All of a sudden, Crawford is a MAJOR PROBLEM

[TheNorthCydeRises]

I don't know if it's because of whatever injury he suffered before the All-Star break or what, but the play of this dude is starting to become a major problem for this squad. As great as he was playing before the All-Star break, this dude has completely went south in these past 6 games.

23 - 70 FG ( 32.8% )

10 - 37 3FG ( 27% )

Let's stop right there. Look at the shot selection. 37 threes on 70 shots? That means that almost 53% of his shot attempts are coming from 3 point range. And for whatever reason, he's ICE COLD.

This was the Crawford that I was afraid that we were going to get. The horrible shot selection version of Crawford. This is the Crawford that Woody must limit time on the floor for. The dude refuses to take people off the dribble and use his long midrange jumper ( a shot in which he's the most accurate shooter on the team ). Instead, he'd rather dribble or use a pick, to set up his 3 point shot.

Defensively, I don't think it's a coincidence that some of these major offensive runs that these teams are going on, are happening when he is in the game. Hubie Brown pointed out something that I hadn't realized all year. He pointed out early in that game about our transition defense. For those of you who don't know what that is . . . that is the defense a team plays after the other team gets the rebound and pushes the ball up the floor. Too many times last night, we missed a shot, and Dallas had 3 on 2 . . 3 on 1 mini-fast breaks going. Guys aren't getting back on defense, and Crawford is one of the main culprits in this.

Whichever one of you guys kidnapped the pre All-Star break version of Crawford, need to quit playing. The joke is over . . we get it . . now please return the January version of Jamal . . not the NY Knicks, Golden St, Chicago one.

[MaceCase]

We all knew Crawesome would have to take a coffee break sometime. Well who do you think is watching the desk when Crawesome is back in the kitchenette?

[exodus]

The problem isn't Crawford. We knew what we were getting when he came here. The problem is that the coach can't adjust his substitution patterns when Crawford is clearly off.

[DJlaysitup]

I don't know if it's because of whatever injury he suffered before the All-Star break or what, but the play of this dude is starting to become a major problem for this squad. As great as he was playing before the All-Star break, this dude has completely went south in these past 6 games.

23 - 70 FG ( 32.8% )

10 - 37 3FG ( 27% )

Let's stop right there. Look at the shot selection. 37 threes on 70 shots? That means that almost 53% of his shot attempts are coming from 3 point range. And for whatever reason, he's ICE COLD.

This was the Crawford that I was afraid that we were going to get. The horrible shot selection version of Crawford. This is the Crawford that Woody must limit time on the floor for. The dude refuses to take people off the dribble and use his long midrange jumper ( a shot in which he's the most accurate shooter on the team ). Instead, he'd rather dribble or use a pick, to set up his 3 point shot.

Defensively, I don't think it's a coincidence that some of these major offensive runs that these teams are going on, are happening when he is in the game. Hubie Brown pointed out something that I hadn't realized all year. He pointed out early in that game about our transition defense. For those of you who don't know what that is . . . that is the defense a team plays after the other team gets the rebound and pushes the ball up the floor. Too many times last night, we missed a shot, and Dallas had 3 on 2 . . 3 on 1 mini-fast breaks going. Guys aren't getting back on defense, and Crawford is one of the main culprits in this.

Whichever one of you guys kidnapped the pre All-Star break version of Crawford, need to quit playing. The joke is over . . we get it . . now please return the January version of Jamal . . not the NY Knicks, Golden St, Chicago one.

Yeah northcyde, one of the biggest problems with Craw is (IMO) he simply doesn't value quality looks over wild heaves. Some of that may be that he thinks he can make anything (and sometimes does), I have nothing against him shooting some threes if they are open/feet square to the basket shots. If he only shoots those I would bet his %age would go up 8-10 points overnight. Craw acts like he's the Sundance Kid out there alot ("better if I move"). Bibby made a few clutch shots last night late and I noticed that he was open and square to the basket for the most part.

As far as getting back on defense, it is becoming a chronic problem. They even make a fast break dunk off of one of our fast break dunks last night. That is just lack of effort/hustle.

Edited February 27, 2010 by DJlaysitup

[Joker]

Crawesome plays great at time, while Crawful doesn't. My biggie with Craw is his defense is awful, especially off the ball.

[Kimsey]

Woodson said something to the effect: "don't sacrifice your game, play the way that got you to this point". Basically it's Jamal being Jamal, the same guy that has a low opinion among basketball fans and a ten year playoff drought being the top offensive option for those previous teams.

