The Hawks are a dumb team

[exodus]

It is painful to watch them make the same stupid mistakes every night. They dont box out at all. Houston got 12 offensive rebounds even though they shot 48%. Smith in particular has been horrible on the boards.

The stupid turnovers are a Hawks trademark. They turned it over on the first possession of the game on a behind the back pass by Smith. They turned it over 3 times on the fast break in the first quarter. They turned it over the first two possessions of the second half. They just make so many dumb, completely unforced turnovers it is a joke.

In the end the Hawks were bailed out by a 3 point shot, which has so frequently been the case this year. It is hard to visualize a team this dumb winning 50 games.

[JackB1]

It is painful to watch them make the same stupid mistakes every night. They dont box out at all. Houston got 12 offensive rebounds even though they shot 48%. Smith in particular has been horrible on the boards.

The stupid turnovers are a Hawks trademark. They turned it over on the first possession of the game on a behind the back pass by Smith. They turned it over 3 times on the fast break in the first quarter. They turned it over the first two possessions of the second half. They just make so many dumb, completely unforced turnovers it is a joke.

In the end the Hawks were bailed out by a 3 point shot, which has so frequently been the case this year. It is hard to visualize a team this dumb winning 50 games.

How did you get to watch the game? It wasn't on TV?

[the_sheff]

How did you get to watch the game? It wasn't on TV?

It was on league pass.

[Chris18]

This team may be stupid but they get it done when it counts.

[DrReality]

The whining was one thing when they lost . . . . . but now that they are winning give me a break.

[swolehawk2]

Yep, they make the game so hard, we have the talent to win the East...but we do not play a smart brand of basketball..boxing out and reducing unforced turnovers alone would have us probably just behind Boston.

It starts with Woodson, he allows the unforced errors and lack of attention to detail to persist.

I am done with my complaints because at least it is not a layup line every night like years past....I will take this team as is, compared to the last decade.

But, we can be so much more if we play smarter.

I wish we had a great head coach, Woody has grown to, but I can't help but think how further along we would be with a proven coach for the last 3 years

Edited January 4, 2009 by swolehawk2

[LOL_Hawks]

I'm sorry, I just can't complain about a win. I'm sorry.

But the stupid turnovers will be the death of us.

[swolehawk2]

Please don't think I whining, because I am loving life right now...the past decade has been rough; I was at game 6 last year, and not missed a televised game this year...I will take 22-11 ....any day of the week.

We finally have good team and was referred to tonight by the Rockets' crew as one of the best teams in the league....we have a long way to go...but we clearly on the way.

[JackB1]

I understand what the original poster is saying. The Hawks are doing great but you get frustrated because you see so much room for improvement. Bad coaching accounts for a lot of it and not using his players and bench properly. Joe is still getting 39 minutes every game and will be worn out by playoff time. Smith is still taking way too many jumpers and only seems to try when in the mood. We still allow teams to drive the lane too easily and dont get tough enough down low. Joe still ball hogs too much at times and doesn't recognize when he's having a bad shooting night.

Yes our record right now is outstanding compared to year's past, but I still believe we have only played up to about 80% of our collective potential. It's coaching that will or won't bring out that remaining 20%.

[Admin]

I understand what the original poster is saying. The Hawks are doing great but you get frustrated because you see so much room for improvement. Bad coaching accounts for a lot of it and not using his players and bench properly. Joe is still getting 39 minutes every game and will be worn out by playoff time. Smith is still taking way too many jumpers and only seems to try when in the mood. We still allow teams to drive the lane too easily and dont get tough enough down low. Joe still ball hogs too much at times and doesn't recognize when he's having a bad shooting night.

Joe is averaging a little less than 5 more minutes per game than Kobe even though the Lakers have had many more easy wins than us. So is Phil Jackson making a mistake? Is it bad coaching by him? 28 players average 37 minutes or more per game so obviously Woody isn't the only coach that plays his guys big minutes. I wish that Woody gave the bench more minutes but I trust him to know what his players are giving a lot more than I'll trust any message board opinions especially considering all the crying that went on around here for Salim and he couldn't even stick on the Spurs when they were desperate for shooting.

