nathan2331

So by that logic, Embiid and Simmons should've never developed into the stars they are today? You might be right we asked too much of Hunter too soon, but his development hasn't been stunted. If somehow the moment is too big for him and his confidence gets shattered, he probably would never have the mentality it would take to become a great player anyways. Our record isn't a reflection of the development of our players, just a lack of veterans who know what it takes to play consistently and win games. That problem is very solvable in free agency. LP can be criticized for a lot of things, he's not perfect. But he's been good about player development. The question is can he coach if given a complete roster to compete with? Not a Damien Jones starting 27 games out of necessity.

You can win games with Trae and John. What isn't gonna win games is playing them next to two rookies on the wing and Damian Jones. Collins can become a good defender despite his limitations. If Reddish and Hunter develop the way we hope, along with Capela we'd have 3 plus defenders for sure and a Collins who hopefully becomes at least average. Our biggest problem right now is the fact that we currently have a defense that doesn't communicate well, leading to players constantly getting open. Add on top of that an error-prone offense that creates the third-most transition opportunities for our opponents, and that's why we look so bad constantly. We're an easy team to score on because we don't execute on a consistent basis. Time will help the team improve. I know why expectations were higher for the team, but watching the games the vets we brought in couldn't contribute. If we sign 3 vets that can actually play, I'm sure we'll be winning games next year.

I'm not saying better feet wouldn't help, but legitimately Collins gets fooled on the court constantly. There's a lot of plays he could be stopping but he isn't anticipating the action. I do believe he can become an effective defender though, and mitigate the lack of lateral movement.

Do you think Ersan actually moves better laterally, or that John is just slow to react? I'm not saying Collins has great feet, I'm just saying that's not why he's been bad defensively.

John's feet are fine, his problem is that he doesn't anticipate anything defensively (which is worse). He constantly gets beat because he's too reactionary. I admit he keeps making the same mistakes, but that's still not our primary problem defensively. Even Trae's garbage defense isn't the main problem, the problem we have is that we don't communicate properly which leads to opponents constantly getting open shots. At any given possession a team can get an open shot against us due to somebody not being where they should. Which isn't that surprising given the fact that 4 out our 5 starters have 3 or less years of experience and the 5th has been either Len or Jones for the majority of the season. I recognize that we can't afford to carry another bad defender in Collins, but Collins can improve and even if you think he's incapable, Harrell wouldn't be a better fit considering we have Capela.

Collins is not incapable of being a good defender. Replacing him with a better defender won't magically fix our problems. So long as we have Trae and Kevin starting, we'll never be remotely good defensively. Thankfully we have Cam who can start, and Kev can work things out from the bench. This isn't an impossible situation. But again, if we want to look more competitive, we need better vets. If we could get Bazemore or a different vet wing for a cheap deal, get Gallinari/Bertrans/Millsap at backup PF and draft a PG, with the progress you'd expect to see from our core players and the addition of Capela we're a playoff team easy. We've had Damien f'ing Jones starting, we're not gonna win these games.

And trade Collins? He's not the problem on this team. To be fair he's not the solution either, but thee problem is the expectation that you can put anybody next to Trae, Kevin, Cam and Hunter and expect to field a good defense. They aren't good enough defensively on a consistent basis for the results to be any better. Collins gives us plenty of energy and effort. The problem is that opponents have an easy time beating our guards and getting to the rim. That's not gonna change with Capela and Dedmon, we'll just have better rim protection. If we want immediate results, starting Cam and separating Kev and Trae's minutes is the quickest fix. But even then it's a work in progress. I just don't see how Harrell would have been any better when at the end of the day, half this roster couldn't defend. By design.

I don't understand the logic in signing Harrell at all. John has improved on defense. He's not where we need him to be, but he's in his 3rd season and he hasn't ever played on a winning team. We need better vets if the objective is to actually win games. I'm not sure how much we are willing to spend this off-season versus waiting to see what 2021 will have to offer, but if we're trying to make the playoffs next year getting a shooter at backup PF like Gallinari or Bertrans or even Millsap is our best bet. Personally I'd like to see us draft Anthony Edwards but I recognize that's not necessarily what's gonna make the Hawks a better team. If not Edwards, a PG is preferable. Trading back and taking Haliburton or Hayes would probably be where I'd go. Hopefully a trade comes up though where we can send that pick.

All he did was name the starters. He's not singling anyone out.

So long as he's getting paid on time he'll be fine. He's been a role player his whole career and we're asking him to do the same things for us.

Gotta pad them stats too. These games don't matter until Collins and Huerter are back.

If Harden plays in the 4th quarter, somebody on this team needs to start a fight. Where's Ivan?

I will say, I'm a bit disappointed in Hunter and Reddish that they haven't been able to step up at all so far. I'm fine being patient, but they should be better than what they've shown so far. It's a process though and it can't get much worse. Just have to stay focused on what we can do on defense, and figure out the offense as we go along.

Silver needs to do us a favor and let us get Collins back. We need all hands on deck to be a competitive team. We can deal with one players absence, but we do not have the quality to cover up for anymore than that.

Is there a back up PG we acquire via free agency or trade? We really need some facilitators that can actually do something productive with the ball aside from Trae, Jabari, Kevin and sometimes Bembry. That's what is killing us right now, we can't consistently create any good scoring opportunities outside those four.