Positives and Negatives so far...

[Popeye]

Negatives!

Mo Evans is not even an average defender!

Murray is back to his old self (he played well tonight though)

Zaza looks horrible again. Is he injured?

JJ's shot is off and he has been in a slump the last few games.

Woody is not drawing up any new plays, we desperately need an offensive minded assistant coach.

Acie looks like Acie from last year if not worst.

Horford han't gotten any better.

hotlanta1981

Postives!

We are still winning! 9-5 is a record that nobody expected. I know hotlanta1981 expected us to be 14-0, but oh well.

We are winning on the road

Marvin has been clutch, he hit 4 big 3's so far this season. (@OkC,@ Bos, vs Was, vs Cha). He is shooting over 50% from long range.

Bibby has been shooting well and hitting big shots.

Solo has limited his fouls and actually is contributing this year.

Smoove is about to come back!

How to get better?

No we shouldn't trade Bibby. In fact we should trade for Camby since he will come cheap. Clippers are already out of it and Camby would like to get traded before deadline. I think that Zaza and a 2nd round pick will do it. I would even give them a 1st rounder for Camby and a filler.

discuss.........

[TruJerz]

Negatives!

Mo Evans is not even an average defender!

Murray is back to his old self (he played well tonight though)

Zaza looks horrible again. Is he injured?

JJ's shot is off and he has been in a slump the last few games.

Woody is not drawing up any new plays, we desperately need an offensive minded assistant coach.

Acie looks like Acie from last year if not worst.

Horford han't gotten any better.

hotlanta1981

Postives!

We are still winning! 9-5 is a record that nobody expected. I know hotlanta1981 expected us to be 14-0, but oh well.

We are winning on the road

Marvin has been clutch, he hit 4 big 3's so far this season. (@OkC,@ Bos, vs Was, vs Cha). He is shooting over 50% from long range.

Bibby has been shooting well and hitting big shots.

Solo has limited his fouls and actually is contributing this year.

Smoove is about to come back!

How to get better?

No we shouldn't trade Bibby. In fact we should trade for Camby since he will come cheap. Clippers are already out of it and Camby would like to get traded before deadline. I think that Zaza and a 2nd round pick will do it. I would even give them a 1st rounder for Camby and a filler.

discuss.........

okay so...

1. Evans is an okay defender

and

2. Acie hasnt been playing bad, when he actually gets playing time so idk what you're talking about...

other than that you're on point tho

[thefloydian]

I think Acie has played well recently. He needs to take some of Flip's minutes now that he's cooled off.

[Peoriabird]

Negatives!

Acie looks like Acie from last year if not worst.

Here is another example of fans not understanding what's really going on! When Acie is allowed to run the offense, it looks better. When Acie is asked to defer to Joe or Flip, it looks the same. For some odd reason Woodson and some fans on this board really think that the 2 man offense that we run is the most effective for this team when in fact it is the worse idea for a team that shoots as well as we do. We ran one pick an roll last night and Bibby drove the lane once as well last night. We should be a pick and roll/drive and kick type offense but we prefer Isolation plays with Horford who either can't pass or refuse to pass or with Joe Johnson who constantly tries to dribble himself out of trouble vs passing before the double team gets to him. In other words, Its the offense not the players! And we need to fix this thing soon!

[Gray Mule]

I know it's still early in the season, but:

Right now, the Hawks are tied for 4th place in the East!

How many seasons has it been since THAT has happened?

Josh is still out. He's getting better and may be able to return soon.

Zaza is still playing hurt.

Solomon has shown a lot of improvement this season.

Acie, when given ample opportunity, has looked much better.

JJ is still not 100% healed, yet he continues to lead.

Flip is hot and cold, but he seems to heat up at the right time.

Marvin and his 3 shooting has been a real blessing.

Horford is still learning and improving.

Woody will actually use his bench players.

Bibby continues to add points just when they are needed.

Evans has hit some timely shots.

West, in VERY limited minutes, is a defensive stopper.

Speedy actually shows up and watched the games.

I know. Five times the Hawks have come up short. Some of those we feel that should

have been ours, weren't. Perhaps, some of those nine should have been wins for our

opponents, but we'll take them.

