Are we playing good basketball?

[RAHMOR]

It's clear that we have holes on this team, any many wanted them to be filled with a trade of Al Harrington and Tony Delk. Since this didn't happen we are stuck with what we have. There has been plenty of BK bashing on this board and complaints about lack of wins but let me ask one quesion.

[RAHMOR]

I choose yes. While we have our blowout losses they are obviously fewer than last year and I don't think we have any more than any other team in the league. I also feel like we can now come back in any game. When Detroit came out on fire Tuesday I felt like the Hawks were now capable of dealing with it and making a run to get the game close.

To me this is the sign of real progress. And while all other fans can do is judge us based on our wins and losses and say Billy Knight sucks because of it, isn't this the real measure of his success. It's not showing up in the win column yet so it makes us look like absolute scrubs but the truth is we are a real NBA team and definately not an NBDL team like last year.

Isn't this a much more fair way of judging Billy Knight's performance. Not by wins and losses or holes in the team but by our play on the court.

[Buzzard]

Yes but inconsistent. Which is exactly what the youngest team in the NBA is going to play like.

[DJlaysitup]

You can't say we're inconsistent when - if you turned our record around - we'd be consistent winners. We have a good ways to go to being inconsistent (win one night lose the next). As it is we are one of the most consistent teams in the league as far as losing goes.

Bill Parcels said it best: "you are what your record says you are"

Our hopes of going from 13 wins last year to 25-30 wins this year is the NFL equivalent of going from 2-14 to 5-11 and getting all excited, who cares. Maybe next year...IMHO

[TheArtist]

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You can't say we're inconsistent when - if you turned our record around - we'd be consistent winners. We have a good ways to go to being inconsistent (win one night lose the next). As it is we are one of the most consistent teams in the league as far as losing goes.

Bill Parcels said it best: "you are what your record says you are"

Our hopes of going from 13 wins last year to 25-30 wins this year is the NFL equivalent of going from 2-14 to 5-11 and getting all excited, who cares. Maybe next year...IMHO

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Here, Here

[Lascar78]

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You can't say we're inconsistent when - if you turned our record around - we'd be consistent winners. We have a good ways to go to being inconsistent (win one night lose the next). As it is we are one of the most consistent teams in the league as far as losing goes.

Bill Parcels said it best: "you are what your record says you are"

Our hopes of going from 13 wins last year to 25-30 wins this year is the NFL equivalent of going from 2-14 to 5-11 and getting all excited, who cares. Maybe next year...IMHO

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except the question isn't are we inconsistently winning, which is the point that you would be adressing. We're asking whether we play good ball, not if we're winning.

We play well throughout the course of most ballgames, but are inconsistent and more often than not we have one small stretch where we play poorly enough to let the other team win.

[Packfill]

I think the team is playing better but I am very concerned about the reliance on outside shooting. I think it is fine for the regular season but not so good for postseason success. The defense also remains below average.

The Hawks will need to address these issues in the offseason, I think defensive issues are priority number one and then secondarily they will need to work on inside scoring via a post scoring presence or drives from the permimeter guys.

[Seano]

Though still very far from being world-beaters, we are undoubtedly an improved team capable of beating anyone on any given night, and we have proven that.

We're generally right there and competitive in almost every game, as relative to what we used to be. Even the other night when we lost in Detroit by 10 points, that's a game that a year or two ago we'd have lost by 20, or 30.

Anyways, that's really all I ask for is that we show signs of improvement, even if incremental and despite the occasional unavoidable hiccups along the way. And we have done that, we're a better team. It's impossible to deny that.

[exodus]

The Hawks are giving up almost 102 ppg and opponents are shooting over 48% against us. I really haven't seen much improvement on defense this year.

Offensively they are obviously much better but if the offense slips it is a sure loss.

[Lascar78]

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The Hawks are giving up almost 102 ppg and opponents are shooting over 48% against us. I really haven't seen much improvement on defense this year.

Offensively they are obviously much better but if the offense slips it is a sure loss.

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yeah that pretty much sums it up. I did not think that we would be this good on offense without a PG. Our defense is horrendous.

I think it is quite clear that our problems, in order, are

1a-Defense

1b-no post play / no big man

3-no PG

I hope we can adress 2 of the 3 this offseason at least.

[DJlaysitup]

Yeah...I didn't mean to be overly negative above. As far as "playing well", we are fun to watch most nights and are a generally good shooting team (albeit mostly from the outside). The defense is a big part of playing though so I couldn't exactly say we are generally playing well.

But to be fair, we are playing much better recently and are approaching inconsistent.

I guess the thing that gets to me on the offensive end is watching the Hawks hit a high percentage from outside (the tough part for most teams), only to even that out with turnovers and botched fast breaks.

[exodus]

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only to even that out with turnovers and botched fast breaks.

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Woodson's theory of fast breaks is annoying. He believes that whoever gets the rebound should push it up, rather than passing to a guard. That leads to poor decisions and spacing and usually a turnover or missed shot.

When I see Harrington or Smith get a rebound and start pushing the ball up the court I can't help but cringe.

[macdaddy]

That sums it up just right D,Bigs,PG in that order. It wasn't that long ago that we played games 10-15 points down most of the game. Sometimes there'd be a late rally. Now we play with everybody just about.

Did anyone watch the Pacers play the Pistons? We played them a lot tougher I thought.

[DJlaysitup]

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When I see Harrington or Smith get a rebound and start pushing the ball up the court I can't help but cringe.

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Yeah me too. Chill has been impressing me a lot here lately but when he gets to barreling down the court on the fast break I know he's just gonna go straight on in and charge. These guys should be filling lanes for our guards to make the assist but ??

[Diesel]

The way that you answer that question is are we playing up to our abilities.

For one, i don't think nobody believed we would get this much from Zaza, SS, or the Joshes. I think Both Joshes have improved their games considerably. I think that we have about what we expect out of JJ, Al, and Marvin.