FanHouse Mike Woodson

Atlanta's trade acquisition of Jamal Crawford was seen either as a questionable ploy to correct the Hawks' most deafening weakness (bench guard play), or a quiet coup bound to boost the team to solid ground. Atlanta coach Mike Woodson -- a fundamental-focused, stoic defensive mind -- figured into the argument of the former. Crawford is a mysterious player, not conducive to Woodson's dependency on consistency (Josh Smith aside).

But the latter has actually been true: Woodson seems to really understand what Crawford offers, and Jam has rewarded the coach with stellar play through five games. Atlanta is sitting pretty at 4-1 after a successful 2-1 road swing. And Crawford is having the best season of his career so far.

FanHouse previews a player to watch from each NBA team in advance of the 2009-10 season.

Forget the out-of-this-world athleticism. Forget the alley-oops (difficult, I know), forget the jumping out of the gym and forget the slam dunks that make you think "You know, I wouldn't necessarily give a T-Rex the edge in a fight with this guy." Forget the worrisome shot selection and coach clashes and the immature behavior. Forget all that for a second and get used to a new set of ideals.

Josh Smith is turning into a pretty great basketball player. And he's only 23.

Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle?

Training camps are opening, so here are five coaches likely to start feeling the heat if their teams don't get off to good starts.

Mike Dunleavy, L.A. Clippers: The Clippers head into the season with expectations, which might not be the best news for Dunleavy. He's got to figure out a way to reconfigure his relationship with Baron Davis so that the veteran point guard once again can thrive. If Dunleavy and Davis aren't on the same page, there's no hope in L.A.

MIAMI -- It's not like only one team has shown up for this playoff series, which is what happened with the Cavs and the Detroit Deadbeats. It's just that these two don't show up at the same time.

Not to rain on anyone's playoff parade, but it's hard to imagine a Game 7 with any less suspense than what we'll see Sunday when the Heat play the Hawks in Atlanta. Hopefully, there will be golf to watch.

Can't predict the winner, but it won't take long to find out who it will be. These two take turns quitting early. It has become the anti-Celtics-Bulls series.

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MIAMI -- Center Jermaine O'Neal was replaced in the starting lineup for Miami Friday night because of concussion-like symptoms stemming from a hit Wednesday night from Atlanta's Zaza Pachulia.

Although O'Neal was on the 12-man active list, the Heat listed Joel Anthony as their starting center, hurting their chance to fight off elimination in this best-of-seven series.

While O'Neal was a surprise scratch, Hawks forward Marvin Williams must have had a good healthy lunch because his sprained right wrist suddenly healed enough so he could play.

Josh Smith and Mike Woodson paid lip service to resolution this summer when Atlanta matched an offer sheet for Smith, with he and Woodson assuring us that their relationship had been repaired.

On Friday, Woodson benched a well-performing Smith for the entire second half due to what Mo Evans called "off-the-court, internal stuff." The issue had been resolved in the locker room, and the Hawks beat the Pistons on Saturday. But the team took an unnecessary loss on Friday because of the broken relationship between Smith and Woodson.

At some point, this needs to stop happening.

Earlier this week we heard news out of Atlanta that Josh Smith was throwing things around after being called out by Mike Woodson in practice. Is Woodson already losing his best player before the season starts? Hardly. Smith told reporters the next day that his reaction was orchestrated to get a rise out of everyone.

Practical joke or not, it seems he took the message to heart: he scored the first bucket last night on an alley-oop just seconds after the Hawks won the tip, and he immediately came through on the other end with a block. After the game, I spoke to him about the heightened expectations that come with signing a big contract.

Matt Watson: In the first 30 seconds you came through with an alley-oop and a block. Were you trying to come out and make a statement, or did it just work out that way?

Josh Smith: The lob worked out that way, but I definitely wanted to bring more energy. I know when I create energy from the beginning of the game that it carries on to my teammates. You know, we sat down and had a talk about what [coach Woodson] wanted me to do and I let him know that I was frustrated, because I felt like I was letting my teammates down. I understand that its preseason, but it definitely carries over to the regular season. And I wanted to come out here with great intensity -- you [saw] in the first couple of quarters that it carried on that everybody was active on the defensive end. We looked more active than we did throughout the whole preseason in this one game.

