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Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Blogcation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - That’s the longest hiatus I’ve taken from this blog since it was born shortly after the end of the Hawks’ dreadful finish to the 2004-05 season.
And I have to admit that it was strange being away (I didn’t so much as pop in here for a minute during the break). Sorry to leave you all hanging like that, but sometimes you have to go cold turkey.
But just a little under a month away from the start of training camp is certainly the time for us to crank up the conversation about these Hawks, where they stand now, where they could land later and whether or not they’ll survive the start of the regular season schedule (after looking at it again today I can’t get over just how brutal it is).
And I’m vowing now, with my Wolverines positioned for the most challenging (and that’s being wildly diplomatic, of course) season of my lifetime and the political blogs handling all the election chatter anyone can take, that this space will not spin into the craziness that has poisoned other hangouts like this one.
With two weeks to catch up on reading, study data for the upcoming season and daydream about the future I have to admit that I’m far more optimistic about this team than I was this time a month ago.
In the interest of full disclosure, it always helps to spend time picking the brains of NBA types who are watching the Hawks from afar.
I’ve done quite a bit of that lately, quizzing each and every one of them about so many of the same things we’ve debated here this summer.
As crazy as this might sound, the one name that kept surfacing in those conversations as the player whose season will best determine the Hawks’ fate isn’t who you might think it would be.
All the guys I spoke with, and all make their living knowing the ins and outs of the league, pointed to Marvin Williams as the linchpin to this season for the Hawks. If he plays above and beyond what he did last year, the Hawks can make another leap. If not … well, they’re much the same as they were a year ago.
Had someone suggested either Joe Johnson or Josh Smith or perhaps even Mike Bibby or Al Horford before Marvin, I would not have been surprised (personally, I think the growth of both Smith and Horford inside will be far more telling. But hey, that’s just my opinion. I’m sure you have your own theories).
But for each of the guys I spoke with to mention Marvin as “that dude,” totally unprompted mind you, it struck me as something much more than a coincidence.
One guy pointed to the Hawks’ performance against the Celtics in the playoffs as Exhibit A as to Marvin’s importance to the Hawks’ bottom line.
“He never actually had a breakout game during that series,” one of my insiders told me last week. “Every other guy in the [Hawks’] starting five had his moment in that series. I know [Marvin] led them in scoring in that Game 6 win but I felt like [Josh] Childress was really the game breaker that night off the bench with that big layup on the baseline, which was also the play that sent Paul Pierce out of that game with his sixth foul. And don’t forget that it was Johnson that hit the huge 3-pointer at the end for the final dagger. I was in the building that night and if ever there was a chance for the kid who was the No. 2 pick in the draft to step up on the big stage and lift his team up when they needed it that was the night. And it didn’t happen.”
If you go back and examine the Hawks’ playoff stats and it’s hard to argue that blunt assessment of Marvin’s performance in his first playoff appearance - he averaged a respectable 11.4 points and 4.0 rebounds on .414 shooting. But even Marvin admitted (at least to me) that he wasn’t nearly as aggressive as he should have been offensively and that he didn’t attack Pierce like he wanted to (which was no doubt influenced by the focus of the Hawks’ attack in the series).
The universal opinion here has been locked in on Marvin’s fourth year being crucial to not only his development but also to the Hawks’ ability to continue ascending the Eastern Conference food chain.
That seems to be a theme shared by observers elsewhere.
“I’m not suggesting that Marvin needs to try and be something he’s not right now,” another one of my insiders said during our conversation. “I’m only suggesting that he has to become more of a presence, more of a factor than he’s been in the past. He has to be a threat every night and not just every two or three games. That’s the big difference people talk about between a guy in his third year and his fourth year, it’s that realization that in order to be a legitimate threat you have to be more consistent and not necessarily more dynamic. I think Marvin’s got plenty of game, more than he shows most nights actually, but it’s more important for him to show it every night than it is for him to show off any new tricks.”
That last sentence by my insider was in direct response to my offering that Marvin’s been working on a new wrinkle (a 3-point shot) to his arsenal, something that I’ve long said will make him a much tougher matchup at his size (6-9, 245 after a summer spent working the weights).
That’s where my insider and I disagree on Marvin and players in general. I don’t have any doubts that a player with a significant offensive wrinkle causes problems he didn’t before. And Marvin’s never stretched the defense beyond the 3-point line in the NBA. He’s always been a mid-range catch and shoot threat, from anywhere on the floor within 18 feet.
You move him back beyond the 3-point line, say from one of the corners, and I believe he drastically changes the way teams can defend the Hawks in the half court. No one has scouted the Hawks with Marvin as a threat from that distance. No one has tape of the Hawks with Marvin as a threat from that distance. If only for the first round of games (by the time the Hawks start seeing teams for the second time this season they’ll have surely figured out a way to at least try and defend the Hawks that way) it becomes a huge benefit for the Hawks to take teams by surprise.
One of my insiders vehemently disagreed with me, insisting that if Marvin’s 3-point shooting is just some gimmick that only works on the nights when he’s hot from deep it’ll be a disaster.
“I think a guy with his size and ability would be better suited polishing up his dribble drive game,” he said. “He’s big enough and talented enough to draw fouls if he’s consistently trying to go to the basket. That’s where I think he has a chance to create the most problems for this team. I don’t see any wisdom in parking a guy that big that far away from the basket, especially on a team strapped for size inside. He’d be much more efficient playing in the post more as opposed to working on the perimeter, where Johnson needs space to operate the way he likes.”
If Marvin was more of a playmaker in the Hawks’ offense I might lean that way as well. But he’s been more of a catch and shoot guy than he has been a creator of facilitator.
Either way it’s a fascinating discussion/debate, and one that we’ll have constantly the next month as we break down the Hawks’ entire roster in this space leading up to training camp.
But I’m curious, what do you think Marvin’s role will be on this team this season and going forward?
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