Any of you Deng haters want to eat crow?

[chillzatl]

Before the draft there were so many of you out there calling Deng a "bust waiting to happen". So, what do you have to say now? With one game left in the pre-season, he has shown to be the best rookie out there right now. 1st in PPG, 3rd in RPG, good FG, FT and 3pt percentages. he obviously has the work ethic and skills to be a very good player in this league.

We should have drafted this guy, period. He is everything that, to this point, Childress has not been.

How much better would we look if we had his 15ppg from the SG position?

[Plainview1981]

I remember saying he looked slow from those clips that

I saw.... But it appears he is better than Childress.

Billy Knight supposed to know what he's doing but it

doesn't appear like he;s done so many great things.

[Wretch]

And I would have been okay with drafting him. After Gordon, Livingston, and Howard were out of reach he was the guy that I thought we should have drafted. Other than his Dukie background, I couldn't figure out why people started dumping on him so hard. Or maybe that was all it was?

I still think Childress is going to be a very good player.

[Lascar78]

why would anyone eat crow before he's even played an NBA game. Preseason is preseason. Remember Dion Glover, preseason MVP a couple of years ago. I know we're impatient, but let's not judge who's a bust and who's eating crow before the season even starts.

How good a player is and how ready a player is to play in the NBA immediately are two very different things.

I'm not sure how you know anything about his work ethic either. Let's not panic and declare our rookie rankings in pre-season, please.

According to your logic he's the best rookie out there so he should have gone #1 I guess?

[capstone21]

I am fine with Childress. The player I wanted was Duhon in the second round. I really wanted us to draft him instead of who we got as second rounders.

[Nicholasp27]

calm down chillz...

deng may end up being great, good, average, poor, or bust...we STILL don't know

remember, DION was MVP a few years ago...this is preseason...all that matters is the regular season...and again, u have to give chill at least a few months (usually it takes a year or two, tho, for a rookie to get good) before u start even beginning to judge him accurately

[jezmund]

I wanted Duhon too but it has been shown to me that Royal Ivey was a good pick.

[Traceman]

performing well in the preseason as Deng has done. Summer league is filled with young guys who have little NBA experience, the talent level is far less than it is in the actual NBA and the games are called differently by the refs. In preseason however, Deng is playing a significant amount of time against players who will be starting in the NBA under close to normal NBA conditions. There is no doubt that he is FAR more ready to play in the NBA right now than Childress is. Whether Childress eventually catches and surpasses him remains to be seen.

I still think Childress has a chance to be good but I would be lying if I didn't say that I expected him to be performing a LOT better at this point than he is right now and honestly, I'm a little scared. If he had came straight from highschool or even if he had only had one year of college it would be different but he was supposed to be one of the more ready for primetime guys taken in the draft. At this point (and I realize that it is still very early), you would be hard pressed to find a more disappointing first round pick than Childress relative to the position in which he was selected. I can easily name 20 guys who have had better summer leagues and preseasons than he has who were taken in the '04 draft.

Hopefully, Childress will start to contribute soon because right now, he, Boris and Barry form the worst combo of SGs in the entire NBA.

[chillzatl]

Deng is doing what he's doing against NBA TALENT. He's not putting up these numbers against draft picks and a bunch of scrubs that won't make teams. He's doing it against real teams with their real rosters.

I'll follow up in a month and we'll see if those stats hold true. I say they will and Childress will still be looking lost out there.

and don't confuse my logic with your misguided idea of what my logic is. I never said he was the #1 pick. But he was available when WE picked and he SHOULD have been our pick. d*ck Vitale was right, as he often is. We took potential over substance and, as of right now, we look the fool for it, as we often do when it comes to draft picks.

[chillzatl]

I want Childress to be good and obviously, I'm willing to wait. Because I will have to be. But I wanted Deng before the draft and after what we've seen so far, I want him even more now. He obviously didn't need 2-3 years to become a quality player. I'm sure he will have his ups and downs, as they all do. But his talent level is high enough that he is able to contribute now.

And to be honest, I'm sick of this load of crap about "having to wait". For the last many years, we've been drafting high and every year we pick guys who "need a few years to develop" and every year there are numerous teams who pick after us who get excellent players who contribute immediately and still have the potential to get better.

I'm sick of the same old same old. For once I want a GM who will draft the best damned player available, period. Not draft on hype or draft on pure potential or draft "their kind of players".

[Vafan]

I am a Deng hater. I will reserve judgement until the season starts. Remember, Rumeal Robinson in the first few games of his career. After that, we all know how his career went.

[Lascar78]

no, it is your logic.

You say at this point it is obvious that we should have picked Deng over Childress because he's doing better in preseason.

So you're saying that current preseason performance is indicative of where a player should have been drafted.

You also say Deng is doing better than any rookie right now.

So if we follow your logic Deng should have gone #1.

I know you never said it but it follows from your statement that preseason performance indicates where a player should have been drafted.

