Sekou's precamp Update

[TnDawg]

Here's an update affirming Marvin's growing hunger to improve and a positive note on S.Jones. This should be a fun season to watch.

"Hawks already in training camp mode

By Sekou Smith | Thursday, September 14, 2006, 12:10 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Made my way over to the practice court at Philips Arena Wednesday for a sneak peak to see who was doing what with training camp a couple of weeks away. Most of the usual suspects you would expect were in attendance – Josh Childress, Marvin Williams, Royal Ivey, Shelden Williams, Esteban Batista, Solomon Jones were the Hawks players on the floor.

It’s easy to see why the hopes are so high about Marvin’s second NBA season. As reported from summer league play in July, this guy is playing a different brand of basketball. He’s so much more confident and physical than he was as a rookie, playing with that nasty streak the coaching staff loves and continues to try and coax out of him. He was working on Solomon for a good part of the action I saw (though Solomon gave it back in kind a bit later). Marvin was putting the ball on the floor and going to the basket aggressively. He got on a roll at one point where he scored five straight times with sticky defense in his face during a fairly rugged half court game. It was impressive stuff.

It’s obvious to me right now that in order for the Hawks to make the leap from the bottom of the standings that they desire, they’re going to need major contributions from the trio of Marvin, Josh Smith and Shelden Williams. I know, that’s hardly breaking news. But after watching him in person, there’s reason for me to believe that Marvin is going to be able to deliver on his part. He’s still a pup in terms of his NBA development. And he’s still got plenty of room to grow into his body. But if he’s come this far this fast, the future could be filled with exciting moments for Hawks fans.

So what’s this junk about Josh Childress not being very athletic? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen that nonsense on this blog and elsewhere. I’m not sure what qualifies as athletic, but if playing above the rim consistently doesn’t qualify a person as athletic I don’t know what does. Childress goes above the rim at will. What he continues to struggle with is finishing, probably because he’s usually not as strong as the guys he’s battling with around the rim. But to say that he’s not athletic is just a mistake. He showed off plenty of athleticism Wednesday. While he doesn’t look like he’s bulked up considerably from last season he does appear to have maintained the 210 pounds he played at last season remarkably well. I still say he’s an underrated piece to what’s being assembled in Hawksville.

Shelden and Solomon both appeared to be much more comfortable since we saw them last (both guys had their struggles and triumphs during summer league but not enough of either one to make any lasting judgments about what’s to come). Royal Ivey was his usually gritty self, it’ll be interesting to see what his role is now that Speedy Claxton is set to run the show. The Ecuadorian Executioner (we’ve got to think of a nickname for Esteban) was too busy draining jumpers - he made the game winner in the last game of the day - to do his usual dirty work. But he knows that his NBA future depends on his outworking other guys and being the most physical player within a 10-county area. As mentioned before, Solomon Jones turned a few heads. He’s going to make it really hard to keep him on the sidelines too long because he’s so athletic and so unbelievably long (he had one block that had everyone in the gym buzzing for five minutes).

Before anyone asks, Josh Smith had a date with his eye doctor Wednesday, so I didn’t get to see him on the floor with the rest of these guys. And I missed Salim Stoudamire by a day (I was told he took a spill during Tuesday’s workout and took Wednesday off to rest). I’ll have to make at least two more trips to the practice floor before camp to get a few more updates."

[Blunt91]

Good read, we may have a steal in Soloman Jones. Seems like Este has a good midrange jumper. I hope that Woody notices this and runs plays for him. Can Este play the pick & roll? We have been looking for a bigman with range since Collier's death to run the pick & roll plays with JJ.

[WraithSentinel]

Great article there and once again Sekou come through. It was getting a boring around here with nothing to talk about. I wonder if JJ is going to show up soon and play with the young guys? He seem to play BBall year around.

[exodus]

I was a bit shocked to see how much Este was scoring during summer tournament play. If he can shoot that would certainly be a nice bonus.

One thing Este can do is play D. When he actually learns the defense I expect he will be a very effective defender. He is very athletic in addition to being so strong.

I would be curious to know what his vertical is because I saw him sky a couple of times and was surprised at his hops.

I have no idea about Solomon but he certainly put up decent rebounding/block numbers last year.

[Guest Walter]

Quote:

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I was a bit shocked to see how much Este was scoring during summer tournament play. If he can shoot that would certainly be a nice bonus.

One thing Este can do is play D. When he actually learns the defense I expect he will be a very effective defender. He is very athletic in addition to being so strong.

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I hope Woody is creative enough to utilize him and his talents unlike with Diaw. Este could do ALOT more for us than he's been asked. Here's hoping he gets the chance.

