Two reasons why we can't be a championship calibre team.

[Diesel]

1. Free Throws

2. Josh Smith.

The game today was so discouraging. I have never seen such bad basketball. I believe that we are the worst seed in basketball right now. We are the worst playoff team. I know others have lost by more but none other have been so BBIQ low as us.

We don't hit FTs.

Then Josh either bounces the ball off of his foot, throws an errant pass, or takes a dumb shot.

AND HE WANTS MORE THAN 15 MIllion???

[yungsta]

I said before the playoffs start that we are the 2nd worst playoff team in the league. Believe it or not we arent the lowest BBIQ team in the playoffs. The bucks are actually worst.

[cam1218]

There are more than two reasons, but most of them revolve around Josh. He would be so good if he had a brain.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Unfair to bash Josh as the reason why we can't be a championship caliber team. The organization itself is not committed to winning a title. It starts from there, then trickles down.

[taz]

This is where we miss Lou Williams a lot

[Alex]

There are more than just two reasons, but I understand the point you are trying to make.

[PaceRam]

1. Free Throws2. Josh Smith. The game today was so discouraging. I have never seen such bad basketball. I believe that we are the worst seed in basketball right now. We are the worst playoff team. I know others have lost by more but none other have been so BBIQ low as us. We don't hit FTs. Then Josh either bounces the ball off of his foot, throws an errant pass, or takes a dumb shot. AND HE WANTS MORE THAN 15 MIllion???

I agree with some of the other posters that there are probably more than two reasons but one area that keeps getting my attention (and, I might be wrong!) is Rebounding! It just seems to me that every time I check the Hawks stats they are always getting out rebounded by a pretty good margin!?

[DrReality]

There are more than two reasons, but most of them revolve around Josh. He would be so good if he had a brain.

And his ego wasn't huge

[coachx]

This is where we miss Lou Williams a lot

This and missing ZaZa. As Fratello said.......ZaZa picks up the rebounding slack and makes the team tougher. Lou give us another guy to attack the rim and create shots which is vital when fighting a top 3 defensive team in the league.

I'm not saying we would be a championship team with those 2 but we could beat the Pacers with those 2 guys being healthy.

The point is also well taken about Josh's BBIQ / sloppiness / turnovers / poor shot selection / Josh being Josh. You can't have that cancer and expect to go far.

There are only 2 championship caliber teams in this league. One has James and Wade and the other has Durant and Westbrook.

Edited April 22, 2013 by coachx

[Bahamut]

1. Free Throws

2. Josh Smith.

3. Rebounding

4. ????

5. PROFIT!!!

[wolvetigers]

1. Free Throws

2. Josh Smith.

The game today was so discouraging. I have never seen such bad basketball. I believe that we are the worst seed in basketball right now. We are the worst playoff team. I know others have lost by more but none other have been so BBIQ low as us.

We don't hit FTs.

Then Josh either bounces the ball off of his foot, throws an errant pass, or takes a dumb shot.

AND HE WANTS MORE THAN 15 MIllion???

The Hawks don't have a leader, a wing that can create his own shot, nor a center. Unfortunately, Josh is the best player (talent wise) on our team and that shouldn't be the case given how he plays. Fortunately for the Hawks we are in a position to grab all three this off season (draft + Free Agency).

1) Leadership on the Floor

2) Wing player that can defend and create his own shot

3) Center that can actually rebound and play decent defense

Edited April 22, 2013 by wolvetigers

[Bahamut]

The Hawks don't have a leader, a wing that can create his own shot, nor a center. Unfortunately, Josh is the best player (talent wise) on our team and that shouldn't be the case given how he plays. Fortunately for the Hawks we are in a position to grab all three this off season (draft + Free Agency).

1) Leadership on the Floor

2) Wing player that can defend and create his own shot

3) Center that can actually rebound and play decent defense

I sure hope so.

[High5]

As much as Josh holds us back with his piss poor decision making, we could replace him with any PF in the league and we wouldn't win the ECF, much less a championship.

[Marvin24Williams]

one reason why majority of the teams in the nba can't be a championship caliber team:

1. Lack of multiple superstars

[Nicholasp27]

That's why Paul/Howard should decide together to come here to play with horford this offseasonThey aren't winning championships without forming their own big 3

[Wretch]

Josh Smith is not a scorer. I've been singing that song for many years now. You're not going to win without a checklist of things, but it starts with a guy that can put the ball in the basket. You can call it what you want, but at the end of the day...the game is about these players.

You can't use Josh Smith as that kind of player. He just doesn't have that kind of game. The problem is less on Josh though, and more on the organization for how they've built this team, how they groomed him, and how they allow him to play. Seriously... If you're using Josh as your primary scoring option, then you are just shooting yourself in the foot. You can't expect to go very far when your "best player" is not a good dribbler, is a terrible jump shooter, and has a limited post game. Worse yet is that he takes quite a few shots from the WORST possible area on the floor for him - because the defense WANTS him to. He doesn't need "help." He needs to play away from the ball. Not hating...it's just fact. those are his weaknesses, but we allow him to play to them EVERY game.

