Am I one of few that believes JT is a baller

[Highpozt]

JT is getting enourmous negative press on this message board --- It seems like very few people believe that JT may be the hardest player on this team except for maybe Shareef. Yes JT looks bad, but so does everyone on the team ---- this team has not won 10 games yet. Maybe it is not JT but Stotts. Remember Stotts and JT got sideways with each other last year and he benched JT. They don't like each other. I think the players think that Stotts does not no what he is doing and they have expressed it (Jackson, Theo and JT). No Theo did not say it directly but JT and Jackson did. Rumor has it that Jackson tried to shoot a jab at him (that pretty much tells his feelings). The Hawks need a coach that is respected from his achievments as a player or coach and one that has tremendous motivational skillz for 48 minutes and 82+ (playoff) games a year.

[Carl_Spackler]

You gotta be kidding, if you meant that he tried to hit him. I know these message boards are full gossip and rumors but come on. Do you honestly think Jack that a one game suspension would be the only reprecussion if he attacked his coach.

[TheDude]

well, most of us seem to like his game but it's his fitting into the system that is the problem. he's a sg but too short.. if we could get a tall point guard and put him at sg then i think we'd work fine and honestly, i think we'd win more games..he would defend the opposing point and the tall point would defend the opposing sg...

but jt doesn't really have the vision for a point guard i beleive...

and beleive me, i think stotts has to go also..

[Diesel]

JT doesn't get much love because JT doesn't play his position. JT is a SG. Nothing special about that. The problem is that we need a PG. JT doesn't defend the SG position that well so we can't make him a full time 2. JT is a baller, but because of his limitations, he has to be in the right place with the right players around him to be effective. If JT/Theo could get us Marbury, it would be the perfect trade for Both teams. JT could work better with Penny/Joe Johnson than he can with Jax/Glover.

[Traceman]

JT is as good a choice as any. The only other real options are Reef and Theo because no one else makes enough money to take the blame. The reality is that this TEAM is flawed and until major changes are made, we are going to be bad.

JT is a good player, not great but good. If he were surrounded by better players, he'd be just fine. Trading him for the likes of Charlie Ward or any other average PG is NOT going to make one bit of difference for this team.

Reef and Theo are both good too, but neither is great. NONE of them (Reef, Theo or JT) are good enough to be THE MAN and until we get THE MAN (or at least a team full of VERY good players), we are going to be bad.

Peter Vescey is reporting that Billy Knight is offering Theo/Hendu for Wallace. GREAT! I proposed that EXACT trade weeks ago. Unfortunately, Portland is asking for Reef/Jax instead. At least there is dialogue there. Saying that signing Wallace is a risk is an understatement but he possesses the talent that this team now lacks.

[Highpozt]

Don't know -- but apparently when three players that have never spoken up in a public forum about coaching and players lack of commitment (Terry Theo and Jackson) then something with Stotts is different. They were bad under Krueger and bad during the last years with Lenny, but you neve heard such a public lashing by players as you do with Stotts. We will never know about the jab but behind close doors somethings is real sour about their relationship with this coach.

[Highpozt]

You say tall PG --- Yes just imagine LeBron and JT --- OK that was a just an image --- now realistically is their a trade for a tall PG --- Could we get anything with maybe JV and Glover or JV and SJax. I am thinking a guard 6'5" or above and I am not coming up with any realistic choices. Jamaal Crawford is the only one I can think of and I think we would have to give up a draft pick to get him --- particularly since he hit 40+ points the other night. Jamaal Crawford and JT would be lightning quick with 6'2" and 6'5" we would look good and have two ball handlers. Off course Boris Diaw can play the big guard role but he needs a few years

[Plainview1981]

Jt=Nothing but a player that scores shooting at a low

percentage..

Fundamental skills-Below average

Passing-Below average

defense-Below average

shooting-below average

Those aren't signs of a baller...Those are signs of a guy

with severe limitations.

[Gray Mule]

Jason Terry if fast- very, very fast. Few in the NBA

is faster than J.T.

He is an explosive scorer when he has a hot hand.

He can hit the 3 with some regularity.

He reacts slowly to changing defenses. He can't

seem to find the open player consistently. He is

a real turnover machine, taking over the title with

the departure of Big Dog.

With his speed, he should be able to play better defense

and collect more steals. Had one nice one in the last

game. Seems to me he should have more.

By today's standards, J.T. is probably worth all that he

is being paid, but not more. He is a pretty decent player

and could possibly flourish in a different setting.

It should be Jason Terry's team. He should be our leader.

He should be what makes us go. If this is true, he isn't

getting it done because we sure aren't winning.

[Highpozt]

Okay you isolated JT and let's say you are 100% accurate --- now let us talk about the [Whole Team] using your assessment

Fundamental skills-Below average

Passing-Below average

defense-Below average

shooting-below average

Is that JT or bad coaching Shareef is the only player near his potential game after game --- but the rest of them is not

close --- JT has played very well for long stretches --- he can play this game.

[Plainview1981]

Alot of those problems are because JT is playing PG. Again,

there is a reason there was really no takers in the offseason....

Coaching my @ss. JT couldn't learn fundamentals in a

4 year college career. There is something wrong with that

don't you think?

Jt is a CBA player. He's allowed to roam and do as he

pleases on a meaningless team. The fact is that he does

nothing well...He doesn't even score all that much...He

can't even shoot a decent percentage....The Hawks are

a bad defensive team because of him. Why does a guard

set a season or career high almost nightly. It doesn't

matter if it's Tyus Edney or Rip Hamilton...They always

bust JT's chops pretty good.

