# Is Boris diaw free?



## ballstorm

_Post-Walker era_ 

first game agasint the blazers :

17 pts (7/12 fg) 4 rbds 4 assists 1 t.o

second game ag. the clippers :

14 pts (5/9 fg) 4 rbds 5 assits 2 stl 1 t.o


Two of his most impressive offensive games in NBA just after Walker left the team . This is no coincidence . Ok the hawks lost both of the games , but the change is rather promising , though . 

I definitely appreciate this trade . What I see now is a coherent strategy of formation . For sure lots of mistake will be made , but at least a core of young players with tons of potential is currently running up and down the floor . May be the win will continue to be rare , but at least there are serious reasons to be patient .

In one or 2 years from now , we can expect the hawks to turn things around and become a play-off team .


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## MJG

I'm curious to see if this keeps up. I had Diaw pegged as one of the draft's steals way back when, and to say he's been a bit disappointing so far to me is an understatment. I'm rooting for the guy, hopefully it's not just a coincidental hot streak.


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## ATLien

Hopefully, this continues.. Year 1, I thought Diaw was looking like he was a steal but this year he looked like he had regressed. Hopefully his new scoring load will give him more confidence in his game.


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## KokoTheMonkey

As long as he plays aggressive and asserts himself in the offense, he should put up much better numbers along the way.


Where has he been getting his minutes at? Is Harrington playing PF, or what? It doesn't seem like Walker's departure would lead to more minutes for Diaw.


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## ATLien

Woodson has been playing alot more small ball lately.

So far, it's looking like Lue and Diaw who have been benefiting the most from the trade. I actually wish Lue wasn't on the team anymore. He isn't in the future plans, but yet he is putting up some nice looking numbers.


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## ballstorm

Boris Diaw 

3rd game against the nuggets :

6 pts (2/8 fg) 2 rbds 1 assist 4 stl 2 t.o 

A big loss to the nuggets ..


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## ballstorm

Boris Diaw 

4th game against the jazz:

6 pts (3/8 fg) 2 rbds 3 assist 1 t.o 

A big loss to the Jazz ..

It looks like _The incredible scoring period_ is over ..


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## ATLien

Atlanta's been playing some ugly ball now.

I mean, it's always been ugly. But now the game's haven't even been close. Josh Smith looks disinterested out there, I think it might me time for Woodson to bench him to get his head back in the game.

ballstorm, are you from France?


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## ballstorm

TheATLien said:


> Atlanta's been playing some ugly ball now.
> 
> I mean, it's always been ugly. But now the game's haven't even been close. Josh Smith looks disinterested out there, I think it might me time for Woodson to bench him to get his head back in the game.
> 
> ballstorm, are you from France?


Yes , I am .

Atl. needs to take advantage of the departure of Walker to improve defensively . That is the only solution for them for not being butchered in every single game . Now , with 3 rookies in the starting five and a center who can easily be labeled "worst starting center of the league" , nothing comes easy .


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## ATLien

9 points and 7 rebounds last night.

Did not have great assist numbers, but at least he is still scoring a little.


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## ballstorm

Atl. lost , but the result is encouraging . Will they start playing better in the last part of the season , just like the last year ? not impossible..


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## jokeaward

Diaw's playing well? Ehh, it makes sense. Chris Crawford, Jason Collier, and Stephen Jackson last year did it.


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## ballstorm

Boris Diaw 

6th game against the bucks

2 pts 2 rbds 2 assists 2 blk 2 t.o . 14 mn 

Not great ...


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## ATLien

Stupid Tyronn Lue is taking over, pulling a freaking Bobby Sura on us. WTF. He's playing good, but he's not in our future. I shouldn't be mad that one of our players is playing good, but when he is not in our future plans. I wish that was someone else performing like that.


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## ballstorm

That's exaclty that : a "Boby Sura" 

7th game against the Celtics .

Only 5 mn of playing time , while Googs plays 29 mn .... There's something wrong here . Googs is the future may be? 

