Drew turned on the television at 3 a.m. and came across a replay of the Thunder-Heat game from a couple weeks back:Rest easy Hawks fans, the head coach has a plan: Joe Johnson should play like Kevin Durant.
"I am sitting there watching Kevin Durant and they are double-teaming him all over the place. But he goes quick. He gets his shot quick. He comes off the screens looking to shoot it quick. And he’s accepting double teams and making plays out of double teams. Sometimes it calls for showing a willingness to make the right plays out of double teams. If they see you are a reluctant passer the heat will be turned up even more. Not saying that’s what’s happening with us but those are the things you have to do with double teams. If you are a scorer, knowing that you are going to be double-teamed you have got to go into your shot and your offense a little quicker. If not, you have to make a play out of a double team. The other thing that affects double teams is where you are on the floor. It’s a lot easier to double team when you are on one side of the floor than when you are in the middle of the floor. We’ve gone to where doing more things out of middle of the floor."
This is the logical culmination of Drew's season-long imploring of Hawks players with a long history of not attacking the basket off the dribble to attack the basket off the dribble as if it was as easily done as said.
Of course, these pleas occur concurrent with allowing Josh Smith to take almost half his shots outside of 16 feet, running plays for Al Horford to curl around a down-screen to shoot a jumper, and a disinterest in using the three Hawks (Marvin Williams, Zaza Pachulia, and Jeff Teague) most likely to attack the basket and get to the free throw line.
Allow me to set those last three sentences from Drew apart for further contemplation:
"The other thing that affects double teams is where you are on the floor. It’s a lot easier to double team when you are on one side of the floor than when you are in the middle of the floor. We’ve gone to where doing more things out of middle of the floor."To which every single person who has watched the Hawks play during the last four seasons responds, "Duh."
It's shocking that a man who was watched every single Hawks game over the past four seasons is having an epiphany right now about how much easier it is to defend a team when the ball stays on one side of the floor. It's doubly shocking that he would admit such in public.
4 comments:
Just another brick in the wall (or from beyond the arc).
I too just had an epiphany that a certain team with THREE all-stars and "6th Man Of The Year" are wasting yet another season in the murk of severe underachievement.
This guy has said everything that Atlanta fans have been thinking all this time....why does Joe Johnson talk about the team in third person when he is really talking about himself????? He never helps out on D, he never sets anyone else up on O, and he took a contract that will ultimately suffocate his team for the next 3 years...come on hawks get it together...aren't u tired of the rest of the league getting better while u get worse!!!!!???
I am an avid Hawks fan and an incredibly disguntled one. Someone needs to dismantle this whole team and start over. Just a "Clue" folks. This team has ZERO leadership...HELLO...from management down to guy on the bench in street clothes to the "so called" Coaches. ZERO!How can you expect your team to show interest when your so called "leader" (Joe Johnson) doesn't show any on the court. He has no "passion" for the game like a D wade , Kobe, or Lebron! That's the problem of many!
Give Larry another four years, and he'll realize our power forward shouldn't be acting like he's Kyle Korver.
At this rate, we'll have a logical offense by 2025.
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