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DEL.ICIO.USThey’ve got to stop meeting like this
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Only three games into this season and there have already been three starting lineups, a players-only meeting with complimentary flared tempers, benched draft picks and a “heartbreaking” loss, which followed a heart-deficient loss, which followed, well, just a loss.
Your new Atlanta Hawks come home tonight with a 0-3 record. If you expected better, then you probably have been living off of one too many Josh Smith dunk highlights, which, come to think of it, would put you in good company with Josh Smith.
The Hawks are young. When a team is this young — eight first and second-year players on a roster of 13 — talent tends to get drowned out by overdeveloped egos and underdeveloped perspective.
When a team is this young, hard working and well-meaning coaches like Mike Woodson don’t make playoff proclamations. “Can young guys win at this level with consistency? I don’t know that yet,” Woodson said Monday.
“They don’t understand the force of the game. These guys have no idea that on every night, at any given position, you can be handed your [rear] if you don’t come ready to play.”
The Hawks were blown out the other night by the Los Angeles Clippers, which is considered an NBA felony. Al Harrington, one of the few Hawks players who can see beyond a mirror, was moved to captain a team meeting. And he didn’t even play in the game because of an injury.
“We have to stop the bleeding early,” he said. “Maybe we’ll have to have another meeting after game four, but we have to figure this thing out. We have to earn some respect this year, and the only way to do that is win basketball games. We can’t just take moral victories out of every game. We did that last year. We had 69 moral victories.”
Also, 13 real ones.
The Hawks currently are on a pace for zero wins. Let’s assume that goes up.
But a team that relies on so much youth is asking for problems. Young players believe talent will carry them because that’s what worked in the playground, or high school, even college. Young players try to do too much during losing streaks, either because they feel pressured to do live up their billing or because they don’t trust the player next to them on the court. Or both.
Young players blame teammates because, well, it couldn’t be their own fault. Never has been, never will be. Just ask their agent.
Then there are cases like Josh Smith. He won the Slam Dunk contest as a rookie and the Hawks did the worst thing possible — they made him the centerpiece of a marketing campaign. That probably planted the I’ve-got-it-made seed in Smith’s head.
Now Woodson is fighting to get Smith’s attention, break him down and start over. He started the first two games, but began game three in Portland on the bench.
The Hawks lost to the Trail Blazers after a last-second disputed foul led to a tie-breaking free throw. But bad teams shouldn’t waste time complaining about foul calls because it’s just as likely the game was decided by something earlier.
“Good teams find a way to win that game,” Woodson said.
Maybe that reality sinks in. Maybe not. Or maybe it gets to the point where a second-year player has to be traded for a veteran with some accountability.
“The biggest thing [young players] don’t realize is how the little things beat you,” Harrington said. “It’s always, ‘Well, I just missed one rebound’ or ‘It was just one free throw or one assignment.’ But that one assignment can cost you the game. In college you can get by with that mistake because nine times out of 10 they were on great teams. When you’re on a great team, you can mess up. Unfortunately, we’re not that kind of team.”
No, they’re not. They are somewhere between nowhere and a work in progress, depending on how you package it. When player meetings outnumber the win total, it’s never a good sign.
Permalink | Comments (14) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Jeff Schultz
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By Chuck
November 8, 2005 05:46 AM | Link to this
When they gave up two first-round picks for Joe Johnson, I knew that this ownership group was hopeless. As someone else wrote, the Atlanta Hawks are the new Clippers of the NBA. Only a fool would pay to see their games.
By George
November 8, 2005 06:36 AM | Link to this
The title of your article fooled me. I thought you were going to write about how UGA lets Florida trick them every year into playing the game in Jacksonville.
By Submariner683
November 8, 2005 08:16 AM | Link to this
The Hawks. The NBA’s worst franchise. They have drafted the worse in the league since 1990 hands down. Just go to espn.com and you can see all their horrible draft picks. Only two players in 13 years are worth even mentioning. Alan Henderson, a solid 6th man but not a premium starter and Jason Terry, a very good starter. And that is it. It is amazing that Lenny Wilkens kept this team competitive during the 90s.
The last two drafts could turn out to be great ones, but I have my doubts. The Hawks had the worst record by far and did not get the #1 pick. The lottery needs to go away. It is better statistically than it was in the 80s where every team that didn’t make the playoffs had an equal opportunity to get the #1 pick.
I don’t want to hear about how young the Hawks are. The Bulls made the playoffs last year with a roster full of rookies and players who should have been just out of college.
At least the picks for Johnson are conditional. I don’t think the Hawks needed to make a deal. I don’t think that the Suns would have matched that much money. Not with Stoudamire up for contract. Maybe I’m wrong but I can’t see a team signing their 4th best player to that kind of money.
The worst pick/trade in Hawk’s history came when the Hawks gave their #1 pick, #3 overall, Pau Gasol and Lorenzen Wright, a player they gave up a #1 pick and another guard who was a 1st rounder to get for Sharriff Abdur Rahim. That’s 4 1st rounders, three which were lottery picks for one player.
Off the subject, I agree with George about the UGA/Flordia football game. The cocktail party needs to end. Or rotate neutral sites every year with the Dawgs playing in Atlanta.