And Walker who finally took advantage of the Hawks in the 2 final minutes of the game ...awful scenario.


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## master8492

I agree that Googs taking all of the young guys minutes. I was hoping they especially Josh Smith get more playing time when they trade Walker but now Googs taking his spot. :curse:


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## RP McMurphy

Lue actually might be a bigger part of the Hawks' future plans than Diaw. If the Hawks draft a point guard, they might as well re-sign Lue to be their backup, he's a perfectly good backup, he's just overmatched as a starter. Diaw is a bust and I see the Hawks letting him go as soon as his contract is up.


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## ballstorm

> Diaw is a bust and I see the Hawks letting him go as soon as his contract is up.


Man , that is a terribly harsh comment . And unfair . But I have no doubt that he will blossom as soon as he will have the occasion to play for a *team*. Not just a bench of guys running up and down the court at the same time . The collective is so poor in Atl. ...If you're a terriffic team player , for sure , you don't have your place here .


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## ATLien

I don't know about all that.

Diaw would definately look better next to real talent, which the Hawks don't even closely resemble at the moment. Diaw's problem is he has no offense. Not only is he afraid to shoot, but he can't. However, if you put him on a team like San Antonio or Sacramento, their respective fans would probably be singing his praises. Diaw compliments other complimentary players, that's his role. And IMO, that was not worth his draft position. At the time, I was expecting for them to go with Josh Howard. He filled a need, and has name recognition in ACC country. Now, that would be one of the rare times that I was actually right about a player. Too bad we can't go back in time. I would definately take Howard at SG over Diaw and Childress.


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## master8492

RP McMurphy said:


> If the Hawks draft a point guard, they might as well re-sign Lue to be their backup, he's a perfectly good backup, he's just overmatched as a starter.



Lue's more like a shooting guard if you ask me. He always look to shoot rather to pass. But anyway if he doesn't ask much I think the Hawks should keep him but he'll probably goes to another team. I think Ivey is going to be very good at point guard if they Hawks plays him more.


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## ballstorm

Another game on the bench for B. Diaw . Atl. defeated Toronto , which is one of the worst team of the league on the road . A win is a win , though . Gugliotta played 38 mn again (third biggest playing time behind 2 rookies ..) . 

Regarding the hawk's draft choices , it's always easy , retrospectively , to find a player which would have been better to select ...But it's just a source of frustration . 

Personnally , I'm convinced that the things can be turned around provided that the staff manage to sign 1/2 good free agents . Then , we will be extremely happy to have a guy like Diaw who defend well , passes the ball and never complain . 

Now , the changes will not be done in a single day , all the more than the players are extremely young . We need to be patient .

I prefer having a promising young team improving each year than a buch of veterans more or less used to lose .


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## ballstorm

agaisnt Golden State :

4 pts 1 rbd 1 as. 2 stl 13 mn


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## ballstorm

Diaw did not even enter the game agasint the Pistons . He's played rather well for the last month and all of a sudden , the coach decides not to play him anymore . He is a sophomore , he needs to practice to improve , not to stay riveted to the bench .

Josh smith 36 mn 5 pts (1/5 fg) 7 rbds.
josh childress 44 mn 8 pts (4/14) 10 rbds
Al harrington 43 mn 37 pts (17/28) 3 rbds

1/ the distribution of the playing time is doubtful . Why giving 40 to both players and not a single one to another one ? Is this supposed to improve the defense? Atl. won't win unless they make a better defense , and to be consistent in this area , they need a contribution from all the players .

2/ harrington has a good game individually , scoring 37 pts , but he took %.40 of the shoots of the starting five . Needless to say that AtL. lost. Harrington is not AI .


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## ballstorm

B.Diaw : 5 mn 

In front of the passive Atl's defense , Washington scored 43/72 2 pts ! (59.7%) plus 8/12 threes (66.7%)
Atlanta : 36/82 (43%) 8/14 3 pts (57%)

I don't know if a single team shot better from the field this season in NBA than Wash. against the hawks .. I do admit that the Wizards are one of the best offensive team of the league but they are not used to get such a high FG% .


