Who are the Hawks two best defensive players?

[Packfill]

[capstone21]

easy - Horford and West

[Frenzy]

idk JJ is a good defender,West is good too

,but i voted JJ and Josh

[TheTrueSiete]

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easy - Horford and West

Huh? The only one in consideration for DPOY was Smoove... So, he's got to be one and the other.... Hmmm... At some points, all play pretty good D (except maybe Bibby), so define "best defensive"...

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[crimedog]

Smith is the only obvious choice.

I think JJ is probably the best perimeter defender when he has to be but since coming to the Hawks he hasn't been able to show his stuff because he expends so much energy on offense.

I think Marv's D is a little overated, he can be better than solid sometimes but he can also be a non-factor and I think it has to do with intensity (I'd like to see a guy with that reach, who plays some PF, block at least a shot a game).

I guess I'd say Rio but he doesn't get nearly enough burn to tell, I think Horf will be a great complement to Smith in a year or so.

[capstone21]

Smith is coming along with his defense but he is a good defender but he is not a great defender. Horford is a much better defender then Smith. Smith needs to a lot of work on his one on one defender. Stop gambling so much for steals and the thing that bothers me some times is that he sometimes lets his man go past him so that he can try to block him from behind. Its not about stats, its about stopping your man. He needs to watch Bowen and Raja Bell on how to just get your mans face.

[Swish]

fairly easy- JJ/JS. Smoove relies heavily on athleticism though to defend so well. If he honed his man D, he would be really great. JJ just gets it done. Maybe next year Horf takes his spot in this poll; IDK, the problem is we're just not a good defensive team really man for man.

[EazyRoc]

Al Horford and Joe Johnson

Al Horford came in and was instantly our best post defender. He also has great lateral quickness allowing him to slide the guard after a pick n roll or something. He also boxes out and prevents offensive rebounds.

Joe Johnson is our best perimeter defender on most nights. He has his nights when his D isn't great, but he's definitely our 2nd best defender.

[Packfill]

Interesting. Smith, JJ and Horford are clearly the top three based on voting, with JJ edging Horford for the #2 spot.

West gets some love, but his minutes are so limited that it would be hard for me to pick him as a top defender.

[AnnArborHawk]

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Al Horford and Joe Johnson

No doubt. Those who argue for Josh Smith are letting the flashiness of his weakside help cloud their memory of his on ball defense. Sure, JS racks up the blocks and steals, but he also is an average on ball defender and often leaves his man with an open lane to the basket or an easy rebound when he goes for the block/steal.

Let's not confuse sound defender with flashy defender.

[Zone034life]

Wow! No votes for Marvin, Bibby or ZaZa?

[skyhawk]

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Al Horford and Joe Johnson

No doubt. Those who argue for Josh Smith are letting the flashiness of his weakside help cloud their memory of his on ball defense. Sure, JS racks up the blocks and steals, but he also is an average on ball defender and often leaves his man with an open lane to the basket or an easy rebound when he goes for the block/steal.

Let's not confuse sound defender with flashy defender.

Agreed, Smith is highly overated while Marvin doesn't get enough credit. Sure he gets lit up on some nights but who doesn't in the NBA.

Are you from the Looie??

[Zone034life]

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Sure he gets lit up on some nights but who doesn't in the NBA.

You call Smoove overrated but you make excuses for Marvin. Marvin doesn't change the game in any way defensively. Not on ball or off. There aren't to many SF's in this league afraid of Marvin's defense in fact most nights he is the weak link that a team can exploit. JJ ends up having to defend his man. Marvin is the 6th at best defender on this team.

1 - JJ

2 - Smoove

3 - Horford

4 - West

5 - Chillz

6 - Marvin

[hawkman]

Smoove and West. End of story. I see a lot of "overrated" posts about Smith, but the stats don't lie. If you watch the games, you know that opposing teams have a layup drill when Smith is not patrolling the lane. He has more of an impact on our team defense by himself than he's getting credit for.

[AnnArborHawk]

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Are you from the Looie??

Originally, but been in Atlanta for a while now.

[frosgrim]

I voted Smith and Horford.

