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Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Hawks improvement seen, plans not
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
They’re better. They’re exciting, too, with more athleticism than they’ve had since their days of ‘Nique, Doc and Spud. They also flashed another hint of what could happen often inside Philips Arena when a packed house lost its mind Tuesday night after Tyronn Lue shot from the vicinity of South Beach to nail the game-winner against the Miami Heat in the final seconds.
Even so, the Hawks still aren’t good, and nobody knows all of the plan to change that sooner than later. Not the owners. Not the coaching staff. Certainly not the players, the media or the few who bother to attend Hawks home games, mostly when folks named O’Neal, Wade and Payton (theoretically) are in town.
Presumably general manager Billy Knight knows where the Hawks go from here, but he prefers not to say much worth printing about the direction of a franchise that improved enough on the court this season to rise from the worst team in the league to only the third- or fourth-worst.
This means that despite the maturation of the two Joshes, rookie Marvin Williams and Joe Johnson’s ascent to stardom in his first venture as The Man, the Hawks still have a ways to go. They began the season needing a point guard and a big man, especially after the shocking death of Jason Collier on Oct. 15, and they still need a point guard and a big man.
Whether Knight agrees or not is another matter. He did acknowledge before what was the Hawks’ last home game before their finale Wednesday in Cleveland that they do have to get bigger. As for a point guard, well, Knight shrugged. “I’m just not the type of guy who talks about stuff, because I think that’s counterproductive,” said Knight, who later watched Lue’s bomb send the Hawks to a 103-100 victory that actually was a fraud.
Coach Pat Riley was attending to family business in upstate New York. Plus, they placed Shaquille O’Neal, Dwyane Wade and Gary Payton on the inactive list before the game.
That said, Jason Williams, Payton’s backup, is a little more accomplished at point guard than Royal Ivey, the Hawks’ starter who gives way to Lue. “Everybody says that we need a point guard,” said Knight, pausing and smiling before adding in a hurry, “But it’s still debatable whether I agree with them or not. We’ll see how that goes. Certainly I like some of the players that we have to play that position. Is John Stockton coming out of retirement? Is Magic Johnson coming back?”
No, but the Portland Trail Blazers spent much of the season with a bunch of point guards. So did the Denver Nuggets. You would think that the Hawks could have worked a deal to get somebody from somewhere to complement Johnson in the backcourt. Instead, Knight said that he prefers not to make such a huge transaction during the season (although he did do so with Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Antoine Walker and Theo Ratliff during his previous two full years as Hawks’ GM, but who’s counting?). Not only that, the New Orleans Hornets have the Rookie of the Year and perennial star at point guard (Chris Paul) that the Hawks ignored in last year’s draft to obtain forward Marvin Williams.
We’re back to the plan again. The invisible one. Still, Knight said the plan is clear. It’s just that he says the details will stay in the deepest part of his brain. “If you chart out our team the way we do internally, month by month or by breaking it up by segments, it’s on an upswing,” said Knight, who paused again before hinting of the truth: When his plan comes to light, it better have the Hawks out of the darkness.
“Guess what? I know that my job is on the line. I understand that. That’s the nature of this business,” Knight said. “Nobody needs to remind me. I’ve been around the world and back, and I’ve made it back. I’ve been fired a lot, but not that many times. If it doesn’t work, it’s on me.”
Yep.
Permalink | Comments (31) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Terence Moore
Tip for Braves: Aim for wild card
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH: And this from the Baseball Hall of Fame, on scheduling a teleconference interview with the winner of the Ford Frick Award: “Only if recipient is living.” (Otherwise, it might be difficult establishing connection.)
• Hint to the Braves: Forget the Division Championship this season. Go for the wild card. Those National League teams seem to have better postseason luck.
• Strange that Gary Sheffield has been able to avoid headline association with the steroids scandal. Remember he had said at the time he joined the Braves: “I spent this winter working out with Barry Bonds and his trainers.” All the way from Tampa to the West Coast to work out? Nobody blinked.
• How about this? A NASCAR driver doing a radio commercial for seed. Not speed, but seed. Grass seed.
• Naturally, Leo Mazzone’s name often comes up when Braves pitching hits a doldrum. But look at this: Jason Marquis fails here, but becomes a big-game winner in St. Louis. Bruce Chen never got off the mark here, but has since won 27 games, 13 last year with the Orioles. Now, Mazzone gets a second chance with him in Baltimore. Stand by for later developments.
• One of the advertising game’s biggest hoaxes: “Consolidate your debts.” Yeah, but how do you make them go away?
• I guess Reggie Sanders just couldn’t stand the monotony. After seven seasons with seven different teams, he did an encore with the Cardinals last season, then hit the road again. But he didn’t leave Missouri. He only went west to Kansas City, where he’s leading the Royals in RBIs.
• When the Braves needed help last season, all they had to do was put in a call to Richmond or Mississippi, and every farmhand they called filled the need. A bit different this year. To fill out the bullpen, they picked a guy off the scrap heap, Ken Ray, then crossed the International Dateline for another, Peter Moylan, the pharmaceutical salesman from Australia.
