Seano

Ugh, this thread is absolutely terrible. This entire thing should be nuked, in my opinion. Discussions of race have no place on a Hawks message board.

Heh. Just got done messing around with the draft simulator on ESPN.com. That thing is wicked addictive. Anyways, I probably ran the simulator about 40 times. Exclusively, when we finished with a top 3 pick the simulator had us choosing Noah. Anything lower than that, it was split pretty evenly between Aldridge, Bargnani, and 2 sims where we ended up with Josh McRoberts. I'd be pretty happy with any of those results, to be honest about it. Because we would FINALLY be addressing our need for bigs, and hopefully augment that in further in FA with Nene or Przybilla. As far as the draft goes, it's alright if Seattle or Portland ends up higher than us, because either one of them is almost certain to take Morrison. So we don't have to worry about them so much. It's Toronto, Golden State, and probably Chicago we've got to watch out for as far as going after bigs in the draft.

Sometimes I wonder if BK's just so arrogant that he thinks he can rewrite the way the game is played. I mean the traditional way (that of a floor lineup of point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, and center) has seemed to work just fine since Dr. James Naismith invented the game almost 150 years ago. But BK seems to favor something different, a floor lineup consisting mainly of swingmen of varying degrees of versatility. I believe that is his 'vision', in fact. But, this isn't a chemistry set that you can experiment with at home, nor is it some hypothetical exercise you can kick around in your head. It's great to pursue a 'vision' and stuff, but in the meantime this is a professional basketball team that has lost lots and lots of games over the past 5 years or so. So maybe it's time to cut the experimentation and lose the hubris that makes him believe that he can or should change what has always worked before in basketball.

FINALLY! Congrats to Nique. He deserved this honor and recognition years ago, but better late than never.

Quote: Every team forum needs a scapegoat and Al happens to be ours. I agree completely. He has become somewhat of the whipping boy for Hawks fans, or at least many of the fans that visit this forum. It's somewhat understandable too. I mean there are a lot of extremly frustrated Hawks fans, and justifiably so. Years of losing have a way of doing that to you. And when we see Al, we look at him under a microscope- where every flaw is not only revealed but magnified. And so it becomes very easy to pick at those flaws, especially as we continue to struggle and become even more frustrated with the team. But you look around at fans of other teams around the league and listen to what they have to say, and almost without exception they view Al as being a very good player, if not an outright 'star' player, at least someone pretty dang close. And really, he is. He's a good player who does a lot of good things, despite his flaws and weaknesses of which we are all very well aware. There are reasons why after Ben Wallace, Al Harrington is considered to be the second most desireable free agent on the market this summer. That's kind of the bottom-line. He's held in good regard by teams and general managers all around the league.

Quote: Previously known for his shot-blocking and high-flying dunks, he is evolving into a more complete player now. Definitely. His whole game is just measurably improved, and with that comes the improved confidence- and that shows. And to think he's still only 20 years old, and has not even begun to hit his peak. It's pretty exciting. If he keeps it up, keeps working word, and keeps all phases of his game progressing as they are right now....man, the sky's the limit for that kid. I truly believe that.

Quote: and a better work ethic. And that so often is the key. IMO you've got to take players with good character traits and a strong work ethic. You know, there's no reason why Stromile Swift should not be a much, much better NBA player than he is. He has got all the physical tools to make you drool, but yet he's a semi-bum as a player. The reason is simply because he's lazy. There's no reason he couldn't be Ben Wallace, but with a scoring touch in the NBA. But the thing that separates Wallace from Swift and a great many other players is that Ben works his ass off to make himself great, and has a burning desire to win. It drives him, it consumes him, that's what makes him work so hard, and that's what makes him great. Swift? He's just a lazy player, and he doesn't care.

Quote: 2.JJ Redick - what did he have 4 points in his last game.What happened to special players showing up in big games. Well, arguably Reddick has never shown up in the REALLY big games. You look at his numbers in Duke's final game in the NCAA Tournament over the past four seasons (all losses, of course), and they are absolutely friggin terrible, to the point where this latest travesty wasn't even his worst outing of the four. So this most recent struggle for JJ was entirely par for the course. You can say he is definitely *not* a prime-time or a big game player, much less one able to elevate his team or even his own game to levels suitable for a championship player. My thoughts are that he gets exposed for the limited player he actually is as the competition gets tougher and tougher the further you go in the Tournament. And he got royally exposed the other night. I don't know that he's even NBA quality to be honest about it. I think maybe the highest upside for him is as a spot-up 3 point shooter, but every other phase of his game is lacking when faced with great athletes- and that's all there is in the NBA.