W

[DrReality]

I think one thing of value is these guys can play very important role when they match up against various opponents. It's also good to hear that the competition in practice is brisk. That's going to help these young guys get some seasoning.

Good timing from Sekou.

[Nicholasp27]

smoove had rave reviews from earlier this summer

the marvin/smoove tandem is gonna rule this year

speedy/jj/marvin/smoove/c is gonna be fun to watch

[DrReality]

This from another blog:

I went to see Finland against Georgia European championship qualification game yesteday. Zaza Pachulia was dominant scoring 36 with 13 rebounds. He shot 24 freethrows hitting 20.

Zaza matched up against former Hawk Hanno Mottola who had a flu and was very quiet whole night. Finnish bigs got to an early foul trouble but their guards hit their triples and Finland won by 10 points.

[Jdawgflow]

WOW!!!

Way to go Zaza.

I have a feeling that the Hawks are gonna be a lot better than most people think this year. It sure will be fun to finally get to tell everyone I told you so when the Hawks get in the playoffs (I have had to say "wait 'til next year" for far too long). This time, my prediction will be right.

...unless I am wrong, of course.

[Catapult]

I was in that game too.

To say Zaza was dominant, i think is a bit of an overstatement.

He played very well in offense and being quicker than his opponents made a few nice moves. Occasionally he tried to do too much (5 TO's), but as he was the only one who could score inside for his team, who can blame him. Most importantly he shot nicely from the FT line, where he got (almost) everytime his shot was challenged. I think majority of those calls were ok and overall the refs were good, but to me in the offensive end Zaza got a special treatment from them (not his fault of course). Anyway, he totally carried the Georgian offence and his active play and good FT shooting kept Georgia in the game.

Fortunately (from the finnish point of view) he didn't get the same treatment in defense and his fouls were called just like anybody elses. He didn't foul out, but had three (i think) early in the third quarter and ended with four fouls and played - given that Georgia's game depended very heavily on him - "just" 32 minutes. In defense he got a bunch of rebounds but didn't dominate by any means.

Finland won, thanks to our guards totally outplaying their opponents, both in scoring and in making plays for others and better team defense.

You can find the game report and boxscore from:

http://www.fibaeurope.com/

(roll down until you find a header: "EUROBASKET QUALIFIERS - DIVISION B")

Lastly, I have to wonder how any NBA team could have any interest keeping Skita in their roster. He was totally worthless.

[Geo]

Quote:

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I was in that game too.

To say Zaza was dominant, i think is a bit of an overstatement.

He played very well in offense and being quicker than his opponents made a few nice moves. Occasionally he tried to do too much (5 TO's), but as he was the only one who could score inside for his team, who can blame him. Most importantly he shot nicely from the FT line, where he got (almost) everytime his shot was challenged. I think majority of those calls were ok and overall the refs were good, but to me in the offensive end Zaza got a special treatment from them (not his fault of course). Anyway, he totally carried the Georgian offence and his active play and good FT shooting kept Georgia in the game.

Fortunately (from the finnish point of view) he didn't get the same treatment in defense and his fouls were called just like anybody elses. He didn't foul out, but had three (i think) early in the third quarter and ended with four fouls and played - given that Georgia's game depended very heavily on him - "just" 32 minutes. In defense he got a bunch of rebounds but didn't dominate by any means.

Finland won, thanks to our guards totally outplaying their opponents, both in scoring and in making plays for others and better team defense.

You can find the game report and boxscore from:

http://www.fibaeurope.com/

(roll down until you find a header: "EUROBASKET QUALIFIERS - DIVISION B")

Lastly, I have to wonder how any NBA team could have any interest keeping Skita in their roster. He was totally worthless.

---

I was also watching the game from tv ,and i can say that Zaza has defenetly progressed from last year.First of all without a doubt he was biggest man on court.He looked HUGE.I bet he had put like 7-10 pounds from last year.

His handle was what really impressed me.At times he was playing like a point guard ,putting the ball between the legs and behind the back and beating the man easily.He´s quickness was also what caught my eye.One time he just won Hanno with one step from high-post, and threw a monster and-one dunk.

As for the game,refeerees(or more that bald sonofabitch) ruined the Georgias game everytime they tried to make a run.First they called so bs-call for Georgia,and if somebody complained they threw a technical for a spice.Well all in all,Finland deserved a win,cause that dumbass coach of Georgia Herbert didn´t take time-out ,and let the Finns roll for a 14-0 run ,from wich Georgia never recoverd.We´ll be back in Tbilisi.

[Johnnybravo4]

Quote:

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This from another blog:

I went to see Finland against Georgia European championship qualification game yesteday. Zaza Pachulia was dominant scoring 36 with 13 rebounds. He shot 24 freethrows hitting 20.