Yes our record right now is outstanding compared to year's past, but I still believe we have only played up to about 80% of our collective potential. It's coaching that will or won't bring out that remaining 20%.

So you're saying that our players are playing as good as they can with Woody coaching? Are you saying that with a "good" coach that our players would play 100% of their collective potential? It's amazing that Woody can make our players play so poorly isn't it?

[Admin]

It is painful to watch them make the same stupid mistakes every night. They dont box out at all. Houston got 12 offensive rebounds even though they shot 48%. Smith in particular has been horrible on the boards.

The stupid turnovers are a Hawks trademark. They turned it over on the first possession of the game on a behind the back pass by Smith. They turned it over 3 times on the fast break in the first quarter. They turned it over the first two possessions of the second half. They just make so many dumb, completely unforced turnovers it is a joke.

In the end the Hawks were bailed out by a 3 point shot, which has so frequently been the case this year. It is hard to visualize a team this dumb winning 50 games.

I don't think it's fair to say we're a dumb TEAM. We have quite a few dumb PLAYERS, but overall I'd say we are at worst average as far as the dumb turnovers go. We're 11th in turnover ratio in the league and considering that 5 of our 12.9 turnovers come from JJ and Smith that number seems pretty impressive. Part of JJ's high TO numbers come from his handling the ball more than he should but probably can't be avoided. On the other hand Smith shouldn't be handling the ball as much as he does so his should be correctable. If together they'd cut out 2 TOs per game we'd be among the best in the league.

[High5]

Get used to it, as long as Woodson is coaching nothing is going to change. Hopefully our talent continues to overcome our stupidity more times than not.

[DrReality]

What's amazing is we make the same old mistakes . . . . . . . but we are winning. Think about how good we could be?

[Admin]

Get used to it, as long as Woodson is coaching nothing is going to change. Hopefully our talent continues to overcome our stupidity more times than not.

I'm just thankful that our fan base is so willing to give the players a pass on personal accountability. I can't imagine what this place would be like if the players actually got the share of the blame for their mistakes that they deserved.

[Admin]

What's amazing is we make the same old mistakes . . . . . . . but we are winning. Think about how good we could be?

I haven't gone back to look at previous years but I believe that we're significantly better in team turnovers this year than we have been in a long time. Again, we're 11th in the entire league in turnover rate so we're not among the worst like we usually are.

[thefloydian]

The whining was one thing when they lost . . . . . but now that they are winning give me a break.

Blah, blah, blah

It's the truth and you know it. This team could be amazing if they just got their heads in the game for the entire 48.

[thefloydian]

I'm just thankful that our fan base is so willing to give the players a pass on personal accountability. I can't imagine what this place would be like if the players actually got the share of the blame for their mistakes that they deserved.

The players take plenty of heat on this board. Have you missed the last 1 million "Smith should never shoot another jumper" threads?

[Admin]

It's the truth and you know it. This team could be amazing if they just got their heads in the game for the entire 48.

It's hard to deny that! We're certainly good enough to beat any team in the league although I'd say we're only capable of beating all but about 4-6 teams in a 7 game series because of our lack of experience, maturity, and depth.

[Admin]

The players take plenty of heat on this board. Have you missed the last 1 million "Smith should never shoot another jumper" threads?

Yes but can you honestly say that the players get as much crap for their play as Woody does for their play? Woody deserves his criticism for his rotation and foul rule but he gets WAY too much criticism for mistakes that players make. That's my beef.

[thefloydian]

Yes but can you honestly say that the players get as much crap for their play as Woody does for their play? Woody deserves his criticism for his rotation and foul rule but he gets WAY too much criticism for mistakes that players make. That's my beef.

I don't see Woodson get criticized much for just general bad play. Mostly I just see people hating his rotation/subbing/(lack of)play calling.