Calm down people

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Please don't judge this team by what you see in the first 2 road games of the year. It's ironic that the worst team in the league last year, has to start out with 3 road games and play 6 of their first 9 games on the road.

I want to see how this team also plays on its home floor, before I start making sweeping decisions about the squad.

It'll be interesting to see how this ATL v PORTLAND game turns out, seeing both teams got the hell beat out of them last night, and both are playing back to back games.

Last night pretty much proves though, that we need all the talent we can get. AL may be our best player, and you can't have your best player out and expect to win on the road.

It's a long season, so we have to let this thing play out before you give up hope on breaking that 30-win barrier.

In the meantime, just stay cool, and let these players learn how to play with each other. And let's see if JJ can find his nitche in the offense to the point where he can be an effective scorer and mini-playmaker at the same time.

[Dragitoff]

I agree. It sucks seeing the team get blown out back 2 back games and looking very bad except for the first half of the Golden State game, but there are alot of changes this team is making. New PG, new center, new roles for almost every player on the team. A glaring weakness is the lack of depth of big men. ZaZa has played well, but after him, your big bodies is very thin. Edwards often looks lost out there and Batista is only played sparingly so they've got some things to work through. It is really amazing to me to see all the fans talking so highly about Billy Knight and the great job he was doing building this team and all the great acquisitions he made (draft, FA, trades, etc..) and now 2 games into it, the same people are saying what a joke of a GM he is and the owner's were stupid for letting him make any decisions for the team and what a joke of a coach Mike Woodson is. I don't understand some of his coaching decisions either, but I think he's still learning this team same as the players are learning each other. He's trying to find what groups of subs work well together and which one's don't. You can't simply make that decision after 2 games. This isn't a veteran laden team where players can come in and adapt quickly to their role. This team is mainly comprised of players w/ less than 3 years experience.

[Plainview1981]

We've already been through this for 5 years in a row.

The attuitude appears to be no different than before.

Mike Woodson is a joke as a head coach.. That's why he

hadn't got a chance up until this point. No different

than the last two guys the Hawks have had.

Go out and get somebody proven. Stop trying to build a

team off 3rd options like Al and JJ that haven't proven

that they can lead a team to anything and bringing in

a coach with no experience on top of that.

[jpierrek]

What billy wanted with this team was an uptembo kind of team. He even said that he didnt care about putting 5 6'9" players in there and running up and down the floor. He said positions were overrated and that he just wanted to have the 5 best players on the court.

The problem with this is Mike Woodson is known for his defense and half court sets. The way they build the pistons was on solid defense and half court movements.

So, we have to make up our mind. We need to either be a uptempo team or a defensive team. If we want to be the Mike Woodson kind of team then we need more of ZAZA kind of players, but if we are going to be an uptempo team then we need a George Karl, Flip Saunders kind of coach.

The same thing is happening in New York. Larry Brown is a defense and half court guy and the team is full of uptembo players.

the

[Dragitoff]

I think they've been trying to bring in players like that, but they haven't wanted to come here. That was the point of clearing all that cap space. They tried bringing in Kenyon Martin 2 offseasons ago, but he turned them down to play for Denver. JJ and Al were the first players of their caliber in a long time that actually wanted to play for the Hawks (although I think Al's was just wanting to start anywhere).