RedDawg#8

I really want the defense to finish strong

A Holi has some real Pit Bull moments for us on defense. I think he will definitely have a spot as the 10th man, situational defender going forward. 2nd unit of: AHol Bogi AJ JJ OO Bogi and OO will have their minutes locked. The other 3 will have to adjust as needed game to game.

We are definitely a team still trying to figure out some new roles. 1 new starter, and only 1 returning bench player until we get Bogi back. 50% of the rotation is brand new. We are going to continue to have a learning curve. I think the best sign is that we are still finding ways to win games as we work things out. Also, defense travels. We have the luxury of having a solid defense while our shots aren’t falling. That speaks volumes about our growth and lends itself to our best basketball being in front of us.

Dressing for those that call it that. If you call it stuffing I don’t want it. I’ll take collards instead lol

I’m full of delicious holiday food and beer. I can go back and forth all night long Diesel. Don’t start with me lol

Steph: ball movement system, the onus isn’t on him per se, but everyone touches the ball on the Warriors. He is the biggest example of sharing the rock and trusting your teammates. Guys like Wiggins became all stars next to Steph. Giannis: MVP player with no rings until they signed Jrue. Bud took the ball out of Giannis’ hands and let Jrue be the catalyst and Middleton develop a role as a closer. Giannis gets his within the flow of the game and cats like Lopez and Portis eat. KD: never won anything without Steph/Warriors, see above Embiid: Never won anything and probably wont this season either. Refer to Superstars with rings, who are considered greats. Not these chumps that get annointed and haven’t won anything.

I recognize this. I get it. We needed this for us to be successful in the past. I’m not ignoring stats unlike my buddy Supes. How many rings has that won us though? Remember, it was Kev that won us game 7 to reach the ECF. It was Lou that sparked the game 5 comeback. It was Dre that singlehandedly almost won us game 5 against Miami. If you want different you have to do different. To get more you have to do more. Otherwise Trae can follow in Harden, Iverson, and Nash’s footsteps and retire without a ring. When I say get others involved, yall think that means we have to get Trae off the ball. THAT is not what Im saying and we all know that doesn’t work. Trae needs to be just as aggressive as he is when he is looking to score. He needs to attack the paint at will and get the defense moving. Im suggesting that he moves the ball once the defense has reacted to his initial drive. Im hoping that he forgoes scanning for the shot or the direct assist and starts hunting for the hockey assist. Seeing the play develop faster and being ahead of the defense. I have no desire to see Trae pass the ball and stand around while Dre, JC, and DJ go iso and try to figure it out. That is not good basketball either. We don’t ever need to see that again. Trae is option 1, the ball should be in his hands and we should work all the other options off of that. He should always play with a scoring posture because that will keep the defense honest. I don’t want him searching and scanning and dribbling the clock down, I want him hunting. I want him attacking his defender, then the help defender, and then moving the ball as soon as he has two committed to him. That leaves more open lanes for JC and Dre to cut and get shots at the rim. Now they are confident. Now they are involved. Can we all agree on that?

Superstars getting their teammates involved early is a universal concept that is bigger than Trae, JC, or the Hawks. We are a playoff team with Trae getting his and going off. He csn only carry us so far. Ask MJ, Kobe, Magic, Isiah, you name it. We want to be a championship team, meaning the “others “will have to be just as important to our success. Notice the word “focus” was not used. Rhythm begets confidence. When the role players are confident and in rhythm, the defense can’t keep up. It makes Trae more effective when 5 defenders are no longer selling out to stop him. I didn’t make this concept up, just watch any championship team from the modern era. It’s the 3rd-5th options that break the opponents backs when they are too worried about options A and B.

Nah, I’d rather blame Batman and Robin, the 2 natural point guards, rather than the 2 forwards who rely on someone else to get them the ball. JC’s shooting is documented. We get it. But we have 2 PGs that are score first instead floor generals getting their lesser teammates going so that their life is easier. Getting Dre and JC in a rhythm should be their number 1 priority at the start of each game. Nate should be finding ways to get them clean looks at the basket. Trae and DJM are the head of the snake. The onus should always be on them.

It took the Bucks until well after the All Star Break to incorporate Jrue in to their offense and get used to not running everything through Giannis. My disappointment is that I don’t see us running anything “new”. But I understand that it will take more than a handful of games for a core that’s been together for anywhere from 3-5 years to learn new habits and trust new ways to win games. For Trae, he has been dominating the ball since he was in 8th grade. It’s an even bigger learning curve for him. It takes time

The one game I went to against Nola, all the cats in my section were shouting out DJM whenever he touched the ball. Calling him a hooper and baller. I think as box office as Trae is, there is a lot of respect for Murray and the way he carried himself. I think a lot of older cats respect him and his edge.

