Regular Season Report Card

[benhillboy]

Just wanted to get a feel for how the board feels about everyone's performance. As a team, they considerably exceeded my expectations given the schedule, injuries, and off-court pouting. I guess Twin will set the floor for minimum playing time for players evaluated (10 min/ game, 30appearances)...Drew and Staff: A-. 45% shooting for the team, .370 from three, 74% from the line, 1.19 points per shot, 14 turnovers a game, 60% winning percentage. 6th in points allowed allows me to live with 17th in PPG, as I'm guessing we're middle-of-the-pack in pace and possessions and all that good stuff. Not bad at all for a second-year coach who makes pennies relative to many.Joe Money Bags: B. His points, rebounds, and assists all dropped 1 for the better of the team and most notably Josh. .454, .388, and 85% on shooting are all better than last year and better than I expected. Had an unforgettable POTW week, 2 assists to turnovers, but can't stand the 3 FT attempts a game. Always solid and way- underrated defensively. I can't thin k of any 3's who went crazy on him/ us except maybe Melo, which is nothing to be ashamed of. I'll never be a fan, but I have grown to accept his demeanor and appreciate the many things he can do on the court instead of harping on his well below-average athleticism and ungodly contract. When he's on, one of the better/ prettier jumpshots on Earth and I'll put him up against anybody from 26-30 feet.Jeffrey: B-. .476 from the field and 34% from three are impressive, less than 5 assists a game is not. 1.6 steals a game is big, and his block every other game could appear on Sportscenters Top Plays. Still a long ways to go, but until then, I'm satisfied with him focusing on driving the hole, being pesky on D with his decieving athleticism, and shooting open threes. Props for lacing them up every game.Joshua: B+. Easily our most productive and explosive player at 19, 9, and 4 if I can round up. 1.4 steals amd 1.7 blocks to boot. Ironman along with Jeff (and for his whole career). To echo Doris Burke, still a level of polish and refinement to his game to go, evidenced by his shooting percentages of .458, .257(hopefully .000), and 63 (ugh). I miss the 3 block games, but I'll take whatever I can get as long as he hits the boards like he can/ should. Marvin: B-. 39% from three is impressive, and always does things that no one can see but the coach. Never out of position on defense and makes people work hard for their points. In 26 bench minutes, 10 and 5 with a PER of 15.9 is very impressive for the Diesel's whipping boy. 2.4 assists for every turnover, nice.King Zaza: B+. Filled in like a champ for Al. 8 and 8 with an assist and one of the better thieves at center in the league in 28 minutes with wonderful field and free throw percentages of 49 and 74, respectively. Missed one too many bunny lay-ups for my liking, but always brought the toughness. Awesome value for his salary.Captain Kirkland: B-. Many a night, the opposing shooting guard didn't do a damn thing thanks to his effort and attention to staying in front of his man. None of his offensive numbers are impressive in 26 minutes except 36% from 3 I guess, but his effect on the game is Jason Kidd-like, involving court awareness and overall I.Q. as it applies to the team and what we need from night to night. Great leadership for a defensive-minded club, as he defends multiple positions and works well next to all our guards and forwards.Willie Green: A-. Name always reminds me of a 60's Blues singer. What coach wouldn't kill for shooting percentages of 47, 44, and 86 off the bench? Sounds more like Ginobili than William. Was the best player for us more than a few nights. Wonderful signing, great guy, consumate professional who somehow plays wild at times but under control most of the time. Always knew he could fill it up, but a better playmaker than I expected.Janero: B. In 13 minutes, 5.6 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 2 assists shooting 38% from 3 and 95% (wtf) from the line. I just like his confidence and handle on the floor. Another great signing, as more than a few teams would like his moxie off the bench.Ivan the Terrible: A. 6.4 and 4 in 16.7 minutes with awesome shooting numbers for a worldwide journeyman PF in his first real NBA season or a veteran for that matter (51, 33, and 72). We needed all the brute strength and toughness we could get down low even before Al went down, so his play in Al's absence cannot be understated. Probably had the most drives and dunks on the team, an area we are very poor in. Surely a double-double machine when he starts getting 25 minutes plus.T-Mac: C-. 67% from the line tells me he wasnt fully there mentally the whole season. The pouting about playing time didn't look good either. I know he's more of a postseason weapon, but the flashes every blue moon was less than I expected. He should've commanded more than 16 minutes if he kept himself in great shape, which is questionable. 45% from three is big, but 5 points a game from a former scoring champ is bad, no matter how over the hill they are.Vlad: F. .376 from the field and less than 3 rebounds a game from a big is pathetic. I thought he would actually be a factor after the first game of the season was a great one for him. So wrong. Not expecting anything from him this postseason and wouldn't blame Drew one bit if he didn't see the floor at all. Twin: F. As big as he is, he shoots .400 with 1.3 points and 1.6 rebounds a game. He's the guy you want to marry your daughter, but if there's no Dwight to hack, the last guy you want to depend on at the 5. Makes Zaza and Ivan that much more valuable. How Jason Kidd made 2 straight Finals with him starting remains an unsolved mystery to me.Stack: A. Not for anything on the floor, of course. Just seemed like a great leader and was always in someone's ear on the bench. Sort of a consultant and extra assistant coach, good move by Sund.Damp: F. Didn't meet the playing time criteria, but as an NBA fan, I have to do my due dilligence and $h*t on Erica.Overall, the team did damn well considering we were missing an All-Star 5 who many believe to be our best player and leader. I'll give them a B. Defense wins in this league, and we were great on that end when it counted. The poor record against .500 or better teams is troubling, but the first winning road record since '98 is promising in the playoffs. Much more competitive than "The Year of The Blowout" last season. Let's sure up some things (Josh's long jumpers), keep some things rolling (bombing from 3), and shut the Celtics down!

