Mark Bradley

[Vol4ever]

I have NEVER agreed with a article that Mark Bradley of the AJC has written. Todays AJC article he wrote is different though, he finally wrote something that makes since. The Hawks have had Stan Kasten in control for years and they have floundered. Ever since Hubie Brown and Mike Fratello left the organization this team has been and remains a joke. The Hawks are pathetic.

1. Shareef - Turnover city, wild jumpers...............why doesn't he get on the block and post???

2. Dog - Turnover city

3. No playmaking or shooting guard. The Hawks do not have a perimeter threat fron the SG position.

Bottom Line - The Hawks need a power forward, a point guard, and a shooting guard, and a President/GM!

[chillzatl]

We need a powerforward? That's a pretty dumb statement for someone to make. We have a powerfoward and a [censored] good one at that. The problem is that some people think that every player on this team should be able to do EVERY thing and it just isn't going to happen. Have you actually watched him play? Has Mark Bradley watched him play? 90% of everything he does is in the post...

JT could be a better PG. But he's doing a fine job as is. You aren't going to just "get a point guard" and you especially aren't going to just get one that's going to make you any better than JT does.

We do need a more rounded SG, no doubt.

Needing a powerfoward...that's just dumb.

[Diesel]

If all those things were so, then we'd be winning more.

Let's face the facts...

We have 4 possible allstars in our starting 5. 4 of them. People try to blame everything on Big Dog but he's having a 20/8 yr. Our problem is that we don't have the right people doing the right things. Namely, Big Dog is not a point forward like Toni was. NO need in trying to make him into one. SAR is not a perimeter forward like Dirk. No need in trying to make him into one. JT has to be taught to be a PG or we have to trade him away. No need in saying that he's doing an excellent job when the offense is stagnant and in the halfcourt set, JT is not the guy running the show.

With all those problems, we still have 4 guys who can be the best at their positions in the East. Problem is, where's the coaching? Give it time?? Even Lon knows that this is not a long season. We have to start winning and start winning yesterday. I can only hope that the Wizards embarrass us enough tonight that someone decides to end this tragedy known as the 2002-2003 season and brings us better coaching.

[JTFan31]

My opinion of what we do need is a good motivator, someone that is gonna get these guys to give their all every night. Think about it, we are saying that Reef, Big Dog and JT play soft D, maybe thats because Kruger is not motivating them enough and not getting in their faces about it. Make them work harder in practice and get more physical in practice.

Guys we have realize that we have 2 problems in this and can be fixed, and it must start tonight, forget about that its a long season, because once you know it, you arent making the playoffs again. We have to start tonight correcting these problems and they are Turnovers and Defense. Now the TO's have gotten better, but the defense intensity has been horrible. Think about it why we have lost the games we have, is not because we have no Offense because we have plenty of that, but TO's and Defense has lost all 13 games for us this year. One game is both, one game is TO's and one game is defense. These 2 problems can definitely be corrected. Correct them by mid January and we are the best team in the East.

But we must remember we need someone that can motivate these guys, and Kruger is not doing it. Well maybe he can start doing that by tonight.

[Traceman]

You guys can blame Lon all you want but the fact of the matter is that Reef and Dog are WAY below average defenders for their positions and they always have been and JT is an average defender at PG at best. George Karl is one of the most defensive-minded (and best) coaches in the NBA and he couldn't get Dog to play a lick of D. Karl tried everything he knew how to do to get Dog to play D and it never happened. He worked him hard in pracitce, he yelled at him, he encouraged him, he went to the media, he appealed to his pride. NOTHING worked!

Reef has played for several coaches and none of them have been able to get him to defend at a high level either. Reef plays hard in spurts on D but he doesn't maintain the level of focus that it takes to be a great defender on EVERY possesssion.

JT is not NEARLY aggressive enough with his on ball D to be as quick as he is. He lets his man get into the lane FAR to easily and he doesn't rotate on the shooters NEARLY as quickly as he is capable of.

We can blame Lon all we want but if Lon can get these guys to play great D, he is probably a borderline genius. The players have to WANT to play D and they have to make a commitment to playing D ALL THE TIME if they truly believe that is the key to their success. It is a coach's job to motivate but if the players KNOW they are not playing good D and they CLAIM they want to play good D, then they bear every bit as much responsibility for their poor D as the coach does, if not MORE so.