No coaching could help this sorry and untalented squad.

This team doesn't have the talent to be a defensive team

and it doesn't have enough scorers to be an offensive

team. Only idiots continue to avoild the fact that this

team just isn't talented enough to win.

[Playmaker0017]

Hots,

For a PG or SG, JT shoots a decent percentage. No one can complain about a gaurd putting up 18 at 46%.

While I think a lot comes from meaningless minutes, you can't say the guy shoots an awful percentage.

Play.

[Plainview1981]

His carrer percentage is somewhere along the lines of 42% and it seems his shooting has been trailing off the last 3 years or so.

[Playmaker0017]

42% is about average for a gaurd.

We all know I am NO JT lover. But, I don't consider him a poor shooter. Just a dumb shooter.

He doesn't know the difference between a good shot and a bad shot.

His flaw is not understanding basketball. Unfortunately he can play it, and if you put a different IQ in their and we have a dominant player.

Play.

[Weez]

Hots, it's posts likes these that make it haed to take any of your posts seriously...because of blind hatred. You admitedly don't watch any of the games and only rad stat lines, and then claim that stat lines aren't indicative of a player's worth or evn game that night....

are you evaluating JT based on a pg role? as a sg? or just a a player?

[Weez]

GM~ you're essentially saying what I mentioned earlier in the season...that if this team wants to truly succeed as built, then JT must assume an almost Marbury like role on the court, dominating the ball and shedding his "nice guy" pattern of play in deferring to other players and regularly trusting them to make the right plays and play the right way...

the only other option, as is, is to play Duncan ball through Reef. But that isn't going to happen with Stotts as our coach because he believes inthe mtion offense, focusing on ball movement around the perimeter and a modification of the four corners type of flow...

[Highpozt]

Yor analysis of JT is ridiculous especially in regards to the lack of success of the whole team. You say "coaching my a+*" in your post --- do you actually believe that a different coach would not make a difference and I follow that by asking do you think Stotts is a good coach --- if the answer to either is yes then no need to read the rest of this post. I am not even suggesting that JT is not part of the problem but by all means he is one of the greater contributors next to Shareef for what can be right for the Hawks. A player that arrives in shape every year, a player that works out delligently during the offseason, a player that plays hard everynight, a player with speed agressiveness and contrary to your point a player that can shoot the ball. A player with a passion to win. The problem is this team has lacked a coach with the motivational skills and the respect by the players to buy into the his philosophy. A coach that knows how to use his talent and the rotations that make this team the most effective. This team is by no means the least talented in the NBA but maybe the most under-achieving they. No Stotts leaving will not make this a championship team but I will assure you with a coach with the attributes described above he will get much better dividends from this team.

[chillzatl]

as a player, he is not a great contributor to wins or success for this team. SOrry. but he is not.

Last nights game against the wizards is only the latest in a long string of games that prove just how much JT CAN contribute to wins. BUt it also shows just how often he fails to do so.

If JT could and would play like he did against the wizards, against every other team in the league, we would be at or near .500 right now. When he is able to control the offensive flow of the game, we succeed. When he looks to pass before taking a long jumper with 18 seconds left on the shot clock, we succeed.

The problem is that he doesn't have the ability to do that consistantly. Good guards and good defenses can shut down his ability to be a point guard. Which is what this team needs to succeed. Well that and a little defense from him. Which he rarely brings at all.

So your theory that coach would make this team a winner is simply wrong. This team needs a coach, yes. I do not disagree with that. But it needs a lot more than a coach. It needs a point guard that can be a point guard against any team in the league. Not just against the other cupcake teams out there. Which is what we have now.

So in that regard, Hotlanta is completely correct. JT lacks the fundamental skills to be a point guard, which is what we need him to be. No coach is going to bring that out of him because it doesn't exist.

[KB21]

He doesn't lack the ability. He lacks the mentality, and the last two coaches the Hawks have had have harbored that mentality.

Hindsight is 20/20, but Lenny Wilkens seems to be the only coach that was going to make Jason Terry learn to be a point guard.

I do wonder what would have happened to JT had Lenny been kept, even though I was a proponent of dismissing Lenny from his job. I wonder what would have happened had a coach stayed on him and forced him to play as a point guard. Would the Hawks be any better today?

[Plainview1981]

You say "coaching my a+*" in your post --- do you actually believe that a different coach would not make a difference "

Jt had a good college coach...4 years of college experience

and still no fundamentals. He should have learned some

being in college for years. Jt is the dumbest player in the

league and it isn't any of the coaches fault. A freakin high

school PG can throw the ball in the post better than JT...

"arrives in shape every year, a player that works out delligently during the offseason, a player that plays hard everynight, a player with speed agressiveness and contrary to your point a player that can shoot the ball."

Yeah right...That's why his defense has improved over the

years..Because he's so hard working.....So hard working that he totally ignores that end of the court.

" This team is by no means the least talented in the NBA but maybe the most under-achieving they."

Who expected the hawks to do anything this year other

than a handful of people on this board? Not very many..

In fact, alot of people predicted this team to be the

worst team in the league and that's exactually what it

is.

The only thing JT has done is contribute to mediocrity...

Take selfish dumb shots...Not play defense....etc...etc..

etc....