High5

JC can't honestly expect to get more than 1st team rookie Kuzma.

He can ask for the max all day, but someone has to offer it to him.

I wonder how much the FA pool drying up will affect JC's price. He could be the best FA on the market next year and some team might get froggy. I forget who has the money, though.

Capela's contract is looking real nice right now.

I probably should put Gallo and Capela in the "as expected" category. I let last game affect my opinion of Gallo's performance too much, but that still puts us below overall. I'm talking about our "paper," not outside expectations. We knew Cam and (to a lesser extent) Hunter wouldn't be "shit." Bogi looked lost whenever he was looking for his own offense outside of that 2nd game. Huerter still hasn't shown much improvement from his rookie season. And we agree on Trae and JC. I'm just saying, it doesn't make sense to me to say we showed to have even more talent than expected. But I'm also not down on our talent level. I know they can play better.

I don't know how y'all read social media ever, but especially after a bad game. It's a complete cesspool.

Hunter is the only one who played above what the paper said (before tonight). Cam was about as good as expected. Everyone else was clearly below their talent level.

Everyone knew it was going to take time for the team to figure things out, but of course we get doom and gloom all the same. Memphis is a good team that played in the bubble. It's no surprise they had way more rhythm and cohesion. If we're still playing like this a month from now then we have problems. That said, I was hoping to see more from Trae and JC. There are legit concerns about how Trae will adjust to not having the ball in his hands the entire game and not being able to just shoot himself into a rhythm. And, as feared, JC's fit with Capela hasn't looked promising. But, again, I'm not going to freak out over 4 preseason games after 9 months off.

Huerter almost had the sequence of his career last night. He scored that tough 2 on a drive, got the solo steal, and then shot the worst bank shot of his life. Still the first 2 things were nice improvements.

Feels bad waiting 4 days for that performance. Shooters couldn’t shoot, happens, but the coaching staff has to figure out how to manufacture points better in that case. Bricking quick 3’s every trip down isn’t the answer. On the plus side, a lot to like from Hunter and Cam.

I was just talking about the “coming into the league” part. I’m sure he was including that other stuff, though.

Did Ja have doubters? Feel like everyone has been on his hype train since day one.

Yeah, I know these young players are often paid for what they're expected to do more than for what they've actually accomplished. I just mean he hasn't really shown to even have the foundation of a max player. Those guys have usually demonstrated some elite shot creation and/or two-way ability. And while you're right that most probably don't want to give him the max (or close to it), there are a fair number of Hawks fans I've seen on here, RealGM, and Reddit who seem fine with it.

I don't think Supes is wrong about everything. JC is overrated by his boxscore numbers. A lot of people are trying to give him more money than he has earned. But saying he's worth 4/40 is the most absurd thing that has ever been posted on the Squawk.

So now JC is worth 4/40? At this rate we'll be able to keep him for whatever Bembry got.

I think you're only one who thought Wood would get 20+ per. And most of us thought 20 would be an overpay for Harrell even before he bombed in the bubble. JC is in a different tier than those two. He has to bomb to go down to 20.

Does Shams call his thumb his first finger?

He will have much better shooting around him, but he's also not going to have the ball as much. I'm expecting 10 to 11. When our offense was humming the other night we saw assists coming from everyone. Even Collins had 4 which matched his high from last season. My favorite play was when Gallo got an offensive rebound and kicked it out to Huerter who immediately whipped it over to Bogi for the corner 3. It was beautiful.

I don’t think we have a rival yet. We haven’t competed for anything in over 3 years and we didn’t have any strong rivalries even then. I will say that Brooklyn might honestly be the last team in the East I would consider a rival. They feel like an expansion team or something with KD, Kyrie, and Nash showing up this season.

He needed to wear #7 for the OO7 nickname. Big missed opportunity.

This is a matchup where Capela can really earn his money. Valanciunas bullied the hell out us last season.

I always remember a game against OKC when Ibaka was killing us from midrange and Nique kept saying "You're fine with him taking those shots," not having a clue that Ibaka was a damn good shooter.

After having Bogi and Gallo come off of the bench tonight, let's take a trip down memory lane to the first subs of our 2nd preseason game last season: Damian Jones enters the game for Alex Len Charlie Brown Jr. enters the game for DeAndre' Bembry

Nique is extremely repetitive and not very knowledgeable about opposing teams. Half of what Bob says seems to fly right over his head. He also doesn't miss an opportunity to talk about how great he was. But he honestly doesn't annoy me as much as he used to. I definitely prefer him to Stinger. Stinger seems like a great guy, but his laugh is unsettling. Color commentary is pretty bad across the board in the NBA. SVG was probably my favorite and he's back to coaching.

It’s definitely not unheard of to get taller after 20. Example: NBA player Cameron Reddish