chill doesn't get enough respect on his shot for him to play the 2. Lue is only starting so that we don't have to start the rookie. Lue was signed to be our backup, and he is only starting now out of default because there is no PG on our roster and he has experience, and we need JJ's scoring at the 2. We still need a starting caliber PG, we have a decent backup PG, that is all Lue is, a decent backup point. He is like Damon Jones minus defense, and that is average backup material..

lol yes he is faster than Michael Vick! :P

Salim looks fine against JT....JT trying to school the rook, stripped him once and fouled him another time on a drive...

Cool. Anything else you can say about Childress without bashing him? You did a good job in that post!

Rondo has 17 rebounds ! that is just flat out ridiculous! has he scored at all though? I know Rondo can score, I saw him do it at the tournament last year. he might be deferring too much to his teammates?

I 2nd Marvin he is starting!

"thrive in a place that was structured" - Of course. who can thrive in a place that is not structured? There is no structure at all to the Hawks offense now, and I understand why Diaw was pissed... I'm glad Diaw is doing well, I've always liked his talent and he is a good guy. I still say he didn't fit here...but I'm beginning to think it wasn't his fault at all, it was coaching.

Childress is a very smart player why not run a pick and roll with him..I don't see much pick and roll from the Hawks, saw a lot of it from the Knicks and Lakers last night (Knicks didn't execute as well, but anyway) I think that Chill and Lue or Chill and Salim could execute a pick and roll, we know that he can finish on drives, that is what disturbs me the most about him lately, he is not finishing on drives, because he is driving in traffic. he needs to be in plays where he rolls or cuts to the basket. I just don't see much of that...

I see what you're saying LastDon and I agree with a lot of it but I think that we might not be playing the right kind of style (might not know how to play) and I think that maybe we might need a different coach...Woody is safe for now though.

whatever.

I don't believe Woodson feels like he gets a pass this year and I don't think the owners think he deserves a pass. He got that last year on a team with less talent in year 1 of the rebuild. Bob Neal was on 790 the Zone with Doug Stewart and he seemed to feel like Woody would get canned unless the team showed marked improvement by February, because the offense doesn't seem to fit the personnel and the team might not have the mental ability as of yet to comprehend the complex defense Woody brought over from Detroit, Also Smoove and Childress appear to have regressed , part of that being confidence and the other part not knowing roles, which starts at the top, with coaching.

MW isn't a swingman though (2/3) he is a 3/4...which is more valuable. I agree that 2/3 swingmen are a dime a dozen. We didn't have any though, before we got Smoove and Chill. I don't necessarily agree that we need a PG, we just need another guard without a size liability that can handle the ball with JJ, because JJ has PG skills. T Lue isn't a guard without a size liability and he is too selfish to run with JJ.

Although Chris Paul is a better player right now than Marvin, he is a short PG that is limited on D and Marvin is already almost as good and going to be better than Chris Paul. PGs are a dime a dozen and big men are scarce, we would have drafted Bogut if we had the #1 pick, after that it was BPA, and combining skills with potential, MW was the best pick.

that we don't get much on the fast break isn't the fact that we don't have a PG, it is because we aren't getting enough stops on defense. To start a fast break you need a defensive stop and a rebound. We rarely get defensive stops and rebounds, we give up a lot of offensive rebounds, and guys are helping out in the paint to get defensive rebounds rather than getting down to the other end of the floor.

We traded the 2nd draft pick we would have had this year in the JJ deal , we'll still get our lottery pick

JJ is the best PG on our roster...and I think Chill's lack of confidence / ability in that outside shot has moved JJ over, not JJ running the offense poorly. the offense is stagnant though with Lue at point, and the defense is pisspoor as well. I don't know what they are , but the +/-'s have to AWFUL when Lue is on the floor. I would prefer seeing more of Ivey and Salim than Lue for sure...and I think we would perform better with more of those two guys because they put forth more effort and don't suck the air out of the offense. I still don't understand why all of our guards dribble the ball so much. We need to move the ball around more and spread the floor, we've got good outside shooting this year and this will open things up for Zaza inside too.

Loss by 1 on a tipin at the buzzer by Gasol, 85-84. Zaza missed 2 FTs right before that