Atlantaholic

Ratings have been going downhill. The NBA must be wakin up to the fact that the style of play that they have been pushing has not been "fun" like they assumed in theory it would be. 

16 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

But the question isn't are they the best fit. It's what's the return for Murray. If we can't get anything to legit value, it's better we run it back

This is true. Everyone here is right. 

Don't disagree. In an ideal world we could get close to equal value on a trade for Murray for a frontcourt player. Of course, easier said than done.

8 minutes ago, AHF said:

I'm neither sold on OO working as a starting center or sold on him not being good enough.  I just don't think he has had enough time actually starting to assess.  There is support for both positions and not enough data, imo, to settle the matter definitely.  I am convinced that CC no longer is effective enough there for what this team needs.

And worst thing about CC is that his decline has been pretty consistent and gradual. There is zero reason to assume he'll turn it around, and a safe bet he continues to get worse. The more we wait to move him the less his value will be. Should have moved him probably two years ago, at this point it just seems like the team will have to cut him or move him for nothing. 

6 hours ago, NBASupes said:

It's hard for me to close the chapter on Trae and Murray knowing Murray WAR is good, Bogi is rivaling the ECF year and Trae will having a career low is having a career high in terms of an individual success this year. All of our issues resolve around the Center spot. Clint regression is noted and OO just hasn't filled the blanks as he's gotten more opportunities which was always the question with OO. If he played center more with the main guys, would he be as good as he is with the 2nd unit. The answer was no, he's not for us at least. Maybe elsewhere with a different backcourt but with us, defensively is where OO regressed. Offensively, he got better but not anywhere close to as impactful as even washed Capela.

Problem with Murray and Trae is that while their overall numbers look really good it pretty much has been a taking turns approach. Trae's best stretches have been exclusively during Murray's bad stretches, and Murray's best stretch has been with Trae injured. Rarely do they both have great games at the same time, which is why the team has not been as good as you would think looking at their numbers individually. I agree that the Center and the forward depth is the biggest areas of opportunity, but it's still obvious regardless that Trae and Murray don't maximize each other. Murray is just mutch better as the full time PG than he is the SG/backup PG,

39 minutes ago, Diesel said:

Before Clint took to skating.. can we discuss why Hunter didn't get the doggone rebound?

Hunter looked lax about going to get it and the other guy just wanted it more.  It was so disappointing. 

 

 

Hunter will never, ever rebound. We must accept that now. 

1 hour ago, givemesome1ce1 said:

Bogi was literally injured for half of the games we were playing during the ECF run. Solomon Hill was terrible and barely did anything. Tony Snell was a body. Hunter literally played the first round and was done for the rest of the series. Collins was fine and okay as a defender. Huerter was okay but was a bad defender for most of the run. Gallinari was bad on defense but was a good scorer. Cam Reddish was literally useless until garbage time in Game 6 of the ECF. Capela was arguably the most talented because of his defense but he couldn’t do anything offensively without anyone spoon feeding him the ball.
Okongwu was a rookie who was playing with a torn shoulder muscle. (He played great defense though).

Why are we acting like Trae played with a bunch of hall of famers when a third of the players are basically out of the NBA and another are third bench guys for other teams. Trae carried a bunch of 6th men to the ECF and people act like it’s nothing lol 

I don't disagree with your thesis, but both Cap an Collins deserve credit, especially Cap was freaking amazing defensively that season. and also Gallo when he was getting it going was a bucket and Bogi had an epic stretch. It was a really really good team around Trae. 

8 hours ago, Final_quest said:

Someone said Trae creates more points per minute than any player in league history.  He creates a lot of pressure.  

Also, I think those 50 win Nique teams had an underrated supporting cast for that era.  Doc Rivers, Kevin Willis, and bringing Antoine Carr, Cliff Levingston, and John Battle off the bench.  They had a lot of beef on the front line which was key during the late 80’s.
 

 

 

They were very solid, but that wasn't getting past the Celtics. 

12 hours ago, bleachkit said:

All things basketball must not include dribbling.

Or finishing 

The pipe dream that this team was turning it around after Trae got injured should be soundly put to sleep now 

33 minutes ago, terrell said:

All I wanted is for this team to pick a side the rest of the season. Either win out or lose out. lol

They are going to end up midding their way to the 10 seed aren’t they? smh

Too much talent even without Trae to fall out of 10 I'm afraid. 

On 2/22/2024 at 9:40 AM, AHF said:

I get why we didn't pick him and I also think he has pretty significantly exceeded what most GMs expected him to be.  (I say the latter based on where he was actually picked and that teams didn't see him as being worth trading up to get).

He emphatically did not want to play for us and Cleveland. He told both of those front offices point blank not to draft him. Tough to blame the FO when that's the situation.

37 minutes ago, gurpilo said:

Is no surprise for me that when we have been able yo get on the court a starting lineup with adequate size we are winning games easily.

I like the backcourt of DJ and Bogi, I like Kobe as backup for DJ. 

Bey as starting SF IS average, Hunter as backup is great.

JJ as a PF is becoming a star, we lack a backup

Capela is average as Center. OO is average and a bad fit for Capela.

If there is a trade out there that gets us a star wing and a good center for Trae and OO or Capela I would do it and a Heartbeat.