[Supporter]

How can you give the team a B when like you said, Al our all star was down, and we managed to improve our winning percentage from last year. The least I would give the team in general is an A-. I don't remember any games being blow outs like last year as well...

[Plainview1981]

Josh Smith - Josh made some strides this year. He performed as a legit second option this year instead of the second option role player that we have seen in years past. He still took bad shots, and sometimes he complained to the refs too much, but he improved his rebounds and played more consistent this year IMO. Outside of improving his shot selection, I not sure he will have a better year than he had this year. A -Joe Johnson - Two things. Joe shot much better this year. I'm not just talking stats, but he didn't have as many extremely off performances that he had one year ago. That said, he has become more inconsistent over the last few years when he should be at his peak. I think his career here will resemble that of Micheal Finley in that he played so many minutes trying to carry some bad teams that he peaked sooner than normal. But his numbers across the board are down and it's a combination of Joe declining a bit and a team that has improved which has cause less reliance on Joe. Stiil, Joe earlier in the year was disappointing against quality teams. There were some games where he didn't full assert himself, but down the stretch he played better against quality teams. B+Jeff Teague - Jeff Teague appeared to have taken a major step with a stellar series against Chicago in last years post season. This year Teague hasn't lived up to that series. Is he better than Hinrich or Old Bibby? Of course. But Teague hasn't shown good playmaking abilities and has had some bad turnovers during the year. His defense was sometimes disappointing and he has been known to pass up shots or not fully asserting himself. I think some of it is that he doesn't have the full trust of his teammates. It looks like he hasn't earned that respect from them that Bibby had. I think the turnovers and passing up quality shots has something to do with it. Why pass it to a guy that can't create for his teammates or take quality shots? But so far I haven't seen enough from Teague to suggest that he should be the starting PG. C+ZaZa - After Horford went down with a season ending injury ZaZa took on the role as the starting center for a big man starved team. To his credit, ZaZa played well averaging just under a double double as a starter. Some games he failed to convert some late opportunities that infuriated some... (Including myself). But there is no way the Hawks would have won over 60% of their games without ZaZa this year. In addition to rebounds and some garbage baskets, ZaZa is a respectable defender with some matchup exceptions of course. In final, he has had a quality season and he was one of the three most important players on the team this year in my opinion. B+Marvin Williams - Once again, Marvin failed to live up to his draft position. Mostly coasting through the first half of the season, which ended up costing him a starting spot. However, Marvin has been a quality 6th man. Has he finally found his role? If were stuck with him I have to say that 6th man Marvin is better than starter Marvin Williams. Otherwise, there isn't a lot you can say about Marvin. C-Willie Green - I like Willie Green. He might be one dimensional, and he might not score every night, but he is one of those bench scorers that can get hot on any given night and help you win games. The defense is so so to decent, but it's mostly a what you see is what you get thing. But the GM done good with this signing. Production wise, Willie has had a decent career so it's hard to understand how he fell through the cracks. But he is a keeper. B-Kirk Hinrich - I was a fan during his first Chicago run at the start of his career. He was a solid scorer, great defender and a decent playmaker. But now... Kirk has regressed to being almost completely ineffective. It's not as if his role is huge. His job is to mostly defend and hit timely 3 point shots. Yet, he mostly failed to do both. And I know he was hurt, but I can't shake the feeling that he is a player without a future here. He surely isn't worth a sizable contract at this point. D+Ivan Johnson - What a great signing. Ivan Johnson was undrafted, but made this team probably because they had nobody else better. But he surprised everyone with quality bench play. He isn't gifted with great size, but he brought some toughness, scoring and some rebounding to the team. Much like Malik Rose did during the middle part of his career. You could argue that he deserved more minutes than he got. The second half of the year he shot 57.8% from the field and averaged 8PPG and 5RPG in only 20 minutes per game. He was also rookie of the month for April. Which shows he only improved as the season went along. Hopefully he becomes a quality backup for his team over the next few years. We surely need more players like him. B-Jannero Pargo - You can pretty much take everything I said about Willie Green and apply it to Pargo. But Pargo has a history of helping some playoff teams. New Orleans for sure. He isn't a guy you can expect production from every night, but he is one of those guys that's capable of going off on any given night and will give the team a real shot in the arm on some nights. And you love to have guys like this... Guys that you can keep in there when they play well, but sit when they're not so productive. If you use these guys right you end up with a good bang for your buck. And I thought Pargo played a good role on this year this year. He gave some good minutes when Kirk was hurt and he had some big nights that really helped. C+Tracy McGrady - I'm not going to say that he was a let down because I didn't expect much. That said, his minutes were really limited this year and even though Tmac struggled to stay healthy. I don't expect him to be back next year, and it's not really fair to compare him to Jamal or expect that same production from him. That said, he was basically just another assistant coach. His productive games were few and far between. I think Tmac would be wise to call it a career. D+Radman - Started off the season well, but quickly became worthless. Cut this guy loose. FStack - I thought he played decent when he was called on. I don't mind bringing him back as a 12th man or IR player. But I have no expectations from him. Whatever he does good is icining on the cake. D+Al Horford - N/ACollins - Near worthless. FI think I'd give this team a B since Al was basically out the whole year.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Hotlanta1981

[benhillboy]

Interesting comparisons, Hot. Never heard the Finley/ Joe comparison, but it deserves an investigation by the stat geeks here. Malik Rose/ Ivan was spot on.