• How genuinely refreshing to see an athlete, Aaron Baddeley in this case, proudly exhibit his faith, as he did at the Easter Sunday services, then go out and win the tournament at Hilton Head.
• Weird doings, that after 56 years at the AJC, I still get calls from solicitors asking if I’d like to subscribe to the paper.
You mean they didn’t know?
• Checking through the LPGA Press Guide I find six Kims, three Lees, two Kangs, a Jang, a Yang, a Han and a Lim, but only one Smith —a name Jackie Gallagher acquired by marriage.
• For the first time in its history, the National Football Foundation has an actual football player as its president. Ron Johnson, the former Michigan running back, succeeds Jon Hanson.
• When Ed Dyas played fullback at Auburn, he was also linebacker, punter, kicked field goals and extra points. “It wasn’t a case of sitting around waiting to go in, you were always on the field.” A few days ago, Dr. Ed Dyas, now a surgeon in Mobile, was awarded the National Foundation’s lifetime achievement award.
• Some jokester circulated an offer of a round of golf at Augusta National, on the condition of abstaining from sex for a year. He reported 31 per cent of the female respondents accepted. No report on the males. Just treading water, I guess.
• Name of a member of the PGA of America’s board of directors: Tim Shank.
• Putters get too much blame and too much credit. No putter ever missed a putt, only the hands upon it and the head behind it. • Milo Hamilton is a road warrior no more. From now on, he only does the Astros games at home. “Fifty-five years of planes, trains and buses is enough.”
• Breaking fast from the gate in the race for National League MVP: David Wright of the Mets.
• Fact of the Week: Takes 3,000 cows to supply the leather needed to manufacture footballs for the NFL for a season. … Selah.
Permalink | Comments (13) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
The Tuesday Countdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
(On a train somewhere between Washington D.C. and New York, which is not to be confused with being on the shuttle between Neptune and Pluto, which I assume is where Mike Dunham was last night.)
10: Trains rock. But we just left Union Station in D.C. and I just realized my seat is facing backward. So if I suddenly start to feel queasy, there’s a chance The Tuesday Countdown might not make it to No. 1.
9: OK, Panic Button Pushers. If Leo Mazzone is such a miracle worker and his departure from the Braves is the primary reason Atlanta’s starters imploded to start the season, why do the Baltimore Orioles have a staff ERA of 4.82? Plug in, will ya?
8: Anybody for the over-under on the first NHL or NBA playoff game in Philips Arena? I don’t mean the year. I just mean: Before or after the Messiah?
7: The Thrashers buried themselves with a slow start this season and then a seven-game losing streak, mandating a miracle finish for a playoff run. That said, the elimination game Monday night falls on Mike Dunham.
6: We’re talking major mush head here. I mean, on the Damian Rhodes’ scale of major mush heads. It’s one thing for a goalie to have a bad night, as Dunham obviously did in the 6-4 loss to Washington. But to basically not accept any blame after the game or say something to the effect of, “I need to make a big save” or “I let my team down,” was inexcusable. Instead, Dunham — who was pulled after two weak goals, then re-inserted only because Michael Garnett strained his groin — blamed “funny bounces” He added: “It was just one of those nights. The puck kept finding a way to go in.”
5: The puck kept finding a way to go in? Wait, isn’t that where the goalie comes in?
4: Everybody always wants somebody fired. (Forget Dunham. He was on a one-year contract and won’t be back.) The usual candidates are the general manager or the coach. GM Don Waddell has never made the playoffs in six seasons. That alone should create heat. But a case could made that Waddell did his job before this season: 1) He acquired Marian Hossa after Dany Heatley blindsided the organization with a trade request; 2) He signed Bobby Holik, who was the team’s best player down the stretch after returning from an injury; 3) He picked up Niclas Havelid, who was the team’s best defenseman; 4) When goalie Pasi Nurminen suffered a career-ending knee injury just before training camp, Waddell signed a fairly solid former starter to back up Kari Lehtonen. Oh wait, that was Dunham. Never mind.
3: Coach Bob Hartley kept the Thrashers from falling apart during a blur of goalie injuries. But this was an erratic team all season and that’s a reflection of the coach. So who should get the most blame? Kari Lehtonen. Had he reported to camp in better condition, he might not have suffered a groin injury that led to him missing 35 starts. Yes, Lehtonen got the Thrashers back into the race. But he took them out of it to begin with.
2: There is indecision and then there is absurdity. Brett Favre has crossed the line. It has been four months since Favre has played a game. Are we really to believe he needs another week or month because he just can’t make up his mind about retirement?
1: More likely: Favre wants out of Green Bay to play one final season with a potential Super Bowl contender. He wants to force the Packers’ hand because he doesn’t want to look like the bad guy to fans. I never thought I would cite Mark Chumura as a source, but he probably was right when he called Favre “selfish.”
Permalink | Comments (18) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
