Larry Drew's Mind Works in Fickle Ways

Opposing team's starting lineup: Mario Chalmers, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Erick Dampier. Now with the Hawks' roster, how might you oppose this lineup? How about play a useless center that doesn't need to be guarded on the defensive end, for fear of Erick Dampier? Jason Collins hadn't played a meaningful minute in 6 games, and yet, there he was in the starting lineup last night. Please note that this absolutely was not the reason the Hawks got shellacked last night. But wouldn't you want to start Horford at center, in order to exploit Dampier's lack of mobility on defense? Wouldn't Josh Smith match up better guarding Chris Bosh rather than LeBron James (please note that Smith has a history of terrorizing Bosh defensively)? Marvin Williams has a decent track record guarding LeBron (relatively speaking), so why not start him if you are worried about matchups? I really feel like all this makes too much sense, but what do I know, I'm only a fan.

So once the game started, even more hilarity ensued. Jamal Crawford is a unique player in the league, as he can get buckets like few others. However, when he isn't getting said buckets, its time to get him off the court. As in right away. He is such a liability on defense that his presence on the court isn't needed if he isn't making shots. 0-4, 1 rebound, 1 assist in 24 minutes. And a -26 in those 24 minutes. Jeff Teague can at least play defense when he is missing shots, which he does plenty of too, but his defensive quickness would probably help wreak some havoc and possibly create some offense through defense, which was desperately needed on a night (which are happening with alarming regularity these days) where the Hawks can't create any offense. However, he didn't get off the bench until the Hawks were down about 30 in the 2nd half. Of course, he got 13 points and 6 assists in garbage time, so he should be out of the doghouse for 1 game thankfully.

Even if Larry Drew had coached a perfect game last night, I really don't think it would have mattered. However, putting your team in the best position possible to win the game is his job, and I believe he failed last night, just like he did in the 4th quarter of the Nuggets game, when he assigned Jamal Crawford to guard Raymond Felton and Josh Smith to chase J.R. Smith around the perimeter. The Hawks have turned into a defensive team at this point, but Drew's lineup decisions are certainly not helping, sacrificing much of that defense for the possibility of scoring more points. It's not working, judging by the Hawks getting blown out in 5 home games already this month.