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## RP McMurphy

I think the reason the Hawks are a horrible defensive team right now is because of Josh Smith and Tyronn Lue. They're not going to bench Smith because they've decided that he's "the future." They tried playing Boris Diaw at point guard instead of Lue, but he couldn't do it, so I don't expect him to play much for the rest of the season.


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## master8492

RP McMurphy said:


> I think the reason the Hawks are a horrible defensive team right now is because of Josh Smith


Huh? Isn't he the block leader on the team? Everytime he went to the bench, and it seems the coach bench him more often now, the other team just kill the hawks with layups. He's one of the guy that play good defense on the team imo. 
Sure, ocassionally he seems to slack off but overall a very good rookie defender.


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## RP McMurphy

If you watched the game against the Raptors, Mike Woodson was screaming at Josh Smith at least five times for not playing defense. He was supposed to guard Matt Bonner (who shot 8 for 9 in that game) but instead he stood around in the paint hoping to get a rebound or block a shot. Blocking two shots per game doesn't mean you're a good defensive player if you give up ten open jump shots too.


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## ballstorm

Good points RP McMurphy . A good shotblocker is not necesarily a good defensive player . The same goes for a player who steals lots of balls . If he spends all his time trying to do it rather than defend his man , he should not be depitcted as a good defensive player . Michael curry was a good defensive player and his steal total was not great . Bruce Bowen is a good defensive player and he does not steal or block many balls .

NY Atl : 106 92 


Boris Diaw : 17 pts 8 rbds 1 assists 0 t.o .

Best scorer of the team , Diaw was the only player of Atl . to shoot more than 50% from the field . (execpt Drobjnak 2/3) . 

If only the staff could -once for all- make up their mind and take a decision relative to the construction of the team and the distribution of the playing time , it would probably help the players to stay focused .Take a decision and stick to it . Why playing Diaw just 5 mn and the next day giving him 31 mn ? It's absolutely not coherent. 

Good game from Boris , though . I hope it will help the staff to figure out that the decision to keep him benched is insane.


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## ATLien

Maybe the reason Diaw played so much vs. NY was because Childress had the flue?

Thus, he received the minutes JC would have if he wasn't sick.


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## master8492

You guys saying that this guy, who leads his team, all rookie and a top 10 shotblocker in all of the NBA is not a good defensive player and the one who is the catalyst for the horrible defense of his team? The top ten shotblocker in the NBA are all very good defensive player to me but your saying that even though the guy can steal and block doesn't necessary be a good defender? in that reason, your saying that if a guy put 10 of 15 shot in the basket doesnt necessary make him a good scorer? Shotblocking is, imo, the main ingredients for being a good defender.

So he gives up a couple of open jump shots to the other guy but you say why? I think he's trying to defend the paint because he knows that he's the only guy who can block shot for the Hawks; He's a rookie and got exposed to teams in that aspect but if they got a center he won't have to do that. Most of the time he's probing for the block shot and leaves his guy open but most of the time still recovers back and at least put a hand in his face, the other guy needs to be a good shooter; he still needs to figure out who can shoot and who cant.


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## RP McMurphy

master8492 said:


> So he gives up a couple of open jump shots to the other guy but you say why? I think he's trying to defend the paint because he knows that he's the only guy who can block shot for the Hawks; He's a rookie and got exposed to teams in that aspect but if they got a center he won't have to do that. Most of the time he's probing for the block shot and leaves his guy open but most of the time still recovers back and at least put a hand in his face, the other guy needs to be a good shooter; he still needs to figure out who can shoot and who cant.


That's not a good excuse considering that the Hawks' coach yells at Smith all the time for not playing close enough on his man. If he's purposefully not playing defense the way his coach is telling him to then he has other problems too.


