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for the entire second half of the season, according to Gearon.

Starters Marvin Williams and Al Horford were injured during the playoffs, as was shooting guard Joe Johnson, who Gearon said suffered from an undisclosed foot injury throughout the second half of the season.

http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/ ... 1243828800^1835457&ana=e_vert

His play dropped off so badly after December that it only makes sense there was something wrong but nothing was ever reported.

The article also mentions that the Hawks are 3rd in the league in new season ticket purchases.

Well I applaud JJ for not making excuses about it, but this is two seasons in a row he's had problems with his foot/calf/etc that has deterred him from his play. Woodson playing him so many minutes is definitely a problem, but we need to start weighing our other options if this happens again.

WOW. I dont want to ramble on so ill just say that if JJ was hurt during the second half this year what happened last year? Did he have the same problem? Did all the minutes he accumluated add to it? I dont know what to say

I guess Gearon is perfectly fine with Coach Woodson playing Joe over 40 minutes per game with this injury? Joe only played a limited amount of minutes during the last home game against Miami (14 minutes) and he sat out against Memphis to end the season.

HMFFL wrote:I guess Gearon is perfectly fine with Coach Woodson playing Joe over 40 minutes per game with this injury? Joe only played a limited amount of minutes during the last home game against Miami (14 minutes) and he sat out against Memphis to end the season.

QUOTED FOR TRUTH

I appreciate Joe's toughness and not making excuses, but Woodson's pattern of playing him so many minutes that he breaks down physically is concerning. I doubt we were good enough to have been able to save him more in the regular season and still finish as high, so I'm sure it was the motivating factor. My big concern would be at extension time. Has Joe's played so many minutes and racked up enough damage that he'll finish his next extension as a shell of himself money pit? You want to reward your top star, but it hurts a team to have so much money and expectations tied up into someone broken down like Tracy McGrady. Is Joe headed that way?

evildallas wrote:I appreciate Joe's toughness and not making excuses, but Woodson's pattern of playing him so many minutes that he breaks down physically is concerning. I doubt we were good enough to have been able to save him more in the regular season and still finish as high, so I'm sure it was the motivating factor. My big concern would be at extension time. Has Joe's played so many minutes and racked up enough damage that he'll finish his next extension as a shell of himself money pit? You want to reward your top star, but it hurts a team to have so much money and expectations tied up into someone broken down like Tracy McGrady. Is Joe headed that way?

That's what I'm scared of. Plus, JJ has been an ironman and played a ton of minutes in PHX as well. That's fine when you're in your early twenties, but as you get older and keep doing the same thing EVERY season it can catch up with you. Not to mention the style of offense we play is extremely tiring since we just give it to JJ and let him go ISO all the time.

Would be nice to have a ball handler at the point and a system to actually run that would not have Joe doing everything. People wonder why he doesn't drive more but don't consider how taxing that is to burst into the paint and bump against big guys only to get up and sprint back and D guys Bibby can't handle.

The bottom line is that when JJ is hurt he needs to spend some time in a suit. He obviously won't sit himself down so it is up to the staff to do it. It isn't going to kill the team to have him sit out a couple of weeks here and there.

Interesting stuff and it would explain a lot. However, it is important to consider the source here. Asking Gearon about the Hawks isn't exactly going to garner and objective and accurate portrayal of the team. I don't that JJ would have made it through the second half of the season with a serious injury that was somehow not reported once in the media. My guess is this was more of a nagging injury that was magnified by Woody continuing to play JJ so many minutes.

There has to be some kind of limitation on Joe's PT next season, he continues to slow down during the second half of seasons and some of that is surely due to him getting a bit worn out.

A PT limit won't occur. Mike Woodson is coaching for his future. If not Atlanta, then another job down the road. He needs to rack up as impressive record as possible. As such he won't sit Joe for the big picture (I say that from past observations of Woodson under the gun). Sund won't interfere with the coaching side of things and when you have an ownership collective you don't have a single voice to intervene either. The only hope I have is that if Mike Woodson is doing a Tommy Lasorda impersonation (riding a star until he has nothing left) that the front office is paying close enough attention to cut and run at the right time instead of breaking the bank for him.