RedDawg#8

Teague strikes again with another epic story time. This time he drops a nugget about how the Hawks were not trying to make the playoffs in Bud’s first season. They were tanking for Giannis. Teague goes on to say that it was Lou Will himself that said “F the front office, let’s win” and ultimately got in the playoffs as the 8 seed. Starts at the 7:20 mark.

So, remember we just missed out on Giannis that draft. Well, looks like we have Lou Will to thank for bucking the system and trying to win games lol

11 hours ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Pat Bev speaking facts

 

 

But when Trae shoots them…

Anyways, we need more voices like this in the locker room. F the dumb stuff, they just want to win.

Symbiotic coach/star player relationship- check!

Up next - team culture/identity

We are 4 years late, but we need to put an elite big man next to Trae. Whatever the cost. Build out the rest of the roster from there with shooters, defenders and high bball IQ.

Trae is flawed, but he is the only sacred cow we should have. JJ is very close to being sacred, but I would move him for an established All Star big man. 

Hey at least the defense is better and we don’t have to watch hero ball, right?

SGA doesn’t complain 

9 minutes ago, shakes said:

Disagree whole heartedly with this.   Elite players deserve a more favorable whistle than scrubs.  Elite players are the ones getting hacked up and down the court and need to be protected.   Elite players are the ones who have the ball in their hands most of the game and invite the most attention.

 

NBA isn't communist San Francisco, the bums don't get to eat at the same restaurants as the rich people in the NBA.

Die on that hill if you want, that’s your business.

Most of us enjoy competition and just want to see the players play. Leave the politics out of it. 

1 hour ago, hawkman said:

Yeah, I thought I remembered him hurting his hand sometime before the All Star break. I'm not sure if it's the same hand or not though. All I know is, he was a completely different player after that game and the games after.

Agreed. 
I remember vividly as my Boston friends were trash talking and I was letting them know Trae was literally playing one handed until he was subbed out.

There was a possession where the defender saw this and attacked his dribble and all Trae could do was pivot his body to shield the ball, he couldn’t cross his dribble anymore.

Not saying it’s the same hand but it definitely coincided with his shooting slump pre Toronto game

On 2/25/2024 at 3:25 PM, hawkman said:

I think he may have hurt his hand before the All Star break if I remember correctly. He hasn't been as aggressive since. The team was begging to be put out of its misery and this will pretty much allow them to lay down. Either way, it's time to focus on player development. The one positive out of this is we will get to see how Kobe looks against NBA competition and maybe get AJ back in the rotation. 

Trae got nicked pretty bad against the C’s . He was dribbling one handed for like half the game 

I do not think we have enough to sustain missing Trae AND OO.

Frontcourt depth has been an issue all season. Thankfully we have Bruno for depth whereas we truly didn’t have another forward with size to fill in for JJ.

But again, CC/Bruno are the type of centers that need a Trae to feed them easy buckets at the rim. DJM is a good PG, but the 1/5 PnR does not hit the same without Trae. Is the offense better for everyone else? Probably. But I also attribute that to Bogi being in the starting 5 for Trae and Dre coming off the bench as of late.

Im getting sidetracked. Point is, I think we are very vulnerable at Center right now, and the one guy who can make any center playable is out too.

Murray did exactly what Murray was brought here to do, which is help carry the team so that we don’t fall off a cliff whenever Trae sits.

Murray is an excellent player. He could definitely put up bigger numbers as the main PG. But that is not what he was brought here for.

I will say, if we wanted DJ on ball more then yes, let’s look at that. I hate the Curry/Warriors comps to my core but Murray could be Draymond and help facilitate the offense while Trae and Bogi (Klay) use their gravity to open up the floor. Problem is, Trae doesn’t have the same off ball gravity as Curry.

Happy that AJ is healthy and playing.

Sorry for being an A-Hole, as you can tell, this season has left me quite disgruntled as a fan.

I hope AJ gets that mojo and confidence back. They are different players but Kobe looks so much better after crushing it in College Park. Would love for a return of 22-23 AJ.

Part of me wishes some of our regular guys would go down there more often and get their shit together instead of slumping it on the main roster, but that’s just me.

Go Hawks

59 minutes ago, REHawksFan said:

What they don't tell you is like 50 of those 80 FGA are from his own misses.  SMH

I think the fact that he has the 2nd worst FG% on tip-ins definitely illustrates that.

That is more damning than anything. Shooting 40% at the rim on tip ins? That’s a lot of missed bunnies, as we all know.

What happens when a guy doesn’t have game reps for months. Play speed and practice speed are completely different.

Also wouldn’t surprise me if kid faked the injury as an act of protest against the main club for sending him down.

Shitty situation either way. Sophomore year completely wasted.

So. No OO down the stretch.

We probably are looking at 12-15

So looking at the remaining games, 14-13 is a very likely record unless we can get hot and play at a level beyond what we have shown.

That makes us a 38-44 team, which by all extents and purposes matches exactly with how performed for the majority of the season.

Bulls have a lot of losable games coming up. I counted 17. We could pass them and finish 9th still.

Host a play-in game, beat them, beat the Magic. Grab 8th seed.

I could see a rematch of the 2007 Hawks/Celtics series, where a 37-45 Hawks upstart pushed the title favorites to 7 games.

Or

We can cave, finish 10th and lose to the Bulls in the play in.

That is our fate.

I get the MoG injury derailed his rookie season, but I am surprised we didn’t at least call up a Miles Norris or Silva at some point for PF depth. We are still razor thin with our big man rotation as any injury in the frontcourt just derails our entire team.

Our FO has to be accountable for selling out our roster with all these 6-5 guys and no playable bodies with size in the event of injury which has been the story of this roster.

3 hours ago, Sothron said:

FWIW I've been told by my two Hawks sources that I should not worry about Trae demanding a trade this offseason. Apparently the plan is finally pay into the first apron LT and get better talent that fits Quin and Trae.

I am...dubious af at this but I'll admit I'm in my feels over how worthless our owner has been since buying the team.

This sounds good until you realize that we almost have no choice but to pay the tax. We are way over the cap with just 10 guaranteed contracts. Just resigning Bey would put us in the tax. Using JCs TPE would dang near eat up the entire 1st apron.

Paying the tax is a forgone conclusion without any actual roster improvement, so that doesn’t impress me as much as others get caught up with it.

We have to show we can actually make trades of significance to bring in talent. We are an expensive losing team with minimal draft capital.

6 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Yep.

And Minny was a tewasthat was 42-42 last year. Hawks were 41-40.

This math ain’t mathing for an 82 game schedule lol

1 hour ago, NBASupes said:

Trae ain't getting traded to San Antonio so are you saying, no chance KAT comes to Atlanta. 

That is what I am saying

19 minutes ago, Final_quest said:

He should want both.  But this team wouldn’t get much better even with spending another $14M.  

Exactly. 
Im sure we didn’t to where we are today because Ressler thought being a 10th seed was the goal.