Peachtree Hoops

2012 Atlanta Hawks Player Review: Jerry Stackhouse

2012-05-22T23:05:02Z

Season Summary:

Season after season, everyone always asked if the Hawks can get a true leader on this team.

The Hawks front office tried to answer that question by signing a 17 year veteran and 37 year old to a minimum contract. Stackhouse's role on this team was clear--be the vocal leader/player in the locker room. He wasn't expected to contribute much on the floor, considering his age and the amount of wear and tear his body has endured in his career, but he did have his shining moments sometimes.

Positives: Was seemingly ready whenever his number was called. Provided a nice scoring punch off the bench from time-to-time. Surprised many people whenever he dunked. He was always the confirmation of when the game was over, as Larry Drew used him either as a "victory cigar" or as a "white towel". He also was the initiator for the Trayvon Martin tribute the team with photographer, Ish Holmes.

Negatives: Even though he had his moments, Stackhouse's experience and travel in his body has clearly affected him. He had trouble creating his own shot and defending and staying with his assignment. He also predicted that the Heat will win it all this year, even though his team was still in the playoffs. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember him singing the national anthem once for the Philips Arena crowd....

Best Moment/Game: Stack had his moments. In the 30 games that he played, he reached double figures in points three times. You can also say that he scored at least 7 points in 8 out of the 30 games he played. Stackhouse's two most memorable moments both came late in the regular season. In a late April game against the Orlando Magic, Jerry Stackhouse scored a season high 11 points to help the Hawks get a 28 point blowout win (click here for highlights). His best game came in March, when he helped the Hawks come back from a 16 point deficit in the first half by scoring 8 points in the last 4 minutes of the 2nd quarter. You can see the highlights of that game below...

Final Grade: C-

Youtube Video: Stackhouse Is The Man of the First Half

Exit Question: Should Stackhouse call it "quits" and officially retire, or does he have more years in him?

Full Roster Review

Josh Smith
Joe Johnson
Al Horford
Jeff Teague
Zaza Pachulia
Marvin Williams
Kirk Hinrich
Willie Green
Tracy McGrady
Ivan Johnson
Jannero Pargo
Vladimir Radmanovic
~~Jerry Stackhouse~~
Jason Collins: Click Here.
Erick Dampier: Click Here.

NBA Summer League 2012: Jeremy Hazell To Play With Hawks

2012-05-22T12:01:36Z

Former Seton Hall Jeremy Hazell will reportedly take part in Atlanta Hawks rookie mini-camp and then be a part of their entry in the Vegas Summer League. The team has yet to announce either rookie camp or its summer league entry but that isn't terribly surprising given we are still several weeks away from the draft. The report comes from a tweet sent out by Hazell's agent Seth Cohen.

"They've been high on Jeremy for a while and they want him to travel straight from mini-camp to the Vegas Summer League,"

Hazell was one of the players that took part in Atlanta's pre-lockout mini-camp last season. He was also one of those players that the lockout forced to seek opportunities overseas. He played briefly with Lucentum Alicante in Spain this past season but was in training camp with the Phoenix Suns.

Hazell is a 6-foot-5, 180 pound guard who averaged 19.8 points in 18 games his senior season at Seton Hall.

2012 Atlanta Hawks Player Review: Jason Collins

2012-05-21T22:00:19Z

Season Summary:

After two seasons with the Hawks, I thought Collins' stint in a Hawks uniform would end last summer, but the Hawks gave him another "shot" by signing him to another one year minimum contract. Not many people approved (or cared) for the signing, as many thought that he was really only a one rare role (Dwight Howard stopper) player.

Collins reportedly came into camp in better shape than ever, so that gave some fans some hope. As we all witnessed, his better condition still didn't help him much on the floor. He was still a player that did more wrong than right, more bad than good, more negative than positive. Collins was not a "fan favorite", as most grumbled whenever they saw him take the floor.

Positives: He didn't do anything particularly well on the court, but you can always count on him to do the "dirty" work (like this one). He also joined Twitter and was fairly entertaining to follow as he gave us tweets like this one.

Negatives: He played too much in too many games. He hurt the team when it came to guarding the pick-and-roll or the pick-and-pop. He was also the only player I would rather see less than Smith in the free throw line.

Best Moment/Game: His best game came late in the regular season vs. the Boston Celtics on April 20th. He played a season high 25 minutes that game and scored a season high of 8 points, grabbed a season high of 7 rebounds, dished out a season high of 4 assists, and helped the Hawks to a 5 point victory. Another personal favorite moment of mine came in the playoffs when Collins grabbed a rebound and refused to pass the ball to Josh Smith, who wanted to bring the ball up the court.

Final Grade: D

Youtube Video: The Official J-Collins Mixtape

Exit Question: Percentage wise, how likely are the Hawks to re-sign Collins to another contract?

Full Roster Review

Josh Smith
Joe Johnson
Al Horford
Jeff Teague
Zaza Pachulia
Marvin Williams
Kirk Hinrich
Willie Green
Tracy McGrady
Ivan Johnson
Jannero Pargo
Vladimir Radmanovic
Jerry Stackhouse
~~Jason Collins~~
Erick Dampier: Click Here.

Orlando Magic Part Ways With Stan Van Gundy, Otis Smith

2012-05-21T20:31:58Z

Orlando Magic Part Ways With Stan Van Gundy, Otis Smith

Stan Van Gundy was relieved of his duties on Monday by the Orlando Magic who also confirmed that they had parted ways with general manager Otis Smith.

