The Biggest Problem with the 2010-11 Hawks

I almost can’t watch the team’s games anymore because I’m so tired of seeing Larry Drew on the sidelines. I’m so tired of watching him ruin any chance of winning games with poor strategies that take away the strengths of our team. People can call out the players all they want, but no one hurts this team more than Drew. I can’t stand the thought of him possibly being here as the head coach next season. With him as the head coach, I have absolutely no confidence in this team going anywhere in the playoffs. As far as I’m concerned, we are sub-.500 team on the decline with him as our head coach.

So many of the problems that people complain about on here on a daily basis are due to this team’s poor excuse for a head coach. Think about it. Josh thinking he is a point guard and an elite shooter, Al playing more outside than inside, Joe over-handling the ball, Teague not playing enough minutes, Jamal being less and less productive, etc. etc. Just think about it for a minute.

Josh Smith, last season, had the best and most efficient statistical season of his career due to the fact that he was playing more inside and staying away from the 3 point shot, as instructed by his coach. Josh was focusing on defense and attacking the basket, and it resulted in him being a runner up for defensive player of the year, and also made him an efficient scorer and a force at the PF position. Now, Josh is taking jump shots at a higher and higher rate, and he has been much less efficient scoring the ball this season, as opposed to last season, as a direct result of that. Also, Josh has been criticized time and time again for bad shot selection, partially because he doesn’t know what to do, and the coach is preaching to him to shoot the ball with confidence. Drew has, on numerous occasions, seemingly encouraged Smith to continue to shoot the jump shot since he works on it in practice. Also, since Drew doesn’t have the courage to discipline smith for making silly mistakes on the offense end, he continues to make the same mistakes over and over again. What does this say about the coach?

As for Al Horford, he was playing primarily inside, and regardless of how big his opponent was, he was banging inside and taking it to them in the post and on the boards. Now, ask yourself, why in the world would a guy who has played primarily inside the paint, for the majority of his career suddenly just decide to settle for spot-up jump shots the majority of the time? This has never been characteristic of Horford, and he has never shied away from contact. Also, Al has a reputation for being a “coach’s dream”, in that he does whatever he is asked on the court without protest. Well, if you look through the interviews and articles from this season, Drew has made comments that seemingly suggest he wants Horford to look to the mid-range jumpshot as his main strength and focus on stretching the defense with that weapon. Also, Drew has made it a point to assign Horford to defend less-effective offensive big men, rather than the opposing team’s best big men, when he is clearly the best individual post defender on the team, overall. Collins is better against post players who rely on force and power, but Horford is best overall when it comes to defending 1 vs. 1 on the block. Yet, L.D. doesn’t show the confidence in him to even do that. As a coach, what type of message is that sending to the players? Is Al just not good enough for Drew?

Now, think about Joe Johnson. People are constantly criticizing his isolation tactics and the fact that he consumes the majority of the team’s shot attempts while shooting incredibly inefficiently at times. However, with Drew seemingly making a conscious effort to put the ball in Joe’s hands as much as possible on several occasions (as he mentions in his post-game quotes following the Boston victory last friday), what do you expect to happen? Drew encourages this. So, when the coach-proclaimed best player on the team is struggling and not producing, yet the coach encourages the team to continually feed him the ball even when it clearly isn’t working, what does this say to the players?

How about now we talk about Jamal Crawford? It’s no secret that his numbers are down this season, and he’s become primarily an inefficient volume scorer who is only “hot” for brief stretches on the court. He won’t win the sixth man of the year award this season the way he did last season, and some people may wonder why. I’ll tell you why. Jamal is being asked to play point guard for many of the minutes he is on the court. A seasoned NBA veteran, who has focused on scoring for his entire career, is being asked to change his game and focus on facilitating. Well, naturally, that is going to throw off his game quite a bit, since he can no longer play to his strengths, or play on instinct. He has to try and adjust to perform his new role and do something that he is weak at. Hence, his production is down, and the team’s offensive efficiency is way down. Everyone who knows the game of basketball can see this. Even Jamal, himself, has mentioned that some of his struggles are related to trying to adjust to playing at PG at times. The only one who cannot see this is Drew, and regardless of how ineffective the team is, Drew still won’t stop doing this. What does this say about the coach, and what type of message does it deliver to the players?

Also, what type of messages do our young players receive when they are getting unfair, biased treatment? I’m talking about Teague here. Regardless of how Teague plays, even if he is spectacular in stretches of playing time on the court, he is never, ever guaranteed of regular playing time, yet less efficient players who are doing what he is asked to do, but performing that role more poorly than he is, are awarded playing time on a regular basis. There is a false sense of entitlement with some of those veteran players. So, the system starts to look like a hierarchy where players are rewarded based upon how much a coach likes them personally, and how many years they have been in the league, rather than how they produce on the court. What type of message does this deliver to a player who is still just learning the ropes of the NBA? Also, young players desperately need to have direction and motivation in their early careers to really prosper. Where is that motivation for Teague? He probably doesn’t know what to do at this point, since he can’t get enough chances to get on the court and show what he’s got, and regardless of how good he is when he is on the court for those brief stretches, it seemingly means nothing to his coach in terms of future playing-time. Drew has given almost every excuse in the book for why Teague doesn’t play more. Tonight, it was because it wasn’t a “man-on-man type thing”. The only motivation Teague could have at this point is motivation to sign with any other team that offers him a contract at the first chance he gets.

The list of problems go on and on, but Drew is at the center of it all. Maybe we should blame management for hiring Drew, but it is still a huge problem, regardless of who caused it. Some people will put the blame on the roster of players and say that this team just doesn’t have enough as is to win a championship or be “elite”. I would agree that we probably don’t have enough to win a title with current roster, but there’s not excuse for why we can’t be a perennial playoff contender and solid 50+ win team each and every season, as long as we are moderately healthy (and we’ve been moderately healthy, no player has missed an extended period of time, e.g. a month or more). If you think it’s a roster problem that has this team playing so poorly this season, then answer me this, why is it that we were able to win 53 games last season with a lobsided strategy, a linear offensive system, and a defensive liability at the point guard position, meanwhile being led by a coach whom many thought should be fired for ineffectiveness? Some people will say that we were healthy last season and that is why we had success in the regular season, but if that’s the case then how do you explain this: We were able to win 47 games 2 seasons ago (probably more than we will win this season) with Al missing significant time due to a bone bruise, Joe missing time, Marvin missing significant time with a back injury, and without even having Jamal Crawford. How do you explain that? Some people may respond by saying that the Eastern conference is just stronger now than in the past couple of seasons, however, keep this in mind when you make that argument. For every team that got stronger, another team got weaker. Chicago improved, Miami improved, New York improved, and Boston became rejuvenated, but at the same time, Cleveland tanked, Milwaukee significantly weakened, Charlotte became depleted and in the course of the last few seasons, the juggernaut that was Detroit eroded into a lottery team and a conference doormat. You play all teams in the conference multiple times, and you play your division teams more than anyone. Our division foes, outside of Miami, are weaker this season than last. Also, the western conference, as a whole, is weaker.

When asked about which teams in the league have the most talent or potential when it comes down to just players, a lot of people used to think of Atlanta, since they saw the upside of Al and Josh, the ability of Joe and Jamal, the potential of players like Marvin and Teague, and the overall youth of the team. Many people still believe that this roster of players should produce a lot more than 44 wins in a season. I, too, believe that, and when I think of what is holding them back the most, I think of one incompetent man: Larry Drew, senior.