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October 2008
Don’t be satisfied
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ORLANDO - Those were the words on the dry erase board in the Hawks’ locker room after Wednesday’s huge win over Orlando.
I have no idea who wrote them. But they couldn’t have done a better job in summing up the directive for these Hawks going forward.
Being undefeated after the first 48 minutes of the season has to feel good. But if the Hawks want to keep the good vibrations rolling, they’ll have to find a new motivation every night.
Staying humble about whatever they accomplish this season (and one impressive road win doesn’t mean much of anything other than one impressive road win) is what will keep this team flowing.
That said, playing the socks off a division rival on its home floor isn’t anything to dismiss. Orlando is the runaway favorite to win the division agains this season and most everyone expects them to challenge for another 50-win season behind Dwight Howard.
Hawks captain Joe Johnson had a sobering perspective on the entire affair after the game, making clear that the Hawks need to remain hungry for more while also internalizing the fact that they are a legitimate team and no longer just some hit or miss outfit.
“My expectations for this season is just to compete night in and night out,” said Johnson, who doused any chance the Magic had of coming back with nine fourth quarter points in the win. “I think that will take care of us making the playoffs or how far we will go. As long as we play with confidence every night and with a winning attitude, we’ll be fine.”
CRANK THAT: Josh Smith is a man of his word.
When he was criticized for his lackluster performance during the Hawks’ preseason schedule, he warned anyone willing to listen that come Oct. 29 he would crank his game up to a high level.
He was game-changer Wednesday night, and not for the obvious reasons (17 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks, four steals and no turnovers). Smith’s biggest contributions Wednesday don’t have a column in the box score.
Whenever there was a loose ball to be had, Smith was one of the first players on the floor after it. He set the tone for the Hawks early with two jolting blocks of Howard, sizing up his pal since pre-school both times in highlight fashion.
It was the type of menacing, all-court effort I wrote about in the Hawks preview, the kind of effort that made him such a tough matchup during the playoffs last season.
“That’s when he is at his best,” Johnson said of Smith. “When he is active, blocking shots, rebounding, getting up and down the floor and dunking. We need him flying around like that. When he does that, he is one of the best in the league.”
Smith is also one of the best in the league at settling scores with blocks. His anticipation of Howard’s moves in several instances during the game might have startled some, including Howard. But it was all friendly payback for Howard dunking on Smith (and reminding him of it all summer) during a game in Atlanta last season.
“He dunked on me and got an and one,” Smith said. “He got on me about it all summer and I didn’t like it, so I wanted to prove a point when we got down here.”
PHILLY GOOD: The shouting and cheering coming from the Hawks’ locker room after Wednesday’s game had nothing to do with the big win over the Magic.
That noise was courtesy of Flip Murray, who doubled up on the night with a fantastic showing off the bench for the Hawks and his beloved Philadelphia Phillies finally breaking through and winning the World Series title.
“It don’t get too much better than this,” Murray said smiling. “My Phillies man, my Phillies. They did their job and we did our job.”
Murray said the Hawks came in with the express purpose of trying to smack the Magic first and take the air out of the building. That mission was accomplished almost immediately.
“That was the focus, especially for a first game of the year against a big rival,” he said. “And they wanted it too. The fans came out, they had the building rocking and they had their little introductions and everything, they had it all going. It was our job to come out and take the life out of the building, jump on them early and that’s what we did.”
No one had a tougher night than Magic reserve guard JJ Redick, who got exposed for being the pitiful defender he is when matched up against Murray during one second-quarter stretch.
Murray scored on Redick at will, driving past him, backing him down and shooting over him and treating him like the overrated draft night bust that he appears to be (or at least he appears on the road to becoming - and for the life of me, can the fine folks of this city please stop acting like the guy is some All-Star player? He gets more crowd love than any of the Magic’s legitimate players. It’s ridiculous).
“It’s all about the rhythm of the game,” Murray said. “Wherever the mismatch is we’re going to try and exploit until they do something about it.”
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Calm before the storm
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - This silence is nerve wracking.
Waiting around for the Hawks to kick off the 2008-09 season against their favorite Southeast Division foe (it seems like the Hawks and Orlando have played twice a week since training camp started) has been almost as painful as waiting for all of September to get training camp going.
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, there is something reassuring about the Hawks’ season kicking off.
They’ve been our punching bag the past few years. They’ve been our blankie, our favorite slippers, our lucky sweats or whatever other pet object you treat like a wet food stamp only to go back to it again and again expecting it to fit just the way we like.
If you let the Hawks tell it, though, they’re done being our victims. That playoff series with Boston last spring was just the beginning, not the end of an (the Billy Knight) era.
So our days of abusing them, even in jest, might be over.
“We’ve taken our lumps the past few years and that’s cool,” Hawks captain Joe Johnson said. “But we’re not going back to where we were. We’re not running in place any more. We’re chasing more than what we’ve accomplished so far. We’re tired of watching somebody else do what we want to do. So we’re going to fight for our spot.”
That spot Johnson mentioned is the Hawks’ spot in the Eastern Conference food chain. After being guppies for years, the Hawks believe they are moving up. Only time will tell - and what better test is there than the Hawks’ opening stretch that includes 10 of their first 16 games on the road?
At least one pundit, Scoop Jackson of ESPN.com’s Page 2, seems to believe. Jackson picked the Hawks to win the division (the only member of the Worldwide Leader’s pundit brigade to pick a team other than Orlando for the top spot).
There are cautionary tales for the Hawks to learn from, teams that experienced a little bit of postseason magic and assumed they were on the road to redemption, only to be slapped back to reality the following season.
Golden State didn’t make the playoffs a year after knocking off Dallas in the first round. And that Chicago team that everyone thought served notice by dispatching Miami two years ago bottomed out last season and are basically in yet another rebuilding mode.
