Too many chicken littles

[GoDawgs21]

I love the JJ hate. It's so funny. 18 games into the season and he has led or tied for the lead in assist in all but 3 games.

So clearly he is trying to get everyone involved. I think Joe realizes the best way to stop double teams and having teams just gear for him is to let the other players establish themselves early in the year.

Marvin finally looks to be hitting his stride, Smith looks like he is giving up on the deep jump shots. Acie is healthy.

We are 1/2 game out of the playoff spot, 1 1/2 from the 5th seed, our avg ot def. is -1.8 which is 5th best in the east, we have played the hardest stretch of our schedule (only 3 loses to non-playoff teams chi, sea, mil, our other loses were to all teams that are the top 4 in their conferences: 2 det, sa, nj, bos, was, and no. we have beaten dal and phx.

yes this team can be maddeningly inconsistent, but i think we can all agree we thought we were a 7th or 8th seed before the season started which is about .500. We are 2 games under and 1/2 game from our goal after a brutal starting schedule, in which our starting pg missed 8 games and still isn't 100.

but would people stop acting like the sky is falling.

we are about where we thought, with still room for improvement to get better. Our top player goes for 21 pts, 9 rebs, 4 ast, 2 stls and yet is vilified.

I have to agree we are 12-7 if we didn't have Woody. His substitutions make you just scratch your head.but we clearly have him for the long haul, so what else do you want. we thought we were a 7 or 8 seed .500 team and we are about that and people are shocked? what did you expect a 17-1 start?

[Peoriabird]

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Our top player goes for 21 pts, 9 rebs, 4 ast, 2 stls and yet is vilified.

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Dude, those stats don't begin to tell the whole story. First of all, JJ was responsible for Brewer and Jaric! Brewer had 18 rebounds and Jaric had 8. In fact after JJ got totally punked on that layup by Jaric, Woodson took JJ off of Jaric and put Marvin on him. That is how much confidence Woody has in JJ's defense!

And on offense, JJ needed 21 shots to get 21 points. Do you think that is good? Marvin only needed 11 shots to get to 20 by comparison. The guy was a poor shooting turn-over machine and he gets praise from you! Lord have mercy!!

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Excellent post. A select few will try to spin this as a loss though, because we shoud've beat them by 20. i bet a lot of posters were ready to EXPLODE on this board. But now that JJ hit the game winner, they have to adjust their thought process.

[mrhonline]

Two moves would solidify this team.

1.) Moving Shelden Williams for a center who can grab defensive rebounds. Jeff Foster is my favorite, of course.

2.) Acquiring a starting-caliber PG that takes care of the ball and can hit the open 3. Jose Calderon has probably played his way out of the Hawks' price range at this point, but he'd be a great fit.

[Atlantaholic]

How the heck can he be responsible for two players at the same time???

Brewer was Marvin's man for most of the night... he had 3 boards on the night as opposed to JJ's 9 btw.

[GoDawgs21]

Wow where to begin on this one, you really just don't like JJ do you.

Um, first of all Brewer is 6'8 and Marvin was guarding him most of the game Smitty even called him out for not boxing him out.

Next that Jaric play was not JJ's fault yes he was guarding him at the beginning of the play, but even JS said in the post game that the plan was for JJ to go out on the top side of the screen that was set and JS was supposed to cut under, but JS didn't see the screen and thought Jaric went on the top side. Secondly, seeing how Marvin is 3 inches taller then Joe, Woody didn't switch Marvin to Jaric you jackass. Marvin's duty all year has been to guard the inbound man with his height and freakish wingspan. Notice that on both plays Marvin had the inboundman???????????? Uh, didn't look like Woody said switch because as soon as the ball was inbounded and the pick occurred Smith picked him up.

PLEASE WATCH ALL DETAILS BEFORE SPOUTING OFF.

If it is a 2, 3, or ,4 that inbounds the ball Marvin ALWAYS covers the inbound due to his reach to make the inbound difficult. ALWAYS. If its a small PG he usually doesn't so he can guard his man and AJ or Acies isn't on a big.