Quote: you could call it the Wally effect, though I prefer to call it the, "Bryce Drew" effect. *That's* the name I was trying to think of and couldn't. Bryce could be the poster child for over-hypeage due to NCAA Tournament performance. He's a better example than Sczcerbiak too, cause Wally was and is a much better player.

Quote: i thought he was from NY? I dunno. According to his player bio on ESPN, he was born in Madrid, Spain. Maybe his father was in the military or something. I really don't know.

Giving up 67 points at the half.....wow.

Quote: be wary of those underclassmen who show up (truly) for the first time in the national spotlight only as the tourney advances. This could be called (among many other names), the 'Wally Sczcerbiak Effect'. Granted he was a very good player in college and has been a good player in the pros, but IMO he became DRASTICALLY overhyped and overrated due to his performances during March Madness. He was never destined to become the 'next Larry Bird', but you wouldn't have known that after hearing all the hype. BTW, I was not aware that Sczcerbiak was born in Madrid, Spain. I wonder if he's considered to be a foreign player?

He's such a persistent little creep. He reminds me of one of those damn zombies that you keep pumping bullets into, every time thinking to yourself "Ok, now this has GOT to be the one that finally finishes him off", but yet it never is. He just keeps right on getting back up and coming after you. It's like dude, get the fricken message already. No one likes you, no one wants you here, just GO AWAY.

Eh, a little embarrassing but no biggie far as I'm concerned. Everyone exaggerates a little bit from time to time. It's like with Woodstock. If all the people were there that later on claimed they were there, why there'd have been about 100 million people there.

The Belkinator. This creep is becoming our worst nightmare. He has to be aware of how hated he's become in Atlanta. Why in the hell can't he just accept the fact that he's not wanted, give up, and go away? Wouldn't that be the reasonable response?

I figured you would enjoy that one, Lue Fan #10.

Why does Diesel refer to Diesel in the 3rd person? Doesn't Diesel realize that's silly and pretentious?

Wow, it looked like we were dead there for awhile. I felt sure we were gonna lose. Great comeback! These types of games are great for this young team. They teach you to never give up and are great character builders.

Well if there's any consolation to be taken from this loss, I guess it'd be the huge 4th quarter comeback. We definitely made them sweat what looked like was going to be an easy home win for them.

How bout we just wait and see where we end up first, before making plans on trading a pick that we have absolutely no idea where it will even fall in the lottery? You say we should take Morrison, but that's presuming we end up with at least a top 3 pick. That's a pretty massive assumption at this point, isn't it? There's no telling which way those ping pong balls will fall. We could end up #1, or we could end up #10.

It's impossible to answer those questions, but I somewhat doubt that Woody's stupid as far as basketball goes. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have gotten to where he is if he were dumb. It might be stubborness, or it might be that he's not yet fully grasped being a head coach in the NBA.... some of his game management skills have been without question puzzling, if not downright infuriating. I don't know anything about his motivational skills, but I do know that every team in the NBA comes out with some sleepwalk, clunker performances throughout the course of the season. It happens. It's a long, arduous season- and players get tired. And not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. So that I believe is pretty much unavoidable from time to time, you just have to keep it to a minimum. So I can't hold that against Woody too much, but I can and do give him credit for the fact that his players really seem to like playing for him, and the vast majority of the time they do play hard, if not always well. I also give him credit for the fact that the team is continuing to show improvement after starting out in such a deep, dark hole. After the death of Jason Collier and the terrible start to the season, this team could have laid right down and died. But they didn't. I would say that overall Woody has improved as a coach, just as his team has improved out there on the floor. It's possible he could continue to grow as a coach, and eventually become a very good one.

Vroman eh? I have to confess that I know absolutely nothing about him.

I had pretty high hopes for Ivey, and felt when Lue went down that might just be the opportunity he needed to prove himself, but he has obviously really failed to grasp ahold of that opportunity. Somewhat disappointed, but still believe he could be developed into a decent role player. But he does need a lot of work.

I have no idea who does what inside the organization, to be honest about it. But I'm sure Billy's got help. I'm assuming he's got separate scouting staffs, for the pros, the amateurs, and maybe even the Euros and Latins. There's just no possibility one man could do it all.

Quote: So what does Bernie Mullin & Nique do on a daily basis? Shouldn't they be able to take some of the load off of Billy's hands? Why do you assume Nique and Mullin aren't doing anything? I'm kind of operating under the assumption that everyone in that front office is at work doing something. RE: Billy having a lot to deal with right now, yes he does. But such is the life of an NBA general manager. It's a really tough job, and every single one of those guys have a lot to deal with. It's tough, but it's also a really high profile, really well-paying gig...hence all the hard work. It's a tradeoff, and I don't believe he's unhappy.