Controlling LeBron James

[NineOhTheRino]

This is with the understanding that if the Hawks want to do something special this year then they will have to get past the Cavs at some point. The strategy is coming straight from the school of Pat Riley's early '90's Knicks team.

Send a message to LeBron early about driving down the lane! Have a couple of players on the playoff roster for the sole purpose of taking the flagrant-2 on LBJ. Woody only goes about 8-9 deep anyway. One approach would be to start Jason Collins over Al ( relax...hear me now). The first time LBJ drives Collins will send his *ss to the 2nd row. LBJ gets up, Jason get a flagrant-2 then ejected, Al's in and game back on. Not saying hurt dude but let him now early that driving has it's consequences. The ultimate goal is to give your defense a chance by making LBJ a jump shooter.

Either that or watch the Cavs clown the Hawks by dancing and acting-a-donkey in front of the entire world.

Edited March 16, 2010 by NineOhTheRino

[Diesel]

This is with the understanding that if the Hawks want to do something special this year then they will have to get past the Cavs at some point. The strategy is coming straight from the school of Pat Riley's early '90's Knicks team.

Send a message to LeBron early about driving down the lane! Have a couple of players on the playoff roster for the sole purpose of taking the flagrant-2 on LBJ. Woody only goes about 8-9 deep anyway. One approach would be to start Jason Collins over Al ( relax...hear me now). The first time LBJ drives Collins will send his *ss to the 2nd row. LBJ gets up, Jason get a flagrant-2 then ejected, Al's in and game back on. Not saying hurt dude but let him now early that driving has it's consequences. The ultimate goal is to give your defense a chance by making LBJ a jump shooter.

Either that or watch the Cavs clown the Hawks by dancing and acting-a-donkey in front of the entire world.

I understand what you are saying, however, Lebron is the most pampered player in the league. That baby powder is just not for throwing in the air, it's for the refs to pat him down with. If we "sent a message", the refs will respond by sending us a message the rest of the game.

I think Better would be for us to light up one of Lebron's sidekicks. Have Rio go out on Williams and just give the hard foul on the 2nd play. I think some of Lebron's side kicks are mentally incapable of dealing with a hard foul. Once we have done that, we isolate Lebron.

I am a huge fan of the coaching of Chuck Daly. One of the things that people missed about the "Jordan's Rules" is that it didn't go into effect immediately. It started in the middle of quarters. For the first few minutes of the 1st and 3rd and sometimes 4th quarter, Daly would have his guys beat up on the rest of the Bulls. Jordan still had to work, but usually single coverage and anybody else who touched the ball would get punished. Then middle of the quarter, starts the Jordan Rules where Daly would either force the ball out of Jordan's hands or run Jordan into double teams while driving him to the left.

The beauty is that while taking out the rest of the Bulls, you force them to go cold... so that when they finally do get the ball, they are too cold and too scared to do anything. Riley butchered the Jordan rules by trying to run it the whole game. That didn't work because Jordan adapted...

The way Daly ran it worked (for a time) because it caused a breakdown between Jordan and the rest of the Bulls.

This will easily work on Lebron and the Cavs. Lebron is a lot more fragile than Jordan. You take away his teammates and make the game tough for him, he will break down.

[T21]

This is with the understanding that if the Hawks want to do something special this year then they will have to get past the Cavs at some point. The strategy is coming straight from the school of Pat Riley's early '90's Knicks team.

Send a message to LeBron early about driving down the lane! Have a couple of players on the playoff roster for the sole purpose of taking the flagrant-2 on LBJ. Woody only goes about 8-9 deep anyway. One approach would be to start Jason Collins over Al ( relax...hear me now). The first time LBJ drives Collins will send his *ss to the 2nd row. LBJ gets up, Jason get a flagrant-2 then ejected, Al's in and game back on. Not saying hurt dude but let him now early that driving has it's consequences. The ultimate goal is to give your defense a chance by making LBJ a jump shooter.

Either that or watch the Cavs clown the Hawks by dancing and acting-a-donkey in front of the entire world.

That's my man!

I perfectly understand your point of view and I agree that Hawks need to work on that particular aspect of the game as well as psychology!

However, before going into war, Hawks would have to calculate the effects and consequences of such actions...

First of all, Cavs have more fire-power (we'll all agree to that) and in a best-of-7 series they would have an advantage, it's a very simple math!

Second, the NBA would get even more involved and the refs would probably get instructions to treat LBJ as Holy Grail and protect him even more for the rest of the series...

