The blurst conference in history!
Bill Simmons weighed in on the Eastern conference, and we don't look so good.
In all fairness, this conference is horrible. The coaching is poor, the superstars outside of LeBron and Wade are not that super, and the teams are *all* struggling. How is it possible that every team in the conference right now has 5 wins? Every team! Look it up, it's true.*
The good news is that Bill puts the Hawks at #8 overall. The crazy thing is that he's right. Simmons usually shorts Atlanta teams whenever he does a ranking, and I'm not sure where the bias comes from. He'll have nice things to say and then rank them low, or have unexpectedly harsh things to say... and rank them low. He harps some more on the 2005 Draft:
I'm also not convinced that Marvin "Sexual Healing" Williams isn't going to be one of the top 10 NBA players in 2 years.
I don't think what Michael over at Braves & Birds said earlier this year can be overestimated- the core of this Hawks team has been together for several years now, with Dr. Z and Kid Dy-no-mite in their second years with the core (Josh and Josh).
This team is not getting any worse, although they could definitely use a little Josh 1 love right now. Salim's future in the NBA appears to be limited, and Solomon Jones is a big time rookie. But this team is fun to watch. Except for the night before last, when I saw Josh 2 and Salim both quit on a play and leave a guy wide open for an easy 3 pointer to seal the game. That's the kind of crap that turned me on Harrington, but it's clear that Josh 2 actually likes this team. I'm not sure Salim likes anybody.
* Totally not true, but it feels true. Go back.
In all fairness, this conference is horrible. The coaching is poor, the superstars outside of LeBron and Wade are not that super, and the teams are *all* struggling. How is it possible that every team in the conference right now has 5 wins? Every team! Look it up, it's true.*
The good news is that Bill puts the Hawks at #8 overall. The crazy thing is that he's right. Simmons usually shorts Atlanta teams whenever he does a ranking, and I'm not sure where the bias comes from. He'll have nice things to say and then rank them low, or have unexpectedly harsh things to say... and rank them low. He harps some more on the 2005 Draft:
As if the Chris Paul/Marvin Williams debacle wasn't bad enough, Deron Williams dropped 15 pounds and emerged as an MVP candidate on a 12-2 Jazz team. If I were a Hawks fan watching Ty Lue taking crunch-time jumpers every night, I don't think I'd ever be able to get past this. Seriously. It would be a deal breaker for me. Like dating a girl that smoked or something.I'm not sold on Tyronimo by any means, but I don't think the Hawks are either. Speedy Claxton wasn't brought in to be Lue's backup. Lue has stepped it up in terms of taking on a big role at the end of games, but his ceiling is limited. And everything he gives on the offensive end is nullified on the defensive end. Every other NBA point guard breaks his ankles with a simple head fake and a quick first step.
I'm also not convinced that Marvin "Sexual Healing" Williams isn't going to be one of the top 10 NBA players in 2 years.
I don't think what Michael over at Braves & Birds said earlier this year can be overestimated- the core of this Hawks team has been together for several years now, with Dr. Z and Kid Dy-no-mite in their second years with the core (Josh and Josh).
This team is not getting any worse, although they could definitely use a little Josh 1 love right now. Salim's future in the NBA appears to be limited, and Solomon Jones is a big time rookie. But this team is fun to watch. Except for the night before last, when I saw Josh 2 and Salim both quit on a play and leave a guy wide open for an easy 3 pointer to seal the game. That's the kind of crap that turned me on Harrington, but it's clear that Josh 2 actually likes this team. I'm not sure Salim likes anybody.
* Totally not true, but it feels true. Go back.
posted by Matt at 8:25 AM
3 Comments:
Blew a 20+ point lead last night...I think this team just enjoys games that come down to the last couple of minutes in the 4th.
Whose minutes do you see getting cut when Josh1 and Marvin come back? Shelden is the obvious answer, but looks like Salim and Solomon Jones hit the pine more permantly as well. Whatever I guess, as long as we don't have Royal Ivey or Batista getting major court time.
An NBA game has 240 total minutes, and I see Joe Johnson still getting his 40 a night. Pachulia still gets 30. Josh 2 stays high 30s, but we'll say 35. So 105 is going to pretty stable.
Marvin will be getting 30 when he's healthy, as will Josh 1. I think when Speedy is healthy he's a better fit with this team than Lue is, but the 2 of them together will probably see 50 minutes for a while.
That leaves 25 minutes for Shelden Williams, and I think everyone else falls off the end of the bench. A starting 5 of Dr. Z-Marvin-Josh 2-Joe-Speedy, with Josh1-Shelden-Lue as our bench core? That's solid. That is real solid. With any 5 out of those 8 guys this team is the same. When our bigs are in foul trouble, then we'll see Solomon. When we want to go small, that's when Salim gets to play. At least, that's what I think.
Lue plays just as good defense as Claxton does, and he has been one of the most effective shooters in the NBA for the past two years. Childress and Lue were both in the top 35 in the league last year in effective field goal percentage, and Childress was actually #1. I'm not sure why Lue didn't play this well last year, but I seriously think right now he's the best point on this team. I actually like Bozeman as the backup...
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