HawkStr8Talk's Honesty Corner's 5 Truths: Vol. 9

Until Teague gets double teamed in ANY situation, then he might can be considered the best Hawk on the floor. Truth be told I think Chicago treats Teague as an after thought on the offensive end. The Bulls are gameplanning to stop JJ.

I have actually thought that most of the season but apparently he can do no wrong in these parts

Truth 1, Is Teague our best player? NO. I need to see more. I must admit I am not sure if performance on Rose, are Teague alone, or if ankle injury also has something to do with it. That said, I believe our future and present is Teague. But we need to see him more in action before passing judgement on him as the best Hawk. He has ways to go to being as complete as Joe, or bring as many intangibles as Lion to the table. In time, I may agree with you, not now. Not based on 2 games, and certainly as xavip says, you have to look at attention other Hawks get vs. Teague.

Truth 2, It really pains me to again on this one. Smoove is doing everything wrong it seems. Outside of some defense, he is turning the ball over, an absolute no no in playoff basketball with shots he should not take. If he is not taking his role on this team seriously, then yes it is time. And as for Lion, suffice it to say he is having a tough playoff series. I am not sure why, but perhaps a season of staying outside, has conditioned him also not fight inside. Still, he is a valuable asset, and with a real center, I believe the sky is the limit.

Truth 3, we have the Cows exactly where we want them. Did we want to win game 2. Did we need it? No. The most important games as 3 and 4 in ATL. We are going to win 3 and 4, and put our hobnail boot on their face and break their nose after it.

Truth 5, after this series, the respect thing will be fixed.

Jeff Teague was, arguably, the best player on the floor last night, better even than Derrick Rose. I’m not trying to say anything about true talent level or how sustainable it is, but he was right there (worth noting that Joakim Noah also played a terrific game). But you compare his line to Rose’s, he scored much, much more efficiently, there’s no doubt. And he was defending Rose most of the time, playing a big part in his inefficiency. See here-Derrick Rose and the Bulls’ offense was much better on possessions where Crawford was forced to guard Rose:

http://nba-point-forward.si.com/2011/05/05/hawks-gamble-with-crawford-guarding-rose/?sct=nba_bf1_a3

Sure, Rose isn’t 100%, but I’m not arguing that Teague is better, just that he played better. He scored more efficiently, he didn’t turn the ball over, and he even threw in a couple of blocked shots. This confounds any attempt to defend LD’s treatment of him. His numbers and production in games always looked pretty good, relative to his playing time, so you can only think he doesn’t look good in practices. But then he has a night like this, and if you didn’t think he was capable of being your BEST man on the floor in a playoff game in the second round, you’re still incompetent as a head coach. And keep in mind, he wouldn’t have gotten nearly as much playing time as he DID if the Hawks hadn’t been blown out so many times.

And I gave LD props for Game 1, which I went on record and called his best coached game in his brief coaching career. There are extents to which he can’t solve things-he can’t do anything about Josh Smith. He shouts in time-outs about terrible shot selection, but Josh never improves it. He talks about ball movement, and Josh stands still half the time he touches the ball. But still, he put Crawford on Derrick Rose because he was afraid of Kyle Korver, and needed Teague to check him. The problem is, Korver isn’t a threat with the ball in his hands, just as a catch-and-shoot man, so you might as well defend the man with the ball to keep him from making those passes. It makes no sense to let Crawford sag off 6 feet and let Rose move around as much as he wants while setting up the offense. And while the Hawks were getting utterly killed on the boards due to Josh being too busy complaining, it was time to get him out-Atlanta made the big run to take the lead for good in game 1 with Zaza Pachulia on the floor, but he barely scratched in the second half.

Josh Smith pains me so much. He used to be my favorite Hawk too. I watched him for years, seeing the player he could be, the player he should be, and it’s only in these playoffs that I’ve finally concluded that THAT player just a fairy tale. A nice story, a polite fiction we tell ourselves to justify our frustrations. He will not become that man here, and probably not anywhere else, if he gets traded. He’s not going to mature as a basketball in time to take advantage of the peak of his physical gifts. He’s been the single biggest problem with our offense in the playoffs because nobody has to worry about guarding him while he’s outside of the paint. The defense can completely ignore him while letting him take any jumpshot he wants, and it destroys the Hawks’ ability to space the floor appropriately. He hurts everyone else on offense to play where he requires a man to guard him, making it tougher for everyone else, and when he does get the ball, he’s taking shots that waste possessions.

It’s partly, but certainly not solely, for that reason that Horford has been rushing shots since the playoffs began. The defense can focus more on him, especially the frontcourt players, because Josh is taking himself out of the game offensively. Horford is still rushing his shot when he’s wide open, and he might be feeling the pressure to perform a bit. And especially in this series, I think Noah has taken a personal challenge to frustrate Al in every way possible on the offensive side. Combine that with Al’s need to gain confidence, and it’s been a storm of frustration for those who now see Horford as their favorite player.

