Sports Columnists

By Michael

October 13, 2005 11:45 PM | Link to this

This column points out exactly why I was all behind Steve Belkin. Only basketball morons would think a team of small forwards could win games. If the Braves were all Jeff Francouers nobody would walk. If the Falcons were all Michael Vicks the original one would get sacked every play and Michael Vick the running back would never get past the line. Put tiny Freddy Adu in a soccer goal and see how many shots he stops.

As Mark said, there are positions for a reason. Hopefully there are also other GMs for a reason.

By A Real Fan

October 14, 2005 12:29 AM | Link to this

Ok, Michael

The Hawks had a point guard and center last year, did it make a difference? Let’s let our young talent develope and then maybe we can trade one or two of them for the missing pieces we need. What are you guys expecting from a group of first and second year players? Let’s support our team and cheer on their effort. I went to three games last year and watched every televised game. I can’t wait for the season to start. (But then again I use to watch the Braves lose over 100 games a year). So I’m use to waiting for the good times. I just hope that we aren’t the ones looking like fools when we trade away someone who becomes a Super Star. (Remember The Tigers traded away John Smoltz)

By A Real-IST

October 14, 2005 01:18 AM | Link to this

The Hawks had a point guard and center last year?

By UGA Rocks

October 14, 2005 04:24 AM | Link to this

Hawks..who cares??? Wel I guess i kinda do since I read this…then again it’s late.

By Gabriel

October 14, 2005 07:33 AM | Link to this

hi. Abut Pachulia, I think that a very good sustitute appeared. His name is Esteban Batista from Uruguay, a guy who scored 15 points in 15 minutes.WOW!!! I think this would be a nice contribution to a team who needs points and defence from all the 5 starters and this guy could be a very good contribution to the team. Welcome ESTEBAN BATISTA!!!

By mountain_jim

October 14, 2005 08:15 AM | Link to this

It’s early, and maybe I choose optimism at this point, but I think these Hawks will surprise…

Time will tell if drafting Marvin rather than a point was a mistake, but compared to the results of the previous regime I think their decision making is looking pretty good so far.

mj

By jrex

October 14, 2005 08:22 AM | Link to this

…..and it’s all George Bush’s fault….

By kfbly

October 14, 2005 09:29 AM | Link to this

Hey JJ! How does it feel to do a McDyess and go from somewhere to nowhere? Even Denver was better than these Squawks!

By Astro Joe

October 14, 2005 09:59 AM | Link to this

No one has been able to guard Shaq for the past 10 years, so that is not exclusively an Atlanta problem. Plus, Shaq is no longer the game-after-game force he used to be. Most every other team has a beast at either the 4 or 5. And we do not have one at either position. Clearly, the Hawks are hoping that either Josh Smith or Marvin Williams will grow another inch and put on about 20-30 pounds of muscle in the next few years. Keep in mind that Marvin has the wing span of a 7’3” player and we all know that Smith can jump out of the gym. If one of them can grow into a Kenyon Martin-type body (and mentality), then redundancy may not be an issue. But if they stay in the Tim Thomas-tweener mode, then yes, the gaping hole in the squad will remain.

By Dan

October 14, 2005 10:07 AM | Link to this

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!

Well if it isn’t the “WE WANT RESULTS NOW WAAAAAAA” Peeps. It is the same story with you all. Just be quiet and be good little fair weather and bandwagon fans.

Let the team develop a chemistry together,let the talent develop, and most importantly let them have fun.

Incase none of you have notice. We got the youngest team in the league. Deal with the growing pains for now. In the long run we are going to have a very good team. QUIT EXPECTING RESULTS RIGHT AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By Dwayne

October 14, 2005 10:13 AM | Link to this

Typical scummy article. Searching the depths of statistics trying to find something negative to write. After two meaningless pre-season games, you find the time to point of Johnson’s team leading 11 turnovers, but you don’t mention he leads the team in points, rebounds and assist. Just scum.

