gurpilo

By any metric you can look at Cam and Hunter were bad defenders last season. Hopefully they become average this season. Wing is our worst defensive position with Bogi, Huerter, Cam and Hunter. Have they shown promise? Yes, have they put it all together? Not yet.

Wow, 84 is a disrespect to Collins, no way Bogi is better.

Well that is another questionmark, injuries, that is going to be huge this year, high influence with a condensed calendar. There are players with high influence if they go down, Trae and Capela are the worst injuries we can have, Bogdanovic joins the group as well. But we have good depth to overcome injury impact. Capela’s replacement is a huge drop on performance, same for Trae. Reasons are different, low quality at backup Center and the other is Trae is too good to be replaced, you cannot replace a star. Other than that Bogdanovic is the only vet wing we have, probably losing him would imply a performance drop if Cam and Hunter are still not ready. Losing Collins, Hunter, Huerter, Rondo, even Cam should be managed by our depth.

I would add another questionmark that is coaching, I cannot believe I forgot about this. I am not sold on his ability to coach a playoff team, I am not worried about offense but defense is a real concern for me. We performed really poorly last year and all I hear were excuses from LP. He had some decent pieces to play defense and the performance was really bad. I think McMilan move is flying under the radar, is a clear indication that Travis is not fully sold on LP.

Sure we are the biggest question mark on the season. We will improve for sure because Capela, Gallinari and Bogdanovic are going to have a positive impact on the team. I think there are some small chances Bogie fails to find his role but I think he has the tools, experience and intelligence to find his touch here. Only with those additions we should be 10 wins better. One of the biggest question mark is Collins fit with Capela in my opinion. Collins need to step up, improving in defense, and reading better the game, he needs to involve the rest of his mates instead of playing 2vs2 game. He is going to get a lot of touches, is extremely important he can find the best play on each situation, I really hope Capela does not impact Collins game so that he ends floating on the 3pt line trying to find his touch. Another questionmark for me is Rondo, he could be a positive addition... or he could be a real negative one, I am concerned about the chemistry with Young and his impact on regular season. He must think a lot about how to approach Trae to be a mentor, pretending been smarter or better than you are or underestimating Trae’s game might be the wrong approach and I think Rondo is fully capable of taking that approach from what I have heard from him. Next questionmark is Cam, Hunter and Huerter development. We need them to have positive impact on the game. They were really terrible last year, I am confident on Cam second half but he seems to have confidence lapses, not the strongest mind. If he starts slow again it could be hard for him to overcome that situation, he is not going to have all the minutes he can handle. Hunter, I hope he can improve to be at least decent, with better players surrounding him I think he can get it, ceiling I think is limited. Huerter would only be useful if he is surrounded properly in the 2nd unit, defense is going to be an issue but I think a 2nd unit of Dunn, Huerter, Hunter, Gallo and Okongwu might work properly. But I think we will see a 2nd unit of Rondo, Huerter, Cam, Gallo and Bruno and I am not so convinced that group will work well. Last questionmark for me is backup Center, I have serious doubts that Bruno and Okongwu can play efficiently this season, we might have a serious hole there. Well, I have another questionmark, or should I call it fear, backup PG, I am convinced we have the right Backup PG in Dunn, I am not convinced Rondo will have a positive impact on the team, due to his lack of interest on the regular season, his bad defense on RS, he will probably underestimate the team and will try to do too much. I need to see him on the court to believe he is positive for he team. The question here is who is our backup PG, Dunn or Rondo? A lot of doubts to be solved, I cannot wait till regular season starts. As likely as I see that things fit and we make the playoff is important to realize that everything might fit the wrong way and we could fail miserably

Hahaha, they got the wrong Bogdanovic stats, Bogdan shot 37% from 3 last year. Other than that I think the statements are correct but they undervalue the impact on defense from Hunter, Reddish, Capela, Rondo, Dunn... and also Bogdanovic, he is not a bad defender.

Is definately a good bench, one of the best. Bkn and Miami have also very good 2nd units. Gallinari might make a run for best 6th player, Rondo, Hunter and Huerter are solid, backup center is a questionmark

Team is too young. From the what should be regular rotation 5 players could be considered vets: Rondo, Bogie, Dunn, Gallinari and Capela. Still to be seen if Snell or Hill play enough. Rest of the team is on a rookie deals. Young, Huerter, Hunter, Reddish, Collins, Okongwu, Fernando. That is one of the youngest team on the league. Agreed we have enough talent but we still need to see if these young players and this coach can already win enough games to make the playoffs. Normally such young players should be far from been ready to win. We have done rhe right things but I would not consider a major failure not making the playoffs

Yeah I love the article, goes deep in his strenghs and weaknesses.

Is going to take time to figure out everybody's role on the team, for the most part Young, Collins and Capela minutes and roles are clear, other than that is going to be pretty fluid. I guess Rondo, Bogi and Gallo have relevant roles. Cam, Hunter, Huerter, Okongwu, Dunn minutes are to be earned, can happen anything. By the time we have set the rotation we will be 20 games on the season. By that time I hope we have won 8 games, coaching is going to be key at the beginning.

