benhillboy

Just now, JeffS17 said:

They count towards a better draft pick lol

A draft pick they’re gonna f@&k up royally no question.
 

Hawks had 2 instant impact players with size staring them in the face on draft night.  Jaime Jaquez Jr is only leading the entire NBA in fourth quarter minutes for a team 5 games over .500 and here is where Brandin Podziemski ranks in the Warriors’ on/off:

Hawks said nah give us a guard with no size who we know isn’t gonna play.  Brilliance.

DJ’s scoring impact is so tepid.  Opposing teams don’t mind his little flurries at all because they don’t feel any physicality from him and his points come with everyone else standing around disengaged.

Hawks lose to a team who’s about 2 years younger based on average age, with over $26 million less in payroll, and a depth chart that looks like this:

The ‘23-‘24 campaign looking more and more like a trainwreck.  Hawks rarely have the best player on the floor these days.  Always behind the 8 ball when that’s the case.

Well damn.  I’m mad at the overturn but the explanation was excellent.

OO beating everybody not named Paolo lol

OO doing a good job on Banchero, still not enough.

At least 2 of Trae’s threes should’ve fell, rim was tripping.  You know he ain’t gonna shy away from shooting it.

Just now, terrell said:

LP was fired at 14-20

I thought our record looked familiar... smh

 

Some more symmetry for you: The Hawks’ record all time without Trae is 14-20.  

Huge tip by Jalen to end quarter after Trae kept it alive after his long miss.

I thought Banchero would be a Carmelo type player.  I was wrong, he’s gonna be far more well-rounded than that.  Shawty cold.

I used to hate Cole Anthony.  Wouldn’t mind him backing up on my team one bit now.  Kid got an edge to him.

On 12/30/2023 at 6:31 PM, NBASupes said:

@benhillboy, I would the say the biggest things you missed on the Dre post was on me. That said, your Dre take is really good. You missed a couple of things, both positive and negative but it was a good post. Probably the best post on Dre I've seen in years. Good job. 

Preciate it.  I forgot to mention he’s very good defending cut actions while everyone else struggles.

I don’t care if DeJounte is moved.  It’ll definitely be sunken cost but whatever.  I simply don’t value him and his former, less-heralded teammate Derrick White is a big reason why.  Peep the vid:

Murray literally provides none of these winning attributes.  This is why White leads the whole NBA in +/- per 100.   I can’t buy the notion Murray is “playing out of position,” his player type is supposed to reap some benefits from being a combo guard.

Carlisle took some years off stealing money.  He’s back on his elite sh@t he was on in Dallas.  Pacers found something defensively in-season, something not easy to do.  I knew the Bruce Brown signing would go under the radar for casuals but I knew it was gonna be quite significant.  Kid’s team IQ and feel is solid as a rock.  Any player who’s metrics go up in the postseason is a keeper (Denver!)

This was one of the more obvious gameplans to attack (poor and ill-footed) close outs from the Pacers as I’ve seen.  They slick toyed with the Hawks in the first half.  I‘m no Dre fan but our perimeter defense would’ve looked “better” with him no question.

10 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

He has a lot more dope shit in his game than my Atlanta Hawks Al Horford but Al got a lot of that winning shit in the filler sections where it's just empty spaces for Trae. Trae is amazing at the dope shit tho.

Feel and proper basketball training>>>>>>>>talent.  Size is kinda important too.

Haliburton has 94 assists to 9 turnovers in his last 5+ games.  Curse the day the Hawks didn’t/ couldn’t draft him.  His floor was as high as humanly possible and it was pretty obvious.

Outside of drawing fouls he’s superior to Trae in every way, 2 years younger to boot SMGDH.  

This is the personification of what meddling ownership looks like.  No coherent or collective vision for serious competition.  This Pacer team is the lowest paid in the league, $30 million less on the books this season than the Hawks.  They obviously have a vision for a sound, sustainable build.

Chances are the Hawks gonna have the worst defensive ranking in the Association by the end of this month.  Nice.

Trae is turning into a little f&@kin ballhawk.  Love it.

He’s not even gambling a lot either just anticipating and reading.

Early wins over the Bucks and Wolves look even better now based on their records but make no mistake, a win tonight would be the highest quality victory to date.  

This OKC team is a f&@kin circus.  A +8.3 point differential for the second youngest squad in the league playing the 6th toughest schedule to date is insanity.  Their chemistry is near Bogut Warriors level.

Hawks need to focus on hitting the glass on both ends like never before.  It’s literally the Thunder’s only weakness.  

4 hours ago, Dnice said:

That's the new Chris or John these days.

Seems so.  I’ll take it over some of the names I hear in the NFL nowadays.  Sh*t like T’Demetriustavious

People around the league are giving Jalen his proper due especially seeing how the Hawks struggled without him.  But I wished his name had more ring to it to differentiate him from the 15 other Jaylen/Jaylin/ Jaelyn/ Jalen/ Jay-Lin/J’Lens in the league (am I missing a spelling lol).   Nothing like Gradey d*ck tho.  His middle name shortened to Ty Johnson is decent 

Looking at this brass though I’m not holding my breath on any significant, obviously improving moves.  Need more yachts and land acquisitions!

Most teams have a couple players at the end of their bench with great metrics.  I need a barf bag looking at how the Hawks fleshed out their roster.  On what planet should Patty be making $7 milly?  Thank goodness for Jalen wildly outplaying his rookie deal.

28 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

shameful we only managed 4 wins. 

 

Yeah these past 8 games were a soft spot in the schedule before a gauntlet in January.  The strength of schedule before the Cavs game was 7th.  It’s now 20th and the Hawks still lost significant ground

The 4 game losing streak didn’t do them any favors at all.  If they can somehow beat OKC to start the new year though I’ll damn near forgive all of the losing (2 losses to the hampered heat most notably)

Trae has been at 40 minutes per the last 5 games.  Hawks gotta get a capable BU in here asap.

Peace and Prosperity To All of Yous.  I for one won’t miss 2023, sh*t was horrible for me but I’ll bounce back like a Trae nutmeg.  2024 onward ho!