By KevinM

October 14, 2005 10:46 AM | Link to this

This is a WIP - a work in progress. It won’t happen overnight or for the next 2 seasons. BK has brought in marginal post men who are young and need development. We didn’t want to pay who we had previously, so we have to start from scratch and look for tomorrow’s superstars. It’s possible, but we could end up with a big man to fill that role in next year’s draft. Yep, already looking towards next year. It’s going to be a long journey and we better keep offering those $199 seats because this won’t be a quick turnaround.

By MB

October 14, 2005 01:06 PM | Link to this

I agree completely, Mark. Don’t get me wrong: I like most all of the players individually, and I think we’ll have some exciting basketball, but not a lot of winning.

B. Knight strikes me as obsessive in his pursuit of swingmen. I don’t think it will work, but I don’t think BK can help it - he just doesn’t like big guys or little guys!

The good news is that we should still get our lottery picks for the next couple of years, and we should have some great trade bait… if we’ll just use it to build a team rather than a collection of players.

By season’s end, JJ will have logged more minutes at 2 or 3 than at point.

By Eno

October 14, 2005 01:15 PM | Link to this

The NBA is a league about superstars. Don’t bother applying for the postseason without one or two of them.

I know it looks like ‘team’ teams are doing better - the Suns, the Pistons - but these are teams with borderline superstars on them (R Wallace, S Nash, S Marion).

I like the idea of being bad until we find out who our superstars are. Let Josh Smith develop. Find out about Williams. Be bad and collect more young guys.

The only thing I would have liked is to get a real big to develop. After developing a real big and a superstar, we could have signed a developed PG (Suns) and boom you’ve got a team.

By Greg

October 14, 2005 01:47 PM | Link to this

People, for the love of god……give this team more than 2 exhibition games before throwing them to the curb for the year. You get better by bringing in better players than the ones who are gone, the Hawks and BK have done that so give them a chance to develop and enjoy watching them grow.

By C Brown

October 14, 2005 01:54 PM | Link to this

WOW! Mr. Bradley you finally stopped writing like a “homer” and called it like it is. I agree they are trying to build a team that mirrors the Pistons…that was a fluke an anomaly that won’t happen again. They need a true PG and some BIG MEN with a front line that has some one close to 7’ feet tall!

By John

October 14, 2005 03:32 PM | Link to this

Does anybody really care about the hawks or the nba?

By Mitch

October 14, 2005 07:21 PM | Link to this

Typical response from a “fan”. I heard that comment when the Braves and Falcons were bad. Just so you know there will still be plenty of room on the bandwagon for all of you “fans”.

By garcia

October 14, 2005 09:08 PM | Link to this

I have no problem with the Johnson signing. He has talent and WANTED to play for the Hawks. My problem was with our draft. I know that Marvin has a lot of potential, but we had a golden chance to draft a top notch Point. Those kinds of chances do not come around very often….and we blew it.

I hope that Marvin turns into a phenomenal player, but chances are that he will be no better than Al Harrington.

So, we wait and see. I sure hope I am wrong.

By Jake

October 15, 2005 12:58 AM | Link to this

Isn’t it funny how Mark Bradley was at least candid about the Hawks outlook, particularly Joe Johnson’s turnovers, but Sekou Smith keeps writing glowingly about Joe Johnson’s performance. This column is the first mention of Johnsons’s assist-to-turnover ratio in the AJC! Maybe Smith’s tone has changed in the past day, and I missed his story showing the same stat — but I doubt it was published. Sad that real journalism is absent from our Hawks coverage.

Go Hawks! Mike Woodson is a solid coach who I hope succeeds.

By HB Ando

October 15, 2005 12:52 PM | Link to this

What’s funny is how many of you no nothing about actually playing basketball. Even if Joe Johnson had been a point guard his whole life, the turnovers in the first two EXHIBITION games would be understandable. Anytime you have players playing together for the first time, the steepest learning curve is spacing the floor and learning where each player is most effective in receiving the ball on the offensive end. Mr. Smith has written glowingly because he has actually been watching the Hawks everyday, unlike Mr. Bradley. Mr. Smith has been observing Johnson’s performance in the context of the game, not extracting stats to build a platform of denigration. It’s roughly equivalent to pulling the stat that Francouer didn’t draw a walk in his first 140+ plate appearances, so clearly (since patience at the plate is a must for quality hitting) he’s not ready for big league pitching. Obviously, that wasn’t and isn’t the case.

