Poor Coaching and Poor Shot Selection

I'm sick of this Hawks team.
There are so many things wrong with them that if I tried to name them all, I'd be here bitching all night long. I don't want to do that, and no one wants to read that anyway. There are a couple of things that bother me more than others.
Let's start with Coach Drew. I was never in favor of this hire. I'm sure you'll find my objections somewhere here on the blog. I would go find them, but I've had like 3 glasses of wine and dammit, I just don't feel like it. Anyway,  I didn't think it was a good idea to hire one of Mike Woodson's minions, because I assumed he learned a lot from his former boss. He did, and a lot of the things that plagued the Hawks in the Woodson era are still there. Drew has done nothing to change my mind about the fact that they could have found someone better.  He annoys the hell out me. He never defends his players. Ever. He doesn't even roll his eyes at the refs. He just stands there chewing gum, looking clueless. If it annoys fans, it's got to piss the players off beyond belief. He seems to coach his game plan as opposed to coaching the actual game far too often. All coaches have rotations that they'd like to stick with, but the game ultimately dictates whether or not those plans have to be scrapped.  Drew doesn't give a damn about the flow of the game. If he planned on taking Player X out at a certain point in the game, then that player is damn  well coming out, no matter what. The only thing that derails his plans is foul trouble. He, like Woody, loves to foul his players out of games in the first half. Two fouls is NOT the end of the world, but I digress. Also, there's very little evidence that he holds any player not named Jeff Teague and sometimes Za Za Pachullia accountable for poor play. He'll scold them and sit them with quickness, but he won't do that to the All Star and All Star snub. I bet if he attached playing time to poor shot selection, then some of those ill advised jumpers wouldn't happen.
Speaking of ill advised jumpers, there's plenty of blame to go around for why they keep happening. Of course it starts with the player, but it's clear that said player views himself differently than the rest of us. That means, others are going to have to be more vigilant about stopping him. Since we've already established the coach isn't going to do it, that brings us to the other players on the court, specifically the guards. They have to stop giving him the ball when he's out of position. How will they know when he's out of position? If he's more than like 8 feet away from the basket, then his ass is out of position and should not be given the ball. No exceptions. If Teague wants to truly cement his role as the leader of this team, then he's got to put his foot down and make better decisions. Joe and Kirk have to be just as vigilant. It makes no sense to keep allowing such high risk, low reward shots to keep happening. It affects the bottom line. Anyway, this vent is getting long. I'm done for now.







For more thorough Hawks analysis visit Peachtreehoops and Hoopinion

Hawks and Phillies win. One team's win means more than the other's obviously.

HAWKS WIN! Yep, they put the smackdown on Dwight Howard and the rest of the Orlando Magic. Josh Smith who is the pulse of the team had a monster line! 17 points, 10 rebounds, 5 blocks, 4 steals.... Joe was as cool as ever with his 25 points, 7 rebounds. Al had 10 points 9 rebounds and Flip Murray had 14 points off the bench. It was a total team effort and I loved it. Next up is Philly at the Highlight Factory on Saturday.
The Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series. Cole Hammels was named MVP. I'm happy for Jimmy Rollins because the fans in Philly have been hard on him at different points in his career. Earlier this year they were pissed at him cuz he was pissed at them for booing the team. I'm glad he's been somewhat vindicated.
There were a lot of other games in the NBA tonight, but I honestly don't give a damn about any of the rest of them.

Wow Mike. Al, I'm So Disappointed.

So Mike Bibby is unimpressed by the Boston Fans.

"They were kind of loud at the beginning," he said. "But a lot of these fans are bandwagon jumpers trying to get on this now. I played here last year, too. And I didn't see three fourths of them. They're for the team now and they might get a little rowdy but that's about it."

"I remember them having bags on their heads [last year]. It's a different look. I guess that's what happens when you win."

Kendrick Perkins took exception to this as you might imagine.

Coming off a 2-for-10 shooting performance, you expect a guy to say something like that," Kendrick Perkins said. "We have the best fans in the world, but we don't expect other players to like our fans." "It's about time," he said. "It takes us going down there to pack their building out."

KG didn't much like it, but he didn't wild out about it.

"That's Mike Bibby speaking his mind. I wouldn't say it's the smartest comment, but that's Mike Bibby," Garnett said. "I'm not going to get into any comments going back and forth. If I was in my younger days, I probably would have said something, but I learned that you let your play do your talking."

Now, Mike we all know that these same die hard fans weren't there last season, but we needn't bring it up now. Howeva, I appreciate the honesty.

Kendrick, don't think your Celtics are special. Kobe, LeBron, AI, Detroit and New York bring more people to Philips Arena. Ha! And if we're being honest Boston hasn't filled up Philips the past few years. It just happened this year when they got good. The other people/teams I named consistently fill up Philips. In your face sucker!

And Al, I cannot BELIEVE you had dinner with the enemy!!!

Rookie center Al Horford is finding the hospitality much to his liking in Boston.
He ate dinner Monday night at the home of Red Sox All-Star and fellow Dominican-born pro athlete David Ortiz.
Horford, who was accompanied by two Hawks' staffers, was invited to join Ortiz and several of his Red Sox teammates for a monthly dinner at Ortiz's suburban Boston home.
"It was definitely a good time," Horford said. "A real good time."

I don't know how I feel about you anymore!