Do you think Woody is capable of making up 5 games

[jerrywest]

Do you think Woody is capable of making up 5 games with this team? The question is if he will. Is he CAPABLE? DO YOU HAVE ANY FAITH IN HIM ON THIS?

[drzachary]

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Do you think Woody is capable of making up 5 games with this team? The question is if he will. Is he CAPABLE? DO YOU HAVE ANY FAITH IN HIM ON THIS?

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I voted no, he's not capable of doing it. However, I think the team is capable of making up 5 games DESPITE Woody.

[gutz]

If we can stay relatively healthy the rest of the year we are very capable of making up 5 games including Woody. We have everyone back now except for Speedy for the FIRST time ALL year. We just need to start stringing some wins together. Tonights game against ORlando is HUGE and then we have Philly coming in town tomorrow which we should win.

[TAdams_1]

Every team in this league can on any night win. There is a crazy amount of talent that can shine on any one maybe two nights. Five in a row would require consistency, something the Hawks want no part of. Consistency needs a gameplan that works every night not just getting creative/emotional enough to beat one team hear and there. This is what we do not have. I don't know why, you would think the piece are there to be placed together. Perhaps it's because we have a team that wants to emulate the Phoenix Suns but has a coach brought up in the half court Detroit System. Maybe we should look to Europe to find our next coach.

[Lascar78]

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I voted no, he's not capable of doing it. However, I think the team is capable of making up 5 games DESPITE Woody.

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agreed

[TheNorthCydeRises]

LOL . . . how am I'm not surprised to find out that I'm the only one so far that voted YES to that question? People are absolutely convinced that Woody is the worst coach in the NBA. He's not a great coach, but he's not the worst either. He's middle of the pack.

If you put Doc Rivers, George Karl, Eddie Jordan, Flip Saunders, or any other of these non-elite coaches in the same situation with the Hawks, we wouldn't be any better off than we are now.

Of course Woody can make up 5 games. But it all hinges on this team getting back to full strength.

Woody gets all the blame when we lose, but NONE of the credit when we win. Well, consider this "Squawkers":

- Playing zone defense have won us over 1/2 of our games this year. Woody recognizes when to play zone and when to stick with it. And when he goes to the zone, the vast majority of the time, he's going with his best athletic team on the floor, which sometimes include playing either Shelden or Smoove in the middle. That's not by accident.

- People on this board like the fact that Chill plays a little PG. Well, who do you think is telling him to handle the ball and initiate the half court offense? Isn't Woody responsible for Chill's expanded role on this team? That's not by accident . . . it's out of necessity because of our PG situation. But those minutes could very well be going to a guy like Ivey or Salim, instead of Chill. But Woody recognizes that Chill can at least hold his own at the point for stretches in a game, and it allows him to keep JJ, Chill, Marvin and Smoove in the game at the same time. Once again, that's not by accident.

- People on this board also have warmed up to Ivey playing a little more minutes, especially when T. Lue was out. Well, why do you think he was playing a little more? Personally, I still think Salim is the better offensive threat, but Woody recognizes that Ivey somewhat stabilizes the team on both ends of the floor. That's why he was getting time over Salim. That's not by accident.

- The move to send ZaZa to the bench has hurt his play, but have improved the Hawks, especially defensively. That's not to say that Lo is a good defensive player, because he's not. But Lo does know how to man the spot defensively much better than ZaZa, so our defense is a lot more stable. ZaZa seems to being groomed to be that low post option coming off the bench that can go against 2nd team centers. In the long run, that may make him a more efficient player. That's not by accident.

- Most importantly, Woody has completely made Smoove a better basketball player. But I guess all of you think Smoove developed himself . . . lol. More than any other player on this team, Woody has constantly been on Smoove, trying to get him to play smart basketball. We all know that he has the natural talent to play defense. But offensively, he had been a loose cannon. Woody was the guy telling Smoove to not settle for that 3 pointer or that 21 foot shot all the time. He's the one telling the kid to be aggressive in taking the ball to the hole.

Smoove took 46 threes in 13 games in the month of November. Since then, he has taken 36 threes in 19 games. And while his FT% isn't great, he's getting to the line much more often and actually getting people in foul trouble. His transformation to a more stable player didn't become because he's "all of a sudden" decided to be a stable player. It has come because WOODY molded him into one. THAT'S NOT BY ACCIDENT!

So you guys can keep up this "Woody is a horrible coach" routine all you want. Some of you need to open your eyes and not just focus on the things that the guy hasn't done, and look at what he has done.

And I'll say this again.

A Hawks team at full strength would be somewhere around the .500 mark right now. Only a top level coach would have us playing any better.

This board is hilarious though. One one hand, some of you think that we have the talent to be much better than what we are . . . but the GM is terrible. On the other hand, Woody is the worst coach in the league, but we've played a total of 31 games without one or both of our PGs. What team could survive with both of their PGs out for significant stretches at a time?