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## ballstorm

A good shotblocker is not necessarily a good defensive player . The block is a nice defensive movement , always spectacular , but to defend well , a player has in first to stick to his man , don't let him get open looks , prevent him from driving ... it's a very ingrate job which is in no way reflected by the stats . Josh Smith has tons of potential , but his game right now rely essentially on his outstanding atheltic abilities . He will get better with time , and will learn how to defend efficiently without even jumping as well . 




> the Atlien
> 
> Maybe the reason Diaw played so much vs. NY was because Childress had the flue?
> 
> Thus, he received the minutes JC would have if he wasn't sick.



Sure , but it was still a good game of him .


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## ballstorm

Diaw : 7 pts (2/4 2 pts 1/1 3 pt) 1 rbd 1 assist ag. the Bulls.

Atl. lost 105-91 .

Eddy Curry scored 24 pts in 24 mn . If you don't defend him , you're in trouble.


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## ATLien

ballstorm said:


> Diaw : 7 pts (2/4 2 pts 1/1 3 pt) 1 rbd 1 assist ag. the Bulls.
> 
> Atl. lost 105-91 .
> 
> Eddy Curry scored 24 pts in 24 mn . If you don't defend him , you're in trouble.


Josh Childress had 17/7/3 though, and Josh Smith had 16pts and 4blks.

That is why Atlanta needs to get Bogut.


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## ballstorm

8 pts 3 rbds 4 assists 2 stl 1 blk 3 t.o

Diaw must cut down on the t.o ... godd game anyway . The hawks lost by 11 , but in front of phoenix , one of the fottest team of the league .

Good gam from J.Smith 14 pts 12 rbds .


Stoudmire Scored 40 points though... the inside Defense of the hawks is just awful .


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## ATLien

Atlanta actually hung with Phoenix for most of the entire game. They went on a 9-0 run at the very end, which was the dagger, though. Amare is a man child. Maybe if Pete Babcock never traded 2 1st rounders for Lorenzo Wright, we could have drafted him in that draft.


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## ballstorm

yesterday in just 11 mn , Diaw dished out 6 assits (team's high). Imagine if he was given to play more ... 12 pts 7 rbds 6 assists a game . And a sticky D . 

5 pts 6 assists 1 blk in 11 mn.

And gugliotta keeps playing 36 mn for 6 pts 7 rbds (3/11 fg).

There is something perturbing here .... Googs announced he would retire next year , Diaw is just a soph in the league and the coach doesn't play him ?


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## LakerLunatic

Whats it Like being a Die Hard Hawks fan these days? I myself, would take a Bullet for Kobe Bryant, thats how much i like the Lakers, and our situation is not ideal, but then again, 0-22 or whatever it is definatly is not either. What is it with the Hawks, 2 seasons ago you had a SICK team. Big dog, Ratliff, Terry, Reef. I just dont get it, is there something in the weird southern Air. Im not talking trash at all, I got mad love for Childress and Smith, but in all reality, how long do you really think its going to take for them to be a playoff team again, i say 5 years.. atleast.


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## ballstorm

I don't really know how it is to be a die-hard hawks fan , cause I'm not . I'm a Boris Diaw fan who does not understands very well the management of the Hawks . I think the die-hard Hawks fans are more or less in hibernation right now and this for the next few years . 
Now the situation is not as awful as it looks . There are many young and promising players in this team . It will take time to teach them how to play as a team and I doubt that the current coach can do that . 
Luckily , the Hawks will draft Bogut and suddenly the team will definitely have one of the most promising core of young players of the league . 
Depending on their luck , the hawks can be one year away of the play-off or 5 years away... who knows... but patience is the key .


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## ballstorm

> "Teams in this league have this thing about going young. It's an epidemic. If you're not the future you're not the present. And that's just a fact."
> 
> -- Tom Gugliotta".


When googs is the present , you know the future is not set to be bright. another fact.


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## jokeaward

It's time to start as a Hawks fan, from the bottom.

