AtLaS

Our team is the youngest in the league by more than THREE years. Last year we were the youngest team in NBA HISTORY. How can you say we are designed for mediocrity when have nothing but cap space and young, very attractive and tradable assets (if we decide to go that route). How do you know Marvin will not become a star? Smoove? Shelden could become a force. Zaza's pretty damn good for a 22 year old center. Solomon could break out. Childress is getting better EVERY game. We are a few missed free throws away from being 7-1 (the REAL reason we've lost 3 straight). Pretty much every good team starts with a bunch of young players until someone breaks out and they make the playoffs. And when they are ready make a big signing or big trade, and we DEFINATELY have the assets for one.

Those shoes Smoove's got on are tight.

It's crazy that JJ is getting over 41 minutes/game. It seems like when he goes out he is out forever. I guess that's just his effect to our team on the floor..

Quote: I would let Wade do what he wants and for the love of 'Nique don't foul him. Well prepare to be pissed off because Wade will get EVERY call, and the Hawks never get calls so he'll probably shoot 20+ free throws. We've always had trouble with Miami, although they've been good recently and we've been horrible, but last year I went to the Heat game (they were w/o Shaq) and they dominated us the whole game (the game Smoove dunked on Zo). The "Kazaam DVD" thing they did was so funny.

I agree some of them he shouldn't take, and he should definately look to drive more. But most of the time he is WIDE open, I really can't blame him for taking those. Plus it's probably not even him, Woodson probably coaches him to shoot whenever he is wide open, most coaches get pissed off of you pass up an open shot.

is there another radio station to listen to the game on?? 790 won't work it just says it's buffering the whole time.

I heard Woodson and Josh Smith both saying JJ has been a vocal leader as well as a leader on the court this year. This is a GREAT thing IMO, you need your best player to be a vocal leader. Smoove's quote was hilarious it was somethin like "This is the first time JJ's talked" or somethin I just laughed.

JORDAN FARMAR? That's hilarious, please have a better example than that. Farmar was a pretty good college player but wasn't quick and is 6-2, Roy should be able to guard him. The players I mentioned, Ridnour, Telfair, Alston, Boykins etc would absolutely DESTROY Roy. They are quick as hell, and if were in college last year they ALL could have been the POY, but are average NBA pg's. Believe what you want, but Roy has no shot in guarding them. Do you honestly think Roy is ready to be an NBA starting pg? I agree that you want to end this huge debate and just get the facts straight, me too I'm so sick of hearing about a player that would currently be on our bench. If you want to get the facts straight, Walter is the one who keeps saying Roy has been playing a lot of minutes at pg to support his argument, which is COMPLETELY untrue.. BTW I wonder why Walt hasn't replied to this thread yet, he took it over yesterday.

sorry in my above post I had it wrong about Jarrett Jack, he's actually playing 36 mpg, it's funny you say Roy is playing PG..

Found this on YouTube it's soo funny, the Atlanta Hawk riding down the street. Just listen to the commentator.

damn Walter, you have GOT to let up sometime. We could win the championship 4-2, and you'd criticize because didn't we win it 4-0. Be happy we are actually doing OK now, we haven't been to the playoffs in 7+ years! BK's been here 3 so it's not like BK is the only one. And shall I repeat it, you were COMPLETELY against drafting Chris Paul. Deron Williams would have helped but not that much. Although I didn't agree with the Marvin pick either, you criticized it because we already had so many forwards and didn't draft for need. But this PAST draft you wanted us to draft Roy who is a sg NOT a pg, and you go on to criticize that a 26 win team should NEVER draft on need (Williams - Interior D), yet the year before when we were a 13 win team and drafted the TOP ranked player by more than 75% of draft guru's you criticized it. Quit contradicting yourself man. I'll say it again Roy can NOT play pg for us, that would make JJ the part time pg also which we don't need (look how well he's playing as SOLELY sg). Roy would get downright DESTROYED by quick opposing PG's, and if you say otherwise you are in a serious denial. And if I remember correctly Jarrett Jack is playing 30 mpg for Portland, which means Roy is in fact NOT playing pg, if he is it's for a very SHORT period of time.. Roy has never been a starting pg in his life yet you think he's ready to come into the NBA and takeover as a STARTING pg?? That's laughable. BTW like I said, even if he could (he can't) he'd get ABUSED by quick opposing pg's. I just don't see how you don't see that. Players like Mo Williams, TJ Ford, Telfair, Rafer Alston, Ridnour, Boykins would have 20 and 10 against him NIGHTLY..