[swolehawk2]

Silly post...Crawford is the least of our problems.

Two PGs that have contributed little to nothing in the past three months.

Two SFs that have given almost nothing.

ZZ/Joe Smith are a joke.

Then you have the nerve to blame Crawford, when his play has directly led to wins!

Go ahead and blame Crawford for not being Lebron, sad.

[Marvin24Williams]

Silly post...Crawford is the least of our problems.

Two PGs that have contributed little to nothing in the past three months.

Two SFs that have given almost nothing.

ZZ/Joe Smith are a joke.

Then you have the nerve to blame Crawford, when his play has directly led to wins!

Go ahead and blame Crawford for not being Lebron, sad.

IMO, crawford HAS become a problem. the dude is chucking up unnecessary shots and is a selfish ball hog most of the time. i'd rather play marvin than crawFUL at this point.

[mrhonline]

Crawford should:

1. Play major minutes over Marvin when he's hitting his shots.

2. Play as few minutes at the 1 as necessary.

3. Never play next to Bibby.

[JackB1]

Crawford hasn't been the same ever since he hurt his shoulder and sat out that one game.

[Diesel]

This is a joke right?

Let me spell out the problems for you.

1. The problem is we have no plays for a zone defense. We force ourselves to shoot over the zone and that's a terrible plan unless you have Curry, Gibson, and Morrow.

2. Our coach doesn't know how to use his guards as passers.

Last night, a few of the best passes we had were Craw finding people in the fourth. His pass to Smoove was elegant.

3. Bibby is off. Our shooting ability relies on Bibby being able to hit an open shot.

[Crank]

Every one of our top 7 players have struggled at some point during the season . To try and point to the last 6 games as a indicator of anything is really ridiculous considering how the day he was scratched i was commenting on how for the first few games of February Crawford was shooting over 50% from the field and 50% from 3 . He was red hot prior to his injury .

He has taken too many threes but he also has been red hot from there recently but those threes are the shots that are generated by good ball movement and with Bibby having been in a slump for the majority of February I think he was encouraged to take those shots to help spread the floor.It will be interesting to see how they all respond to tonights game.

The main problem we have and Ive said this before is where are the starters ? When was the last time our starters came out and really put it to someone for an entire game ? You look at the other top teams and they all have games where they come out and before they make there first sub they have a 20 point lead and in the second half its more of the same . The Cavs ,Magic ,Lakers .Nuggets do this all the time we havent done it since early December . The other teams have been able to develop there benches because they have had enough times where the starters generate huge leads that allow the bench to play serious minutes together and build confidence.

There is no sense of urgency out of our starting unit. .

[Gray Mule]

Yeah, Diesel. You're correct.

Zone defense? What is that? Never saw anything like that before. I don't believe that's legal.

Hawks looked like a lost ball in a high weed patch. They had no idea what was going on

and certainly didn't know what to do to correct their problem.

Hawks should have a 5 player unit, not necessarily starters, to play against the zone. In practice,

they learn what to do and how to do it. Then, when the zone begins, insert these five players.

Also, Hawks have the terrible habit of turning off the offense late in the game when they have a lead.

Why? Why try to kill the clock for 23 seconds and then take that desperation shot before time runs out?

When you shut down your offense late in the game, it's an invitation to your opponent to come back.

Who has the responsibility of making adjustments late in the 4th quarter? Apparently, no one.

Instead of yelling at the players, running out on the floor and getting hit by an opposing player,

shouldn't Woody be more mature than this. Does he think he's coaching a bunch of 3rd graders

who doesn't know what's going on? Maybe he is. Probably not. They just weren't prepared for

what happened. Guess who is supposed to have them prepared?

And finally, whose responsibility is it to see that the bench gets their minutes during a game so that

the starters will not be too tired to be competetive late in the game?

So many tough questions that no one has the slightest idea of what the answer is.

:help wanted:

[jhay610]

This is the Crawford that Woody must limit time on the floor for.

Stop right there. That will never happen. Let's not act like Woody will actually adjust to a dynamic situation on the fly. Jamal's role is set and it will be the same whether he's 0-15 or 15-15.

[smithrules]

This is a joke right?

Let me spell out the problems for you.

1. The problem is we have no plays for a zone defense. We force ourselves to shoot over the zone and that's a terrible plan unless you have Curry, Gibson, and Morrow.

2. Our coach doesn't know how to use his guards as passers.

Last night, a few of the best passes we had were Craw finding people in the fourth. His pass to Smoove was elegant.

