You may have heard the name, you may know he’s an NBA basketball player, or you may have even seen him play, but I can assure you that you don’t know who Josh Smith is. In most cases, the fans of the Atlanta Hawks don’t even know who Josh Smith is or what he’s capable of. It’s clear the coaching staff in the ATL, led by head coach Mike Woodson, don’t even know what number 5 can bring to the table. Let me tell you a little about this unknown star in the NBA and what’s led to many people not knowing who Josh Smith is.

You can go back to the hiring of Mike Woodson or the trade that brought Joe Johnson to the Atlanta Hawks. This trade made national news and sent the Atlanta Spirit partners in a battle that still rages on today. Or you can go back years earlier to another famous Atlanta Hawks trade that sent Dominique Wilkins packing for a new NBA team. Since Mr. Wilkins the Human Highlight Film left, the Atlanta Hawks has failed to get a superstar on the floor and wearing their jersey. Not having a true superstar in Atlanta is the reason the Hawks have gotten very little publicity over the years and is also blamed for the low attendance levels for their home games. The new owners came in and they recognized that the Hawks needed a superstar. Since there was none availabe, the Hawks did the next best thing. They manufactured their own ”superstar” and did anything and everything to build him up.

The Hawks didn’t have one on the roster they could create, so they had to make the trade with the Phoenix Suns to bring in Joe Johnson. They figured he was young enough, athletical enough, and had enough upside, they could make him the main man in Atlanta. This would solve their superstar issues, the NBA community would recognize the team again, and fans would come back to fill the seats. The one big problem in this formula is that Joe Johnson isn’t really that good. He just doesn’t have what it takes to be a superstar in the NBA. Even calling him a star player is stretching the truth, because he’s just about as average as you can get for an NBA player. I know many will disagree with me and this is because they have only watched and heard about the manufactured Joe Johnson and haven’t really took the time to watch him. Joe is working on his 4th year with the Hawks team and he’s not improved in any area of his basketball game in those 4 years.

You have to understand that Joe Johnson plays more minutes than any other player on the team. He gets more offensive plays run for him than anyone else on the team. When there is just a few seconds left on the clock at the end of quarters, Joe always gets the ball and tries to go one on one. Basically speaking, Joe Johnson has been given the keys to the team and it’s not worked. You can take half of the guys in the NBA and give them the minutes and shot attempts as Joe Johnson gets nightly and they would have his exact numbers too. He’s a manufactured basketball player and as far as the marketing efforts are concerned, it has worked. The 4 All Star Games that Joe has been invited to proves that. As far as a team leader or someone that can carry a basketball team, he’s not your man!

The problem also lies with the head coach too. Mike Woodson has no feel for an NBA game. He runs his starters out to start the game and then makes preplanned decisions on which players will play and for how much time they will get. Woody has became a Joe Johnson fan, so in his eyes, the man can do no wrong. He overlooks the mistakes that Joe does on the court; while giving other team members the evil eye for just 1 mistake they will make. If a player gets 2 fouls in the first half they’re coming to the bench. Otherwise, Mike Woodson knows which guys will play and for how long. Regardless of their performance, he already has his mind set on making certain changes. First guy off the bench is Jamal Crawford and he comes in Marvin Williams. I have seen Marvin start many games where he’s the best player for them that night. Only to see him get replaced by a plan-change that Woody has already decided on. I have seen many games where Joe Johnson is the weakest of our starters and having a horrible night, but yet he will be the last starter that gets replaced. Woodson doesn’t understand that he’s coaching like a computer and anyone could coach in his style of coaching. His contract is up after this season and he’s done nothing to show the owners why they should keep him around.

I understand that his record has improved every year, but so has the players on the team. Woody came in with only Joe Johnson to rely on and he’s failed to see the other young players getting better and how they have passed Joe’s abilities as a basketball player. Not recognizing who your best 5 players are for a certain night and not allowing the team to run up and down the court with their athletical players is the reason the Atlanta Hawks did not get a chance to play the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals last year.

Things only got worse this year; when the team got noticed enough to have a 2nd player on the Eastern Conference All Stars. So who did the NBA community think that player was? It was Al Horford that got the nod over Josh Smith and this story wasn’t big news around the NBA or even in the Atlanta area for that matter. Since Josh Smith was not selected to be on the NBA All Star team, I know the NBA and people associated with the Hawks team, don’t have no clue to who Josh Smith is.

It’s actually embarrassing to see Joe Johnson constantly getting mentioned as the best player on the Hawks team. Then to see Al Horford go to an All Star Game before Josh did is only adding salt to the wound. It doesn’t look like many people know who Josh Smith is and the front office and the Hawks head coach is the reason why.

