Did Woodson undermine Billy Knight?

[smabie]

Those are really common sense moves. anyone who knows basketball could see that JJ was not a good fit at PG. He is what 6'9", has a sweet J, and is a scorer.

Isn't this description of JJ similar to a description of Magic Johnson? Same height, beautiful shot, and a scorer. Yeah, a very apt description of Magic Johnson. So, are you saying that Magic should never have played PG?

[evildallas]

Magic didn't have a sweet J. He worked a lot to make his shot better, but it wasn't the main identifying factor of his game. What he did have was great court vision, great hands, handle, basketball IQ, was extremely competitive, and was a great passer. I don't believe Joe Johnson stands up to that comparison. Doesn't mean he can play some point, just that let's not squint too much when making those comparisons.

Joe as PG was sure to fail with the roster 3 years ago. Think about it, Zaza at C, Al Harrington at PF, Marvin's a rookie, Josh Smith is as about a raw as can be, Childress wasn't as confident with his handle. Really at the time the only shooter in the lineup was Al Harrington and he wasn't very good for ball movement.

Now we are closer to being able to do it, but still not there yet in terms of shooters. Ideally I'd try to deal the inconsistent Mike Bibby's expiring contract for someone like Mike Miller or Michael Redd. That combined with Marvin developing some range would make for an interesting lineup in the half court with Joe running point. The floor would be spread so much that Josh and Al would be able to use their athleticism against single defenders. Acie would be a change of pace PG and allow Joe to not carry the weight of running the offense all the time.

[JoshB914]

I don't think JJ wants to run the point though. You have to respect the wishes of your franchise player in this situation.

[will]

Pretty sure BK undermined his own self with the horrendous draft picks of Marvin and Sheldon.

At least Woody was using some common sense by shifting Joe back to the 2 guard spot where he is a natural scorer. How is Joe gonna be the point guard if there are no other real scoring options outside of JSmoove? Even JSmoove is suspect as a scoring option.

BK handed Woody crap, and well, you treat crap as it is.

[smabie]

I don't think JJ wants to run the point though. You have to respect the wishes of your franchise player in this situation.

Ummm, then Woodson didn't do that...

Quoting from here

The Hawks, dating to last summer, have had no success in their high-dollar attempts to land a prominent restricted free agent. Yet they remain quietly hopeful that they'll soon be able to play Johnson as a point guard should they finally score this time.
...
"I love the idea," Johnson said. "I'd love that, having the ball in my hands. I think I'm a great shooter, but that's where I think I'm most effective, making decisions."

From here

On Friday, at teammate Steve Nash's charity game in Toronto, Johnson revealed the request to ESPN.com and spoke excitedly about the opportunity to play point guard with the Hawks.

As I recall, the whole point of JJ coming to ATL was specifically to play PG. That was the selling point to convince him to come here. So how does moving him to SG before the ink's even dry make any sense whatsoever?

[JoshB914]

If that quote wasn't from 2005 I'd probably pay attention to it.