Why is Woody 'afraid' to play West vs. Nets?

[HAWKS1986]

Carter is a hot and cold player, and the Hawks made him feel way too comfortable from the beginning and he got his confidence going. When the Hawks led 70-60 at halftime, the half ended on a Carter dunk-- an uncontested dunk.

West plays aggressive and tries to get in the defender's head, and at times Carter at times let things get to him.. The Hawks defensive effort was very soft, and it was a matter of time that the Nets were able to overtake the team.

West playing less than 30 seconds is wrong. Mario needed toplay between 20 to 24 minutes.

West isn't Superman, but the Nets were shooting like the Hornets and Warriors two weeks ago...

And Childress and Marvin were playing matador defense at times, and there is no one on this team that was willing to give a hard foul or TWO and the Nets were able to roll right past the Hawks...

[DJlaysitup]

Good point js...in hindsight it may have been the thing to do starting the 2nd half. I guess Woody just thought the 2nd would be like the 1st - or he was afraid of losing offensive firepower. Woody has the creative/strategic thinking ability of a sand gnat.

[HAWKS1986]

Quote:

---

Good point js...in hindsight it may have been the thing to do starting the 2nd half. I guess Woody just thought the 2nd would be like the 1st - or he was afraid of losing offensive firepower. Woody has the creative/strategic thinking ability of a sand gnat.

Woody is facing the prospect of never being a head coach ever again on ANY LEVEL. And he keeps making dubious decisions.

Tonight's game was almost a carbon copy of the Golden State home game, in which it was a high scoring game at halftime and our defense was porous.

Mario West won't solve all our defensive problems, but he gives effort and I think it generally rubs off on other players.

Against the Nets, they had ELEVEN 'MADE' three pointers! This is unacceptable.

Childress plays inconsistent defense. Marvin plays inconsistent defense. And they aren't three point shooters and arent smooth offensive players like Vince Carter. Plus, their weak offensive games didn't put NO pressure on Vince at all.. Vince had one foul going into the fourth quarter..

Mario has to play! Marvin and Chillz aren't playing to their draft status so their time in the game has to be reduced! The Hawks cn't afford to give away winnable games like these..

[TheDude]

Yes, I'm not sure about 20-24 minutes but at least during the 2nd half, he could have gotten about 10-15 minutes. I understand that Mario can foul a lot sometimes but he plays hard physical defense and that is the only way to slow Vince down. He is also quick enough to prevent Vince from going around him.

It should have been apparent that if nobody can stop Vince, that you at least try to tough defensive-minded rookie.

[coachx]

Agreed ! I was just saying the same thing in another thread about West.

Marvin, Chillz, and Smith got torched and West didn't even get a chance.

We lost that game due to perimeter defense. Not poor offense, not Horford's height (he out played all the Nets big guys, BTW. )

Williams/ Boone / Diop / Swift = 11 points / 16 rebounds / 3 blocks / 73 minutes played

Horford .................................= 20 points / 15 rebounds / 1 block / 40 minutes

Smith should not have been playing Jefferson in the 3rd, it should have been West. Then Smith could have guarded the hoop vs. the Nets slashers. Instead he let Jefferson beat him off screens for open shots with ZaZa underneath patrolling the paint for half the 3rd quarter. In the 3rd quarter we got outscored by 14 points and lost the game right there. BAD MOVE BY WOODY ! FRANK OUT COACHED HIM AFTER HALFTIME. Woody mis-used Smith as he was exploited vs Jefferson at SF.

West could have been very useful for at least 20 minutes. We shot 50% so we lost b/c of bad perimeter defense. West plays very good defense and it normaly rubs off on the rest of the team.

West could have guarded Harris, Carter, or Jefferson at times last night. We needed his spark , toughness, and intangibles.

[Traceman]

He got beat off the dribble by both of those guys every bit as much as Chillz and Marv did, if not more so. When JJ and Marv were on the bench for most of the 3rd and Smoove had to play the 3, it was painfully obvious why he is better at PF. He can't defend smaller/quicker players on the perimeter for long stretches of the game.

In addition, being out on the perimeter on D encourages him to take more jump shots on the other end which is plays right into the other teams' hands on most nights.

All that said, I agree with you 100% that Woody should have given Mario a shot on either VC or Jefferson. It was painfully obvious that no one else on our team could guard either one of them. JJ tried to get physical but he got in foul trouble but Marv, Chillz AND Smoove played way too soft. They didn't even TRY to get physical with either VC or RJ.

JJ understood that the defensive intensity need to pick up early in the 3rd and he tried to ramp it up but unfortunately, he picked up those quick fouls. Even more unfortunately, Chillz, Marv and Smoove continued to play the same soft D this team has been playing since the All Star break. How many times are we going to have to watch our guys open up when guys drive rather than bodying up to them and forcing them to alter their path to the basket? When are guys going to start helping out with hard fouls when a teammate gets beat on a drive to the basket? When Zaza plays better, more physical D than those Marv, Chillz and Smoove, you KNOW we are in trouble.

[coachx]

Larry Brown or Rick Carlisle would be giving West minutes in games like this.

They love guys who play defense. Supposedly Woody does too, LOL.

[HAWKS1986]

Quote:

---

Larry Brown or Rick Carlisle would be giving West minutes in games like this.

They love guys who play defense. Supposedly Woody does too, LOL.

Woody needs to wake up..how many games does the opposing team has to make 10 or more MADE three point shots for him to play Mario West more...

[jhay610]

If you haven't read my posts in the past I think everyone on HS is in love with MWest for some mystical unknown reason, or maybe it's because he's a tech guy, or maybe it's because he is a feel-good underdog story...I, for one, think he should be what he is...one of the last guys off the bench.

I dont think West should play extended minutes except in special circumstances. Last night was one of those circumstances. When one guy is torching u like that from outside, you need to get someone out there who will make him earn it. While Carter can elevate over West, at least West would get physical with him and put the wood on him a couple times.

The other problem is that Carter had the night off on defense, so he had free reign to go at the Hawks w/o expending effort on defense. West doesn't solve that problem but I wouldn't have minded seeing him get a shot at it last night, especially when we started floundering on offense. We needed someone to DEFEND last night, and it wasn't team offense that was beating us, it was VC.