MarylandHawk

Just now, JayBirdHawk said:

I just need him on the court to keep his development going.

Is he fully developed already though?  Toward the end of the season refs start to call fewer and fewer fouls so if he stays on the court for a full season we might see a better defensive version of him. 

4 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

need him to keep going and consistently lock people up.

I got one foot out the door on Dre and one foot in. Lol. 

6 hours ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

Noted.   And definitely grounds for concern.

Having said that, I can probably name on one hand the stars that really don't have any noticeable character flaws

• Curry
• Giannis
• Jokic
• Tatum . . . haven't heard too much from him
• Morant . . he's the darling of Memphis right now

Everyone else . .  lol

• Luka made his coach walk away
• Durant dang near gave an ultimatum to fire the coach AND the GM
• Kyrie . . lol
• Chris Paul . . known a-hole personality who teammates aren't fond of, and has demanded 2 trades.
• Harden . . demanded a trade . . twice in the last 3 years
• Lebron . . he dang near runs any team he's on, and he's gotten rid of a coach before ( Blatt )

Trae's stuff looks tame, compared to those guys.

• Jimmy Butler . . multiple run-ins with teammates and coaches

Take Jokic and Morant off that list and you are spot on. No excuse though for those actions, as long as he embraces the growing leadership role he will learn how to get the most out of other people. That is what leadership really is. It is not necessarily being the perfect human being. 

2 hours ago, Final_quest said:

In the short run, no.  Over time we could come out A LOT better having made this trade, though.   

For one we are able to play AJ more and he could easily end up better than Huerter.  That first round pick is highly likely to convert and after the Murray trade we needed to restock our draft capital.  We do understand that a "future" draft pick doesn't play on our team today?  Picks are a top trade asset in the league, definitely the most versatile.  If we are ever gonna land another star player, picks are the most likely commodity to have available that makes it happen. 

If you know you will have a log jam at one position is that the time to give up $40M to be perhaps slightly better?  While also giving up an opportunity to obtain the only commodity every single team in the league wants?  I still think we got a decent return for a player like Huerter.  I don't see anyone outside of star players getting a return of more than one first rounder.  

As a fan I am excited about having an extra pick to make us A LOT better, and I see wisdom in waiting to pay tax in this case.  It's not just about making the owner money.  Our assets are a lot more flexible now.  

 

I actually agree with this.  Schlenk was all about creating value anywhere he could. They cashed in on Kevin’s value. I prefer AJ and a 1st rounder over Kevin. If Bogi was healthy from the start like folks expected, no one would care about what Kevin was doing. 

1 minute ago, JayBirdHawk said:

I would like to see the real NBA feed from that play.  Too easy from some tech savvy person to remove a frame or two.

Definitely. 

1 hour ago, Diesel said:

This is deep..

 

What in the world?  What kind of symbiotic mind meld basketball are they playing in Golden State? 

I will say this about Dre. Playoff Dre might be a real thing. The two series he played in, he was prime Dre. It makes sense too since playoff basketball is more of a half court game and refs swallow the whistle.  We all know that during the regular season, Dre can’t touch a guy without a foul being called no matter how good his defensive position is. 

26 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

You might be unto something @Diesel

Fictional Game of Thrones character Littlefinger was right when he said, "Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder."

Hmmn. That’s deep. Lol. 

6 hours ago, kg01 said:

Fair points but it seems fairly clear we need to play faster.  Getting stops is key but, let's be honest, there's been several games where we've absolutely struggled to keep up with teams who's defense is subpar but who make it a point to play fast.

Don't get me wrong, I do understand the role of playing better defense here.  But, for us, we basically play into the defense's hands by allowing them to get set exactly how they want every time.  

Yeah, that Sacramento game was a good example. We were intentionally pushing the pace in that game because they played in a back to back. Early in the game it worked to our advantage but because they are a team that likes to play with even more pace, we played right in to their hands and it took a last minute bucket for us to win. The key is being able to play different paces and adjust to the team we are playing against. 

3 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

This biggest reason Tony does not want to pay the tax is simple.  He wants his share of the tax payment by the 10 or so teams that have to pay the tax. 

10 teams were tax payers last year total ~$676 million dollars.  Divide that by the 20 non-tax paying teams that is $33.8 million. Tony is not passing up on $30+ million to pay $5 million in tax.

The luxury tax money, which is the penalty for illegally exceeding the salary cap, is collected by the NBA and then re-distributed equally among teams that did not pay luxury tax.

Not good business or basketball if you aren’t sure your team can contend for a chip and generate more than 40 million extra dollars doing so. 

48 minutes ago, JeffS17 said:

Schultz's Atheltic article.  I can post if people are interested, but that was the most damning piece of evidence for me.  They specifically mention he blocked JC to a western conference team trade.  It could be the JC for Lauri and 2 1sts that was floated here, which I thought was asinine it was even on the table -- so needless to say, I don't have much faith in the FO if Ressler is going to continue to heavy hand roster decisions.