So why should anyone believe the Hawks are headed for anything more than a one-hit wonder playoff trip and then back to their permanent seat at the geek table?
“The difference between us and some of these other teams is that we’ve really done this the slow and painful way and never strayed from that course,” said Hawks forward Josh Smith, the lone player remaining from the 2004-05 season, Mike Woodson’s first at the helm of this team. “That’s one of the things about doing some the hard way, it always lasts. The quick fix never lasts.”
If a 106-222 regular season mark the past four years is considered the “hard way,” the Hawks are the league champs in that category.
Few teams have endured a more dizzying array of bad draft picks (Shelden Williams anyone?), puzzling trades (everyone’s still waiting for those Gary Payton Hawks jerseys to go one sale), botched free agent signings (in their defense, Speedy Claxton did have severe injury issues and Josh Childress got a groundbreaking offer from Olympiacos), off-court drama Hollywood screenwriters couldn’t dream up (let’s not revisit the ownership squabble), stunning drama (Jason Collier’s family remains in our prayers) and just about any other crazy thing that could happen to a team during a four-year stretch fit for the Twilight Zone.
To their credit, the Hawks have come through all of it in relatively decent shape. The roster is as balanced as it’s been in years. The salary structure is solid, with the ability to get better with a few moves here and there over the next couple of seasons. They rekindled some of the love with their fans by putting on as good a home playoff show as any team (other than the Celtics) during the postseason.
Perhaps most stunning is that the Hawks gone from a punch line around the league to an actual topic of discussion in places as far away as Los Angeles, where Lakers coach Phil Jackson was actually asked about the Hawks during one of his training camp media scrums.
“Usually, it’s tough to carry that over,” Jackson said when asked if he thought the Hawks would be able to capture some of that same playoff magic this season. “It’s something that solidifies in the post-season. They have a awful lot of young guys who are all searching for pecking order there. But they got a start.”
Man, even the Zen-Master thinks the Hawks might have stumbled on to something.
Maybe times really are a changing.
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Predictions anyone, and more
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
GOD’S COUNTRY, Mich. - Now that we’re done with the farce that is preseason basketball, it’s time we get down to the business of predicting exactly how this season will play out for the Hawks.
The players have actually talked aloud about a goal of winning 50 games this year, which is a quantum leap for a franchise that hasn’t accomplished anything near that in over a decade.
But I can respect guys with big goals, even if they seem a bit far-fetched or at least out of reach.
I can’t ride on the high side like that, though. Can’t do it.
The realist in me won’t allow it, especially not with my front row seat at the difficulties the Hawks have had climbing out of the 13-69 sink hole they were in a few years ago. The climb is just too steep without an infusion superstar (or at least All-Star) talent.
A 45-37 mark, however, is totally within the realm of possibility.
That record would have been good for the fourth seed in the playoffs last year, a spot held down by LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers. I don’t see it being good enough for that spot this year in what should be an improved Eastern Conference. But it should certainly be good enough for another playoff berth, which I think these Hawks can attain.
No Hawks fans in his or her right mind could complain about a 45-37 record … well, save for a few of our good friends around here.
It’s your turn now, to weigh in on this season and where you think this team will finish. And know that Ando is keeping track of who says what and will be glad to share the prognostications with you later if you try and flip the script later.
So have at it.
BUT BEFORE YOU GO: In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to share an email that was sent to me recently by a former Hawks staffer that wanted to get me straight on how Othello Hunter came to be a part of this franchise.
In a story last weekend I wrote about Hunter receiving a glowing recommendation from Bobcats coach Larry Brown in the summer and the Hawks snapping him up after that. But according to retired Hawks scout Herb Livsey, who set me straight with an email (cut and pasted below) earlier this week (and I don’t mind getting told by someone who has the details from the other side when I don’t):
Dear Mr. Smith:
Othello Hunter came to the Atlanta Hawks’ attention way before Larry Brown may have called Mike Woodson about Othello’s play in Charlotte.
I scouted for the Atlanta Hawks for the past four years, retiring at age 72 at the close of the 2008 draft week. Each summer I have been working for Nike at, first, the All America Camp in Indianapolis, and most recently at the LeBron James Skills Academy in Akron. My assignment has been with the college players, serving on that teaching staff. College players come to the Nike summer program as counselors, and have classes each day as well. I work with the inside players. In July of 2007, Othello Hunter was in my class. He had had a so-so junior year at Ohio State, after an outstanding career at a Florida Community College. Someone from the Ohio State staff attended each of my sessions with the inside players; Othello had come to Akron to work on his skills in a setting away from the Ohio State campus. At the end of each of the five days a member of the Ohio State staff and I discussed what had taken place with Othello that day.
At the conclusion of the Academy I submitted a report evaluating Othello Hunter as a player for the Atlanta Hawks’ roster, as I could see his potential, and predicted he would continue to grow as a player under the excellent Ohio State staff. I saw him as a 2nd round draft pick. I asked each scout on our staff to follow up, watch Othello when possible, and order film on him so that we could stay updated as to his progress. When we traded for Mike Bibby and lost our second round pick, I made a presentation to our staff and to our administration and to one of our owners: if we do our homework, we can get a player at “61” — someone not drafted, but whom we know and would have a possibility to still make our roster. Not knowing what might happen with him, we kept Othello Hunter at the top of our list for pick #61.
When Mike came into the draft room prior to the actual draft, I presented to him the play of Othello Hunter and one other player I had recommended. (Know that during draft week I met Rick Sund and Dave Pendergraft for the first time, and learned that they, too, felt Othello Hunter would have a chance to make our summer team.) Mike saw film of each player at that time. As it came to be, after not being drafted, and after working out for many NBA teams, Othello ended up on our summer team, played well, secured a contract and quite possibly will be on Atlanta’s roster.
