Why would Ilgauskas sign with the Atlanta Hawks?

We all know that the Wizards are going to buy out Zydrunas Ilgauskas. We all know the Cavaliers want to resign him once he gets bought out. Reports are that the Hawks are going to pursue Ilgauskas. I don't think there is any doubt that his addition would make the Hawks a better and deeper team. The question remains, however, as to why Ilgauskas would want to join the Hawks.

There are the surface reasons of why he would not sign: he's been with the Cavs his whole career, LeBron gives him a better chance to win a championship than the Hawks, he knows everyone on the Cavs, etc. I think there might be a deeper, and more troubling, reason why Ilgauskas would not sign with the Hawks: the example of Joe Smith.

Joe Smith drew the interest of several contenders this off-season to provide front court depth. One of the main reasons he signed with the Hawks, however, was the opportunity for more minutes. It certainly wasn't for the money since he is making the veteran's minimum. The Hawks only had three serviceable big men in the rotation and desperately needed the help. So how have the Hawks rewarded this choice? By playing him at least 10 minutes less per game than any other time in his career, excepting an 11-game stint with the Nuggets. I'm sure he's not exactly thrilled considering he averaged 19.6 minutes last year on a Cavs team that was better than this Hawks team.

Out of the 6 teams with a better record than the Hawks, here is an example of players who are playing more than Joe Smith: Brian Scalabrine, Shelden Williams, Kyle Korver, Ronnie Price, Joey Graham, Anthony Carter, Anthony Johnson, Josh Powell, and Jawad Williams... to name a few.

This is troubling because given the example this sets, why would any other older veteran want to sign with the Hawks after being waived or even in the offseason unless we offer them more money?

Cursed Red?

In honor of last night's loss to the Golden State Warriors, here is the stat of the day:

Record in blue road uniforms: 10-9
Record in red road uniforms: 3-5

Also interesting to note, the Hawks went back to the playoffs when they switched from the predominantly red road uniforms to the predominantly blue.

I'm not saying there's any causation here... I'm just saying.

UPDATE: After the Jazz game, the blue road unis are now 11-9.

Teague's Potential

I know it is very early in his career, and there is only a small sample size since he has only played a total of 447 minutes, but I was struck by Teague's steal totals so far. This was brought into focus on Tuesday, when Teague had 4 steals in 11 minutes against a Clippers team that had given up. Teague is averaging 2.43 steals per 40 minutes, which is rather impressive.

This look at his steals per 40 got me looking at the rest of his averages per 40. Along with his 2.43 steals, he is averaging 12.1 points, 7.2 assists, and 3.8 rebounds. These per 40 averages, along with Teague's size and athleticism reminded me of another point guard: Rajon Rondo. Rondo is averaging 15.2 points, 10.4 assists, and 4.8 rebounds to go with 2.7 steals per 40 minutes.

This probably makes Teague look like a poor man's Rondo, but let's compare Rondo's rookie stats to Teague's for this year.
Teague: 12.1, 7.2, 3.8, and 2.43 with 34.7% shooting
Rondo: 10.9, 6.5, 6.4, and 2.7 with 41.8% shooting
Now the statistics look a little more similar. Rondo is a better rebounder. They both had horrible shooting percentages, but I have more faith in Teague's shooting ability. For one thing he has an 87.1% free throw percentage compared to Rondo's career 62.6%. Further, Teague hit 80% of his free throws in college and 42% of his 3s in college. Rondo, comparatively, hit 57% and 28% respectively. So hopefully Teague will continue to develop and become a serviceable point guard for the Atlanta Hawks.

Personally I would like to see Woody do two things. First, encourage Teague to take open jump shots when he is on the floor. Teague was an aggressive scorer in college, but he looks way to deferential and, frankly, worried to shoot in his limited time on the court. A shooter has to fluidly catch and shoot in order to be effective. If concern enters their head during this process, it can throw off the timing of the shot. I believe this is what is keeping Teague's percentage down.

