Grizzard

[Guest]

I haven't lost anything in Dan.In fact,I am

more supportive of him NOW than I was

when he was drafted.I'm sure the TO's

will stop.

Lon has been known to lean to guys like Email

as he has done so in the past.

When DD was first drafted Lon said DD would

play alot of minutes right off the bat...But now

it seems as if he has lost abit of confidence in

Dan.Don't put this off on me.

Lon has changed his tone alot it seems like to

me.That is why I think he should done be fired.

[Diesel]

If we want to be on a championship level, there are some things that we have to do. First in respoonse to your post. My wanting email gone has nothing to do with wanting to rely wholly on DD. In fact, I wouldn't mind if we go after a guy like Greg Anthony or Speedy Claxton off waivers. The reason being is that these guys are PGs. Email is a CBA talent SG turned PG. He's not even with our team's philosophy anymore. Just a big guy who we brought in in order to train JT to be a SG.

The second thing we must do is Fire Lon. It's evident that this team is not close to being INSinc going into the season. Lon has no more excuses. If we are a championship team, we need championship Coaching, I have a new Shortlist (aside from the various Assistant who would take precedence in the middle of the season):

1. Hill. The guy that coached Orlando to the Finals.

2. Chuck Daly. The mastermind behind the Bad Boys and Dream team 1. If anyone knows how to deal with personalities it's chuck.

3. The other Hill. The thin guy that coached San Antonio for a while.

4. Stu Jackson. Wasn't a bad coach with the Knicks. Didn't have anything with the Griz.

5. Van Gundy. Make us defensive!

[Guest]

Dunleavy?

[Traceman]

as responsible for the teams relatively poor showing against Miami. They have got to execute simple fundamentals. Post defense was poor. Rotations were poor. Man to man D was poor. Ballhandling was poor. I couldn't believe how easy it was for Miami to make the entry pass or how easy it was for their players to beat our guys off the dribble.

Some of it was just a lack of effort. I think they thought they were just going to come out and go through the motions and blow Miami out but this team has to realize that we have to play hard against EVERYBODY. We are talented upfront but we are undersized and EVERYONE has to battle to make up for that lack of size. I think Miami's physical play completely took us out of everything we were trying to do.

Is it Lon's fault that neither Reef nor Hendu seemed to be able to handle Malik Allen in the low post? Malik Allen?

Is it Lon's fault that our guys simply don't rotate out on the shooter when its CLEAR to anyone who knows anything about basketball that the rotation needs to be made? How much practice does it take to realize that if the ball is swung around and a shooter like Eddie Jones gets a wide open look, somebody needs to rotate out and challenge the shot?

Is it Lon's fault that Miami simply over powered our guys in the low post? Theo is still getting back into game shape and Hendu is too but Theo got posterized TWICE and Hendu got posterized as well. It looked like Miami's players were in a dunk contest a times. Reef wasn't a factor on the boards at all and we need him to be strong down there.

Is it Lon's fault that Big Dog has been slowed by injuries and simply hasn't found his touch yet? We ran the same play to Dog about 5 times in a row trying to get him going but right now, he's just out of sync. He'll get there, he just needs PT but that's not Lon's fault.

I DO think its Lon's fault that the team doesn't seem to value the ball. Two of JT's turnovers came on consecutive possessions where he made horrible decisions. On the first one, he tried to go behind his back in traffic and lost the ball. On the next possession, he tried to make a difficult entry pass to Hendu. Even if Hendu had caught the pass, he was not in a good position to do anything. The pass was far to risky considering that even if Hendu had the ball, he likely wouldn't have scored anyway. JT would have been much better off pulling it back out and resetting the play. Other guys were trying risky passes too. I think it should be an automatic seat on the bench for ANYONE who makes a careless or thoughtless turnover for the rest of the preseason until the players start valuing the ball more.

All that being said, I did see some positives last night. JT DID do a good job of creating shots for his teammates for the most part. I was surprised when I looked at the boxscore and saw that he only had 5 assists. I thought he had at least 7 or 8. He did a solid job of handling the ball against pressure and made the Heat pay on a couple of occasions by getting all the way to the hoop (scoring once and assisting once). The thing I want to see from JT though is for him to continue to be aggressive on offense. I want him to look for his shot. When he decided to look for his shot, Miami couldn't stop him. That's is what makes him special. He needs to shoot, shoot, shoot and when he does that, it will create easier opportunities for his teammates.

DD had his first good shooting game and that was good to see. I still think he's going to be a good one, he just needs experience.

Darvin Ham is as advertised. Tough, energetic guy who brings it the whole time he's on the floor. I would like to see him and Ira on the floor together in certain situations.

Ira is still getting his timing back but he's going to be fine. He REALLY gives a lot of effort on D and he blocked a couple of Eddie Jones' shots. Jones got the best of him last night but then again, EVERYBODY on their team got the best of everybody on our team last night.

Glove did a few good things on offense and he wasn't horrible on D either.

Bottom line, the Hawks need to continue to improve in ALL facets of the game. The players need to execute better and the coaches need to do a better job of preparing the players. I am not overly concerned about our performance in the preseason so far. The reason the preseason exists is to try to figure out what works and what doesn't and to improve as a group. I think the team will be very competitive when the season begins and even better by Christmas. I am still very excited about our team and I think the players will get better and I think Lon and the staff will be just fine.

[Guest Walter]

...'cause DD was your annointed starter at Pg. Now he's a third stringer in your book? If I were to combine the two notions you would be suggesting we trade JT to make room in the starting lineup for a 3rd string Pg. WHAT GIVES?

Don't get too high or too low on a 28th pick Pg in DD. He always was and still remains our primary BU at Pg. It may take some of the season for him to adjust to the speed of the game but he will. When he does he will still be JT's BU. Quit flailing all over the place on what DD is!!! He never was a starter worth trading JT away to open a starting position for and he isn't a 3rd stringer either.

W