As stated in your article, that Mike learned about Othello Hunter via his friend Larry Brown, that is not so. Our scouting staff at Atlanta during my four years, under the guidance of Mike McNieve, and under the leadership of Billy Knight, worked diligently each year, and it was our purpose to improve the roster through the draft. We work behind the scenes. Othello Hunter came into focus in July of 2007, he was followed throughout his senior season, and both our scouting staff and the new administration recognized he could be a good addition. Mike learned about Othello Hunter way before Larry Brown made any comments to him.
It is not my purpose to be negative toward anyone. Scouts often do not get credit for the work they do. I feel that this is one time that it is the case, and I wanted to support the work we did in bringing Othello Hunter to the Atlanta Hawks roster.
Thank you for “listening.”
Very respectfully, Herb Livsey
PAINT THE TOWN: Anyone looking for the Hawks this weekend need only find their way to the Edgewood Shopping Center Saturday afternoon (3 p.m.)
All of the Hawks’ players and coaches will be on hand for their “Paint the Town” celebration, “assisting customers at various stores, including Target, Starbucks (inside Target), Kroger, Best Buy, Game Stop, and Five Guys, as well as mingling with fans. At approximately 3 p.m., the team will conduct a free public autograph session. A number of other festivities are planned, including Hawks inflatables and interactive elements (beginning at 12 noon), appearances by The A-Town Dancers and mascots, and more. Visit www.hawks.com for more information.
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Morris lives, and more
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - Randolph Morris lives folks.
He lives.
After barely playing for most of the preseason he finally logged some significant minutes in the Hawks’ 109-103 loss to Orlando Monday night at Philips Arena.
And the reserve big man looked more than up to the task of banging with his old pal Dwight Howard and the other Magic big men.
Morris piled up eight points (on 3-for-4 shooting), three rebounds, and assist and the expected five fouls (everyone picks up fouls with Howard on the floor). Morris even had two turnovers, which is a clear indicator that he was on the floor longer than usual because he actually was out there long enough to turn the ball over a couple of times.
I have to admit, I knew Morris was going to play more minutes because Hawks coach Mike Woodson said as much during his pre-game media session (maybe Woody reads the blog and has heard our passionate pleas regarding Morris … or maybe not).
What Woodson knew is that he was going to need every foul from every one of his big men against Howard - and he was right. Twenty-two of the 32 fouls called on the Hawks Monday night were on their big men. Howard went to the line 22 times, a staggering number even for the preseason.
As for Morris, our blogfavorite son passed his test. He came in cold and showed that he’ll compete against the best when thrown into the fire. That’s what I needed to see from the big fella.
COMMUNICATION ISSUES?: One peculiar side effect of Woodson playing so many different rotations is the fact that when his starters were on the floor at the end of Monday’s game they didn’t seem to be in sync.
There were several glitches late in the game on both ends of the floor. The most glaring problem seemed to be the lack of communication that several of the Hawks addressed after the game.
“It would be a lot easier if we talk a little bit more,” Mike Bibby said. “And really I have to start with myself, but when you talk a little bit more it makes things a lot easier. And you do that instead of assuming, you know, assuming that something is going to here or there or somebody is going to be here or there. We have to do a better job of communicating out there.”
SICK AND TIRED OF EACH OTHER: As fond as the Hawks are of Orlando and the Magic are of Atlanta, both teams have seen about enough of each other already. And they’ve still got one more date to go.
The Oct. 29 regular season opener will serve as the rubber match for these two teams - the Hawks won the preseason opener for both teams in Orlando and the Magic returned the favor last night.
The preseason and regular season schedules aren’t done in concert, so these dress rehearsals have been strictly a coincidence.
But it’s given both teams a renewed appreciation for each other.
“Atlanta is a good team. They’re very athletic. They made the playoffs last year, so you have to come with your ‘A’ game when you play these guys,” Magic forward Rashard Lewis said. “They have a lot of talent on that team, especially at guard. They have an All-Star in Joe Johnson, and Josh Smith is a great player, too. You can’t sleep on them. You have to always be ready to play. And I think the Eastern Conference will be better as a whole, with Atlanta getting better and Milwaukee and Toronto making some offseason moves, making things a lot more competitive.”
Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said the Hawks are a team he and his staff have spent a lot of time watching in the offseason for several reasons, mostly because the Hawks have given them fits in the past.
“This is a good team, they’ve got a lot of ability and it’s a very, very talented team that came on that end last season,” he said, “especially when they got Bibby. He was the point guard that was sort of the missing piece for them. And everything changed around then. They had a great playoff series. It’s going to be a team that’s right there. And you’re going to have to contend with them, no question.”
IN LOVE WITH THE DEEP BALL: The Hawks’ love affair with the 3-point shot, the one that led them to victory Saturday in Charlotte when they shot the lights out of Time Warner Cable Arena, is the same love affair that led them astray Monday night.
The Hawks shot just 6-for-19 from beyond the 3-point line against the Magic, with Flip Murray and Johnson going a combined (and brutal) 4-for-14 from that distance.
On the flipside the Magic shot 9-for-17 from deep, just three more makes but a huge difference in the final outcome.
“You make a couple more of those shots, and they were good looks, and it’s a different outcome,” Johnson said. “What we can’t do is stop being aggressive in taking the ball to the basket and forcing teams to play us straight up. We just have to know when to exploit things from outside and when to switch gears and go inside and then out.”
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A strange feeling
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - It hit me late Saturday night about six miles from the Georgia state line (note to self, driving to and from Charlotte sounds a lot better than it actually feels when you’re doing it).
I wasn’t sure if it was that jumbo hot dog from the concession stand, or the frosty is stopped to get at the Clemson exit, that did it to me or if it was something else, something bigger than that.
But I’m realizing now that it was the Hawks.
Either I’m going soft after all these years on the beat or this team is finally starting to look like the rest of the average and above average teams in the NBA.
