GT Fri Jan 6th: Charlotte Vs Atlanta 7:00pm

[bobcats3wallace]

Bonnell seems confident that Mullens will be starting next game with Thomas seeing most of his minutes at SF and more of DJ/Kemba and that zone.

DJ/Hendo/Thomas/Diaw/Mullens I think is what it will eventually get to once Thomas gets his feet under him in a game or two. That would naturally set up nice rotations. We then can bring DJW back off the bench, which is his role. It also allows for us to bring Biz in off the bench for Mullens as a primary C and of course Diaw shifts back to PF. Thomas had a horrific night on offense but was decent on defense. I have faith he will improve offensively.

I think the zone with DJ/Kemba would be much more effective with Biyombo, Mullens, and Thomas out there. Biyombo and Thomas both can rotate over to cover the outside with Mullens staying center (can still move faster than Diaw I think...). I like all three moves. Kemba seemed to really enjoy playing with DJ and no question they are both our top playmakers. This should also hopefully increase the minutes for BIz by giving him a bit of a more defined role. Lets see how it shakes out. Unfortunately about the time we finally could get it all worked out, Maggette will be back and ready to play. Haha.

[Marvel]

I just think it was bad game planning. Should have been playing more up-tempo to wear out the Hawks' legs. Came out shooting flat but didn't try to change it up enough, go for easier baskets.

Fair point, but how could we, with a fat C and a slow footed PF starting? That zone didn't work for us. It gave up three 3s and crucial offensive rebounds. Did i mention Diaw was waaaaay too slow on his closeouts. Silas was faithful to a fault, that lineup brought us back in the game, but he stuck with it for too long.

Don't want to sound like a broken record, but a White and Diaw starting frontcourt is TERRIBLE defensively and not that great offensively. Hey, at least our tank record suits up. What are we 5th worst in the league....on track.

By getting out on the break after every rebound. Hawks can't make every basket. In my eyes they lost the game in the 1st quarter b/c they trotted up the court expecting their shot to fall like they did against NY. They never really changed this up and they let a bad and tired Hawks team stay in the game and hold the lead. I agree that Diaw and White are not good together on defense, and I'm guessing if Bismack had enough experience for Silas to trust him with more minutes, he would have been in there to make up for either Diaw or White's awful weakside defense.

We were down by 2 after the 1st. Like i said, we can't expect to get out and run with this starting frontcourt of Diaw and White. If we wanted to take advantage of a fatigued Hawks side, Silas should have gone with TT and maybe Mullens or Smack.

We just weren't making shots, Hendo, TT were 5-18 tonight.

[Eoghan]

We were down by 2 after the 1st. Like i said we can't run with this starting frontcourt of Diaw and White. If we wanted to take advantage of a fatigued Hawks side, Silas should have gone with TT and maybe Mullens or Smack.

We just weren't making shots, Hendo, TT were 5-18 tonight.

Why not? You don't have to streak up the floor like Derrick Rose to start a fast break. All we needed was to make ATL labor more on transition D, get DJA or Kemba to penetrate before ATL have a chance to set up their D and get them in scramble mode, move the ball around and boom, you've got Diaw open for 3 as he comes into the play, DJW can run to his spot, and jumpers for the wings will be more open.

We just tried to beat them in the half court too much.

[Marvel]

We were down by 2 after the 1st. Like i said we can't run with this starting frontcourt of Diaw and White. If we wanted to take advantage of a fatigued Hawks side, Silas should have gone with TT and maybe Mullens or Smack.

We just weren't making shots, Hendo, TT were 5-18 tonight.

Why not? You don't have to streak up the floor like Derrick Rose to start a fast break. All we needed was to make ATL labor more on transition D, get DJA or Kemba to penetrate before ATL have a chance to set up their D and get them in scramble mode, move the ball around and boom, you've got Diaw open for 3 as he comes into the play, DJW can run to his spot, and jumpers for the wings will be more open.

We just tried to beat them in the half court too much.

To be fair, the Hawks transition D was pretty solid from what i could see, but maybe that's just me. We weren't making shots.

Why not?

Because Diaw's fat and White is too slow.

[nyhuskyfan]

Thanks for the low down.

He's hella fun to watch, that's for sure.

Best thing I can say about him is that even on his worst shooting days, you never felt like he was cheating you on effort. As he gets more adjusted, you'll see him chasing down more loose balls/rebounds, getting deflections, saving balls you thought for sure were going out of bounds, etc. One of my favorite Kemba moments was a highlight-reel twisting lay-up he made against Butler in the NC game last year (when he shot 5-19 - that dang Dome was where shooters went to die). It wasn't the lay-up -- it was that he tumbled out of bounds with a somersault into the photographers, sprung right to his feet, and sprinted back on D.

He looked good today, but I still wish he'd come inside the 3-point line more. The last three he took in transition screamed for a drive to the basket or a mid-range shot, but he felt hot from three and pulled up. It worked out since the rebound fell into Mullens' lap.

[Eoghan]

We were down by 2 after the 1st. Like i said we can't run with this starting frontcourt of Diaw and White. If we wanted to take advantage of a fatigued Hawks side, Silas should have gone with TT and maybe Mullens or Smack.

We just weren't making shots, Hendo, TT were 5-18 tonight.

Why not? You don't have to streak up the floor like Derrick Rose to start a fast break. All we needed was to make ATL labor more on transition D, get DJA or Kemba to penetrate before ATL have a chance to set up their D and get them in scramble mode, move the ball around and boom, you've got Diaw open for 3 as he comes into the play, DJW can run to his spot, and jumpers for the wings will be more open.

We just tried to beat them in the half court too much.

To be fair, the Hawks transition D was pretty solid from what i could see, but maybe that's just me. We weren't making shots.

Why not?

Because Diaw's fat and White is too slow.

They didn't look too fat and slow against STAT and Tyson Chandler, why would they suddenly be so against Zaza freaking Pachulia and Ivan Johnson after a 3OT game?

[Marvel]

They didn't look too fat and slow against STAT and Tyson Chandler, why would they suddenly be so against Zaza freaking Pachulia and Ivan Johnson after a 3OT game?

You mean Horford and Josh Smith. To be fair, Knicks defense, especially that game, was one of the worst i've ever seen and we were knocking down shots, i mean we couldn't miss.

[Eoghan]

Meh, Horford didn't do much damage and only a handful of guys can check J-Smoove if he actually has a jump shot going. Defense is a team issue, if DJ wasn't playing matador defense like Toni Kukoc then White and Diaw would have less to worry about. I'll just leave it at that.

[Elden Payton]

Meh, Horford didn't do much damage and only a handful of guys can check J-Smoove if he actually has a jump shot going. Defense is a team issue, if DJ wasn't playing matador defense like Toni Kukoc then White and Diaw would have less to worry about. I'll just leave it at that.

I definitely agree with the bolded.

[fatlever]

who is worse defensively - nash, dj or calderon?

[dmutombo321]

DJ and Nash (despite his advancing age) have been consistantly bad. It seems Calderon is getting progressively worse.

[Battery]

who is worse defensively - nash, dj or calderon?

NO-D.j

[Marvel]

Meh, Horford didn't do much damage and only a handful of guys can check J-Smoove if he actually has a jump shot going. Defense is a team issue, if DJ wasn't playing matador defense like Toni Kukoc then White and Diaw would have less to worry about. I'll just leave it at that.

Huh...yeah let's leave it.