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Hide the women and children when hawks plays

thescout10

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thescout10 Newbie

thescout10

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Hide the women and children when Hawks play

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Kevin Hench / FOXSports.com

Posted: 6 hours ago

It is, quite simply, a disgrace.

For the NBA, it's an enduring public relations nightmare.

It is the video David Stern does not want children to see.

Anyone who has witnessed it has drawn the same conclusion: the league has reached a new low.

The Atlanta Hawks are that bad.

Though they miraculously ended a nine-game losing streak on Monday night with a 96-92 win over the Sixers to improve to 3-14, the Hawks might lose 65 games in the weakest conference in league history.

The Hawks are so bad even head coach Mike Woodson sometimes doesn't want to watch. (Scott Cunningham / GettyImages)

During the skid, every minute of which was played with the urgency of an MTV Rock and Jock game, the Hawks actually made it into garbage time in the first quarter. Twice. In 24 hours.

Last Friday, unable to make a simple entry pass around the long arms of Larry Hughes and Gilbert Arenas, the Hawks were buried by a 21-2 first-quarter avalanche on their way to a humiliating 114-90 home thrashing at the hands of the Wizards.

One night later, against the then 4-12 Nets, Atlanta was behind 19-4 after six minutes and on its way to a 109-88 embarrassment at the hands of one of the other early nominees for worst NBA team.

At this point you must be wondering who the hell besides immediate family and Hawk employees would watch back-to-back games of this dreadful team. I can explain.

It was coming back around to me in serpentine fashion in the fourth round of my roto draft. My buddy Bill Simmons was selecting immediately before me with the 37th pick and had narrowed it down to two guys. He said prophetically, "I know if I don't take this guy Hench is gonna take him, but I just can't bring myself to do it."

I knew who he was talking about. He knew I knew who he was talking about. Because our league scoring system doesn't deduct for things like atrocious field goal percentage, comical free throw percentage or scads of turnovers, there was one man at the top of my wish list. A man who would pile up points, rebounds, assists and even the odd steal or block here and there. A man who might be 5-for-17 but wouldn't hesitate to hoist another J. A man who gets his numbers, no matter the score. A man who would be The Man on his new team. And we all remember the numbers he put up the last time he was The Man.

Yes, I had my heart set on employee No. 8, Antoine Walker, Atlanta Hawks.

When Simmons took Vince Carter, I was like ‘Toine toeing up an open 3. I didn't hesitate pulling the trigger. As a Celtic fan, I knew exactly what I was getting. (Antoine is the only athlete who has inspired me to call a talk radio sports show to vent.) Walker may be disappointing teammates and confounding what few Hawks fans remain with his 42 percent field goal shooting, 51 percent free throw mark and 3.6 turnovers per game, but he has delighted me with the most meaningless 36.2 fantasy points per game in the league. Carter, by comparison, has only been putting up 25 fppg.

But it wasn't just taking Walker with the 38th pick that made me an avid Hawk watcher. Six rounds later, with pick No. 98, I took Al Harrington, who had chosen minutes over wins by bolting Indiana for Atlanta. So fully one quarter of my eight-man starting roto lineup played for an incredibly bad team. Which, of course, would work to my advantage.

When the game is hopelessly out of hand, fantasy points are easy to come by. Harrington is collecting 28.6 fantasy points per game as the No. 2 option in Atlanta. As consistently bad as the Hawks have been, Walker and Harrington have been incredibly consistent, getting me at least 60 fantasy points between them, night in and night out.

And so, as a certifiable roto freak with the NBA package, I have found myself watching the Hawks way more than anyone in their right mind should. (Even rookie coach Mike Woodson is forced to look away once in a while.)

The opening night loss in Phoenix was a harbinger of things to come: a 30-point waxing in which Walker and Harrington shot a combined 13-for-38 but teamed up for 59 fantasy points. The Hawks would lose their first four games by double digits before beating the lowly Hornets by one point for their first win of the season. After getting crushed by the Spurs, Walker and Harrington put up 65 fantasy points in a win over the Rockets.

Then came the odious nine-game slide in which the Hawks lost by 13 or more points six times. Their one decent effort, an overtime loss to the Knicks, came on the night Ted Turner's banner was raised to the rafters at Phillips Arena. I guess it's too late to disassociate himself completely from the franchise.

The Hawks are a special kind of bad. They play a sort of ABA, each-possession-is-less-important-than-the-last brand of basketball. They play like their last paycheck bounced. Close your eyes and you can imagine these same guys in Dallas Chaparrals uniforms getting dunked on by Julius Erving and Darnell Hillman.

They have four centers and the best of the bunch is 42 years old. Ancient Kevin Willis splits time in the pivot with starter Jason Collier and subs Predrag Drobnjak and Jelani McCoy.

Collier has everything you'd want in a starting center, except scoring (6.6 ppg), rebounding (3.4) and shot-blocking (0.3).