I’m not predicting a 50-win season and deep playoff run, this is the preseason after all (and I got a strange feeling, not a text from the basketball Zeus telling me to bet on the birds). But I am certain that this Hawks teams will keep climbing the its way up the food chain in the Eastern Conference.
I’m breaking with the party (of NBA watchers and writers) and going with the Hawks rather than going against them (like the folks that have predicted that they’ll backslide behind the likes of Charlotte, Miami, Indiana, Chicago and the like).
This team is better than the one we saw at the end of last season, the one that battled the Celtics to Game 7. Barring major injury, these cats appear to have a chance to really make some noise this year.
I wanted to wait a day to make sure it wasn’t just fatigue, bad fast food and a the emotional hangover of another embarrassing performance by my Wolverines working on me. It wasn’t.
This is by far the most dynamic, balanced and potentially high-scoring team I’ve seen entrusted to Hawks coach Mike Woodson. And he’s shown a willingness to tinker with and explore the possibilities with crew at his disposal.
You true Hawks fans out there have been begging for this for years, so I don’t want to be the negative voice out there telling you not to dream big (besides, that’s Ando and Ray’s job to be the realists around here).
The internal expectation for this team will be off the charts anyway (I’ve heard rumblings about one goal being a 13-game improvement in the win column, which is a huge leap without the addition of an All-Star caliber player). Why shouldn’t the fans have equally super-sized expectations?
Along those lines, I hereby refuse to stifle anyone’s heightened expectations for this team. And with the economy strangling the good vibrations out of us all, dreaming big about your Hawks is one guilty pleasure that shouldn’t be infringed upon.
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The little things …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - When the Suns show up for a preseason game and Shaq, Amare Stoudemire and Leandro Barbosa are all held out of the action it’s hard to get terribly excited about the game itself.
But it’s easy to focus on the little things, the details of a game that in the grand scheme of things means little more than a free public scrimmage between two teams bent on keeping everyone healthy (sorry Steve Nash, I know that sprained ankle suffered before halftime must have hurt).
Suns coach Terry Porter said it best when talking about the hands-free defensive approach of the first half when he said, “I wasn’t happy with the lack of defense being played in the first half, and I’m sure Mike Woodson would say the same thing. It was as if we signed a peace treaty in the first half to let each other score, but in the second half both teams settled down.”
And that’s why I tried to train my eyes on the little things last night.
I tried to focus in on the minutiae and see if there was something that might be going on that might have escaped our magnifying glass up until now.
A few observations:
If you knew you could get about 10 rebounds and seven points from Zaza Pachulia in about 19 minutes every night, would you take it? I would. He only took two shots but was aggressive going to the rim (5-for-6 from the foul line). Sure, he had three turnovers but he only registered one personal foul and also blocked a shot. His comfort level this preseason is a complete 180 from a year ago. Apparently a new wife and baby agree with ZP, because he looks refreshed and is playing that same way. Joe Johnson made the same point to me after the game, unprompted, confirming my initial thought.
Othello Hunter made me feel a lot better about raving about his uncanny knack for being in the right place at the right time around the rim a couple weeks ago by doing exactly that in his 17-plus minutes of action. He was 3-for-5 from the floor and finished with six points, three rebounds, an assist and a block. He didn’t jump out at anybody with his play but it’s interesting to see if the things you see from a guy in practices and scrimmages translates into games. Hunter’s a keeper and a guy that could end up being a great find if he develops his game over the next couple of years.
It might be hard for some people to fathom the idea that Solomon Jones will end up being a better NBA player than Shelden Williams, but it could happen. That chatter started during the summer before the start of their rookie seasons, when Williams was clearly more ready for the NBA than Jones. A few people inside the organization that strongly protested the drafting of Williams at No. 5 made it clear that they felt Jones had more “upside” than Williams. I couldn’t agree more then and now.
The Hawks’ 21-6 edge in fast break points against a team like the Suns is startling, even if it just in the preseason. Honestly, I don’t know how the Hawks keep a straight face when they’re not running (or at least trying to push the pace a little bit), because it’s so obvious that it is when they are most dangerous. During a three minute stretch just before halftime, when they trailed by as many as eight points, the Hawks chewed into that lead by beating the Suns up and down the floor and making plays on both ends. The deficit was just a point at halftime. I wish you all could have seen the looks on the faces of the Suns players and coaches as they headed to the locker room. They had that “What the heck just happened?” look going on. It was classic.
Acie Law IV played 865 minutes during the regular season as a rookie, a paltry number for the No. 11 pick in any draft (and I don’t care that he was hurt several times throughout the season). He’s already played a team-high 146 minutes during this preseason, and don’t think it’s by accident. Woodson knows that he has to make sure Law is ready for his role, whatever it might be this season, and that he can only get their by playing. That learning by osmosis (and watching) approach from last year clearly didn’t work. Law has responded well with the increased minutes (he’s on a fantastic run right now) and is poised to quite many of his doubters. He even shut me up last night about his assist numbers by piling up six (with just one turnover). The thing I really appreciate about his game is that even when he doesn’t shoot particularly well he is capable of manufacturing points by getting to the rim and drawing fouls (he shot just 2-for-8 from the floor last night but was 7-for-8 from the free throw line).
Anybody seen Randolph Morris? The Hawks only have three preseason games left and it would be nice to see the young big man make an appearance. I have a sneaking feeling that the Hawks are going to need him at some point early this season, what with the foul troubles and injury issues that can befall any team at any time. Morris is a bit different from the typical big man in that he’s far more polished offensively than he is a brute or a physical presence. That may be why he hasn’t seen more minutes (he’s clocked just seven so far in the preseason, lowest on the team). I’d just like to see what he can do in a crisis, even if it is a preseason crisis.
