Lessons I have learned as a Hawks fan.

[Diesel]

I implore you to add on to my list.. but just a little Hawks history here...

1. PGs are most important. (Jason Terry, Lue, and missing Doc Rivers)

This team couldn't win with Jason Terry at the PG. That's because JT was not a good PG. He couldn't make the decisions. It taught me that every good team needs a good PG.

2. Chemistry is everything.

Anybody who watched Nique, Theus, Malone or Big Dog, SAR, and Theo should know that chemistry means a whole world to a basketball team. Without good chemistry you can't win.

3. Contract years sucks.

Anybody can show up in a contract year. Alan Henderson, Chrissy Crawford... You have to look at what the player has done all the time.

4. You got to have Heart to be a winner.

Craig Ehlo vs. Marvin Williams. Marvin was taughted as being the Next great Sf. However, he lacks the aggressiveness and heart to be that. Craig Ehlo was thought of as being over the hill and bringing nothing to the table. Every night though, that guy would leave his game on the floor.

5. Coaching Means everything else

I watched Kevin Loughery take the team from Hubie Brown and make something out of less than something.

I watched Fretallo take the team from Loughery and make the team something again.

I watched The team go from Fretallo to Weiss and Suck.

I watched the team go from Weiss to Lenny and shine again.

I watched the team go from Lenny to Kruger and suck again.

[khaos7]

Quote:

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I implore you to add on to my list.. but just a little Hawks history here...

1.

PGs are most important.

(Jason Terry, Lue, and missing Doc Rivers)

This team couldn't win with Jason Terry at the PG. That's because JT was not a good PG. He couldn't make the decisions. It taught me that every good team needs a good PG.

2.

Chemistry is everything.

Anybody who watched Nique, Theus, Malone or Big Dog, SAR, and Theo should know that chemistry means a whole world to a basketball team. Without good chemistry you can't win.

3.

Contract years sucks.

Anybody can show up in a contract year. Alan Henderson, Chrissy Crawford... You have to look at what the player has done all the time.

4.

You got to have Heart to be a winner.

Craig Ehlo vs. Marvin Williams. Marvin was taughted as being the Next great Sf. However, he lacks the aggressiveness and heart to be that. Craig Ehlo was thought of as being over the hill and bringing nothing to the table. Every night though, that guy would leave his game on the floor.

5.

Coaching Means everything else

I watched Kevin Loughery take the team from Hubie Brown and make something out of less than something.

I watched Fretallo take the team from Loughery and make the team something again.

I watched The team go from Fretallo to Weiss and Suck.

I watched the team go from Weiss to Lenny and shine again.

I watched the team go from Lenny to Kruger and suck again.

That's a lot of painful lessons.

[hawkman]

#4 is the truth, but I apply that to the whole team. The way we played at home during the Playoffs showed that we do have heart. On the road was a different story. Craig Ehlo was a fun player to watch though. Now that I think of it, He and Sura's game were a lot alike, except Ehlo did his thing when the Hawks were actually winning. I also think he played better on the defensive end. I think our team led the league in steals during the time he and Mookie were here. We need more role players like that on this team. Chillz is kind of like that minus the outside shooting.

[Lascar78]

Dead on on all 5 (although I must have missed all the Ehlo titles).

Sadly it seems that some around here haven't accepted #5, or they don't know what they're watching.

Also...

6) Mediocre ownership makes mediocre decisions, a.k.a. you have to want to win, not just be good enough to calm the fans down.

[macdaddy]

1. Yes and it doesn't have to be a great point guard just a good one

2. Agreed. I think we actually have this.

3. yes

4. see Al Horford.

5. yes. yes. yes. I think we'd see a much improved Hawks team with better leadership. As someone posted a while back its not about whether its fair to fire the coach or whether he 'deserves' to stay coach based on past improvements. Its about whether or not he can lead the team in the future better than someone else.

[Diesel]

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6) Mediocre ownership makes mediocre decisions, a.k.a. you have to want to win, not just be good enough to calm the fans down.

That's debatable. I think we're in the process of learning if that one is true. Ted Turner was owner at one time and I don't think he cared much.. but the team had it's successes. Actually, I think winning actually starts in the front office and not necessarily with the owners

Here's my take.

You can have crappy owners..however, if the front-office is able to spot winners and put together a team, and put butts into seats, I think the owners will step up and do what they need to do to keep it going.

My point of reference is THE BRAVES. During the 14 year run, the Hawks and Braves had the same owners. However, Shurlholtz was a master at what he did... Babcock was not. Therefore, the Braves won 14 pennants. The hawks did not.

[Lascar78]

Let me rephrase then

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6)

Meddling

mediocre ownership makes mediocre decisions, a.k.a. you have to want to win, not just be good enough to calm the fans down.

[Diesel]

Good enough. I agree.

[beav]

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I implore you to add on to my list.. but just a little Hawks history here...

1.