Third, if we realy know and understand our Hawks team, we'll realize that we're not going to outmuscle anybody or become instant enforcers, it's simply not our style (I'm not sayin' that we're weak or soft).

[Diesel]

That's my man!

I perfectly understand your point of view and I agree that Hawks need to work on that particular aspect of the game as well as psychology!

However, before going into war, Hawks would have to calculate the effects and consequences of such actions...

First of all, Cavs have more fire-power (we'll all agree to that) and in a best-of-7 series they would have an advantage, it's a very simple math!

Second, the NBA would get even more involved and the refs would probably get instructions to treat LBJ as Holy Grail and protect him even more for the rest of the series...

Third, if we realy know and understand our Hawks team, we'll realize that we're not going to outmuscle anybody or become instant enforcers, it's simply not our style (I'm not sayin' that we're weak or soft).

Honestly, we are more finesse than muscle. But we do have some enforcer players. Zaza, Rio, and maybe Mo Evans. The other day, I watched Anderson V. just take KG and Wallace out of the game with what they called High energy play. It looked like a lot of grabbing and pushing. He is the main person begging for a Zaza Elbow.

[dlpin]

You know what is the problem with this? Lebron is big and has the refs on his side.

You start going at him, he will probably respond in kind given his size, with the difference he will not be called for ANYTHING.

Just to give you an idea of how protected he is, the last time he had more than 4 fouls in a regular season game was almost two years ago, on 4/2/2008.

[T21]

Honestly, we are more finesse than muscle. But we do have some enforcer players. Zaza, Rio, and maybe Mo Evans. The other day, I watched Anderson V. just take KG and Wallace out of the game with what they called High energy play. It looked like a lot of grabbing and pushing. He is the main person begging for a Zaza Elbow.

Yeah man, Varejao is just a punk! What high-energy??? He just get's on peoples nerves, that's his job and he get's away with it. He's no basketball player!

[Diesel]

You know what is the problem with this? Lebron is big and has the refs on his side.

You start going at him, he will probably respond in kind given his size, with the difference he will not be called for ANYTHING.

Just to give you an idea of how protected he is, the last time he had more than 4 fouls in a regular season game was almost two years ago, on 4/2/2008.

Naw, the other day, Bron got slapped in the face by .... one of those Celtics.. and he laid under the goal and cried like Rasheed Wallace at UNC vs. Wake.

[buckeye242424]

LeBron is probably stronger than anyone on our team, let alone the bench. LeBron isn't going to go flying into the second row by anyone on our bench, especially in the playoffs, which is what he plays for....and increases his game. If he takes a hard foul, it's just going to motivate him more. Our best bet vs. the Cavs in the playoffs is to limit his supporting cast (easier said than done, but the Cavs arent great other than Bron') and not make anything easy for him, ever. If I were Woody, I would take Marv, or Mo, whomever is our best defender and just stick him in Bron's chest with no other role than to be his shadow. Offense doesn't matter...just do your best sticking the best defender on the team and pray...

[Diesel]

LeBron is probably stronger than anyone on our team, let alone the bench. LeBron isn't going to go flying into the second row by anyone on our bench, especially in the playoffs, which is what he plays for....and increases his game. If he takes a hard foul, it's just going to motivate him more. Our best bet vs. the Cavs in the playoffs is to limit his supporting cast (easier said than done, but the Cavs arent great other than Bron') and not make anything easy for him, ever. If I were Woody, I would take Marv, or Mo, whomever is our best defender and just stick him in Bron's chest with no other role than to be his shadow. Offense doesn't matter...just do your best sticking the best defender on the team and pray...

Lebron fears Pietrus.

[NineOhTheRino]

LeBron is probably stronger than anyone on our team, let alone the bench. LeBron isn't going to go flying into the second row by anyone on our bench, especially in the playoffs, which is what he plays for....and increases his game. If he takes a hard foul, it's just going to motivate him more. Our best bet vs. the Cavs in the playoffs is to limit his supporting cast (easier said than done, but the Cavs arent great other than Bron') and not make anything easy for him, ever. If I were Woody, I would take Marv, or Mo, whomever is our best defender and just stick him in Bron's chest with no other role than to be his shadow. Offense doesn't matter...just do your best sticking the best defender on the team and pray...

That was Woody's plan last year. The game plan was let Micheal do his thing while keeping the Tito's down. The Hawks failed miserably because the Cavs just took advantage of Mike Bibby.

Edited March 17, 2010 by NineOhTheRino

[BusBoyIsBack]

That's a horrible strategy. We would get more hosed than the Kings vs the Lakers in terms of officiating the rest of the series if we did something like that.