Hawksquawk Poll: Acie Law

[chillzatl]

After seeing Acie Law in the summer leagues, how has your opinion of him changed compared to it at draft time

[exodus]

I felt he was the right pick at the time and frankly expect him to dog a bunch of summer leaguers, so my opinion hasnt changed.

[coachx]

After watching him in summer league I am even more convinced. I have only seen the 1st 2 summer league games. I'm really impressed with how comfortable he looks on the court considering he is playing with all new teamates and a new system. This effects a PG more then any other position. He never plays out of control and alwayse makes good decisions. He has that "it" factor or 6th sense all PGs need but do not show up in the combine measurements and speed drills.

He had no problems with the lightning quick Dee Brown (Illinois), and he is going into his 2nd NBA season.

His quickness and defense have impressed me. Those were my only 2 question marks about him after watching many of his college game.

[WraithSentinel]

He hasn't change my thoughts on him. Which were good to begin with. I am actually feeling better about Law.

[aznsensation]

I definitely feel better and I think so far has exceeded my expectation. He's improve as he got more games under his belt. Should be a starter before end of this coming season.

[DJlaysitup]

Didn't get to see him but listening to a couple games on the radio and reading various comments, I am more inclined to believe he can handle the true PG position at the next level....GO ACIE !!

[Wretch]

I've stayed out of all the back and forth banter about who to draft and stat projections and whatnot. Used to be fun, but people take things to a whole new level around here lately and things degrade into personal attacks and insanity. No time for that.

But, I quietly slipped onto the Law bandwagon. Honestly, before the draft I was more concerned about Yi/Horford at 3 and how we could somehow come away with Conley by offering some kind of package with the #11. I read up on everybody and watched all the video that I could...but when Diesel posted that Rome interview, I REALLY started looking at Law..

...and about 10 minutes after watching it and taking a hard look at him, I was S-O-L-D. I can't wait to see how he works with JJ in the backcourt. I'm gonna be giddy all the way up to the preseason.

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j189/CoRo805/n8338284_38032893_2981.jpg>http://www.cnnsi.com/basketball/nba/specials/preview/2005/scouting.reports/hawks.jpg height=200 width=200>

Can't wait.

[chillzatl]

I've rediscovered that polls are a very controlled way of gathering opinions!

[thesheedera]

It helps when they aren't set up just to prove a point, but rather just to gather opinion. When they're set up with an agenda in mind they're flawed from the beginning, and the person who is opposed to said agenda never has an option that they can feel good about picking.

[coachx]

Cool pic of Law. Looks like an oil painting.

Where did you find that ?

[DrReality]

He is the most NBA ready pg in the draft. I think his upside is better than I anticipated. We got a good one for years to come.

[Sothron]

My opinion remains the same: he was a good pick at #11 and he was the most NBA ready PG in the draft. Two years from now Critt may be a better player but we need product more than potential as a franchise right now.

[Swatguy]

Acie will be very good.

Javaris will be "Rookie of the Year".

[Lascar78]

I voted unchanged (still good), but I saw exactly what I expected, a guy who makes good decisions with the ball, but isn't really a distributor. His scoring is no concern to me.

Also, maybe I'm retarded, but I just realized that he picked #4 because he's Acie Law IV. Anyone else as slow as me?

[exodus]

Quote:

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Anyone else as slow as me?

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you obviously haven't read the board much lately lol.

In regards to Acie's number i did't get it at first either.

[Lacsho]

My opinion remains the same (good). I think he will be our future at point guard for years to come.

[Dexmethylphenidate]

Well, he mainly distributing the ball in the summer league so maybe that will translate into the season. I have seen a couple of Sl game and he looked to pass rather than shooting which is a plus to all the wings we possess.

[GMyrberg]

I already had a good opinion of IV, but I felt even better after watching him three times. Good PG instincts, a great sense of rhythm and pace. I though he tried to take it inside too much, but he'll learn that that part is radically different in the NBA, and it won't change the effectiveness of his game. Good defense with his feet. Inclined to pass for a better shot, even if he has a good one. These things are very difficult to tell from clips, anecdotes, and stats. Can't wait until he plays with better toys.

[DJlaysitup]

Quote:

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...Good defense with his feet...

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Thanks GM13...that's the best thing I've heard. We know he can shoot but slowing down little rocket ships was what I was afeared of. Then again, we'll see how good those feet are against CP3 and the like.

Overall though, it's a good sign. Dee Brown is a rocket and apparently he handled that challenge OK.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

. . placed more on what they read on the draftexpress.com and NBAdraft.net profiles, than Acie's actual game performances. They erroneously assumed that because Acie took over games and was a big time scorer at the end of games, that he was some shoot-first type of PG.

I even saw some guy on here say that Acie reminded him of Randolph Childress. LOL @ that. The ONLY comparison, is that both Childress and Law were big time at the end of games. But Randolph's game was nothing like Acie's. The difference between Acie and Randolph?

Acie:

- 19.2% of shots were 3-pointers ( 83 out of 432 )

Randolph:

- 58.6% of shots were 3-pointers ( 245 out of 418 )

When you see a disparity in 3-point shots like that coming from your point guard, his game is NOT going to translate to the next level. That tells you that this guy cannot get to the rim, or would much rather settle for long jumpers. This also tells you that Randolph played in a system that called for him to be taking a lot of 3's, instead of developing his skills as a slashing offensive PG on the next level. On the NBA level, that's a recipe for disaster, because those guys don't properly learn how to create for others, once they get into the lane. At the very least, you want your PG to have the ability to get to the hole, and make the correct decision to either shoot or pass. But you don't want your college PG taking 3-pointers more than 50% of the time.

For comparison sake, Salim Stoudamire in his senior year at Arizona, took 3-pointers 57% of the time. That's why Salim would rather settle for those long jumpers, even if he's out of control, rather than to take the ball to the hole. So Randolph Childress is much closer to what Salim Stoudamire was, than he was to Acie Law IV.

Anybody who actually WATCHED Acie play for that last 2 seasons, knew that the combo-guard/shoot-first PG was a bunch of BS. But a lot of Hawksquawk hadn't watched more than 2 games of Acie, and that's where the problem with evaulating him began. Most of you guys just trusted what you saw other writers write about Acie, instead of your own eyes.

Acie did exactly what I expected him to do in summer league. Show that he can run a team, score the basketball, and play decent defense. I was on the "bandwagon" ever since those two Texas games back in February. Even when mock drafts had him in the 20s, I was pushing for him to be taken with that Indy pick, if we got lucky enough to get it.

RMR stats for Acie:

13.6 ppg

6.0 assists ( incredible, seeing that most of the team shot under 50% FG and shot 22% 3FG as a team )

2.4 rebs

2.8 turnovers ( over 2 to 1 assist/TO ratio )

44% FG ( probably about what he'll shoot in the NBA next year.

20% 3FG ( 1 - 5 . . . I bet that people expected him to take more than 5 threes in 5 games. I expect him to be a 33 - 36% 3FG shooter next season. He's a mid-range shooter, not a 3-point marksman. But he can knock down open shots, and he should see a lot of them playing next to JJ )

82% FT ( 23 - 28 )

Nice to see that no one feels "worse" about Acie, according to that poll . . lol.

Hawksquawk, please start watching games, and not the internet. For those of you who truly know basketball, trust what your eyes and mind tell you about a player when you see him play. And do your research to see what kind of player he can potentially be. You guys did that with Yi, but didn't do it with Acie.

But then again . . most of you got duped by the Yi highlights.