Mike Woodson isn't up to the job...

[TexasPete]

The same formula always seems to bite the Hawks in the 4th quarter. It's almost an accident when we win a close game. These Hawks should be a .500 club despite the injuries. We stand around and quit on offense down the stretch, hardly ever attacking the basket or running good sets. Its the same stagnant play over and over and the fact that our owners see this and still keep Woody employed is highly discouraging. This is NOT about youth anymore, despite the garbage that BK and the owners sell us. This is officially about coaching. Even last years team should have won more than 26 games, we had Indy's best player teamed with JJ and some nice young talent. The fact that we won only 13 the year before tempered expectations so everybody was cool with winning 26. Mistake, because in the lousy East, we should have won 32-36 games. With the East worse this year we should make the playoffs because the talent is there injuries or not. Every team has injuries, the fact is we lose most of our games because we don't have any movement nor attack the basket...we just aren't aggressive.

Mike Woodson is a LOUSY head coach. He isn't up to this job. He doesn't know how to coach these guys and it shows when we get to crunch time. These young and potentially good Hawks will NEVER win a damn thing with Mike Woodson on the sidelines. Period. Not a thing. And our GM and owners don't possess the cajones to hire a real coach. BK can't hire anybody smarter than him and the owners won't write a check because they don't spend money. I think its a shame we are always missing something. But a coach like Mike Woodson is so far away from respectability it is embarrassing and the owners listen to Billy because none of them know a whole lot about the league. I just hate watching incompetance. Woody stinks.

[buckeye242424]

Amen! Tonight was inexcusable. He is an awful coach. No competent NBA coach will blow the lead we had, talent or no talent. Poor, poor coaching. Embarrassing.

[Eddielives]

And with our GM and our screwed up ownership situation, nothing is going to change until either Belkin officially leaves or offcially takes over. We're stuck Hawks fans. WE're stuck with continuing to hope for a better tomorrow.

[TexasPete]

BK's telling the Spirit we lose because of youth. They buy it. When you watch us just standing around running the SAME play always in the crunch...good lord, I can't believe these owners can't figure it out.

My biggest problem with BK is his friendship with Woodson that prevents him from being objective. I would get rid of BK if we could get rid of Woodson.

[Sothron]

I keep telling you guys this...there's no chance we fire Woodson who is on a cheap contract while the ownership situation is what it is. NO and I mean NO real head coach is going to want to step into this mess and Woodson's pay is so cheap that its a positive even if by this point it is OBVIOUS he is not a real NBA head coach.

[TexasPete]

Your right. But I'm tired of losing because we can't coach these guys. This situation just stinks. And Mike Woodson is so bad I'm not sure he could coach a rec team.

[lifelong]

Agreed, no team loses a 4th quarter like that just because of youth or because they're less talented. A TWENTY-ONE POINT LEAD IN THE FOURTH QUARTER!!!??? that is inexcusable. this one is on woody. he got taken to school by jerry sloan.

[jerrywest]

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Agreed, no team loses a 4th quarter like that just because of youth or because they're less talented. A TWENTY-ONE POINT LEAD IN THE FOURTH QUARTER!!!??? that is inexcusable. this one is on woody. he got taken to school by jerry sloan.

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Any competent owner would fire him long ago.

[buckeye242424]

A blind, 7th grade girls volleyball coach could hold a 21 point quarter lead. This broke the camel's back as far as I'm concerned. Wow...what a crappy night.

[lifelong]

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A blind, 7th grade girls volleyball coach could hold a 21 point quarter lead. This broke the camel's back as far as I'm concerned. Wow...what a crappy night.

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You could almost tell your team to hold every possession until the shot clock expires, NEVER take a single shot and play defense. You would have a better of winning with that strategy rather than what we did in the 4th quarter under woody's direction.

[Sothron]

I'm not defending Woodson in the least but there's honestly no need to get upset over it. There's no chance of Woodson being fired until the ownership situation is finished.

On the same wavelength I've reconciled the fact we've blown three drafts under Knight. There's no need to constantly dwell on who we could have drafted.

[jerrywest]

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I'm not defending Woodson in the least but there's honestly no need to get upset over it. There's no chance of Woodson being fired until the ownership situation is finished.

On the same wavelength I've reconciled the fact we've blown three drafts under Knight. There's no need to constantly dwell on who we could have drafted.

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These are unrelated issues. Those draft choice had us up 21 points in the 4th quarter. They needed direction in the 4th a general who shows confidence. Woody can't do that. Can you imagine what he'll do in the playoffs? He could pee in his pants

[lifelong]

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I'm not defending Woodson in the least but there's honestly no need to get upset over it. There's no chance of Woodson being fired until the ownership situation is finished.

