Thursday, January 14, 2010

Lang Whitaker Embedded With the Hawks

A tease of the full story is online. I'll return to this subject once I procure a copy of SLAM #135. For now I'm satisifed to learn that James Verrett travels with his own bottle of Tobasco sauce and share this key excerpt of Mike Woodson speaking before the game in Dallas:
I have zero ego as a coach, none. If you think you see something that’s going to work better than what we’re trying to do, speak up! Say something to me! But what I’m telling you guys is that if you guys will just consistently do what we’re asking you to do on defense, we’ll win games. I don’t give a shit about the offense; you guys can score more than enough points to win games. The offense isn’t the problem. But you have to get stops on defense, and if you’ll listen to what we’re telling you, I promise you’ll get stops. The shit works, okay? The shit works, but you guys just have to have the pride and the heart to buy into it and do what we’re asking you to do every time down the court.
The Hawks have finished better than 18th in the league in defensive efficiency once in Woodson's five full seasons as head coach: 12th last season. They're currently 12th in the league this season. The Hawks have finished 10th, 12th, and 16th in offensive efficiency during Woodson's tenure and are 3rd in the league this year.

The shit that works consistently trails the shit he doesn't give a shit about.

6 comments:

CoCo said...

"The shit that works consistently trails the shit he doesn't give a shit about."
hahahahahhahahahahahahahahha! Hilarious!

Peachtree Hoops said...

does the human highlight blog have line of the year?

and don't straddle the fence Bret, what is the better line, "The shit works" or "Bet it Hit Rim."

Bret LaGree said...

"Bet it hit rim" should outlive us all.

CoCo said...

I disagree! I think the shit works sums up exactly how the Hawks win games. Whatever they're doing, no matter how flawed, the shit works!

Bronnt said...

"Bet it hit rim" is a classic. The source has as much to do with that as anything else. I think it pretty much every time Josh Smith takes a jump shot.

I hope the shit works in the playoffs.

Jason Walker said...

I'll never tell until the season ends, but one of the upshots of the Hawks being more relevant is that there is no shortage of great--ummm--insights.