Iman

Both the last two seasons were flukes to me. Two years ago we sorta lucked our way deep into the playoffs. Last year mainly the covid replacement roster thing killed our playoff seed, which doomed us. Both years we still needed more talent. I think this offseason moved us up a few slots, but we will see.

The last two seasons are not that hard to figure out to me. Two years ago we were able to beat the Knicks and slip past the Sixers, somewhat related to our playoff seeding. Going into this last season I thought the key was we needed to use our scoring depth to get us a top 4 or better seed. Instead we started cold then I think we went 0-9 during the Covid replacement period. Once we barely made it into the playoffs it was too much to expect that we'd do it again (especially injured). We have plenty of contracts we can move for a disgruntled superstar if one becomes available. We also have to hold it on the head coach to get us a top 4 seed, if not, dump him. Run it back. Hunter and OO improve. We should get a top4 seed and at least advance to the second playoff round most seasons. I'm good with that most seasons until we can find that second superstar to go with Trae.

I agree our record is a tad scary. We do need a second scorer, but we have tons of those already on the team. Someone needs to start stepping up for a few weeks, I think it will be Hunter. I wonder how Bogi would respond to being the first man off the bench?

You put up a good defense Diesel, but I don't think Trae was the prime reason for the new "rule". I don't really have nearly the defense you do. About all I can say is Trae didn't beat the Knicks and Sixers with those type fouls as much as he did with the floater. Either way it will be very interesting to follow. Like you said, someone like Lebron will probably not go for the change and it'll just slide away on him and gradually on the rest of the league.

I still think everyone on this thread is viewing Trae from the perspective of him being on our team. I didn't say trade Trae for Curry or Irving I was bringing up the trade value of Luka vs the trade value of Trae. Also you can see why Trae is prone to getting left off all NBA or even all star teams when you direct compare him to other point guards. Let's just break it down as far as what this team achieved this year. Do you think if you put Luka on the same Hawks team this year that we would have went further or less far in the playoffs. I think we would have went all the way myself. But then again the reverse argument is we were missing Cam this year, and what about what he develops in to in the future.

We did fine on the Trae-Luka trade. But we sorta got lucky because we did trade away a superstar. To say we won it or will win it is still a ways off to me. Let's just look at Luka, he was #6 in 2021 MVP voting. Maybe that was high but he's still viewed by most of the NBA as in that top 10 type category. Trae is harder. Break down which point guards if you throw out their contract or craziness you'd rather have over Trae. Curry, Irving, and Lillard for sure for me. If for some reason Trae demanded a trade, would he get us back Ja Morant or Jamal Murray? So until Trae does what he did the last half of the season and playoffs again, Trae is not as valuable as Luka. Then if Cam becomes the second best player on our team, for sure that would swing that Memphis or Denver trade. But would Trae and someone better than John Collins get you someone valued up there in that top 10 category?

The key to rebuilding is not messing up the draft and Schlenk has went way beyond not messing up. I think if the current NBA GMs went back and redid the 2018 draft, Luka would easily be the top pick, I presume by each GM. Luka is easily currently a top10 NBA player. Whereas even with his playoff performance, Trae is still widely viewed. So we drafted then traded off a superstar. Generally you can't do that and not call that a mistake. If Cam becomes an all star and Trae is still viewed as just all star level, we still lost the trade. So really the key is one of them must be viewed as a superstar. Another post season like this last one would actually practically push Trae past Luka on the superstar scale. The key is can he do it again. Either way, it's cool that it's debatable, and we traded away a superstar.

When the Hawks were bad, Trae vs Luka was the main national discussion topic. I think it will gradually fade, especially since it's obvious that Trae is an all star. I think Cam will be an all star also. But Luka is a superstar so to me in hindsight we lost the trade. No biggie since we took great players with the picks. I probably would not have taken Trae with that pick so I would have really lost the trade.

I liked Supes diagram of where we have "potential spots". Even though we are loaded with young 2/3s, that is likely the type player that we will be able to pick up. We are still in a position where we have to find another all star level player. As long as they don't play PG we can fit them in. If we are just filling out the roster, a better backup PG, 3, or 4 are our biggest needs. I like all the Bradley Beal talk myself. Other than that pretty much everything else I've heard discussed just gives us better depth.

Our rebuild is progressing properly. The main key is what key free agent can we pick up in the next year or two. The record this season makes sense. Hunter and Reddish were not gonna be as good as Prince and Bazemore early in their rookie years. I think they are passing them now. 25 games without Collins cost us 5ish wins. We were weak at center and with rookie wings and no backup PG or backup PF much of the season. Most of that is fixed. With no changes we are a bottom half of the east playoff team. IMO. If Reddish keeps improving maybe we are even close to a 4th seed. But to contend for a title we need one more all star. We will have the money and draft picks, can we find him.

Yep, it's easy to see how the Hawks ended up with this record. It's easy to forget that even though Baze and Prince we not taking us anywhere, they were better than our current young wings at this point in their careers. Without suspensions and injuries I'm not sure that our record would have improved. We just need to finish the season strong, take the right person with our draft picks, and hope we figure out how to sign a star with our left over capspace (that really has been the key once we found one star (Trae)).

The offseason decisions for the Hawks were pretty easy the last few years. We had to resign our core or take a step back. We were over the cap so we could not have just signed another player for the money we gave JJ. For sure opportunities to trade JJ, Marvin, or our other overpaid players will and have came up. It's just a matter of finding the one that makes us better. Most likely these trades will be for other overpaid players. Just look at the recent Washington/Orlando trade. That's what that was, movement of overpaid players. Players that demand trades like Carmello also make trades like this happen. I'd be shocked if we don't make a move like that somewhere during JJ's contract if we don't advance past the first round of the playoffs. There will always be tons of overpaid players and teams that want to swap them.

After falling on our face twice in the second round of the playoffs, we are no longer a fashionable pic. Chicago and Milwaukee are currently the new Eastern conference pics to be on the rise. We just need to keep a top 4 seed and eventually some media support will come back our way. I can see why though, we seem to have already shown that we are a tough team but not really a contender. Other teams will have to fall to us unless we decide to make big trade, etc. Boston and LA might have been aging and falling to us but then here came Miami and Orlando already seems to own us. I guess that's really the key, figure out how to turn the tables on Orlando.

Jamal Crawford is a great scorer and he definitely helps us get into the top4 eastern seeds. But by next year, we'd only lose a few more games if all else stayed the same and we replaced Jamal with a much cheaper option such as Jordan Crawford if he pans out. Really Flip carried us to nearly as many wins as Jamal did/will. We can't afford so much money tied up into our shooting guards. We have to let Jamal go and use his money and then Bibby's later to keep together our core and sign more needed players.

If you watch the stands during games you can find Smoove's father. His father often has Smoove's son with him, then you can follow his son back to his soon to be wife. I think they may now have two kids but I'm not sure. Smoove's son looks just like him, and he's a little ladies man too (his family's seats were a few rows in front of mine in the past). It's funny how the NBA seems to hide most players families, except Eva Longoria and I remember seeing Jason Kidd's son alot.