:conversation:

[Peoriabird]

I know. Five times the Hawks have come up short. Some of those we feel that should

have been ours, weren't. Perhaps, some of those nine should have been wins for our

opponents, but we'll take them.

:conversation:

I wish you guys would at least try to understand the points that many posters are making when analyzing this team. Nobody is complaining about the record. Nobody is complaining about the talent level on the team. What I am concerned about is that the coaching staff is not maximizing the talent on the team. Sure it looks great when Joe goes one three and hit hits a difficult fade away 3 but is that the best shot we could have gotten? Sometimes it is but most times it is not. Winning like we are winning often times reinforce bad habits! The best example for hawks fans is josh Smith Hitting the game winning 3 which is nice but you reinforce a bad hibit that will get you beat 9 out of 10 times or more if you relied upon josh Smith to hit that shot to win.

Same with our dysfunctional offense! Sure we can beat an OKC and a Washington, or depleted Charlotte and Milwaukee teams at home using that approach but can we win many game out west doing it? My guess would be absolutely not regardless of whether Josh Smith is back or not! So why not fix it now? Start to move the ball a little bit. Start to dribble penetrate more. Do more Pick and rolls using Bibby and Horford. Run some triangle offense. What's the harm? The offense can get any worse! We have some time of Woodson so lets work on these things and we'll be a much tougher team down the road.

[uga2006]

Law doesn't get enough minutes. He is like an energizer bunny out there. Bibby can't dribble past a defender to save his life. Plus to be a point guard he sure doesn't get any assists. The only thing Bibby can do is hit j's and that's only half the time. Notice how every scrub pg is able to put up almost a trible double every night against us? Hmmm I wonder. Sessions is a good player but this s*** happens every night.

[DrReality]

All those negatives and look at our record. simply amazing.

[DrReality]

And really good teams find a way to win in spite of the negatives and they become resillient by picking each other up. And I think we have seen that already. The Gestalt thing: the total is greater than the sum of its parts. And I think this team has that ability more so than any team that has been on the court in a decade.

Getting excited about SMoove coming back.

[JackB1]

Negatives!

Mo Evans is not even an average defender!

Murray is back to his old self (he played well tonight though)

Zaza looks horrible again. Is he injured?

JJ's shot is off and he has been in a slump the last few games.

Woody is not drawing up any new plays, we desperately need an offensive minded assistant coach.

Acie looks like Acie from last year if not worst.

Horford han't gotten any better.

hotlanta1981

-Mo and Flip are way better than Chillz

-Flip gives us another guy who can create and WANTS to take the shot

-Zaza has a bad shoulder. He was playing well before the injury.

-JJ has a sprained toe and is laboring out there

-Acie has shown flashes of brilliance when he drives the lane...but Woody gives him spotty minutes.

-Horford has had 2 20+ point games already. He is showing signs of busting out and almost always gives you a double/double. He will be better with Smoove back. People forget he's only 6'-9" and has no help out there.

[Dexmethylphenidate]

Here is another example of fans not understanding what's really going on! When Acie is allowed to run the offense, it looks better. When Acie is asked to defer to Joe or Flip, it looks the same. For some odd reason Woodson and some fans on this board really think that the 2 man offense that we run is the most effective for this team when in fact it is the worse idea for a team that shoots as well as we do. We ran one pick an roll last night and Bibby drove the lane once as well last night. We should be a pick and roll/drive and kick type offense but we prefer Isolation plays with Horford who either can't pass or refuse to pass or with Joe Johnson who constantly tries to dribble himself out of trouble vs passing before the double team gets to him. In other words, Its the offense not the players! And we need to fix this thing soon!

You're mistaking Horford with Zaza. Horford will make a pass when he senses a double team. Other than that, I pretty much agree with this post. Also Joe doing pick and rolls is painful to watch since he usually wants to take on the double team instead of passing it to Horford.

[EazyRoc]

AC needs more minutes. His ability to penetrate opens up a shot for someone. I'm not saying he should cut into Bibby's minutes, but he should definitely get more time on the floor. He has great quickness, good size, and is starting to show that he can create shots for his teammates. Our offense looks a million times better with the ball in his hands than with Flip Murray. I had my doubts, but I really think he could be our guy going forward.

