I Talked to A Hawks Owner... By TheAtl Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 1:39 am I had a very brief conversation with one of the Hawks owners about Mike Woodson. I will not divulge the owner as it was at the game and I'm not sure if the 2 minute conversation was meant for a message board. The gentleman was very nice and listened politely to my concerns about Woodson. Here is the gist: When the Hawks hired Woodson they wanted a young coach who would "play" the young players. He said that veteran coaches were too concerned with their record and often would go with veteran players who would be better in the short run. They wanted a coach who didn't care about his record that would just go with the young guys. (As we have so many young guys I am not sure that a veteran coach would have much choice but whatever). Second, he called Woodson a "rookie", then corrected himself and said "sophomore"...he said that he makes some mistakes just like a typical rookie, uh, sophomore head coach. He said that we are on pace to double last years wins...but they weren't happy about 26 wins but yet it was double last year... (He made it sound like they were happy about doubling the wins but made it clear that 26 is still bad...played both sides). He said that BK defends Woodson to the hilt...BK says the record of the Hawks and their performance is much more related to the GM, not the head coach (I don't buy that)....said that BK dealt Woody a hand and Woody has to play it. He said that Billy thinks that Woodson is like a sacrficial lamb because he had a bad team but expectations were still too high. (I don't buy that either). He said that they wrestle with some of the same questions as the fans. He also said that he agreed with some of my concerns but disagreed with some others. That was about it. My take is that our finish this year will determine Woodson's fate. If we play reasonable basketball the last half then Woodson will keep his job for sure. Billy Knight defends this guy to the death and it would take a collective and determined ownership to over-ride Billy Knight. There was no mistaking BK's love for Woody. He was very nice...said that I could chat with him anytime I see him at Philips. I will wait until another losing streak. Response By vdunkndunk The roster definitely helps make a coach look good or bad. Flip just got fired in Minnesota for underachieving, now he'll probably be coach of the year for winning 70 games. Larry just won a championship and was getting all this praise as the best coach in the game, now he's got a worse record than the Hawks (and he has way more veterans and experienced players who have been together longer than the Hawks have). Just look at it this way: teams with a lot of new players that haven't played together take time to gell; teams that are forced to rely on a lot of young players almost always lose; and teams without a good point guard or big man always struggle. Now look at the Hawks roster: we're the youngest team in the league by far; half our players are brand new to the team (Joe, Zaza, Salim, Marvin), and the other half were new to the team last season (Al, Chill, Smoove, Tyronn, Royal); and we only have one center who was a third-stringer last year and one or two true point guards who are career backups. Whatever you think of Woody, you have to admit that he is in a very, very tough position. At least the Hawks play hard every night, they compete every night, they keep it close most nights and even win every once in a while (in fact, we win almost win 1 out of every 3 at this point). If you erase our 1-12 start we would be something like 14-20, which really isn't all that bad given our roster. And if you think about it, it would have been easy for this team to give up and phone it in every night with all the frustration and losing they've endured. I just think we are a lot closer to being competitive than it seems, and it's still impossible to say what kind of job Woody is doing. If this was Larry Brown's first season coaching and he didn't have his rep to rely on he probably would have already been fired from the Knicks, but he's a hall of famer. Only time will tell with Woody. 原文轉載 http://0rz.net/5714e --

※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 59.121.59.198 ※ 編輯: ZazaPachulia 來自: 59.121.59.198 (02/10 09:41)