Hawks

By Russ

October 5, 2006 04:36 PM | Link to this

What the hell is going on here? Every year the same crap of these injuries that leads to a bad season. SNAKEBIT!

By Sekou K. Smith

October 5, 2006 04:55 PM | Link to this

Russ, I wouldn’t go that far. But the bumps and bruises early make it tougher to work the way you’d like. The flip side is that you get them out of the way now and pray to make it through the rest of the season unscathed.

By The Flash

October 5, 2006 04:56 PM | Link to this

It’s this bobby knight thing, I fear, this emphasis on ferocious defense. We need somebody like the old “ball coach”, that’s right, Steve Spurrier. You’ll laugh, but who I’d really like to see is the old point guard from Carolina, the guy with Sir Charles on TV (I’m blocking on his name); he’d be terrific; no ferocious anything with him. Just exciting and effective play.

By Tired

October 5, 2006 05:02 PM | Link to this

We don’t need injuries for a bad season, we already have a bad GM. All we need is a point guard and some more depth and we would be making the playoffs, but a certain person who will remain nameless decided we need another undersized 4 in our line up.

By John B.

October 5, 2006 05:15 PM | Link to this

Tired: So you’re telling me that being 2-3 players deep at pretty much -every- position means we need MORE depth? We need a Point Guard? Didn’t we get one? For all of those who say that Claxton was just a back-up from NO. Well..Both of those teams (SA + NO) have REALLY good PGs (Parker + Paul) as it is, and most in the league wouldn’t start ahead of them. About the undersized 4..what we REALLY needed was a Defensize presence. Well, we definitely did that, by drafting William, Jones and signing Wright. Who gives a damn if the guy doesn’t have the “natural” height of a 4, if the guy can play some D, then he’s exactly what we need. Try paying attention to the team before you criticize it. Thanks

By WORN OUT

October 5, 2006 05:15 PM | Link to this

I want the Hawks to do well. HOW !? They just wear me out ..

By jbrownjib

October 5, 2006 06:21 PM | Link to this

Someone told me as I was learning to snow ski that if I wasn’t fallen down then I wasn’t trying. Injuries are a part of the game and it doesn’t sound like any of these are all that serious.

By TonyG

October 5, 2006 09:35 PM | Link to this

this is the best review of the Hawks i have found anywhere on the net. check it out:

text to be linked

By SALT SHAKER

October 5, 2006 09:52 PM | Link to this

JOHN B.,BIG UP’S TO YOU,FOR THE KNOWLEDGE YOU DROPPED ON (TIDE).AFTER THIS SQUAD DEVELOPE CHEMISTRY,MAYBE HE AND SOME OTHERS WILL GIVE BILLY KNIGHT RESPECT,FOR PUTTING TOGETHER A TEAM,THAT WE ALL WILL BE PROUD OF FOR YEARS TO COME.(SALT SHAKING ON THAT A*)

By Richie Rich

October 5, 2006 10:31 PM | Link to this

Obviously a few of you have thoughts of Shelden Williams being a Ben Wallace Clone, I see him as being a shorter version of “Tree Rollins”, always in foul trouble!!

By RAMON

October 5, 2006 11:29 PM | Link to this

EVERY ONE KEEPS TALKING ABOUT SHELDON WILLIAMS, BUT WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME DUKE PUT A LOW POST PLAYER IN THE NBA WHO DIDNT PRODUCE??……………………………………………………. EXACTLY, THEY HAVENT.AND IF SOME PEOPLE WOULD TAKE THEIR HEADS OUT OF THEIR A** THEY WOULD SEE THAT BILLY KNIGHT HAS DONE A WONDERFUL JOB AS GM…BECAUSE OF HIS NEGOTIATION, THIS HAWKS TEAM IS LITERALLY DEEPER THAN ANY TEAM IN THE NBA AND STILL HAS GREAT SALARY CAP SPACE..NAME ANOTHER THAT DOES?? I WAS ALWAYS TAUGHT IF YOU BUILD A HOUSE IN ONE DAY IT WONT LAST TOO LONG… SO OF COURSE IT TOOK HIM A FEW SEASONS TO GET EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTS..AND ALL THE TRADES (GARY PAYTON, RASHEED WALLACE, AL HARRINGTON, JOE JOHNSON) HE HASNT TAKEN BACK ONE BAD CONTRACT THAT LEFT THE HAWKS IN TROUBLE.. YOU CANT FIND ONE GM WHO CAME INTO A TERRIBLE SITUATION AND HAD A CONTENDER THE NEXT SEASON..IF YOU’RE A TRUE HAWKS FAN YOU SHOULD BE TIRED OF ALWAYS SEEING THE HAWKS PUT A PLAYOFF TEAM ON THE FLOOR..B/C THEY HAVE ALWAYS DONE THAT..YOU SHOULD WELCOME THE VISION OF A GM TO BUILD A CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM.. NOT JUST A PLAYOFF TEAM..AND RATHER YOU KNOW IT OR NOT WHEN YOU GET INTO THE PLAYOFFS ITS ALL ABOUT HAVING A ROSTER THAT HAS INTERCHANGEABLE PARTS..EVERYONE SAYS THE TEAM HAS NO SUPERSTARS..BUT TRUTH BE TOLD THEY HAVE 3 ALL STARS…JJ AND JOSH SMITH ARE ALREADY PLAYING ALL STAR BALL, AND MWILLIAMS WILL BE JOINING THEM SOON…IF YOU REMEMBER JERMAINE ONEAL DIDNT PRODUCE UNTIL HIS 3RD SEASON IN THE LEAGUE, AND CHAUNCEY BILLUPS DIDNT PRODUCE UNTIL AFTER HIS 5TH SEASON… AND EVERYONE WHO KEEPS TALKING ABOUT DIAW… YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP SOMETHING GOOD TO GET SOMETHING GOOD, TRUE MAYBE THEY DIDNT NEED TO TRADE DIAW..BUT THEN AGAIN WE WERENT ON THE CONFERENCE CALLS SO WE DONT KNOW. .. GO HAWKS!!! AND FK DA HATAZZ……

