Why dont we get a Center!?!?!

[DrReality]

Don't take it personally Teague . . . . they pick on everyone.

Welcome

[niremetal]

I think it's fairer to say he isn't a 3 in our system (whatever that system is). If we had a center and power forward that could play well 15 feet from the basket and Josh could constantly cut then yes, he's a Small Forward. But in a system with a non penetrating point guard and isolation that requires the 3 to spot up from outside, he'd be a terrible fit.

If the team had say Gortat at Center and Bosh at PF and Deron Williams at the point, then Josh at SF would work well as both players can take their man away from the basket and the point guard can get penetration whenever he wants. But not in a system where the 3 has to play on the wings (like you see poor Marvin being forced to do on 80% of our offensive possessions).

Even in a perfect world, if you play Smoove at small forward, he'll be out on the perimeter most of the time on defense. Why the hell would we want our best help defender - hell probably the league's best help defender - spending most of his time far away from the basket?

Edited November 20, 2009 by niremetal

[Sothron]

We all know that Horford is playing out of position but the problem, Teague, is that Smoove can't play the 3. Ideally sure he'd have the outside range to play there but he does not. So instead we counter size with speed and athletic ability. I'd kill for a center like Brook Lopez or Kaman but where would we play them? We even have a good backup big man in Zaza. We'd have to trade probably two starters to make a deal like that work for us and right now there's no reason to do anything.

[gsuteke]

Don't take it personally Teague . . . . they pick on everyone.

Welcome

Easily the post of the day. You got a chuckle out of me with that one.

[BusBoyIsBack]

Everyone going easy on the rook. Time for some rookie hazing.

Could you possibly have any worse timing for this post when through 12 games we have sole possession of the BEST RECORD IN THE NBA????

It's one thing to worry if the Hawks can mentally keep it together particularly the shot selection of Josh Smith. It's another to question can they physically get it done. Haven't we seen enough of Josh Smith and Al Horford together to know that combo works physically? They are the best pair of rebounders/shot blockers in the league right now .

Edited November 20, 2009 by BusBoyIsBack

[coachx]

Here are some veteran centers that will be unrestricted free agents in 2010:

Brendan Heywood - My personal preference. Simply a big and tough dude when he is healthy. I think he would gladly come off the bench for the MLE for a 55 + win ball club.

Brad Miller - would be comfortable coming off the bench at this point in his career but is he that much better then ZaZa in the areas that we need help ?

Memo Okur - I think Okur still wants to be a starter and is not good enough to start infront of Horford at C

Marcus Camby - (Not really the big banger we need.......we already have help defeners)

Zydrunas Ilgauskas (If the Cavs resign Shaq........then Big Z is out of there.)

These are all veterans that know Atlanta is the place for them and one of them are our only missing piece to a truely complete the team. Granted I would play all of these guys off the bench in place or with ZaZa on most nights.

A vet big will eventually sign here for the MLE and put us over the top.

The guy I want out of this list is Heywood...........though Miller and Okur are interesting in that their shooting ability and passing ability would allow Smith to play SF at times. However, that would make our interior defense much worse then it is now and it would slow down our new found run and gun offensive attack. So, I prefer a defensive upgrade to ZaZa, like Heywood off the bench, to put us over the top !

Edited November 20, 2009 by coachx

[Swatguy]

I suspect Al Horford is stuck a center for quite a while. There is no way to separate Al and Josh as they play towards their prime years (4-5 years form now).

Thank GOD we have Zaza as a quality backup Center. The next upgrade is the starting 3 position and back up 4 (Joe Smith will not be here much longer). This team (with Joe re-signed) is pretty much set for the long run.

[jy23]

Easily the post of the day. You got a chuckle out of me with that one.

+1

[Swatguy]

Here are some veteran centers that will be unrestricted free agents in 2010:

Brendan Heywood - My personal preference. Simply a big and tough dude when he is healthy. I think he would gladly come off the bench for the MLE for a 55 + win ball club.

