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Monday, October 6, 2008
Showtime
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - For once Hawks coach Mike Woodson and I are in total agreement. But for all the wrong reasons.
Tonight’s preseason opener against Orlando is huge for Woodson. He wants to see his team go at the defending Southeast Division champions (a team they owned last season, for the most part) and see his starters pushed to the limit so he can see just how truly competitive they will be with the lights on.
Tonight’s preseason opener against Orlando is huge for me, too. I want to see how the new guys blend in with the old guys and see if the improvements made by guys like Solomon Jones and others translate when the opposition is wearing a different name across their chests (plus, it’s always good to get an early look at the competition and how their new parts fit as well).
Woodson wants to win at all costs during the preseason. I could care less about who wins and loses and remain much more concerned with the minutiae, which becomes tougher and tougher to read with rapid-fire, three hour practices during the first week of training camp.
Nothing seemed to change from the first scrimmage of training camp to the last, on Saturday (there was no real scrimmage action Sunday). The guys who stood out the first day continued to shine. Now we want to see if that needle moves or skips with the Magic staring back at the Hawks.
Again, the winning and losing during the preseason is basically a non-issue (for me). I think Woodson is in the camp that believes preseason wins help energize the base, and when you’ve struggled the way the Hawks have in the past there may be some truth to and need for that.
But my needs are a bit more pedestrian.
I want to see if Al Horford and Josh Smith can find a way to frustrate the Magic big men the way they were able to frustrate Boston’s big men at times during that playoff series.
I want to see if Othello Hunter (a real find in an era when front office types swear there aren’t any hidden surprises during the player procurement process) can be as active and crafty around the basket against the Magic as he has been against the Hawks’ first team.
I want to see if Acie Law IV feels empowered enough to assume control of the floor like everyone knows he will have to in order to be Mike Bibby’s understudy or if he defers to his veteran teammates on the second unit (which he seemed to do during scrimmages last week).
And so forth and so on.
Most important, though, is I want to see if the Hawks’ bench can come together quickly enough to really give this team the extra edge it’s going to need to compete for a playoff spot this season.
That another place where Woodson and I are in total agreement.
“I want them to have a nastiness about them,” Woodson said of the bench, “that you don’t lose anything when they’re in the game. That ‘when coach puts me in the game the first unit doesn’t lose anything with the second group on the floor.’ I need them feeling good about playing that role.”
Despite suggestions from the punditry to the contrary, Woodson thinks the bench crews of his four previous teams have performed in that fashion.
“They always felt good about themselves when they came into the game and they always seemed to have a little edge to them,” Woodson said. “That’s how this group has to be with all these guys, Mo and Flip, Zaza and Acie and Solomon and Mario, if he’s a part of it. They’ve got to have a nasty edge, to where if the first unit has it going or even if they don’t, they don’t hurt the flow coming in. Their job is to maintain or take it up to another level.”
That’s going to require regular minutes for not just a couple of those guys, as has been the case in the past, but for all of them.
Woodson has admitted that he has to expand his bench if the Hawks are interested, as they profess, in taking the next step up the Eastern Conference food chain.
Tonight, we’ll get our first chance to see if that (and everything else talked about above) takes place.
SAY IT AIN’T SO SPEED-O: When I ducked onto the practice court Saturday and saw Speedy Claxton on the sideline without his playing shoes on I knew something was up.
At first I was told he “tweaked” his hamstring, I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. After being informed later that he had indeed pulled it, I realize just how tenuous his situation must be.
For a player scrapping and clawing to regain his footing in the NBA, Claxton seems to have the worst luck. You start to wonder if his body is going to continue to betray him at every turn - which certainly seems to be the case thus far.
“I hate it for Speedy,” Marvin Williams said. “I know what it’s like to have to fight back from an injury having broken my hand a couple years ago during camp. People don’t realize how deflating it is to be knocked down like that. But we’ve all got his back. We need him to get healthy and be ready to go, because you never know what’s going to happen during the course of a season. We’re going to need every man on this roster to reach our goals.”
BEST CAMP YET?: To a man the Hawks insist this is the best training camp they’ve had under Woodson.
There’s only one problem, Josh Smith is the only player on the roster to have participated in all five. And while he agrees that the competition and tenor of camp is as good as it’s been since he was drafted, he’s hesitant to knock any of his former teammates.
But he is willing to characterize this group of players as the best “fit” he’s seen during his time with the Hawks.
“Everything works with this group,” he said. “From the starters to the bench to the way we’re trying to play to the atmosphere and attitude during camp. It all makes sense. There is still a lot of work to be done, obviously, and just because it looks good on paper and during the first few days of camp doesn’t mean everything works out in our favor in the end. Nobody can predict how things will end up. I just know that it feels right from the start, and I figure that’s half the battle. The rest is up to us, and I mean the entire organization. We have to finish the deal.”
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