ATLien_

Exactly, which begs the question why are we such a roll heavy offense . I'm waiting to see what adjustments Bud makes when the real games start.

I believe these numbers, but the league still prefers him to shoot that shot to driving. Which creates the same issue. Maybe Bud should send out a memo to the league and let them know Dennis can shoot because they are certainly still going under on him more times than not. The league playing under is limiting the roller. If Dennis starts killing them the league will adjust and the rollers will be free, so maybe he just needs to continue to prove with a larger sample size. But to @JTBpoint the timing and spacing on these pick plays is all out of wack. I would also argue we roll too much. We are way to predictable when a pick is called. I'm hoping this is just us holding back for the pre season.

Happy for the win, but Bud has to get this pick and roll fixed. Our bigs are being taken out of the game by our less than stellar guard play. I've watched John Collins and Dedmon roll hard consistently for 3 pre season games and this team still really struggles to get them the ball. Dwight got all the blame last year, but your only going to roll hard for so long when you know no payoff is coming. This is going to be a long season if I have to watch Dennis and Malcom jack shots the whole game. In order for the roll to work the primary ball handler has to be a threat that causes the defending big man to need to hedge. James Harden is really effective at this because he's a threat at all 3 levels, so Clint Capella get's hell of roll action because of this threat. Right now the big men aren't hedging because Dennis and Malcom have no inbetween game. They are either at the basket or jacking long jumpers. Normally going to the basket would force a hedge, but the defending big is sagging under the screen because they know both PG's won't take a mid range shot. This is rendering the roll ineffective because the defending big is hugging the big man and rolling with him which in turn puts him in position to block the shot if Dennis or Malcom happen to drive. Also the spacing on these pick and rolls is terrible. They are literally standing on top of each other, so every pass to the big ends up being contested or in traffic pass creating a high amount of turnovers. There's alot of potential here, but Bud has to get this stuff corrected, and for the love of God give John Collins a post up every now and again or a pop. He's literally being told to roll on every play. Too predictable right now.

The funny part is with the exception of DMC they are all in a better situation now. DMC was in a better situation, but now he's just in a better place RIP DMC

I would be ok with this but do realize this will create a situation where only the biggest schools with the most money get the players. If you think disparity is bad now just wait. I'm a free market guy, but realize this would change college athletics into something completely different. I could see a large chunk of schools getting out of sports completely because they are barely breaking even now. There are only 24 out of 231 division I schools that make more than 100 million annually on sports.

You really can't write materiel as good as this. This is an irony straight out of Modern Family.

Like I said inflate his value this year then trade him with his value high. This is supposed to be the leader of your team. Not getting arrested isn't hard.

I agree. I expect to see the return of pace and a space, but that only works if you're taking care of the ball and getting stops. I think we can be pretty good defensively, but I'm not so sure about the turnovers. We have some good shooters, but they tend to be sub par defenders. Bud will have to be careful with how many sub par defenders he has on the floor at a time. Ideally you would only have one, but for spacing purposes we may have to have two for periods of time.

Hate to hear you were impacted. Hopefully some of the disaster money will come your way. Be careful, I will definitely be praying for all the Squawkers impacted.

I've watched every video you posted of Donic and I have concerns about his ability to create space in the NBA. If you're skilled you don't have to be an uber athlete, but there is a Mendoza line for athleticism that makes it hard for you to be a star. I'm less concerned with max vertical and top speed, but he appears to lack quickness and suddenes in his game. There is very little separation between low end and top end speed which is necessary to create deception. It's the difference between being on a sliding scale Adam Morrison -> Nik Staukas -> Doug McDermott-> Kyle Anderson -> Danillo Galanari-> Manu Ginobili. All these players are skilled in their own right, but Manu is by far the best and has the quickest first step and is very deceptive because he can change pace. In terms of athleticism I would put Donic clearly behind Galanari and Manu.

One unintended consequence of this is it may create some rivalry. For instance, if I pick your team as a proxy, then I'm basically saying I think we're better than you and your roster is trash. It's kind of like scheduling a team for home coming. It's more pronounced at the top the draft, but you get my point. I'm in favor stoking the flames of competitiveness in the NBA. The game is much to chummy for my liking which is probably a result of these guys playing together in aau and shoe company camps growing up. I miss the days when the best player from Atlanta wanted to prove he was better than the New York and Oakland guy. Now everyone just wants to team up and sing kumbaya. I don't care if I'm playing my brother at the park, if we're on separate teams, then I'm trying to body him. Guess I just have too much dog in me. *pfunk playing in background*

Guess I missed what happened here. Did they just decide to leave?

I fully expect Collins to compete for rookie of the year if not given the Bud treatment. Hopefully he earns 20-25 minutes a game I suspect coming off the bench first. If he shows out like I expect his rating will go up when they release the first dynamic rating update. The first thing to rise will be his mid range shot and post control and scoring. I suspect his dunking rating will be on point, Brandon Ingram can attest to that.

Those are mostly bottom feeders in the first 5. Only Charlotte and Miami are expected to be anything. Other than being on the road I'm not sure you could of asked for a much softer early schedule. I fully expect motivated Dwight to drop is off in game two though lol. Schedule maker's are funny. Dwight and Sap in first 6 games.