The fact that some of Mr. Bradley’s questions about the makeup of this roster are relevant, is obfuscated by his taking unwarranted potshots at a guy who committed to coming to a moribund franchise and has taken an enourmous challenge to make this team better. Throughout the NBA, Joe Johnson is seen as an emerging superstar. So why don’t we give him a little support and give this team a season to learn together and improve. Woodson has been blunt about the teams’ need for more bigs, so they’ll likely balance the roster out as we move forward. They’ve been bad for quite a while. It’ll take time for that to change.

By Jake

October 15, 2005 01:21 PM | Link to this

I know that Joe Johnson has a lot of talent and am thrilled he’s been added to the roster. But, let’s be serious, wouldn’t including the assist-to-turnover ratio of the starting point guard have been highly relevant to Sekou Smith’s story about Coach Woodson’s desire to reduce turnovers? Wouldn’t it be even more relevant after the “no passing fancy” comment about how Johnson’s passing was doing wonders for the team.

By HB Ando

October 15, 2005 03:24 PM | Link to this

Again, it’s two EXHIBITION games. The first two, to be specific. The best point guards in the league carry the hightest turnover averages, year in and year out. Kidd, Iverson, Francis. In his day, Magic typically led the league in turnovers. The more aggressive your offensive style, the more turnovers you’ll see. Johnson’s passing IS doing wonders for a team that stuggled mightily to score last year. If we were 20 games into the regular season, and Johnson is primarily playing point, and in the top-ten in the league in turnover-to-assist ratio, then it’s relevant. But I’ll say it again, Johnson’s turnovers, in the first two EXHIBITION games, would be more of a concern if they were not accompanied by assists, scoring and rebounding that he provides.

Similarly, if Francouer did not take a walk in his first 141 at bats and was hitting .220, with no power, his lack of patience would have been a big issue. But, when intelligently placed into a rational context, the walks, like the turnovers (in the first 2 EXHIBITION games) are not cause for overreaction (which is what we have here). Anyone who has taken basic statistics can tell you that for any statistic to have validity, it must be predicated on a reasonably large sample size. I feel very confident that if you analyzed Steve Nash’s MVP season last year, you can find a two-game stretch in which Nash compiled 10 or more turnovers. I believe you would find the same results for every prominent PG in the NBA.

This team will continue to try different approachs and rotations until they find out what is most effective. They cannot make that determination until they’ve spent significant time testing. This team WILL NOT find any type of identity until at least the all-star break. That’s just a realistic, common-sense understanding of this roster (young, inexperienced and lacking the chemistry that can only be developed through repitition). If, in the end, it becomes apparent that Johnson is better suited to primarily play the two-guard for this franchise, and neither Stoudamire or Lue appears to be the long-term answer at the point, you can expect that the team will look to move Childress or Harrington to address the PG position (if a quality big man is not available in exchange for Harrington or Childress).

By Jake

October 15, 2005 04:00 PM | Link to this

I’m not going to disagree with you on hoping that everything works out in the long run. And to further agree with you, the “assist” is a weak proxy to capture how well a point guard runs an offense.

My point is how poor the coverage is that the team beat writer refuses to write anything negative about the centerpiece of the deal that ousted Steve Belkin and affirmed Billy Knight’s control. If Coach Woodson says the team needs to reduce turnovers and the assist-to-turnover ratio (flawed as it may be) is as high as Joe Johnson’s ratio is (being the key ball handler), then something is seriously messed up in the team beat writer’s only talking about how wonderful a job that Joe Johnson has done.

Feel free to respond. These are my last comments unless a new angle pops up.

What a shame about Collier. I remember rooting for him way back when he was at Ga Tech.