On the same wavelength I've reconciled the fact we've blown three drafts under Knight. There's no need to constantly dwell on who we could have drafted.

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well, give him at least some credit for the '04 draft. you can argue childress was picked too high and that the 2nd round picks weren't huge steals, but there wasn't a clear superstar available when we picked.

[MoonKnight]

Larry Brown, Stan VanGundy are just some of the established coaches out there right now. If the Atlanta Spirit is unable to hire a big time coach because of the current litigation then why not give Herb Brown, Larry Drew or Dominique a chance. There is time to salvage this season and still make a run in the very weak eastern conference. I know some folks will post "but we have injuries and youth so what can Woodson do about that?". Well we have never run consistant offensive sets since Woodson has been the coach and we have never taken advantage of mismatches (Derek Fisher guarding JJ anyone?) since Woodson has been here. This is not a isolated incident of losing the game at home in the 4th as evidenced by the Chicago game. The home fan support has been surprisingly strong so far but that will end soon unless we starting winning these games. Mr. Levenson may win the litigation and have nothing to show for it. I am a partial season ticket holder and had to miss attending tonight's game and watch it on Sportsouth instead. I am glad I missed watching live one of the worst regular season debacles in the history of the franchise. Feel free to flame away.

[jerrywest]

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I'm not defending Woodson in the least but there's honestly no need to get upset over it. There's no chance of Woodson being fired until the ownership situation is finished.

On the same wavelength I've reconciled the fact we've blown three drafts under Knight. There's no need to constantly dwell on who we could have drafted.

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well, give him at least some credit for the '04 draft. you can argue childress was picked too high and that the 2nd round picks weren't huge steals, but there wasn't a clear superstar available when we picked.

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Please talk about woody here. Make a diff thread if you want to talk about other things. I need valium.

[lifelong]

whoever is the best writer on the forum should write a detailed letter as to why woodson sucks. then we can send it to the talk radio stations, sekou smith and see if any of our criticisms start showing up in their comments and articles.

I simply can't believe this 4th quarter, particularly after the nuggets game we won at denver when woodson did a good job of making decisions that brought us back.

[Hoosier]

No that is not true at all, as far as I'm concerned, this team has proven that the talent is there, even almost all the pieces are there......except for the coach.

[DJlaysitup]

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No that is not true at all, as far as I'm concerned, this team has proven that the talent is there, even almost all the pieces are there......except for the coach.

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This was unbelievable!!!!!. I was thinking at the end of the 3rd quarter that this would be a great confidence booster to beat a really good team by 20 points or so...mega high fives in the dressing room - party a bit - then get ready for Indy. Instead - a crushing collapse of biblical proportions

Woody didn't do sh!t in the first three quarters - Speedy's disruption and Josh's intimidation (and others) kicked Utah arse. Our guys were flying high and using their skills. Deron was scared to do anything much but pass off or Speedy would steal the ball. SW played fairly tough inside...JS was a FORCE. MW was OK and Zaza was getting away with his uncoordinated activities.

Then the Jazz got lucky with dumb plays by Salim and Lo. Dumb but not killer mistakes. We went from up 19 to up 12... (UP TWELVE IN THE 4TH QUARTER STLL!!...or so). Then it was a coaching duel...and it wasn't even close. We didn't lose a 21 point lead and lose in OT - NO - we lost by 6.

For God's sake - our crunch time 1/2 court offense is TERRIBLE. Get that poor man off the bench and get us a coach - the players at least deserve that.

[TexasPete]

I have actually written every Hawks owner and complained. Bruce Levenson and Bernie Mullen wrote back but they were the only ones. Mullen thinks Woody is young like the team, makes mistakes, but will grow with the team. My point to him was simple: We have enough "growing" going on...lets get a good coach who is already there to speed the process along. He admitted Woody made mistakes but said he would improve. Why not bring in a coach who is ready for prime time? It may just be that the team is ready for good things. And a good coach could get us to the playoffs now.

As Sothron said, these guys have too many issues right now to make a move. The whole organization is a mess. And besides, Billy tells them Woody is great, there are a ton of injuries, amd they believe him. All Hawks fans are screwed.

[TexasPete]

DJ, you have it right. The 4th quarter crunch time offense is HORRIBLE! The Woody offense is the same play every time down. Mostly, its just standing around while the other team actually runs plays with passing, cutting, and ball movement. Woody obviously doesn't watch what other teams do because we do this stuff every game. Our players expect to lose.

Congrats to The ATL Spirit for now having the players to compete...the poor bastards still don't realize how to win in the league.

HELLO???It's called coaching...and we need a better one.