Atlantaholic

Well, this season is over as far as competing for a playoff spot. Hopefully we can get lucky in the lottery and get a top pick.

Yes, three point shooting is by far our biggest weakness. You take Trae's numbers out of the equation and we must rank dead last or close to dead last in all 3pt shooting categories.

And Collins look like a potential max guy.

It all depends on his market price... if it's reasonable then yes, we should absolutely keep him. More than likely he will get offered something in the 17-20 million dollar a year range, and we have enough cap-space to be able to offer something along that range, the key for us is if we can keep him by offering no more than a 3 year deal. After three years we are gonna have to start paying Trae the max, and our cap-situation will not be good. If I had to put a number on the odds of Jabari being a Hawk past this season, it would be something like 30-35%.

And is Huerter out because he is a wuss compared to players in the 80's or is it because teams are investing 10x the money on players in the game today and have a much greater incentive to protect the ROI?

Young's been dealing with stuff like this or worse for a while. It's ridiculous it happens but it comes with the territory of being a star. Everyone always looking to tear you down.

Lol, wut? So players didn't get injured in the 80s? Ok.

Yea, I don't know about the "right now" part. Right now you'd have to be on something to even consider swapping Trae for Steph, who could miss the entire season potentially.

His win shares have gone down each of the past two years, and are way down this year. I mean, obviously his numbers will improve closer to his career average, but he doesn't impress me at all this year. Teams are figuring out how to defend him and he has absolutely no counters to that, he is basically the exact same player he was his rookie year. Defenses are catching up to him. I agree team records weigh a lot but I'm also pretty skeptical that Philly is a lock to have a top record in the east this year. Boston, Toronto, Miami, Milwaukee are all looking a lot better so far, and even the Pacers are looking like a better team recently. Philly is currently 5th in the standings and 6th in point differential. One thing about Teague and Korver making the All-Star team is the fact that the advanced stats absolutely justified their inclusion. Both Ben Simmon's raw stats and advanced stats are not even close to All Star level right now. Yes, he'll improve, but it will have to take a huge jump for him to be deserving. His best shot will be getting voted in by the average fans who don't know anything.

If Simmons does not improve his numbers he shouldn't come within five states of the All Star game. He's been worse than average.

Doncic is playing at an absolute MVP level. He is putting up prime Westbrook numbers but with excellent efficiency. If Giannis wasn't putting together the best statistical category in the history of the NBA it's possible Doncic would be the frontrunner atm.

The whole Bud regime detereorarated fast when Ferry left. Bud was a good coach but a horrible GM along with Wes.

There were like 20 rookies that looked better than Trae at this time last year. Let's hold our horses on making declarations on rookies when they are just starting to learn what the NBA is.

I think a big factor is the team chemistry we have on the squad and it all starts with the leaders of this team who are clearly Trae and Vince right now. Both of these guys bust their ass and are constantly communicating with the other players on the court. That stuff is contagious and when you have a group of long athletes that are communicating and trusting each other on defense, these are the results. Of course coach Pierce is the man that has to get the kudos here because one must assume it's his influence that has really caused this to happen. Adding players like Hunter and Cam and committing to Bembry over Baze (which started last year) also have fueled the turnaround... these are players that have defense heavily imbeded in their basketball DNA. In any team environment, whether in sports or otherwise, cultures are so incredibly addictive, and having our team start to forge this defensive identity where we can see players who may not have been good defenders like Parker get plugged in and really elevate that part of their game immediately is a sight to behold. Most encouraging thing we could be witnissing for this core at this moment in time.

Definitely helps him playing alongside the "Two Towers", but overall the amount of toughness Trae plays with on both ends has been so impressive this year. I don't recall him doing this stuff in college or last year.