Second, I'd like to have Woody sit down with Teague before every game and give him a list of the guards that he is obviously than. If anyone on that list is guarding him, he has the green light to drive past him. This will help to get Teague into the flow of the offense, and also give the 2nd unit an offensive option outside of "Give the ball to Crawford".

But this is all coming from the guy who was calling for more minutes for Acie Law. So take it all with a grain of salt...

Breaking News

I haven't posted in some time for various reasons. Many of them being frustration with my favorite football team(s).

But breaking news is that Coach Mark Richt finally "saw the light" and let go Willie Martinez, Jon Jancek, and D. Ends coach Fabris. Best of luck to those gentleman in finding work (seriously).

Overall great news for UGA. Let's hope we get someone of quality to replace Willie and think about using one of those vacant spots to hire a special teams coach. Tubberville comes to mind for D Coordinator.

Go Dawgs!

A few games out...a familiar story

The Braves are *only* 4 games out of the wild card trailing only the San Francisco pitching staff and the Colorado Luckies. The question is: can the Braves overtake both teams? and if so, how?

As to the first, the answer is most certainly yes.
As for the second, there lies our discussion.

A few things have to go right for the Braves to surge into the wild card. Namely:
The Rockies and Giants have to split their remaining 6 games. With only 38 games remaining, the best chance the Braves have is to have the Rockies and Giants effectively ensure that neither team surges ahead allowing the Braves to make a come back. Either team winning a majority of those games would mean a tougher climb for the Braves.

Relatedly, the Braves have to keep doing what was successful in the 90's: Winning Series. While an 8 game winning streak would certainly be great; a much more reasonable approach is to just keep winning 2 out of 3 and hope to sweep a series or two along the way. If the Rockies and Giants continue at their current winning % (average of 55.2%), they can be expected to win 21 more games this season. That means to tie them, the Braves would need to win 25 more games (or 66%, which is 2/3 of their games). Looking at the schedule, all three teams have similar schedules remaining with their opponents all having a winning % around 50%.

In order to win each series the Braves need a few things to happen:
(1) Lowe needs to start earning his money. He has been arguably the weakest starting pitcher for the Braves over the past month. If he can pitch reasonably well the Braves have a chance.
Do I think will happen? Actually, yes I do. Lowe has shown signs of fatigue since mid-season due to pitching in Atlanta heat. With cooler weather coming up in September along with the possibility of extra rest due to Tim Hudson's return (see item 2), Lowe could be in good shape for the stretch run.

(2) The Braves need to find a way to use Tim Hudson. Most pundits are mentioning the possibility of a 6 man rotation when Hudson returns and the rosters expand. This seems, to me, like the best way to utilize him. It would allow all our starters to pitch on extra rest including:
Kawakami: who is used to a 6 man rotation from his time in Japan.
Lowe: who, as mentioned above, looks fatigued and could use extra rest.
Hanson: who is surpassing his workload from previous years
Jurjjens: who is still young and whose arm we don't want to wear out.
The only person this might affect negatively is Vazquez who has been a stud all year. But he is a veteran and I think a little breather could help him as well.

(3) The Braves need to get healthy.
We need McClouth's bat and legs.
We need Chipper's timely hitting.
We need Prado's grit.
(I never thought I'd say this) We need Garrett's clutch hitting.

(4) Bobby needs to trust his pen. Relately, some key guys should be coming back.
Moylan, Soriano, and Gonzalez can't keep the bullpen together by themselves. Bobby is going to have to put Acosta and Medlen (who has looked dynamite lately) in more situations. Along with that Jojo, Buddy, and Parr (and perhaps even Hudson) could come back and help stimulate the bullpen.

(5) The rest of the hitters need to keep on chugging. McCann, LaRoche, Infante, Diaz have all been swinging hot sticks lately. They need to keep the team afloat til the re-inforcements arrive.


I know this seems like a big list, but my homerdom thinks it's achieveable. Go Braves!