High5

Between Lou’s contributions in the playoffs and this likely being his last season, Nate may feel like he needs to give him a longer leash. But we can’t really afford that sentimentality so hopefully Wright gets back in there soon. 

3 hours ago, bleachkit said:

We can't buy a call right now. We should of known Trae being the poster boy for foul calls was going to come back to haunt us. The refs are on the revenge tour. 

Revenge for what? They were the ones making those calls.

This was looking like one of those frustrating hero ball losses from Trae. Glad we pulled it out. Shoutout to Wright for a terrific 11 minutes. 

I hope they try the 3 7-footers thing again. I feel like that would be bad for them on both ends against our lineup.

I've been on the 1 seed hype. I think we can get it with talent and depth alone, but we also aren't likely to coast as much as our veteran competition. Just need some luck in the health department. 

His whole shtick is being confidently incorrect. Most famously when he said the Warriors had no chance to win a championship. It’s when he jumps on the bandwagon that you have to worry.

51 minutes ago, Diesel said:

I hope he comes in and is infected by the work ethic.   He has been on some turrible teams.   Work Ethic Wise. 

 

I don't know about the work ethics of his previous teams, but it is a fair point that the best team he has ever played for went 30-42. He got his start with a team that went 10-72. Nate and a stacked roster coming off of a ECF run should bring out the best in him. If he truly wants to be good. 

I’d probably go Tatum, Mitchell, Fox, Bam, and JC in that order. Guys that can create their own offense are just more valuable. It would be interesting to see what Isaac could do if he ever stayed healthy.

He may be. It's not like Cam or Hunter have really established themselves and anything is possible. But until we see him against NBA level competition we're just guessing. 

It's disappointing not getting to see more of him with the Hawks. I really liked his combination of size, skill, athleticism, and intelligence. Odds are he'll never make a big splash in the league, but if any recently undrafted player is going to do it I'd put money on him.

Trae isn’t being singled out. So many players abuse these calls and it really does need to be changed. Also I’m pretty sure this was all proposed before the Hawks did anything in the playoffs.

12 hours ago, JTB said:

 

Based on what you two are saying ….

….do you feel this way if all teams were healthy going into the playoffs and throughout the playoffs??

Do you truly feel if a healthy Hawks faced a healthy nets team in the ECF we win that series and go to the finals?

what about the Lakers ? Do you feel a healthy hawks team can beat a healthy Lakers team of lebron and AD in the finals?

…….seriously I’m really just asking.

Probably not, but we’re talking about next season and beyond. 

Ditto to all the positivity. I will say we potentially threw away 2 of these games by going to Trae when he obviously did not have it. That was my main disappointment since it was completely in our control. Would have rather gone out with Cam firing away.

1 hour ago, thecampster said:

 

I'm treading lightly because this thread is raining on the good juju I've been trying to conjure.  Speaking only for me, I was adamant that tanking is a crap shoot and works out way less than it works for. Lets take a small history lesson.

In 2014/15 we won 60 games but were a very flawed 60 win team. We were heavy iso reliant and lacked athleticism where it mattered. We were much too finesse and it showed.

2015/16 and 16/17 we were paying the price for aging, bad spending, and really bad drafting. We lacked vision. The tank was on.

17/18 was the first tank season and if you're honest...lucked the hell out with John Collins. Only the best drafting teams get Collins at 19 there. Collins is not the result of tanking as he came off a 5th seeded finish the previous year.

18/19 we finish 12 of 15 in conference and somehow got very, very luck with the 3rd pick. This was Schlenk and company's first bit of magic in the draft making the trade for Young at 5 and securing Reddish the next year. Now again, we lucked out because no one expected that Dallas pick to be at 10. Everyone thought that with Luka and the money Dallas spent they'd be much better. Dirk missing 31 games and a slew of injuries doomed their season. In no world should they have won only 33 games. This was our first bit of luck. Our second bit is Kevin Huerter's bad hand (most forget about this) had him slip out of the lottery down to the 19th pick. Before he hurt his hand, he looked like a lock to go somewhere around 12.

19/20 we finish 14 of 15, 2 years of sucking and I'm spitting nails. We draft Hunter and luck into Reddish. Neither really should have been there for us.

20/21 we luck into O squared who turned out better than expected for a big rookie.

We got lucky 4 straight years in the draft. 5 of the 6 players we drafted should not have been there when we drafted or we got lucky where we drafted and had a good enough GM to take advantage.

Irregardless, the first 34 games of our season showed that those draft picks alone weren't enough to get it done. It was only when the vets got healthy that we started winning. The stars aligned, but we didn't plan it like this. 3-5 teams a year purposely tank and most get sent packing and lose their highly touted rookies after their 1st contract runs out and they are tired of losing.

 

1. No, JC and Huerter were not the result of tanking, but they were the result of great scouting. Which makes rebuilding through the draft a much more appealing strategy.

2. We were tied for the 3rd worst record in 2018 and tied for the 3rd best odds of getting #3. Sure, it was lucky not to drop to 5 or 6, but we put ourselves in that position by tanking. 

3. We gave up a ton for Hunter. Definitely not luck to get him. And while it may have been lucky to scoop up Cam at 10 (jury still out), we were very much unlucky in the lottery that year. Schlenk also projected the Mavs to finish around that spot, so again, not luck.

4. Not sure how we lucked into Okongwu. Seems like he was always one of the main players projected to be there at 6. And it took an entire season of being patient with him to have him finally be in a position to contribute now.

There are lucky breaks in every success story, but I think you're way off on chalking that all up to luck. Schlenk is just damn good at his job.