3. Bibby is off. Our shooting ability relies on Bibby being able to hit an open shot.

I will have to say this is pretty spot on, we would be alot better team if bibby was on. Alot of our assists actually come from smith, horford, joe or crawford. We really have no pg play right now with bibby cashing in his retirement home chips already.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Craw was 3 - 14 FG tonight,( bringing him to 25 for his last 84 FG ) . . . . but shot 9 FTs to offset his horrible shooting and defensive night. At least he didn't bomb away from 3 point land. He attacked more and took more midrange jumpers.

Woody did pull him in that 4th quarter, and got Marvin back in the game for added defense. Then Woody got Bibby outand put Craw back in. That's probably how he has to manage that. If both Bibby and Crawford aren't making shots, get Marvin back in and choose between who is more productive between Bibs and Craw.

[Diesel]

Craw was 3 - 14 FG tonight,( bringing him to 25 for his last 84 FG ) . . . . but shot 9 FTs to offset his horrible shooting and defensive night. At least he didn't bomb away from 3 point land. He attacked more and took more midrange jumpers.

Woody did pull him in that 4th quarter, and got Marvin back in the game for added defense. Then Woody got Bibby outand put Craw back in. That's probably how he has to manage that. If both Bibby and Crawford aren't making shots, get Marvin back in and choose between who is more productive between Bibs and Craw.

Until Overtime, Joe was looking terrible statwise too. However, in Overtime, you saw Joe start up the bus and put Salmons on it... and took him to school. I think our guys are all susceptible to bad stretches. The thing is that Woody has to temper playing time and stick with the more productive unit. As you saw in OT, Marvin's defense is nothing special.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

I'm not an all out Marvin defender on here, but he only had 2 defensive lapses last night ( and no, not guarding Ridnour on that 3 wasn't one of them, because Luke was either driving, or coming off that screen to shoot the long midrange jumper . . not the 3 ). The one you cited, in which he for some reason was sagging inside, leaving Salmons wide open for a 20 footer.

The other was in the first half, in which he got caught watching the ball on the other side of the lane. I believe he was watching Bogut try to back down his man and faded toward Bogut to give help. The man who was on Marvin's side, cut along the baseline to the basket, got a pass for Bogut, and made a wide open layup.

But if it wasn't for the defense of Smoove, Horford, AND Marvin in that 4th quarter, we don't make it to OT.

JJ played a terrible 3.5 quarters of that game. And if he didn't pull the game out, you better be sure that this board would be littered with"JJ isn't this or that" . . or . . "Trade JJ" . . or . . "Let JJ walk" posts.

The problems with Bibby defensively can be offset, if Bibby is making shots. The same goes for Jamal. If he continues to miss shots, he either needs to go into playmaker mode, or attack like he did last night and get to the line.

Just keep your eye on dude. It's not like he's struggling a little. He's struggling BIG TIME.

[NineOhTheRino]

Crawford should:

1. Play major minutes over Marvin when he's hitting his shots.

2. Play as few minutes at the 1 as necessary.

3. Never play next to Bibby.

add

4. Never play with Teague

and I'm with you 100%

[HawkItus]

Monday, March 1, 2010

Health concern for Hawks

By John Hollinger

The Hawks managed to prevail at home against Milwaukee last night, but delivered another underwhelming offensive performance in the victory. The Hawks, who once rated as high as second in Offensive Efficiency, have dipped to fifth in that category.

While Atlanta fans reflexively blame an attack that’s heavy on Joe Johnson isolations late in games, one big reason Atlanta’s offense has gone sideways of late is because of Jamal Crawford’s shoulder injury. He suffered a partial left shoulder separation just before the All-Star break and has tried to play through it, but the impact on his shooting stroke has been clear.

Crawford, the Hawks’ second-leading scorer and the league’s likely Sixth Man Award winner, was 3-for-14 last night and went without a field goal against Minnesota two games earlier. In seven games since the injury he’s 26-of-84 (31.0 percent) from the field and is just 10-of-39 on 3-pointers.

Perhaps more insidious is that he’s become a more reluctant shooter -- Crawford took 17.7 field-goal attempts per 40 minutes pre-injury but only 14.5 since -- leaving Atlanta even more dependent on the “iso-Joe” offense.

Crawford has offered no excuses, and the Hawks can hardly play the woe-is-me card when they’ve been among the league’s healthiest teams this year. But if they’re going to prevail in the three-way race for the No. 2 seed in the East, they need that good health restored -- starting with Crawford’s shoulder.