Denberg: Bottom found...???

[hds428]

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"Were he living, comedian Jimmy Durante would have called this a castastrostroke.

The Hawks can't play much worse. This homecoming week could not have begun with a bigger disaster. The playoffs? More unlikely with every game.

With each of three successive losses, it becomes increasingly apparent they got the wrong man when they nailed Lon Kruger for the poor performance of this team. Now, Terry Stotts is living with the fallout.

The Hawks were clobbered 107-73, the fifth-largest victory margin in Heat history. They were outscored by 37 points in the last three quarters. They gave up 31 points on fast breaks, including 13 baskets in the second quarter when the Heat bombed them 33-17 and put the game away. Miami scored 42 points in the paint , an astonishing number in any game.

Showing little inclination to play defense, yielding to so many fast breaks that Miami ran a rare 100-point track meet, the Hawks were hit with their most lopsided defeat of the season...."

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[Gray Mule]

Needed: A horse.

A horse who will make living in the middle HARD.

{Not a racehorse, a work horse}

A horse who could play middle linebacker in the N.F.L.

A horse who will not wave at the opponent as he goes

to the goal but who says, to get there, you must come

thru me and I ain't going anywhere.

Henderson is a banger but he needs help. The big three

up front aren't getting it. SAR, Big Dawg & Ratliff are

not bangers. Newble is pretty good but he is at guard

and is more an outside man.

Ham is tough but no offensive threat -- He can help

shut down the scoring at both ends of the court.

Coach may have to let some players sit out a game

or two to get their attention. There are too many

very good athletes here for this to be happening.

Years ago, before most of you were born, the great

baseball player, Ralph Kiner went to the G.M. of his

team and asked for a raise for the coming season.

{This was before free agency}

The G.M. told him, "We finished in last place with

you on the team last year. We could have finished

in last place without you. Raise denied."

If we are going to continue to play at this rate with

the present roster, we can save a lot of payroll by

releasing the whole darned team and sign eleven more

players from the Development League.

The play of the Atlanta Hawks men have become an

embarrisment to all their fans, to themselves and to

the entire N.B.A.

Stotts was excited about becoming an N.B.A. coach and

now he has to live with this? If the team fails,

replace the coach -- We did -- It hasn't helped. Some

of the players must be benched or traded. Dang, I

sure do miss DerMarr. That kid could play some kind

of mean defense and was just beginning to come into

the player we desperately needed.

[KB21]

A couple of points.

I agree that DerMarr Johnson was turning into a very good defender, but we would still have the same problems with him in the line up that we currently do in that he's not the proper back court mate for Jason Terry.

The fact that we have to find the perfect compliment to Jason Terry is killing this team. He's hurting us defensively and offensively because we have no one that can initiate the offense.

Most of you want to blame Glenn Robinson for the problems, but as bad as I hate it, Jason Terry is a bigger source of the problem. Not because he doesn't try, but because he puts the Hawks into too many bad situations.

[Guest]

glen puts them in more bad situations than JT does...

JT's problem on D is quite simple - he doesn't concentrate on his man well enough. He tries to keep an eye on everyone else as well, on the passing lanes, using his quickness to nab a steal...however, at this piont, what he needs to do is focus strickly on his man.

Glen's horrible D, just makes JT and SAR look all the worst. Theo can make up for a lapse or two...but not three players' lapses...

[hds428]

The unfortunate truth seems to be that JT is a tweener, and not really excelent at either guard spot. Though he could eventually become that point guard, we all know it wont happen in ATL, not with Reef and Big Dog holding contracts. This is'nt an exoneration of JT, he's playing as heartless as Reef and Robinson are, but at the end of the day, JT just is'nt what the Hawks need. I think Mike Wilks sent that message loud and clear. I can't say a whole lot about Robinson, yes there's the defense and turnovers, but he's new to the 'system' and honestly MIL was so easy to ignore last year, I don't have much of a point of refrence. My full ire is and has been focused on Mr Abdur Rahim. He's currently having career lows in blocks, steals, and offensive boards. That's not how the team captain plays, not the captain of a playoff bound team. Reef does'nt need to be a defensive POY guy, but he's got to be the one to take the lead, be the first to suck it up and show some effort on the defensive end. Even as mediocre as he was last year on D, that would even be acceptable, but he can't continue to just stand ther and get blown by every time. There is plenty of problems and plenty of blame to go around, but on the court it starts with the team leader and on the court is where the games are being lost.

