Last 10 topics

[tbhawksfan]

About 70-80% of the last ten topics directly question coaching.

Why don't we get straight to the reality.

Woodson is not getting/going to get it done.

Why don't we have a sticky on his exploits and our opinions of his moves?

[killbuckner]

I still say that you put Andre Miller on this team and pretty much all of the things that people complain about Woodson on go away. So much of what people complain about to me is laid at the feet of in competent PG's.

But I am fine with it if Woodson gets fired at this point- as long as people can blame the coach they aren't going to take a hard look at the flaws on the team. But when it comes down to it, what quality coach do you really think would come to the Hawks?

[conleyorbust]

I still say that you put Andre Miller on this team and pretty much all of the things that people complain about Woodson on go away. So much of what people complain about to me is laid at the feet of in competent PG's.

But I am fine with it if Woodson gets fired at this point- as long as people can blame the coach they aren't going to take a hard look at the flaws on the team. But when it comes down to it, what quality coach do you really think would come to the Hawks?

I think the lack of production from our bench bigs is a huge concern. One that would have altered the outcome of all these close games.

[HMFFL]

tbhawksfan,

I didn't see any complaining on this board when Atlanta had some win streaks going. Point the finger at the players for once because many aspects of our game has been horrible. Woodson has so much to work with but there are just as many holes on this team.

I'm far from being a Coach Woodson support, but like killbuckner said, who do you really expect to come here?

[evildallas]

I'll admit that I'm started a couple of the coaching threads, but I'm not trying to get a mid-season replacement. It isn't going to occur. We aren't bad enough to require a mid-season change and this isn't hockey where they'll fire the head coach before the playoffs if they don't think the team is playing quite as well as they should. Woodson is the coach for this season, but in the spirit of trying to improve the Hawks I'm hoping it is his last. I fear that if we creep into the playoffs that somehow Woodson gets more time. That is the case I am trying to rally support against. I want the ownership group to evaluate him fully not just pass/fail on whether we reach the playoffs.

Having said that I still think I post more on trade ideas to try an improve the team now, but I almost feel those posts are pure fantasy. Just as we aren't bad enough to fire a coach midseason, we aren't good enough to acquire a major piece to make a run. And as for making a smaller deal to help get us into the playoffs, almost all of those moves would hurt BKs off-season flexibility which he did last year, but would he do that again?

BTW, I don't support the idea of a coaching sticky until the end of the season when hopefully a change will occur. During the season, it doesn't have the immediate impact to merit that prime placement. It would be like have a draft sticky at this point in time. It just wouldn't be positive or productive.

[JoshB914]

I think we can all see Woody is not a great coach. But a lot of people want to blame him while they ignore the fact that we are an extremely flawed team. We lack a point guard, a leader, toughness, and depth. That is on BK if you ask me. If we make the playoffs I think he's earned the right to stay on board.

[evildallas]

If we make the playoffs I think he's earned the right to stay on board.

That is exactly what I'm trying to rally against. Looking at the East right now we can make the playoffs while not necessarily performing that well. I would see an extension under those circumstances as rewarding Woodson for other teams' failures, not for his own success. If we got to 50 wins this season then I'd be saying that Woodson has to get some of that credit. Before the season I thought we'd go 40-42 (in spite of Woodson) and we're a little behind that pace. Our coaching staff doesn't add much (if anything) to our team's bottom line.

Also just because I think Woodson is a bottom tier coach doesn't mean I'm pro-BK. I just think each of them needs to be evaluated separately. You feel that BK has provided a flawed roster. I've posted the same thing myself. I just don't feel that Woodson has done anything with the flawed roster to make me think he'd be success with a balanced roster.

This was a coaching thread, whether the GM has done a good job should be another thread to itself.

[JoshB914]

Don't worry I won't attack you for being pro BK. I often am attacked for being pro Woody for blaming BK for our losing more than Woodson.

What I would do if Woody makes the playoffs is offer him a two year deal and let him know that we are expecting marked improvement next season. I think his coaching has been much better this season than in year's past.

That being said, I don't think we're going to make the playoffs. So this will likely be a moot point.

[conleyorbust]

Don't worry I won't attack you for being pro BK. I often am attacked for being pro Woody for blaming BK for our losing more than Woodson.

What I would do if Woody makes the playoffs is offer him a two year deal and let him know that we are expecting marked improvement next season. I think his coaching has been much better this season than in year's past.

That being said, I don't think we're going to make the playoffs. So this will likely be a moot point.

The thing is, we do have lot of talent on this team. Obviously we are missing peices but even an incongruous team can win games if it has talent. Our improvement this season has been almost entirely on the the natural progression of the extremely young players that were drafted. The fact that Mike Woodson still makes so many coaching mistakes is reason enough to not extend him for a couple of years because he has been here so long the guys are gonna tune him out. Think of the team in phases. If this team makes it to the playoffs and inevitably gets destroyed in the first round, we have hit a new stage in the development of the team and should probably have a new coach accordingly.

EDIT: this is not to say that BK has done a great job putting together a talented team, I agree with the logic that you get a lot of talent if you always have high picks.

[JoshB914]

I actually don't think we have that much talent. Smoove and JJ are the only guys I consider to be very good players. Marv is maybe a little above average and high on natural talent, and Horford (though he will get better and be more) and Chillz are solid role players. Other than that I don't see that many good players on this team.

[HoopsGuru25]

Coaching in the NBA is overrated IMO but Woody is still a pretty bad coach. The only thing that he does remotely positive is get our players to give a good effort defensively. The players don't seem to like him(AJ,Smith,Zaza suspended and Salim clearly doesn't like him)..we choke in nearly every game in which we have a double digit lead...our half court offense is one of the worst in the league(too many isolations)..and we continue to play at one of the league's slowest paces despite having one of the most undersized and athletic teams in the league.

I don't think Woody is that big of a problem(BK is much, much worse)...but he is not the right coach for this team. I don't want to fire him unless we have the right guy in mind and not one of our assistants because Woody was regarded as one of the best assistant coaches in the league when he was in Detroit.

[evildallas]

Often a different voice can be heard more clearly. I welcome any coaching change in the off season except the following:

Larry Brown (I have no respect for him in any way)
Lenny Wilkens (I am confident we can achieve mediocrity without recycling the old man)
Isiah Thomas (could have gone without saying)

I think any other competent coaching voice gets these players further down the road than Woodson.

[JoshB914]

We need a young, energetic coach that will bring us an exciting style of ball. Iavaroni would have been perfect.