[Atlantaholic]

-Mo and Flip are way better than Chillz

-Flip gives us another guy who can create and WANTS to take the shot

-Zaza has a bad shoulder. He was playing well before the injury.

-JJ has a sprained toe and is laboring out there

-Acie has shown flashes of brilliance when he drives the lane...but Woody gives him spotty minutes.

-Horford has had 2 20+ point games already. He is showing signs of busting out and almost always gives you a double/double. He will be better with Smoove back. People forget he's only 6'-9" and has no help out there.

Horford has 1 double double this year... that isn't good. At all.

[TruJerz]

Horford has 1 double double this year... that isn't good. At all.

it isnt good but it isnt horrible either. Hawks been winning so everyone is doing something right. Horford is playing alright so far but it can be better. he just had a really good game the other night so lets hope it continues. he will rack up son double doubles as the season goes on, just watch

[Gray Mule]

Gray Mule. "Isn't the forrest beautiful!"

Peoriabird. "I don't know. All these trees are blocking my view."

Sure, there are things wrong. The Hawks could be better. The question was, if I recall,

what are some of the positive things about this year's team AND what could be done

to improve this team.

I simply listed some of the qualities that I personally consider to be positive. Then I

mentioned our won - loss record for the season.

I didn't mention things that I think the Hawks could do to improve, so here goes.

I always complain, as everyone knows by now, when our players don't make those

free throws. They have gotten better, but still, they could improve even more.

Horford seems to struggle there the most of any starter.

I wish we could sign old man Mutumbo for the remainder of the season. He's not

the long term solution for a big man to clog up the middle and put a stop to some

of those lay up drills we see against our team. For the remainder of the season,

however, I believe he would be great. Just a few minutes each night, not as a starter.

Hawks still insist on too many posessions of "Give the bell to JJ and everyone stand

aside and watch and see what happens."

Hawks have too many players who are much better at giving than recieving. What,

you ask? Fouls. Who is the best Hawks at drawing the foul? I vote for Zaza and Flip.

They get the foul call by being inside where the bodies are and knowing what to do.

One of the best at this in the entire NBA is Paul Pierce. He seems to be able, any time

he wants to, to do whatever is necessary to get the foul call. All the Celtics seem

to be well schooled in this and use it to their advantage.

Hawks draw fouls most when they drive inside, even if it's a drive and kick and not

an attempt to score. They don't do this enough.

Rebounding is not always about "Who's the biggest and strongest" although this

is an important factor. Many times it's being at the right place - position at the right

time and having someone block out the opponent. Hawks could improve here.

Hawks shooting runs hot and cold. When you're hot, you're hot and when you're not,

you're terrible. Adjustments sometimes comes too late. Coaches, especially Woody,

need to recognise this when it happens and react much quicker. The Stinger, Mike

Glenn would say, when a plyer had a hot hand, "Feed him and fan him until he cools off."

Too many times in the past we've watched as a time out was called and the hot hand

removed from the game. What? :thumbsdownsmileyanim:

Yeah, I can think of things that I believe should be improved. Perhaps many of them

will come to pass as the season goes on. But, I like the positive side of things and

believe they outweigh the negetive stuff. Our record seems to reflect this. :write a letter:

[Peoriabird]

Gray Mule. "Isn't the forrest beautiful!"

Peoriabird. "I don't know. All these trees are blocking my view."

Sure, there are things wrong. The Hawks could be better. The question was, if I recall,

what are some of the positive things about this year's team AND what could be done

to improve this team.

Yeah, I can think of things that I believe should be improved. Perhaps many of them

will come to pass as the season goes on. But, I like the positive side of things and

believe they outweigh the negetive stuff. Our record seems to reflect this. :write a letter:

I just think that the record is a house of cards and if the offensive approach is not changed, those cards will come tumbling down!

When you win using bad habits, it is worse than if you lose because you begin to think that you don't have to change anything! And I am telling you right now that if we don't change our ways on offense, there will be more post from Walter, Hotlanta, smooththefuture, Diesel etc. because the loses will begin mount. And you know what that means right? It means that the board would be taken over by those characters who will try to make you hate our players when the truth is the coaching staff has let us down.