That's the Seattle game right? I wanted to go to that game cuz TI is performing inside Philips after the game, free to everyone at the game..

lol what is this corndog thing y'all keep referring to? I keep hearing everyone talk about it, what does it mean.

This is why we need to lock up Smith or Chill after THIS season, that way they don't get a chance for the market to determine their value, kind of how Pheonix failed to do so with JJ. Neither one of them will get a huge deal, their numbers just aren't good enough for that. I bet we could lock up Smoove for 5 years 35-40 million at the MOST. Plus there aren't many teams with enough cap space to offer a lot of money to a questionable player like Smith or Chill. Noone knows how good they would be as a starter. Bottom line, we should lock at least one of them up after this season. If we have a good year this year, they will want to remain Hawks..

I'm hoping we can have a season kind of like the '04 Nuggets. A team with no respect who's been horrible the last 7+ years and sneaks into the playoffs. That alone will make us a top contender for Free Agents. I know I'm getting ahead of myself but if we ended up with Bibby or Billups we'd be a legit contender.. BTW Shelden (albeit not blocking shots or scoring much) has played GREAT defense, just watch him, noone is getting easy shots, his impact is definately felt, and only stat guru's (lol Walter) don't realize that. It's so weird watching our team not getting downright DESTROYED inside. I mean teams aren't even getting to the lane, our perimeter defense has also improved tremendously. Teams are taking TOUGH jumpshots, it makes me giddy just seeing it. It's like I actually have confidence in our D to get a stop, when last year I just KNEW the other team would score. What's so great is that we've been almost horrible on offense and are still winning games. We had 19 TO's last night! Last year, our only chance was to come out and be on fire, and not turn the ball over. Even in our only loss to Philly we only gave up 88 points.. Once our offense clicks we will be really dangerous..

with that injury? That scared the sh*t out of me, and he plays so many minutes, so there's always a risk. How good would this team be without JJ?

I don't care if Shelden only averages 1 block per game. He's been playing GREAT defense, who cares if he blocks the shot? He's always in great position, and when players try to post him up, they always end up fading away because of his strength. His strength makes him very tough to post up.

Yeah I think he can compensate for his poor handles by just beating people with his first step. He doesn't need to dance around like an AI before he drives, as long as the respect is there that he CAN drive, it will open up the rest of his game. BTW don't y'all think he played great post D yesterday? Even the times he was scored on, he was all over them and played great D, they were just great (lucky) shots. I also thought Shelden played great post D yesterday.

Our defense would have gotten WORSE had we gotten Roy. He would be DESTROYED by a quick pg. Mo Williams, Rafer Alston, and TJ Ford like players would have absolutely killed us. We would find out very quickly that Roy and JJ could not play pg and sg together. Our interior D would be reminisant of last year, and we'd probably again start 0-10. This does not mean I don't like Roy, I think he will be a good player, but him and JJ can't share the pg duties like you all seem to suggest. We are currently giving up 87 ppg, best in the league. We have faced 3 good opposing PF's and they have all had horrible games. Dwight Howard abused Ben Wallace, but scored 11/8 on us. I realize he was in foul trouble early, but Howard ALWAYS abuses us and didn't this year. The one nice play he had was on Zaza. BTW all three teams we've played are averaging OVER 100 ppg for the season, so take it how you want it, that's saying something. I'd much rather have a player who gets it done w/o being in the box score (although SW is still avging a block/game in 15 minutes), then a flashy guard who puts up numbers who would have done NOTHING for our horrendous interior D.