I think that in general, Lon does a poor job with his rotations/substitution patterns but I don't blame him for the team's lack of effort. He has harped on the fact that they need to play with urgency and he has the players saying the same thing in the media. Now its up to them to go out and do it!

[Iman]

I somewhat agree, we are NOT a team of good defenders and never will be. However, I really havent felt that bad about our D this year. I think it's these total lapses of solid play that are killing us in my mind. We had Boston at Boston and our offense completely fell apart. We'll play a solid game for a few minutes then start turning over the ball or allowing too many offensive rebounds and the next thing you know we lose all confidence and fall apart. I'd rather see us spend more practice time on our offense than D. If we had just cut out 5 or so of these REALLY stupid turnovers per game then we'd have 3-5 more wins by now. And I think many of these turnovers are caused by our players trying to do things they arent good at. I think I'd bench Big Dog everytime he dribbled behind his back, maybe then he'd quit and try to score in the normal offense.

[Traceman]

We can't continue to turn the ball over as much as we have and win consistently. I think you are right on when you say that most of the turnovers involve players trying to do things they are not very good at. Big Dog should limit himself to 2 dribbles at most and then either shoot or pass the ball and the other players need to stop giving him the ball in postions where he does not need to have it (i.e on the fast break). JT just needs to make better decisions with the ball. His ballhandling is actually a lot better than it was but there is still a LOT of room for improvement.

[TheDude]

i think alot of it comes back to winning attitude...we've lost a good portion of our games when we had the game in hand and when the other teams get a run, we don't respond. that goes to winning attitude... a winning attitude puts pride on the line and feeling you can win..so you put forth the effort..

i don't think lon's getting it done...i like the guy, but he has allstars playing but not playing together cohesively or with that killer instinct...

i'm an fsu fan and i look at our bball program as an example.. with steve robinson, he was just like lon in that he's so quiet and relaxed most of the time..we lost, alot. now we've got leonard hamilton and he puts fire in his players..they play hussle defense, pressure d..are they the most talented players in the country? no, but we've only lost one game and that was to the #8 ranked gators cuz we missed a last second shot...

this teams needs the killer instinct it had against milwaukee. even more than that.

[BlackHawkDown]

It has been a while but I agreed with everything you said. Go figure. I just wish people on Hawksqaubble oops I mean Hawksquawk could learn to be patient. It seems like if the Hawks miss a shot the entire site is in a uproar about a need for a complete overhaul of the team. I am starting to lose interest in the constant complaining @ least wait until the off season to start moaning.

[BlackHawkDown]

I really like you until now when I found out that your a Nole.

GO GATORS

[Guest]

We have 4 possible allstars in our starting 5. 4 of them."

That is untrue...None of the players are worthy of

going to the allstar game this year.Shareef shouldn't

have went last year...

Looks like the Hawks will fall short again.Big Dog's

defense is terrible.I knew it was bad,but he and JT

are two worse defenders at their positions....

[hds428]

I've never been a big fan of Bradley, but points 2 & 3 are pretty much right on. Reef is'nt the turnover monster really, I lay the bulk of the turnover issue directly at the feet of Glen Robinson. His high TO rate is way to much, but this should be no surprise, he had high turnovers in his first years at MIL and settled down every year after that. I think he'll settle in, but it may not be until late in the year. Reef, though, is completely doggin it on defense. I liked him as a Grizz, and thought he played decent defense last year, but this year he's just slacking, despite his scoring and rebounding. I was very torqued the other night when he let a d@mned rookie go off on him like that, not so much in scoring but the way Stoudamire just handled him on the blocks and threw him around like a little girl. I like Ira as a stopper better than as a starter, even though he's much improved, there's a need for a ballhandler in the backcourt. I can't knock JT, he's the closest thing to a complete player I see on the roster, besides Theo who's admitted that he plays with and through pain, so anything we get from him is IMO gravy. I still don't think it's straight to evaluate the coaching because the players are being so careless and pathetic on the floor and showing almost zero effort at times for long stretches, it's almost impossible to say that coaching is the problem. If the players were getting it done on the floor and Ls still piling up, yeah. But I don't see as many questionable decisions from the sideline as I see poor play and lack of effort on the floor.