You might call me a hater, but I’m actually far from it-I think SO much of how talented and skilled the Hawks are that they’re frustrating me, despite how well they’ve done in these playoffs. Despite all their issues, they still have a good chance to advance. It certainly won’t be easy, but getting back home should help their shooting a bit, and having a game on your home court helps with officiating. A few more favorable whistles-mostly directed at Joakim Noah, and in support of Jeff Teague-could make a difference in itself. The Hawks certainly have it in them to have another really hot shooting night, and that needn’t be the only way that they win games this series, either. I really want to see Jeff Teague with the ball in his hands more-he’s not the best passer or distributor, but he probably represents the greatest danger to the Bulls off the dribble in terms of breaking down the defense.

Now let’s just ride this playoff run out and see where it takes us. It could be our last, best chance to truly make postseason noise.

I agree that Lion needs to get it going here, and soon, as in tomorrow night. I’m expecting a big game from him, not only b/c he’s due, but also b/c Noah went off in Game 2. Horf can’t be taking that ish in the Highlight Factory. Back to work, son.

With all the crap flying around Teague the entire year, I think we should just sit back and enjoy knowing we were right on this one. It sucks to think about what might have been if his talent was developed throughout his time year, but it doesn’t do us any good. Furthermore, let’s keep routing that Teague keeps this up so there he’s an unequivocal starter next year.

If Joe was consistently hitting clutch shots at crucial stages of games like he did in game 1, he’d very much be worth the contract (there’s that dirty word again) he was signed to. Part of me wonders if he’s been failing to pass out of double teams during the year because he feels the weight of his contract on his shoulders, and feels he needs to put the ball in the bucket at any cost to live up to it.

I am getting tired of people trying to lump Al into the “as bad as Josh” discussion because it is complete horse shit. #5 has an absolute HORRIBLE pair of games and everyone is so quick to say “B-b-b-but Al hasn’t done anything either!” It’s pathetic.

In Game 1, Al was a nice 4-7 from the floor with 13 rebounds and 4 assists. He committed ZERO turnovers and the team WON. Revisionist history now is that he played poorly. Completely wrong. Not only did he play well, he actually had a positive effect in a winning effort.

On the opposite side of the crap spectrum, Josh was 3-11 from the floor with 6 rebounds. 4 blocks…two of which went back to the Bulls. Instead of an integral cog in the winning wheel, the win was dragging an anchor shaped like a 5.

Game 2…everyone clamored for Al to assert himself offensively. And he did…he just wasn’t hitting those open jumpers. So, like a true team player, he goes in and gets 14 rebounds and dished 6 assists. His 3-12 from the floor was not good, but considering his jump shot percentage, he was at least open and shooting them as part of the offense. And he was completely hustling and doing everything he could to HELP.

Now to Mr. Smith: after his electric shooting display in game 1, he decided to ride that wave of awesome into a 4-14 shooting night. He was lazy, showed zero effort, and completely disrupted the flow of any semblance of offense. At one point, he literally took 2 dribbles, “crossed-over” his man and shot a fade-away jumper like he was Jeff Malone. At another high point, Josh thought he was fouled going for a defensive rebound. He sat on the floor and whined while the rest of the team went up the court and started the offense. He took EIGHT seconds to get onto my TV screen. The funny thing is that he was complaining to the refs EVEN THOUGH THE HAWKS GOT POSSESSION OF THE BALL. That isn’t just dumb play, it is an absolute slap in the face to your team. But hey…at least he took his headband off to show us all how pissed he was…by committing an awful turnover 4 seconds into the 2nd half.

The fundamental difference is that Al may have had one off night shooting, but nothing he did inherently was putting the team in a backwards motion. In fact, he did a LOT more to actually help the team. When Josh has off nights, everything he does pushes AGAINST the team instead of adapting and trying to chip in where he can. Al might have been in a lower gear in game 2, but Smith was in REVERSE.

So stop with the “Al is sucking” nonsense. It is a “misery loves company” argument. He is averaging 13.5 rebounds and 5 assists over 2 games. Not one person would have been unhappy with those numbers prior to this series. Plain and simple, Al would have to punch a teammate in the face to even be in the same suckage galaxy as Josh Smith

To me the only difference between Josh last night, and the average Josh preforemance, was that he got exposed on the defensive end by Noah when they went to him, and he missed most of shots at the rim, again with Noah guarding him.

This seems pretty correctable to me by playing our centers more (Zaza and Collins played a combined 12 minutes in the last game.) and by letting Horford guard Noah, and Josh guard Boozer.

This will leave Boozer open more often but it will make it harder for them to run pick and rolls with Boozer (where he’s most dangerous), and it should help keep Noah off the Boards. Basically Boozer/Josh, and Noah/Horford is a much better match up for us than Boozer/Horford, and Noah/Josh is. It opens Boozer up to score more but is anyone really that afraid of him anyway? Didn’t think so.

There were a bunch of other goofy tactical call like that in game 2, but I think that should be the worst our front court plays all series. And really rebounding was where they really killed us last night, we even had more free throw attempts.