rd79

And run out of gas during that strech and get killed in the first round...

I would have liked to play whoever gets the 4th spot in the first round and then play Boston in the 2nd round, but it seems Bud likes the idea of a lottery pick more...

Fun fact Dennis shot 63.2% today, Bud's selection for the last shot 37.5%...

I want to split like this post. Thumbs up for the Bud critizism, thumbs down for the Dennis part. This was the first really good game by Dennis in a while, he was fouled on the late turnover. And without him we lose this game by 20+ tonight... But yeah I know your overall opinion about Dennis - and everybody here knows mine,...

Bud took out the hot guy - who is able to get free on inbounds at will and drops the jumper on this plays so often, because he didn't want to play a overtime (because of back to back?) and went for the 3 instead? Which game is more important? The one vs the 9th place which is contending for a playoff spot (with us) or the one vs the worst team in the league? I want to change my vote about Bud in the poll to "Let's get rid of this bum, even I could coach this team better in late game situations"

Bud officially is retarded

Why don't the give him the ball more often down low? Because the turn the ball over a lot by force feeding him and he isn't a good post up player! How often will they turn the ball over when he is used more often and opponents recognize that? Dwight may go th the basket at the right moment for a lob, but I think he would struggle to create that for himself all alone Actually Dennis isn't a jump shooter and lots of his misses near the basket are converted by our offensive rebounder D8. Is there a stat to check who's shot Dwight rebounded before put backs? I would even argue that the games with Dennis struggling are the ones Dwight gets more points than during games with good shooting by Dennis... That's no true and Sap has at least as much off nights as Dennis. That's why he isn't worth max money. Sap can use his experience while Dennis has to gain that 1st. Both are 2nd options for me but they complement each other quite good. When Sap has a bad game they can try to use him less, but Dennis has to create the offense even on bad nights and since there is no capable backup PG on the team he has to do that till the game is decided. Teague last year wouldn't get a 10 turnover game because Bud would have pulled him after his 4 or 5 turns and replaced him without losing much, but that's not possible at the moment. But I think Dennis wants to be great and I hope he learns when he has to take the foot off the gas. A good verteran backup point would be good for Dennis and the team. I still don't have a clue why they traded away Mack...

I don't want to defend Dennis' current subpar shooting, but your arguments are.... let's call it interesting... You're analyzing stats by comparing the PPA of your PG (who has to carry the offense without Sap) with the PPA of your Center who only scores on dunks, layups and oh yeah he made like two jumpers this season. Additionally he is gifted tons of FTs because everybody knows he dunks better than he converts from the stripe. And this 50% FTs increase his PPA because there is no shot attempt counted on a foul... So yes efficiency stats don't lie but everybody choses the stats he looks at and gets his own truth out of them... By the way recently there was no 2nd, 3rd, and 4th scoring option available. THJ is a 2rd option on good days and none on bad ones, maybe Dwight is a 5th option. I'm glad Baze came back on fire after his break, let's hope he keeps that and plays like that more often. If he and Ersan keep their recent form and if Saps comes back to take some load from Dennis so he can become more efficient again, we could make some noise in the playoffs

I don't know what's going on with Dennis lately but it seems he misses Sap in two ways A) A guy the opponent respects, in recent games (before yesterday) Dennis was the only offensive weapon (especially when THJ was struggling) and unless you are LeBron or Westbrook it's hard to kill a defense when defenders have to care about one player only B) As a pick and roll partner But nevertheless Dennis caused lots of totally avoidable turnovers in last games. Surprisingly his passes to Dwight looked better yesterday, but threw some ill-advised passes in the backcourt... And that stepping out of bounds without an opponent even near him... Does he already pay the price for his first starting + high usage season which his body wasn't used to before? Hope he has some gas left in the tank for the playoffs...

Even Buds former assistants figured him out. Maybe because they should have been coach of the yaer instead of their head coach,,,

Sap is too old to keep gambling on himself. I don't know where, but he will sign at least a four year deal and cash out the last time in his career.

I don't get how some want to blame Dwight. I think there are some things he could do better but how should he win the game when Dennis wouldn't even hit a barn and TJH goes 2/9 from three?