In '04 it was Childress, last year Marvin, and now Shelden, you always bash to no end. You find a way to Hijack every thread and turn it into a Shelden bashing. Quote: 1) interior defense is best had at the center position. 2) Since we were going to get rid of AL in order for JS and MW to man the forward spots, we needed an interior defensive presence at the center position. 3) FAcy is the best, most assured, cheapest way to improve interior defense. 4) As everybody says, getting rid of Al improves our interior defense already. 5) SW has little upside, is well short of ideal for the position, has a short reach, isn't near athletic enough to compensate. 1) interior defense is interior defense I don't care where we get it from. 2) I agree, but there were no cheap and reasonable options available. Sene wouldn't have helped for 3 years, we can't wait for that (that's IF he ever develops). 3) Cheapest? Most assured? Who would we have gotten? Smoove is twice the defender as Gooden or Wilcox RIGHT NOW, even at the PF position. Gooden and Wilcox aren't half as strong as Shelden, and they've both been in the league for like 4 years. Quote: PJ Brown, Gooden, Wilcox even, Nene or Artest in a trade of Al earlier, Pryzbilla, Franciso Elson,...even Chandler, Ben Wallace, though unlikely, were available as FAs. Al was being traded. There are plenty of Pfs we could trade for as well. Wow.. PJ Brown, Gooden, and Wilcox. This is just funny. What do you do when PJ retires next year? BTW check Chicago's boards and see just how impressive he's been. Pryzbilla would have never came back to Atlanta, besides he's still overpaid, and he's a foul MACHINE, wait til this year pans out last year was a fluke. Not to mention we would be avg. about 60 ppg as a team if Pryz was our Center. Zaza is keeping us in games with his Offense right now, regardless of how he's getting his points. Chandler??? Ben Wallace??? I couldn't IMAGINE how bad your bashing would be had we paid either one of them 60 million. Quote: The argument that we "need interior defense" and thus MUST take SW is the most inane false delimma. In fact, I would argue that we NEEDED a better interior defender or at least better interior defender prospect than SW. He's simply not that good. I don't remember anyone saying we MUST take SW. I agree with you that BK didn't tryout enough people and that was a mistake. How is we "need interior defense" an inane false delimma? Did you watch a game last year? I can't believe you went there. How is SW not that good? Because he doesn't put up big numbers? Obviously from your POV. How about who has put up numbers against him? Webber went 4/16, Howard was held to 11/8 when he had 20/10 the first 2 games, you saw what Dwight did to Big Ben. Channing Frye was nowhere to be found. I realize he's only playing about 15-20 minutes/game but they aren't scoring when he's in there. I know you aren't gonna come back and say that Zaza can actually play D, or Smoove(nothing but a shotblocker) is stopping people, but you will anyway. Quote: We didn't have a defensive Pf the year before or the year before that or the year before that or the year before that. It's unbelievable that we managed to not draft a defensive Pf all these years given we didn't have one. I've got a brilliant idea. Why not have a Guiness and sign a FA Pf? Again, no good and affordable options available. Please drop the Wilcox and Gooden arguments.. Quote: All certainly putting up far better numbers than Mr. Williams. Again, numbers are the only thing you care about. If that was the case we should have DEFINATELY kept Harrington. Here's a number, we are only giving up 87.5 ppg, which is first in the league. All three teams we've played are averaging over 100 ppg. All the good PF's we've played against have had horrible games. Take it how you want it but that's saying something. Last year the only way we could win was to be on FIRE on offense, this year we haven't even gotten our offense going and are 2-1, and still don't have Marvin. I'd much rather be a more defensive team than have a flashy player that puts up numbers who does NOTHING for our interior Defense, which was BY FAR our biggest problem. Quote: Roy may be more talented than JJ. He's starting out hotter than JJ did as a rook and is already assuming Pg duties at crunch-time. Walter you are killing yourself. May be more talented than JJ? You are saying this after THREE games in the league? Do not compare their rookie seasons, look at the teams they were on. JJ was on Boston (a 50 win team) that went to the ECF. Roy is on a Portland team that has nothing BUT young players, someone on their team has to put up those numbers. BTW no he is not ready to handle pg duties, especially not in the NBA. Portland has their own JJ (Jack) to handle them. We don't need Joe handling the pg, look how good he's been since moving to the 2. Not to mention Roy would be downright ABUSED on defense by opposing NBA pg's. Quote: He and JJ would have killed teams. Both interchangably running the offense from posession to posession if we needed. And Roy would have gotten killed by opposing PG's. I do think he would be a good SG but neither him nor JJ can guard a quick opposing PG. Someone like Mo Williams would have 20 points and 10 dimes against us, just like last year. Not to mention Roy does NOTHING for our Interior D.. Sorry for the long post..