Finally, it was something to see Mo Evans crowd Grant Hill at the top of the key on what turned out to be the game-winning play for the Suns with about 11 seconds to play. Hill made a sweet pull-up jumper over Evans with 5.6 seconds left in the game. What I liked was that Evans was hungry for that challenge and how upset he was that Hill made the shot (this is preseason remember, we’re “not supposed to care who wins and loses”). He pounded the cushion on the scorer’s table in front of us and sent someone’s mouthpiece case flying (no one was harmed). It always helps when your designated defensive stopper embraces his role.
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“Nothing’s broken”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - That was Hawks coach Mike Woodson’s response after Monday’s win over Charlotte when asked for a status update on the sprained left thumb Marvin Williams sustained in the first quarter of the game.
And that has to be the best news for the Hawks, who played particularly well with their bigger lineup on the floor for much of the second half of the game.
Williams said afterwards that he was “fine” and that he’d be “alright.” But he had no other concrete information other than whatever tests were run Monday night came back positive in terms of long-term damage.
He did bend his hand back pretty good trying to fight through a screen on the defensive end. And he had that funky tape job like Mike Bibby (who sat out with injury Monday but is fine and expected to return to the lineup as early as Wednesday’s game against Phoenix) had last season when the Hawks acquired him at the trade deadline.
That contraption lasted only a few trips up and down the floor in the second quarter before Williams snatched off the webbing that tied his index finger and thumb together.
“I can bend my hand but I can’t extend it,” he said after the game. “It’s throbbing right now, but I’ll be fine.”
Playing without Williams in the second half Monday was excellent practice for the Hawks, who improved to 3-1 this preseason, since they’ll play the Oct. 29 regular season opener without him (you remember that clothesline job on Rajon Rondo from Game 7 of the series with Boston, it cost Williams a game).
I have to admit, the bigger lineup Woodson has been talking about since the summer looked better in person than I imagined it would. The Hawks were much feistier with Zaza Pachulia and Al Horford working inside together (which allowed Josh Smith to work the wing and the break as much as he could).
The results were rather pronounced as well. After managing just 11 rebounds and just four fast break points in the first half the Hawks piled up 20 and 13 after halftime.
It should surprise no one that the Hawks were 10 points better in the second half playing a more up-tempo and aggressive style than they did in the first half.
“That’s our game right there,” said Acie Law IV, whose driving layup with 4.6 seconds to play sealed the win. “We’re at our best when we’re going full speed like we did after halftime.”
PERFECT FITS: Bobcats coach Larry Brown noticed what everyone else did after halftime Monday, Flip Murray and Mo Evans are perfect fits for what the Hawks plan to do this season.
“Atlanta is going to be good,” Brown said. “They have a lot of depth. Mo Evans and Flip Murray are really going to help them and Acie law is much improved. They’re a good basketball team and they are very well coached. They did a much better job guarding the pick and roll than we did. I thought that was a big key. They were very active and they used the pick and roll very well.”
As for his point about Murray and Evans (the FlipMo Squad as they were so aptly named a couple weeks back), when you marry yourself to playing at the pace the Hawks did in the second half Monday, those guys are truly perfect fits.
Even when they don’t shoot lights out they’re ideal fits because both guys are capable going to the basket and finishing, and Murray can finish well with either hand making him even more dangerous.
They seemed to crank up the play of the entire second unit, even the members that didn’t score a whole lot.
“Our bench played a major factor in the second half,” Woodson said, “especially coming down the stretch. I thought Mo, Zaza and Solo[mon Jones] stepped up on the defensive end. I’m not sure what Solo looked like on the stat sheet, but he altered a ton of shots.”
SHARE THE LOVE: After four preseason games the only real glaring deficiency I see with the Hawks right now is their paltry assist numbers. For a team that was sharing the ball like crazy the first week of camp (especially the first unit), averaging just 19.3 assists per game coming into Monday’s game just doesn’t seem like enough.
They only managed 18 against the Bobcats (who finished with 27) and that, to me, could be a problem as the season progresses. With the ball moving the Hawks tend to be a much more dangerous offensive team.
Without that movement, their offense bogs down and becomes terribly predictable and much easier to defend than when they’re sharing the love (and the ball).
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New additions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
KANSAS CITY - Before anyone goes into panic mode about the whereabouts of Mike Bibby and Zaza Pachulia, they have excused absences from tonight’s game here between the Hawks and Portland Trail Blazers.
Bibby and Pachulia welcomed newborns to their respective families this week and were allowed to take a few days to tend to the personal matters that come along with new additions to the fold.
As for the appearance of Dalibor Bagaric’s name to the team roster at Hawks.com, either someone over there got their wires crossed or someone from Croatia has hacked into the system and is playing a wicked prank on the big fella. Because I was just informed by Hawks spokesman Arthur Triche that Bagaric will not be joining the roster (this is the time teams cut down not add players right?) now or anytime in the near future.
I know Bagaric’s name has been tossed around here since the summer, and other than a few appearances on the Hawks’ practice court during some summer pickup games, I haven’t seen anything to suggest that Bagaric had anything to do with the Hawks (other than a pipe dream to play in the NBA for a team always on the lookout for some size at the center position).
Oden’s going to be the truth if he can stay healthy, because he’s not only an absolute behemoth, he’s also smart, has good instincts, is a crafty passer and seems to be as serious as anybody out here about getting his job done.
He’s still got major work to do (he’s a bit impatient on offense and when he wants to get to a spot he likes he’ll plow over guy instead of working to get around him (he already has three fouls and we’re three minutes from halftime). But that’ll come in time.
Acie Law IV continues to shine this preseason, looking as smooth as ever in place of Bibby in the starting lineup tonight. So far he’s been the revelation of this preseason for the Hawks. Everyone was wondering about him going into this season, and he appears to be answering all those questions with his play.
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Game changers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
PHOENIX - The question was innocent enough.
