playoff woe:

ok, so the hawks. i'm about as big of a fan as anyway of the hawks. they're a top 4 team in the eastern conference...and i think it may well be time to start over. "the living legend" kenny bowman forwarded me this article, and i think it makes some good points about why the hawks' offense seems as stagnant as it does. the thing that got me, for those of you who watched the game last night, was josh smith pouting around the court for the entire second half. it's just embarassing. he's come a long way this year, what with not taking three and improving a bit with on the ball defense. but he is so stupid, and such a whiny baby. supposedly NBA players were polled this season about the best natural athlete in the league. lebron won the poll, josh smith was no. 2. i can't argue with that. but i still say we trade him. anyway, my proposed course of action would be three-fold. first, fire mike woodson. he's the worst coach in the league. second, let joe johnson walk. he's married to dribbling time out and then putting up a jumper. he's really good at it, but not quite good enough that he could ever lead a team to a title. third, trade josh smith for a real center to play next to horford, or possibly draft picks. next season we start building around horford. start teague over bibby, with the minutes divided evenly. i think the kid might have game. then start evans as the two and crawford still off the bench as sixth man (and probable offensive team mvp). the offense runs through horford, maybe triangle style. would we make the conference semi-finals next year with this squad? probably not. but we'd be more likely to be true contenders a couple years.

of course all this is probably wrong. maybe they should just fire woodson, bring in a coach with some semblance of offensive/defensive strategies. and a coach with enough balls to bench josh when he plays like an idiot. maybe a somebody like this dude, who turned the then newly assembled 2008 celtics squad into one of the best defensive teams of the last couple decades.