[exodus]

Woody's offense is a major negative to me. Way too much dribbling and standing around which leads to long jumpers. When they go in it makes the offense look much better than it is. We don't get enough easy baskets because we don't make the opposing defense work.

You can get away with that against weak teams who have key guys out but it isn't going to work consistently.

[Plainview1981]

Negatives:

-ZaZa sucks and has sucked for like 2 years

-JJ's play lately has been rather unimpressive.

-Woody can't coach

-The Cleveland gamed showed a team that doesn't have much heart

-Acie has shown some production in garbage time, but needs to show something the the game is actually close.

-Bad defense still continues to plague the team. That might continue the rest of the season.

-All the wins lately have come against beat up teams or the teams that are the worst in the league.

-4 road losses again. It looks like the uninspired play on the road from the last 10 year has returned. Got owned by Indy, NJ, and Cleveland on the road.

Good:

Solo- Once Josh Smith gets back, ZaZa should be benched for the rest of the season unless you have no other choice.

-Bibby is actually shooting a decent percentage this year. Too bad his defense sucks.

-A winning record for the time being.

"We are winning on the road"

You do realize they've lost 4 road games in a row with 3 being blow outs don't you? You must have blinders on.

Negatives!

Mo Evans is not even an average defender!

Murray is back to his old self (he played well tonight though)

Zaza looks horrible again. Is he injured?

JJ's shot is off and he has been in a slump the last few games.

Woody is not drawing up any new plays, we desperately need an offensive minded assistant coach.

Acie looks like Acie from last year if not worst.

Horford han't gotten any better.

hotlanta1981

Postives!

We are still winning! 9-5 is a record that nobody expected. I know hotlanta1981 expected us to be 14-0, but oh well.

We are winning on the road

Marvin has been clutch, he hit 4 big 3's so far this season. (@OkC,@ Bos, vs Was, vs Cha). He is shooting over 50% from long range.

Bibby has been shooting well and hitting big shots.

Solo has limited his fouls and actually is contributing this year.

Smoove is about to come back!

How to get better?

No we shouldn't trade Bibby. In fact we should trade for Camby since he will come cheap. Clippers are already out of it and Camby would like to get traded before deadline. I think that Zaza and a 2nd round pick will do it. I would even give them a 1st rounder for Camby and a filler.

discuss.........

[crimedog]

You're mistaking Horford with Zaza. Horford will make a pass when he senses a double team. Other than that, I pretty much agree with this post. Also Joe doing pick and rolls is painful to watch since he usually wants to take on the double team instead of passing it to Horford.

Al is a good passer and very willing but I'm not impressed by his passing or awareness out of the post. I think one effect of him having a fairly ineffective back to the basket game down low is that he gets tunnel vision and just tries to put something up. He's a good outlet passer and good passer from the high post though.

[HalfHawk]

Negatives!

Mo Evans is not even an average defender!

Murray is back to his old self (he played well tonight though)

Zaza looks horrible again. Is he injured?

JJ's shot is off and he has been in a slump the last few games.

Woody is not drawing up any new plays, we desperately need an offensive minded assistant coach.

Acie looks like Acie from last year if not worst.

Horford han't gotten any better.

hotlanta1981

Postives!

We are still winning! 9-5 is a record that nobody expected. I know hotlanta1981 expected us to be 14-0, but oh well.

We are winning on the road

Marvin has been clutch, he hit 4 big 3's so far this season. (@OkC,@ Bos, vs Was, vs Cha). He is shooting over 50% from long range.

Bibby has been shooting well and hitting big shots.

Solo has limited his fouls and actually is contributing this year.

Smoove is about to come back!

How to get better?

No we shouldn't trade Bibby. In fact we should trade for Camby since he will come cheap. Clippers are already out of it and Camby would like to get traded before deadline. I think that Zaza and a 2nd round pick will do it. I would even give them a 1st rounder for Camby and a filler.

discuss.........

I can't agree with the all your negatives.... I mean honestly some of those negatives are complete bull.