By kudzu
November 8, 2005 08:27 AM | Link to this
Again I say: maybe before this season is over we will all see finally that this Hawks franchise is (screwed up) from the top down. Good professional ownership and leadership and management are the keys to success in sports. Trades and drafts and player development are things that require great skill and wherewithall; the Hawks demonstrated (at least to me) that ownership, management, and coaching are NOT reading the same play book…we’ll see.
By John Reid
November 8, 2005 09:41 AM | Link to this
It’s early, but I believe tonight’s game against LA will be an indication of how this team will play for the majority of the season. Keep in mind they opened the season with a west coast swing against some talented teams with playoff aspirations. The revamped lineup, especially with a healthy Harrington, will produce wins.
Keeping Smith on the bench is a smart move, as he is not ready to be a starter in the league. His high energy game and is best suited at this time coming off the pine, and Marvin Williams needs to be brought in slowly. Stoudemire will continue to have good nights/bad nights, but overall this team will have one of the better benches.
Oh, and for those who may not remember, Chicago began last year 0-9, and they didn’t have a player nearly the caliber of JJ & Al Harrington.
By ebineezer
November 8, 2005 10:28 AM | Link to this
How much of a kickback did Joe give Billy for giving him that fat contract?
By Traceman
November 8, 2005 12:29 PM | Link to this
Whether or not Joe Johnson ends up being this team’s PG or not, he is going to be a terrfic player and worth every penny of his $70 million. Joe is an incredibly talented guy but he has been placed in an impossible situation. He has been asked to lead a bunch of inexperienced guys who only won 13 games last season to respectability without having the necessary supporting cast. I LOVE the Hawks and I will continue to support them but realistically, this team is not going to get significantly better until we get another quality big man and probably another PG. I know getting Eddy Curry would have been a gamble but for a franchise in our situation, I sure wish we had pulled the trigger. As for PG, Joe can play PG, but right now, we need his scoring more than we need his ability to create shots for lesser talented players. The bottom line is that the deal for JJ was not the problem, the problem is that thus far, we have failed to address our need for a quality big man (or big men). As long as teams continue to kill us on the boards on both ends of the floor and as long as our interior D remains soft as tissue paper, we won’t win many games no matter how well JJ plays.
By Tyger
November 8, 2005 12:39 PM | Link to this
Folks,
It’s only 3 games into the season and this is the most talented group the Hawks have had since the early 90’s. Its going to be painstaking no doubt, but this team is built properly and they will learn to play the right way. We are a serious big man away, whether we get him sooner or later is the question?
By wes
November 8, 2005 01:10 PM | Link to this
not enought jokes in this article about the Hawks, Jeff.
BOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
By Troy
November 8, 2005 01:45 PM | Link to this
Our old Bust Boris Diaw is on his way toward being a 6th man of the year contender. The other night he was one rebound shy of a triple double(off the bench). Did anyone watch him in the world Championships during the summer. This kid is amazing. I hear all these other hawks fans bash him but it simply is he was out of position with the hawks and all that takes is an observant coach who’s willing too take a chance. Tell your self what ever you have to about JJ but the fact is he wasn’t worth it. Everyone leaves Atlanta and get’s better whoever goes to Atlanta gets burried. It was good to see Woodson finally mix it up against Portland. Hopefully we’ll get to see some more coaching from Woodson here on out.
By ATLien4Life
November 8, 2005 03:29 PM | Link to this
I know Schultzie is appealling to what he thinks are our perceptions, but anyone on this blog who knows basketball knows that the Clips are 3-1 right now, and have a lot of good talent.
Anyway, the fact is we as a franchise suck like one of those Dyson vacuum cleaners. We’ve never won anything substantial, and even our best moments are ultimately failures, ie the Bird / Dominique Game.
By sports fan
November 8, 2005 09:36 PM | Link to this
Submariner683 Remember who the GM on the otherside of the Gasol trade was? In fact it was Billy Knight I agree with you hawks have made some pretty bad trades, you could have a pretty decent team of picks the hawks gave away or past up.
As bad as the hawks are knight really came into a good situation, because he could make picks by throwing darts and have better results than pete boobcock
By V Avant
November 9, 2005 07:39 AM | Link to this
The Hawks should win more games than last year but this team is not going to make the playoffs. We need a PG who wants to and can perfom at the NBA level. I’m not sure what Lue is doing out there. He sure isn’t making plays or being a floor general. The Hawks still look confused and lost on the court at times. And why doesn’t anyone on the team seem to care when when a careless turnover or foul is made. The Hawks have talent but one they lack on the floor is leadership and someone who will hold players accountable for there actions both good and bad. I like JJ, Harrington, Marvin Williams and Stoudamire. After that I’m not sold on anyone on this roster. Even Josh Smith as much as I love his dunks and blocked shots he’ll have to improve in other areas of the game. He’s got time to improve and he’s still only 19 but Schultz is right the Hawks shouldn’t try to market him only as the Slam Dunk Champion. Winning Slam Dunk championships alone don’t automatically make you a good NBA player (just ask Harold Minor aka “Baby Jordan”). Having said all of that I will say that the Hawks have better talent on the floor this year. I just believe that post season basketball is another year away.
V Avant
By jim
November 9, 2005 03:31 PM | Link to this
I thought you were gonna talk about those cheerleaders with the caption “we’ve got to stop meeting like this.” Actually the caption for that particular article ought to read “We’ve gotta START meeting like this…Yeah Baby Yeah!!!!”