Hoopinion Is Moving

From this day forward, if you want to read my stray observations about the Atlanta Hawks (which, frankly, figure to continue to consist largely of repetitive criticisms of Mike Woodson) you'll have to do so in the context of a far better designed blog. My blogging bags are packed and I'm moving operations to the brand new Peachtree Hoops, quite practically located at peachtreehoops.com.

The new blog is part of the SBNation network of blogs which, in addition to the aforementioned upgrade in design, offers far more features for readers than I have proven capable of providing on my own.

Thanks to everyone who has read me here. Special thanks to those of you who have taken the time to comment on anything I've written. I hope you'll all choose to participate as much, if not more, at Peachtree Hoops.

Josh Smith Interview: "I'm Still Hungry."

Sekou Smith asks some questions of the team's best player.

I offer this first response as supporting evidence for my contention that Josh Smith is smarter than the only head coach he's ever played under.

Q. You and Al Horford did most of your work last year within the framework of the offense as opposed to anything schemed specifically for the two of you. Are you guys yearning for more designed opportunities that cater to your abilities on the offensive end?

A. I think so. We’re both good enough post players that we can make moves and cause double teams on the block. Al showed that last year and I showed that whenever I got a chance to get the ball in the post. I think we can have an inside out presence, even though we’re undersized, we can cause a lot of mismatches. And I think that helps our team out to have a more balanced attack.

Unfortunately I can also offer the following two responses as supporting evidence that my assumptions should always be treated as such.

Q. One of the biggest knocks of your games is you take a lot of 3-pointers, a lot of ill advised 3-pointers. But you obviously feel comfortable taking those shots. How confident are you in that part of your game now?

A. I feel comfortable. You saw me out here [today], taking and making 3-pointers and mid-range jump shots and they were going in. I feel more confident than I ever have in that part of my game. Listen, I know people are going to scrutinize my game even more now that I’ve got a new contract. They’re going to wonder if I’m all of a sudden satisfied and relaxed or am I going to keep getting better and maintain my hunger. I’m a competitor and I’m still hungry. I go in the gym and work hard every single day to work on my overall game. And you can see the improvement on the court. And all the people that knock me for the shots I take … it doesn’t mean anything to me.

You're a 26 percent three-point shooter, man, 26 percent. For your career. IN almost 400 attempts. Stop it. Shooting three-pointers may feel rebellious and cool but it's really just self-destructive.*

*Strictly in terms of being a basketball player. I do not believe that missing three-pointers, no matter how badly they're missed, how violently they carom off the side of the rim or the backboard itself will actually damage Josh Smith as a human being.

Q. Considering the additions and subtractions made since that Game 7 loss to Boston, is this team as good, better or worse going into training camp?

A. I think it’s a little better because the guys we added have been in the playoffs, been in situations and have been on winning teams. They’re veterans who know what it takes to win. Mo Evans played a huge role in Orlando last year. Flip Murray gives us another breakdown guard who can create off the dribble so Joe won’t have to dribble through three and four people at a time. Mo can knock down a consistent 3-point shot and gives us another offensive weapon to spread the floor. And they’re both good defenders. Randolph Morris is a big body that gives us some much needed depth inside and I think overall these are all good additions to our team.

I have no doubt Flip Murray will gladly pick up any dribbling-through-three-or-four people slack Joe Johnson might allow him.

Hot Spots Now Available Again For Hawks Players

Courtesy of an excellent Micah Hart post examining how Maurice Evans might be expected to make up for the loss of Josh Childress's offensive production, I learned that the Hot Spots for Hawks players are back up.

Frankly, I'd forgotten about them as NBA.com ignored my e-mails about whatever bug allowed me to see shot charts for 29 NBA teams but not the one I harp on about and my season review posts (which originally intended to draw heavily on the freely aggregated data) dragged on and on before sputtering to a conclusion. But, with access restored, I can now definitively state that Josh Smith made 381 of 646 (59%) layup or dunk attempts, 44 of 164 (26.8%) of shots inside 15 feet that were neither layups nor dunks, 66 of 224 (30.4%) of two-point jump shots outside of 15 feet, and 25 of 99 (25.3%) of three-point attempts.

By all means continue posting up Joe Johnson, coach.



Elsewhere, Drew's excited about Josh Smith's arms. And, to date, three other things for next season.

What?

Sekou Smith has either lost his mind or is mining an extreme satiric strain this morning by suggesting that the Atlanta Hawks are winners in free agency.

Even with the departure of Josh Childress to Greece, the Hawks made out like bandits on the free-agent scene. They kept Josh Smith in the fold for a mere $58 million and added much needed veteran help in Mo Evans and Flip Murray at crucial backup backcourt positions at minimum prices. A six-year deal for Smith with the same annual salary would have ended up being around $72 million, which is a bit more than the Hawks were willing to pay their starting power forward. But the Memphis Grizzlies did the heavy lifting for them by presenting Smith with an offer sheet the Hawks matched within hours after receiving it — making good on their promise to do just that when Smith turned down a $45 million offer before the start of his fourth season.

