Teague has been getting the raw deal.

diesel50 · Post #1 » by **diesel50** » Mon Mar 3, 2014 10:02 am

I know how Hawks fans are quick to turn on the higher paid player on the team. We have a History of it. However, Teague has been getting a raw deal. He and Horford are really the next stockton to Malone of this league. However, with no Horford, Teague had to play PNR with Millsap. Bad results for Teague. OF Course, Millsap is a cheap allstar. He couldn't really be the problem. In Utah, Sap was great at the PNR but they didn't play PNR with Sap much??? It wouldn't be a stretch to say that Corbin misused Sap. However, Teague suffered since Al went down... UNTIL... Sap started missing games.

Over the past few games since the deadline, Teagues Numbers are:

27 ppg, 6apg, 3.5 rpg, while shooting 57.7% from the field and 50% from three. A very Tony Parkerish type effort. Guys like Mike Scott and DMC has excelled also with Teague doing better. While his assists should be better, he's showing that he's not afraid to score the ball. I'm a FG% guy and his FG% is just outrageous. Against a Bayless, Rondo Guard tandem, he put up 26 points on 56% shooting. That ladies and gentlemen is a statement that suggests dominance.

Yet... Every game, there are many Hawksfan who harp about how bad Teague is and how we ought to rush Dennis to the PG position. As it looks now... Teague/Mack should be the future of PG in Atlanta. When Horf returns... and plays for a full season, I can easily see Teague as an allstar. And that's in the same league as Kyrie and Lowry (for now).

simon24 · Post #2 » by **simon24** » Mon Mar 3, 2014 10:47 am

When he's playing aggressive, he's among the best point guards in the league, however, he goes back to playing passive which hurts the execution of the offense and his stats.

Rip2137 · Post #3 » by **Rip2137** » Mon Mar 3, 2014 1:42 pm

He has all but abandoned the floater. That's simple. Yeah he still mixes a few in but they are more necessary vs his default shot. He has been consistent in that, lately.

we have gone to a basically Iso offense with him no with no one to run the pick and roll with although I would like to see him and Muscala with some time together.

diesel50 · Post #4 » by **diesel50** » Mon Mar 3, 2014 2:31 pm

I'm hoping that Muscala has the chops to run PNR on this level. Teague does.

Rip2137 · Post #5 » by **Rip2137** » Mon Mar 3, 2014 4:39 pm

From what I saw he had amazing hands(a big key in running a successful p&r). I have to see how he finishes around the rim.

parson · Post #6 » by **parson** » Mon Mar 3, 2014 4:42 pm

I - for one - have been killing him. I admit it. However, to me, the recent uptick in play just affirms my opinion. He's good when he wants to be but, for some reason this year, he hasn't wanted to for long stretches of the season.

Where's he been?

Rip2137 · Post #7 » by **Rip2137** » Mon Mar 3, 2014 4:50 pm

parson wrote:I - for one - have been killing him. I admit it. However, to me, the recent uptick in play just affirms my opinion. He's good when he wants to be but, for some reason this year, he hasn't wanted to for long stretches of the season.

Where's he been?

1: He got injured. Like I said l, sprain the same ankle twice and that thing can be sore for quite awhile. You were the first to notice his elevation dipped a bit.

2: we have tweaked the offense without Millsap and Horford. There is alot more clearouts for Teague over this up tick than have been there all year. The pick and roll simply isn't working with any other player on the team except maybe Brand but his foot speed hurts his ability to finish it. Now we are forcing teams to leave their guards on an island against Jeff and they don't stand a chance.

3: I can't harp enough on his decision to abandon that floater as his primary offensive move. He is getting to the line more and finishing better because of it.

parson · Post #8 » by **parson** » Mon Mar 3, 2014 4:57 pm

Rip2137 wrote:
parson wrote:I - for one - have been killing him. I admit it. However, to me, the recent uptick in play just affirms my opinion. He's good when he wants to be but, for some reason this year, he hasn't wanted to for long stretches of the season.

Where's he been?

1: He got injured. Like I said l, sprain the same ankle twice and that thing can be sore for quite awhile. You were the first to notice his elevation dipped a bit.