Maybe years of being given away by the hometown fanbase have finally caught up with him psychologically. Maybe he feels the pressure to prove himself, again, after doing so year after year. It would be tough for anyone to thrive somewhere where they no longer feel wanted. Just ask any marriage counselor.

I guess I just want to see what we look like with a healthy Bogi. He pretty much jumpstarted our playoff push in 2021. His game is what we are missing. And it’s already on the roster. Trae and Murray have not yet hit their stride either. We all know they are Batman and Robin, so no point in moving mountains until we see them figure gel together. Coach has to find out how to get more quality shots out of this group. We are regressing to the style of play that Miami was able to easily shut down. More and more Trae, less ball movement. More tough shots in the lane. Too much 1 on 1 play. Doesn’t matter who we swap out and add to this group if all they are going to do is stand around and watch Trae and Murray try to break down the defense by themselves.

Painful offense to watch. We need to go back to the drawing board. It’s not just lack of outside shooting. It’s lack of player movement and ball movement. We keep shooting tough shots in crowds. Rarely are we seeing open looks

He has, it’s parked behind Clint on the 2nd unit. At least until he can magically morph in to stretch big. Kind of ironic actually how many were convinced OO was going to be a PF this year, and now we are looking at JC like he is a bad fit because he plays defense and can’t shoot anymore. It’s almost like we tried to warn people about spacing and the fact OO barely attempts jumpshots. Boy oh boy opinions sure change fast. At least we are winning lol

Correct, so just like when we traded for Clint we immediately point the blame back at JC for the spacing now being an issue. It’s his fault that in order to put a defense around our best player, we found some guys who are great defenders but don’t space the floor that well. That falls on JC. Meanwhile JC, outside of this current month long shoot slump, is a proven shooing big whose defense has finally caught up to the rest of his game. Not to mention, we ARE winning. We ARE 3rd in the East. Our record is tied for 4th best in the NBA. So, yes, let’s change things up and move JC to acquire more of what may already be on the roster. Let’s ignore the first 5 seasons of their careers and conclude that in one month to start the season, both Lauri and JC are now who they are for good.

It’s not just the skillset, it’s what’s between the ears. He makes sound basketball decisions. JJ is probably the most all around skilled player on our roster but he doesn’t have the BBIQ to use it to his advantage yet. AJ is an example of take what you are given, be aggressive, but don’t do too much. He is under control out on the court. That helps him take advantage of his entire bag without a bunch of silly mistakes. That’s what allows Nate to trust him.

Love how for years many of us defended JC because of his offensive impact and were told that offensive PF’s are useless and we needed a defensive upgrade at the position. Now JC is having his best defensive impact season and we are saying he is trash because his scoring is off. We want to replace JC with either: Jae Crowder, a lesser scorer, worse career shooter, and good defender but 3 inches shorter at 6-6 or Lauri Markkanen, balling out this season, cant lie. But, for his career, equal shooting splits, worse rebounder and worse defender. There is no rush to move JC. We have time to see if his shooting comes back around. I an intrigued by the draft picks associated with Lauri, but I am not in love with the defensive downgrade when we finally have some semblance of an identity on that end of the floor finally. To me, a lot rides on Bogi. I’m sure Travis did not expect him to be out this long when rounding out the roster. We have to see what we look like with him in the lineup before moving a core player to solve an issue that Bogi should help with.

Refreshing to see a coach actually use a challenge in momentum swinging moments. Even though it’s unsuccessful, you don’t just sit on them all game.

In the past, any time JC's names is in the trade headlines he tends to play really well. Hoping maybe this leads to an increase in performance from him on the court as he plays with a little extra anger. Go Hawks

No time to panic but we are only 1 game out of being in 8th place. We are as close to 2nd place Bucks (1.5 games) as we are to 9th place 76ers. There’s a lot of basketball to be played, and we are in no way solidified as a top team yet. We have to continue to make improvements.

How long before we stop calling it a slump and just accept that we are a bad shooting team this season? In each category someone has to finish last, and maybe this year we are the worse 3pt shooting team in the league. We lost 3 amazing shooters in Bogi, Kev, and Gallo. We were bound to regress. We picked up some good defenders though, and you see the results on that end. Maybe we are who we are until Bogi gets back or a change is made.

Just win baby. Next game up

They’ve been running Grant Williams with the starters since R. Williams has been out. Last time White started was when Brown was out. Smart, Brown, Tatum, G. Williams, Horford likely the lineup tomorrow. Hunter likely with the Tatum matchup. Murray on Brown.

Speaking to the debate about getting him more touches. Still a small sample size, but it shows up in the W/L column when we are involving JC and other guys who are more efficient on offense.