GameThread #29: vs. Atlanta
by wyn on Dec 22, 2009 6:30 PM CST
Email
PrintAtlanta Hawks at Minnesota Timberwolves, Dec 22, 2009 7:00 PM CST
Joe Johnson & Co. are in town coming off a loss to (gulp) Chicago on Saturday. The Hawks' reaction to getting beat by the laughingstock of the League will be a good indicator of whether this team is ready to grow after last year's success (Hollinger's statistical power rankings has them at #1). Of course, our beloved Timberwolves may decide not to show up for 12 minutes at a time, thus making the indicator less valid.
Whenever we play the Hawks, I feel the need to apologize to Billy Knight. Sure, he's the guy who drafted Acie Law #11 and Shelden Williams #5. But he's also the guy that brought Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Al Horford, Marvin Williams, Mike Bibby and Zaza Pachulia to Atlanta. We all laughed when he drafted Childress, Smith and Williams, but he sure assembled an eventually potent squad.
124 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Total money trade
Thunder still get quite the deal though.
They did waive Shaun Livingston. I’d love to pick him up.
Livingston would be a good pickup...
Could be a nice swing player for us. Heck, he’s gotta be better than Pavs!
Looks like we're bumped again from the internet streams
RWB has the Wolves listed as joined in progress after the Pistons/Bobcats game. We get no respect.
Wolves get precisely the amount of respect
they deserve
by Eric in Madison on Dec 22, 2009 7:07 PM CST up reply actions
As a minnesota fan
stuck in atlanta, I finally get to catch some wolves action on tv instead of the usual league pass broadband. Since I hate the hawks I’m hoping kevin love and the home crowd can give the hawks a scare.
I feel like ATL is overachieving this year and what better than a two-game losing streak to the bulls and wolves to bring them back down to earth.
Crap
Pups don’t seem to have any enthusiam or energy. Hawks are all over Big Al – once again, lack of a credible outside shooter is gonna kill us.
Kevin Love is incredible
the Lack of a credible outsider shooter again……ugh
... and Kevin Love scoring
He’s got 7 of our 10 pts
Huge second foul on Josh Smith
That’ll keep the game close for a while.
You think Vinny Del Negro gets fired?
I mean come on..blowing a 35 point lead at home to Sacramento?
Brewer
I’m starting to like brewer…as a starting 2 guard..Hell no..but a nice guy off the Bench or maybe even a starting 3 over Gomes
He will continue to improve
Not that he should be jacking up the 3’s, but his all-around game is trending up. He should be getting burn, no matter what.
mike woodson..
…with the quote of the year so far. he was asked if he thinks the wolves remind him of the hawks in the past few years and he replies “yeah, about 6 years ago”. hooray, 6 years to go!
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
Ya, we're the Hawks...
….before they got Josh Smith, Joe Johnson and Al Horford.
So basically we’re the Hawks when they had Al Harrington.
…great….
We can only hope Kahn changes that this off-season
by making a huge splash in Free Agency
does love really have 10 boards...
…with 6 of them being offensive?
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
Maybe Kevin McHale was right
Kevin Love is incredible
good commentators!
did they just say Flynn isn’t giving his team a chance? Hope Flynn gets to watch the film with the commentating.
he's not..
…..and it’s been really bad over the past 3-4 games. he’s not even looking to run an offensive set at this point. granted, he’s out there with a bunch of crap but his facilitation has been crap for a while now.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
wait....Taking a time-out when your up 12?
really mike woodson?
the hawks are doing this...
…without having made a free throw.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
did j-pete just giggle on that dunk?
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
If you had told me that Josh Smith would be in foul trouble all night...
…I would have said we had a competitive chance.
…not so much…
really Hanny
“Ryan Hollins Throws it down the Chimney”
Wait wtf???
Jonny Clause and Santa Flynn?? Horrible
8 of them offensive...
….the wolves record for oreb in a game is 12. the most rebounds in a game is 25.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
before the feed shut down
there was a great behind the basket shot of some Hawk making a jumper but all you could see was Love filling up the camera. For a “little” guy he sure has a low post presence.
it's unbelievable...
….he’s a rebounding yoda.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
it will be tough..
….to match what rodman was putting up:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/r/rodmade01.html
Love is a great rebounder but Rodman was otherworldly.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
I dunno
I really think Love can get above 5 oreb/game. He’s already above 4 right now.
How you fill in the gaps around him is another problem entirely, but in terms of the glass, I definitely think Love will reach Rodman’s level at some point in his career.
rodman...
…posted a 20.8 rebound rate one year . his career average is 2 points higher than what Love is putting up right now. love could match the net amount, but that’s only because rodman played on teams with much fewer misses floating around to be turned into offensive rebounds. imagine a team where pippen and jordan made 50% of their shots from the perimeter and where rodman grabbed about 20% of available misses. that’s what was going on when he had it rolling.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
but how many
of Rodman’s rebounds were from Rodman’s shots?
Improved FG accuracy would cut down on his ORs quite a bit.
that's one thing i wish was tracked..
…re: offensive rebounds on your own miss. it should be its own stat.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
also..