JJ is not fast enough to defend some of the quicker guards in the NBA. This is one of the arguments to move him to SF if the Hawks can find a SG. Thus, JJ could be a terrific defensive player, but posistionally he gets beaten a little too much for me to put him above Horford.

Why Horford? He plays very good post defense. Does he get abused by the really tall Cs? Yes, but who doesn't?

In the end its probably a toss-up between JJ and Horford as the #2 defender on the team.

The cat that isn't getting much love is Acie. When Acie is on, he is a very good defensive player. He can keep those smaller PGs that kill the Hawks from doing there thing. If Acie stays healthy next year, I wouldn't be surprised to see his name at the #2 spot in this poll.

[crimedog]

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Al Horford and Joe Johnson

No doubt. Those who argue for Josh Smith are letting the flashiness of his weakside help cloud their memory of his on ball defense. Sure, JS racks up the blocks and steals, but he also is an average on ball defender and often leaves his man with an open lane to the basket or an easy rebound when he goes for the block/steal.

Let's not confuse sound defender with flashy defender.

Don't let stats or empirical evidence get in the the way of your midwest-inspired common sense.

By the way, Horford has the tools to be a good defender but at this point he gets lit up as much as anyone else. This board is funny, it makes me feel like a Smith-homer and Horford hater because if you came on here having not watched a Hawks game you'd think that Smith was a poor man's Solomon Jones and Horford was Tim Duncan.

[EazyRoc]

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Al Horford and Joe Johnson

No doubt. Those who argue for Josh Smith are letting the flashiness of his weakside help cloud their memory of his on ball defense. Sure, JS racks up the blocks and steals, but he also is an average on ball defender and often leaves his man with an open lane to the basket or an easy rebound when he goes for the block/steal.

Let's not confuse sound defender with flashy defender.

Don't let stats or empirical evidence get in the the way of your midwest-inspired common sense.

By the way, Horford has the tools to be a good defender but at this point he gets lit up as much as anyone else. This board is funny, it makes me feel like a Smith-homer and Horford hater because if you came on here having not watched a Hawks game you'd think that Smith was a poor man's Solomon Jones and Horford was Tim Duncan.

Horford doesn't get lit up like everyone else. The only person I can think of who had an uncharacteristically good night against Horford was Drew Gooden.

[AHF]

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Al Horford and Joe Johnson

No doubt. Those who argue for Josh Smith are letting the flashiness of his weakside help cloud their memory of his on ball defense. Sure, JS racks up the blocks and steals, but he also is an average on ball defender and often leaves his man with an open lane to the basket or an easy rebound when he goes for the block/steal.

Let's not confuse sound defender with flashy defender.

Don't let stats or empirical evidence get in the the way of your midwest-inspired common sense.

By the way, Horford has the tools to be a good defender but at this point he gets lit up as much as anyone else. This board is funny, it makes me feel like a Smith-homer and Horford hater because if you came on here having not watched a Hawks game you'd think that Smith was a poor man's Solomon Jones and Horford was Tim Duncan.

Both the numbers and my eyes show me that Smith is our best defender. After that it was JJ or Horford for #2. I think JJ is next for now and that Horford will be the second biggest impact defender on the team.

[crimedog]

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Al Horford and Joe Johnson

No doubt. Those who argue for Josh Smith are letting the flashiness of his weakside help cloud their memory of his on ball defense. Sure, JS racks up the blocks and steals, but he also is an average on ball defender and often leaves his man with an open lane to the basket or an easy rebound when he goes for the block/steal.

Let's not confuse sound defender with flashy defender.

Don't let stats or empirical evidence get in the the way of your midwest-inspired common sense.

By the way, Horford has the tools to be a good defender but at this point he gets lit up as much as anyone else. This board is funny, it makes me feel like a Smith-homer and Horford hater because if you came on here having not watched a Hawks game you'd think that Smith was a poor man's Solomon Jones and Horford was Tim Duncan.

Both the numbers and my eyes show me that Smith is our best defender. After that it was JJ or Horford for #2. I think JJ is next for now and that Horford will be the second biggest impact defender on the team.

Well said.