Brad Miller - would be comfortable coming off the bench at this point in his career but is he that much better then ZaZa in the areas that we need help ?

Memo Okur - I think Okur still wants to be a starter and is not good enough to start infront of Horford at C

Marcus Camby - (Not really the big banger we need.......we already have help defeners)

Zydrunas Ilgauskas (If the Cavs resign Shaq........then Big Z is out of there.)

These are all veterans that know Atlanta is the place for them and one of them are our only missing piece to a truely complete the team. Granted I would play all of these guys off the bench in place or with ZaZa on most nights.

A vet big will eventually sign here for the MLE and put us over the top.

The guy I want out of this list is Heywood...........though Miller and Okur are interesting in that their shooting ability and passing ability would allow Smith to play SF at times. However, that would make our interior defense much worse then it is now and it would slow down our new found run and gun offensive attack. So, I prefer a defensive upgrade to ZaZa, like Heywood off the bench, to put us over the top !

Out of that bunch my choice would be Haywood. He is Big 'n Nasty enough to bring the certain mentality.

[Chaze]

Smith and Horford have been holding there own pretty well. If you know where the hawks can find a center that would be an upgrade over Horford please let me know and I'll send an email to the owners.

email the owners to get jerry stackhouse please

[coachx]

email the owners to get jerry stackhouse please

Get over Jerry !

He is a 36 year old slasher coming off an injury. He is not a better defender then Marvin and he is not a better scorer then Crawford.

What would he be on this club ? The 11th man ?

[Teague0]

lol i got the feed back i was expecting on that post, but after hearing some explanations im content with what we got. I like how the hawks play fast and i think if we got a big center more than likely it would just slow down the pace of the team. And yeah the josh smith to SF prolly wouldnt work after hearing he has terrible ball skills and all bibby does is shoot the J for the most part. But thanks for the welcome guys and taking it easy on my first post

[BusBoyIsBack]

lol i got the feed back i was expecting on that post, but after hearing some explanations im content with what we got. I like how the hawks play fast and i think if we got a big center more than likely it would just slow down the pace of the team. And yeah the josh smith to SF prolly wouldnt work after hearing he has terrible ball skills and all bibby does is shoot the J for the most part. But thanks for the welcome guys and taking it easy on my first post

Welcome aboard. And yes at least you acknowledged the possibility of this being debated endlessly on here and it has. But trust me you weren't the first person to suggest this. Maybe suggested that a Smoove/Horford combo would not work or certainly we could not contend for a championship with it.

I even found myself buying into this logic and shamefully was on the Joakim Noah/Yi Jianlian bandwagon, buying into the hype that Horford was too short. But in reality, Al plays bigger than his size and with a weakside shot blocker like Josh Smith to compliment him, they make up for their lack of height.

Edited November 20, 2009 by BusBoyIsBack

[bay2theAlady]

Im knew to the board and i dont know if this topic has been beat to death, but i havent seen anyone else post anything about it. Al Horford is a PF not a Center and we are asking Josh Smith to play PF when he would obviously be much more dominant at SF. Has the coach addressed this as a need? Next year could we possible make a trade to fix this and get a Center, maybe send bibby off, or replace Joe with a Center if he is not resigned, and have- bibby PG, crawford SG, Josh SF, Horford PF, and a Center as the starting line up and have Marvin, and Teague and Zaza coming off the bench....to me this is the bext lineup to have. Bibby and Crawford have pretty terrible defence but having Josh, Horford, and another Center would still keep everyone from thinking about going in the paint. Plus Marvin Williams has not proven he is a starter and he would be a dominant bench player to have, and with joe out of the picture Teague would be getting plenty of minutes at PG and SG....Just an idea and something that has been bugging me let me know if this has been coverd already or if theres any flaws with it im not seeing.

I used to think we needed a legit starting center so we could move Horf to his natural position but Horf has morphed into a legit center that can hold his own. Sure, he may be undersized against the bigger centers but thats where he can use his quickness to his advantage. The chemistry right now is great, no need to go all "Frankenstein" and try to fix something that obviously aint broken...