Ziller: NBA Draft Grades, Revisiting The 2007 Draft

2012-05-21T15:42:31Z

With the season now over for the Atlanta Hawks we will be turning our attention quickly to the upcoming NBA Draft. As part of an ongoing series SB Nation's Tom Ziller is taking a look back at the last five years worth of drafts and assigning grades for each team. Up first is the 2007 draft which was a big one for the Atlanta Hawks. ATLANTA

HAWKS
Al Horford (3), Acie Law (11)
Grade: B

Horford was an ace pick -- he's possibly the second best player from the 2007 draft, though there have been a myriad of arguments comparing Al to Noah. (I'd give the edge to Horford, but I'm just one guy.) Where Atlanta fell apart is by taking Law in the lottery. This is a famously light draft after the top few players, but with two lottery picks, the Hawks could have made their future for the long-term. Law was a wasted opportunity; he's already a journeyman who has played for five teams. Thaddeus Young, Rodney Stuckey or Aaron Brooks would have worked better there.

Atlanta escaped having to send this pick to the Phoenix Suns which would have been really bad for the team as it is constructed now. Looking back at this draft I recall many pulling for Horford as the pick and others had their reasons for the Hawks taking Mike Conley. I even remember some forecasting Yi Jianlian as one of the top selections.

This draft went perfect for myself as I was hoping for Horford and Acie Law. Its no secret that Law didn't pan out and eventually slid deep into Mike Woodson's dog house where he became out of shape and was eventually a part of the deal that brought Jamal Crawford to Atlanta.

Atlanta Dream Drop Season Opener 92-84 To Indiana

2012-05-20T12:01:02Z

The Atlanta Dream opened their 2012 WNBA regular season with a 92-84 loss to the Indiana Fever. The start certainly wasn't what head coach Marynell Meadors was looking for as the Dream struggled with their perimeter defense.

Atlanta fell behind 28-20 in the opening quarter and then were held to just 12 points in the second. The Fever took a 47-32 lead into the half. Indiana stretched the lead out to as many as 17 in the fourth quarter before a late Atlanta run closed the gap to make the final score respectable. The Fever however closed the Dream out at the free throw line to secure the victory.

Angel McCoughtry led all scorers with 26 points in 9 of 19 shooting. She also added seven rebounds and four steals to her credit. Sancho Lyttle started at center and finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds while Lindsey Harding chipped in 16 points and six assists. No other Atlanta player scored more than six. Turnovers were a big part of the story for Atlanta as they wracked up 19 in the game.

Katie Douglas led five Indiana players in double figures with 21 points. Douglas hit 6 of 11 shots from the field including 3 of 4 from beyond-the-arc. Reigning WNBA MVP Tamika Catchings finished with 16 points while Jessica Davenport added 12 points and 10 boards. Briann January and Shevonte Zellous each scored 11 for the Fever.

Coming into the season the Dream were looking for a much better performance out of their defense particularly from the perimeter. Atlanta hired assistant coach Joe Ciampi during the offseason with hopes that they could improve defensively. Indiana hit 12 of 21 three-point attempts in this game signaling that Atlanta's defensive changes are still a work in progress.

Notes: Center Yelena Leuchenka suffered a concussion earlier this week in practice and sat out Saturday's season opener. She is listed as day-to-day. This meeting was the first since Atlanta ended Indiana's 2011 season defeating them 2-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals.

2012 Atlanta Hawks Player Review: Erick Dampier

2012-05-19T22:00:00Z

Season Summary:

With the Atlanta Hawks down two bigs at the time (Horford and Collins), the Hawks made a desperate move by signing a 37 year old Center to a 10-day contract. After the first 10-day contract expired, the Hawks didn't hesitate to give him a second one.

In the span of those two 10-day contracts, Dampier appeared in only six games averaging 5 minutes per game. Despite only seeing limited playing time on the court, the Hawks still decided to keep him for the remainder of the season soon after the second 10-day contract expired.

Dampier played a total of 15 regular season games and only managed to score 2 points in 82 total minutes of playing time. In the playoffs, Dampier's role and production slightly increased. In 4 playoff games, Dampier averaged 11 minutes per contest and 4 points per game and 3.5 rebounds per game.

Positives: Not to many positives, Even though he gave Larry Drew another big body, he didn't use him much. He did unexpectedly play more and better in the playoffs though. He out-performed Collins in a lot of games he played in.

Negatives: Came to the team clearly out of shape when he was signed. He somehow showed us that there are players that are even slower than Twin. He also hurt the team's average in age.

Best Moment/Game: Given that he only scored 2 points in 15 regular season games, it wasn't hard for him to have his best performance in the playoffs. In Game 3 and Game 4 of the playoff series vs. the Boston Celtics, Dampier played a total of 34 minutes and was surprisingly serviceable averaging 6 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. He wasn't great (or even good), but he was still far better than Twin.

Final Grade: D

Youtube Video:

Exit Question: If you had to choose between re-signing Dampier or Collins, who would you choose?

Full Hawks Roster

2012 WNBA: Atlanta Dream Open Regular Season In Indiana Against Fever

2012-05-19T20:00:20Z

2012 WNBA Regular Season Game 1
	@
0-0		0-0
Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana
Saturday, May 19, 7 p.m.
SportSouth, WNBA Live Access
Probable starters:
Lindsey Harding	PG	Briann January
Armintie Price	SG	Shavonte Zellous
Angel McCoughtry	SF	Katie Douglas
Sancho Lyttle	PF	Tamika Catchings
Courtney Parris	C	Tammy Sutton-Brown

More Coverage: SB Nation Atlanta, Swish Appeal