[TexasPete]

actually Joe is stinking up the joint on a regular basis. He is clearly not the same player and has no fire at all. Joe is more than willing to shoot but defense is something he is not willing to play anymore. Joe called out the team and now they need to call him out. Joe plays like he is in a coma lately.

This team certainly doesn't look like a playoff team. And Woodsons offense defies description. I have greatly tempered my hopes for this team.

[GoDawgs21]

in regards to the shots, how many of Marvin's came from the line 10? How many came on the fast break when he leaked out while JJ was rebounding? ( note you are worried about Brewer getting all the rebounds, how many times was Marvin his man running back trying to cherry pick, that one pass from Smooth was the perfect example he was trying to leak out all game, some of the time is ok but not every play when you man is crashing and getting 18 rebounds.) how many shots does Marvin get that is wide open because JJ is being doubled?

So now JJ is supposed to shoot perfect when teams scouts have said our only defense is designed to stop JJ, no open looks and trying to get others involved.

Do you want him to leap tall buildings in a single bound? stop bullets? run faster then a speeding train? jesus the man can only do so much, sorry he has to lead our team in assist, try and lead us in scoring while having all 5 defenders key on him, and playing 45 minutes a game.

I'm not riding his nuts like some, but you go overboard in riping him, when all he has done is give his all for 3 years .

[dhawk]

Yea, its too obvious pbird is a hater of JJ.

JJ's not shooting well, but he either will rebound or get assist to offset it. Tonight he had 9 boards. Peoria acting like Joe had 1 ast, 1 rebound and 9 turnovers while missing the game winning shot. Dude is delusional in his hate.

[Atlantaholic]

JJ's defense in the first half was spectacular... he's only bad defensive play was the Jaric inbounds play. He wasn't the only Hawk to play bad D on that one.

[GoDawgs21]

ok, TP that was the point of my post. I'm not ecstatic over this start and have been frustrated. But step back and tell me where you thought we would be to end the season. A right or about .500 team in the 7-9 spots in the conference?

Guess what thats exactly what we are. If you thought we would win 42 games then what did you expect coming into the season. A .500 team will win one, loss one, get blown out in one, win a close one. .500 teams aren't exciting and are very frustrating by their nature.

As Dennis Green said they are what we thought they were. The are a frustrating .500 team point blank, but that's what we thought they were. I didn't see anyone saying we would win 46-50 games, so nobody should be expecting for 4 and 5 game win streaks so step back and look at it for what it is.

be honest after seeing the schedule with sa, dal, phx, nj, det twice, and the other road games did you expect anything but a 8-10 or 9-9 start?? Yes we lost some we shouldn't like Chi and Sea, but we won some we shouldn't have Dal and Phx. So once again we are an up and down team. AKA a .500 team.

We aren't the 13 win team of a few years ago, and we aren't the Mavericks yet. But for all the frustration we are playing about even, and are playing awful some nights. but with Acie back and if JJ gets back on track can it not get better? with woody i dont know. but the team record wise is about where i thought they would be, and thats with playing bad. Just imagine if JJ gets back on track and if Acie steps up dare I say we get a little better then a .500 or so team.

[Murat]

Marvin and Smoove were not boxing out at all tonight. Smoove just stood under the basket when Brewer got that rebound of a long miss and passed it to the Big Al for the easy layup. Marvin is 6-9 athletic with long as$ arms, but only gets 3 rebounds. He is averaging like 3.5 rpg over his last 5 which is PATHETIC. Smoove needs to average at least 8.5 and Marvin at least 6.5 rebounds a game, no excuse.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

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ok, TP that was the point of my post. I'm not ecstatic over this start and have been frustrated. But step back and tell me where you thought we would be to end the season. A right or about .500 team in the 7-9 spots in the conference?

Guess what thats exactly what we are. If you thought we would win 42 games then what did you expect coming into the season. A .500 team will win one, loss one, get blown out in one, win a close one. .500 teams aren't exciting and are very frustrating by their nature.

As Dennis Green said they are what we thought they were. The are a frustrating .500 team point blank, but that's what we thought they were. I didn't see anyone saying we would win 46-50 games, so nobody should be expecting for 4 and 5 game win streaks so step back and look at it for what it is.

be honest after seeing the schedule with sa, dal, phx, nj, det twice, and the other road games did you expect anything but a 8-10 or 9-9 start?? Yes we lost some we shouldn't like Chi and Sea, but we won some we shouldn't have Dal and Phx. So once again we are an up and down team. AKA a .500 team.

