Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Blog Night Thanks, Acknowledgments, and Links

Last night was blog night at Philips Arena. I had a great time. It didn't feel nearly like the field trip I feared. We were treated with the semi-professionalism polite amateurism we deserved and more. I figured the highlight of my night to be overhearing John Hollinger talk about Nene's tumor in the press room on the way to witnessing (but not participating) in Mike Woodson's post-game press conference. (I think that's for the best. My criticisms are likely better served being published in this space rather than presented as a line of questioning.)

I was wrong. Our night culminated with a trip into the locker room to speak briefly with Al Horford and generally soak in the post-game atmosphere (Interviews were conducted, players got dressed, they watched the end of the Wizards-Knicks game; it was pleasantly mundane.). If they noticed us in their space the players were generous enough not to take offense at our presence.

The good time was due primarily to the efforts of one Mr. Micah Hart though it would be impolite not to thank the Hawks organization (especially Al Horford) for subsidizing the event and providing far more access than I anticipated..

There's a fine bunch of bloggers writing about the Hawks and it was good to meet them. Which makes sense as it's been difficult to be a casual Hawks fan for along time. Their thoughts on the night are linked below.

Braves & Birds
Atlanta Sports Fan
Hawks, Dawgs, and Jesus
The Crafty Veteran
Right Down Peachtree (liveblog of the game at Sports Gone South)
The Vent

Ballhype: hype it up!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey man, I agree with alot of what you say. (Not with your cleveland comparison though. Because although Cleveland repeatedly has no pointguard at all, I think AJ is solid enough to do a decent job for 26 minutes a night while Law plays 20 off the bench until Acie is ready to take over...... and I think Acie is our PG of the future (Starting sooner than one may think too). And is a huge part of our great young core: Law, Horford, Chillz, Marvin, J-Smoove, and JJ.



BUT ANYWAYS, here is where Im agreeing with you in huge ways. Please answer me, this has got to be fixed. It just has GOT TO.


Why does Woodson have the Hawsk play so slow? They are unstoppable when they run, especially off their defense (Which I give alot of credit to Woodson on. Our defense is great. Young team, very poised.)


We are unstoppable in the open court though. Law is the future at PG. Why do we only post up Joe Johnson? Why not go to Horford inside, and also Josh Smith inside? Why not run the pick and roll game, pick/pop with Marvin adn pick/roll with Horford and JChills.... also and ESPECIALLY pick/roll with J-Smoove, who would have an absolute dunkathon and basically be Amare x 10 on the roll (Marvin could roll too obviously with his size, athleticism and finishing. And Joe, AJ, and Acie could all run the pick/roll starting it).


We're 18-18 without those 3 things, 18-18 playing at a slow tempo (AKA playing handcuffed). We owuld be unstoppable if we ran more uptempo, went to Horford in the post, went to J-smoove in the post, and ran more pick and roll.


Why doesnt Woody figure this out? Halfcourt at least run more pick and roll especially with J-Smoove, more pick and pop with JJ and Marvin, and go inside to J-Smoove and especially Horford in the post instead of only using JJ (Using those 2 along with obviously still going to JJ.)

But also RUN RUN RUN. That is just for the halfcourt that could be great for us. We are unstoppable in the open court, absolutely unstoppable. We are deep and so talented and explosive, we are a NIGHTMARE in the open floor and on the pick and roll. Plus we are great on defense so we can run off of that, plus run off of our rebounding (Especially now that we have our PG stable with AJ starting and Acie doing well as our backup PG).

We're a very good team, I could list a million positives for this young team and our young leader/franchise player Joe Johnson. We are well coached too, but why cant Woody figure out these few simple things? We're good enough to be 18-18 playing handcuffed like this, we could be fighting Orlando for the division lead if we played the style to optimize our talent and personnel. We would be 5 games over .500 by now at least, I swear we would. If we play so slow we have GOT TO go inside to Horford and Josh as well as JJ, not just JJ. WOODY HAS TO FIGURE IT OUT, HE JUST HAS GOT TO.


This is an honest question by the way, not just a gripe. Please tell me there is hope of this getting fixed, all 3 of these things.