[chillzatl]

JT is a bigger problem because IT IS HIS JOB TO RUN THE OFFENSE. Bigdogs job is to get the ball and score it. He does that very very well. Yes he turns the ball over a lot. But only because he's being forced into situations that do not play into his strengths. It's like expecting Allan Houston to play like Tmac and be successful at it. It's just not his game.

JT on the other hand, is responsible for making the offense run. It's his responsiblity to set up plays. It's his responsiblity to find guys when they are in the best position to score. It's his responsibility to dictate the tempo of our offense. So far he just hasn't succeeded consistantly at any of those things.

The solutions are simple and clear cut:

1. Bring in a guy who can help take some of the ball handling pressure off JT. Allowing him to spend part of his time in the SG role.

or

2. Trade him for a PG that can run an offense and make plays.

with that said, I ask you. What have we been doing for 2 years? looking for someone who can fill the role I outlined in #1. you tell me which is the easier of the two solutions?

[Guest]

While true enough, I really do like JT and his abilities and pluses. Granted his size makes it somewhat difficult to play him at the two full time...

say what you will but players of his caliber aren't really a dime a dozen. there are many, don't get me wrong, but I still hesitate trading him unless it's just a sweet deal - most of the other more athletic two guards that people talk about, guys like Mason, can't shoot like JT can.

It's a tough situation, but if I had my way, we'd make efforts to keep Reef and JT, and probably Hendu too to a large degree, and have everyone else on the blocks.

Baron Davis has a part time pg in Wesley playing alongside him at all times - it really helps.

JT just doesn't quite have what it takes to be a full time pg...but part time, or coupled with another player similar to him but taller (like Penny) would make things run so much more smoothly...

[Diesel]

If you look at the team... You have to think about each player as being a tool.

Big Dog.... He's a scorer. He has a scorer's mentality. He averaged 20/6 with Milwaukee every yr. Until this yr, his FG% were high and his TOs were not that high. He's been praised for his midrange game. He's been criticized for his defense.

Shareef.... He's a low post PF who is also a tweener. What that means is tht offensively he's a low post player who's faster than most other PF and he has an array of low post scoring moves. Defensively, he was trained as a SF and really never developed post defense. Because of his size he can be overpowered in the post because he doesn't know positiona defense (Maybe we ought to bring in Howard on a cheap contract next yr to help teach Reef that). Anyway, if you get Reef the ball 15 feet and in, he's gonna score or get fouled.

Ira... Hustle player. Great defender. So so offensive player. Looks good because of the hustle. However, he's Ty Corbin Jr. He can shoot from outside but he can't make anybody respect his outside shot. Offensively he becomes a liability because he can't handle the ball.

Theo. Great shot blocker. Tweener C. Doesn't have the toughness to be Ben Wallace like... He's not a banger. The problem, Yes Theo can block shots. However, defensively, he's not the intimidator. Teams look to challenge him because they know that they will eventually get him to foul. He'd be great on a team with another good Post defender... But like I said all last yr and this summer, we are not made for defense. Offensively, Theo has taken the label that used to belong to Hendu... "Hands of Stone". Theo is not a good offensive player because he can't catch and can't finish. Now that Loren Woods has fd up, I would see if Minn would be willing to trade...

However, like you said... The main problem is JT.

