Posts Tagged ‘john Jenkins’

Hawks Lose Lou Williams For The Season

January 19, 2013  ·  5:54PM


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HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – The Atlanta Hawks suffered a major blow Saturday when they learned that Lou Williams has a torn ACL in his right knee and is out for the season.

Williams suffered the injury on Friday night in the Hawks’ 94-89 loss in Brooklyn. It was a non-contact injury, much like those suffered by Derrick Rose and Iman Shumpert last April. A date for surgery has not yet been set.

The injury throws a wrinkle into the Eastern Conference playoff picture, where the Hawks are one of six teams with between 15 and 19 losses. They had a solid hold on the No. 3 seed at the start of January, but have lost seven of their last nine games and are now in serious danger of slipping down to the seven or eight spot in the next week.

Williams, signed to a three-year, $15.7 million dollar contract, was a key component coming off Atlanta’s bench, averaging 14.1 points and 3.6 assists per game. The Hawks currently rank 15th offensively, scoring just 101.2 points per 100 possessions. But they were better with Williams on the floor (102.1) than they were with him on the bench (99.9).

Williams’ injury means that rookie John Jenkins will have to step up. Jenkins is more of a shooter than a playmaker, but the Hawks do have both Jeff Teague and Devin Harris to handle the ball.

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Posted in HT News / Comments (5) /

Hawks Have New Faces, New Pressure

October 1, 2012  ·  6:12PM

ATLANTA – Josh Smith considers himself a realist. And he’s never been one to hold his tongue where his team is concerned.

So while you might hear championship talk from someone in every single training camp around the league this time of year, the Hawks’ forward refuses to play that game in a situation where name tags were actually necessary like they were at media day Monday at Philips Arena.

Only five of the 18 players the Hawks will suit up for their first practice Tuesday were a part of the organization last year. The Hawks jettisoned six-time All-Star Joe Johnson (Brooklyn Nets) and starting small forward and former No. 2 overall Draft pick Marvin Williams (Utah Jazz) as two of the nine players sent packing during a summer makeover/fire sale engineered by new general manager Danny Ferry.

That leaves Smith, All-Star center Al Horford, starting point guard Jeff Teague and back up big men Zaza Pachulia and Ivan Johnson as the returning nucleus of a team that made five straight trips to the playoffs. A sixth is as far as Smith is willing to go with his preseason hype before seeing this new group, complete with as many as  in action.

“Every summer I take a look at my team and try to make an educated guess about where we fit,” Smith said. “It’s going to be a challenge, going against some of the top-notch teams in the East when you consider Miami comes back strong as ever. Boston went out and got better, got a couple of steals late in the draft to go with what they already had. Basically, all of the teams that were up there made moves to stay in that mix. I’m not going to lie, it is going to be a challenge. But it’s always been a challenge for us. And we always seem to find our way into the playoff mix. This season is no different.”

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Posted in 2012 Training Camps / Comments (5) /

Hawks Want Smith In The Flock

July 26, 2012  ·  12:04PM

HANG TIME, TEXAS – Danny Ferry has been on the job for only a few weeks and already he’s backed the moving van up to cart off Joe Johnson and Marvin Williams.

So are the movers ready to lift Josh Smith like an old sofa and carry him to the door next?

Not so fast, Ferry tells Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

“He’s a really good player,” Ferry said. “I love his ability to pass the ball. I love his ability to make game-changing plays defensively. I love his competitiveness. If I was out there playing, I would want Josh on my team.”

But does Smith want to be here? He wasn’t available for comment Tuesday, but Ferry said he has met with him twice.

“He’s excited for next season,” he said. “We haven’t really gone in that direction with him [on roster plans]. But we’ve talked about how we’re going to play. We’ve talked about other players. His ideas, my ideas. I’m just trying to establish a relationship.” (more…)

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Posted in 2012, HT News / Comments (41) /

Las Vegas Summer League: Day 6 Recap

July 19, 2012  ·  12:49AM

By Drew Packham, NBA.com
 

 

LAS VEGAS — Adam Morrison looked like the Adam Morrison of old Wednesday night.

And as the player of few words put it, “the shots just went in.”

Morrison scored 23 points to help the Clippers to an 86-80 win over the Spurs, going 9-for-13 from the field (2-for-3 from beyond the arc) and was aggressive in both taking the ball to the hole and hitting the step-back jumpers that drew raves since his days at Gonzaga.

“I got it going, and guys did a good job passing me the ball,” said Morrison, who played 31 minutes for the second straight game in Las Vegas.

