It's about THREEs & FREEs and how Lousy AW is.

[Inside_Man]

The Hawks have the second worst record in the NBA.

The Hawks have the second worst 3 pt shooting % in the NBA.

Coincidence?

I don't think so.

The Hawks have the second worst record in the NBA.

The Hawks have the worst Free Throw % in the NBA.

Coincidence?

I don't think so.

Tonight they lost by 3 points at home.

They made only 1 of 8 three point attempts

and....

Only 14 of 23 from the stripe.

If they shot .37% from the arc and 75% from the stripe, they win the game by 6 points. They don't need heroic levels from the arc of stripe, just average will be enough.

And Walker is the problem. He missed all 5 of his free throws and he was 1 for 5 behind the arc.

Tonight's loss is 100% Antoine Walker's fault. He's the problem. He's the entire problem.

If it was my team, he'd be riding the pine.

discuss.

[Employee8]

Okay....let's discuss :

Nevermind that the TEAM Has no SHOTBLOCKING PRESENCE in the middle.

Nevermind that the TEAM has ZERO Shooters out on the floor most of the time(our only true shooter is Delk and he's on the INjured list)....

Nevermind that we seem to suffer through the infamous SLEEPWALKING Syndrome that graymule has documented....

Nevermind that Jason Collier and Chill were a combined 4-14 from the field tonight.

Nevermind that we are a BILLION GAMES UNDER .500 and how Walker ISN'T and shouldn't be to blame for them(yet you blame him for this loss?)

EXCUSE ME!! BUT I LOVED THE EFFORT BY THE HAWKS TONIGHT! I LIKED THAT THEY BUSTED THEIR BUTTS BUT GUESS WHAT? WE DON'T SCORE ENOUGH POINTS!! WE NEED SHOOTERS!! WE HAVE SCORERS(Walker,Harrington,SMoove...) BUT WE NEED SHOOTERS. Until we get them, we will need to STOP other teams which is very DIFFICULT without a True PRESENCE IN THE MIDDLE.

There's your "discuss", Inside.

[bballfan]

Give me a break. There was more to this loss then just Walker but you insist on blaming him for everything.

For some reason he can't hit his free throws but it isn't for lack of trying or practicing to fix it. Without Walker's 3 to tie it at 91 there was no game anyway.

[Employee8]

Quote:

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If it was my team, he'd be riding the pine.

discuss.

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And If this was my messageboard, you'd be banned.

DISCUSS.

[cyman3]

WALKER should not be blamed at all!...

thats like BLAMING SHAQ for missing FTs at the end and saying that the LAKERS lost the NBA FINALS b/c shaq couldnt hit his free throws (when we all know that other than Shaq/Kobe, nobody showed up for the NBA FINALS).

truth be told, we (and lakers) would have lost by 20 if it wasnt for WALKER (or SHAQ).

whenever we got close to a potential scoring drought, Walker came in and provided offense. How many times did he come in and hit that little soft runner in the paint?

10-20, 20 points, 11 rebounds. He did his share.

in fact, if we dont find a trade for Walker- ill be fine, just going into FA and tryin to pick up WALKER (for the fair price of course). He has a good allaround game and has good handles to allow JOSH SMITH to play SG. However, if possible i would like to have LUE and PEJA to come off the bench next season (this is assuming we find better starters in replace of the two). Lue/Peja would be quality players off the bench. they would add some bench depth to the team.

The real reason we lost is b/c- We just cant close out quarters/games- its the YOUNG TEAM SYNDROME. Thats the reason we lost the game.

i think everyone played a great game (even Childress w/ his 9 rebounds). Josh Smith put a great DUNK DISPLAY on for the fans and Al Harrington took it strong EVERY TIME (and as a result went to the FT line many times).

The truth is, we just lack talent and experience. As long as we fight hard every game (even if it means losing by 3 points every game), the hawks will have my respect and the respect from the rest of the league.

Bibby was just clutch and hit some important shots down the stretch.

[Plainview1981]

Yes Walker was a big part of the loss tonight... However..

You want to know what we are terrible in rebounding, scoring,

passing, defense and free throw shooting? Because the talent

isn't here. You have been here the last several years. THis

franchise has stunk for 5 years now.... Walker wasn't here

before this year.

[Diesel]

I agree that we need some threats from outside. We need somebody that can hit a three consistently. I thought Barry would be that but I was wrong. Maybe Lue will step up.

However, Walker is not the problem. In fact, if not for Walker, we wouldn't be in a position to win any game. You can't replace him with say Collier and expect that we would be in a position to win. He brings a lot to our young team.