Last year Bruno was not ready to play, he was lost on the court. Okongwu is a freshman rookie, is going to take a while until he figures out how to be effective on the court. Is very likely they have negative effect on the court next year. We are thin at backup Center, we need an upgrade there

The only thing I don't understand is why we have Solomon Hill and not Skal.

I think we win 40 games, 5th place on the east. Trae Young replicates last year numbers, make all star team. Collins averages 20/10, is considered for all star team. Bogi, Gallo and Rondo prove to be good additions for the team. Capela becomes top 3 Center on the east. Cam continue to growth in line with last months showing. He will have his ups and downs. Hunter and Huerter fail to meet expectations, playing time decreased and poor growth in comparison with last year. Okongwu show flashes of been good player on games that Gallo misses.

I think is sad discussing what is worth one of our young up and coming players. He did not have a real shot to prove he can contribute to win, team was really bad.He has shown enough on the offensive end to think he will, I agree he has some defensive flaws but he has elite offensive and rebounding potential. Hawks were much better team with him than without him, nearly .400 team, that is why I think with this year roster this team is going to win a lot Soon we will know, my bet is that John is a 20/10, 2nd option on a playoff team that win more games than they lose. Going from last year 0,400 with John to 0,500 with this squad might be reasonable. And growing....

I think is unfair to judge any player on last year results, team was terrible and poorly built to win, in fact was built to lose. Young is an unique player and I have not researched but probably the unique case of an all-star so young playing for such a losing team. This situation makes Young an unique case, an amazing offensive weapon, an unique player but Collins not been considered as an all-star does not make him a bad player. We have a full team this year, is likely we make the playoff with a team with Young as a 1st option and John as 2nd. We should be on a winning range 25-50 games of 72. We will see where we land and what is the real value of Trae and John. My feeling, we win 35-43 games, winning more than 50% of the games, John averages 20 and 10 and plays significant role on the team. For that player I would gladly pay 100m$ for 4 years.

Agree

I have to recognize I have never been so excited about a Hawks roster. I really see anything is possible and I am eager to see them play. We have infinite options to play games and what scares me a little is the frustration some players can experience due to low playing time. I think the following players should have his minutes guaranteed above 25. Young, Cam, Bogi, Hunter, Collins, Gallo and Capela. 7. A group of 3 would be desirable to be on the 15-20 range, Rondo, Huerterand Okongwu. I don't know if this would be a problem. Problem is there would not be minutes for Dunn, Snell, Hill, Bruno, Goodwin and that might create frustation, specially o Dunn and Snell that are reliable rotation players. I still don't understand why we signed Hill, I really thought we had lost Bogi. We need to replace Hill y a big, Skal or Dedmon because there is a real possibility Gallo or/and Capela gets injured, we are now extremely deep at PG and wing and a little thin at frontcourt

Yeah I can see that, Young, Cam, Hunter, Collins and Capela. However I think Bogi starts instead of Hunter because the 2nd unit look better with Huerter and Hunter and 1st unit need to add some shooting with Bogi. In my opinion the shooters are Kevin and Bogi, the full package wings are Cam and Hunter. Makes sense to mix them.

For those that do not want Collins at C,. think this way, woud would you play Bruno or Huerter? That is the reason Collins will play C. Look at the depth chart, worst depth is at C by far, that is why I say we need to add a big.

That is why I am predicting 50, we are deepest team in NBA by far

Which 17 players Young/Rondo/Dunn/Goodwin Bogi/Huerter/Snell/Mays Cam/Hunter/Hill Collins/Gallo/Okongwu Capela/Bruno/Knight Knight and Mays are on the roster?

I think this team might win 50 games if Capela is not injured and I am completely serious about that. Make an exercise, compare 1 by 1 this team to the one that got 4 all stars on the same year, you will realize that when you start comparing 6th player onwards is like day and night. Young vs Teague Bogdanovic vs Korver Cam vs Carroll Collins vs Milsap Capela vs Horford Rondo vs Schröder Huerter vs Bazemore Hunter vs Shefolosha Gallinari vs Muscala Okongwu vs Antic Snell vs Jenkins Dunn vs Mack.... Should I follow?

I think we are better than Indiana and Boston and Toronto are not so good. Be careful with Charlotte, things might click there

As I said A+ offseason for Hawks. Team is one of the deepest on NBA and haa some upban coming players that should grow during the season. Size, defense, shooting, we have everyrhing we need. I don't see any reason why this team should not win more rhan half of the games other than coaching, we improved in all areas, now is coaching time

Yeah I said the same on the depth chart thread, Gallo is going to play 4, Collins will slide to 5 a lot. But for big centers we need some insurance behind Capela ad Collins might be destroyed on defense depending on the opponent