"I know it doesn't mean nothing, but it means a lot to us." -- Hawks forward Josh Smith, on Atlanta rising above .500 for the first time since 2002. They also give some HUGE props to Zaza, although they take a small shot at Atlanta. Check this out.. The question; are there any young bigs who can play now that the league is going small. Throw in Charlie Villanueva and a healthy Amare Stoudemire too. How would a Finals look with Dwight vs. Yao in a few seasons? • Yes: Yao Ming, Bogut, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, Zaza Pachulia, and soon Greg Oden and Joakim Noah. Don't knock Pachulia's inclusion in that list. Insiders know he has game (he won't turn 23 until February). He is not your typical long-legged center, thus his lower center of gravity gives him excellent balance and coordination. Were he playing almost anywhere but Atlanta, you'd know how talented he is. -- Thorpe ESPN's Daily Dime

So in other words, you aren't going to actually GIVE Shelden a chance. Until he performs well you will just criticize, albeit after 3 games and Shelden is getting Ivey minutes so far. He starts, gets taken out and doesn't go back in, about 15 minutes/game. He is still avg. a block per game, and over 3 blocks per 48 minutes. It's funny you did that with Childress when we drafted him, you criticized Paul and hyped up Bogut to be GREAT. Bogut seems like a poor man's Zaza at this point. Relax, give him a chance.. I'm not a BK jockrider by any means either but I do realize that him and his scouts know a LOT more than we do about these prospects. Just be happy we're winning, and actually playing defense this year (87 ppg, 1st in the league right now), Shelden does have something to do with it. I know you aren't going to say Zaza is playing great D after all the "No Defense" args you've made about him. Remember that Smoove can "only" block shots, at least from most of y'alls POV. Don't make the case for Lorenzen or Solomon. Shelden has helped out, although maybe not in the box score. BTW you say players like Shelden are easy to get, WHO could we have acquired to fill the role that Shelden is being developed for?

nm

not only that, but Philly and NY are avging over 100 ppg, and Orlando was averaging over 100 ppg before they played us..

Isn't Josh Smith 20 years old?? Hasn't his shot DRASTICALLY improved since his rookie year? I'm not talking about a period of 3 games, you know his shot has improved. Wasn't he expected to sit the bench for 3 years when we drafted him? He gets a double double, 4 blocks and 3 ast, and you're saying he should be traded.. WOW. He's freakin 20, trade him now and he will BLOW up. If he had a good pg he'd be better than K-mart in 2 years. I'm so happy you're not our GM. It's funny you say Smith can't start the season off good and Chill does, but Chill has started slow the LAST 2 years. You say you like to look at the big picture but you're judging over THREE GAMES. Quit contradicting yourself. We're playing great defense, and not even playing that well on offense, we don't have Marvin, Speedy's not playing well, and despite that we are STILL 2-1. I think that's a positive. Once we start meshing we will be even better. You pessimists kill me, the Hawks are 2-1 and over .500 for the first time in 4 years, and all you can do is ramble on about how horrible this team is. Give yourself a break and be happy for once..