Actually, I don't blame no one player nor the coach. I think that we're just a young team and we do young team stuff.

However, what would help is a good defensive shot blocker/rebounder and a three point threat.

[CBAreject]

Sure, all else equal, if AW had hit one more of his 5 3-pt attempts, the game would've gone to overtime. OK, so Walker's the problem, right?

Um, what about if Smoove had blocked two more shots? What's his deal blocking only 1 shot. What a loser--bench him!

Furthermore, what's Predrag doing only pulling down 7 boards? If he gets 2 more boards, we might win the game. Bench him!

What's Lue doin' missing all of his 3 pt attempts? Couldn't he at least make one of 3. Sucks. Bench him!

Harrington? Don't get me started. He didn't even attempt a 3. Aren't SF's supposed to shoot some 3's? What's up with only 5 rebounds? Bench him!

Hmm....we don't have a team anymore. I liked some of those players before we benched them. I mean, AW did score 21 pts on 50% shooting from the field. He did pull down 11 rebounds. Maybe we should ask what would happened if we'd gotten less from AW, not if we'd gotten just a touch more. For example, what if he hadn't played at all? Would the game have been close? Would Childress have scored his 21?

Here's the point: no one argues that AW is even a top 10 player in this league. The pro'lem is, he's one of the 2 best players on our team, and he's one of the few reasons we can HANG with one of the best teams in the league on a night when they actually play pretty well. It hurts to lose a close game, but I now have 5 players that I think are major pieces:

Lue

Smith

Predrag

Harrington

Walker

I ain't sayin' 'don't trade Walker!' He's not good enough to build a team around. No, but I have to like what he brings to the table on a very consistent basis. He is a piece, just as Harrington is, just as Lue is. The only nearly untouchable guy on our team right now is Smith, and that's only because we'd get ripped in any deal for him (don't think I wouldn't move him for Duncan, KG, Stoudamire, etc.).

[Inside_Man]

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Um, what about if Smoove had blocked two more shots? What's his deal blocking only 1 shot. What a loser--bench him!

Furthermore, what's Predrag doing only pulling down 7 boards? If he gets 2 more boards, we might win the game. Bench him!

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But blocks and rebounds don't correlate as well with our record. There are 7 teams that are worse shot blockers than the Hawks and 7 teams that are worse rebounders than the Hawks but only 1 team that has a worse record.

The stats that correlate with our record are 3pt% and ft%.

And, those are specifically the aspects of AW's game that suck.

[emeans]

I have to agree with Employee8 on this subject.

Walker is not the sole reason why we are losing. As a matter of fact I have determined that we would be far behind on the score board if it wasn't for Walker and his play.

I like what Walker brings to this club and I hope that we can somehow keep him. I don't think that will happen but he has shown me a lot of heart and he has been clutch when we needed a score badly.

The thing that is killing Walker is his FT shooting during key moments of the game and his sparadic FG% from the 3 point line and the timing of those 3 point shots. It really burns me too, but Walker brings more positives than negatives to this team.

I hope Walker accepts a huge pay cut and stay with this club. He could be tremendous as a core piece of the rebuilding of this club.

[Employee8]

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Quote:

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Um, what about if Smoove had blocked two more shots? What's his deal blocking only 1 shot. What a loser--bench him!

Furthermore, what's Predrag doing only pulling down 7 boards? If he gets 2 more boards, we might win the game. Bench him!

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But blocks and rebounds don't correlate as well with our record. There are 7 teams that are worse shot blockers than the Hawks and 7 teams that are worse rebounders than the Hawks but only 1 team that has a worse record.

The stats that correlate with our record are 3pt% and ft%.

And, those are specifically the aspects of AW's game that suck.

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Inside_man, You are thinking too much. In your case, it isn't healthy. Just let it go. Please...Just Let It Go.

You are blaming a loss on a player that you OBVIOUSLY DISLIKE. We are a million games under .500 and you are acting like we lost a crucial game that would've put us at .500 or gotten us into the Playoffs.....

WAKE UP! WE ARE A YOUNG TEAM AND ARE GETTING BETTER *WITH* WALKER! BUT WE ARE ONE SHOTBLOCKER/CENTER AWAY FROM PLAYOFF CONTENTION(or at least winning games)

Sure...Walker's FT shooting sucks. And his shot selection at times is a bit strange but the positives he brings to this team far outweigh his negatives. It would be just like Previous years where the Hawks would get their ass kicked on a nightly basis WITHOUT Walker there. Say what you will about how good Big AL is but without AW, it's still the same old song-and-dance from previous years(same goes for if it was just Walker here without Big AL)...