RealGM

Last couple weeks our flaws are becoming more glaring. Im not gonna get into them. So if you guys have thoughs and ways to correct our flaws let em flow

Didn't watch the game tonight, recorded it but the ISO plays resulting in endless jumpers/3's with the shot clock running down is a popular play of choice for the Hawks. It's been this way since Woodson has been here. I think that's just the way this team is designed on offense,it works for stretches but you hit points in a season where you slump and sag off a bit, every team has them.

The reluctance to implement Teague as a contributor is concerning, his change of pace style we could very well benefit from. The mentality in the 4th win it's time to turn it up and focus is all of a sudden a weak spot. Just a few of the things i've noticed.

So we have three glaring weaknesses, IMO.

1) We don't have a true consistent post presence. Some nights Josh and Al will give us 50/30/10 combined, with 8 blocks. Some nights they'll give us 20/15/10 with 4 blocks. This is both an offensive and defensive problem, especially with Josh, whose offensive and defensive aggression and effectiveness are inherently linked.
2) We don't have good wing defense. We have okay wing defense, but we just got shredded by Nate Robinson. I like Mike Bibby, but he's not stopping anyone on defense. In fact, we can't guard fast PGs period - Bibby has limited lateral movement, Crawford is just... bad, Joe is too slow, Teague is a rook and thus plays inconsistent defense on a short leash.
3) We always go to iso play in crunch time, which barely works for ELITE players like Kobe and LeBron and Wade; Joe is pretty good at best, and iso-Joe late in the fourth quarter will doom us. The KNICKS played the perfect defense on the final play of the 4th quarter, they just doubled Joe even before he caught the ball, making him toss it away to Marvin for a contested long 3. We didn't even set any screens so that he would be open behind the arc. Tied into this is that all 3 of our shot creators tend to settle for jumpers instead of driving the lane.

How do we address these trades? Well, we won't get decent value trading Joe (unless my Joe/Zaza for Perkins/Ray Allen trade somehow makes its way to Sund and he pulls a miracle). Still, we should explore trading Joe for a SG/C, with the requisite that the SG be nasty at 3s to compensate for us running Smoove/Al/C as a frontcourt.

Maybe Joe for Bosh straight up? I know it doesn't fit my trade criteria, but Smoove/Bosh/Horford would be a pretty potent frontcourt - possibly the best in the league, and Crawford could still man the 2.
Joe for Kaman and Eric Gordon?
Joe for Al Jeff and Wayne Ellington?

Iunno my brain is fried.

^ Horford/Smoove/Bosh/Jam/Bibby

i'm very confident that Bosh can shoot and defend Sfs as good as Marvin.

The problem is that the Hawks don't really have the trade fodder to "tweak" the roster. They would be in prime position to give up 2010 caproom in order to add another piece. (like the cavs are pretty much certain to do) But the Hawks already fired that gun with the Crawford trade and now the only expiring contracts they have are minimum salary players (and Joe). Evans is sort of interesting because he has a player option for next season. The better he plays the more likely he is to opt out. Unfortunately a team wanting 2010 caproom can't really count on him opting out so he isn't a desirable trade piece.

Nothing is happening. I don't want to overlap what Buckner wrote above, so I'll just reiterate that we have no enticing contracts to offer to the rebuilding/broke teams to pry away their talent.

We're "all in" with this bunch, just got to hope they keep improving (someone please teach Josh how to score in the post) and that we sign Joe in the offseason.

Best bet is signing one of the veterans that are released in February.

Definitely- and the Hawks still have their MLE while Boston, Cleveland, Orlando, Denver, San Antonio etc have already used it up. If some veteran PG got released then the Hawks would be in prime position to overbid the other teams for the rest of the season.

the real problem is that BK blew his draft picks. He had chances to draft stars with his top 6 picks and didn't. He had chances to add valuable contributors with his early 2nd round picks and didn't. There is no making up for that.

I am just amazed that there are people who actually defend that clown.

I was so upset at JJ last night, it wasn't even fun. Our perimeter D is terrible. It was L. Hughes the other day, then N. Robinson yesterday. A pick and roll is enough to break our team down big time. Why we stopped going to Al down in the post is beyond me. Even J. Smith was scoring inside, but guess what, we have a genious coach that wants to iso JJ every time he touches the freaking ball. Now, JJ makes 15 M a season, has more touches that any other player, happens to be playing a team that can possibly offer him what he wants next season and he plays that bad... that's just pathetic. It's just the beginning of the year, but I'm growing really tired of him. That trade idea with the Clippers for Kaman+Gordon would be perfect to me. I doubt the Clippers would have that much interest though. Another thing, bad things happen very often when Mavin touches the ball...how much longer till we give up on him?

Would the Hawks be interested in this deal?

Clippers Get: Bibby/Battier
Clippers Give: Baron/Thornton

The Clippers get a veteran PG on a better contract than Baron's, and they upgrade at SF and get that glue guy/perfect teammate that the team has been missing.

Hawks Get: Baron/Thornton
Hawks Give: Bibby/M. Williams

The Hawks get an upgrade at PG and Baron has been playing very well lately. Getting Baron there might help persuade JJ to stay in ATL. Marvin to Thornton is a slight downgrade at SF, but a wing rotation of JJ, Crawford, and Thornton still seems very good.

Rockets Get: M. Williams
Rockets Give: Battier

The Rockets get a younger, more offensive-minded SF, and I have seen this swap elsewhere when Rockets fans liked it.

SportsFan215 wrote:Would the Hawks be interested in this deal?

Clippers Get: Bibby/Battier
Clippers Give: Baron/Thornton

The Clippers get a veteran PG on a better contract than Baron's, and they upgrade at SF and get that glue guy/perfect teammate that the team has been missing.

Hawks Get: Baron/Thornton
Hawks Give: Bibby/M. Williams

The Hawks get an upgrade at PG and Baron has been playing very well lately. Getting Baron there might help persuade JJ to stay in ATL. Marvin to Thornton is a slight downgrade at SF, but a wing rotation of JJ, Crawford, and Thornton still seems very good.

Rockets Get: M. Williams
Rockets Give: Battier

The Rockets get a younger, more offensive-minded SF, and I have seen this swap elsewhere when Rockets fans liked it.

The problem is that Baron is nearly as old as Bibby and makes a ton. That contract that he has is a killer and is a cancer. Plus take into account Josh's deal, crawford's deal, JJ's max deal, and horford's new deal, that Baron deal can come to hurt the Hawks.

Joe Johnson for J-Rich straight up! JJ's leaving anyway right?

tontoz wrote:I am just amazed that there are people who actually defend that clown.

4th-best team in the East?
Young and still-improving lineup?
Most athletic set of players in the East?

ALL those can be attributed to Billy Knight.

Besides, he's been gone for 2 seasons now, time for you to ride another horse. You can go on about what should have been and I'll just respond with the result of Knight's work.