Hawks win 109-105; Where is the Boxscore?

[Diesel]

Here's where I can agree.

Most title team has a great rebounder or a great Big man.

That we lack...

[parvezf]

We're going from one extreme to another here. First, the board is trying to state that we've got a "Defense-first" team assembled. Then, Diesel is trying to say that BK is trying to assemble a "NO-defense" team like the Mavs, Suns, or Kings?! What he is doing is assembling a team with the capability of becoming a very good defensive team. First, you admitted that JChill is a smart, sound positional defender. And, JSmoove has mad hops, but needs to learn the positional aspects of defense. That gives them both the POTENTIAL to become above-average defenders in this league. Especially when they have a defensive-minded coach in Mike Woodsen. That is called player development. Add that to Joe Johnson, who is at the very least an above-average defender, as is Tyronn Lue. And, Diesel, you poo-poo Salim's defensive reputation, but it is real. Buzzard was accurate when he stated that Defense was not his problem at Arizona, it was his surliness and pouting with the coaching staff, which disappeared the latter half of his senior year. Marvin is another one with the MAKINGS of being above-average defensively. That is not overstating things. The thing that you stated that is accurate is that we have no interior defense outside of JSmoove who is still learning.

By the way, what's up with Hotlanta?! Diesel comes out with the out-of-left-field notion that BK is secretly building a "No-defense" team, turning the Hawks into the Atlanta Maverick-Sun-Kings, and Hotlanta instantly accepts it as the truth and starts calling for BK's head?! What's up with that?!

[Diesel]

The Rockets were not a great defensive team.. Not even a good defensive team relative to the Spurs, Bulls, and Pistons...

What Houston did have is a great Big man and great Shooters.

[Diesel]

Calm down..

I said that BK was building a team that lacks defensive specialist because he's going on the belief that he can bring in Versatile, Young, Athletic guys and train them to play defense... Not that we have a team full of Glen Robinson and Toni Kukoc...

There's no athletic reason why we can't learn to play defense...

BUT..

I have to call you guys out who keep contending that we are the next re-incarnation of the Pistons... That's Some BULL...

The Pistons were a vet team assembled with mainly defensive pieces...

B Wallace, R Wallace, and the Billups were all good defenders before going to Detroit. They had God smile at them when they got Tayshun...

Joe has done his work and gotten rid of none defensive pieces like Okur and Robinson... BUT that team was molded as a defense oriented team... WE ARE NOT.

[drzachary]

I really hope we're not a defensive-centric team (and that's what we seem to be discussing here, whether we will FOCUS on preventing points or scoring them).

Defensive basketball is hideous to behold.

[Diesel]

You must be kidding?

But you've said it many times so you must believe it...

Defensive Basketball is beautiful...

I hope you don't make the mistake of thinking that a defensive team cannot be offensive? While it is true that there have been some Defensive teams that couldn't must up good offense, I would say that there are some do/did both fairly well and when it's working, it's a thing of Beauty...

A team that comes to mind is the Bad Boys...

Chuck Daly was the mastermind of that team and it was beautiful...

1st... They play strong defense at every position.

2nd... They had scorers everywhere: Zeke, Joe, Dantley, Johnson, Salley, Lambeer...

It was beautiful...

[parvezf]

So, I think we are zeroing in on the truth of the matter. I agree, I don't think BK is using the 90's Knicks or even the Pistons as the blueprint for a Defense first, second, and third type team. It appears that he is gunning for a long, athletic, aggressive team that guards the perimeter and the passing lanes, but also runs the break like mad. Not a team full of Bruce Bowens, but an innovative hybrid of swarming defense and athletic offense. It kind of gives me visions of the early 90's UNLV teams. That is the beauty and ingenuity of BK's vision.

[Diesel]

If you want to see the beauty of a UNLV, you must also look at their failure.

Why did they lose to Duke?

That will be the same problem we struggle with...

[parvezf]

My UNLV analogy was admittedly an off-the-cuff one, but I believe their downfall was their inability to succeed in a half-court set. Athletes like Stacy Augmon and Greg Anthony went wild on the break and on defense, but couldn't hit a J against a fundamentally sound team that played good team defense and hit their shots like Duke. If you look at the Hawks current roster, they've now got 6 guys in their rotation that can be called at least solid shooters: JJ, Tyronn, Salim, Marvin, ZaZa, and Collier. And, you've got a strong post-up player in Harrington. The ability to shoot and get post-up scoring help a team succeed in the NBA half-court environment especially when the slashing lanes are closed. Now, I'm like you, I want a beast in the middle. That may be the difference between being very good, which we can be, to being great. But the ingredients are there to be athletic on the break, strong defensively, diverse on offense, and in general very good.

[Plainview1981]

Quote:

---

We're going from one extreme to another here. First, the board is trying to state that we've got a "Defense-first" team assembled. Then, Diesel is trying to say that BK is trying to assemble a "NO-defense" team like the Mavs, Suns, or Kings?! What he is doing is assembling a team with the capability of becoming a very good defensive team. First, you admitted that JChill is a smart, sound positional defender. And, JSmoove has mad hops, but needs to learn the positional aspects of defense. That gives them both the POTENTIAL to become above-average defenders in this league. Especially when they have a defensive-minded coach in Mike Woodsen. That is called player development. Add that to Joe Johnson, who is at the very least an above-average defender, as is Tyronn Lue. And, Diesel, you poo-poo Salim's defensive reputation, but it is real. Buzzard was accurate when he stated that Defense was not his problem at Arizona, it was his surliness and pouting with the coaching staff, which disappeared the latter half of his senior year. Marvin is another one with the MAKINGS of being above-average defensively. That is not overstating things. The thing that you stated that is accurate is that we have no interior defense outside of JSmoove who is still learning.

By the way, what's up with Hotlanta?! Diesel comes out with the out-of-left-field notion that BK is secretly building a "No-defense" team, turning the Hawks into the Atlanta Maverick-Sun-Kings, and Hotlanta instantly accepts it as the truth and starts calling for BK's head?! What's up with that?!

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1.No way Lue is even a decent defender.

Also, I'm amazed that Billy has yet to really do anything

to make the center spot better. In fact, He got rid of Joel

and who replaces him? Jason Collier and John Edwards. It

doesn't seem to me that Billy has taken filling the center

position all that seriousally.

[Nicholasp27]

Quote:

---

1.No way Lue is even a decent defender.

Also, I'm amazed that Billy has yet to really do anything

to make the center spot better. In fact, He got rid of Joel

and who replaces him? Jason Collier and John Edwards. It

doesn't seem to me that Billy has taken filling the center

position all that seriousally.

---

i agree re: lue

but c'mon re: center position

the two players u mentioned for center should become our 3/4th string centers within a month or two

he got zaza, the highest +/- player on the bucks last year who played real mins and played 11x more center than pf...he's a center and he's shown so far to be pretty good...he gets to the line and rebounds and stays in the paint...he's not some jumpshooting perimeter player like collier

he also got batman, who should provide some rebounding and defense and is money from the ft line...

so he has worked on the center position

who else was available that u woulda liked for him to go for? it's not like there is a bunch of centers available these days

the only one that was really available was heart-broken curry, who averages 5rpg

[Plainview1981]

Why did he get rid of the centers before? Also, perhaps

he coulda made a deal for project center that LA took.