I like Sekou Smith. He takes his job seriously, writes well, and deserves all our sympathy for having to read even some of the comments left on his blog. But I'm not buying this.

• Josh Childress's departure is, in and of itself, seriously damaging. Factor in that Childress was a restricted free agent and the Hawks lost him for nothing and it was, as international media attention would lead you to believe, an historical blunder by the franchise.
• Josh Smith is a relative bargain financially but that figures to be off-set by Mike Woodson's inability/disinterest in maximizing Smith's on-court contributions.
• Maurice Evans should be a slight positive addition. He is not capable of replacing Josh Childress's value, however.
• Flip Murray is a bad basketball player who figures to take minutes away from Acie Law IV, who might be a useful basketball player. Rick Sund signing Murray to play basketball will prove to be worse a worse allocation of resources than Billy Knight signing Speedy Claxton not to play basketball.

That's not a winning slate of free agent decisions.

Season Review: The End of the Bench

Previously: Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Al Horford, Josh Childress, Marvin Williams, Mike Bibby, Acie Law IV, Zaza Pachulia

A quick wrap-up of those who played few minutes last year and should (with one possible exception) play even fewer minutes this season concludes the player-by-player review of the 2007-08 season.

Mario West

West didn't play much; his 270 minutes were spread over 64 games with 20 appearances consisting of less than one minute of playing time. West's effort was always obvious even as he displayed skills useful to winning basketball games less frequently. Part of the problem lay not with West but with Mike Woodson utilizing a player poorly (Shock! Horror!) . Rather than using West's energy to disrupt the opposition's second unit for a couple of minutes every so often, Woodson decided that Mario West was a defensive stopper who should guard the other team's best wing player for one half-court possession at the end of a quarter. West usually responded to this assignment by committing a foul at the first opportunity.*

*Mario West scored 59 points, grabbed 48 rebounds, and committed 61 fouls in his 270 minutes of playing time.

West played fairly well in the two games he started, scoring 11 points and grabbing 7 offensive rebounds in 31 minutes. If you put him on the court with good players the other team may forget about him long enough for him contribute positively. If he hopes to stay in the league as an energy guy for a another season he'll have to learn to defend without fouling. If he hopes to stay in the league for any significant length of time, he'll also need to start knocking down jump shots. He made 2 of 12 jump shots in his rookie year. If he didn't spend the summer working on his lateral movement and shooting thousands of corner three-pointers he'll find Jeremy Richardson or Thomas Gardner holding down his old roster spot.

Solomon Jones

Jones looked every bit the project in his rookie season but there were a few skills (shot selection, free throw shooting, shot blocking) that looked as if they might serve as a foundation for a career coming of the bench and providing useful minutes.

None of those skills were evident in Jones' second season. His field goal percentage fell from 50.8% (128 attempts) to 40% (30 attempts). His free throw shooting dropped from 78.7% (75 attempts) to 55% (20 attempts). He blocked almost half as many shots per minute while committing fouls slightly more frequently. He also managed to turn the ball over on 22% of the offensive possessions he used.

Furthermore, he looked every bit as bad as his numbers would suggest. His lack of basketball awareness or game-readiness rendered his athleticism largely useless. I've no idea why the Hawks have chosen not to send Jones to the D-League so he can get some practice playing basketball. Of course, the bigger question is why they wasted the 33rd pick of the draft of the 2006 Draft on Jones in the first place, other than to demonstrate what can be accomplished when Billy Knight's drafting acumen combines with Mike Woodson's facility for developing young players' skills.

Despite his desperate need for anything approximating game experience, Jones declined to play on the Hawks' summer league team, a decision which should make it more likely that the Hawks trade him for someone, anyone willing to take on his guaranteed contract.

Jeremy Richardson

Over the last two years, Jeremy Richardson has played 152 minutes of NBA basketball across 33 games for 4 different teams. It would be folly to try and derive any meaning from his NBA stats.

He's scored effectively and efficiently in over 1000+ D-league minutes. He deserves a chance not just to make the 2008-09 Hawks roster but to earn some minutes in the rotation (If only due to Josh Childress's massive absence.) as either a shooter or scorer, essentially serving as second-unit insurance for both Maurice Evans' jump shot and Acie Law IV's dribble penetration.

Salim Stoudamire

Salim will be missed by those of us prone to forever believe in his potential to serve as a (likeable) Jannero Pargo type. Rarely used in any way that made sense during his final season in Atlanta, Stoudamire compounded matters by shooting the ball often and with very little success in his rare appearances setting career lows in two-point, three-point, and free throw shooting. Still, I'll root for him wherever he ends up.

