cam1218

One important part of the OO discussion outside of his impact, is his availability. Seems like whenever he has a chance to show he should start, he does well and gets hurt.

Schrecklich!

Maybe we can pull a NC State men’s hoops team and change that.

7 hours ago, macdaddy said:

Knocking off Miami or Philly would be worth it to me.  

I can agree with this too. Which is why these games need to count as something (I’ve said so much before). The fact we went into Miami, won and got the 7th seed never gets talked about. Miami was even down heading to the 4th quarter against the Bulls after that, so their magical run almost never happened. 

7 hours ago, JeffS17 said:

Usually I'd prefer the playoffs but with JJ/Bey/OO all out and no Vit, I think we would get embarrassed by the Celtics if we made it in, and I don't want to watch us get swept.  We'd have too many guys in the rotation that shouldn't be touching hardwood in a playoff series: Matthews, Mathews, Bruno, Forrest... JJ/OO are the two players I'd want getting playoff experience the most and they won't be out there.

That is kind of where I’m at too, but I hear you too @REHawksFan. Normally I’m the one spreading positivity but this season has been one of those one step forward, ten steps backwards - especially thinking about injuries.

Will somebody please convince me that I want us to be the 8th seed, making me stay up late watching 8:30 playoff games against the Celtics. The other option of just calling this season what it is and moving on to draft/offseason mode just sounds, better?

Hope coach Bud is doing well on a personal level. I’ll always appreciate what he did here. His initial coaching staff was insanely talented.

1 hour ago, benhillboy said:

Luka just qualified for Basketball Reference’s HOF probability tracker.  He’s at 36.8%. Trae is at 9.4.

The Mavs have an all time winning percentage of .567 when Luka starts, .424 when he’s out.  The Hawks are .451 and .450 with Trae, respectively.

 

You know I respect your takes about our best players, going back to Joe Johnson. But the best part of this is finding a poster who hasn’t been here in years and seeing the 5 years later…..

I hope there is some humor in this lol.

This team has been extremely disappointing at times, but a good part of it has been injuries. So annoying.

7 hours ago, RedDawg#8 said:

Bulls have Knicks, @Magic, Knicks, @Pistons, @Wizards, @Knicks to finish.

We have @Dallas, @Denver, Miami, Charlotte, @Minny, @Indy

Objectively speaking, we have the tougher final 6. The top 2 teams in the West, both trying to win and clinch #1. Dallas still jockeying for homecourt advantage. Then Miami and Indy still playing to win and avoid the play in.

If we pass Chicago, it will be because we truly earned it. It won’t be easy.

Knicks are really banged up too, so that makes those games a lot less difficult for Chicago. 

I know they don't count these as playoff games, but I feel like there should be something that tracks these games. The Hawks have had some pretty good success here. Beating Miami on the road last year to get the 7th seed, and then winning at home against Charlotte and on the road against Cleveland to get the 8th seed the previous year. Obviously we'd rather not be in the situation, but so far we have done well in it. 

1 minute ago, KB21 said:

We would be absolutely atrocious defensively and very limited offensively.  We would at least have that 7-footer even though he doesn’t fit the modern game.  

Opinion, like everyone else. Once we see where we are picking I’d love to see your assessment of other guys (honestly). But like I said, this is an Edey thread and I agree that he’d be good for this team.

I think one thing getting lost in this is that some people think he would be a good fit. Once we get closer to draft day we will learn more. It’s not like we are picking first in the draft. I like him for this team, not saying there aren’t other options. This thread is about him, and I agree that he’d succeed with our team.

1 minute ago, KB21 said:

Why is it a position of need?   Oh.  I forgot the typical Hawks fan myth that you aren’t a center unless you are 7-foot tall.  We have OO and Bruno at center.  We have one small forward on the team.  

It isn’t a myth that 7’ makes you a center, but you can’t teach size. There is one person that rants about that each year, it isn’t this entire fan base. Bruno is a good bench piece and OO has also had a lot of health issues. I wish we could have seen him get more time when CC went down. I don’t think Edey would be a day one starter, but I think we have the personnel to tap into his NBA success.

I’m by no means a scout like some of yall, but I can definitely see him working with a guy like Trae. If we didn’t have Trae I’d be more skeptical. We also have guys like JJ and DJM who can make plays.

Plus, I think it’s a huge position of need for us. 

I think the good thing is we do have options, but we have to get it right. The emergence of JJ has made our future much brighter.

That said, you do have to consider what you could get for Trae, but I honestly have no interest in that. I’ve said before, what is better for us? DJM plus what we get in a trade for Trae, or Trae plus what we get in a trade for DJM. I’d much rather keep Trae, but I get the whole due diligence thing.

I still think they can coexist, just need to get what is around them right. We need to figure out our center rotation and I think we have a much better team. Health is a big factor too, I would have loved to see what OO could have given us with extended minutes. 

Hope you feel better soon @Sothron!

1 hour ago, NBASupes said:

Extremely disappointed. You have Trae Young. You have one of the three players that can really unlock Edey in the NBA and you have the biggest need for him and you have the Harden that needs centers the most. It's like God provided this idiot organization with a get-out-of-jail card and to foolishly not use it is the most idiot thing they could ever do as a franchise. Worse than trading Luka. Worse than trading Gasol for SAR. Worse than even the Bill Russell trade which was STL by the way. 

 Just look at last year's Trae. He's better this year than last year but his KPIs are all down. I wonder why? 

