Why do the Hawks punish us so?

[gsuteke]

They lose 10 of 11. many of us give up on this season hoping for a brighter future.

They win 3 in a row. Wonderful, the 8 seed is 3 games away.

They then proceed to drop 2 in a row to arguably one of the worst teams in the league.

Ultimately a 3 game winning streak may cost us a pick in one of the strongest drafts 1 to 3 in recent memory.

Why do the Hawks punish us so? All we want to do is love them.

[Popeye]

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They then proceed to drop 2 in a row to arguably one of the worst teams in the league.

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Not just DROP, but get blowned out like a regular Civic against a 1000 hp Viper.

[vdunkndunk]

It's because we're like a battered spouse...we just keep coming back for more.

My problem is that I get excited after the Hawks look good for two or three games, and I forget that they looked like crap for the last ten or fifteen games.

Until they start playing near .500 for prolonged stretches of the season, I'm going to be in the tank crowd.

[Sothron]

They need to just tank every game the rest of the season and deliberately do whatever it takes to lose. I mean intentionally missing shots and making bad fouls. We can't afford to lose our pick this year. Thanks to the idiot in Knight we stand a very strong possibility of it though.

[Diesel]

I think you terribly underrate the Charlotte Bobcats...

You have to reinvestigate that team. They have beaten some good teams like Detroit, Lakers, etc. Their problem is like us, they are very young. Their vets have been injured.

However, look at the assets..

Okafor has played all season and he's averaging 15 and 11. He's been a menace on the boards. They have both Morrison and Carroll to shoot the lights out and Felton is averaging over 7 assists per game. They do some things that we're not good at stopping... like Low post scoring and perimeter shooting. That's why I say, they may just have our number... Period. Okafor and Wallace always kill us on the boards.

[HAWKEYE]

Looking at the times of these above posts it seems we are all losing sleep over these guys.

[gsuteke]

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Looking at the times of these above posts it seems we are all losing sleep over these guys.

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LOL we took our daughter to see the "mean cows" at the bullriding event that was in town. I wasn't driving. of course when you get home and see the Hawks got whacked a 2nd night in a row by Charlotte you can't help but to log on and say something about it.

the flip side of that is when your 2 year old wakes up at 7:30 the next morning. sheesh

[DrReality]

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It's because we're like a battered spouse...we just keep coming back for more.

My problem is that I get excited after the Hawks look good for two or three games, and I forget that they looked like crap for the last ten or fifteen games.

Until they start playing near .500 for prolonged stretches of the season, I'm going to be in the tank crowd.

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Ditto! Build us up and then crash down. After Friday night I was disgusted and only flipped back and forth to the game a few times Saturday.

[gsuteke]

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I think you terribly underrate the Charlotte Bobcats...

You have to reinvestigate that team. They have beaten some good teams like Detroit, Lakers, etc. Their problem is like us, they are very young. Their vets have been injured.

However, look at the assets..

Okafor has played all season and he's averaging 15 and 11. He's been a menace on the boards. They have both Morrison and Carroll to shoot the lights out and Felton is averaging over 7 assists per game. They do some things that we're not good at stopping... like Low post scoring and perimeter shooting. That's why I say, they may just have our number... Period. Okafor and Wallace always kill us on the boards.

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instead of a particular player you're using it for the entire team.

they should have beaten the Bobcats. maybe even twice.

[Guest Walter]

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I think you terribly underrate the Charlotte Bobcats...

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And we got equally blown out at home and away by them. Really doesn't matter. It was time to tank 2 weeks ago. We MUST get on track fro tanking or else we'll be discussing how the likes of a player like Doleac will help our team rather than Greg Oden.

W

[Diesel]

No Excuse...

An excuse would have been... "Well, we didn't have all of our players.. or Josh Smith got ejected in game 2".

However, what I'm stating is that the Bobcats have strengths that work against our biggest weaknesses. Namely low post scoring/rebounding and outside shooting. I don't call that an excuse, that's an observation. Usually the way we counteract that is that we run, however, they are a good running team too. The remedy is that we must find or develop a low post player if we plan on beating Charlotte...

[gsuteke]

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No Excuse...