By someone

October 15, 2005 04:18 PM | Link to this

Why didnt they go after steven hunter he is a 7 footer. And i like JJ but not at point. They need to move him to 2 and trade for a point an a center would be nice.

By Aaron B

October 15, 2005 07:09 PM | Link to this

HB Ando, You and I used to not see eye to eye. But that’s a thing of the past, because right now you and I are dead on key. Ando’s right. Even though JJ’s turnovers need to be tweeked a bit, his over all game play hasn’t been much different than most allstar pg’s in the league. In fact I have been giddy about his play so far. And why in the world does some-one dare speak of Belkin in these blogs? Everyone in the organization new of his “running the team on the cheap” schemes. In the two pre-season games I’ve learned the same thing that Woodson figured out… the Hawks defense needs to improve greatly in order for the Hawks to be playoff bound this year.

And as for you Mark Bradley, I am laughing at your lack basketball knowledge. I expected more out of you than to dare quote anything as silly as “Who among Hawks can guard Shaquille O’Neal?” Are you serious?! How about truely asking yourself this… “Who among the NBA can guard Shaquille O’Neal?”

By Brian Hurley

October 16, 2005 01:47 AM | Link to this

It’s plain and simple… Atlanta people know nothing about sports.. Well, other than NASCAR…

Of course the Hawks need a center. You can talk about PG’s all you want, but when was the last time a pure PG won a title??

Steve Nash-No Ring Jason Kidd-No Ring John Stockton-No Ring

THe Hawks need more pieces, but you actually got to give them time to get them.

By Brian Hurley

October 16, 2005 01:51 AM | Link to this

Also, Mark Bradley shouldn’t even comment as if he has some basketball knowledge…. Does he care about the Hawks? About as much as the rest of the rednecks in GA.

Stop commenting on a team you know little about!

By ray

October 16, 2005 10:13 AM | Link to this

Hurley, I’m not in Atlanta, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Atlanta people don’t know about basketball. It’s obvious that several Atlantians do. Your statements are not unlike Bradley’s.

Andy, I remember back when we were picking at each other and you made a comment about Bradley being an example of it not taking much to be a writer and have your own column. I never realized how right you were until now. Not only did he not have much to say about the Hawks for a while, but he comes up with an article like this. Utterly deplorable. “who on the Hawks can guard Shaq.” Gee, is that what all the other NBA teams are saying when they evaluate themselves? Hell no, they are busy trying to create mismatches. As far as the person saying the Pistons were a fluke….wow, reality skipped you by. These guys won and came right back to play the Spurs. And it wasn’t an easy series for San Antonio. If Atlanta came close to mirroring the Pistons, they’d be a force to be reckoned with. However, I also believe in a team finding it’s own identity. Sekou Smith is doing what a beat writer and any true fan should do. With the team being this bad, positive attitude is needed,and badly. Continued negativity, i.e. Bradley, isn’t helping anybody at all. Only a fair weather fan bashes the team and then jumps on the bandwagon when the team starts winning. But there will always be those kinds of fans. As far as JJ and his stats, Woodson says that he is playing very unselfishly and instilling confidence in his teammates. Keep in mind the true reason he was brought aboard: to make his teammates better. He can do this not only at the PG, but at the SG and probably the SF positions. I’d rather have such a guy who fills the stat sheet than someone who gets 4 assists and one turnover a game and can’t force the tempo or create matchup problems at three different positions. When the season gets going, we’ll see what happens.

By m. thomas

October 17, 2005 12:43 AM | Link to this

i agree with hondo give them team a chance to learn how to play together. mark bradley u know little about hawks so let ss write the articles about this team. mark u need to stick to articles about gt or braves and to think bloggers give t. moore a lot of flack about his columns. his r a whole lot better than this crap.