Predrag has those occasional moments of European brilliance, though he often plays in such a fog that maybe they should call him Post-drag.

McCoy, as limited as ever, keeps finding someone to pay him an NBA salary. McCoy's low point of the season came in a loss to Miami when he tried to dunk on Dwayne Wade and had his jam attempt spiked by the Heat point guard.

Speaking of point guards, the Hawks have one of the best point guards in the NBA. Unfortunately he resides in two separate bodies. Kenny Anderson sees the floor and is a great distributor but is so limited with his jumper that teams can pack it in against him and clog up those passing lanes he so unselfishly explores. Tony Delk can shoot, sadly he can't do anything else that might be expected of a point guard. If Anderson had Delk's jumper, or Delk had Anderson's passing skills, well, maybe Walker and Harrington wouldn't be the team's only options. (Which would be bad news for me.)

At shooting guard, Atlanta rotates Frenchman Boris Diaw and Jon Barry, the third Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket on the squad.

Diaw is pronounced dee-ow, as in playing defense creates pain, which is very appropriate for this team. I've watched about 500 minutes of Hawks basketball this season and can't tell you a single thing this guy does well. Barry, for his part, helped lose the game against the Knicks when he missed a free throw at the end of regulation. Somewhere Papa Rick Barry was shaking his head.

But all these journeymen and castoffs can't bear the brunt of the blame for how bad this team is because, well, they're journeymen and castoffs. The real reason the Hawks are so terrible is the same reason my roto Henchmen are so good. Walker and Harrington are clearly the two best players in Atlanta, - and therefore get constant touches — but they simply should not be the two best players on any NBA team.

They are like hockey forwards piling up points on the power play but refusing to backcheck at even strength and posting miserable plus/minus numbers. C'mon, you remember hockey. Even Atlanta has a hockey team. And right now the Thrashers are only three wins behind the Hawks.

Harrington's limitations were completely exposed in a 13-point home loss to Utah when Andrei Kirilenko blocked seven shots. Kirilenko had Harrington so freaked out that Big Al started pump-faking even when he was all alone underneath.

Of Walker's many team-killing idiosyncrasies, his brick-laying at the line is the hardest to watch.

"All I can say is clank, cuz it is an awful sound" is how the Hawks' play-by-play man succinctly put it.

Against the Knicks at the end of overtime, Walker needed to make both free throws in the closing moments to force a second OT. He clanked the first. So now he needed to miss the second one intentionally. How bad is he at the line? He swished it.

Another L for the Hawks. And another fantasy point for the Henchmen. They're so bad they're good. For me.

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bballfan Newbie

bballfan

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Quote:

Good to see others in league respect the Hawks.I can't wait for the day the hawks get some legit superstars and laugh at the rest of the league.

The guy is an admitted Celtic fan and he is friends with Simmons from ESPN.

Believe me when I tell you this has everything to do with Bill Simmons and his idiot followers hating on an ex Celtic player. It won't end with Antoine and Tony.

Bill Simmons once wrote a comedy skit for that talk show host who said that Detroit would burn down their city where he called Antoine Walker stupid.

It was uncalled for and made no sense for him to knock Walker but he did it anyway. His fellow pathetic Celtic fan is just like him.

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TheDude Newbie

TheDude

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i read like the first paragraph and gave up...same guys who said the Hawks should be moved...we have a great history with the Hawks so just because we've had bad times the last 5 or so years doesn't mean you get rid of them. If that was the case the Clippers should have been gone a long time ago with the Warriors with them.

Screw them. Remember these types of articles so you can shove it in these peoples faces when we turn it around.

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macdaddy Grand Master

macdaddy

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True. And the conference is pretty horrible. But, everyone thought the southeast division would be a joke when in reality its the Atlantic that deserves this kind of treatment. The 1st place team is sub .500.

Atlanta is just one of those places that the rest of the country likes to slam. Before the Braves shut everyone up all the talk was how bad ALL Atlanta sports teams were. They still ridicule the Braves for failing in the playoffs every year. This from guys who continually believe the Phillies will do something.

The Hawks are in a bad stretch but really this is nothing compared to the Clippers, Warriors and a bunch of other teams. Of course, some things in the article are exagerrations of truths. I just hope that we not only get better but get harder. IF you have 4 centers of about equal ability, and you have a no layup rule, then lets see some punishment if you take it to the paint. The best thing these Hawks can do short of a huge win streak is make teams not want to play us. Then some of the laughing will stop.

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Lascar78 Newbie

Lascar78

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exactly. And that is why I like the woodson hiring. I like gritty teams. Especially teams with gritty teams that want to run on offense. Even though our gritty defense is all talk for the moment, I like that it is Woodson's primary focus. It will come through in due time.

As for media coverage, US media loves exaggerations. Kick people when they are down, and prop success stories up to heroic levels. Oh well, what can you do. Hopefully we get tough quick

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