Lang Whitaker is many things - executive editor of Slam Magazine, a columnist for SI.com, and most importantly, a die-hard Hawks fan. For 2007-08 , Lang will be sharing his thoughts on the team in an exclusive column for Hawks.com. Check back every Wednesday throughout the season to read his latest musings, and read him every day at www.SLAMonline.com

"I'd Be A Good Coach"
by Lang Whitaker

If you're keeping score at home, please report to Philips Arena immediately -- I understand the Hawks are looking to replace current the scorekeeper Bill Campbell. (Hey, he has a way with numbers…)

All things considered, it was a good week in Hawkville. We went 3-1 last week, although it feels more like a 3-2 week, thanks to the bumbling Miami Heat.

For once, it wasn't the humidity that messed with Atlanta, it was the Heat, who went crying to the league office after they lost track of how many fouls one of their own players had. No, the Hawks' stats team shouldn't have credited Shaq with an extra foul. But at the same time, shouldn't the Heat have been keeping track so they could have addressed it when it happened? What else are all those coaches with notepads writing down on the bench, their favorite A-Town dancers?

Yes, they should have been following the fouls, but they weren't. And everyone moved on with their lives…except for the Heat, who somehow convinced The David Stern Robot (an android programmed to sound like a human that secretly runs the NBA) to not only make everyone replay the last 51 seconds of the game in question, but to also make the Hawks pony up a $50,000 penalty. Why did the Heat put us through this? Is Micky Arison in cahoots with Steve Belkin?

I'm pretty sure the Hawks are the only team in the world that can go from playing .500 basketball to playing below .500 basketball without actually playing a game.

Anyway, much like Mike Woodson -- you notice how Woody keeps being quoted saying he's not going to dwell on having to replay the end of the Miami game…and then he dwells on it? -- let's grudgingly move on. One thing I learned this week was that if all Hawks games ended after one quarter, we might win the division. I'm not sure what kind of pre-game talks Woody is giving, but someone should tape them and market them alongside Tony Robbins' motivational hokum. Don't we always seem to play great in the first quarters? And don't we always seem to stink it up in the second half?

I often think that I would make a good NBA coach. I have a basic understanding of NBA offenses and defenses, could handle the substitutions and rotations, know enough to occasionally throw a zone or a double at an opponent. I consider myself a pretty good people person, so I think I'd be good at massaging egos and making sure all the guys on my team were on the same page. Also, I've been around the NBA pretty much every day for the last 8 years, so I know enough to hire a bunch of people who are smarter than me to handle all the details. If I was a coach in the NBA, I'd write a daily blog entry and respond to comments, so the fans would feel invested in the success of my team (and, in turn, me).

I would not be very good, however, at giving the pre-game speech. Public speaking has never been my (Joe) forte, so I'd probably rely on video clips and guest speakers when I need to get my guys fired up. And I think my weakest link as an NBA head coach would be my lack of patience, the same problem I have as a Hawks fan. Even when we're involved with a blowout, like we were against Chicago and Denver, I can't rest easy. If you were in my apartment during the last five minutes of the Hawks/Nuggets game last night, you might have been convinced that several Hawks player's first names are a profanity. Couldn't we take a time out? Make a substitution? Double Iverson faster? Do something, anything?

As it turned out, there was nothing to be afraid of. The Hawks won going away, and Iverson and JR Smith ended up getting the locker room showers running early. But that doesn't change the way I interpreted the end of the game, the abject terror I endured. And if I was a head coach, I might not be able to sit there and stomach situations like that. Teams make runs, that I understand. The key is if your team can withstand those runs and run back at your opponents. And this week the Hawks showed they can withstand those runs. Sometimes.

Despite all that, I still feel confident that I'd be a good head coach, at least a better head coach than a general manager. Because I don't understand what general managers do all day long, besides letting their hair grow. GMs maybe make a couple of trades a year, might sign one or two guys in the summer, and then deal with the Draft for a couple of months. But what do you do the rest of the time?

I'm thinking about all of this because during the Bulls game on Sunday, I spent a few hours pondering what I would do to make the Hawks better right now if I was the GM of the Hawks. I've got a couple of ideas, but I want to hear your thoughts. The Hawks are a good team, but what could we do to become great? Send me your ideas and next week we'll wade through the best (and worst) plans of attack.

In the meantime, we've got Milwaukee, Toronto and Portland coming up this week. Can we get a 2-1 split?

Lang Whitaker is the executive editor of SLAM magazine and writes daily at SLAMonline.com. He can be reached at lang@harris-pub.com. The best email he receives each week will run in this column.