JT... Great shooter. BUT, has always been a problem at PG. Reason. He doesn't know how to PG. Doesn't have the instincts. I knew he was a problem his first yr when he would get trapped by token pressure. He couldn't bring the ball up the floor. Since, he's learned to dribble up the floor, but he still can't see a play developing or can make the players around him better. Things that we have tried...

1. Big OG... The Big OG was a trend in basketball. A Big OG is a guy who can initiate the offense from the OG position and who has the size to defend most SGs. It started with Penny... actually Magic. However, by Penny's time, it was in fashion to have one. We brought in Davis and we had JJ. What would have worked best for JT was if we had never traded Smith. Anyway... The Big OGs in the league now are: Penny, Barry, Barry, Rose, GP, Smith, J. Crawford.. I think that's all of them. The problem is that I can name them all on one hand. The other problem is that these guys rarely get put on the market... However, right now.. Rose is available..

2. Point Forward... The Point Forward revolution started with Pippen. However, like the Big OG, it faded and you see less and less of them too. We tried the Point Forward with probably the second best Point forward in History. Toni Kukoc. When he was healthy, his presence really helped JT. JT could do what JT does (defer and allow someone else to initiate the offense). Problem was that Toni was NOT always healthy. The Point Forward category is about as small as the Big OG... YOu have 3 that I can call. Pippen (retiring), Toni (Injured all the time), and Odom (Injured a lot but has other issues). Maybe Babs can anti up one more time and make a move for Odom. I mean of all the Clipps, Odom is the one that they can really dispense with. BUT I doubt they will. Plus, we'd have to use him as an OG.

3. Mighty Mouse backcourt.... Historically, this was done first by Phoenix who use to use a three gaurd lineup of Johnson/Kidd/Thunder Dan. It worked well for them because Kidd is Huge and Thunder Dan was versatile. That's moving JT to SG and playing with another PG. This worked out well offensively when we had Vaughn and Knight. However, in both cases, we found that defensively, we got CRUSHED. For you fans of JT, I will say this... We didn't have Theo. That said.. Theo will not make up that much of a difference. Still the strategy could work, but we'd need a PG who can run the show very effectively. Here's a list of PGs who could do the [censored] thang...

Brevin Knight... Really Small but this guy can run an offense and he plays good defense.

Jacque Vaughn... I got him down here because he's cheap. I think we could get him and another player with Nazr. But he has good court vision.

Tony Parker.... Wishful thinking, but if Kidd goes to San Antonio, this may become a possibility.

Nick Van Exel.... 2 things, would Dallas give him up and what would it cost. I can see a NVE for Big Dog trade. However, it would totally change us at Sf. I'd rather see Glover than ira if you know what I mean.

Rod Strickland.... With the coming up of Troy Hudson, Strickland could be traded for the right player. Glover for Strickland. Strick has kept quiet since going to Minn but Years are on him.

Mark Jackson.... He can't play 28 minutes no more, but he's still probably the best or second best old school gaurds playing.

Out of all of them, i would want to see if we could get NVE for Nazr/filler? I doubt Dallas would bite but who knows... They're never satisfied at C.

So that's what babs have thought about everyday for the past 2 yrs. Truth is he never should have traded Smith knowing that he was bringing in a rookie PG. But these things happen. The best option is probably to bring in NVE.. (maybe not for Big Dog)... Reason being is that NVE can play the PG. If JT is continually getting burned on defense, then by the deadline, we start to look for somebody that can replace him at the 2. I say JT for Mason.

NVE/Mason/GRob/SAR/Theo... Not bad.

[Guest]

Since JT can't playing PG he isn't worth Desmound

Mason.

[Diesel]

He needs help.

I think if he were to play PG and GP play OG for as long as GP remains, then when GP is ready to give it up, he could turn it over to JT.

That's why the teams JT goes to are limited. Either JT will be a Starter with an OG that can handle the ball and some PGing duties... Or JT will be a BU who comes in to deliver scoring off the bench ala Bobby Jackson.