Sap seemed quite well defended and Dennis was well defended by not giving him room to penetrate. But another reason they lost is: Dennis and THJ just had a really awful shooting night. If they hit 3 more threes (would have been 6/15 instad of their combined 3/15) and Dennis additionally makes one more layup and one more wide open midrange shot, which both are shots he normally converts at a high percentage, this would have been a very winnable game. We can't win a game when none of our three main weapons has a good offensive night, But that's better than some weeks ago. I now think every of this three guys (Sap, Dennis, THJ) can win a game for us because there is some support by players like Ersan and Prince now. Earlier this season we needed at least two of our main guys to have a very good game to win.

I'm scouting the net for redrafts of 2013 sometimes, only to get a feeling how Dennis' development is judged by others. And I think redrafts are a quite good measurement. HERE IST THE LAST ONE I FOUND They pick Dennis at #7 (instead of 17), what seems to be the spot nearly every recent redrafts put him. Other Hawks players and picks THJ at #16 (instead of 24) Mike Muscala at #29 (instead of 44) while Lucas Nogueira dropped to 30 (from 16) The whole redraft order looks reasonable to me. Back then I really wanted Dennis to be picked as high as possible and getting much playing time immediately. But after those nearly four years I think the patient, developing and winning environment he found here may have been the best for him. A dysfunctional and losing environment like the Kings would have been at #7 could have ended his career in the NBA very fast... And of course for myself his (quite late) pick means I can follow the Hawks instead of scrubs like SAC, enjoy a winning team and found a nice place to talk hoops with some nice guys and gals here!

And the incident the discussion started with ended with a THJ shot late in the shot clock, so no more time for the opponent, but more time to create a better shot - what unfortunately wasn't done. I think that is a completely unnecessary discussion initiated by some posters who doesn't know the rules and game situations it is used in... And as always when Dennis is criticized for something he does on purpose again and again, he wouldn't do it if Bud wouldn't agree...

Each or together? ;-)

After last year's performance there was the decision to promote him to be the starting PG. Everybody (including me) wondered if he can match his own numbers (per36 not in total) vs better competition and more playing time. And... he does! All percentages are even up and the missing assists are replaced by less turns. Yes he isn't as good defensively now, but somewhere must be a difference between defending 2nd stringers and the likes of Westbrook, Lowry and Wall. But how can someone watch at the stats below and say "He obviously has to play better". I wish he would play even better but I don't expect him to do so in his 1st season as a starter. He still play for $2.7M a year. Not many better deals in the league I guess, Next year he will make big money but I expect an improvement which will justify this... SEASON TEAM AGE GP GS MIN PTS FGM FGA FG% 3PM 3PA 3P% FTM FTA FT% OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TOV PF 2016-17 ATL 23 62 61 1915 20.4 7.9 17.1 45.9 1.5 4.3 34.4 3.2 3.8 83.7 0.6 2.8 3.4 7.3 1.0 0.2 3.6 2.1 2015-16 ATL 22 80 6 1621 19.5 7.3 17.3 42.1 1.7 5.3 32.2 3.2 4.0 79.1 0.6 4.0 4.5 7.8 1.6 0.2 4.1 3.1

I'm 100% sure that didn't happen, at least not in the 2nd half...

Every time Baze comes home after a bad game, is feeling bad and thinks about shoting less, he goes to his safe, has a look on his contract and thinks "There it is in black and white, I have the green light... I AM SUPERMAN" Then he goes to bed, awakes confident next morning and jacks up shots again in the evening....

It seems winning isn't Bud's highest priority. What about Sap? If Sap cares about winning, we may not be able to resign him at all. If he doesn't, he will sign the highest offer, there is no reason to give the Hawks a discount. I suddenly am quite pessimistic and hope Sap won't reunite with Al in green....

Like I already wrote in chat: Does he want to talk to coach Bud or to GM Bud? Will he demand a trade or ask GM Bud to fire coach Bud?

Don't use pictures of me when refering to suspicious methods!!! I'm clean [/russian accent]

WOW this lets Darvin look even worse. At least we don't have to worry about losing our leading assistant coach again this offseason...

Whatever you want to express with this one, but indeed he looked pissed when he had to give Tim the ball... And yes Dennis already had better streches this season but I left the chat when I read about Dennis beeing schooled by Jeff tonight and everybody seemed to agree. I know box score isn't everything but: 18 pts, 1fg away from 50%, 40% on 3, 100% on FTs, 7 assists, 3 steals and one turn. Yeah Jeff whipped his ass.... Yes I expect more from Dennis (especially than he delivered the last two games) but somehow posters around seems to get hypercritical on Dennis... I'm out for tonight, I'm quite angry and it seems one could read this in and between the lines ;-)