Lon Kruger ought to be fired TONIGHT...

[Diesel]

This is a game that we should have won by 35... However, it's LON. He puts in the worst offensive team he can find:

SAR/Ham/Glover/Newble/Davis?

First off, SAR has been off all night. He sit both Terry and Big Dog at the same time???????

Fire him. He has shown me enough already. He doesn't understand how to substitute on this level. If we lose this game, Fire HIM!!!!!!

[Sage11]

we should have never hired him.....at the time there were much better candidates available. I guess we should hope that he gets better with his substitutions. I want to see this team put opponets away which I think is a function of coaching. In two games we blew big leads, that should not happen to well coached teams.......

[chillzatl]

I was at the game tonight and I fully agree. We should have won this game buy a minimum of 20pts. Lons substitutions were WACK. But I will chalk that up to it being early in the season. If he had left Theo in a bit longer and called more plays for Reef, this game would have never been close. I was sitting right in front of Reefs family and I heard them say it several times when the bulls were making a run. "why isn't reef in the game?". He went a little far with his rotations, but it's early in the season. He HAS to see what each player can bring. At this point I say bench E-mail for the rest of the season. He has contributed nothing of worth so far this year. Maybe he will find his game. But I say give those minutes to someone else. Otherwise it was a great game that got a bit to tight there at the end. Go Hawks!

[Blunt91]

"Bench Email for the rest of the season? He has contributed nothing of worth so far this year? " I guess you closed your eyes when Email stripped the ball from one of the Bulls players on a particular play. I would much rahter have Email loging the minutes at BU PGthan Dickau. Dan tries to make the difficult pass all the time and he is a bit slow. Yeah Shareef should have been in the game more but Reef offense was rusty tonight, he and JT both missed alot of shots they should have made. Harvey should be let go he just here filling our roster spot. The Bulls are better than what you all are giving them credit for. Donyell Marshall was a great addition for that club and also Marcus Fizer played like a 4th pick in the draft. We had no answer for him.

[chillzatl]

and that's what he's given us so far, nothing. He may have made a good play or two, but otherwise he's been a void out there.

[jaywalker72]

Let's remember that, as of right now, he is nursing Theo and Reef back into starter's minutes and that Dion just got into the rotation because of his sore ankle.

So, when those guys are back to give their regular minutes, and when Mohammed comes back, I think things will fully stabilize.

But, I will say that once gain, when Davis comes in and JT goes to the two....nothing good has come of it....lol...

Lon did say re:McCaskill that he wasn't ready to play after having only one practice with the team, and with Chris Crawford saying tonight that he would be ready to go soon, likely during this west coast trip, I would expect McCaskill to never take the floor as a Hawk.

[Diesel]

I am not taking anything away from the Bulls, they are really good. However, the way we played in the first half, we really outclassed them. Severely. Now the Bulls hold wins over the Hornets and the Celtics, but we were much much better. When Lon substitutes , it seems like he doesn't take into consideration what's going on in the game. Big Dog and JT were Hot like fire going in the third. However, Lon benches them and plays Shareef with Glover, Newble, Email and Ham. Not bad guys but NO perimeter shooters amoung them. SAR had a slow night also. I wish he would have kept either JT or Big Dog on the floor at all times.

Maybe he's trying to get the guys ready for the latter season, but this has always been a Knock on Kruger...

[Guest]

A couple of things to add/note in this argument: JT and Dawg have been playing a pretty high number of minutes, especially for this early in the season. While I wasn't pleased when our lead evaporated last night, after the minutes those guys had put in the previous two games, combined with the added burden of Reef being out, perhaps that played a role in Lon's decision to bench them for a bit (and having Reef on the floor is still having one very good primary option).

Secondly - the team shot over 50% the first half but shot 42% for the game. Collective shooting in the second half was horrible - I don't know who to blame this on, but that played a very large role in the lead-evaporation, as did the number of turnovers (4 by Email). If you can't shoot/ score and you're turning the ball over...the other team's gonna catch up.

I'm not sure if this can be blamed on Lon...some has to be placed on the players on the court.

[Diesel]

I didn't say leave BD and JT in...

I said don't take them out at the same time. Lon could have just as easily left Big Dog in for the mid-end of 3rd qtr... Then brought JT in for the 4th qtr while BD sat. Then let then both bring the game home (if neccessary). However, Lon's take them both out from Mid 3rd to Mid 4th caused chicago to streak back into contention. Then when Big Dog did come back, he was cold but luckily JT could carry us until BD warmed up.

Lon has to learn to Stagger the minutes.

[chillzatl]

in the 1st qtr and even part of the 2nd, he was doing solid subs. Bringing in Hendu and harvey while still having JT and BD out there. Then bringing Reef back in while resting JT. That's the time when we built up our biggest lead and it looked like we were going to knock them out very early. Then inexplicably he starts going crazy with the subs. At one point we had a floor lineup of nothing but bench players! Hendu, Harvy, Ham, dickau and glover. WTF IS THAT? Now I like those guys. But you can't have all those guys on the floor at one time!

I'm going to give Lon the benefit of the doubt for now though. I can accept the logic that he wants to see what everyone can bring to the table in a given situation. We did have solid leads each time he started his wild sub patterns. This is the time of season to scope out your players and see who fits in where. We're only 3 games into the season and we have several new players on this team.

[capstone21]

Dion have been hurt. Since DD is not ready yet we have Email getting backup Pg mins as well as Dion's SG minutes and Antonio Harvy and Hendu getting Nazr's mins. I think when we are healthy again and THeo and SAR are ready for more minutes, the sub pattern will be more stablized. Lon is also trying to figure out who works well with who too.

[chillzatl]

I'm sure not having Nazr and Dion has caused some havok on Lons planned rotations. Didn't think of that one.

[Guest Walter]

Why on earth is he playing Samaki Walker instead of Shaq?

DUH?!?

The same reason Nazr and CC aren't playing and SAR, DG, and Theo are getting limited minutes.

THEY ARE ALL INJURED (or coming off of significant injury)!

You'd think in a WIN, one without your team's best player and 5 of the team's top 10 players, in which both JT and Big Dog manned 39 and 38 minutes respectively, nobody would be crying about their minutes.

W