None of the coaches on the short list are better than Woodrow

[Wretch]

Sund was OK with bringing Woody back. It's MGJ that made this call. And that's my whole beef with the situation. Was Woody anything special? No. But why go through the trouble if you're not committed to bringing in someone considerably better.

...and see, this was my deal like 3 years ago. I just couldn't understand WHY people were so intent on giving this man more time. What had he done that was so promising? Playoffs? We barely squeaked in and I was calling before his head when it looked like we weren't even going to make it.

[niremetal]

Sund was OK with bringing Woody back. It's MGJ that made this call.

And your evidence for that is...what?

[NJHAWK]

Seriously though anyone is better than Woody right? Casey is a better coach than woody. Go read this blog on Yahoo.com by Kelley Dwyer....i think it will change your mind about Casey

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/The-Atlanta-Hawks-need-to-hire-Dwane-Casey;

Yea he coached a team to 20-20, his best year ever. Im sold. So media types like him because he is a nice guy and is polite to them, yuppie. Woody had about as many wins last season as this joker has had in his coaching career with a future hall of famer on his team in his prime.

Edited May 26, 2010 by NJHAWK

[Diesel]

All this Kelley Dwyer talk is making me sleepy.

Seriously, some of you guys don't check the record of these guys you pass off as expert.

Let's take Dwyer.

"Ben Wallace

What a coup for Chicago! They make a significant upgrade at basketball's most important position while significantly weakening their division's best team. Wallace may be 32 on opening night, but he'll get his act together for one season Roger Clemens-style, and give Chicago as good a chance as any to dethrone the Heat as Eastern Conference champs."

"Speedy Claxton

Claxton cooled off considerably in the second half of 2005-06, but Claxton at his worst is still years better than what his new team in Atlanta had to field at point guard last season. Royal Ivey started 66 games for the Hawks last year, and though he made a game effort, he was probably the worst player in the NBA who had to play significant minutes. He played 975 minutes, in fact -- and for every 13.4 of them (his per game average) Ivey managed one whole assist on a team full of finishers. Claxton may have his issues (height, no 3-point range, a nickname that may seem ironic toward the end of his contract), but mere competence will serve as huge upgrade in this situation."

How about another.

[NineOhTheRino]

And your evidence for that is...what?

pure speculation on my part but I base my speculation on Sund practically praising Woody on the way out. When I listen to Sund I hear a man that knows that he has a team with 1st-round talent. I do not hear a man that thinks this team can compete with the best.

Edited May 26, 2010 by NineOhTheRino

[niremetal]

pure speculation on my part but I base my speculation on Sund practically praising Woody on the way out. When I listen to Sund I hear a man that knows that he has a team with 1st-round talent. I do not hear a man that thinks this team can compete with the best.

I did not get that at ALL from his quotes, but whatever.

[AHF]

pure speculation on my part but I base my speculation on Sund practically praising Woody on the way out.

You know how much I love Woodson and I would have heavily praised him on the way out. There is no reason to throw him under the bus. You don't have to prove he failed at his job to get rid of you - you are just not giving him a new deal.

You praise him for all he did improving this great young team to emphasize the attractiveness of the underlying product and the attractiveness of the job for a new coach - regardless of whether you love Woody or think he stayed around 5 years too long.

[NineOhTheRino]

I did not get that at ALL from his quotes, but whatever.

have you heard the one from 790:

[niremetal]

have you heard the one from 790:

Yes.

[KB21]

Yea he coached a team to 20-20, his best year ever. Im sold. So media types like him because he is a nice guy and is polite to them, yuppie. Woody had about as many wins last season as this joker has had in his coaching career with a future hall of famer on his team in his prime.

So we shouldn't consider him because he couldn't make chicken salad out of chicken s***?

You seem to think that all a coach needs to win is one good player, because one good player is all Dwane had in Minnesota.

[NineOhTheRino]

So we shouldn't consider him because he couldn't make chicken salad out of chicken s***?

You seem to think that all a coach needs to win is one good player, because one good player is all Dwane had in Minnesota.

**news flash** This team is 100% real chicken s***

[AHF]

**news flash** This team is 100% real chicken s***

Woodson had 4 borderline All-Stars this season in Jamal Crawford, Josh Smith, Al Horford and Joe Johnson.

That is "100% real chicken s***"?

[NineOhTheRino]

Woodson had 4 borderline All-Stars this season in Jamal Crawford, Josh Smith, Al Horford and Joe Johnson.

That is "100% real chicken s***"?

yep...4 All-Stars that lost a playoff game by half-a-hundred.

