Mike Woodson: I have a secret weapon for the Celtics.

[atlsun]

[Texas Longhorns]

lmao

[Hawks]

[HoopsGuru25]

LOL I thought this was a real quote before I clicked on it. These last 2(maybe 3)games have really made me dislike Woody more than ever. This guy coached the last 3 games of the season just about as bad as you can coach them. You would think down 8 to an NBDL team in the 4th with Hoford/Smith/Marvin/Chil on the floor...that Woody would say "wtf am I doing". Instead this idiot put JOE JOHNSON back in the game with 6 minutes left in the 4th quarter in a last ditch effort to beat the worst team in the league. Boston's bench has been getting more and more experience/confidence this month while we refuse to play ours for some reason.

[BAMABIRD]

LOL I thought this was a real quote before I clicked on it. These last 2(maybe 3)games have really made me dislike Woody more than ever. This guy coached the last 3 games of the season just about as bad as you can coach them. You would think down 8 to an NBDL team in the 4th with Hoford/Smith/Marvin/Chil on the floor...that Woody would say "wtf am I doing". Instead this idiot put JOE JOHNSON back in the game with 6 minutes left in the 4th quarter in a last ditch effort to beat the worst team in the league. Boston's bench has been getting more and more experience/confidence this month while we refuse to play ours for some reason.

I just dont understand woody sometimes. Doc Rivers plays Rhondo, cassell, house, allen and woody is just now starting to play salim. On top of that Law does'nt see the floor at all. I just dont get it.

[td00]

Its simple; Woody doesn't like what he has on the bench. He is not a Stoudamire fan, he puts up with Pachulia, and Chills is the only one who gets minutes on a regular basis. He knows he has limitations here.
Now. forget the last 3 games, because no one will remember them next year. They have made the playoffs, they played just well enough to fend off Indy and NJ.
On the radio this am, Woody stated he was trying to win last night when putting his big guns back in. No, it diesn't build much confidence for the bench going forward, but this bench isn't Boston's. You don't see Davis, Cassell & PJ Brown sitting there. Doc wouldn't win with this bench either.
That brings up a point; there aren't many vets who will come here and play behind our first 6. The Celtics bench was formed mainly based on the thought that this was a deep-into-the-playoffs team. To me, they aren't any better than Dallas was last year.
Woody says that he is going to shorten his bench for the playoffs, so look for no more than 7 most to play. That will mean limited minutes for Zaza. So with the playoffs so far apart between games, there shouldn't be that tired excuse. To have games 2-3 days apart, the best should be ready. No excuses going forward; we will have to beat a deep Boston team with 6. Everybody has to be on each night. That means a little bit of defense.

[M301E814W404]

Secret weapon...use the second half of the bech to steal minutes...boston wont know how to defend it since there is not tape on those guys.

[JoshB914]

td00 is spot on with our bench, we just don't have guys that can make an impact. But the last two games were MEANINGLESS for us and everyone knew it, why not take the chance and see if anyone off the bench does some nice things? At the very least they could have some confidence going into the Boston series in case they are needed.

[Jjforprez]

Woody says that he is going to shorten his bench for the playoffs, so look for no more than 7 most to play. That will mean limited minutes for Zaza. So with the playoffs so far apart between games, there shouldn't be that tired excuse. To have games 2-3 days apart, the best should be ready. No excuses going forward; we will have to beat a deep Boston team with 6. Everybody has to be on each night. That means a little bit of defense.

I don't know why Woody insists he is right in doing this, despite so many people trying to get him to do otherwise. It's clear Steve Smith has questioned it, and I heard Dennis Scott just the other day say he's talked to Woody about this. As he said, you cannot beat a Boston Celtics (or anybody else for that matter) with 7 guys.

It's not like he can brag about how successful it has been for him so far. We barely did enough to get here. And when it came down to it, it was more what the other teams didn't do, than what we did. Mainly Indy not beating Charlotte.

I know our bench is not great, but it's not like he has to do a complete substitution of the bench all at once. If he mixes these guys in with a few of the starters, he can get value out of them. Nobody's asking the bench to win games, sometimes you just want your bench to buy you minutes... they don't even have to score alot, just do enough to not lose ground.

There have been many games this year when the Hawks build a good lead in the first/second qtr. where Woodson could have used the bench to buy minutes. With a lead, all you want is for the bench to maintain or at least don't lose too much ground. These guys could do that if they were used right.

[JoshB914]

We've got to play 7 guys against the C's. None of those other guys have the experience or confidence to perform. If he had played our bench big minutes the past two games maybe we would see a couple of guys that would see minutes, but for some reason he didn't.

Woody has used the bench with leads, usually with Law. And when Law came in, we would often blow the lead (I know ya'll remember Memphis).

