Sund's job is incomplete

[Chaze]

One-on-one with talent in that skill and athletic players that can rebound is good enough, I suppose. Part of me just wonders some times what a coach with a little more structure and creativity could do with these guys...

me too i wonder how good we would be phil jackson, doc rivers, georg karl anyone one of the top coaches im wit ya brehhh on this one. :line dance:

[DominoT]

Phil Jackson has had the absolute best talent every year his teams have done anything. Maybe the lone exception to that is last year. But who can really say these Lakers are wanting for talent? Doc Rivers? W/o the big three last place. With the big three, championship. Yes, they're both excellent coaches, but I don't think you can say they're an order of magnitude better than Mike Woodson. Woodson's guidance has everything to do with our offense's ability to improvise. He also has always emphasized discipline on defense. I think you can draw a lot of comparisons between the Pistons championship team he was a part of and this Hawks team.

[DjGrizz]

I'd rather have Woody than Doc. Doc is as overrated as they come. Below average coach imo.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

The offense is good enough. Everyone knows defense wins championships. I'm sorry he doesn't have a nifty geometric shape like Phil Jackson to market his offense with.

LOL . . great quote.

.

[Traceman]

All of that is great! I've stated that in my posts...I'll take it, for the time being. I'm basing my opinion on my eyes and what I've seen during his tenure. We have improved every year. However, we've endured the growing pains of allowing these kids to start to mature. Half a decade. Add to that some great FA signings by both BK and Sund...keeping the coach and the core together, and we're reaping the benefits. Today, do I think Woody is the best coach for the team, I do for consistency purposes...not because he's innovative and we'll continue to evolve. I've seen the same coaching philosophies for a long time. The players are better, older, understand the game through playing. It's not Woody being a damn good coach.

You acknowledge that we had to go through growing pains and allow the young kids to mature. You acknowledge that we have improved every year. You say the players are better, older and that they understand the game through playing. Yet you criticize Woody's coaching philosophy. Perhaps Woody's coaching philosophy has made them better.

You criticize Woody's offensive system and yet we ae currently 3rd in PPG, 4th in FG%, 5th in FT% and 8th in APG. Perhaps it was never the system but it was always the players inability to execute the system. As guys have matured and accepted their roles and as we have acquired more offensive talent, our offensive numbers are better than good, they are EXCELLENT.

On the defensive end, we started slowly but we are starting to find our groove. We are giving up more PPG this year than in past years under Woody but that is primarily because we are playing so much better offensively and because we are playing at a faster pace. The only teams currently scoring 100 PPG or more and giving up less than 100 PPG are LAL, SA, ORL and DAL. All 4 of those teams are scoring at least 6 PPG fewer than we are and our PPG differential is higher than all 4 of those teams.

I love how the Woody haters want to criticize him for his inability to develop players like Acie, Salim, Solo and Shelden but fail to recognize the TREMENDOUS improvement in Smoove, Al, Marv and Chillz. Acie, Salim, Solo and Shelden are all role players AT BEST and they have had VERY limited success away from here. It wasn't Woody, those guys simply are not capable of being very good NBA players.

Woody is certainly not perfect and we have all criticized him at times. There is nothing wrong with that . That said, be willing to give him credit for the things he has done (and is doing) well. As of today, he should be an early season candidate for coach of the year.

[Atlantaholic]

Nothing he does makes much sense to me, or to any of the commentators who do our games, but the man is getting results... It seems he has been able to get through to our players (though it took him five years) so he at least deserves credit for that much.

[NJHAWK]

BK would have had this homework done already. I wonder if one of the reason JJ hasnt resigned is the fact that Sund didnt commit to Woody and his staff. Im not saying its the main reason but it could be something that entered his mind. He has shown alot of support for Woody in the past.

[AHF]

The Bills were 5-1 last season when they made the idiotic decision to give d*ck Jauron an unnecessary 3 year contract.

Play out the season and reward Woodson if they are this good at the end of the year. No one is going to sign him away from us during the season.

[Atlantaholic]

Just a purely hypothetical question out of curiosity (not to say I think either of these things will happen): If we finish 1st or 2nd in the east and loose in the first round does Woody stay??

[buckeye242424]

You acknowledge that we had to go through growing pains and allow the young kids to mature. You acknowledge that we have improved every year. You say the players are better, older and that they understand the game through playing. Yet you criticize Woody's coaching philosophy. Perhaps Woody's coaching philosophy has made them better.

You criticize Woody's offensive system and yet we ae currently 3rd in PPG, 4th in FG%, 5th in FT% and 8th in APG. Perhaps it was never the system but it was always the players inability to execute the system. As guys have matured and accepted their roles and as we have acquired more offensive talent, our offensive numbers are better than good, they are EXCELLENT.

On the defensive end, we started slowly but we are starting to find our groove. We are giving up more PPG this year than in past years under Woody but that is primarily because we are playing so much better offensively and because we are playing at a faster pace. The only teams currently scoring 100 PPG or more and giving up less than 100 PPG are LAL, SA, ORL and DAL. All 4 of those teams are scoring at least 6 PPG fewer than we are and our PPG differential is higher than all 4 of those teams.

I love how the Woody haters want to criticize him for his inability to develop players like Acie, Salim, Solo and Shelden but fail to recognize the TREMENDOUS improvement in Smoove, Al, Marv and Chillz. Acie, Salim, Solo and Shelden are all role players AT BEST and they have had VERY limited success away from here. It wasn't Woody, those guys simply are not capable of being very good NBA players.

