High5

This is the fastest I’ve switched from being over a season and honestly a whole franchise to being thrilled about where things stand. I’m slightly concerned about how Trae will react to Synder’s intense coaching style, but we need a strong, competent (and modern) direction and Snyder fits the bill.

And just like that the Suns matched. 

1 hour ago, Mikey said:

Phoenix talk show host on July 6. Also has another tweet about it. Things got held up with Brogdon physical but this guy and people Jake Fischer brought on were all over this

Yeah Windhorst was talking about Ayton to Indiana 2 weeks ago and people have basically just been waiting for it to happen for the last few days at least. 

I liked Huerter like everyone else, but I’m not sweating this trade at all. It always felt like he could be doing more and it just almost never happened. Virtually zero improvement after getting that contract. Maybe the change of scenery will do him some good. Just a shame for his sake that it’s Sacramento, but their roster honestly isn’t looking too bad.

Excited to have a talented defender and playmaker next to Trae. Not thrilled will the 3 picks + swap for a guy that can't really shoot and will be due a big contract in a couple of years. I appreciate that Schlenk made a big move, though. Hope it works out and there's more to come. 

17 minutes ago, Dean Walker said:

That team reeks of the bud years!

Great regular season team that gets swept in the playoffs!

Who’s the #2 guy on the team?? Hunter?? Rudy??

That’s a team that goes nowhere!

We need to find that #2 guy!

No more role players!

outside of Trae that’s all I see in that proposed lineup!

Yeah I don’t know how anyone could watch that Miami series and think we’d be better off with even worse offensive support for Trae.

I don’t hold Trae’s percentages against him from last season. He was going against some tough defenders in his first playoff appearance and was still highly productive overall. Plus he tanked his numbers a bit trying to play through his injury.

The performance against the Heat was a different animal. His efficiency was horrendous and he honestly seemed to check out at some point. 2-12 and 11 points in an elimination game (right after 3-11 and 9 points) while Butler and Lowry were laughing it up in street clothes was shameful.

That’s something he’s doing to have to work his way back from. If he comes out playing well next season you know the popular sentiment is going to be “yeah, but the Heat showed that he can be shut down in the playoffs.”

1 minute ago, marco102 said:

Thats not it. Trae has always been perceived as less than Luka no matter what he does. Now we have a Hawks fan spouting off on here like a Luka fan. 

Less erase what Trae has done to uplift Lukas run is what you are doing.

No, I’m just being honest. You guys are so trained to be hyper defensive because of rival fans elsewhere (which I get) that you can’t turn it off when you’re just among Hawks fans. 

3 hours ago, Diesel said:

 

Please explain.

 

This is such a simplistic view of things. Their regular season box score stats are similar so they are the same. They’ve both won a single game in the conference finals so far so they’re the same. (Yeah you guys conveniently ignore Trae wasn’t playing in one of those wins) Luka is from Europe so that’s the only reason people think he’s better. Sorry Diesel, you have to do better.

Compare their advanced stats. Compare their team records. Compare their playoff stats. Compare their playoff competition. Compare their accolades. Luka is clearly ahead at this point whether you like it or not.

Playoffs are everything on here when it’s our guy still playing and we laugh at Luka losing while putting up triple doubles against the Clippers, but when our guy goes home early and in embarrassing fashion we want to say that it’s no big deal. Can’t have it both ways.
 

44 minutes ago, Diesel said:

The comparison was Trae's greatness and Steph's greatness and how seemingly, Trae has to redeem himself after a rough loss but Steph doesn't.

Your hypocrisy is on showcase for all to see.

You inferred that Trae has lost his greatness when Marco compared the two Conference finals and you said that Luka was great and that Trae had to "redeem himself" before he could be mentioned with Luka.

So since you say comparing Trae to Steph is silly.. what other great player has to redeem himself after a hard loss before he can be considered great again?

I mean, in between the ECF and the hard loss... there was leading the league in Points and Assists.. and before you can say that anybody can do that, nobody has done that since 1975...  There was also the all NBA season he had.  There was also Ppg, Apg and 3pt% that no other PG in NBA history can match... Not even your boy Luka. 

But.. Trae has to redeem himself?

 

 

If Trae wants to be in the conversation with Luka he absolutely has to redeem himself. Steph has won more championships than Trae has won playoff series. One loss where he scores 39 isn’t going to put a dent in his reputation. Trae having more turnovers than assists and some of the worst shooting splits you’ll ever see in his 2nd playoff appearance is obviously more damaging.

And again, please point out where I said Trae wasn’t great. You keep making things up because you can’t argue the actual point.

15 minutes ago, marco102 said:

I'm not being emotional.  

Take your L and go to bed.

lol

Also I've barely posted in the last few months when the Hawks were down. I posted tons more last season and I've always been one of the more optimistic posters. So that argument makes zero sense. And you're still not understanding my "look away" comment at all. No point in trying to explain it to you again. 

