Lon is On 790 The Zone

[Traceman]

[jaywalker72]

So if anyone can fill me in on what was said, I would certainly appreciate it...

[Traceman]

Lon wasn't on for very long but he did come on and answer a few questions posed to him by the "Two Live Stu's." Basically, he said that the team was not playing as well as they needed to or as well as they would like to. Regarding Ira's comments in the AJC, he said that Ira played hard every night and that he had no problem whatsoever with Ira's comments.

When addressing the things the team needed to do in order to turn things around, Lon specifically mentioned that JT needed to continue to get more comfortable at PG, that Theo needed to continue to get confidence in himself ( I think he was talking about confident in his body's ability to withstand playing at the level in which he is accustomed to playing) and that Big Dog needed to get more comfortable with his role on the team.

The Two Live Stu's asked him some tough questions and he answered them. They told him that many fans and members of the media were blaming him for the teams lack of hustle and they asked him if he felt that their lack of hustle was a direct refection on him as a coach. Lon said that he felt that he definitely deserved criticism for ALL aspects of the teams play and that ANYTHING that they failed to do properly was a direct reflection on him. They also asked him if he felt that the players had lost confidence in him based on Ira's coments and he said definitely not. He said that the reality is that the team has NOT performed at the level that it is capable of and that Ira's comments were born of frustration with the team's effort up until this point. Lon said that the effort was there in practice for team to improve upon its deficiencies but that they needed to see that hard work translate into a better effort in the game.

The most important thing Lon said in my opinion was that everyone needed to get past any more thoughts they might have that this is a long season (I could be wrong but I think he was referring specifically to comments that JT made recently). He said that we need to realize that we needed to start playing better RIGHT NOW. He said we can't continue to say its a long season because if we continue to think that way, we can't play with the urgency that is necessary to get the results we want. He said we need to focus and play with urgency on every POSSESSION, let alone every game and that this needs to begin RIGHT NOW.

I'll give Lon credit, it took a lot of guts to come on the air and answer some tough questions. He not only answered them, he took full responsibility for the things that were not going well. He didn't offer any excuses or blame the players, he said that they (meaning everyone - coaches included) just needed to get the job done. That being said, the bottom line is winning and losing. I really like Coach Kruger as a man and I HOPE that he can get this thing turned around and headed in the right direction. I think he'll be here for the rest of the season, no matter what happens but if we don't make the playoffs, I can't support keeping him around. Hopefully, he'll get these guys to realize their potential and we will not only make the playoffs, we'll make some noise once we get there. Time will tell.

[bobbham]

Tomorrow night is a great time for the Hawks to get it together. Should be a big crowd so that won't be to blame.

I thought the win on 12-5 vs. the Bucks was going to be the springboard to much success but that play has not returned.

[cyman3]

first off, i gotta give KRUGER some props... he handled the very frustrating matter (losing) as a straight up professional coach. He didnt point any fingers, blamed himself for the things he thought he did wrong, and answered the questions right on the spot.

Ok, now that i gave Kruger his dues... i got a nifty idea. My other post (about Jason Terry and Baron Davis) was caught by BROWN and im hoping someone else would see this (*cough* KRUGER).

one day, he needs to gather the hole team. All the players are going to take a TEST... a free response test. Not multiple choice or true/false, but a test with 1 blank peice of paper.

Each player will comment on the weaknesses of each and every player on the hawks... at the end, the players taking the test will not write their names down... and instead, COACH KRUGER will read out each and every TEST PAPER to the rest of his players.

I think its a good way to STATE THE PROBLEM, w/o players getting mad and without the MEDIA involved (it always gets ugly when the PROBLEM is stated on MEDIA, like- ORLANDO MAGIC and HORACE GRANT).

after this happens, if many tests relieve a weakness in a players game... that player should be mature enough to take that in and respond to it (positively, i hope).

[Admin]

that will only create animosity within the team, wondering who thinks what about eachother. These are grown men and they should be able to talk to eachother about what their teammates defincies are, and I believe that they do that. The biggest problems right now are that we dont have a 2nd ball handler and until we fix that problem I dont see us being consistently successul. We also must get each and every player to assume a role on the team and fill that role each night. Big Dog should look to score and play the best D he can. He shouldnt be looking to pass very often. JT should bring the ball down the floor, set up the offense and run a play to either Big Dogs side or Reefs side and whoever gets the ball needs to either look to score or find a teammate cutting to the basket (if they know what that is). However like I said I dont see this team being any kind of consistent until they get a 2nd ball handler in here to start at SG.