…i think most people remember rodman for the off the court freak show but it’s easy to forget just how much of an on the court freak show he was as well in terms of athleticism.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
also..
…check this page out:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/trb_pct_season.html
he holds the top 7 seasons in nba history.
Forever splitting the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs
www.canishoopus.com
Why are we doubling Horford in the post?
I hate that no matter who it is on no matter what team, if the dude posts up, we double. That leads to way too many open 3 point attempts. Let a guy go to work for 2 in the low box one on one. You don’t always have to double!
I'll take giving up contested 2's over the top any day
over having guys like Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby taking open 3 pointers. Any day.
by Rascal Flatts on Dec 22, 2009 8:33 PM CST up reply actions
Dominique Wilkins think more of Love
than our own announcers or most of our fan base.
Eh, from a scoring standpoint
He is not a competent floor general as far as I’m concerned. If his shot is on, he’s solid. If not, he is a huge liability. Some of his turnovers are the stuff of 5th graders.
by Rascal Flatts on Dec 22, 2009 8:48 PM CST up reply actions
I still think the triangle is a huge factor in that
I think there’s only been one point guard who’s ever averaged more than 5apg in the triangle. It’s just a weird system for a point guard to play in, especially one who’s learning it for the first time
Understood
But he misses guys on the PnR sometimes too. I’m just not impressed at all. I like his ability to drive and he shows some solid range on his jumper. But otherwise he makes amateurish turnovers and over-dribbles at times. That’s not the stuff of a natural PG, even a rookie one.
by Rascal Flatts on Dec 22, 2009 8:56 PM CST up reply actions
It does kind of raise the question...
…that maybe Kahn is right about Flynn and Rubio being able to play together.
said he had a lot of skills
and was going to be a great player. He’s also been effusively complimenting his rebounding all night. Again, Love is doing this that is top 5 overall and top 10 both ways rebounding the ball.
There we go again, doubling off of Crawford onto Horford
Why? Crawford burns us with the 3-point make. Jesus.
Would you rather not have them double Horford?
Thats my preference but if you believe in doubling that post up (and, again, I think its incorrect despite its pervasiveness in the league) than Crawford is the player to double off. Evans has been stroking the three at a high rate since getting back into the league. I think he might be top 40 all time in 3 PT %
Correct
Horford is not a prolific scorer in the post. Don’t double him until he makes a few down there. And Crawford was heating up prior to that 3-point shot. You don’t leave a streak shooter like Crawford after he heats up.
by Rascal Flatts on Dec 22, 2009 9:05 PM CST up reply actions
Well we are both arguing uphill then
against the same conventional wisdom. The NBA doubles post players almost without fail. Its absolutely idiotic as near as I can tell. I thought you were arguing that doubling off Crawford versus other players was problematic.
Correct
I agree the double is used too liberally in the post. Teams can do that against Jefferson because there is no one there to punish them. But against the Hawks you’ve got gunslingers like Bibby, Crawford, and Johnson. I’d rather have Al Horford try to make 2-point running hooks against all night as opposed to those guys getting wide open 3’s. It’s simple math too.
by Rascal Flatts on Dec 22, 2009 9:18 PM CST up reply actions
Gotta say...
….the transformation of Josh Smith into something more than just a pogo stick is impressive.
He was never just a pogo stick
and has been a huge asset into stepping into the league. Right now he is playing sublimely but in his first ten games as a rookie you could tell he was already a rotation level player. On draft night, the execrable Jay Bilas said all Smith could do was jump when the truth was that all he couldn’t do was shoot.
He's just a lot more mature now
Plays a team game, does things out of skill rather than just sheer athleticism. He’s grown up the last two years
Appreciating all the great poster fans
who hung in for the whole game. You have a stronger stomach than I do. I felt it was over about 5 minutes into the game. That early flood of turnovers, misses, and basic boneheaded play was too much for me. I left the game & only returned briefly to see if there was any change. That makes two consecutive absolutely horrid games. And a game like this at home is doubly depressing because it doesn’t give attendees any reason to return. My Christmas wish is that the Wolves merely become competitive. Not stay as a team that is immediately 10+ in the hole and no threat to take back the lead AT ANY POINT for the rest of the game.
i hate that
people remember how good jonny flynn was with good teammates but nobody wants to believe that al jeff could be great with some solid shooting teammates…
Joe Johnson
Terrible game to attend tonight, except that it was fun to witness Joe Johnson’s performance. If there has been a “make it look easy” game by any player at Target Center this year, that was it. He gets a fair amount of attention by this point, but I still think he’s underrated. There just aren’t many guys in the world that can toy with defenders and hit shots the way he can.
This Wolves group is really far from being decent. If it takes the whole franchise in trades, I would start fresh with Wall-Favors. At least there would be no question about who are the “building blocks.”
I am starting to think the Wolves should just drive a dump truck full of money to Joe Johnson and pay him whatever it takes to get him here. Flynn is going to need to have a playmaker net to him if he is going to continue to play the way he is. Then add as many as quality wing players (Turner and Henry) as you can in the draft and a defensive 5 (Noah) and I think we would be pretty competitive.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Canis Hoopus
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