Morrison, trying to make a return to the NBA, latched on with the Brooklyn Nets in Orlando, averaging 5.2 points and 4.0 rebounds in 19.0 minutes per game. Here, though, he’s seeing more playing time and through two games is averaging 17.0 points and 5.0 rebounds.

“I’m just trying show people I can play,” Morrison said. “Move around, show them I’m healthy. We’ll see what happens.”

Non-rookie of the day: Tobias Harris enters his second season trying to find a spot in the Bucks’ rotation. The small forward made a nice case Wednesday, scoring 24 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in the Bucks’ 78-75 loss to the Wizards. Other notables: Jimmy Butler scored 24 points with seven rebounds in the Bulls’ 96-88 loss to the Raptors, a night after putting up 25 and seven in a loss to Boston.

Rookie of the day: The nod goes to John Henson, the Bucks’ No 14 pick, who had 20 points and nine rebounds. Henson looked nice in the low post, controlling the boards and showing off some nice interior moves. Henson missed Milwaukee’s first game with the flu, so this was the NBA’s first look at the long big man out of UNC. Other notables: Houston’s Royce White had a double-double in his final game of Summer League, tallying 15 points and 10 rebounds. Other Rockets stood out in their win over Chicago: Terrence Jones had 17 points and nine rebounds, Jeremy Lamb scored 16, while undrafted point guard Scott Machado had 20 points and six assists. Raptors rookie Terrence Ross scored 21 in Toronto’s win, while Atlanta’s John Jenkins scored 21 in his finale for the Hawks in their 67-61 win over Dallas.

Coming up: Two teams wrap up their Las Vegas schedules Thursday: Raptors (4 p.m. ET vs. Knicks, NBA TV) and Kings (6:30 vs. Celtics, NBA TV). Two other games will be televised on NBA TV: Clippers-Lakers at 8:30 and Bobcats-Nuggets at 10:30. Also showing on NBA TV replay: Cavs-Wolves at 3 a.m. ET.

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Posted in 2012 Summer League, Uncategorized / Comments (5) /

Hawks’ Jenkins Makes His Mark in Debut

July 13, 2012  ·  7:44PM

By Drew Packham, NBA.com



LAS VEGAS — Atlanta coach Larry Drew calls John Jenkins a “coach’s dream.”

Based on the rookie’s NBA debut Friday, it’s easy to see why.

Jenkins, the Hawks’ first-round pick (23rd overall), scored 19 points to help the Hawks to a 102-82 rout of the Wizards in the first game of Summer League action in Las Vegas.

“I felt really good,” Jenkins said. “I’ve been working my whole life for this, and to be out there felt really good. It was very exciting.”

Jenkins, who led the SEC in scoring two straight seasons at Vanderbilt before leaving after his junior season, was 4-for-7 from three-point land (7-for-13 overall), showing off a quick release that left Drew raving.

“When he comes off that screen, all he needs is a little room to get it off,” Drew said. “He can get it off with the best of them.”

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Posted in 2012 Summer League / Comments (3) /

Draft Night Is Just The Beginning For Hawks’ New GM Ferry

June 29, 2012  ·  11:12AM





ATLANTA – Fast and furious is the way Danny Ferry described his first four days on the job as the new general manager of the Atlanta Hawks.

When he finally emerged from the Hawks’ Draft war room late Thursday night, it was plain to see that Ferry has spent more time grinding away at his new job than he has doing much of anything else, and that includes sleeping.

“This was unique,” Ferry said. “I’ve been here a few days and was not part of the initial preparation that they had. I threw myself into what they were doing and really just tried to observe and participate, when appropriate, ask good questions and let the process play out. I thought the scouts that [his predecessor] Rick [Sund] was organizing did a nice job of doing their work and walking into the Draft with their decisions made and ready to go.”

But the first frantic four days of Ferry’s tenure is just the beginning of  what promises to be an interesting offseason for a franchise in the midst of a transitional phase. As the rest of the Eastern Conference realigns itself behind the champion Miami Heat, a team built to win now and for the foreseeable future, the Hawks have to try to position themselves among that group of teams giving chase.

They went into Draft night with just six players — their core four of Joe Johnson, Al Horford, Josh Smith and Jeff Teague along with reserves Marvin Williams and Zaza Pachulia — under contract. Adding Vanderbilt shooting guard John Jenkins and Virginia forward Mike Scott gives them eight to work with as Ferry goes about the business of trying to build the Hawks into a legitimate threat to the Heat.

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Posted in 2012 NBA Draft / Comments (7) /