Yep, I did, but he admitted in an AJC interview that he'd been "not playing hard." He started dogging it the moment Horford went down. Maybe he thought he'd get himself traded if he pouted enough; maybe he was too teary-eyed to see the court; maybe Ferry asked him to be a one-man season tanker for us. Who knows?

What is apparent is that he played hard when he wanted to and didn't the rest of the time.

diesel50 · Post #9 » by **diesel50** » Mon Mar 3, 2014 5:15 pm

parson wrote:I - for one - have been killing him. I admit it. However, to me, the recent uptick in play just affirms my opinion. He's good when he wants to be but, for some reason this year, he hasn't wanted to for long stretches of the season.

Where's he been?

I think Teague was:
1. Playing Injured.
If you watch, it seems like he has his speed back. That's important because teams have been keying on Teague on the PNR because the Pickers (Sap) doesn't do enough to avail himself to the pass IMO. Believe it or not, the PNR is an artform that is really based on the picker's ability to sell the pick and to avail himself for a good pass. For Sap, I have always felt he's better as a Pick and Pop guy. Which is what Horf does so well. With Teague being less injured, it's easier for him to use those picks to free himself or to waive off the pick and iso the guy who is on him.
People who criticized Teague forgot that he's one of the fastest guys in the game when healthy. I have seen him blow past a healthy Rose and a Healthy Wall...CONSISTENTLY. Bud using him to pick and pop with Horf just made him more dangerous.

As far as his admission of not playing harder...Please find it and post it in this thread because it's just hearsay to me. I have never seen it in print.
I have seen this:
"We need a break mentally. The guys just don't have it right now," Teague said. "We've got to play with a lot more pace. Defensively we've got to be a lot more aggressive. Maybe guys are a little tired, maybe their legs are a little heavy. The break, we need it."

This is Teague speaking as a leader before the Allstar break. His coach basically saying the same thing.
I think we need to separate what's been said by Dennis supporters and what's been said by Teague.

parson · Post #10 » by **parson** » Mon Mar 3, 2014 6:02 pm

diesel50 wrote:As far as his admission of not playing harder...Please find it and post it in this thread because it's just hearsay to me. I have never seen it in print.
I have seen this:
"We need a break mentally. The guys just don't have it right now," Teague said. "We've got to play with a lot more pace. Defensively we've got to be a lot more aggressive. Maybe guys are a little tired, maybe their legs are a little heavy. The break, we need it."

This is Teague speaking as a leader before the Allstar break. His coach basically saying the same thing.
I think we need to separate what's been said by Dennis supporters and what's been said by Teague.

I read it in the AJC. You could have tried to look it up, instead of just posting this. I believe you put a lot of value in YOU not being called a liar, so be careful to give me the same respect. I'll try to find the interview later.

I'm not a Dennis supporter; I've been clear that the position has to be earned, which is one reason I've defended Mack.

Rip2137 · Post #11 » by **Rip2137** » Mon Mar 3, 2014 6:27 pm

To me when a player says "I haven't been playing hard" or something to that effect, that's not an admission of lack of effort, that's a competitive person that is being hard on himself. Guys that actually aren't trying are never going to admit it. A guy that says " I have to play better" isn't saying he is playing bad on purpose either. I just don't read into that the same way you did.

parson · Post #12 » by **parson** » Tue Mar 4, 2014 5:09 am

Well, I can't find it in the AJC, so I'll stop saying it. I still maintain it was there, but I can't find it.

MaceCase · Post #13 » by **MaceCase** » Tue Mar 4, 2014 5:54 am

Between their paywall and their "archives" extending barely a week at times, the AJC has become unreliable when digging up content. That is unless whatever piece of interest was quoted here or elsewhere.

diesel50 · Post #14 » by **diesel50** » Tue Mar 4, 2014 9:20 am

parson wrote:Well, I can't find it in the AJC, so I'll stop saying it. I still maintain it was there, but I can't find it.

Like I said. We need to separate what was really reported with what some agenda driven people said.

parson · Post #15 » by **parson** » Tue Mar 4, 2014 1:19 pm

diesel50 wrote:
parson wrote:Well, I can't find it in the AJC, so I'll stop saying it. I still maintain it was there, but I can't find it.