An excuse would have been... "Well, we didn't have all of our players.. or Josh Smith got ejected in game 2".

However, what I'm stating is that the Bobcats have strengths that work against our biggest weaknesses. Namely low post scoring/rebounding and outside shooting. I don't call that an excuse, that's an observation. Usually the way we counteract that is that we run, however, they are a good running team too. The remedy is that we must find or develop a low post player if we plan on beating Charlotte...

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which is why I think it's so crucial for us to keep our pick this year since it seems like we're on a long road to nowhere.

we may not get Oden but there are a couple of Center prospects that could help us out tremendously.

if we lose that pick though it sets us back a year IMO. we'll be acquiring a Center to develop the next year instead.

[Iman]

I'm with Diesel, our Coach hasnt figured out how to match us up against Charlotte. Also, Charlotte was just hot, our defense wasnt good but no way Charlotte shoots the percentages they shot against us unless they are on fire. Game1 we looked sluggish and shot poorly but mainly Gerald Wallace was super energized and killed us. Both games Woodson did nothing to slow Okafor. Not that Shelden will ever have the game of Okafor, but I'd have matched them up and let Shelden learn first hand how to play. Medvedenko could have been used to pull Okafor outta the paint, isnt that why we got him?

Anyways, we have plenty of winnable games coming up, hopefully we'll get back to playing well.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

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No Excuse...

An excuse would have been... "Well, we didn't have all of our players.. or Josh Smith got ejected in game 2".

However, what I'm stating is that the Bobcats have strengths that work against our biggest weaknesses. Namely low post scoring/rebounding and outside shooting. I don't call that an excuse, that's an observation. Usually the way we counteract that is that we run, however, they are a good running team too. The remedy is that we must find or develop a low post player if we plan on beating Charlotte...

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Diesel, all most Squawkers see, are wins and losses. They act like the Bobcats were this scrub team that gets blown out every night.

It's crazy when you actually look at their schedule and see the teams that they've beat this year:

- San Antonio

- Cleveland

- Detroit ( twice )

- Utah

- Orlando

- LA Lakers

- Indiana

That's 8 wins ( out of 14 ) against current playoff teams.

And Squawkers forget . . the Hawks actually had the number of a particular playoff team last year, in which they won all 4 games against them. Indiana fans were asking those same questions about our team, when they watched the Hawks beat them 4 straight games.

And why did we beat them?

1) beacuse of their injury situation and roster rotations last year

2) Because they had NO ANSWER for neither JJ nor Al Harrington . . . NONE.

For the most part, professional sports teams are pretty much even, unless the other team have a few vastly superior players. The difference in winning and losing, is how your team overall matches up against your opponent.

It's a reason why the Bobcats have beaten us the last 5 out of 6 times. We can't stop their frontcourt.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

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They lose 10 of 11. many of us give up on this season hoping for a brighter future.

They win 3 in a row. Wonderful, the 8 seed is 3 games away.

They then proceed to drop 2 in a row to arguably one of the worst teams in the league.

Ultimately a 3 game winning streak may cost us a pick in one of the strongest drafts 1 to 3 in recent memory.

Why do the Hawks punish us so? All we want to do is love them.

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LOL @ gsuteke. That's true. The Charlotte series was an opportunity blown for this team to be in a very good position going into next week. If we took care of business, we'd be sitting at 15 - 23 right now and would've been 2.5 games behind for that 8th seed.

Now, it's compounded by a possible one or two game suspension of Smoove . . probably by Monday. And because we didn't even split with them, we're 5.5 games behind for that #8 seed.

LOL . . but the good news is that we're in the same position we were in last week. 5.5 games behind for the #8 seed.

And to put things into perspective, the Hawks are 4 - 4 in their last 8 games, so the team is somewhat stable, even though they seem to get sky high for games against playoff teams, and real low vs teams that are on their level.

I said this about Detroit last week, so I'm going to say it about the Chicago game.

Don't be surprised if this team comes out, and plays a very good game against the Bulls, even beats them.

I say that because we do match up better against them, than we do against the Bobcats . . believe it or not. And the Bulls are a team that relies heavily on turning you over and getting their perimeter shooters going. Hinrich and Gordon have to play well, or one of them has to have an outstanding game, for them to win on a nightly basis.

