Educate me, please

[ggp]

I see a lot of posts mentioning Aldridge as the top Center in the draft. His offensive game looks decent, but I have not seen him take charge of games defensively. If he doesn't dominate in college, how can we expect him to keep up in the NBA? Correct me if I am wrong , but don't we need a major defensive presence in the paint?

Stats are fine, but can anyone say that Aldridge alters any college team's offensive strategy? If so, please educate me because I don't see it.

[mrhonline]

I was actually very impressed by Aldridge last night vs. Oklahoma. Texas' zone defense revolves around him, and he did a good job of handling the paint.

Their loss certainly was not his fault.

[exodus]

Offensively he just doesn't see the ball much. He is shooting 62% from the field and has good offensive moves but his guards are ball hogs.

Defensively he moves well and has good length, I think he just needs to get stronger.

Keep in mind the Hawks defensive problems are a result of who is here, not just who isn't here. If the Hawks get Aldridge and then sign Nene/Przy and trade Zaza and Al, their interior D won't be weak any more.

Aldridge will most likely split time at the 4/5.

[Popeye]

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Offensively he just doesn't see the ball much. He is shooting 62% from the field and has good offensive moves but his guards are ball hogs.

Defensively he moves well and has good length, I think he just needs to get stronger.

Keep in mind the Hawks defensive problems are a result of who is here, not just who isn't here. If the Hawks get Aldridge and then sign Nene/Przy and trade Zaza and Al, their interior D won't be weak any more.

Aldridge will most likely split time at the 4/5.

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Did you guys give up on Zaza ,1 month ago or so he was a steal in free agency and you would get rid of him along with Al(which i have no problem)

ITS NOT JUST YOU EXODUS

[Popeye]

Oh, and why would you want Pryzbilla he is like Zaza in a little taller version with less offensive skills and blocks shots most of the time in the begining of the games just because he is tall and not that great on the defense. I watched him play a lot and i dont think he will return to Atl anyways

[exodus]

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Oh, and why would you want Pryzbilla he is like Zaza in a little taller version with less offensive skills and blocks shots most of the time in the begining of the games just because he is tall and not that great on the defense. I watched him play a lot and i dont think he will return to Atl anyways

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This team needs interior defense more than anything and that is what Prz brings. He is 6th in the league in blocks even though he only plays 25 minutes a game.

When the Hawks played Miami Shaq had a dunkfest. He must have had at least 7 dunks.

I watched Portland play Miami and Shaq coudn't do squat against Przybilla. In fact Prz outscored Shaq until he fouled out late in the 3rd quarter. Shaq kept trying to go at Joel with no luck.

Zaza isn't really that good. He doesn't defend well, has poor hands and shoots a low percentage.

Zaza and Joel really have nothing in common except they play the same position.

The only reason Joel wouldn't resign here before is because he was close with Stotts and BK fired Stotts. I doubt he would still be upset about that.

[Traceman]

Joel not resigning here had NOTHING to do with Stotts. He was never OFFERED a contract here. In fact, Portland was the ONLY team that offered him a guaranteed deal.

As for Pryz being a better option for this team than Zaza, I disagree. They played head to head twice this year and both times, Zaza was CLEARLY better. First game - Zaza 12/6/1 and Pryz 8/4/2. Second game - Zaza 15/10/0 and Pryz 5/5/1. Currently, Zaza is averaging more pts and rbs while Pryz is averaging more blocks. Yes, Pryz can defend Shaq better than Zaza but he is not nearly as good of an all around player. Plus Zaza is 21 while Joel is 26. I like Pryz but I'd rather have Zaza if I could have only one of the two.

Replacing Al/Zaza with Pryz/Nene would give us better interior D for sure - and less than half the offense. I have no problem with us grabbing Nene or Pryz (or even both) next year but that certainly doesn't mean that Zaza AND Al need to go.

[exodus]

Huh?

[exodus]

First of all i had no idea why Prz left.

However Diesel posted an article saying that Joel was pissed when BK fired Stotts. It looked legit to me.

Lascar met with BK and asked about Prz. BK said he wanted to sign Joel but circumstances prevented it. That seemed to confirm the above story.

And all Prz got was a 2yr 3 mill deal from Portland. He could have easily have gotten that here.

Since when has zaza been an all-around player? He shoots poorly, has bad hands, plays poor d, and is weak on the defensive boards. I guess that could be considered BAD all-around but that is not what we need. The only thing he does well is rebound his misses.

We would score more if he would stop shooting. When he isnt throwing up bricks he is turning it over or committing offensive fouls.

[Traceman]

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Lascar met with BK and asked about Prz. BK said he wanted to sign Joel but circumstances prevented it. That seemed to confirm the above story.

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The circumstances had nothing to do with Stotts and the circumstances also led to Pryz not receiving an offer OF ANY AMOUNT from BK. In fact, no team other than Portland offered Pryz a guaranteed deal. Yes, we COULD have offered him the deal that Portland did (as could any other team) but we didn't so obviously, he couldn't have "easily have gotten that here."

As for Zaza, he is a young, scrappy player who's offensive game is developing. Yes, he turns it over too much but so do Smoove, JJ and Al. Zaza is not finishing on the first shot as well as he should but he does scrap and get the board and put the next one in. I think he is doing remarkably well for his age. He is almost 2 years younger than Curry, Chandler and Brown and he is almost 3 years younger than Dalembert. I think he is doing REMARKABLY well for his age. Certainly better than any of those guys did at his age.

[thesheedera]

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I think he is doing remarkably well for his age. He is almost 2 years younger than Curry, Chandler and Brown and he is almost 3 years younger than Dalembert. I think he is doing REMARKABLY well for his age. Certainly better than any of those guys did at his age.

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can i get an amen?

[exodus]

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The circumstances had nothing to do with Stotts and the circumstances also led to Pryz not receiving an offer OF ANY AMOUNT from BK.

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So in essence you don't know what those circumstances are, you are just speculating like the rest of us.

Stotts coached Prz with the Bucks and apparently they were close. There is no reason not to believe that Prz was pissed when Stotts got canned. The article Diesel posted didn't look like something he just made up.

BK said he wanted to sign him when he spoke to Lascar. I saw no reason to think he was lying.

So what did BK have for breakfast today, since you seem to know him so well?