By The Flash

October 5, 2006 11:51 PM | Link to this

Look, I’m trying to be all positive here, but BK and this point guard thing, I’m sorry, you just can’t give the guy high marks. Can’t. He thought that JJ was “the answer” at point, the next Magic, only that was ridiculous and he let the entire season pass without getting a point, and keeping Al around and getting nothing of moment for him. He didn’t draft Farmar who went late and whose gonna make a lot of people feel stupid, but not BK because, well, he’s BK.

Claxton, I’m sorry, no body really knows, and this here position, PG, is the most important on the court, for the personnel at hand. I’m thinking SW was not a bad pick but BK did pick up two bigs; that he missed on Farmar or someone else of real upside, and then didn’t give Jay Williams a try, well, you just can’t give BK high points on this point thing. Up to now, it has been a complete sinkwell. Hopefully, Claxton will be all that and Lue will show greater consistency scoring the ball and modulating tempo, full throttle all the time doesn’t work for me, and we’ll have something. Who wants to be wishing and hoping when there are some many other pieces already in place. We haven’t even mentioned the draft picks, especially the 07 top 3 protected yet. Talk about NOT BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE. later boyz

By doc

October 6, 2006 07:55 AM | Link to this

flash, lets talk about the draft pick in 07 when it is a real issue, i.e. when we really know how it is going to fall rather than speculate on what possibly might be a negative situation. it can wait dude. otherwise you have called it right yourself; it is just plain negative without any substance at this point.

this team will have huge hurdles to get through without going there; one, just gelling with less time for speedy and two, the still unknown which is how the ownership thing will fall. it will have repercussions that the players will have to deal with that other organizations dont have to go through right now. how they deal with those distractions will probably determine how the pick actually falls.

By redhawk

October 6, 2006 01:06 PM | Link to this

The Hawks do have a foavorable schedule in Nov.—but look at Dec.—pretty brutal, five in a row out West—if we don’t get off to a good start it could get ugly

By Tyger

October 6, 2006 01:15 PM | Link to this

This is exactly why you we’re not overloaded at any positions. People who criticize us for having too many forwards never account for injuries, which always, always happen. Fortunately, our mgt. is wise enough to prepare for the inevitable, thus, we continue to move forward.

With Speedy, ZaZa and Solomon out, that means more reps for Shelden, Salim and Lorenzen, which is probably best in the long term anyway.

By The Flash

October 6, 2006 01:24 PM | Link to this

Right you are, doc, my bad for not letting sleeping dogs lay. My real purpose was to make clear to the new blood that I was all over Farmar as a “must get” early and hard; so when he beats out the guy Andoman don’t like and plays point for LA, which doesn’t really use a point actually, but that is another matter, and starts tearing it up, I can claim my props.

Also, bringing up the old stuff, just aiming at the new blood here, doc. They look good at first glance; just want to see if they can play. Should not have been surprised that in doing so, I inadvertently brought out the boss bull to protect his turf. Now if the rest of this blog were made up of more BPs, we’d have something worth butting heads about old man, although it is always lots of fun anyways, heh, heh, heh.