Woody is certainly not perfect and we have all criticized him at times. There is nothing wrong with that . That said, be willing to give him credit for the things he has done (and is doing) well. As of today, he should be an early season candidate for coach of the year.

I'm not a Woody hater. I don't mention lack of development of his players, his relationships with players, his game management to a fault - all that stuff. I understand the numbers, the stats on the offensive end...all that jazz. But I trust my eyes, and I see what we do every night on offense (half court) not transition offense - we excel there because we're gifted athletically - when we're in the half court and consistently see one player pound the ball over, and over, and over again...it's frustrating. There should be more there...that's all I'm saying.

[HawkRock1123]

Lot of people pointing to Phil Jackson and Pat Riley in these Woody posts. I'll admit - I'm a big fan of those coaches. I believe that some coaches just have a "vision". I think that D'Antoni has potential to be one of these as well. I'm still not sure if Woody is one of these or not. We have to remember he's still a fairly new head coach, and he is getting results, isn't he? I haven't been the biggest supporter, and sometime his substitution patterns boggle my mind, but we're at the top of the league right now.

We have to remember - coaches like Phil and Pat are EXTREMELY RARE. Look at some of the other coaches in the league. Among active coaches - who would you rather have (outside of maybe Phil or D'Antoni, if even them)?

P.S. - Doc is extremely overrated. So is Mike Brown. Right now the difference between Lebron and MJ is that MJ had a coach with vision.

[spotatl]

Buckeye- the Hawks are #3 in offense in the league yet you are still bitching about his offense. Just ridiculous.

[Unforgiven]

stackhouse would make this team even better, why not sign him. hes in atlanta and probably watching us all the time.

[Traceman]

I'm not a Woody hater. I don't mention lack of development of his players, his relationships with players, his game management to a fault - all that stuff. I understand the numbers, the stats on the offensive end...all that jazz. But I trust my eyes, and I see what we do every night on offense (half court) not transition offense - we excel there because we're gifted athletically - when we're in the half court and consistently see one player pound the ball over, and over, and over again...it's frustrating. There should be more there...that's all I'm saying.

We pound the ball over and over and over and yet we score a lot of points, we shoot a great % and we get a lot of assists. I just don't get it. Sure JJ pounds it too much sometimes but that should be no more than aminor quibble the way we are producing offensively right now. One benefit of all his pounding is that when we do run something else, it tends to confuse the hell out of the opposition. The pick and roll with Bibby and Horford and the backdoor lob to Smoove have both been money.

[Unforgiven]

im all for signing avery johnson, hes just waiting for his next gig.

[spotatl]

The Hawks have 2 players who can consistently exploit a matchup with a below average defender. The Hawks have absolutely no post threat whatsoever. How many options do you really think that Woodson has? Let JJ or Crawford initiate the offense while Marvin and Bibby space the floor and hurt teams if they double. Use active bigs to set screens and flash to the basket. I really don't see what else you can do. bibby's days of initiating the offense are done. Marvin has never shown the ability to initiate the offense. The Hawks have one of hte top offenses in the league in spite of all this yet you are still bitching because the offense isn't "pretty" enough?! Seriously. The league with the handchecking rules has made it virtually impossible to stop Joe or Crawford 1 on 1 yet you don't want to see the team run that even though its working. Just amazing.

[Atlantaholic]

stackhouse would make this team even better, why not sign him. hes in atlanta and probably watching us all the time.

I'm sorry but at this stage I think it is pretty safe to assume that Stackhouse has nothing left. It's not like there is a shortage of teams that need help on offense this year, and yet absolutely no one has shown interest in him. That should be a pretty good indicator about what he can bring to the table.

[Traceman]

The Bills were 5-1 last season when they made the idiotic decision to give d*ck Jauron an unnecessary 3 year contract.

Play out the season and reward Woodson if they are this good at the end of the year. No one is going to sign him away from us during the season.

I think Woody is doing a great job so far but I wouldn't even THINK about giving him an extension until after the All Star break. If we are good then, I might go ahead give him one if I thought it would help me in negotiations with JJ to have Woody locked up. If I didn't think Woody's situation would have any bearing on JJ one way or the other, I'd wait until the off season to resign Woody - understanding that a deep playoff run will likely cost me SIGNIFICANTLY more than an extension would cost me now.

[buckeye242424]

Buckeye- the Hawks are #3 in offense in the league yet you are still bitching about his offense. Just ridiculous.

I'm not basing my opinion on 11 games. I'm basing it on 5+ years. I think it's all good that we are shooting a high percentage, scoring a ton of points. Lord, I hope it continues! But it's a glaring weakness of our head coach that he doesn't put much, if any, focus on the offensive end. At the highest level of basketball in any league in the world. Answer me this, if JJ would pull a hamstring and be out for a few weeks (God forbid) what would happen? We would be all out of sorts offensively. Craws would be asked to carry the burden. It shouldn't be that way with the talent on the team.

[buckeye242424]

We pound the ball over and over and over and yet we score a lot of points, we shoot a great % and we get a lot of assists. I just don't get it. Sure JJ pounds it too much sometimes but that should be no more than aminor quibble the way we are producing offensively right now. One benefit of all his pounding is that when we do run something else, it tends to confuse the hell out of the opposition. The pick and roll with Bibby and Horford and the backdoor lob to Smoove have both been money.

That's not the way I feel an NBA team should run an offense.