Question about Al and the NJ game

[evildallas]

A look at the NJ box score struck me with a question.

I know he's a rookie, but when are they going to try to run some offensive plays for Al Horford?

Al shot 3-5 from the field and 1-1 from line for 7 pts. NJ's front line consists of Sean Williams and Josh Boone. True that Josh Smith dominated them to the tune of 14-22 shooting, but our starting backcourt shot 30 shots. I can't understand how we didn't at least get Al 10 shots against the Nets.

I didn't get to see the game, can someone fill me in how Al failed to get more shots?

[ATLfan]

He was in foul trouble which limited his minutes and we really weren't scoring much in the half court offense.

[High 5]

Al needs to get better at staying in the game. To be fair he does seem to get called for a lot of ticky tack fouls. Al playe great in the first quarter before he got into trouble. I believe it was 5 points, 6 boards, 2 assists and 2 blocks. I don't think he even played in the 2nd quarter.

[Rip2137]

They have stopped running plays for Al altogether. People keep saying we have no post up threat, they go and draft the guy with the arguably best post game to come out this year(well, Hawes was probably the best on the block, but Horford comes in second) and they don't give it to him on the post.

[conleyorbust]

I have actually been suprised by Al's offensive game. He is raw but he makes some good moves when given the chance, down low and face-up. He certainly isn't "a defensive player with no offensive game" as I've heard him described by some. I think a lot of it has to do with the competancies of the rest of our players and our inability to get the timing/spacing down.

[killbuckner]

all I know is that when a player is scoring as little as Horford is in as many minutes as he is playing then he just isn't looking for his own shot. He is scoring less than a guy like Nazr Mohammed who has absolutely no plays run for him.

[conleyorbust]

all I know is that when a player is scoring as little as Horford is in as many minutes as he is playing then he just isn't looking for his own shot. He is scoring less than a guy like Nazr Mohammed who has absolutely no plays run for him.

He isn't being agressive enough but he also isn't getting the ball in position to score. Foul trouble hurt him, and everybody else, last game but he was playing against a small front-line... guys he could post up. We just weren't running plays for him down low. Also, he is an athletic big man, but we never have him catch the ball in motion for a dunk or alley-oop... part of that will come in time but he really doesn't get many plays run for him and we don't put him under the basket in the half-court because we have that perimeter based offense... this doesn't help him get offensive rebounds at all. I'm not saying that is a bad thing, its just our offense hasn't been designed to have a post player in it since Harrington left.

[killbuckner]

COB- the Hawks don't have a quality PG to set him up for a dunk or alley oop. And for how little Horford actually gets the ball he is still turning the ball over twice a game. Thats just not a good sign.

You can say that the offense hasn't been designed to have a post player since Harrington left, it could also just be that the Hawks haven't had a guy who is worth designing plays for in the post since Harrington left. Once again the Hawks need to decide whether this is a season to develop rookies no matter what the results are or whether they want to do what they can to make the playoffs. It very well might be in Horford's long term interest for him to be getting the ball regularly in the post right now but the team will take their lumps on the court for facilitating that.

It woud be great if Acie were ready to play 25 minutes a game and Horford were able to consistenly score in the post. But in reality if you want to let these rookies develop those skills then its going to cost the Hawks some games. People need to decide what is more important for this season.

[conleyorbust]

Acie is one thing, he is going to take some time to grow into his role and the downside of that hurts the team a lot more than the downside of designing a play or two for Horford and not having it work. Look, I know you are a fan of Woody and think that he can't be judged until he has a point guard or center to work with but you don't have to have a great point guard to throw an entry pass. Joe is a great passer for his position but when he gets the ball on the perimeter and is asked to create, he creates off his scoring but never attempts to just intiate the offense by finding a guy on the move or passing inside. AJ is a solid enough passer, not a spectacular passer, but technically sound. Josh would be a great option... he has great vision and if he gets the ball on the perimeter and passes it in, there is a high probability that Horford can go one on one. We've all seen Horford post up successfully, we've seen him do it unsuccessfully too but our offense isn't the type of machine where we have to worry about messing up one or two possessions... the guy taking the most shots now is only hitting 41% of them. As of now, I think Josh is almost as good against most PFs in the post as Al was.

[Rip2137]

His jumpshot looks really good, and his post game has looked Raw but strong enough to warrent chances on the offensive end.

Right now all of his touchs are coming at the baseline and the high post and mostly jump shots (and he is doing a good job of hitting them).
That is A: Taking him out of position for offensive rebounds
and B: Getting him extra fouls coming over the back.

And Al is getting at least one Turnover per game off of offensive fouls. Something that will change as he gets more moves and the refs stop rookie BSing him.

[tontoz]

One thing i kept seeing people say last summer was how Horford could use his speed and athleticism to take bigger players off the dribble and score. I haven't seen him do that at all.

He seems very mechanical with the ball.