The fact is that immediate performance in the NBA is due to skill readiness as well as athletic readiness. Right now Childress' body is not ready, and he's clearly intimidated by the whole NBA hoopla. Deng's body is more ready so he'll get off to a faster start. The fact that Deng will do better early in the season does not make Childress the wrong pick. In case you haven't noticed, our goal is not to win a championship this year but to try to contend as best we can in a couple of years. It will be Deng and Childress' perfomances in a couple of years that will determine whether he was the right pick. I don't know how either player will pan out in the long run, but I certainly know Childress will settle down and be a good NBA player in the long run.

Also, I understand that preseason is a good level better than summer leagues, but it is still meaningless games that are not played the same as regular games. Teams are still trying out players for the last few roster spots, and player minutes and effort are not that of the regular season.

[chillzatl]

I didn't need to see the pre-season to know that we should have taken Deng. RIght now he IS the best rookie out there. If you want to constru that to mean "he should have gone #1". BFD! Take it that way then. As I said, I don't really give a turd sandwich WHO went #1, because we didn't have the #1 pick. My only concern is the Hawks picks. The Hawks should have taken Deng, period.

STop making excuses for the guy having a horrible pre-season and only average summer league (where he should have done VERY well). He was supposed to be a ready player. He's the guy with all the college experience. He was supposed to come in and be able to contribute IMMEDIATELY. He might not be complete. But he damn well was expected to contribute. So far, he's the biggest bust in the entire draft.

And you don't know that Childress will be anything. You're speculating and hoping all at the same time. I hope he becomes a star. Because I'm a Hawks fan and I support this team. But right now I'd be happy if he were a low quality bench player, which at this point, he isn't even that.

[Nicholasp27]

many players stunk up the summer league and preseason and then became all-stars within a year or two

Chill's career is not over...it hasn't even started yet

[Lascar78]

Ok well I guess we just see things differently. I don't believe that it's possible for a player to be a bust before he has played a single NBA regular season game. Period.

I understand that he's played like crap given his draft position. But that being said, I think that right now he's shy and in awe of the NBA and what we're seeing isn't his true game. He'll relax eventually and then we'll see what's what.

People speculate on NBA readiness, but the fact is you never know how a given player is going to look against NBA grown men until you see it.

[Diesel]

Deng should be applauded, but this past draft was not about immediate impacts, it was about future impacts...

Guys like Howard, Livingston, Okafur, Childress, Harris... Will all be better than Deng in the future. Deng's mechanics are bad and his shot from outside is not anything to brag about.

Chillz will take some time. That was expected. However, when his time comes, he's a better shooter than Deng, he's more of what we needed. Deng would have been like have another A.H. but not as good.

[chillzatl]

Future impact is one thing. A three year college player looking like he doesn't know the basics of the game are another. You're talking out of your neck. Based on what we've seen, you'd be a complete fool to say that Childress will be better than someone who is currently delivering at the pro level. Don't give me some load of bs about his "mechanics". Deng can shoot, period. The numbers don't lie.

Stop protecting him. Childress was NOT supposed to take some time. He was supposed to be one of the more "ready" players in the draft. Was he expected to improve? yes. Was he expected to be able to contribute on some level immediately? Yes. So far the ball kids have contributed more than he has.

It just goes to show why guys like you dislike people like d*ck Vitale so much....he actually knows what he's talking about.

[chillzatl]

wtf are you people reading?

I said he's a disappointment. Right now he looks like a bust. The guy barely delivered in the summer leagues, against competition that he should have clearly been ahead of. So far in the pre-season, against the competition he will be facing nightly (only many of them will actually be playing harder then), he looks like he doesn't belong. This is coming from a guy who was supposed to be ready to contribute. He may not have been a star out of the gate, nobody expected that. But he was at least supposed to be able to contribute on a meaningful level. He was supposed to be worthy of a starting job on a team with.....NO TALENT. But no, he's losing his job to guys that would not be starting on any other team in the league.

I want him to succeed. I want him to be a star. hell, at the very least I want him to be a meaningful player, someone who can contribute. Right now he IS NOT that player.

[TROUBLEMAN69]

I never understood why people were down on Deng, hell the kid only played one year of college ball and excelled at it. I never liked the Childress pick, because he was skinny and he looks very clumsy out there. Someone mentioned Deng's shooting mechanics, but have you looked at Childress' shot? His shot looks almost like Shawn Marion.

With all that being said, Childress is a Hawk, and I'm hoping he turns into a good player. He is a rookie, and sometimes it takes junior and seniors, just like younger players, a season or two before they adjust to the NBA game. Remember, Tayshaun Prince was sitting at the end of the bench for almost an entire season before he blossomed into a good player. Also remember Tayshaun has one of the ugliest shots in the game too. lol

[Blunt91]

Tayshun Prince is a good shotblocker unlike J-Chill. Tayshun Prince reminds me more of a lefthanded Dermarr Johnson than Josh Childress. Dermarr has more range, while Tayshun has more handles.