So we'll see how that game turns out. And if we get a surprise return by Speedy, it may help us out. Somebody will have to step up and make a conscious effort to hit the boards, with Smoove being out though. His suspension will probably come down before that Tuesday night game.

[AtLaS]

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Don't be surprised if this team comes out, and plays a very good game against the Bulls, even beats them.

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And blow a 16 point lead in the 4th?

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I say that because we do match up better against them, than we do against the Bobcats . . believe it or not.

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Although we have played better against Chicago, I just think it's Woody's lack of coaching. How do Matt Carroll and Jeff McIness go off against us? Charlotte didn't have Felton, Brevin Knight OR Sean May.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

LOL @ Atlas. The same way the Hawks go off on a T-Wolves team on the road, when the T-Wolves were one of the hottest teams in the league. We hit everything we threw up that night. And if Marvin hits 1/2 of his shots, we probably shoot 60% against the T-Wolves.

That's just how sports are sometimes.

We just caught a hot Bobcat team that could completely exploit all of our weaknesses.

I mean, we shot 51% last night, and STILL got blown out. Things like that usually don't happen in sports. But it happened to us.

I would've been more concerned about this team, if we came out and shot 40% again. But the offense and effort was there. Charlotte just shot lights out. Nothing you can do about that. And there's nothing the T-Wolves could do about it last Wednesday night when they played us.

Coaching didn't lose that game last night, or the last Chicago game.

[Guest Walter]

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Charlotte didn't have Felton, Brevin Knight OR Sean May.

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Yikes. I amend my statment. If a team like Charlotte without Felton, May, or Knight has your number to the tune of two consecutive 20+ pt. or so loses, then you better hope to god you keep your pick (top 3) because nothing in this world short of that is going to make you a contender in this league.

GSUteke, I believe not keeping our pick this year sets us back far more than a year. This draft is stong at the top and fits our needs. We also aren't quite this bad and may only expect an 9th or so pick in next year's draft. In short, it seems to me to be now or never (meaning not any time soon) for the Hawks. Tank now or win never.

W

[TheNorthCydeRises]

LOL . . well, we'll never win then, because this team isn't tanking. Might as well find another team to root for, if you're expecting this team to tank just for the opportunity to get a top 3 pick.

You gotta trust the kids Walter, even if you don't trust the coaches or the management. JJ, Chill, and Smoove will stedily improve over the years, and the Hawks shouldn't be a lower-echilon team in the years to come. Even if we don't get the big impact guy, we should get enough serviceable guys to man the middle, in order to get us to playoff level.

And that's the goal right now, get to playoff level . . NOT win a championship.

Even though a championship is the goal for every team, you also have to be realistic about your personnel and your chances to get to championship level. Bulls fans were talking "championship" when they acquired Ben Wallace. LOL . . they haven't improved any, if you ask me. But they're on the right track.

But "championship" may still be 3 - 4 years away for them. Right now, it's important for them to just be a perennial playoff team, and get that much needed playoff experience in order to get them to championship level.

But for us, we just have to crawl ( make the playoffs ), before we can walk ( actually do damange in the playoffs and compete for a title ).

[AtLaS]

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Charlotte didn't have Felton, Brevin Knight OR Sean May.

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Yikes. I amend my statment. If a team like Charlotte without Felton, May, or Knight has your number to the tune of two consecutive 20+ pt. or so loses, then you better hope to god you keep your pick (top 3) because nothing in this world short of that is going to make you a contender in this league.

GSUteke, I believe not keeping our pick this year sets us back far more than a year. This draft is stong at the top and fits our needs. We also aren't quite this bad and may only expect an 9th or so pick in next year's draft. In short, it seems to me to be now or never (meaning not any time soon) for the Hawks. Tank now or win never.

W

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Although I agree that Oden would make us a playoff contender, no team gets their team STRICTLY from the draft and just becomes a championship team. The goal is to make the playoffs with a young and up and coming team, and then package a few of those players for a star to put them over the top.

Stars get traded EVERY year, and when you are a young and good team, players will WANT to be traded here. We definitely have enough pieces outside of JJ, Chill, and Smoove to package together a deal for a star player..