Jump to content

benhillboy

Squawkers
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    12,657

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    37

 Content Type 

Everything posted by benhillboy

  1. benhillboy
    F$&kin Quinn man. “Let me take out shot blocking and rebounding for the most crucial play. Makes sense.”
  2. benhillboy
    Nuggets need Murray back yesterday. Them boys struggling. It was a reason Reggie Jackson only played garbage time during their run last season he’s rectum.
  3. benhillboy
    Let’s try not to have Trae isolated on defense versus Bridges again eh?
  4. benhillboy
    Hopefully we see more of that Bey-Jalen-OO lineup that’s been so explosive to close out. Who knows with Quinn’s quirky rotations tho.
  5. benhillboy
    Why is Nique calling DFS “Dodo?”
  6. benhillboy
    Hopefully that last turnover by O’Neal looms large. Had a Big on the leak out with Trae on him under the basket and overthrew it.
  7. benhillboy
    Murray’s drastic career improvement from three makes up for his corresponding drop off in rebounding. Just barely. And Dre might want to hang on to the ball with some type of strength.
  8. benhillboy
    Love how Sadiq crashes the offensive glass (leading to OO’s easy rebound due to Johnson having to box Sadiq out). Don’t love how he steps out of bounds every damn game.
  9. benhillboy
    Sadiq such an underrated finisher.
  10. benhillboy
    Bally Sports has to have the most technical difficulties in the cable business. Absolutely horrible feeds.
  11. benhillboy
    Damn a B2B or DJ’s availability. The Nets don’t have any impact guys, Hawks need to win going away behind Jalen and the bench. Mikhal Bridges and Cam Johnson, both players I’ve always liked, rise and fall with their surrounding roster. They ain’t raising any floors for the Lonnie Walkers and DFS’s of the world.
  12. benhillboy
    Today marks the first time Trae has had a 120 offensive rating on the season in his career. Unfortunately like the rest of his career it’s trumped by his career worst defensive rating of 121. Both values are inflated due to his FT shooting for the former and Clint’s drop off for the latter but still in line with his historically underwater impact. Haliburton (139 to 122), SGA (124 to 105), and Brunson (121 to 114) are simply in a different class of mapping and controlling a game. Always have been and will be seeing how they play alongside younger and/ or less talented players as floor raisers. Fox, Morant, and Ball are his impact peers for the future: great individual stats but no real force-multiplying ability. He’s clearly superior to Garland.
  13. benhillboy
    Have I been under a rock or something? The Hawks have averaged a 24th ranked defense over the last 5+ seasons. Who in their right mind would expect a fix is possible? It’s an organizational blind spot, top to bottom.
  14. benhillboy
    Haliburton will perform like that most nights versus poor defenses but Hield’s shot taking and making just couldn’t be denied. He was truly in a zone. Vegas predicted a historic scoring game from two elite offensive teams with putrid defenses and it came to fruition, destroying the projected total. Crazy.
  15. benhillboy
    DJ needs to be much more active off the ball. He doesn’t make intuitive moves based on ideal spacing nor cut hard to create confusion for the defense. Bogi is much better.
  16. benhillboy
    His shot charts from last season and current: The floater is definitely something that he and the staff have to problem solve. His most efficient shot being long twos from the left wing isn’t ideal either although the staff has decreased his attempts from the opposite wing. Threes along the break of the arc have been limited as well. I’ve always thought that was the most ideal three in terms of depth perception and feel. He didn’t shoot great from there last season but kept the defense honest enough. Needs more catch and shoot opportunities from the top. Seems he’s totally abandoned the corner three to my chagrin. Super small sample but he shoots .448 from there in his career smh. Shooting so poorly at the rim is a fatal flaw, one that won’t be corrected until the Hawks get some semblance of a damn stretch 5 so he can isolate on Cs and drive quickly with no shot blocking present. Advanced metrics grade those misses the harshest because 1) it’s a damn layup and 2) they usually lead to points going back the other way with 5 on 4s.
  17. benhillboy