Does anyone seriously not think Josh Smith is one of the top 12 guys in the Eastern Conference Division? Well I got news for you. Not only is Josh Smith one of the top 12 players in the East, but he’s in one of the top 12 players in the NBA. Nobody is going to buy into this, due to the amount of playing time he gets compared to Joe Johnson and the horrible game plans the Hawks coaching staff comes up with each night. I’m sure you have heard about star players in the NBA getting double teamed right? The ball goes to Kobe or LeBron, teams will want to double team them, so they can get the ball out of their hands. Well if we had a coach that had just a little sense, they would understand that Josh Smith might be the only guy in the NBA, that could command a double team from the defense and not even have the ball! This might sound crazy, but the coaching staff in Atlanta has no creativity. No teams or players like to get dunked on. If the Hawks would push Josh closer to the basket and keep him montioning to the rim, the guy guarding Josh and the guy defending the rim would both be keeping an eye on number 5. Once the Hawks throw a few lobs up for Josh to dunk home, other teams would want to stop this. This would cause Josh to actually be double teamed and he wouldn’t even have the ball! How many guys in the NBA can you say that about?

Recently Josh has been putting up solid numbers and it’s great to see. He has a team that doesn’t recognize him as the best player on the team and this has slowed his growth process. Once the Hawks or some other team sees Josh Smith as a top 12 player in the league, this guy will be worth the price of admission and his team will be winning a lot of games. Mike Woodson and Joe Johnson’s contracts are up and I can guarantee you, that neither one of them will be missed. New coach and no Joe Johnson will make the Atlanta Hawks a better basketball team.

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I believe there is another thing with the money it costs to attend the Penn Foster online school. I’m not sure if Penn Foster is failing to tell these new students about all the costs that are involved to attend there or if its the students misunderstanding their enrollment forms. There are some students at Penn Foster that are paying more money than they expected to.

If this topic of conversation has peaked your interest or you just want to learn more about Penn Foster or other online universities; then check out a website called Online Degree Reviews. This is a website dedicated to collecting all the unbiased online degree reviews and this is how I found out about some of the issues going on at Penn Foster College. Perhaps if you are currently attending Penn Foster online, you could share your thoughts, comments, or opinions on my blog here. There might even be a teacher or two out there from Penn Foster, that would like to defend their self against some of these student’s claims?

Most of you out there that is planning to attend an online university in the near or distant future; may want to determine which field of study you plan to choose first. The online subjects are more important to look over now, than which online university you want to actually attend. Once you can see all the different things you could get a bachelors or associates degree online, you can then begin your search for a good online university. Who knows? You might just find yourself at the Penn Foster website signing up for one of their online classes. Then you can go to Online Degree Reviews and post your online reviews about this college and tell us your side of the story.

In some houses, people probably have enough books to open up a small library. These people could really make some nice money online by selling their books. Keep the books you like or plan to read again someday. You don’t have to get rid of any books you feel has value or is valuable to you. Just gather up the books that haven’t been opened up in years and sell those books online. If you like to read and buy books online, you may want to search for the used books for sale, so you’re not over paying for books. The popularity for used books will continue to increase, since they’re cheaper than the new books selling online. How many books do you have to sell?

Do you feel you’re paying too much now on life insurance? Now would be a good time to check out other companies for a better rate. You may can find the same coverage that your current plan covers and at a cheaper price too. Money is tight these days and every penny does count. Saving money on life insurance is one way to free up some extra money in your budget, for the other things that you need now.

Shamu is the main attraction for people that visit Sea World each year. Not sure what the theme park plans to do now; since Shamu has attacked and killed the trainer that was working with him/her. I guess we will have to wait for more information to come out. It’s a tragic event and I’m sure many folks are shook up right now with the killer whale’s deadly act today in central Florida. The Sea World theme park is located next to Disney World in Florida.

It’s not too late to start your compost pile now. If you start now, you still have about 6 weeks to get a good soil going. Once you’re ready to plant in the spring, just take some dirt from your compost pile and mix it with your other dirt. This mixture will create a rich soil environment in your garden. The richer the soil is, the better your flowers and vegetables will grow and produce. The rich soil from a compost pile will help your vegetable plants be more productive and you will get a lot more food per plant. Next year you can start your compost piles earlier and give more time for the earthworms to create magic in your compost piles.

Are you ready to go back to school? For those willing to seek a higher level of education, so they can find a better paying job, can now get their degrees online. This is an excellent way for people to get a bachelors or masters degree and it’s affordable too. Western Governors University or WGU is a non-profit university and it’s cheaper than other universities online. Another good thing about getting an education online is convenience. You can study and work on your assignments when it’s convenient for you. If you like to stay up late at night or do your best studying early in the morning, then you have the ability to set your own hours. These online degree programs work great for someone that has a job or family they need to take care of each day. You will be able to work around your busy schedules each day and choose which times of the day or night you want to complete your work. No one can make excuses or blame something or someone for not being able to get a degree. WGU is providing an avenue for anyone that has a desire to get a higher degree of learning. An online university is going to be the way a lot of people get their degrees now and in the future. There is a lot more information online about how you can get enrolled in a school program online and find out why a non-profit university like Western Governors is cheaper than some of the other online universities, you may have heard about already.