What I have learned tonight about this team.

[ATLscrubLove]

Outside of the obvious, we can't take advantage of opportunities. Golden State had 24 turnovers, and they still found a way to lose. I realize that we didn't have Horford didn't play tonight and the stomach bug is affecting various members but this performance was ridiculous. Smoove went 6-16 with 16 points and 10 rebounds, not to mention 3 TOs... A pretty average performance. Lou and Ivan did everything tonight, they both stepped up.Anyways, I learned that this Hawks team can win without Smoove but they cannot win without Horford. I'm not sure if it's just coincidence or what but all I can say is we can definitely live without Smoove. No need to panic about any problems just yet, there's still a lot of games left. I just hope we can get start clicking on more cylinders.

Edited November 15, 2012 by ATLscrubLove

[BudBall]

We can win games without Horford, that has been proven last year. No reason to overreact, we have known from the beginning that this roster is very mediocre and it is just a stop gap year for us. I expect us to hover around .500 all year.

[ATLscrubLove]

Yea I'm not hitting the panic button yet. This team seems to gel better when Smoove isn't on the court though, I mean Smoove isn't terrible but for every good play he makes it seems to be countered by a bone head one. But hopefully we can pull out a top seed in the East. Maybe 4th if we are very lucky.

[Supporter]

We can win games without Horford, that has been proven last year. No reason to overreact, we have known from the beginning that this roster is very mediocre and it is just a stop gap year for us. I expect us to hover around .500 all year.

We had Joe last year. We don't have his caliber of player this year so Horf being out effects us even more.

[Blunt91]

This team will not win more than 38 games this year. However, that may still be enough to make the playoffs.

[ATLSmith]

We can't rebound. How are you supposed to run the break when you can't rebound?http://www.nba.com/statistics/sortable_team_statistics/sortable2.html?cnf=1&prd=1

[DatWerkk]

Lou and Ivan did everything tonight, they both stepped up.

I'm a big Lou Williams fan, but, I mean, did you watch the whole game? Other than the last three or four possessions, Lou had a terrible game.

[Sothron]

We can't rebound. How are you supposed to run the break when you can't rebound? http://www.nba.com/s...tml?cnf=1&prd=1

I don't see why this is a surprise to anyone. Several people here including myself pointed out in the offseason and preseason that our team is horribly undersized and it will mean getting abused on rebounding and defense. This team is just here to fill out a tv schedule this season. There's no reason to get invested in this team at all quite frankly. They are only here because of expiring deals. Our real team will be on the court next season.

[DatWerkk]

We can't rebound. How are you supposed to run the break when you can't rebound?

http://www.nba.com/s...tml?cnf=1&prd=1

Not to say we're a premier rebounding team, but I have a couple of problems with total rebounds as a stat.

Problem #1: Total rebounds doesn't account for the pace of the game.

What that means is that a team that misses more shots, or causes more misses, or plays a faster game than average will create more rebounding opportunities. That could boost rebounding numbers for both teams playing in a particular game. A more reliable stat to look at would be rebounding rate which is more focused on how what percentage of the available rebounds did a particular team get. A lesser stat, but one that I think is still more reliable than total rebounds, is rebounding margin. It doesn't completely account for pace of the game but at the very least it puts your rebounding numbers in the context of your opponents' rebounding numbers.

Problem #2: Our atrocious performances in the Houston and Golden State games are throwing off all our rebounding numbers.

"We earned it though," you're probably saying. And we did earn it, but I would argue that those two games are not at all representative of what our rebounding will look like over the course of the season.

So let's look at the rebounding situation again after addressing those two problems (i.e., let's use rebounding rate and rebounding margin instead of total rebounds, and let's throw out the Houston and Golden State games just for the sake of argument).

Rebounding Rate

Our overall team rebounding rate is about 47%. That's not good at all (in fact it makes us next to last in the league). If you exclude those two games, though, our rebounding rate jumps to 51%. That would make us somewhere around 10th or 11th in the league.

Rebounding Margin

For the entire season, our rebound margin is crappy (-4ish, which puts us at 25th in the league). But again, the damage was done in those two damn games against Houston and Golden State. Excluding those two games, we're +8 on the boards. If we were +8 for the season, we'd be 3rd in the league behind only Denver and the Lakers, and waaaaay ahead of everyone else. You see, out of 7 games (including the Houston and Golden State games) we've only lost the rebounding battle 3 times.

So I would say overall we're doing decent on the boards. If we can eliminate the kind of rebounding brain farts we saw against Houston and Golden State, we're not going to get out-rebounded very often.

[HawkItus]

I gotta say last night, if I were Danny Ferry, would of been the night that Drew lost me as a supporter. He did not bring anything to the table last night when the team needed him. The game talent wise was a draw last night. The diffrence should have come in coaching. Drew is a long time veteran coach vs. Mark Jackson. He should of been able to out scheme and will Mark Jackson. He didn't. That's all I need to know.

[MaceCase]

I gotta say last night, if I were Danny Ferry, would of been the night that Drew lost me as a supporter. He did not bring anything to the table last night when the team needed him. The game talent wise was a draw last night. The diffrence should have come in coaching. Drew is a long time veteran coach vs. Mark Jackson. He should of been able to out scheme and will Mark Jackson. He didn't. That's all I need to know.

But, but, but, he got a tech! He showed his passion right there and GMs love passion out of their coaches!

[HawkItus]

But, but, but, he got a tech! He showed his passion right there and GMs love passion out of their coaches!

LOL, but for those who actually think like that. Phil Jackson sits on his high chair with his legs crossed, but has a handful of rings.

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

I know the season is still young and these guys are still trying to build chemistry, but there is no excuse for missing wide-open jump shots. Lou started off hot, but has cooled. Korver started out cold, but has heated up... Our season summed up in a nutshell: "Live by the jump shot, die by the jump shot".

Edited November 15, 2012 by PSSSHHHRRR87

[AHawks89]

Did you just become a Hawks fan this year? Josh carried the team last year. He's just having an awful season this year. I know you wanted to take a jab and point out the obvious about Josh Smith, but come on now...And Lou didn't play so well last night. He made shots in the last few minutes of the game to keep the game close. That's about it.

[Alex]

We are decent, but not good enough to matter. We aren't bad enough to get a good spot in the lottery either. Looking at a middle of the pack draft pick coming up. Hell we might even screw up and make the playoffs for no good reason.

[MrMeltdown]

Team is simply not very good and that starts with the coach. I have pulled back because I am not going to be stressing over this team when guys want change. Josh will not change, Drew will not change, some really disturbing things are present with this team

[Diesel]

We can win games without Horford, that has been proven last year. No reason to overreact, we have known from the beginning that this roster is very mediocre and it is just a stop gap year for us. I expect us to hover around .500 all year.

That was a different team last year. Joe is not chopped steak. He provided for everybody else.. even if it were indirectly.