Initial Feedback: Pessimism Is in the Title of This Blog

Initial feedback: A completely subjective and immediate response to the events of tonight's game, featuring a comment and rating, the latter on a scale of 1 to 10, on every player who saw the floor and the head coach, along with ephemera and miscellany as the author deems necessary.

Your ratings and commentary, dear reader, are welcomed in the comments to this post.

Boxscore

Players

Jeff Teague: It'll be another season before we can fairly judge Jeff Teague's ability to defend the pick-and-roll. In the meantime, Teague offers to outscore the point guards the Hawks can't stop. Which would be interesting were it not for the long stretches he spends on the bench. 5/10

Willie Green: Landry Fields put a clown suit on him in the first half. 16 points on 16 shots ain't making up for that. 3/10

Marvin Williams: Marvin didn't ask for a trade but he's not exactly integrated into a functional organization, either. Condolences, and play better tomorrow night. The team will need it. Again. 4/10

Josh Smith: It's on a night like this, down two of his three fellow paid players, that Smith's willingness to take horrible shots, throw his hands in the air, and generally not overcome adversity hurts his reputation. A defensive rebound every 11 minutes? That's one for every two jump shots he took. 4/10

Zaza Pachulia: A terrible matchup for Zaza. That he was under-appreciated for several years does not mean he's not sometimes overmatched as a starter in Horford's absence. 3/10

Kirk Hinrich: Looked horrible again though Larry Drew's reluctance to play Hinrich and Teague together is approaching Marvin/McGrady levels. If the Hawks think they're showcasing Hinrich for a trade, they're not improving the potential return. 2/10

Tracy McGrady: Understandably, he likes playing. Unfortunately, he's not a difference maker, on his own, any more. 3/10

Jerry Stackhouse: Started the second half. Played the entire third quarter. Made a couple of corner threes. Probably will give him the chance to create garbage time in the near future. 3/10

Jannero Pargo: For some reason, he played seven scoreless first half minutes. Pargo's the guy you go to down 20 in the second half. 1/10

Vladimir Radmanovic: A decent defensive rebounder for a stretch four. Who wouldn't rather, on tonight's evidence, have Steve Novak to make most of his shots when stretching instead. 2/10

Ivan Johnson: I propose that the lack of structure within the organization manifests itself when Ivan Johnson touches the ball. He clearly thinks that it's little different than Erie and that he should create offense. It's not and he mostly shouldn't. 2/10

Erick Dampier: Can't defend the pick-and-roll. In that respect, a perfect Jason Collins fill-in. 1/10

The head coach
It's not easy to coach without 40% of the team's payroll, but it shouldn't be easy to oversee a structureless mess, either. Outside of Smith, Johnson, and Pachulia, no one's getting regular minutes or has a defined role. Johnson and Smith arguably don't have roles defined toward their strengths. With the rest of the roster on one-year deals or possessing a history of mistrust and self-doubt from the franchise, it's not surprising they're susceptible to a not very good team that, to one-up the Hawks in a profound way, has a defined system. 1/10

A thought regarding the opposition
Josh Smith is a good defensive player. Some nights, he's a very good defensive player. Watching Tyson Chandler play defense puts Smith in perspective. Chandler doesn't take plays off, switch screens, or yell at teammates. Chandler tries to stop the other team from scoring. He deserved to be part of a championship team last season and he deserves the increased offensive role Jeremy Lin's emergence in New York provides him.