“You ever seen Mario play in a game before?” Marvin Williams asked Flip Murray.
“Naw, nothing other than the scrimmages we’ve had,” Murray said.
“You need to watch this then,” Williams said.
West finished with modest numbers (just two points, one rebound and one fantastic high wire block of a Matt Barnes on a fast break that helped stifle the Suns early in the fourth quarter) but made a lasting impression with his non-stop energy in the Hawks’ 100-96 win over Phoenix Wednesday night at US Airways Center.
The Hawks’ preseason record remains a spotless 2-0 with a trip to Kansas City to face Portland Friday next on the agenda.
West’s reputation as the Hawks’ most vigilant defender and energy guy off the bench remains intact as well. He only played 16 minutes and 57 seconds against the Suns, but he played every second at a breakneck pace, making Williams look like a wise man for a prediction that wasn’t nearly as bold if you know the story of Mario West.
“Rio, Acie [Law IV] and Flip really changed the game for us in the second half,” said Williams, who played 18 minutes in the second half and polished the Suns off with two huge 3-pointers and finally two free throws in the final seconds of the game. “This is the second straight game that our bench rolled up their sleeves and went to work. They go it done for us.”
While not nearly as spectacular as he was in Monday’s win over Orlando, Law was solid against the Suns, finishing with 10 clutch points, three rebounds, two assists and some fantastic decision-making down the stretch. Murray added 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting and finally went to work in the post, where he’ll be able to manufacture baskets against opponents at will.
Zaza Pachulia gave another solid effort with eight points and second rebounds and Mo Evans was on his way to rebounding from a wobbly shooting performance early before taking an elbow to the head late in the third quarter and needing stitches to close the gash (Hawks coach Mike Woodson said that Williams assumed some of those minutes Evans might have played and that Evans is healed up, will be ready for practice Thursday and good to go for Friday’s game against the Blazers).
If it’s an edge Woodson is trying to develop in his second unit this preseason, he’s doing a good job. Because they matched the Suns’ second group basket for basket and blow for blow in the second half.
“I need these guys playing with a ferocity that we can call on every night,” Woodson said. “And they’ve been pretty good these last two nights. They were great. Because their bench outworked us in the first half, against some of our starters, and we talked about it at halftime. We had to pick our defense up and make some shots and then see what happened.”
That bench crew happened. They took the baton from Joe Johnson (14 points) and Josh Smith (18 points) and Al Horford (10 points, six rebounds) shortly after halftime and ran with it - getting a huge assist, of course, from Williams, who finished with a team-high 19 points, six rebounds and four assists.
“These games are huge confidence builders for us,” Law said. “To be out there with the game on the line, even if it is a preseason game, is something that you try and build on for later.”
And the chemistry being developed in the process only adds to that experience.
“The second group is definitely a big part of what we’re doing here,” West said. “There are [10] or [12] guys over there on that bench and right now we’re coming in and playing well. We just want to go in there and maintain the lead or pick the team up. We did that in the first preseason game in Orlando and we did that again tonight.”
MAKE SOME SHOTS: How the Hawks went from a 5-for-17 shooting effort in the first quarter to a 48 percent night (36-for-75) was perhaps an even more startling turnaround than the game itself.
And Woodson made it clear that he won’t tolerate any shooting effort that doesn’t include the Hawks being aggressive and challenging the other team at the basket.
“My thing is that when you’re struggling to make shots you have to find some way to get the free throw line,” Woodson said. “This time last year in exhibition season we were leading the entire league in free throw attempts. A lot of that was because we were aggressive at the rim. And we have to get back to mixing it up a little bit and make sure that when jump shots aren’t falling we get to the line and shoot our fair share of free throws.”
The Hawks finished 22-for-32 from the line Wednesday night, going 16-for-22 in the second half alone.
They changed their approach dramatically after halftime, penetrating repeatedly and tightening up on defense considerably from their lackluster showing in the first half.
“I thought early on we showed some good signs and as the game went on we didn’t sustain it,” Suns coach Terry Porter said. “A lot of their guys came out in the third quarter and really hurt us with penetration. We were a little stressed because we turned it over three of four times and that kind of changed the mode of those guys going back and getting some easy opportunities.”
STILL BOOING: The jeers from the sellout crowd of 18,422 were not nearly as loud as they have been in the past, but Joe Johnson’s arrival in this town still brings out the boo birds.
Johnson didn’t even blink this time around, choosing to ignore the nonsense and just play. “That stuff truly doesn’t bother me,” he said. “All that drama is ancient history now.”
PUNISHED: Another tell-tale sign that the Hawks outworked the Suns over the course of the game was their whopping 27-11 edge in second half points, which is always a crucial statistic for coaches.
“I thought when we had a chance to set our defense; it was pretty good, for the most part,” Porter said. “The thing that hurt us most was rebounding. While they only had 12 offensive rebounds, they got 27 points off of them, which hurt us.”
TRAVEL PLANS: The Hawks will work out here in Phoenix Thursday and then board a charter flight to Kansas City for the game against Portland.
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First impressions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Orlando - Mo Evans was smaller and older than what the Orlando Magic felt like they needed at the shooting guard position than what Mo Evans gave them a year ago and replaced him with free agent Mickael Pietrus over the summer.
That theory looked legitimate for all of about 35 seconds Monday night in the Hawks’ 118-101 win in their preseason opener over the Magic.
Pietrus is taller and younger than Evans. But Evans got the last laugh, outscoring Pietrus 17-9, including an impressive 4-for-4 showing from beyond the 3-point line.
Evans outplayed Pietrus and every other shooting guard the Magic deployed (JJ Redick did come off the bench and score 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting, but this is JJ Redick we’re talking about).
And he played the kind of role that the Hawks envisioned when they tapped him to replace Josh Childress.