Wow I hope not, If I was Schlenk, I would step aside because of that alone. I doubt that Danny Ainge would ever do that though. He is notorious for over valuing his assets. 

50 minutes ago, JeffS17 said:

Schultz's Atheltic article.  I can post if people are interested, but that was the most damning piece of evidence for me.  They specifically mention he blocked JC to a western conference team trade.  It could be the JC for Lauri and 2 1sts that was floated here, which I thought was asinine it was even on the table -- so needless to say, I don't have much faith in the FO if Ressler is going to continue to heavy hand roster decisions.

Would love to see the article. 

8 hours ago, Sothron said:

Something else that came out in these recent articles: Tony Ressler has BLOCKED TRADES that Travis had agreed to make. They admit it twice that he stopped a Paul Millsap trade years ago. Tony blocked a John Collins trade last year. He also blocked a third trade. I couldn't get the name of the player because he's still a current Hawk and he could be moved in another trade.

So that's three trades that Tony Ressler has literally BLOCKED his own front office from making. It also came out finally that trading Kevin was literally about nothing other than getting under the LT this year. It was not a basketball move or a move to make the team better now or in the future. Just to save Tony, whose a multi billionaire I have to add, from paying the luxury tax. 

Where did this come out?

2 hours ago, Final_quest said:

That call on Trae for "pushing" Herro was ridiculous.  Something else I don't understand after rule changes are shooting fouls.  Trae gets so many obscure calls where the other team fouls him while shooting and it's a side out.  Jimmy Butler is driving to the basket and someone swats at his dribbling hand and he's shooting two. 

This is so true. They give Butler too much benefit of the doubt. Miami also does a lot of defensive foul baiting where they grab and pull the offensive player or the player blocking out for rebound and then flop back as soon as they player offers any resistance.  The refs fell for it a couple of times today but they didn’t call a lot of that crap today which was good. 

4 hours ago, JTB said:

The parts about Nate ended in “right now” twice.

I noticed that too. Actually it was about 4 times. I am glad they came out and addressed these things and are not trying to pretend they didn’t happen. Fields quasi said he is making the final basketball decisions. It is hard to be that guy when someone on your staff under you potentially has more power. Our hopes rests on Nick’s humility and intelligence.  He has got to provide Fields his best advice and then backoff and support whatever Fields does. If  it is that kind of relationship, we have a glimmer of hope. 

This team we saw today can be any team in the NBA.  Can they build consistency from this?  We shall see.  

5 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Love it.

 

 

Yes lawd!  Lol. 

9 minutes ago, benhillboy said:

Beating Jokic and Giannis is cool and all but y’all know me: I’m not impressed until the Hawks win with Steph or Jimmy on the floor.  Doesn’t matter who else they’re missing if he plays.  This win marked the start of the season for me lol.

DJ and Trae were outstanding, I don’t give a damn about the latter’s 10 turnovers.  Trae played some of the most spirited defense I’d ever seen from him with very active hands and feet: his crazy 106 defensive rating since the new year is maybe a tad inflated but not by much lol.  You have to play a damn good floor game to be +1 with 10 turnovers.  Loving the 13 shots as he focused on getting off the ball at the right times and playmaking.  He was key in a 5 second defensive violation: mind blown.  DJ was just out there flat balling.  That boy really living for that three point incentive in his contract.

Welcome back Clint!  6-7 off the pine was huge and Bogi with the team high +10.  Jimmy made AJ laugh after the game, probably told him he’s a fan of his now lol.  I’m sure he knows how crazily efficient he’s been and was in this game going a cool 5-6.

Aye man let’s muthaf&@kin Go.

Bump this all day. I think we all just got over a mental hurdle today too. Miami destroyed us in the playoffs and we sacrificed a lot to get DJ to help remedy that. To see it actually work was huge for the team and the fans. 

Such a fun game to watch. They answered every question I had. I think we have seen every single player play great individual games but have not seen the TEAM play a great game.  This was the first time our top nine have been healthy and they all played great together.  

That is why DJ is here!!

41 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

You're late on the 'Traeters'

Oh s*#!  My bad. 

3 minutes ago, Diesel said:

You'll probably want a coach that is well respected.     Not necessarily that Trae respects.   Too bad we can't get Phil Jackson. 

 

There has got to be a “new” Phil Jackson out there somewhere. We just need to find him. 

1 hour ago, Wretch said:

I'll never give up on my team. Ever. But I'm setting my expectations in the dirt. 

Yeah to be honest, I know we were excited about our offseason, but everybody got better except for 5 teams roster wise.  Our outlook from a objective standpoint had us right about where we are. If the ball bounced our way with respect to injuries, personalities and fit etc., we could be the 4th seed, if they didn’t (which hey have not so far) we would be in play in territory. With half the season remaining, if the ball bounces our way, we will right back in it. If we make it to the playoffs healthy, it is a whole new season.