Zaza matched up against former Hawk Hanno Mottola who had a flu and was very quiet whole night. Finnish bigs got to an early foul trouble but their guards hit their triples and Finland won by 10 points.

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HANNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[oken]

HAHAHAHAHANNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo

[gheorghe]

nice article Sekou, but i'm afraid you are confused about Esteban's procedence. My man Esteban is from Uruguay, a small country in South America that is located between Argentina and Brazil in case you didn't know. We are 3 million people here and Esteban is our national pride. So the "ecuadorian executioner" may change to the "Uruguayan executioner"

[Johnnybravo4]

Quote:

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nice article Sekou, but i'm afraid you are confused about Esteban's procedence. My man Esteban is from Uruguay, a small country in South America that is located between Argentina and Brazil in case you didn't know. We are 3 million people here and Esteban is our national pride. So the "ecuadorian executioner" may change to the "Uruguayan executioner"

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I just think that he could resist the alliteration present in Ecuadorian Executioner.

[DrReality]

How about the Uruguayan Undertaker?

Good to know he has a fellow countryman on the board. Would love to see him blossom this year. From his blog, it looks like the ladies love him.

[gheorghe]

that's a great nickname!!! and by the way, wich is his webblog's site?

[DrReality]

More from Sekou's AJC blog.

By Sekou K. Smith

September 14, 2006 04:01 PM | Link to this

Astro,

Remind me not to invite you to my I-just-won-the-lottery-and-want-to-feel-good party, because you have this fabulous way of tempering any optimism whatsoever with your blunt reality. Ha. Great question, though. And for the most part, yes, these games I saw Wednesday were glorified pickup games (which is the type of behavior most every single professional player on the planet indulges in this time of year). The thing you need to keep in mind is that these guys weren’t playing against over the hill jokers who never had the talent to sniff a professional roster. They’re playing against their peers. And whether they do it in Houston, LA, Las Vegas, New York or Atlanta, it’s the best offseason training possible for men who play at the level they play.

As for Batista shooting jumpers, does he need to refine his body blocking skills? Tyronn Lue would argue no. Long after the floor had cleared Batista was still out there working on his shot, which is the kind of professional development most companies encourage their employees to engage in. So I see nothing wrong with his shot work.

And sure, the offseason is always a different story from the regular season. But I’d rather know guys are working hard and preparing themselves than not. So I won’t dismiss anything I’ve seen out of these guys this summer, and that’s from Joe Johnson to Batista.

[DrReality]

By Sekou K. Smith

September 15, 2006 02:18 PM | Link to this

Astro,

I love the passion. But I think your venom is misguided. And to assume that a coach, at this or any level, can motivate a player without extraordinary skills to perform at an extraordinary level, is buying into the hype that we in the media have made of the profession. Naismith bless d*ck Vitale, but calm down on the coaching thing.

In an arena where the talent is reasonably comparable on most nights (like the NBA), it’s not a coach that makes the difference. It’s players able to execute the scheme that make the difference. So to assume that Larry Drew or anyone else could milk great point guard play out of a team that didn’t have a great point guard is beyond naive.

You love being real, more than most, so are you telling me that the Hawks personnel the past two years spoke to anything better than 39-125? I think that’s about what should have been expected from the assembled talent in each of those two seasons. Anything more than that, in my eyes, would have been overachieving.

That’s not saying that all involved didn’t give it everything they had. But often times in professional sports, you are exactly what you are. And when you have pieced together rosters two years running and little to no continuity from one season to the next, struggled should be expected.

No disrespect to Clifford Ray, but he had Dwight Howard to work with in Orlando. And I don’t know that Charles Oakley has coached anywhere, so assuming that either of these men could do any more or any less than the guys already in place seems a bit preposterous to me.

Forgive me for being a bit on edge, but it’s Michigan-Notre Dame weekend. And let’s just say that since the mid-1980’s, this weekend has provided me with plenty of headaches, thanks to the Luck of the #$@%@&$ Irish!

By Sekou K. Smith

September 15, 2006 02:22 PM | Link to this

And no, that wasn’t me that was voted off of Survivor Racism last night. My boys have been clowning me all day about some dude on Survivor with the same name being the first to go last night. My lady even clowned me about it, her exact quote, “There’s another Sekou who thinks he knows everything. Keep it up and we’ll vote you off the island, too.”

[Catapult]

LOL - there were a few guys in the Georgian team that bitched about every single call they were called, now matter how obvious the foul was. Ellis probably talked more with the refs than his teammates, but his being a Texan it might have been the language barrier...

btw. I think the game in Tbilisi is about a year from now, which I think is way too long. There might be two totally different teams competing then, but it will be interesting.