nathan2331

You don't think Alabama losing their two best weapons had something to do with that?

Draymond should not be considered a DPOY candidate. He did well, but he's not dominant on that end of the court.

Comparing Huerter to Thompson is setting him up for faiure. Thompson is on a different level when it comes to shooting. At his best few players ever are shooting at his volume with similar efficiency. And he does it without needing to handle the ball in their offense. That's a unique role that's not getting duplicated easily. There are other sharpshooters in the league, but Huerter has a wider skillset. He's just not an aggressive player to utilize it against most opponents. If want to make comparisons, by all means do so. All I'm saying is that these guys don't do the same things on the court. Kerr and the Warriors staff deserve a ton of credit for getting the players to complement each other. But that's not a recipe that we can recreate here unless Trae, Huerter, and Collins want to redefine themselves as basketball players.

A bigger part of the solution is better help defense from everybody and mixing in more ball pressure. Golden State doesn't have amazing individual defenders, but everyone on the court plays engaged on that end and will frequently double team to either force turnovers or passes to weaker defenders.

We are not that similar to Golden State in our roster constuction or playstyle. Travis drafted Trae because he thought he and Luka were similar in quality, so he took the trade to get the Mavs pick. Huerter wasn't taken to be "the next Klay Thompson" the same way Spellman was never "the next Draymond". The comparisons are nice as a narrative, but unfair to the players especially as they're coming into the league and finding their footing. Furthermore, Golden State never really invested heavily in the center position after Bogut until they drafted Wiseman. Schlenk got Capela in after the clear indications that bargain bin guys like Len and Dedmond weren't good enough for us to compete. I'll also add that Golden State took time for their core of players to mature into title winners. The biggest reason I'm reluctant to trade any of our young guys is that despite the success we've already had, we can get better each offseason.

I don't think it's a trade win if getting Ayton costs us a combination of those guys. I'm of the understanding (and I may be wrong) that if Ayton was to choose Atlanta, Capela alone would represent the bulk of the value going back to the Suns. I'd argue the Hawks are in a great position in this case due to the fact that Phoenix would have a hard time replacing Ayton with another quality center if they are faced with trading him somewhere else.

I just hope Ayton is ready to elevate his game to another level. He's got the ability, but he hasn't shown the consistency to be one of the great players in this league.

Is that deal dependent on who's on the board?

I couldn't disagree more with that. I don't think he's suited for the defensive role we've given him, but that's more on coaching decisions than anything else. We treat him like he's a defensive stopper, and that's not the player we drafted. Virginia's Pack Line defense is closer to what teams like Miami or Toronto use where their defenses priotitze stopping playmakers from getting into the paint and rotating to contest the ball to prevent easy shots on the perimeter. Instead of challenging our younger players to become better off-ball defenders we effectively put our defenders on an island and are reluctant to send help or pressure ball handlers. I get why we went this route, but it's not helping us now. Teams that can force switches for their best playmakers have a faily simple time scoring on us. We don't run many zone defenses frequently because we haven't been comfortable doing it. It's not all on coaching, but if we want to see improvement, both the players on the roster have to get more engaged and active defensively and we need to vary how set up defenses. Teams will throw the kitchen sink at us to try and neutralize Trae, then on the other end their star player doesn't have to worry about any kind of pressure, it's asinine.

If he can't play on the Hawks for less than the 21 million, then yeah he'll be gone one way or another.

Is it possible that he could agree to play for a reduced amount, like 12 million instead of the full 21+? If so I could think of a scenario.

There's no way he's overtaking Hunter as a rookie. He hasn't shown the defensive ability we need at that position. He might be a better option than Bogi or Kev though. Even without the NBA experience he looks like he can be a better secondary playmaker next to Trae.

But I'm not arguing that he's never gonna be healthy at all. I'm concerned about us going into the playoffs with injuries. Obviously you can't control everything and Capela is not the only player on the team who's played hurt. But I do think Capela's issues are concerning enough that if we can get a similar or better quality player for reasonable cost we should do it. If Bogi, Hunter or Collins could be swapped for healthier players of similar or better quality I'd be for it. But those players aren't available.

And the the play-in injury wasn't Capela's fault, but we have gone into these past two playiffs with him dealing with injuries. The Rockets moved him for similar reasons. Trading him is no guarantee Ayton will be healthier, but I've seen enough. I respect what he's done for this team and and 100% healthy he's a tremendous player. But I'm not confident we'll see that next postseason if he stays.

