[Blog] Hawks already in training camp mode
Hawks already in training camp mode
By Sekou Smith | Thursday, September 14, 2006, 12:10 PM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Made my way over to the practice court at Philips Arena Wednesday
for a sneak peak to see who was doing what with training camp a
couple of weeks away. Most of the usual suspects you would expect
were in attendance – Josh Childress, Marvin Williams, Royal Ivey,
Shelden Williams, Esteban Batista, Solomon Jones were the Hawks
players on the floor.
It’s easy to see why the hopes are so high about Marvin’s
second NBA season. As reported from summer league play in July,
this guy is playing a different brand of basketball. He’s so
much more confident and physical than he was as a rookie, playing
with that nasty streak the coaching staff loves and continues to
try and coax out of him. He was working on Solomon for a good part of the action I saw (though Solomon gave it back in kind a bit later). Marvin
was putting the ball on the floor and going to the basket
aggressively. He got on a roll at one point where he scored five
straight times with sticky defense in his face during a fairly
rugged half court game. It was impressive stuff.
It’s obvious to me right now that in order for the Hawks to make
the leap from the bottom of the standings that they desire,
they’re going to need major contributions from the trio of
Marvin, Josh Smith and Shelden Williams. I know, that’s hardly
breaking news. But after watching him in person, there’s reason
for me to believe that Marvin is going to be able to deliver on
his part. He’s still a pup in terms of his NBA development. And
he’s still got plenty of room to grow into his body. But if
he’s come this far this fast, the future could be filled with
exciting moments for Hawks fans.
So what’s this junk about Josh Childress not being very
athletic? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen that
nonsense on this blog and elsewhere. I’m not sure what qualifies
as athletic, but if playing above the rim consistently doesn’t
qualify a person as athletic I don’t know what does. Childress
goes above the rim at will. What he continues to struggle with is
finishing, probably because he’s usually not as strong as the
guys he’s battling with around the rim. But to say that he’s
not athletic is just a mistake. He showed off plenty of
athleticism Wednesday. While he doesn’t look like he’s bulked
up considerably from last season he does appear to have
maintained the 210 pounds he played at last season remarkably
well. I still say he’s an underrated piece to what’s being
assembled in Hawksville.
Shelden and Solomon both appeared to be much more comfortable
since we saw them last (both guys had their struggles and
triumphs during summer league but not enough of either one to
make any lasting judgments about what’s to come). Royal Ivey
was his usually gritty self, it’ll be interesting to see what
his role is now that Speedy Claxton is set to run the show. The
Ecuadorian Executioner (we’ve got to think of a nickname for
Esteban) was too busy draining jumpers - he made the game winner
in the last game of the day - to do his usual dirty work. But he
knows that his NBA future depends on his outworking other guys
and being the most physical player within a 10-county area. As
mentioned before, Solomon Jones turned a few heads. He’s going
to make it really hard to keep him on the sidelines too long
because he’s so athletic and so unbelievably long (he had one
block that had everyone in the gym buzzing for five minutes).
Before anyone asks, Josh Smith had a date with his eye doctor
Wednesday, so I didn’t get to see him on the floor with the
rest of these guys. And I missed Salim Stoudamire by a day (I
was told he took a spill during Tuesday’s workout and took
Wednesday off to rest). I’ll have to make at least two more
trips to the practice floor before camp to get a few more updates.
資料來源
http://myurl.com.tw/7488
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