Woody definitely gets a C+ from me for this season so far. This team could've thrown in the towel a long time ago, but they haven't. That's not by accident.

[Lascar78]

Our record would be way better if George Karl was here.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

You mean like how Karl's record is stellar now? I mean, even when they didn't have Melo in the lineup, he still had a hall of fame player in Iverson.

It just goes to show you that when injuries hit, it really doesn't matter how good of a coach you are.

And if this team is so deficient in so many areas, I doubt that Karl could turn us into a winner.

You guys have to give Woody some of the credit when the team wins. It's funny that you came back with that Karl comment, but couldn't comment on ANY of the points that I stated about Woody. Typical for this board, when a person hates a player or a coach.

You're a great fan though Las . . keep posting the good stuff.

[AtLaS]

yeah everyone even said you can't rate the Nuggets team until they got everyone back. AI was playing with probably a worse team than he had in Philly when he first got to the Nuggets, BOYKINS was the 2nd leading scorer!

They were playing without Melo, JR, Camby, and Martin, you can hardly blame that on Karl. When you have a 5'5 player as your 2nd leading scorer you are not going to win.

[TexasPete]

Karl vs. Woody...and you think Woody is in his league?

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

[Lascar78]

There is no denying that Karl's team's talent is way superior to Woody. That doesn't change the fact that Karl is a WAAAY better coach than Woody. You don't evaluate it over a career by looking at what he gets out of teams he coaches. Karl is a great coach, who might have a title if that #23 wasn't around. He is one of the best coaches in the world period. His only major downfall is his huge ego and the way he gets involved personally with (well against) some of his players. He knows Xs and Os.

The ONLY thing Woody has shown me is that he can keep a team motivated throughout all the losing. And that's great, but it's not enough.

And some of the stuff you mention that he does comes way too late. He should have focused on telling Smith not to shoot 3s and to attack the rim at LEAST sometime last year. Instead it takes almost 2.5 years before he actually gets on him and gets through to him. He makes goofball mistakes in his subs, he doesn't know how to call timeouts, he never seems to know when we have a foul to give, and never tells the players to go for a 2 for 1. He makes a TON of mistakes that an NBA caliber coach just doesn't make.

Can anyone tell me what our offense is, what our go to plays are? I honestly don't know other than 1 player isolations with the hope of kicking out on a double team. 2.5 years in we should have SOME visible offensive scheme, and better defensive rotation.

Of course he does some things well, they don't give an NBA job to a guy who's clueless. But compared to the very high standard of what an NBA coach should be, he is just not up to par.

[AtLaS]

when did I say that?

[Diesel]

I think most coaches know their X's and O's and most coaches are good motivators. I think that somewhere along the way, you have to consider the amount of talent a coach has at his disposal being the biggest difference maker.

For instance, I think that the best coach in basketball today is Jerry Sloan. However, he has no rings to show for his brilliance.

[Lascar78]

Rings are different, there is only one per year. Again, I'm not even judging win/loss. I'm judging what he does and what he has the players do. It's obvious that Woody is a bad coach. You can be a bad coach AND have a bad team.

[DJlaysitup]

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...It's obvious that Woody is a bad coach. You can be a bad coach AND have a bad team.

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...and a bad GM and bad owners...this is true.

[bfwolf]

A Hawks team with no injuries would be at .500? Come on, man. .420 sure. Maybe we could sniff .450. We're not a .500 team at full strength.

AND it's a complete cop-out to talk about how good we'd be without injuries. Every team faces injuries to their top players. That's a fact of life. Have we gotten more than our fair share this year? Sure. But not THAT much more than our fair share.

[DJlaysitup]

Of the players, the coach, the GM, and the owners...I would put the LEAST amount of blame on the players. They have no control over where they are or the overall makeup of the team or the scheme they are playing within.

For what they've gone through I think it's somewhat amazing that the only real outbursts we've heard about was the one time last year from Salim...and that was just a one-time thing out of frustration...it wasn't an A.I.-like "trade me" ultimatum.

[rascurrein]

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Do you think Woody is capable of making up 5 games with this team? The question is if he will. Is he CAPABLE? DO YOU HAVE ANY FAITH IN HIM ON THIS?

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I voted no, he's not capable of doing it. However, I think the team is capable of making up 5 games DESPITE Woody.

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I couldn't be more agreed.

[lunar]

i don't think woodson is capable of making up 5 games. but i do think that joe and josh are capable of it. what has to happen is a trade. i'm talking trading lue or wright for somebody, anybody that is an upgrade over lorenzen wright. even if it's someone like haywood. i think that even the though that we are trying to win could push us to a winning streak. we just need some new blood. he doesn't have to be an all-star, or even a legit starter. he can be someone's bench player. but if he can give us something new, then i think we have to pursue it.

[Hoosier]

I agree.