PGs are most important.

(Jason Terry, Lue, and missing Doc Rivers)

This team couldn't win with Jason Terry at the PG. That's because JT was not a good PG. He couldn't make the decisions. It taught me that every good team needs a good PG.

2.

Chemistry is everything.

Anybody who watched Nique, Theus, Malone or Big Dog, SAR, and Theo should know that chemistry means a whole world to a basketball team. Without good chemistry you can't win.

3.

Contract years sucks.

Anybody can show up in a contract year. Alan Henderson, Chrissy Crawford... You have to look at what the player has done all the time.

4.

You got to have Heart to be a winner.

Craig Ehlo vs. Marvin Williams. Marvin was taughted as being the Next great Sf. However, he lacks the aggressiveness and heart to be that. Craig Ehlo was thought of as being over the hill and bringing nothing to the table. Every night though, that guy would leave his game on the floor.

5.

Coaching Means everything else

I watched Kevin Loughery take the team from Hubie Brown and make something out of less than something.

1. I agree to some extent that you must have a solid PG, but you do not need a great PG. Jackson's triangle offenses proved that. Also Avery Johnson was never better than average his entire career. You'd damn well better have a disciplined and respected point guard however, which was BJ Armstrong and Avery Johnson all day long.

2. Without a doubt. Any Portland fan can tell you this. This is critical particularly for a young team. Just one poisoned apple can sink a team. Yes adding Theus and Malone was a disaster to a team that was poised to jump up. Malone was older, fatter and slower and slowed any running offense to a drunken crawl, and Theus was an overrated poseur that had spent his entire career as a pretty-boy star on a shite team.

3. Disagree for the most part. I think that you have to judge the entire career (short as it might be). Chris Crawford did not have a great contract year so much as one great 3-pt shooting half. Alan Henderson was a lackluster sleepwalker his career then woke up during the contract year though it is true. I also look at the types of players that have sat for injuries that were deemed as possibly being relatively minor (Baron Davis, Vince Carter), but who all of a sudden look like iron men in their contract year. Hey if a 21-23 year old player improved in their contract year it could just be due to maturity.

4. Without a doubt. Although there is no doubt that Ehlo was pretty much spent by the time he got here (probably tired of being posterized by Jordan..(but then again who wasn't when forced to play one on one against him) you cannot argue with his toughness and professionalism. These are the types of guys that keeps the Spurs organization on the road to winning.

5. Yes, the combination of being able to be an effective Xs and Os guy as well as someone that can "coach up" younger players or role players is critical. Unfortunately for the Hawks they have neither trait in Woodson.

[jaywalker72]

I have to emphatically agree with #1---That's always been a basketball myth, but it was watching first hand as season after season we ambled along with no floor leadership from the quarterback position and suffered many, many inefficient offensive seasons because of it that set this in stone and made 2005's draft the stake through Billy's Knight's "guards are guards" theory.

In the spirit of the post, I will add another to D's list.

I submit:

You MUST play inside-out offensively to be consistent offensively.

Terry Stotts and I were on complete sides of this discussion, as Stotts believed that you established the outside and it opened up the inside. This is why you saw a whole lot of jump shot possessions here and in Milwaukee and the ball would never see the post. (Ed note: And we didn't win)

An addendum to this is that, along with a point guard (see #1), you must have an effective low post player to make the inside-out game work.

We saw in the Boston series that when the ball went into Horford (you may have to check your TiVo, but yes it did happen), it opened up a previously suffocating Joe Johnson outside. This is not uncommon among teams that have a clue offensively.

Has San Antonio really had great 3-point shooters over it's run at the top, or has it been Duncan inside (Or Shaq in LA, etc.) that has made guys like Matt Bonner shine? No answer required.

[DrReality]

And the teams that really used this effectively also use spacing on the floort to the advantage and keep defenses off balance. Whipping the ball around, something we did periodically, found the open man.

[Diesel]

Yeah, establishing the inside is definitely in the top 3. I don't know how teams try to win without it. That's why it's good that we have Horf. He seems to have the aptitude to learn to be an inside scorer. I just wish that we hire a top assistant who will be in charge of the offensive side of the ball and had your thinking. My thinking was a guy like Terry Porter would have been a good pick because he's a former PG and I don't think he did so bad in Mil.

About the Boston series.

The thing that I couldn't help but notice is that when we were forced into a half court set, we didn't look so bad. I think it was Boston's defense that opened up holes for us to work. They tried to double JJ and JJ would get the ball so far out that the double had to come from across the court to double... Well, this gave lots of room for other Hawks to work.

Just this morning, I found myself wondering Could we have beaten the Cavs, Pistons, and Lakers?

[Swish]

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Just this morning, I found myself wondering Could we have beaten the Cavs, Pistons, and Lakers?

I think we could have, but I don't think we would have. We might have destroyed the Cavs, actually. We could've played LA/DET pretty tight.