[Rip2137]

Josh, i am sorry but that Memphis game is really the exception to the rule. Pointing out that game requires you to ignore the games where the Acie came in and the team automatically went on major runs, like that Suns game.

Yes, Acie played a horrid game in Memphis. He had a bad game...fine. But lets not act like he has been the plague this year. When he is out there with the starters, he played extremely well. when not...he didn't.

Salim has big game experience, he should play. Zaza is who you should worry about.

I know people like to knock our bench, but I will be damned if people keep pretending that the likes of Eddie House, Tony Allen, Glen Davis and Leon Powe are THAT much better than Salim, Acie, Zaza and Richardson.

[JoshB914]

I don't really blame Acie completely as he is a rookie attempting to run an absurd offense, but it seemed very clear to me in our big games that we couldn't afford to play him much. The drop off from Bibby to him is huge. And I don't really remember IV playing extremely well on a consistent basis like you said. Maybe I'm missing something? But I just can't remember him having a true positive effect on that many games.

I agree Salim should see some time, but if he does it will be at Law's expense. I am worried about Zaza too, but we have no choice but to play him.

Eddie House/Tony Allen/Davis/Powe are all that much better than those guys. And don't forget they have Cassell and PJ Brown laying in wait too. That team's depth is among the best in the league while ours is among the worst.

It's nice to be arguing about playoff rotations isn't it?

[Rip2137]

They have better depth because they actually use it. Eddie House = Salim Stoudmire with worse defense and worse PG skills.

tony Allen is a one trick horse. He can play some tenacious defense. Other than that, he will take (and miss) alot of threes. Jeremy Richardson offers you one skill. He can get open and hit jumpers. Glen Davis(right now) is good but not great at anything. Much like Zaza. Leon Powe, although he has turned up the hustle lately, is pretty much a average player. I don't see how you could call Acie any more or less that.

A GOOD coach would have found these guys minutes and they would be useful. The actual players aren't any better, the coaches usefulness of them is.

[JoshB914]

Yes Tony Allen can play tenacious D- we don't have anyone off the bench that can do that (except for Rio who I agree Woody has compeltely misused this season).

Jeremy Richardson has been in the league for a couple of months now, Eddie House has been a sparkplug off the bench his entire career.

I'm sure you would deal Zaza for Big Baby or Powe. Especially Powe who is averaging far better numbers than Zaza (8 and on 57% shooting) in just 15 MPG.

Then there's Cassell, who is an all star compared to Law at this point. We all know what he can do.

Our bench is light years behind them. I'll give Solo the edge over Scalabrine.

[cfan79]

You can't blame Woodson for having such a short rotation. Who knows if the Hawks would have gotten into the playoffs if they played Salim and the others.

I'd like to thank the guys that gave the C's props for their bench. We have some backups that have started on teams.

Baby/Powe/Posey/T.Allen/Cassell
PJ/House

[smabie]

You can't blame Woodson for having such a short rotation. Who knows if the Hawks would have gotten into the playoffs if they played Salim and the others.

You can blame Woodson for having such a short rotation; he's the one who decides who to use and who not to. And all the players on the bench have played this year, and have played good minutes in some games. But they do so so infrequently, once every two to four weeks, that when they are given a shot they tend to feel the pressure that much more.

Look at Salim's numbers last season when Joe was out, which is about the only time in his career with the Hawks that he played consistently. They were decent numbers. If he played every game, 5 minutes or so, he'd be a heck of a lot more consistent than he is now. The same is true for every other player on the team. The only bench guy -- the only one -- who knew he was playing any given night all season long was Chill. Even after Law came back from his injury, this wasn't the case for him. (And Zaza only became a regular sub after the trade.)

Are they starter material? No, no way, not yet. But they are just as quality backups as the regular bench players for the Celtics, Pistons, Spurs, Suns, etc etc etc. Lack of use has lead to the current situation, not their ability (or lack thereof) to play.

The Hawks were 6-5 in games decided by 3 pts or fewer. They were 11-24 in games lost by 10 or more. (Which leaves them at 20-16 in games decided by 4-9 pts.) In games they were ahead at the half, they were 26-14. In games they were behind at the half, they were 11-30. (0-1 the only time they were tied at the half.) So we're not talking about a whole lot of close games, here. We're not talking about a significant number of games that they came from behind to win, nor ones they blew (when trailing after three, they went 7-37; when leading, they went 29-6).

Certainly, I will grant you, there is a chance that if they had played the bench players more minutes in the earlier parts of the season, they may have lost a game here or there; but just as likely, I'll state that they may have won a few more games -- enough to be over .500 -- if they /had/ made more and better use of the bench. I challenge you to point out any other team in the league, where the team's best big man on the bench even before the trade played in only 62 games.

[JoshB914]

The Hawks backups are not as good as the Celtics' backups. Not even close.