2 hours ago, marco102 said:

So Trae's not great because he did exactly what Luka did, but before him? Gotcha.

This is me showing you the fallacy in your logic. 

Show me where I said Trae isn't a great player. Also, if you wanna keep harping on the same things, let's be honest: would Trae have made the conference finals if he faced off against the Clippers instead of the Knicks? Luka still put up insane numbers in his series losses. Trae had one of the worst 5-game stretches of his professional career. There are logical fallacies and emotional responses in this thread, but they aren't coming from me.

2 hours ago, Diesel said:

Ok... so I have to ask..

Did Steph stop being a great player last year when his team lost the play-in game to the Memphis Grizz and he only became a great player again this year when they beat Memphis?

Did Steph have to redeem himself to be considered Great?

 

1) Comparing Trae to Steph is silly.

2) No one said Trae stopped being great. 

32 minutes ago, marco102 said:

You explained it clearly. You said you were talking about the way people perceived Trae and Lukastans already believed Luka was great. 

The problem is you came in and declared Luka was great and we should look away from the playoff run Luka is having.  So you called yourself a Lukastan because of your own proclamation and definition. 

Still haven't answered why you didn't have that energy last year. 

Unless your statement was meant as sarcasm?

Bro you’re on one lol. This thread was created to complain about people cutting Trae down, particularly when compared to Luka. I said all you can do is look away if that bothers you because it’s not going to stop until Trae and the Hawks redeem themselves. 

And, yeah, Luka is great. That’s not a hot take and doesn’t make me a “Lukastan”. I’ve defended and lifted up Trae as much as anyone, but sometimes you just have to take the L. 

21 minutes ago, marco102 said:

Sounds like you're the one with hot take.  I'm just explaining your rationale. You haven't answered why YOU didn't have that same energy last year, but come here with it now? Are you a Lukastan? 

I can’t really explain it more clearly than I have. I’m definitely not getting into calling people stans. You guys keep fighting the good fight I guess.

46 minutes ago, marco102 said:

That's not the problem.  The problem is saying " Oh look Trae had a bad playoff performance, Luka's the greatest. "  I'm summarizing but you get the gist. 

If you didn't have that energy when he was tearing up the Eastern Conference. You shouldn't be saying that today.  You weren't worrying about Luka when he was sitting at home, so why bring that up now. 

One can acknowledge Trae's bad performance without being reactionary to the current situation.  

Maybe if Luka gets to the finals and wins it will make sense for you to make the statements you made. 

Luka is doing what Trae did a full year after him.  Not sure why we should be looking away.

This is a thread about "Lukastans" gearing up to trash talk Trae. Well, the majority of people already believed Luka to be the superior player and now with Trae coming off of an abysmal first round exit and Luka making the WCF that gap is going to only increase. So if that is something that bothers you then you should just avert your eyes from those discussions. No hot takes, just the reality of the situation. 

1 minute ago, marco102 said:

You do you and if you dig around, you can find a lot more performances like that from star players.

If y'all want Luka so bad, go be a Mav's fan.

Also, where were you with this take from last year's play off run? 

Saying Trae was coming off of one of the worst playoff series ever wouldn’t have made sense last year. But I’m not going to be content with Trae and the Hawks performing so poorly moving forward just because they had a good run once before.

55 minutes ago, marco102 said:

Why would you be concerned?  

Trae did not have one of the worst series ever for a star player.  Jimmy Butler averaged like 12 points a game in his first round sweep of the Bucks. Many more examples of star players struggling in a series ESPECIALLY young ones.

Y'all be coming with too much hyperbole when it comes to these two. 

So damn reactionary.

 

Trae put up 15.4/5/6 with 6.2 TO on .290/.167/.644 splits. There’s no way around calling that one of the worst series ever by a star player. Especially considering his defensive limitations.

26 minutes ago, nathan2331 said:

Dallas is on the verge of getting swept in this series but we need to avert our eyes?

If you're concerned with Luka vs Trae. 

All you can do now is avert your eyes if you're squeamish. Luka is just better, period, but now it's going to be seen as especially lopsided with Trae coming off of one of the worst playoff series ever by a star player. No sense in trying to fight it. Trae and the Hawks have to bounce back in a big way next season to get that respect again.

I don't know how you guys can discuss this team night and night out when they're so painfully mediocre. Bless you all. Even the hot take crazies. 

Among other reasons, teams take 3-4x as many 3’s these days than in his heyday. Very different game. 

8 minutes ago, kg01 said:

He wasn't last year when we surged late.  Not at all.

That's my beef.

'Splain that one, AH.

Surging late to the 5th seed isn’t too noteworthy unless your numbers are insane and his weren’t.

Great way for Trae to respond. Annoying how close we were to 30-30 with tons of momentum. Beating Toronto is more important than Chicago at least.

Trae getting embarrassed by a rookie and losing us the game = me staying away from NBA discussions for a few days. I know Bulls fans must be smug as hell right now.