By Ramon

October 6, 2006 04:06 PM | Link to this

BUT YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER, AT ONE POINT AND TIME STEVE NASH WAS A CAREER BACK-UP, AS WAS CHAUNCEY BILLUPS..THE ONLY POINT GUARDS WHO WERE AVAILABLE FOR HARRINGTON PLAYED FOR THE KNICKS (AND DO YOU REALLY WANT THAT).. AND WHY WOULD YOU TAKE A CHANCE ON A ROOKIE PG, WHEN SPEEDY IS A VETERAN, DEPENDABLE, AND DOESNT TURN THE BALL OVER EITHER..AND IF YOU’VE EVER SEEN HIM PLAY, HES A VERY TOUCH MATCH UP FOR OPPOSING PGs ON OFFENSE..MAYBE HE COULD’VE TOOK A CHANCE ON FOYE, BUT CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS ARE BUILT INSIDE-OUT..NOT OUTSIDE-IN..IF YOU REMEMBER THE PACERS FROM THE 90s IT WAS THEIR RUGGED UNDERSIZED PF (2 DAVIS’s) THAT GAVE EVERYONE PROBLEMS ON THE BOARDS AND ON DEFENSE..PERSONALLY I THINK THE DRAFT PICK FOR NEXT YEAR WAS CRUCIAL, BUT AT THE SAME TOKEN UNLESS ITS OGDEN, THIS TEAM IS YOUNG ENOUGH ALREADY, A DRAFT PICK WONT HURT TOO MUCH.AND I ALSO THINK SS IS GOING TO DO SOME NICE CONSISTENT THINGS THIS YEAR. IF THATS ME BEING TOO OPTIMISTIC..OH WELL I’M SUPPOED TO ..LOL I’M A FAN..LOL BY THE WAY IN THE LAST 2 SEASONS WHAT PG FREE AGENT HAS REALLY DID GREAT THINGS WITH THEIR NEW TEAM? ONLY CASSELL THATS ALL..AND BK TRIED..IF SOMEONE DOESNT WANT TO PLAY FOR YOU, YOU CANT DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. AND THE THANK GOD BK DIDNT WIN THE COURTSHIP WITH DAMPIER A FEW YEARS BACK, WHEN EVERYONE (INCLUDING MYSELF) WAS WANTING HIM TO SIGN HIM..(OR WITH CHANDLER, CURRY, OR DALEMBERT), THERE ARE MANY FREE AGENTS WE SAID BK SCREWED UP, BUT IF YOU LOOK BACK NOW, NOT HARDLY ANY OF THEM PRODUCED AFTER THEIR CONTRACTS, SO IT MADE SENSE.

By the Flash

October 6, 2006 06:12 PM | Link to this

Good show, Ramon. Just a few points of clarification. One. I like Speedy; have since his days at Hofstra. I really like Farmar; he would have made a terrific backup and, if my sense of him is right, blown right past Speedy. But, no, I wouldn’t have bet the ranch on it; Speedy was a good sign.

Last season, I saw a point from Portland as being an easy get; me, I’ve wanted Jack from day one and Al straight up with Astroman handling the salary cap issues and the details of other players if necessary. I’d have gotten that bad boy done. And, I tell you something else; if not Jack, my boy Stevie Blake; now he can run a club. Not the defender that you’d want, or the athlete, but he would have added wins to this team plus something else; real organization and the ball would have moved. He has that kind of affect.

Like others, I also coveted the Dukie playing for Chicago, and would have done a straight up deal Al for him too.

Oh, by the way, I always thought and still do that if we had gotten Blake, Stevie Franchise would have been worth the risk, move JJ to the 3. I think that Franchise misses his boy Mobley terribly and saw a tremendous opening for bringing his two boys from Md here when they were both leaving the Zards and signing Franchise. With Blake and (i’m blanking here) to sooth his wounded soul, you’d have had a terrific backcourt, and could have played JJ in what I have always thought was his most natural position, the 3.

But, Ramon, you definitely got game and I ain’t arguing against anything you said, well, almost anything, but if I bring that old stuff up again, I’m gonna have to answer to the good doctor; once a day is enough for anyone. Tough medicine, eh, doc.

By ray

October 7, 2006 03:50 AM | Link to this

I still think we should make a play for one of Boston’s three young PGs. None of them will want to be the back-up but two of them will have to be. Which means someone will want to be traded anyway. I know this may sound kinda “out there” but I we could probably work a decent trade later in the season (when it’s most likely to happen anyway). Just think: you have a choice between Rajon Rondo, Delonte West, and Sebastian Telfair. Come on, not all three of those guys can be in the same spot. If I had to make such a choice, I’d take Rondo or West. Telfair has game, but I’ve seen less of him than West, and I kinda have a feel for the type of player Rondo will be. Of course, I could be dead wrong.

Doc, good points.

Flash, I share your hunger for the offensive show, but brother…we just ain’t Phoenix or Dallas…not yet anyway.

Ramon, you make some good points too, but why are you shouting?