By Basketball Princess

October 17, 2005 10:52 AM | Link to this

I cover the games for a station in Atlanta, and I was at the first pre-season game. Yes, JJ did produce a lot of turn-overs. After the game in the locker room in his own words (have on mini-disk) ” I HAVE TO LEARN THE POINT GUARD POSITION TO PRODUCE RESULTS FOR THIS TEAM.” ” THE TURN OVERS WERE BAD FOR THE TEAM AND IF WE ARE GOING TO WIN THAT NEEDS TO CHANGE.”

WE ALSO NEED TO MENTION JOSH SMITH’S IMPROVEMENT ON HIS JUMP SHOT. THESE ARE THE FACTS GENTLEMEN….HE WORKED ON HIS JUMPER EVERYDAY FOR THE WHOLE SUMMER. We all saw that last year Mr. J. Smoove was lazy and lacked work-ethic. When a player recognizes their faults give them a chance to make a change. We gave Mr. Smith a chance because he went and won that Dunk contest for us. Truth be told if he would not have won that title. Our negative critics would have burried him alive…(my opinion)

We have some great talent. The truth of the matter is that someone has to bring that talent out and somehow balance it and make it effective enough for us to WIN games.

Speak positive towards our young team. It’s just like when our children are playing in scholastic sports we encourage them to succeed. We dont criticize them. When our kids our going off to college and their having a hard time adapting, we encourage them to keep trying. Let’s think of our baby Hawks as our children and encourage them. The bad stuff doesn’t make them preform any better. It brings them down.

Lastly, with the death of J. Collier, lets hope that is loss that will give our Baby Hawks the heart they need to achieve.

GO HAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By HB Ando

October 17, 2005 10:58 AM | Link to this

“Among the reasons Heat President Pat Riley shopped for Antoine Walker, Jason Williams and James Posey in the offseason was to lighten the load on Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade. Through the first three games of the preseason, the restructuring instead has come off as a burden. “It takes time to get familiar with guys,” (Dwyane) Wade said of the confusion that has the Heat averaging 23 turnovers over its first three exhibitions. “I don’t think any of us, maybe Shaq, have played with this many guys who can fill it up, that have got this much one-on-one ability. So it’s taking time to learn the team.” South Florida Sun-Sentinel

By DNasty

October 17, 2005 03:03 PM | Link to this

People, I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired of people bashing my city and our fans. You people come here because you were sports failures in your own home town, looking for a new new fresh angle on sports. I’m a native atlantan and I know a lot about sports and my teams! The only ones that have made any sense is “HB Ando” and the “Basketball Princess”. Atlanta has been a long time refuge for sports atheletes at the end of their careers wanting that last paycheck. We have tolerated it and accepted it under the pretenses that we would merge age with youth and get better. It has not worked out for us up to this point. Drafting a team and picking up free agents is a crap-shoot. Some teams get lucky with the draft and some free agents make nice transitions into their new teams. The other side of that is some rookies never pan out to be what potential dictates and free agents, who look good on other teams, are a bust on yours. We’ve seen it all here. I love Billy Knight! Finally a man with guts, inteligents, integrity, and a great understanding of building a organization. We have suffered through the happless years of the Babcocks, and Kastens who don’t know basketball talent from cheeze grits! We were fooled on the one year blitz of talent from Jon Koncat, Romel Robinson, and on and on….. But now BK has assembled a mass of talent that gives us hope and excitement. So what if they don’t win the championship in two years. Give us something to be proud of in the mean time. Atlanta fans are more savvy that you think. We realize the Lakers, Pistons, Spurs, Rockets and other sports franchises were not built in a year so why should we be any different. Respond back if you want to but I must warn you that I’m a Atlanta fan that has been on the sideline holding my peace a long time and I’m ready to rip anybody that dis’ my town!!!!

By ray

October 17, 2005 08:44 PM | Link to this

Which is why I was trying to show some support. By the way, you don’t have to be from Atlanta to love the Hawks.

By tb

October 18, 2005 03:43 AM | Link to this

I would love to be reading about some basketball instead of all of this “How to be a good fan stuff”

The hawks have basically improved at every position. They are possibly very strong at the 1, 2, and three positions and center is looking much better than last year. I don’t think that we are quite there yet at PF and C, but it is still a big improvement.