“I think I can bring experience and bring the intensity and [help] energize the second unit,” Evans said after the game. “I think I can bring that experience from starting and calmness to them by playing hard all the time like I do. I think we will have a chance to have a very special second unit.”
A second unit the Hawks needed against the Magic. With the first team struggling early on the Hawks needed a boost from the bench and got exactly that with the performances of guys like Evans, Acie Law IV, Zaza Pachulia, Solomon Jones and Flip Murray.
“[Monday’s game] was a perfect mixture of being involved on both ends of the floor,” Evans said. “We came out and changed the tempo of the game. We allowed the starters to really go out there and finish things up. They opened it up in the third quarter and if we can do that it will have the right balance between our first and second unit.”
As for the Magic’s decision to go in another direction, Evans admitted to being stung by the lack of love for the contributions he and other veterans made in the Magic’s run to the Southeast Division title last year.
“They didn’t make any attempt to re-sign me,” Evans said. “I think they had it in their minds that they were going to target Pietrus and go in another direction. That is why they didn’t re-sign any of the free agents like myself, Carlos Arroyo or Keyon Dooling. We all played a huge role in us winning, but you have to respect management. I respect [Magic GM] Otis Smith and coach [Stan] Van Gundy. But I really thought we had something special [here], so I was disappointed that things didn’t work out.”
The Magic’s loss is the Hawks’ gain.
BIG AL: Al Horford’s name has been mysteriously absent from any of Hawks coach Mike Woodson’s pre and post practice rants so far this season.
One look at Horford shortly after halftime and it should be clear to anyone wondering why.
The guy is beyond his years in terms of how he approaches the game.
Horford was at the center of the Hawks’ rebound from a perpetual 10-point first-half deficit, trading elbows, shots and rebounds with Dwight Howard as the Hawks flipped the script and went up by as many as 10 points.
Howard is at least three inches taller than Horford and easily 40 to 50 pounds heavier than the Hawks’ second-year center. But Horford more than held his own against the new Superman (sorry Shaq).
Horford’s final numbers (13 points, nine rebounds and four blocks) weren’t far off from Howard’s (17 points, eight blocks and five rebounds), and his team won the game.
The Hawks will have to play through the post more this season and with Horford’s post up game much improved, he appears to be ready for that challenge.
“Between AL and Zaza (11 points, six rebounds and a block), we should be capable of going with a power game inside when we need to,” Joe Johnson said. “We have to be able to work inside and out and in the past we haven’t done that consistently. But we have to be able to operate like that.”
STRANGE START: The Hawks’ disheveled beginning Monday night had as much to do with the Magic as it did with the Hawks’ inability to get into any offensive rhythm.
With the Magic jumping their plays before they could get the calls out, there was little room to operate on the offensive end of the floor. And whenever Anthony Johnson was on the floor he was calling out where the Hawks were headed for his new teammates, one of the benefits of having played in Mike Woodson’s system in the recent past.
“Teams jump plays all the time,” Marvin Williams said. “These guys had a little different advantage in that AJ was our starting point guard for a time last season and really understands what we’re trying to do. But we still should have been able to execute. For the longest time we just couldn’t find the space to work. That’s why it’s good that our bench came through the way they did.”
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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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Camp Insider III
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - First the gas crisis and now the blog crisis (don’t know what happened to all the stuff - mine and yours - that posted last night and all day folks, bear with the blogmasters that be as they make like the Orkin man and get the bugs out).
There was a live scrimmage here Thursday, with Hawks in three different shades (Blue team was the first team, White team was the second group and the Yellow squad was the rest) going full tilt with officials for the first time in camp.
As opposed to one of my long-winded wrap ups I figured it might be interesting for you to see the notes I made to myself as the action was happening and then I’ll revisit some things later on after you get done laughing at me.
There was no real rhyme or reason to what I was writing. It was simply watching what was going on and then jotting down notes to myself on what I was seeing, so it reads like this:
First team is JJ, Bibby, Josh, Al and Marvin as expected. Second team is Flip, Acie, Mo, Zaza and Solo. Interesting top 10. That second group doesn’t look half as bad as ESPN.com said they would.
Marvin is making this 3-point thing look easy. He’s 2-for-2 and drained both from opposite corners like he’s been shooting them forever. If he keeps this up he’ll be hard to guard.
Flip is stronger than you think. He’s holding his own against Joe physically. He might be the wild card in the backcourt this season.
No doubt Solo is stronger. Nice touch on that baseline jumper over Al. Keep watching and see how he fares after everybody gets tired.
Bibby is shooting lights out. He’s a totally different player when he’s healthy.
Josh and Al have great chemistry on both ends of the floor. They’re the most active cats out there. Josh is a terror on the glass and goes wherever he wants to go, and if it’s not him it’s Al getting a hand on a ball as it goes in the air.
How many free throws is Josh going to shoot. These second team cats can’t guard him. Heaven help the third team squad.
Flip has just figured out that every time Joe hollers on his way to the basket these rec league officials call a foul (“That’s a bad word,” he tells the guys on the sideline, “I gotta steal that.”)
The first five already have their timing down. They’re playing like they did in those home playoff games. Quick passes and anticipating each other’s every move. Impressive.
Second five looks more impressive as a group than people will expect. Flip and Mo bring so much veteran savvy to the floor with Acie still working out the nuances of running the show.
Uh oh, here comes the third crew and yup, Mario West makes his first breakneck play. This man is on a mission.
Zaza looks quicker to the basket, much more decisive. That’s what he looked like a couple years ago. He has to keep this up if he’s going to have a major impact.
Josh passes up a 3-pointer and drives to the basket for a sweet layup. Showing much better judgment in that situation paid off.
There’s no doubt, Flip is already the vocal leader of this second unit. He knows what to do out there.
Solo is working his tail off. Seals his man and makes a great catch and finishes with a two-handed jam. Where has this cat been the past two years?
