Larry Drew's Option Picked up

[Guest]

I wanted a coaching change if the 'core' would be the same. Now with the same coach, I'm hopeful the 'core' will now change.

[APE]

Well, I guess it's better than Bob Bender or Lester Conner coaching the Hawks I guess.

[KB21]

I am relatively indifferent on this move. On the one hand, I see Larry Drew have different levels of discipline for different players. I see him rely more on veteran stiffs like Jason Collins and Erick Dampier in the playoffs than a young guy who really helped the team down the stretch in Ivan Johnson. I see him use Janerro Pargo as a defensive sub against Rajon Rondo and the insistence on using Pargo as a point guard. I do not like a lot of his rotations, sub patterns, and how he uses his personnel.With that said, this is a second year head coach who just coach his team to win 60% of their games in the regular season, and this was without arguably their best all around player in Al Horford, missing Joe Johnson for part of the season, no Zaza Pachulia late, and a bench that was put together in a hodge podge fashion. Larry's winning percentage with the Hawks has gone from 53% in his first year to 60% in his second year. No matter how you cut it, that is progress. You shouldn't base a decision off a knee jerk reaction to losing a playoff series. Basically, without Al Horford, the Hawks improved from a team that won 44 games to a team that would have won 50 games if you prorate the winning percentage over the entire season. I think if Larry is going to have success in the long run, he's going to have to have faith in his offense and get the team to buy into the idea that the motion of the offense should be what creates shots and not one on one, isolations situations. Right now, Larry is still too quick to rely upon isolation basketball with Joe Johnson. I think it is going to be interesting to see if there will end up being a better fit team and chemistry wise if they do move Josh Smith, who I think is the player that makes the most impact on the game on the team, and run things through Joe, Al, and Jeff.

[KDT88]

Give him another shot. WHO else are we gonna hire for the low low.....that would actually accept the job. Nate,,,, No, I don't think so. I actually think he deserves another shot. Joshes shortcomings and Teagues tentative ways are results of their own inadequateness and not the coach. When Josh leaves after next season he will migrate his problems to his new team....they may not seem so apparent because he will probably be on a team with a beast number 1 unlike now but he'll be the same guy. Teague, IMO, will be a career back up. Lets stop believing that a change at HC will somehow translate to two players totally revamping their game.

[Bahamut]

I was seriously expecting Bob Bender.

[Plainview1981]

WOW.... Al Horford was hurt and the Hawks had a decent regular season record.BRING EVERYBODY BACK.Never mind that this first round loss shows the teams lack of progression. Four years ago this team nearly beat Boston in the first round.... Went to 7 games with them despite the Hawks being younger and Boston being younger and better. Four years later the same basic Hawks team losses to Boston in 6 games DESPITE HAVING homecourt advantage and Boston being older and past their prime. And oh yeah, Boston has no big men or depth.That's progress. Yep, everyone should comeback.

Edited May 20, 2012 by Hotlanta1981

[AHawks89]

Ugh. Hopefully we get our team in seattle soon

/dislike.

[High5]

My only big problem with Drew is how he's handled the Josh situation. By basically let Josh do whatever he wants. He makes questionable decisions and he doesn't always seem to be on top of things, but overall he has done a decent job with this group.

[Diesel]

WOW.... Al Horford was hurt and the Hawks had a decent regular season record.BRING EVERYBODY BACK.Never mind that this first round loss shows the teams lack of progression. Four years ago this team nearly beat Boston in the first round.... Went to 7 games with them despite the Hawks being younger and Boston being younger and better. Four years later the same basic Hawks team losses to Boston in 6 games DESPITE HAVING homecourt advantage and Boston being older and past their prime. And oh yeah, Boston has no big men or depth.That's progress. Yep, everyone should comeback.

I would say that you make a good point but you also miss a point.The point you miss is that this year, Rondo is a whole helluva lot better.The other point you miss is that this year, we lost to them when we had NO bigs. Back in 2008 a young Horf and Zaza off the bench hurth the Celtics. This yr, we're trying to win starting Collins and playing Damp off the bench.I would also say that Bibby was a better scorer than Teague. Simply because Bibby had a green light.

[Plainview1981]

I would say that you make a good point but you also miss a point.The point you miss is that this year, Rondo is a whole helluva lot better.The other point you miss is that this year, we lost to them when we had NO bigs. Back in 2008 a young Horf and Zaza off the bench hurth the Celtics. This yr, we're trying to win starting Collins and playing Damp off the bench.I would also say that Bibby was a better scorer than Teague. Simply because Bibby had a green light.

