Mark Bradley blasts Woodson

[Traceman]

coming into the season. I think he should get a chance to see what he can do now that some of the young talent he has groomed has actually matured.

[coachx]

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All that you described are great traits for assistant coaches and Woody is a great assistant coach. Show me one instant where he played chess in the same level against another real coach. He is a good elementary school teacher but not a college professor. Let him change the diapers.

One good game against a terrible team and Woody suddenly gets a few supporters. If we played any average team last night we would have lost.

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One game against a terrible team ? I thought Bobcats were over .500 for the year. Plus we beat Dallas and Phoneix. Three wins over good teams in my book ! Don't sale the coach of your favorite team short like that !

I was at the Washington game too. It was actually the first game I have ever gone to all by myself. My buddy called me after church and said he was too hung over after the UGA victory over Auburn to go to the game. Since the game was not on TV and just an hour from tip off, I drove up their solo and was not pleased at the effort. The Wizards were simply hungrier then us for their first win.

Yes it was Woody's responsibility to have them motivated and they were not. However, in 6 of 7 games we stepped on the floor ready to play and being very motivated. So the whole, "I just want to see more consistent effort", is kind of reaching. I think you will find most teams come out flat MORE frequently then 1 out 7 games. We still fought our way back in that game. We were down by 5 with 4 minutes to go. So the effort did pick up.

Sure the Celtics crushed our confidence (like they do to everyone,they are really blowing every body they play away). However we stepped on the floor ready to play and played them to a draw the first quarter and a half. Then our youth and inexpierence caused us to lose our composure when calls didn't go our way. (Imagine that, Allen, Pierce, and Garnett get the benfit over a22 year old on afewwhistles).Which happens when 22 year olds compete against mature future hall of fame players still in their prime.

Posters sale Woody short when they say he never makes adjustments. Against Phoneix Woody was having Smith come out and trap and bother the heck out of Nash. Even Smith commented on it. He puts Chills on the oppositions PGs regularly (like Pippen). I have seen Marvin and Smith each play SF, PF, and Center to get favorable matchups. We have seen big back court line ups (Chills and JJ) and we seen small back court lineups (2 out of Lue / Law / Salim playing together). We have seen the defense not even try to stay with their man on picks and switch assignment like its part of the plan (and it is designed that way by Woody). That is b/c it is part of the plan to switch rather then get beat fighting to stay with your orignal assignment. We have heard Arenas, Nash, D'Antoni, and Billups all quoted as to how our defensive switches cause headaches for the opposition b/c they are so used to their picks and screens causing a switch that is a mis-match advantage for them but it don't happen vs. Woody's Hawks.

People complain he is playing ZaZa too much. (I am one ofthem.)ZaZa played maybe 20 minutes last night and some of those were due to Smith's injury. Now I personaly would bench ZaZa for Sheldon but I can see how you can have some loyalty to a guy who has given his heart and soul to you for 2 seasons. Maybe ZaZa finds his groove. What I like is ZaZa is given a chance to get the rust off but at the same had a quick hook for not performing. Woody is not playing ZaZa much b/c he is not producing but he is giving him a chance. Many coaches believe you don't lose a starting position to injury. Probably at least 50% of coaches believe that.

Woody should probably play Salim more. I agree with that. When Salim does play now he is no longer the black hole he used to be. He is actuall y playing within the confines of team basketball and he is geting playing time for it. I attribute that to Woody b/c Salim was not that way when he got here.

I do not agree with everything Woody does. However, to throw comments out there like: "tell me one time Woody played chess with a coach" or "Woody makes no in game adjustments"......when you say a blanket statement like that it just reflects that you don't know as much as you think you do. (not you specifically JW, but the board as a whole is guilty of this).

No coach is perfect. Never has been one and never will be one. Woody finally has a team with NBA level talent and expierence. In my book he had a clean slate entering the season b/c the last 3 seasons was just grooming minor league players into a major league team.

[oken]

I think as long as he can motivate the kids to play defense and move around on offense and play inspired...

he'll be okay...

I think that if we play hard every night, we should be able to compete and play well with just about every team in the league. I think we as a whole were disapointed with how we handled ourselves in the losses, and especially Washington.

There were many negatives I saw in those losses, that I hope will correct themselves...

[yardbird]

I agree that Woody deserves a chance to coach the players he developed into maturity. It's unfair to saddle him with the shortcomings of the last few years, given the youth of the roster. As to playing time for Shelden and Salim, I think their roles on this team, barring injury, should dictate that they play mostly in the 2nd game of back to backs, when they should dominate with fresh legs, if they're as talented as everyone thinks. Dominate in those games, and they'll earn more minutes in the other ones. The other players probably warrant being higher in the rotation right now than Shelden and Salim (though each has made a case for more minutes this regular season). The only player getting more minutes who arguably could warrant less is T. Lue, and based on Salim's play and attitude in the past, he was too unsteady to entrust with running the team. I bet Phil Jackson, Pat Riley and most other coaches would play Lue first right now, especially since he's likely among the most respected players in the lockerroom and a veteran. Continued solid play by Salim can change that however, and Lue could join AJ on the bench. Or, he may play better and save several games for us this year like he did last year, meaning there is little court time for Salim (wouldn't be the first time a talented player couldn't crack a line up).

The bottom line is that Woody might be a great coach once the youngsters learn to consistently apply what he teaches on the court. I think they're in the process of doing that, and no NBA team "brings it" each of the 82 games in a season. Every team is occasionally flat (Hawks Sunday vs. Washington), younger teams more than veteran ones. It's still too early to expect three year veterans to play like 8 year veterans every night. Most nights, Woody gets effort out of these players beyond their years.