[niremetal]

yep...4 All-Stars that lost a playoff game by half-a-hundred.

And the fact that pretty much everyone knows that the Hawks are not, in fact, 40 points worse than Orlando based on talent alone should be a sign that the margin was due to something besides disparity in talent. More importantly, the fact that the Hawks kept getting their butts kicked and made no adjustments makes pretty clear that there was more going on than a talent disparity. Because only people with a Hotlanta1981 mentality can say with a straight face the talent gap between the 2nd seeded Magic and 3rd seeded Hawks was so massive as to warrant 4 straight playoff blowouts.

Like I (echoing many others) said - you can get by on talent in the regular season, but not in the playoffs.

Edited May 26, 2010 by niremetal

[TheNorthCydeRises]

What is happening here? Can anyone here honestly say that one of these guys could have done a better Job with the Hawks talent.

Better than Woody:

Casey

Jackson

Corbin

Larry Drew

This may end up being as dumb as replacing Dan Reeves with Jim Mora.

LOL Nine . . . very few people will admit to this. Watch though. If we happen to get off to a slow start, the fans won't blame the new coach, they'll blame THE PLAYERS. You'll see players being trashed on here left and right, and it won't be just Marvin. It'll be our newly crowned leaders of the team ( if we lose JJ ).

But because Coach will be new, he'll get a partial pass, even if he's not up to the task.

The worst case scenario for the Hawks, would be for Woody to get hired somewhere else, and actually do a good job, while we struggled. Then, everybody will be all over the organization ( everybody, as in the national media ), wondering why the Hawks fired a coach who improved the team in 5 consecutive seasons.

[99PROBL3MS]

Woody's defense catches the brunt of the blame but I think it was the personnel and stubborness not to do something different that made it effective. The Celtics switch on defense just as much as ATL. The difference is they have high IQ Bball players who give 100% effort. It wasn't the defense itself. It was the fact that he wouldn't go away from it when our personnel couldn't handle it in the playoffs. All Woody had to do was show up and win a few games against ORL and I think he would be back. Was it really MGJ's call on Woody? If so, I hope he isn't too meddlesome and gives RS room to do his job.

[99PROBL3MS]

LOL Nine . . . very few people will admit to this. Watch though. If we happen to get off to a slow start, the fans won't blame the new coach, they'll blame THE PLAYERS. You'll see players being trashed on here left and right, and it won't be just Marvin. It'll be our newly crowned leaders of the team ( if we lose JJ ).

But because Coach will be new, he'll get a partial pass, even if he's not up to the task.

The worst case scenario for the Hawks, would be for Woody to get hired somewhere else, and actually do a good job, while we struggled. Then, everybody will be all over the organization ( everybody, as in the national media ), wondering why the Hawks fired a coach who improved the team in 5 consecutive seasons.

This would suck. It would make us look like the bad guy. If you gave me this list before Woody was let go, I would have been for extending him a year and upgrading the team. I can honestly say that much.

[NineOhTheRino]

In the end I think this will go down as a major overreaction. Overreaction in that the Hawks made the decision to part with a winning HC with no plan-b in mind. We thought the plan was to make the team better my removing the weakest link. How many of you see replacing the weak link (Woody) with Drew, Casey or Jackson as a step up?

As usual no substantive change just lip service and pie in the sky. It all comes back to one central idea for me. Coach Woodson should have been given a new deal!

.

Edited June 11, 2010 by NineOhTheRino

[sturt]

In the end I think this will go down as a major overreaction. Overreaction in that the Hawks made the decision to part with a winning HC with no plan-b in mind. We thought the plan was to make the team better my removing the weakest link. How many of you see replacing the weak link (Woody) with Drew, Casey or Jackson as a step up?

As usual no substantive change just lip service and pie in the sky. It all comes back to one central idea for me. Coach Woodson should have been given a new deal!

Nine, it's hard to have a dialogue with someone who continues to ignore a repeated and slap-you-in-the-face obvious point... so often repeated and so obvious, I'm not going to humor you by restating it. But please, when you figure out that, in order to be taken seriously, there's a strong counterargument that you need to deal with, let the rest of us know.

Edited June 11, 2010 by sturt

[NineOhTheRino]

Nine, it's hard to have a dialogue with someone who continues to ignore a repeated and slap-you-in-the-face obvious point... so often repeated and so obvious, I'm not going to humor you by restating it. But please, when you figure out that, in order to be taken seriously, there's a strong counterargument that you need to deal with, let the rest of us know.

On a coaching scale from 1 to 10 I would rate Woody a 5. I'm not giving up that 5 until I find a 6 or better.