You make the move for Ayton mainly because Capela has had injury problems that have limited his impact and Ayton is a better offensive player that allows you to do more things on that end. If Capela was 100% healthy next season I wouldn't be interested in moving him at all, but I don't think that's realistic. The same logic could be applied to Collins, but I don't think you can upgrade from him based on all the moves that have been proposed. If we want to see improvement defensively, like @sturt has suggested, we should try to work out a deal with OKC to get Lu Dort. Or go back in time get Reddish to play with some consistency.

Ayton is a downgrade defensively from Capela, but I dont see why it can't work. We need our perimeter players to improve defensively if we're gonna see any significant improvement. Gobert is the best rim protector in the league and he wouldn't fix our defensive problems against teams that are comfortable settling for mid-range shots. I know Collins is not elite defensively but he's does his part. When we're healthy we don't get killed in the paint and Collins helps when he's supposed to. It's our guards that don't rotate when they're supposed to, don't keep the ball in front of them and give little resistance when isolated. Capela has the better motor which makes a difference, but if we want to get better defensively, our guards have to be engaged on every possesion.

Why do you like that deal? Ayton and Collins can coexist, I don't see that #7 pick being a good reason to move on from him.

That's not true. Next season isn't the final season for the NBA. Even if a rookie isn't expected to contribute much next year, that doesn't make them useless.

You'd take Dieng over Williams and Duren? I don't think either player is a special prospect, but Dieng is limited in what he can do. If Okongwu develops his perimiter skills enough to where he can play PF, I wouldn't mind drafting either at #16. We need a wing more, but a if Okongwu can play PF in the future, Williams or Duren could be good backup centers.

It would've costed us the same money we gave Gallo. It never made sense to me why we didn't pursue him further.

Last year, 3 out of the 4 final playoff teams deployed a drop center and the Clippers probably would have if Zubac was healthy. Some teams exploit traditional centers better than others, but a switching defense can also get exposed. The bigger problems the Hawks have is we that we don't help enough defensively and we don't change our scheme much at all. We don't try to pressure the ball enough and even with Trae being on the court, that alone isn't an excuse for not throwing different looks at teams.

The Hawks cannot afford to let Mitchell go to the Heat. Even if the fit isn't ideal, I'd hope we make an offer better than Miami's.

I just feel like the season was done once Collins injured his foot. Of course I give the team credit for competing and getting to the playoffs, but we had too many injuries to overcome. That's why I can never agree with the decision not to put Johnson in the rotation. Making the playoffs doesn't matter if you get beat 4-1 in the first round. We still underacheived. Playing Johnson may have resulted in more losses this season, but he also could've been a spark in a positive direction too. Having a forward who's dynamic in transition and a good passer is something this team doesn't have. He's a versatile defender and he rebounds very well. It's a shocking decision honestly and McMillan doesn't get enough criticism for it. Playing vets was the easy option. What we should've done was to play Johnson and build on what he already does well. Change some of the lineups see if you can find combinations that he can excel in. That's the coaching job we needed. There's been so much talk about Simmons, but we already have a player with a similar skillset. I get what you're saying about the coaches having more information than we do, but I also know they're more shortsighted than fans are. McMillan needs wins today for the sake of job security. I only care about championships and what it will take to get there. Johnson can be part of the equation moving forward, but we won't know for sure if he's not given the oppurtunity to play. I thought after we drafted him that he could become the player we hoped Josh Smith would be. Superb athlete, versatile defender, great passer and hopefully one day a good shooter. Even without a jumpshot, his other attributes would help if the coaches would open their eyes.

Jalen Johnson in my opinion was an absolute steal, and McMillan made a terrible decision by not finding a way to get him into the rotation. His dribbling and passing skills are much better than our other bigs, and he's got the athleticism to play small forward. It's the 3 point shot that's needs to improve, but even without it, he could have heelped us this season. Gallo did not need to get all of Collins minutes when he was injured, and TLC should have never gotten minutes ahead of Johnson. I'd hesitate to trade Okongwu, Hunter or Johnson before we have to because we can't afford to pay them. All three can help us win games, and we have other attractive trade pieces. The main sources of our struggles were health and then coaching. Even if we upgrade the personnel, if the coaching is similar quality and we're still dealing with multiple injuries once the playoffs arrive, we'll see another early exit.

There's no point to argue, each players' story is still being written. There's no conversation to be had when you're asking fans to reach conclusions on players as their careers are playing out. Who knows how their careers will pan out. There is nothing Luka has done to make me think he's a better player than Trae. If the goal for a team is to win a championship, then Trae has gotten us closer than Luka has done for the Mavs. Maybe Luka does the impossible, and takes the Mavs all the way this year. If he found a way to comeback against the Warriors then you can crown him. Otherwise as far as I'm concerened it's a wash until Luka or Trae get to the FInals.