Jason Walker going on Bill Shanks show at 4:00

[jaywalker72]

Al's a nice player and we need his rebounds and put backs. His offense is improving but suggesting that we should run our offense through him is a little generous to his offensive ability. Our 3 guards are assassins. We need Bibby to get out of his slump and continue to be our general. Crawford and Joe are sick off the charts. I would agree when we go into those lulls on offense that we can start dumping it into Horford to try to get something going but please let our scorers score.

The point isn't that Horford should be doing all the scoring, but that he should get more possessions (he's way behind in Usage rate) and run the offense through the post. When you have a big man who can score and pass, it opens up those "assassins" for better shots, making them MORE efficient, not have less impact. Doing the isolation, one-on-one dance does not lend itself to success against good half court defenses, as we have seen in the recent past.

You wouldn't do this with Hilton Armstrong, but you can with Al. He's is effective inside as his percentages will indicate. He passes well and makes mostly good choices--it makes sense to run your offense through this channel primarily as it will scale better than the pass-along-the-perimeter approach will against tight defenses. Make the defense move and you will get better shots. Working inside-out is a great way to accomplish this---especially when you have the scorers to make them pay, which the Hawks do.

The Hawks are a great team right now---with the opportunity to be greater with some change to their offensive approach. It's up to them. Either use a guy like Horford completely or get something for him before you pay him 10M per to be your ballboy on the court.