We aren't the 13 win team of a few years ago, and we aren't the Mavericks yet. But for all the frustration we are playing about even, and are playing awful some nights. but with Acie back and if JJ gets back on track can it not get better? with woody i dont know. but the team record wise is about where i thought they would be, and thats with playing bad. Just imagine if JJ gets back on track and if Acie steps up dare I say we get a little better then a .500 or so team.

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Exactly. TP knows this. But he like some of the others are just tired of waiting for this team to break out. I fully expected this team to be right where they are now, or slightly better. You are right on the money when you say that this is exactly how a "42 win" team plays.

I think the preseason, coupled with the opening night win vs Dallas, raised the expectation level in most fans eyes. So when we play Detroit tough and then beat Phoenix, people really started to believe that we were real good. LOL . . then we lose 4 of the next 5, while blowing the Sonics game, and the fan base goes insane.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

And I think that I said that we'd win 45 games.

As for JJ, Wade is almost having the exact same performance as JJ right now. 7 - 22 for 17 points with about 4 minutes to go. I guess he needs to pass to Ricky Davis more.

[GoDawgs21]

Can we get a sticky on this please Chillz?

It's amazing how left and right people go with 3 wins, then 2 losses.

Everyone calm down, we are still the same team.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

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Can we get a sticky on this please Chillz?

It's amazing how left and right people go with 3 wins, then 2 losses.

Everyone calm down, we are still the same team.

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No doubt GoDawgs.

I know whatit is though with some of our fans though.

1) We've been losers for s long, that they're afraid to believe in this team, for fear of being let down. And because of that . . .

2) They fear that every 2 - 3 game losing streak is a pre-cursor to the 7 - 9 game losing streaks we've had in the past.

But as long as JJ, Marvin, Smoove, and Al stay relatively heathy, we shouldn't have t worry about that. ( knock on wood )

[TroyMcClure]

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Can we get a sticky on this please Chillz?

It's amazing how left and right people go with 3 wins, then 2 losses.

Everyone calm down, we are still the same team.

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Stop telling people what to do. Who are these people you speak of, anyway? This thread is basically useless and you want a sticky? I guess you disagreed with one or two people and decided that we're all nuts on this board except you. That's not a very cool position to come from. I'm not trying to start something but seriously, who are "all of these people" or whatever way you described it? It seems to me like every other day someone just wants to put down other posters to stroke their own ego about prognostication. Not that I think we are, but how would you know when things aren't ok? Should everyone have their text proofed by you and northcyde first before posting? Seriously. Relax. If you're going to make a post about people saying the sky is falling, you should name them all. And there should be a certain number before you make a thread about them.

[TroyMcClure]

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actually Joe is stinking up the joint on a regular basis. He is clearly not the same player and has no fire at all. Joe is more than willing to shoot but defense is something he is not willing to play anymore. Joe called out the team and now they need to call him out. Joe plays like he is in a coma lately.

This team certainly doesn't look like a playoff team. And Woodsons offense defies description. I have greatly tempered my hopes for this team.

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Thanks for telling the truth, TP. If I had said it, there would a few people taking shots at the messenger, you know?

[GoDawgs21]

First of all it was a joke, who are you to think everyone is attacking everyone.

I was merely pointing out that we are in the same place we were a month ago when I posted that, and be prepared to see the range of mood swings on this board. We win three and everyone is talking about championship runs. Then we lose two and people want to trade Marvin and Al for Gasol (not singling out, just example)

That was my point, you honestly think Chill would sticky this. Maybe one thing a year gets stickied. It was just reminding that this season will be back and forth because thats what team we are.

But I love the irony in you claiming I am telling people what to do, thanks for the advice I will TRY TO DO WHAT YOU ARE TELLING ME

[GoDawgs21]

Are you not going to grind on the post below by Peoria about his hoping we win so people shut up?

Basically the same concept I guess his wanting to hush people met your criteria for posting? Guess you are the one that decides what is right or wrong now?

Peoria Post