Like I said. We need to separate what was really reported with what some agenda driven people said.

diesel, _I_ said _I_ read the interview. _I_'m not quoting anybody else. Teague said he had not been playing hard but that he decided he needed to start playing harder. I said I was not going to bring it up again, since I can't find the interview, but if YOU bring it up...

As for agendas, "diesel? Meet mirror. Mirror? Meet diesel."

diesel50 · Post #16 » by **diesel50** » Tue Mar 4, 2014 3:25 pm

parson wrote:
diesel50 wrote:
parson wrote:Well, I can't find it in the AJC, so I'll stop saying it. I still maintain it was there, but I can't find it.

Like I said. We need to separate what was really reported with what some agenda driven people said.

diesel, _I_ said _I_ read the interview. _I_'m not quoting anybody else. Teague said he had not been playing hard but that he decided he needed to start playing harder. I said I was not going to bring it up again, since I can't find the interview, but if YOU bring it up...

As for agendas, "diesel? Meet mirror. Mirror? Meet diesel."

Until you can find what you read, we have no idea of context or anything... We're just taking you at your word... I wasn't suggesting you were the one with the agenda.. however, hit dogs will bark.

Was this your quote:
“We stopped playing," Teague said. "We started looking at the clock. We stopped running and playing fast and we started looking at the clock, praying time would go down. They started picking up their tempo and their pace and making shots.”

or was this a quote...

"A couple of mental mistakes cost us that game. That’s the NBA. Some nights energy is good and can win you games but you can’t just rely on playing harder. You have to play smart too. We just had a bunch of mental mistakes."
That's a Korver quote by the way.

I'm looking for your infamous not playing hard quote. No luck yet.

parson · Post #17 » by **parson** » Tue Mar 4, 2014 5:21 pm

diesel50 wrote:Until you can find what you read, we have no idea of context or anything... We're just taking you at your word... I wasn't suggesting you were the one with the agenda.. however, hit dogs will bark.

I believe you ran away from Hawksquawk because you were being called a liar, so I've tried to understand you. But, sometimes, you're hard to be around.

I'll just end this by saying that maybe only you and Rip would deny that Teague has a big problem with not playing hard all the time. Whatever the reason is: depression, bad teammates, Horford's loss, moodiness, apathy ... someone shining a light in his eyes while he's dribbling ... I don't know what it is. But the games where he explodes just beg the question as to why he goes hard sometimes and doesn't at others.

I cannot find where Teague admitted he needed to go hard (and that he had not been going hard enough) so I will drop that assertion. However, the evidence has been apparent and I CAN find where Budenholzer's said (and repeated) that our offense NEEDS him to go hard all the time. I could also flood this thread with quotes from other websites criticizing Teague's lack of aggression, but those would be just opinions, so I won't.

diesel50 · Post #18 » by **diesel50** » Wed Mar 5, 2014 3:12 am

parson wrote:I'll just end this by saying that maybe only you and Rip would deny that Teague has a big problem with not playing hard all the time. Whatever the reason is: depression, bad teammates, Horford's loss, moodiness, apathy ... someone shining a light in his eyes while he's dribbling ... I don't know what it is. But the games where he explodes just beg the question as to why he goes hard sometimes and doesn't at others.

Without a statement this is just B.S. without context, this is just conjecture. Teague has injured the same ankle twice this season. Bad Sprain the first time. You don't know what games he played hurt and what games he played thinking that he might rehurt his ankle. Honestly, I have heard rumor of this statement. I have looked for this statement by Teague saying that he hasn't played hard. I have not found it using the power of Google, Hawksquawk, Twitter or AJC search engine. I chalked it up to somebody taking Teague out of context because they wanted him traded at the deadline. But even with that, there should be that statement to fall back on. Point is that thus far, there's nothing. Nothing in writing suggesting Teague ever said that. If it were, we could examine it for it's context. I've giving you several times where Teague has talked about guys being out of it and needing to get it together and all these other things, but that was more of how a leader would talk and not somebody who is moody or apathetic or sad about Horf's loss. These games with Sap gone, we've seen Teague step up his production. Consistently. Doesn't seem to be the work of somebody who's what the critics say. But we'll wait for him to have a bad game and watch all the boo birds come out.