Last year: Trae had a 9.8 WAR

This year: 3.5 WAR

Last year: Clint had a 5.4 WAR and OO had a 3.5 WAR

This year: Clint has a 1.1 WAR and OO has a 0.9 WAR

It's no shock this happened. Even when we had just a floor spacer at the 5 in Dedmon, even he had a 2.5 WAR. Dedmon had no offensive skill outside of 3pt shot which was broke the next season when he left for the Kings and came back after it was clear, Damien, Bruno, and Skai was offensively abusive to the game of Basketball. 

 

Trae made Alex Len look pretty good too. Admittedly, Edey’s stats look good and I am intrigued. Love the info here, but I don’t look much into prospects until I see where our draft pick is. I appreciate all of the pros and cons everyone is pointing out in this thread, some good reading.

I mean at this point, there is no reason to extend Hunter’s minutes. With all of these injuries we are going to suck regardless, and the last thing I want is another set back for him.

11 hours ago, Diesel said:

Here's the question of the day....

If the Hawks went on an improbable run to end the season and ran through the playoffs (like in 2021) and ended in their first finals appearance....

Would you still want to break up the team?  

The odds of this happening are so slim, but I think everyone here has been waiting all season for more than a week of good basketball. So yeah, if they played that well for three best of seven series you’d have to question things about what to do next year.

Luckily/unfortunately, this isn’t going to happen lol.

12 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

Our defense is better without Trae. It's a lot easier to defend when your PG is a good defender. It's a lot harder when he's an awful one by no fault of his own. Trae just lacks the measurements and athleticism. He can't fix that. 

This is all very true. The one thing he can fix his effort, and at least he has done that since QS has been here.

On 3/3/2024 at 4:44 PM, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Reality check for the fan base.   Let's REALLY look at the Nets roster, and see if they are so much worse than us.  Let's go position by position. 

Using this website to rank the players:   http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/home

 

PG

• Atlanta - Murray ( 13 ) . . . . when his production efficiency is ranked among PGs
• Brooklyn - Schröder ( 29 )

SG

• Atlanta - Bogi ( 22 )
• Brooklyn - Bridges ( 10 )

SF

• Atlanta - Bey ( 19 ) . . . . when his production efficiency is ranked among SFs
• Brooklyn - Johnson ( 20 )

PF

• Atlanta - Jalen ( 11 )
• Brooklyn - Finney-Smith ( 36 )

C

• Atlanta - Capela ( 22 )
• Brooklyn - Claxton ( 14 )

 

Atlanta Bench

• Hunter - ( 25 @ SF )
• Bufkin - ( 88 @ SG )
• Bruno - ( 62 @ C )
• Mathews - ( 90 @ SG )

 

Brooklyn Bench

• Walker IV - ( 52 @ SG )
• Sharpe - ( 37 @ C )
• Wilson - ( 68 @ SF )
• Smith Jr - ( 47 @ PG )

 

 

League wide rank

• Murray ( 47 )
• J. Johnson ( 51 )
• Claxton ( 54 )
• Capela ( 72 )
• Bridges ( 75 )

 

• Bogi ( 116 )
• Bey ( 119 )
• Schröder ( 120 )
• C. Johnson ( 127 )
• Hunter ( 138 )
• Sharpe ( 167 )

 

• Finney-Smith ( 206 )
• Smith Jr ( 217 )
• Walker IV ( 244 )

 

• Fernando ( 309 )
• Wilson ( 312 )

 

• Bufkin ( 414 )
• Mathews ( 427 )

 

Capela is only a top 100 player when Trae is maxing out his offensive production.  He's closer to 150 without Trae.  Bogi's impact on games lessen without Trae, because he isn't getting as many wide open 3 point looks.  Hunter's rank was below 150, until his recent hot shooting streak.

Bruno, Bufkin, and Mathews are essentially 3rd team guys who have been thrown into the fire.  Bruno and Bufkin obviously have the most upside, but still have a ways to go to be consistent producers.

 

I think it's time to stop acting like our talent is way better than any team that has lost more games than us.

Always love your analysis @TheNorthCydeRises, but comparing a team that is pretty much built to lose against a team that is supposedly trying to win is tough. There is a mental aspect of the game that doesn’t show up in stats. I agree with you mostly, but I’m not going to back down on how pitiful we can be at times. Missing Trae hurts.

Absolutely pitiful to lose these two games against the Nets. Especially looking back a little bit to the three game losing streak against the Bulls, Raptors, and Hornets before we had a couple of wins that we thought could be a boost in morale heading into this weekend.

These next two games are semi big for us. I don’t see the Nets catching us, but it is a good chance to try to move up to 9. 

2 hours ago, Sothron said:

I am a fan of the team more than any player. That includes situations where a player I absolutely love is moved. I love Trae. 

That being said if the right deal was there I would move him. I do think DJM will be the one gone this summer for a front court player. 

One thing I would like to see is DJM and Kobe starting together so we can see how that would potentially work. DJM guarding his natural position and Kobe being the POA defender in theory should work.

I’m all aboard on the keep Trae and trade DJM train, but I also fully agree with this. Trae, to me, is worlds better than DJM. But there is an argument that what makes our team better?

DJM + what we could get for Trae or Trae + what we could get for DJM. What makes the Hawks better? I firmly believe it is Trae plus what we get in a DJM trade, but it’s foolish for the organization not to consider both options. 

Is there a world they coexist with better help from the front court? A lot of options with no really great answers (as of now).

10 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

But why?

 

 

This is great! I wonder where I’ll get drafted next year.