Our blueprint should be Phoenix instead of Detroit

[Rexhawk]

The problem with this team is that Woodson was brought in to replicate the detroit team. We do not have the big men to run that type of offense. Detroit has Rasheed and Big Ben in the post. We have a finesse power forward in ZaZa.

We should run an offense similar to Phoenix. The hawks strength this year is their transition game which allows them to hit their open shooters in JJ and Salim. Phoenix has the same type of athletic player. The difference is that their offense is utilizing their talent.

I know that a lot of people think that Steve Nash is the key, but the Phoenix pushes the ball and creates offense when Steve is on the bench.

The bottom line is that no one plays defense in the NBA. BK needs to find a coach with an offense philosophy to better utilize the hawk's talent.

[chillzatl]

you don't just say "we're going to build like detroit or phoenix". It doesn't work that way. There simply is no set formula that will get you wins. A collection of players that works on a high level is a special thing. You don't simply say "lets get a few defensive bigs and emulate detroit" becuase it will fail 99 times out of 100.

Phoenix on the other hand is based entirely off of Steve Nash. Everything they do is a result of the leadership and tempo he sets. When he's on the bench, they still play as if he was out there. THey just modify the roles a little. If we had a player like him. We could definitely play their style. Whether or not we would have the same results is another story. But we could play that way.

We could have had a Steve Nash caliber player, at least one who was more advanced at the same level, had we drafted Chris Paul. Sadly we went for potential over proven results AND potential.

[Guest Walter]

Chillz, I have night terrors over just how good this team could be with Paul or even a slghtly less good young Pg like Deron Williams running the show. Paul especially though. I would have even been wrong to select Bogut over him as it stands now.

W

[exodus]

The Hawks are one of the worst in the league in turning the ball over. Their fast breaks have been a comedy of errors.

Woody has the philosophy that whoever gets the defensive rebound should bring the ball up the court. Most teams immediately look for the pg to run the break. Woodys hairbrained scheme leads to a lot of wasted opportunities and turnovers.

The Hawks don't have the ball handlers to run like the Suns do.

[Duff_Man]

Detroit has a championship ring, and was a game away from 2. Phoenix has gaudy stats and are fun to watch.

[chillzatl]

I'm with you there. I would have taken Bogut myself. I don't think he would have been a bad choice either. Just not the impact player that Paul is and will be.

[Lascar78]

agreed. We have the youth to be a running team, but we don't have the PG. Neither Lue nor Ivey really push the ball, and JJ never even thinks about it. If we could get a speedy PG in here, he could do damage with the Joshes and Marvin. Of course that requires getting defensive stops too...

[Packfill]

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We could have had a Steve Nash caliber player, at least one who was more advanced at the same level, had we drafted Chris Paul. Sadly we went for potential over proven results AND potential.

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Pretty much says it all. Marvin is going to have to (1) put up some pretty gaudy statistics in a year or two and (2) make a contribution to the team that results i wins before I can give BK a lick of credit.

[macdaddy]

My sentiments exactly Duff_Man. Nash played on some good teams at Dallas with this style and how close did they come to a championship? So what do they do with Nash gone? Get a REAL defensive minded coach in there and now they have the best record in the west.

[exodus]

While I like Paul I still think some of you are overrating him. Our offense is better than theirs. We score more points and shoot a better percentage. The only advantage they have is fewer turnovers for obvious reasons.

The big difference between NO and Atlanta is that they give up about 8 fewer ppg.

If Paul was here we would be scoring more and turning it over less but the defense would still be weak, although I am sure he is a better defender than Lue and Salim.

[macdaddy]

So if Paul is a better defender than Lue and Salim wouldn't our defense be better if he was here?

I agree with your point though. It'd be great to have Paul, but let's get over it. He's not Shaq.

[chillzatl]

you tend to focus on an improved defensive effort, as if it is the fix-all for this team. It certainly would help. But this team has a LOT of problems. Chris Paul would fix every one of them EXCEPT for defense and he would likely improve that as well. As he is a vastly superior defensive PG compared to the other guys we have.

So I don't think it's overrating him at all. You can't really over rate a rookie who is putting up top-5 league wide PG stats. He is the primary reason why they are as good as they are and he is the primary reason why guys like David West are getting props for their improved play.

[Packfill]

They shoot a lower percentage because the guys taking those shots - Nachbar, JR Smith, Snyder all pretty much stink.

NO is really a year behind the Hawks in terms of rebuilding - they off-loaded their expensive vets last season.

[exodus]

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you tend to focus on an improved defensive effort, as if it is the fix-all for this team.

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That is because they are the 28th ranked defense in the league.

Their offense, even without a quality starting pg, is average.

[chillzatl]

defense is a lot harder to come by than offense. It's harder to play, harder to teach and harder to learn. Ben wallace wouldn't have the same impact on this teams record that a player with Chris Pauls skills would have.

[thesheedera]

Deron Williams will never be a top 10 point guard in the NBA. He's getting worse as the season progresses.

I admit that Chris Paul is a big surprise and I think that he'll always be the best player out of this draft, but let's please be thankful we didn't waste the pick on Deron.

[exodus]

Pauls gone. Let it go. They aren't going to get him or anyone like him.

[Final_quest]

That's the consolation. At least we didn't draft Deron Williams over Paul.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Quote:

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Pauls gone. Let it go. They aren't going to get him or anyone like him.

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Best quote of the thread.

This team loses too many close games to think that we're light years away from having a good squad here.

All we need is a SOLID PG to run the show. We don't necessarily need a star PG here.