What Are The Hawks Biggest Problems?

[AnonFalcFan]

We didn't lose the Cavs series entirely because of flaws in our team. We got really unlucky with how well LeBron's teammates played. Their three point shooting and rebounding were tremendous.

But still, I can't help but think that this series should have been closer than it was. The Hawks were so good in the regular season but fell flat in the playoffs. And they were so good in the regular season that it seems hard for me to point out big issues with the team - they may have just simply been fatigued and injured, and as a result they didn't play their best. Maybe they just lost focus after they clinched the top spot in the East.

However, I think there are issues with this team that go beyond that and are more fundamental to why this team isn't built for the playoffs (yet) besides the fact that we don't have a star. With that said, I think these are the biggest issues with our team:

Teague isn't a confident point guard

I've always felt that Teague lacked the confidence to be a great basketball player. He hesitates too much on jump shots and seems too nervous about taking a contested jump shot, he doesn't set up his own jump shots because he's not confident in his shot, and he doesn't seem creative around th'e rim, which I think is because he doesn't want to try new things because he's scared he'll fail. He doesn't want to be the star. And Coach Bud must believe this too because I can't see any other reason for why he would take a veteran, experienced point guard out for a young, inexperienced, and poor decision-maker in Schroeder in a game-winning situation. He has the physical tools to be a great point guard, but his confidence holds him back.

Schroeder needs to develop a jump shot.

Schroeder, on the other hand, has a lot of confidence in himself. He wants to be the man. Even though he made really poor, frustrating decisions in the playoffs, I like him more than Teague because he has confidence. Now he just needs a jump shot. Opponents do not respect Schroeder from three point range and it limits how productive he can be. Opponents expect Schroeder to drive, so the guy guarding him is ready for that and help defense can sag off a little bit. If he developed a jump shot, he would have more opportunities to successfully drive to the rim for a layup or dish to an open teammate.

Rebounding is terrible.

I'm not sure what we can do about this. We need a guy down low who can rebound, but if this team tries to do that, what are we going to do about Millsap? If we sign him, Horford is going to have to stay at center when he needs to be at power forward. If we don't sign him, we lose a lot of offense.

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I hope this team has what it takes to win a championship, but I can't say that I felt that they could even when the Hawks were on their huge winning streak. They just don't have the right formula at this time to beat LeBron and his cast, even if they are not on fire the way they were in this series. And they sure as **** aren't going to beat the Warriors in a seven game series.

But I still think there's hope that they could beat the Cavs in a seven game series if they could get better at rebounding and Schroeder could improve his shooting and become a more complete guard. Let's hope that they can make that happen.

[Guest Homer the Brave]

Big presence at the 5.

Point guard who can't finish.

A mean streak and/or an enforcer guarding the lane on defense.

Too much dependence on 3 point shooting.