A starting lineup of DJ/star wing/Bogi or Hunter/JJ/Big C IS in my mind a contender

 

 

Frustrating to me that our biggest need (backup bigs) are the exact type of thing we could have addressed but didn't.

13 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

What's going on with Mouhamed Gueye? We could use him. 

I thought he was basically out all year

11 hours ago, Sothron said:

DJM and Hunter really played well tonight. it is so blatantly obvious how much better DJM is being a point guard than doing the combo guard routine with Trae.

He's a different player every time he has been called to be the full time PG. Night and day. 

The only consistent thing all year has been our lack of defense. I'm not too optimistic. 

On 2/14/2024 at 4:34 PM, JeffS17 said:

I want Schlenks vision with someone else negotiating extensions.  I was very onboard with what Schlenk was trying to build, but he was handing out fat contracts and put us in some bad spots.  Specifically, he didn't seem to weigh injury risk/history or availability into what we pay guys.  And he got attached to his picks -- no way JC was getting that much on the open market.

At the time of the deal JCs contract wasn't insane. It was an overpay but not by much. People forget what JC was, he was a couple of years removed from a monster 22-10 season and had been a key player in our ECF run. I don't think many foresaw him going downhill every single season during his prime years. 

Bey has picked it up, but seems like he is a pretty streaky guy. He was playing like garbage  before the trade to Atlanta last year and then had a great run to end the season with us before being pretty bad for a large stretch this year and now looking good again. 

46 minutes ago, Sothron said:

I have been told if you put a gun to Quin's head he'd rather keep DJ and trade Trae to have Dj back at point but that's the cash cow we're talking about.

I feel like I will start to sound like a broken record about this but I don't care. This team every year under Messy Ressy is literally one of the cheapest teams in the NBA. Every.damn.year. We could have easily signed someone with the MLE to address the POA defender role. We could have used the TPE from JC to do the same thing. Newp. We just sit back and do nothing so Messy Ressy continues to have a bottom four or five payroll in the entire league.

League is too deep to get away with nickle and diming. In the past we could be the perennial 4th/5th seed like we seemingly have been our entire history, but too much depth up and down the league now, mediocre teams unwilling to part with talent and rebuild with one of those close to a dozen playoff/playin spots right there for the taking.

Defense has never been good. Even during this recent "nice" stretch. Like I said in another thread, winning isn't going to be a sustained phenomenon with this defense.

Okonguw has both Bulls sideline reporters rolling on the floor laughing at his defense there. 

2 minutes ago, kg01 said:

And to be fair-er, this was also true of SAC and Fox.  Which is why I don't believe that fable about him "pushing" for SAC.  I believe he said it, but I think he was gonna say something similar about wherever he landed.

As has been posted he didn't necessarily want Sac, what he was vocal on was not being in Atlanta. That was 100% because of Trae. There wasn't any other team with a superstar PG in the top 10 outside of Atlanta which is why he didn't manifest any other undesirable destinations. I'm sure he wasn't super excited about Sac considering Fox was a great looking young player at the same position, but he wasn't anywhere near as good as Young back then, so probably wasn't as big of an issue. 

45 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

JJ pick really hasn't gotten to the 2nd contract yet. JC at this stage looked like a better value than JJ and now he looks awful. Kevin was a hit. Even got us a 1st and he helped turned Sacramento into a playoff team. 

Yea JC was great early on but killed us on his second deal. Huerter was a good pick for sure 100%, kinda mismanaged him as an asset though, and currently, he is providing no  on-the-court value to us (indirectly), and hasn't since we traded him last year. JJ is the only slam dunk pick in since the Trae Young draft. That's pretty sad, and is the main reason we are where we are. 

24 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Got it re Martin...another failed second round pick. The last 2nd rounders we drafted that made good were Mike and Mike, Scott and Muscala.

AJ and Kobe - 1st rounders contributing nothing

Gueye and Lundy - 2nd rounders contributing nothing.

With our pick deficit in the coming years, there development is paramount.

Yea, the really good teams all have hit on really late round picks too. It's all a crap-shoot, but really the Hawks have just been drawing crap mostly. If we had missed on the Trae Young pick we are essentially detroit. 

3 minutes ago, JeffS17 said:

Yeah, OO is pretty par for the course for a number 6 pick.  He's a really good rotation guy so probably better than average at that pick range.  NBA starters are all over the place in terms of where they got drafted, really feels you just have to get lucky.  There's so much less time to assess guys talent/potential versus other sports.  It's great we got a guy that we can depend on to be either a very good bench player or decent starter.

It's not a criticism or OO or Hunter, but it's a fact. Great teams get lucky with those picks, we didn't really. 

13 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

OO will have spent the entirety of his rookie contract as a backup after being the #6 pick .

I hope he finishes out the rest of the season as the starter. We need to see what that looks like.  If not starting, he still at least needs to play 30 mpg.

I don't think CC will be back before the Allstar break, so we get to see OO as the starter at least for the next 4 games.

He has played better his last 5 games:

Yea, he has turned it up after going through an extremely disappointing stretch... but that's kind of been the story with OO every year. He has great stretches and then ghosts for a month. I agree we just need to give him his 33 mpg from here on out to just find out what he really is as a starter.