At this point the only thing that I want to talk about is DEFENSE and HUSTLE. It was very difficult watching the team play a bit competitively much of the game only to be totally over-matched when the other team pushed the intensity up to 100%.

I want to see coach teach his team to be able to match other teams intensity at critical moments in the game and learn to turn it up themselves and dictate the pace to the other team.

Without that our mismatches on offence will turn into the other teams mismatches on offense.

Talent is not enough. Talent, drive, determination, meanness, fun are all essential to playing superiour basketball.

By AaronB

October 18, 2005 07:31 AM | Link to this

DNasty, remeber I am in support of our team too. J-Smoove is my favorite basketball player actively playing i nthe NBA today. My previous favorite was Dominique Wilikins. I even told Josh myself what I thought of his game during the draft party earlier this year. He was very appreciative. We have very good young players on this team, and they will soon pan out to be great players in their own right. But we need to give them time, and support. Altough JJ does lead the team in turnovers, I believe that is temporary. Even Basketball Princess says that in his own words, he knows what he has to work on. JJ is a star, period. And our Atlanta Hawks will “rise up”!

By Ryan

October 18, 2005 07:34 AM | Link to this

Teams that have won without a major center:

Chicago Bulls, anyone?

Did Perdue, Bill Wennington and Cartwright strike fear in the hearts of opposing teams?

By DNasty

October 18, 2005 09:56 AM | Link to this

Championships have been won in many ways. Some do it with defense, some do it with offense and some do it with a mixture of both. There is no way for us to sit here today and say we need a center or we need a dominant power forward. Depending on how our young talent developes will determine what type of player we need in the future. Developing a team has a lot to do with chemistry. Players with passion, intensity, character, hustle, and on the court smarts is the ingredients to having a solid team.

Every now and then a dominant player comes along (Shaq, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant)and tilts the NBA. Teams scramble to get match ups. Well I’ve got news for you, there are no match ups! Dominant players are a one of a kind and the best you can do is assemble a “TEAM” that plays great together, ie the Pistons, and compete. It is never a good move to try to match great player for great player. They come along to infrequently. I agreed with the Hawks 1st round pick. I wouldn’t have pick the “big center” from Utah just because the college broadcasters hyped him up for this reason. Everyone wants a center to match up with Shaq. Unless there is another Shaq prototype in the draft, or Shaq’s skill have dissapated then don’t waste your time. Get the best player available. By the time the big kid gets use to the NBA and Shaq has retired we still won’t have won a Championship. He’s only one piece, we need many. Big dominant centers are hard to come by and he wont be dominant (you heard it here first).

By jeff

October 18, 2005 02:38 PM | Link to this

I agree that this team looks one dimensional being that the 5 players with the greatest potential are all swingmen (Harrington, Smith, Childress, Johnson, and Wiliams). But if you look at each player, they are all young and seem to have there own individual strength. Knight’s plan is not to build the future team around this core, but to use the what he has to get a solid core to build a future around. Williams wasn’t drafted because he fit best into Atlanta’s system, but because he was the player with the most potential at the number two pick. Like harrington, williams is more of a low post player than a cut/slash swingman. Harrington will probably be gone after this year, leaving them with a solid core of young athletes who can all play defense.

Their weakness will be when they play against teams with extremely quick scorers (Iverson, Davis, Marbury, Nash, etc.) and extremely dominant centers like Shaq (about the only center to worry about). I definately do not see defense as their weakness though. Childress, Smith, Johnson, and Harrington are all hustlers who get right in there block shots and grab rebounds.

If they can focus on letting harrington and johnson do the majority of the shooting this season and focus on using their athleticism on defense, then this year may well surprise a lot of people.

By DNasty

October 18, 2005 03:24 PM | Link to this

Solid comments Jeff.

By JEFFERY JONES

October 20, 2005 05:27 PM | Link to this

GO HAWKS, YOU ALL KNOW WHAT YOU CAN DO!!!