Should This Be It For Mike Woodson?

The Hawks’ epic collapse down the stretch of Game 5 raises some major questions. Chief among them is what to do with head coach Mike Woodson. Woodson, despite improving the Hawks’ record every year since 2005, is in the last year of his contract, and the Hawks have been lukewarm about giving him an extension.

The major issue with Woodson has been his inability to make in-game adjustments. The Hawks are predictable, which can be good and bad. It’s good in that they have an identity they stick to, which makes it easier to make incremental improvement. However, it’s also bad, in that a good team can adjust to their style, particularly late in games and in a playoff series.

Speaking of late in games ... oh yeah, they blew a pretty big lead last night. SB Nation’s Hawks blog Peachtree Hoops, which has been lukewarm on Woodson all season, wasn’t surprised.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before...The Atlanta Hawks blew a big lead late in the fourth quarter, snagging defeat from the ol’ jaws of victory.

What new?

Guess the team never has quite learned those lessons from all the other games this year that this exact thing happened.

Guess those “meaningless” games in the regular season that the Hawks fooled around and fell out of love with winning really don’t magically disappear once the playoffs come.

Guess that reporter after Game One who dared to ask Woody about this being a defining characteristic may have hit too close to home.

Whatever you feel about this team that positive, and I feel a lot of positive things about this club, there is no denying that they are extremely capable of imploding at the worst times, showing up flat even in the most important of games, and unable to deal with adversity when it occurs on the court.

That’s a coaching problem, isn’t it? Finally, others are starting to come to a similar conclusion. Tim Potvak of Fanhouse says so, and so does Kurt Helin of Pro Basketball Talk, who writes today that “it’s probably time” for Woodson to be replaced as Atlanta’s coach.

In game four, Atlanta made no countermoves, the Bucks just kept doing what they wanted, getting the matchups they wanted. Atlanta lost. In game five, few changes again. The Hawks can’t seem to recognize and exploit their mismatches, and even when they do they don’t stick with it. Wednesday night that was combined by the Hawks ability to choke away leads and become predictable -- and defensible -- at the end of games. And there you have another loss.
And it’s got to fall on coach Mike Woodson. The adjustments. The end of game problems that have been there all season. The team that doesn’t execute under pressure. Some of it -- most of it? -- falls on Mike Woodson.

There’s much more great stuff from Helin about how the Hawks have executed terribly down the stretch in all the games. It’s a great read.

Bottom line: if the Hawks do indeed lose the series, they need to take a long, hard look at Woodson’s coaching shortcomings. Sometimes, there are coaches that can get you on the right path, but can’t finish the journey. It appears Woodson is one of those.