-This team still makes many of the same mistakes as they did 4 years ago.-Boston actually won the game in which Rondo didn't play. Also, the Hawks beat Boston when Rondo had one of his better games in game one.-Sure the team missed ZaZa. No doubt. The hawks record was 1-2 with Big Al and largely the games played out the same without Al as they did with him. Actually, one of the games was a blow out loss and Al played in that game. Not that Al was the cause for the blow out loss. But this team showed all year that they could win without Al.http://espn.go.com/n...2008/mike-bibbyIn the series against Boston Bibby didn't play well.36MPG33.8%FG29% 3pt3APG10.3PPGTeague's numbers against Boston:37MPG41%FG41%3pt4APG14PPGIvan Johnson should have got more minutes than he did. Missing ZaZa hurt.... But the Hawks should have pulled this series out with Boston being old, banged up and lacking any sort of depth.We still lack offense structure and we still let the other team dictate the pace. And because of that, this team is almost always on the defensive. Boston knows that. That's why they didn't care about home court. They know the Hawks will their way and that's what happened. These same problems have existed year after year. Jamal helped a bit in that department. He had no problem forcing his offense on other teams. Too bad he wasn't very effective in the playoffs.If Al and ZaZa were healthy the whole playoffs then the Hawks would have probably squeaked the series at. But Philly and Indy would probably put this team out. Edited May 20, 2012 by Hotlanta1981

[Joker]

I don't like saying Bibby didn't play well. All he was on offense was setting up the PnP, running the offense, and spot up shooting. He not going to be on Teague is in terms of scoring but he needed to run the offense. He did struggle with 3 pointer but he gave us a chance with big shots as well. I hate using numbers because when you watch the game, you can see the things that one player is doing that can lose you the series compared to the other. That's why I am not huge with using stats with Smoove. He has games where he is better than his numbers but I seen games where Smoove blew and had good numbers.

[Kimsey]

LD is better than the Spol, VDN, Woodsons of the NBA. Collins and Damp had no business on a nba team much less a playoff one. Tmac and Vlad were instrumental in only a handful of games at best. Pargo and Ivan were out of the league before they found Sund.Willie is the only guy I want back and LD made the patchwork group work for the most part. Hinrich was pretty underwhelming in his contract year. We need to draft the best available 5 in the first round and best available 4/5 in the 2nd and go on from there in free agency.

[ag82]

/dislike.

do you have something against seattle getting another team?

[Plainview1981]

I don't like saying Bibby didn't play well. All he was on offense was setting up the PnP, running the offense, and spot up shooting. He not going to be on Teague is in terms of scoring but he needed to run the offense. He did struggle with 3 pointer but he gave us a chance with big shots as well. I hate using numbers because when you watch the game, you can see the things that one player is doing that can lose you the series compared to the other. That's why I am not huge with using stats with Smoove. He has games where he is better than his numbers but I seen games where Smoove blew and had good numbers.

Bibby was better at setting up other people when he first came here... But those abilities declined just as much or maybe more during his last year or so with the team. Bibby simply became a ball handler and spot up shooter as his time increased with the team. Still, shooting was a big part of Bibby's game and he was unquestionably ineffective in that regard during the Boston series.

[Joker]

Bibby was better at setting up other people when he first came here... But those abilities declined just as much or maybe more during his last year or so with the team. Bibby simply became a ball handler and spot up shooter as his time increased with the team. Still, shooting was a big part of Bibby's game and he was unquestionably ineffective in that regard during the Boston series.

We needed him to shoot better. That one of the few things he did. He was below average backup status then he came here and instantly became an above average PG. That's what makes Teague looks so bad, you are this bad with Joe, Al, and Josh. You would really suck elsewhere. Damn, I beg for a legit PG. Marshall, Machado, Nash, I don't give a damn. get someone please. Edited May 20, 2012 by nbasuperstar40

[NineOhTheRino]

I'm not going to reply to this using my own words. Instead, I'm going to use famous quotes:Nancy Kerrigan - WHY, WHY?Darth Vader - Noooooooooooo!

Arnold Drummond: "What you talkin' 'bout Willis?"

[ATLSmith]

Eh, not terrible. I'd like to see what he can do with a full team this year.

[Guest Walter]

Drew wasn't a bad coach and I don't want to be emotional about such a decision, but his unwillingness to fight for his team during a playoff-series deciding call...I'm done with him. If he can't fight for this team then, he d@mn sure won't stand up to its personalities. W

[NekiEcko]

I have to agreed with you on that Walter-san,He could been out there, complaining about that call. It might change the entire game but he was 'too cool" for that. Oh well, one more year of this (and the Magic deep-six both SVG and Smith, great)

[NineOhTheRino]

SVG just fired