No love for Diaw?

[Lascar78]

So I was ecstatic after such a great win last night, and came here expecting praise mainly for Childress and Diaw, as I felt they were the two difference makers. Childress is getting all of his deserved praise, but all I see for Diaw is a post asking if we could ship him out of town.

The statline for Diaw is, as usual, not all that impressive

8 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block.

And as usual for him, the stat sheet doesn't tell the story. I'm sure most here feel like despite his being relatively aggressive, he still wasn't shooting or attacking the rim as often as Childress. When in fact he only took one less shot in 12 less minutess. That's 30% more shots per minute than Chill for those of you who are obsessed with stats.

But beyond that, I think where our success came from tonight was the unselfishness of Diaw and Childress that led to good flow and motion to the entire team. The end result is an open shot for whoever happens to be in the right place at the right time.

For those of you who don't understand the positive impact of Boris' game on the entire team play, I suppose that if you didn't see it last night you'll never see it. Even down the stretch, he was the one to hit the key jumper (as did walker), he got a key block, and put down a dunk that all but sealed the game. It felt to me like Chill and Diaw were instrumental in getting the lead, and Walker and Diaw were key in closing the game out. Delk also was great throughout.

I think you saw tonight what Boris was complaining about the other day. When he gets PT and a chance to use his skills in setting others up, everyone is better off. When he only comes in for 2 minutes at a time and spends those 2 minutes watching toine and al play a 2 man game in which he is just a spot up shooter, he is never going to be all that useful.

By the way, for those of you upset about that article the other day, I saw this one on hawks.com that seems to tell a different story. It sounds more like what we're used to hearing out of Boris.

nba.com link

Anyhow, I don't want to be a Diaw homer (I certainly don't want to be the Diaw equivalent of Empoyee 8 ) , but I feel like he gets an unfair treatment from this board, and I really think it would be beneficial to keep him around long term. You wouldn't give up on a 2nd year american player who could do everything well except for one aspect (not a great passer for instance), so don't give up on Boris because he doesn't yet have enough of a chuck it when you touch it mentality

Now if only I knew what was going on with his Captain Morgan goatee...

[Inside_Man]

Why not. He just needs to shoot enough to keep defenses honest, which he did last night. He brings a lot of other skillz to the team.

Heck, I'd be happy next year with a starting 5 of Diaw, Chill, Smoove, Al, Bogut, with Donta first up from the bench.

But I'm crazy, so don't listen to me.

[CBAreject]

Diaw is a guy like Bruce Bowen who brings the intangibles. He will probably never average more than 12 ppg, but he's always going to be valuable.

When and if we become a playoff contender, we're going to wish we had more guys like Diaw to fill in around the stars we've accumulated.

I don't understand why folks want to trade Diaw for nothing. It's not like he's a throw-away. If we can get Jarrett Jack for him, fine, but I don't want to see him traded for a low 1st when we don't even know that we can get anything of value there. I also would be reluctant to trade him for Skita, who has not shown anything. Diaw is a proven commodity. You know what he's going to bring. Skita may not ever contribute anything in the pros.

[macdaddy]

Man it was just days ago that the site was full of Diaw sux, Diaw doesn't get it, he'll never make it in the nba. Luckily he seems to have plenty of confidence in his game.

Off topic, Bob Neal made a good point last night that this team despite the losses does scrap. The record is horrible but it is a lot more fun to watch these guys than last year's bunch.

[Employee8]

Quote:

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Why not. He just needs to shoot enough to keep defenses honest, which he did last night. He brings a lot of other skillz to the team.

Heck, I'd be happy next year with a starting 5 of Diaw, Chill, Smoove, Al, Bogut, with Donta first up from the bench.

But I'm crazy, so don't listen to me.

---

Crazy? Nah. Mis-informed? Perhaps.

I'd be happy with EITHER a starting 5 of Diaw, Chill, Smoove, Al, Bogut, with Donta first up from the bench *OR* Diaw, Chill, Smoove, WALKER, Bogut, with Donta first up from the bench.

[Nicholasp27]

i want chill/smoove/al or chill/smoove/walker combo with felton/big fa at 1/2 and bogut/diaw/ivey/danta/drobs off the bench

of course, if we got johnson, i'd be ok with that too

[Traceman]

He was aggressive and he didn't pass up open shots. The jumper he hit late in the 4th was HUGE and he didn't hesitate to take it. He also took the ball to the basket aggresively and he finished with authority around the rim. That is a HUGE difference from the Boris I have been watching for most of the season. I don't question that he has the ability to be a very good NBA player but he has to play the right way to be effective and last night, he did that. It looks to me like Woodson's benching may have motivated Boris to be more aggresive and that is a good thing.