Definitely inflated, no rookie should be an 80 overall. Maybe only LeBron, but he couldn't shoot. Usually the max rookies are 77ish. I think they inflated them a bit last year too. I'm fine with them raising the rankings as they prove it on the court, but there's no reason to set them that high because if they're trash they'll be reluctant to lower them. It's easier to start low and raise them.

That's probably the highest rated rookie we've ever had on 2k. Dennis was in the 60s and Taurean was a 70. I can't remember what Horford was.

Going to join you in being a wise guy and say Northrop Grumman. Seriously though Club Nikki, Cheetah and Diamonds of Atlanta are strategic partners. They've been partnering with the Hawks for years giving us a competitive edge. Isn't it time we give them their due?

Very true, but this is often due to the pressure of the hard cap, and the need to field a competitive 53 man roster. With the soft cap, NBA owners have shown they are willing to pay luxury tax for a championship caliber team. The soft cap allows them to keep the super team together, but in the NFL teams would have to continue to draft well and decide the most important players to keep. As @mrhonline suggested hard cap and no max salary fixes this, and likely keeps stars at home but causes the others to change all the time. This is probably the best you can hope for as 2nd add 3rd options earn more money they'll leave. Foe example, the Falcon's current window will last as long as those defensive players are on rookie deals. Once those deals are over they'll have some tough decisions and will need to have drafted well. This is in a nut shell why the NFL is the king of parity. One player is not as impactful, but their system requires you to constantly retool and rewards organizations that are excellent from top to bottom scouting, coaching, developing and managing the cap. NBA is about getting lucky in the right draft then dominating the league with that generational player. The Spurs are the most NFL like team in the NBA.

I like the idea, but I'm not sure the tag would be as effective in the NBA. Part of what makes the franchise tag so effective is the greater risk of injury and the NFL players need to get the guaranteed money from their signing bonus. All NBA contracts are fully guaranteed minus player and team options. Couple that with the fact the average NFL career is 3 years, and you have a lot of leverage. I just watched the best NBA player of his generation play on for essentially 3 consecutive 1 year deals. Westbrook has a deal for 200m plus that he's not sure he'll sign. They are doing this because they want to wait and see and have little risk. This would never happen with a top player in the NFL.

They called Josh Smith and Michael Vick coach killers. Can we officially call @sturt the sports "journalist" killer? Finger quotes around the word journalists here.

Moved

I would rather have Walter Tavares back. He maybe could actually get some playing time this year. That move to cut Edy and sign Ryan Kelly is still more baffling.

What u talkin bout Willis?

If we only have to give up Dennis and a couple of 1st, then I make this move all day any day, and I'm one of the biggest Kyrie detractors ever to walk this earth. The whole point of this rebuild is to get a Superstar or find a Star that other star's want to play with. I don't believe Kyrie is a true Superstar, but he is clearly a player that other stars will want to play with. He's likely one of the main reasons Lebron went back to Cleveland. I crap on Kyrie a lot, but it's mostly because people overrate him. You don't often get an opportunity to get a player of this caliber at 25, and he is an elite scorer and closer despite all his flaws. We talk about Hawks U all the time, why can't Kyrie get better at his flaws under Bud's tutelage? We always want to take bums and make them 4 or 5th starters, but why can't we make Kyrie into the Superstar he should be? He certainly has the talent. As far as losing him in 2 years that's on Schlenk and Bud. If you can't trade for or convince another star to come play with Kyrie in 2 years, then you're probably not the people for the Job. Ressler put some pressure on these guys. Show me you need to win and don't just want to win. If we went into the lottery for the next 3 years we would be lucky to get a player as good as Kyrie, and even if we did we would need to pair him with 3 others to compete. Lebron level players aren't walking through that door; all time greats don't come often. Our model should be the Celtic model; take 3 guys that weren't good enough by themselves to get a ring and pair them together. That's an infinitely more likely scenario than finding the next Lebron, Kobe, Shaq etc.. through the draft.

In different is probably the wrong word. If we are going through the trouble of tanking than we need to make sure we secure a superstar player we can build around first and foremost. I believe coach Bud is too good of a coach to get a top 5 pick in any draft, and I do believe we will finish just outside of the playoffs as currently constructed. I saw Doc Rivers win 41 games and just miss the playoffs in 1999-2000 season with Darrell Amrstrong, Ron Mercer, Bo Outlaw, Ben Wallace and John Amaechi as his starting lineup. He won coach of the year that year, and I don't think he holds a candle to Bud as a coach. The east is weak folks and like that Doc rivers team we will be good defensively. I gave that long wind up to say, Dennis may have to be sacrificed to get a top 5 pick, and I'm 100% ok with that because I can find another quality starting PG that's in the 13 - 20 range amongst his position group. It's much harder to find a superstar, so we need to do everything in our power to pump up Dennis' value. If our coaching staff and front office believes Dennis can either be a superstar or attract a superstar than keep him, but if not we are right back on the treadmill if Dennis is our best player. I just don't want to see us fall in love with our talent, until it has no value like we did with Josh Smith, Marvin, Childress etc.... I didn't want to tank, but now that we're doing it less do it right.