It happened again.

[Dakin]

very well said, traceman. donta deserves the opportunity as much or more than diaw to prove he can be the versitile player the hawks drafted them both to be. IMO the potential smith has is miles ahead of diaw's.

btw, donta played a lot of minutes at point gaurd in college. donta has every bit as much skill to do so as diaw. a pre draft scouting report is more telling than the fact that woodson hasnt given him the opportunity till last nite.

Upside: Donta Smith reminded Pitino and many other people of Ron Artest. He's a big time athlete and defender who is tough as nails. Offensively, he's way ahead of where Artest was when he declared. He's a good shooter from the perimeter and can put the ball on the floor and get to the basket. He also uses his strength to post players up. The most impressive attribute of Smith is his ball handling and passing. Several scouts believe that he has the ability to be a point forward in the pros. He already has an NBA body and has a 7-foot-1 wingspan. guard

[tmac13]

He handled the ball very well against much smaller and supposedly quicker players..He may be the equal of Diaw as far as ball handling skills, but he will be much more aggressive which might please Woody more.

[macdaddy]

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Seeing what we have in the young guys is FAR more important to me than winning at this point in this season. We are 10-40 for goodness sakes!

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Its a good point but not really the issue here. I think Donta looks good too, but I'd just as soon see what we have in Ivey or Diaw (both young guys) when the game is on the line. And another young guy Smoove was on the bench too. So I don't see the argument that Woody was more concerned with development than winning.

Whatever the hopes for Donta are (point-foward or guard or whatever) the fact is that he hasn't played this role all season and has had limited minutes in the positions he has played. So lets see if he can run the offense in the 2nd quarter not the end of the 4th.

[Lascar78]

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Its a good point but not really the issue here. I think Donta looks good too, but I'd just as soon see what we have in Ivey or Diaw (both young guys) when the game is on the line. And another young guy Smoove was on the bench too. So I don't see the argument that Woody was more concerned with development than winning.

Whatever the hopes for Donta are (point-foward or guard or whatever) the fact is that he hasn't played this role all season and has had limited minutes in the positions he has played. So lets see if he can run the offense in the 2nd quarter not the end of the 4th.

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Exactly. I have no problem with trying Donta out at whatever position Woody wants to try him at. But when it's the end of the 4th in a close game, you go to what you have seen work a number of times before. If you want to win at least