More importantly, the team needs an apex scorer. A guy that can trade buckets with the best. Period. I know that people make all kinds of noise about that, but it's a pretty basic concept that has been used...I dunno, by pretty much EVERY successful team EVER. Get very good/great players and surround them with good/and decent talent. Get solid role players, fill out the bench, get the right coach. Focus, rebound, play smart...win. Our plan goes like this: Get good/decent players, surround them with okay/average players, lean on our role players, skimp on the bench, fool around with the wrong coach, play careless/sloppy basketball...get out played and LOSE.

It's not rocket science...and I don't believe that there are only 4 or 5 of these "very good" kinds of players in the whole of the league. I think that we have become conditioned to accepting mediocrity. There are a few players who are working on legendary status, and yes, THOSE players are few...but there are very good players that give fans hope that they can contend. It's not too much to ask for and it's not hard to build a team with those very good players - it just takes a right amount of common sense (don't pass on an exciting PG prospect, for a forward who comes off the bench, when you already have a hundred forwards!) and a little panning for gold.

The problem with this team - and I've beat this drum to death - but the problem with this franchise is that we just can't seem to get it right. Even now, people are talking about "serviceable bigs" and "decent wing scorers." Unless you're talking about adding a player that can carry this team in the clutch...you ain't really talking about shit. It's the same thing we do EVERY year and it's the reason why we struggle to advance (in addition to DUMB-f#ckery).

Think about it for a second...we're talking about if we had this or that, we COULD beat the Pacers. SMH..."could." Even if we had the "right pieces", we're still talking about a matchup that could go either way - with a team that is a long shot to beat one of the top teams in the East. In a weak conference at that.

Yeah I know...

[yungsta]

I agree you cant put the whole blame on jbrick but he does contribute to another reason why we wont ever be elite and why we are a joke around the league is.

WE DO NOT FIGHT THROUGH ADVERSITY.

this has been our problem for YEARS and is the reason why we gotten blown out so many times in the playoffs especially on the road.

When things dont go our way and we arent getting calls then we get a few bad calls on us we GIVE UP.

We stop fighting, we stop playing defense, we stop attacking the rim and start settling for jumpers then thats when the game starts getting out of hand and the point deficit starts growing to 10 then 15 then 20.

I have watched ALOT of playoff games and I never seen a team simply GIVE UP as frequently as we do when things dont go our way.

I can Find plenty of examples over the years in the playoffs where we were right there in the game then a few bad calls later then we are down by double digits and never make the game competitive again.

Talent isnt the only problem with this team. I have seen teams with less talent be more competitive then us. There are plenty of mental problems with this team too.....

Edited April 22, 2013 by yungsta

[yungsta]

^^^^

its all part of the loser culture that has been tainted to our main core players. That why I think it is VERY important for Ferry to do a COMPLETE fire sale of this team from the coaching staff to the players if he wants to change the culture.

Its like trying to fix up a dirty trashy broken down house. You can paint it up on the outside and make it look nice but it is still a shitty house. You gotta go to the core of the house. to completely fix it. You gotta fix the plumbing, you gotta go under the floor and clean all the roast infestation, etc......

[Guest]

We are not a championship caliber team because we do not have champion caliber players - it's that simple. Can't defend and rebound.

[Wretch]

^^^^

its all part of the loser culture that has been tainted to our main core players. That why I think it is VERY important for Ferry to do a COMPLETE fire sale of this team from the coaching staff to the players if he wants to change the culture.

Its like trying to fix up a dirty trashy broken down house. You can paint it up on the outside and make it look nice but it is still a shitty house. You gotta go to the core of the house. to completely fix it. You gotta fix the plumbing, you gotta go under the floor and clean all the roast infestation, etc......

I used almost that exact same analogy before. And I'll take it a step further. Sometimes, you just have to move on. Sometimes you can patch up something that's broke, clean it up, paint over it, etc...but at the end of the day, there comes a point where you just need a new house and you either rebuild what you have or you sell it and buy a different one.

I made that comment after we got blown out by Orlando. There comes a time when wholesale changes are in order. If we d*ck around and patch this team up next year, we're going to be looking at the same ceiling...maybe an exciting 2nd round series. I said it before, and I'll say it again. The change needs to happen sooner than later. There's no point in these middling playoff appearances.

...and that's also why I was so excited for an outsider to be coming in and taking over. When he said he wanted to grow a new culture from the ground up, my heart nearly skipped a beat. We'll see what his plan is come summer. Until then, I'm just going to try and enjoy these playoffs.