Teams will fear the Phillips Center... hehe


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## ATLien

Travis76 said:


> Whats it Like being a Die Hard Hawks fan these days? I myself, would take a Bullet for Kobe Bryant, thats how much i like the Lakers, and our situation is not ideal, but then again, 0-22 or whatever it is definatly is not either. What is it with the Hawks, 2 seasons ago you had a SICK team. Big dog, Ratliff, Terry, Reef. I just dont get it, is there something in the weird southern Air. Im not talking trash at all, I got mad love for Childress and Smith, but in all reality, how long do you really think its going to take for them to be a playoff team again, i say 5 years.. atleast.


Yeah, not many die hard Hawks fans. Atlanta didn't really boom population wise til the 80s/90s, so most of the people who live here only moved here from their city for job oppurtunities. They aren't from Atlanta, they are loyal to their former teams. You got some, but not many. JT/DJ/Big Dog/SAR/Theo... I was so convinced that was a playoff team, but it really came back to bite us. We traded a first rounder for Big Dog, and a first rounder for Rahim. That set us back alot of years. Reason that team wasn't well is JT couldn't keep everyone happy, and we didn't have the proper kind of coach. If we have another successful draft and get a guy like Bogut, I say we are no longer than 2 years away from making the playoffs. The key is to not wasting drafts, like our former GM used to do.


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## ATLien

ballstorm said:


> When googs is the present , you know the future is not set to be bright. another fact.


We gone from Hanno Mottola, Emanual Davis, Jacque Vaughn... to Josh Childress, Josh Smith, Al Harrington.

We've gone from giving up two first rounders for Lorenzo Wright, trading Pau Gasol for Shareef Abdur-Rahim, trading Jamaal Tinsley for Dan Dickau... to drafting a future star at #17 in Josh Smith, drafting a pretty good SG in Childress at #6, and robbing Indiana blind by trading Steven Jackson for Al Harrington.

In comparison, yeah future is getting bright.


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## ballstorm

As I said before , At least there are some good young players in this team and they will turn into a decent team provided that the management do a fine work . 

The quote of Googs made me laugh and I "spoofed" it but don't take this joke too seriously . I'm not a hawk fan but I'm convinced that this team has potential . What i'm fed up with is that Googs is a starter and Diaw isn't . There are probably some reasons for this according to the coaching staff but I don't get it . The hawks have to developp each one of their young players , all the more now when the season is so to say , over . So why continue to play a guy that alreday made it clear that he would retire next year? 

I don't have nothing against Googs . He was a good player before being injured and he is certainly a nice guy but he should stay riveted to the bench or 12th men , no more . Is it a sort of retirement present the Hawks staff is offering him ?


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## ATLien

Googs is not a starter.

Lue-Childress-Smith-Harrington-Ekezie have been the starters.


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## master8492

Googs not starting but he seems to play every minute. I think the coach likes veteran guy or something. Just bench the guy and give the young guns playing time and it'll pay off in the future.


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## ATLien

He's already starting Childress and Smith! We don't have THAT many young guys.

Royal Ivey? Well, Tony Delk has had a hot hand lately, and Woody is sticking with that unitl it goes cold. We do not have enough capable scorers on the floor with Ivey-Chill-Smith-Al-Whoever. At least with Delk or Lue, they give you some scoring production. And I love Ivey, but he is already good. Playing him more minutes is not going to develop him into some star. He is what he is, an above average defensive back up point guard. Woody just doesn't feel like getting blown out of the building without putting up a fight, which means giving time to guys who produce.

I hear you. You would have an argument if he wasn't starting Smith or Childress, but he is. The rest of our young players are nothing to write home about. The only player I would like to see more of is Donta Smith, because I like the way he handles the ball and drives to the basket, for a guy his size. Something Boris Diaw has not figured out, yet (driving to the hole).


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## ballstorm

Could you tell me why googs plays so much ? I am fully aware that Diaw is not perfect , but even if he does not drive to the basket as much as you would like him to , he is still one of the best passer in the team and regarding the lack of collective game in this team , my point is that he could use a little bit more playing time . You have guys who can score and guys who can help other players to get the ball properly . Diaw is one of them and not only that because he is certainly one of the best player defensively.


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