Atlantaholic

To put another way... if we HAVE to keep Gay as a result of this trade it's essentially us wasting a roster spot, on top of losing Collins.

Lol, nah fam. Gay is COOKED af. Can't blame him he's been in the league 17 freaking years. Any G league bum we bring in is an upgrade.

The Saddiq trade and Bogi extension were solid moves, not to mention the Quinn signing. I'm not in red alert mode over this move, but yea, I need to see something more get solidified as a result of this trade before calling it anything other than a dud.

I mean, did it need to be done without us getting virtually anything of value in return? Can we even cut Gay?

So we dumped him for nothing. Hopefully this is to free up space for a future move or two before the season starts, otherwise it's aiming to be another "lost" season.

Wing defense is still our Achilles heel. We need all the help we can get there.

Nah, what Nugs and Warriors have proven though is that if you sorround great shooters with great passers in the NBA today. You win.

Management punted one of the small handful of seasons the Hawks actually had a chance at a finals appearance. The trade did so much damage to Atlanta basketball it's probably one of the worst all-time moves in all of sports.

Can't blame them, but it may come down to if any team can offer more. Brown has not formally requested a trade btw. Until that happens I'm not gonna get too excited about a Brown trade I'm not convinced will happen.

Not to light a powder keg with this topic, but for the supposed most underrated player and arguably best Hawk of all time Alicia Horford has a consistent history of shrinking like a shriveled d*ck in the playoffs. That one season he was our best player at 19ppg he took LESS shots in the playoffs than in the regular season and averaged 14. Every time we needed a big game from Horford outside of one or two occasions dude always came up super short. Trae already has 3x-4x the playoff resumé that Horford has and with a fraction of the games played.

This is the most delicious outcome possible for this series. Looking forward to a Nugs sweep in the finals.

Yup using playoff stats makes no sense, teams have completely different SoS. Regular season stats are more apples to apples.

In baseball for sure because it's common for hitters to go on a month of hot / cold play. In basketball it's not common at all, can't really think of a "got hot" champ who was bad/mediocre in the regular season and won a championship outside of Houston, though they were defending champs. If Miami wins (they won't) it'll easily be the most improbable run in league history.

Champs have been consistently top 5 in orating and usually above top 10 in drting. If Denver wins it this year with a drting of 15 for the regular season I'm pretty sure they would be the worst defensive team in the last 50 years to win a championship.

Exactly. Mikal proving he is a 25 ppg type guy who was sacrificing points for efficiency and defense. Both Efficiency and defense is something the Hawks rarely get from Hunter. If he could do it consistently he'd be Bridges but he isn't. I will say in Hunter's defense towards the second half of the season he played better. If he plays like that over a full season he's providing good value.

Overrating our own guys is just what Hawks fans do. We've had serious Horford > Karl Malone arguments on here.

Hunter can't hold Mika's jockstrap on either end of the court and that was the case every year they've been in the league.

It's the best we'll get for Collins 100%. So unless we feel like Collins will bounce back then yea we have to take it.

Another thing that grinds my gears is that the play-in games aren't official. Those are some of the best games of Trae's career lol. Like if you are gonna have the play-in then the league needs to embrace it. I understand not including it as part of the regular season and the playoffs as certain players would then have certain advantages in terms of records and such, but include it as its own category of game and quantify the stats. Considering how they didn't punish the Mavs, and aren't counting the games, the impression I get is the league is far from married to this format long term.

I agree, there are pros and cons. The Mavs tanking their play in game really put a dent into it though. I was surprised the NBA didn't come down harder.

He's been hands down no doubt about it the 3rd best player on the Laker team that just gave the Nuggs all it could handle in game 1. He's been fantastic all year. I agree 100% the notion that some team will scoop him up on a team friendly deal is 0. Lakers gonna lock him up and yea, probably end up overpaying.

Hmm... I think you'll are underrating Reaves quite a bit. Now you can say you think this season is a fluke shooting wise, and that's a valid concern. But he put up 17-4-4 per 36 mins on 53%-39%-87% shooting splits as a sophomore. His defensive metrics were all very positive. For perspective he had a better season than any season Huerter ever had including this year.

Austin Reaves had a better Raptor and more WAR than Lebron James. He's also been their clutchest player in the playoffs. He's not going anywhere.

tWe need better shooters and better defense. No mystery there. We can say we lost due to execution but executing is making shots. We just don't have as many shot-makers as the Celtics. Trae (and Bogi) can't do it on their own. We don't need Hunter to be a 20ppg guy but we need him to let the threes rip and not pass up open shots. Some of it his release is so damn slow for a wing imo.

I think Trae doesn't even know if he is going to shoot it or pass it until the very last second sometimes. I feel when he misses passes or the floater it's due to him waiting too long to decide.