    I’ve never been a proponent of building around Trae but the Hawks are doing him a disservice. When he came out it was clear that three player types were in order to maximize his impact: 1. Defense first starting SG (Derrick White type) Huerter/ DJ/ Bogi ain’t that. DJ just doesn’t hold up on ball consistently and his career rebound drop off trend is very alarming. I love Bogi and like his effort level on D but again he’s a player who rises and falls with his surroundings, true self-starters on defense do their thing regardless. Dre as your primary wing has no motor nor splashy play ability and thus can’t raise defensive floors of his teammates. It isn’t prudent to have your starting SG run PG with the second unit either, it warps their role. 2. Stretch 5 who can protect the rim above average (Myles Turner type) Trae had a much better rhythm to his offense early on with stretch Bigs like Len and Ded. Just needed a huge improvement in talent level from that type. Having Clint and OO clog the lane takes away his isolation dribble drive forays to the hole when switched on to Bigs that he used to take advantage of much more often. I think that improves the confidence and rhythm of his floater, which we’ve seen fall from best in the league to shaky. Trae can spam PNR lobs versus bad defenses. Versus good ones it simply isn’t there anymore. 3. Defense first BU PG (Delon, Caruso types) Teams stocked with defensive-minded players can weather injuries better. Plus Trae just needs all the help he can get. While improved, he’s still a well below average defender who can still be picked on in almost any action by teams who actually run sound sets. The prospects of winning a championship with a mediocre or worse defense are futile at very best. I blame both Schlenk and Landry for continuing this “offense at the expense of defense” build style.
  18. benhillboy
    Are you “around” or aren’t you? And don’t make me sorry I didn’t stipulate a word/ character limit on your answer (just kidding) As far as Haliburton I hadn’t even watched him in college and it was easy to see his floor was high af from trusted detailed scouting report outlets. His current ceiling much less so. Was it ever definitively confirmed that he specifically “didn’t want the Hawks to draft him?” I would’ve traded Trae as quick as you can say “Trae.” Sorry I’m pulling you back in.
  19. benhillboy
    Hawks are 6-6 (47-47 last two seasons) with the 5th best offense and 5th worse defense. This loving embrace of being mid is getting to epic levels. I thought swapping John for Jalen would downgrade the team slightly but not much. To his credit he’s keeping them in that oh-so comfortable .500 space.
  20. benhillboy
    Updated to +23 after last night: I’ve always evaluated him as a -1 point player per game. +2 this season is great for him considering his abysmal shooting. His insane career high FT rate of .557 (only behind Lilliard, Giannis, and Jimmy as high usage/ minute guys) and much-needed increase in steals is his and the Hawks’ saving grace. The highest I’ve ever been on Trae was his ROY push. Simply because he was around 5-7 rebounds consistently and it was quite amazing. Those days are long gone though. It’s a considerable hindrance when you’re best passer can’t grab-and-go.
  21. benhillboy
    That was before Embiid was cleared:
  22. benhillboy
    F&@k me. So you telling me the Hawks missed on Derrick Lively and Cason Wallace for Clint? I keep a healthy distance away from those insider, rumor threads. But if true, again, f&@k me. Poor draft picks, regression in Trae’s shot. Kyle is on the edge as my avatar. I’m about to go with Plastic Man or Flip Murray out this mfer. Ira Newble even.
  23. benhillboy
    Hawks weren’t expected to win this game, no biggie. Sixers actually have a sound defense and clearly the best player on the floor. Nick Nurse is 10-6 versus the Hawks. LP and Nate weren’t equals and Quinn isn’t either. I hear him talking about getting beat on cuts. When your players don’t cut in practice they won’t defend it in games duh.
  24. benhillboy
    Ouch.
  25. benhillboy
    The first few times I listened to Landry speak as the GM I could tell he ain’t GM material. To be fair the top 4 picks have all been horrible, I’m pretty sure all the draft experts deemed ‘23 a mediocre class. On the flip side, regardless of positional need Jaime Jacquez will turn out to be yet another horrible draft miss in Hawks history. Definitely not Marvin over CP3 or OO over Haliburton but still foolish.
×
×
  • Create New...