Season Review: Zaza Pachulia

Previously: Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Al Horford, Josh Childress, Marvin Williams, Mike Bibby, Acie Law IV

Depending on how valuable you feel signing Stephen Jackson, getting one good year out of him then trading him straight up for Al Harrington was, Zaza Pachulia stands as either the best or second-best (Readers are likely all too aware that there is no third choice for this title.) free agent signing of the Billy Knight era. Not that Zaza has become a fan favorite simply for not being Jason Collier, Esteban Batista, Lorenzen Wright, or Speedy Claxton. I've no doubt more people took note of his productive play than his reasonable contract, though the latter didn't hurt nor did his clear disdain for favorite fan target, Head Coach Mike Woodson.

Pachulia largely escaped criticism last season which was largely fair. He was hurt. His absence was obvious but he wasn't very good even when he played. Limited to 943 minutes last year, Pachulia was far less effective than expected: attempting fewer shots while making a lower percentage of them, matching that diabolical double (fewer attempts/lower percentage) in terms of free throws, not lowering his turnover rate, grabbing fewer offensive rebounds, and appearing even more limited than usual defensively. I believe it's fair to speculate that the drop from getting 2000+ above-average minutes out of Pachulia to getting less than 1000 poor minutes from him cost the Hawks 1 or 2 wins last season even before considering who (Shelden Williams, Lorenzen Wright, Solomon Jones) picked up some of those lost minutes*.

*Josh Smith (possibly) and Al Horford (almost certainly) picked up some extra playing time in Pachulia's absence so 1 or 2 wins may well be the extent of the damage.

A return to the form (if not the volume of minutes played) displayed during his first two seasons with the Hawks falls quite heavily on the reasons-to-be-optimistic side of the 2008-09 expectations scale. A healthy Pachulia would help in the half court offense (both by scoring efficiently and as an offensive rebounder), provide the opportunity to play Al Horford at the 4 should matchups necessitate doing so, and allow Randolph Morris to be brought along slowly in the wake of his wasted 16 months with the Knicks.

On the other hand, even having access to a healthy, productive Pachulia for 15-18 minutes a night likely won't be enough to keep the Hawks in the playoff hunt past the All-Star break at which point his reasonable, expiring contract and ability to be a useful role player will quite possibly make him a desired piece for inclusion in a trade wherein Rick Sund gets someone to take on the remainder of Mike Bibby's contract. Or Marvin Williams' contract. Or, if the right offer were made, Joe Johnson's contract.

Zaza may not be long for Atlanta but I'd like to see him go out on a high, healthy note and solidify his time here as having been mutually beneficial. And, hey, there's no law against trading a guy at the deadline and then re-signing him once he's officially a free agent.

Up Next: The rest

Subtraction by Addition: Hawks Sign Flip Murray

I thought signing Jannero Pargo was a bad idea but leave it to the Atlanta Hawks to take an unappealing hypothetical transaction and do one worse by making an unexpected actual move that's far more dispiriting: signing Flip Murray to block Acie Law IV.

Rick Sund:

"By signing Flip, it provides us with another experienced player who has the ability to play multiple positions for us. Because of his versatility, he will be a valuable asset for us as a reserve, and we look forward to the contributions he'll bring this season."

Here's looking forward to Murray playing both guard positions (badly), embodying the inverse of Josh Childress (Murray dominates the ball and scores only by taking lots of low-percentage shots.) on a nightly basis, and providing Josh Smith with some healthy competition for hoisting the most cringe-inducing three-point attempts.

Murray's managed to attempt 616 three-pointers over 332 career games despite making just 27.9% of those attempts. For his career, he scores 15 points per 36 minutes but needs 14 field goal and 3.8 free throw attempts per 36 minutes to get those points. He has been more willing to pass the ball recently, having raised his assist rate to something resembling a point guard's the last two years. I'm skeptical that he'll maintain that rate as he transitions from playing with his Piston teammates in Flip Saunders' offense to playing with his Hawk teammates in Mike Woodson's "offense," but he did deign to pick up some assists during his time with the Pacers last year.

If your not sufficiently sated by my encompassing pessimism, Micah Hart offers a far more positive reaction to the signing here.

UPDATE: There's also an interview with Flip Murray now up on the official site:

Hawks.com: The Hawks have lacked guys who can create their own shots in the past. Is that something that you see as part of your role with the team?

FM: Definitely. I had a conference call with the team when we were negotiating the deal, and I got a chance to talk to Coach Woodson. I asked him exactly what role he was looking to fill, and he said he was looking for a combo-guard, a guy who could create his own shot and make plays happen on his own. Hearing that opened my eyes and made the decision that much easier for me.

Ha ha. Ha ha ha ha.

(Pause)

Quietly chokes back tears.