First Take: Roster Scrapping---Who Ya Got?!
Oh, did you care about the game and the score? Sorry. Not here. The roster battles were a lot more fun to monitor than whose second 5 could play against whose third 5.
The Box Score:
Note the minutes played before any kind of hand wringing over the final score, etc. Charlotte, who is working some new roles and lineups, needed to run their guys out there a bit longer...almost 10 minutes per player longer.
Meanwhile, the Hawks were working on some roster battles and rotational combinations, meaning the bottom third of roster got considerably more attention than the top third.
Good and Bad:
The Starters looked good---Al, Joe, Josh, Marvin, and the most awaited player of the season for the ATL, PG Jeff Teague. Teague looked at ease shredding the Bobcats on his way to the hoop. That he finished well is an improvement from last year....next stop: dishing off the penetration.
All the starters showed their usual individual good and bads out there: Al was good from the field, but may have strayed outside a little much, Joe was steady and provided across the board production, but continued to oddly miss open threes. Marvin rebounded well, but it was usually his own misses and Josh......well, Josh was Josh, showing off his hops (and his new, 25 pounds off, look) to get 7 rebounds and 2 blocks, but also unleashed some very questionable shots under pressure and sometimes under no pressure.
As for the rest of the team, Pape Sy looked good in the first and not so much in the second. Neither Donald Sloan and Brad Wannamaker showed enough to visualize either of them playing a rotational role with the club. Vets Tracy McGrady barely played, and couldn't tell when he did, and Jerry Stackhouse missed everything but a pair of free throws.
The battle among the bigs involved Ivan Johnson, Magnum Rolle, and second rounder Keith Benson. And to those who may wonder which way I lean after a single preseason game, let the record show that Benson was +7 and had (3) blocked shots in his (13) minutes while Rolle and Johnson combined for -4 and a single block.
Final Thoughts:
Not bad for a first game...the Hawks have a strong starting 5, this we know, and the battle for the roster spots and rotation should be an interesting follow through the next (and last) preseason game in Atlanta on Thursday (730pm EST).
Exit Question:
What say you? Hit the comments area and let us know!