Flip made good on his promise and used his own version of Joe’s holler on a drive to the basket. He didn’t get the foul but he finished with a nice reverse layup in traffic.
Solo is handling Oyedeji off the dribble and finishes with the nice layup. Solo is going nuts and his teammates are juicing him up along the way.
Acie still strikes me as being a bit tentative, oops, scratch that. He finishes strong at the bucket after a nice drive in traffic.
Flip and Mo running the floor like they’ve played together for a couple years. They’re finding each other on the break for easy baskets. Vets made all the difference in the world.
Flip making it look easy, buries a wide open 3-pointer the way you’re supposed to when the defensive rotates too far.
Solo has worked out every second he’s been on the floor, rebounding, shooting, moves to the basket and finishes the scrimmage with a smooth turnaround over Randolph. Write about Solo for tomorrow.
First thing out of Woody’s mouth when they huddle, “I like what I saw today.” No doubt.
That’s the notebook from the scrimmage verbatim.
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Camp Insider II
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - It appears we’ll have to wait one more day to see the Hawks in some live scrimmage action.
They wrapped up Wednesday’s workout some five-minute drills but there was no actual scrimmaging.
“Towards the end of practice [Thursday] we’ll probably start scrimmaging,” Woodson said.
And while the Hawks’ starting five of Mike Bibby, Joe Johnson, Marvin Williams, Josh Smith and Al Horford is etched in stone, Woodson said he will be on the lookout for things he can exploit with mismatches.
“We’ll continue to approach our starting unit as it is,” Woodson said. “But there’s a chance I could tinker and look at other combinations, you just never know. I don’t think you go into a season and not look at possible changes. I’m going to whatever it takes for us to win basketball games. And if that means tinkering with the lineup or playing 10 or 11 guys against eight or nine guys, then that’s something I have to figure out as we go through the exhibition season.”
Any potential tinkering with the starting five (can’t imagine too much going on there) and the bench rotation (still has to be worked out) will make things mighty interesting going forward.
It’s clear the Hawks are looking for an edge, for some things they can exploit that perhaps went untouched last season. Woodson isn’t tipping his hand (maybe he’s trying to throw opponents off by talking as much as he has about tinkering), but he has me sufficiently intrigued as to what he might do.
MARVIN HOBBLED: Williams took a knee to the leg during a drill in Wednesday’s workout and was hobbling throughout the end of the session, but insisted that he was fine when I asked him about it as he walked to the locker room.
“I’ll be fine,” he said. “It was just a play where Frank [Robinson] accidentally caught me in the leg and now it’s a little sore. But I’m fine.”
GARDNER AILING: The same can’t be said for second-year swingman Thomas Gardner, who was in practice gear but didn’t work out due to a sore calf. Woodson said Gardner has to get a MRI on the leg before anyone can determine the severity of the injury.
SHOWING LOVE TO THE FANS: There’s a whole chapter devoted to the Hawks- Celtics playoff series in a book about the Celtics’ title run last year (Top of the World, the inside story of the Boston Celtics’ amazing one-year turnaround to become NBA champions by former longtime Boston Globe NBA writer Peter May) that is an interesting read.
May describes in great detail the dramatic swings in momentum in the series and correctly points out the role the fans in both cities played in changing the complexion of home games, for both teams, throughout.
Particularly interesting to me was a quote from one of the Celtics’ owners, Wyc Grousbeck, which has to rank as the one line I never thought I’d read about Philips Arena.
“The noise in that arena was by far the loudest of any of the buildings we played in during the playoffs,” he said.
Having been there and having covered playoff games around the league the past eight years, that’s saying something for an arena and a fan base often chided for being empty and subterranean, respectively.
And when you realize the Celtics went to face Cleveland, Detroit and LA after the Hawks and Grousbeck maintains that Philips had the best noise, that tells you just how electric that atmosphere really was, especially for those of us lucky enough to be in the building.
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What gas crisis?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
HAWKSVILLE - When he scripted the Hawks’ training camp regimen and included the entire team staying at a downtown hotel for the first week, general manager Rick Sund wasn’t thinking about long lines at gas stations.
His was a purely business move designed to tighten the operation at the start of a new season.
One of the unintended benefits of having the players, as well as head coach Mike Woodson and other members of the training staff, stay in a hotel walking distance from Philips Arena has been their ability to sit out the current gas crisis that has folks all over the metro area scrambling to fill up their tanks.
“That’s definitely one of the benefits of being at the hotel,” Hawks captain Joe Johnson said. “You keep seeing the stuff on the news and all you can do is hope it all gets worked out as soon as possible, because things are crazy for everybody.”
Not for the Hawks, who are practicing during the day and then meeting for a team dinner in the early evening and then moving on to “skull sessions” after that before retiring to their rooms for a little rest and relaxation.
Woodson said the change in structure has turned out to be a perfect move for a team trying to incorporate a few new players to the mix while also getting everyone adjusted to the policies and procedures of a new front office staff.
“It’s certainly not about babysitting these guys or anything like that because they’re grown men,” Woodson said. “But in a lot of ways this is like what we went through during the playoffs in terms of us being in close quarters and everybody being focused on the task at hand every day. From a coaching standpoint this is excellent, because we get to watch film with these guys and really hammer home what we’re trying to do as a team.”
Sund put a target on training camp shortly after being hired to replace Billy Knight. With a team full of what he likes to call “young veterans,” he’s been focused on making sure that the players comprehend just how important their role is in moving the franchise forward from its sketchy recent past.
“I think this training camp is so important and that’s why we’re at the hotel and why we’re having team dinners every night and skull sessions every night,” Sund said. “We need to be focused. We’re a little bit old school here, just for the week.”
And if it helps the Hawks ride out the gas crisis as well, so be it.
Stay tuned for more camp updates later.
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