There's a reason that preseason games are played in every major professional sport. Players need the time to work themselves back into game shape after a few months off, and usually need to learn how to play with new players or in a new system. The players aren't the only ones that benefit though. Referees use these games to shake out the cobwebs too, and there were a couple examples of this in last night's preseason opener between the Hawks and the Suns.

Late in the first quarter, the Hawks' Solomon Jones came barreling into the Suns' Louis Amundson (I know. It's pre-season people, work with me here.). It was your typical block/charge situation; it could have gone either way. The initial call was an offensive foul on Jones, but then the lead official called one of those NFL-style conferences, and they all discussed the play for a good minute and a half -- an eternity for the fans in the arena.

Apparently no consensus could be reached, so the official came to the scorer's table and announced the following: "We have a difference of opinion, we're going to jump it up. Personal fouls for both 44 blue and 17 white, no team fouls." I thought this was a pretty odd decision, and one that you would almost never see in a game that counted.

There was one other quirky play of note in the second half, and on this one, I think the officials got it right.

Thanks to the good folks in the Phoenix Suns' communications department, I was courtside for the team's pre-season opener against the Hawks. Being the first game of the pre-season, it was mostly just local media in attendance, who apparently had no interest in Hawks' coach Mike Woodson's post-game remarks. When he came out of the locker room, it was just me, esteemed writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sekou Smith, and a media rep for the Suns that were waiting for him. Needless to say, it was the perfect opportunity to ask the coach a few questions about the game (and frankly, it would have been weird if I didn't.) Here are coach Woodson's (very brief) post-game comments:

Brett Edwards: You left Marvin [Williams] out there longer than usual, were you just trying to get him more work?

Mike Woodson: I was trying to get him more work, and I knew I wasn't going to play Joe [Johnson] and [Mike] Bibby many minutes, so, you gotta have one of those guys on the floor, Marvin, or Josh Smith to go along with the new guys. But Mo [Maurice Evans], Mo would have taken up seven or eight minute that Marvin got coming down the stretch probably, if he hadn't gotten hurt.

BE: What happened to Mo?

MW: He got an elbow (points to above his eye), he needed to get some stitches.

BE: The first half it seemed like you guys took a lot of outside shots, which maybe lead to the low field goal percentage?

MW: Which I don't like.

BE: Yeah, did you talk to them about that at halftime?

With the Clippers' acquisition of Marcus Camby, and the Sixers' signing of Elton Brand, the market has dried up very quickly for the services of Josh Smith. There aren't really any teams left that can pay Smith what he wants (except for Memphis, who doesn't seem interested in competing anymore), and with the Hawks being able to match any offer, it appears likely that Smith will return to the team next season. But for how long?

SI's Chris Mannix reports that the relationship between Smith and Hawks' coach Mike Woodson is in bad shape, meaning that Smith may be hesitant to sign a long term deal with Atlanta.

... league sources said Smith would not be interested in returning to the Hawks if the team retained coach Mike Woodson, who recently signed a two-year extension. The two have butted heads frequently in Smith's four seasons, and sources said the relationship is beyond repair. With a dearth of offers, Smith may change his tune, but having a volatile relationship on such a young team may not be in the Hawks' best interests.

A more appealing, but less plausible scenario could be for Smith to sign the one-year qualifying offer with Atlanta and try his luck in free agency next season.

Since there aren't any teams that can afford to sign Smith to an offer sheet and force the Hawks to match, the proverbial ball is in Josh's court. Does he go for the money and long term deal, and try to force his coach out Magic Johnson-style? Or does he sign the qualifying offer, play with a chip on his shoulder next season, and go into the unrestricted free agent market in 2009? The latter option seems like the better one to me, but players tend to want to lock up the guaranteed dollars as soon as humanly possible.