TheNorthCydeRises

DJ 17 - 41

Way to make up for it Dre. Offensive rebound a d a 3 point assust to Bogi

Damn Dre. Possibly ruined an A+ game with those missed FTs and Brown scoring on him on the next possession

only 3 offensive threats. and everything is ISO. May need Hunter to make an open 3

No jinx for once. he got it.

Hunter with 4 threes in the quarter. Keep shooting the ball if you're open

The refs miss Trae so much, that they have to give him a T on some BS.

Good job Quin for challenging the reversal.

Or .... the coach can tell them to slow down the pace so that they can get quality shots. And the coach can play bigs and forwards who can defend. Quin has been forced to do that with multiple rotation players out. Will he do it when everyone is healthy?

The biggest adjustment has to come with Quin. As soon as OO got healthy ( at least we thought he was healthy ), he absorbed all of Bruno's minutes, and we got DEMOLISHED by the Lakers . . . a frontcourt led team with Lebron and AD. Quin loves his shooters, and has tried to force feed shooters and smaller players into the frontline. That has hurt us on defense even MORE than the point of attack defense coming from the guards. I've been saying this all year, and have been banging the drum for the Hawks to play big since the 2021 playoffs. Bruno is not a finesse player. He plays like a BIG, even if he's only 6 - 8 . . 6 - 9. OO is more of a finesse player who can excel when he's involved offensively. But he's not going to bang in the paint and get those tough rebounds, or even block his man off. JJ isn't going to do that either. He'll use his athleticism to jump over and around people. But he isn't going to lean on someone to get position for a rebound. Hunter will not do this either. Because our frontcourt, for most of the year, hasn't played tough, the team has suffered. League average is 115.5 points per 100 possessions. Here is where the Hawks ranked on defense pre All-Star Talk about Trae and DJ being at the bottom of this list all you want. Your front court guys should NOT be at the bottom of any defensive rating list. If they are, that's a clear indication that they're not doing one of 3 things They're not stopping their man from scoring They're not securing defensive rebounds to end possessions They're not providing adequate rim protection to deter shots In the past 15 games, look at what the frontcourt has done: Some of these weak frontcourt teams that we've played, have definitely factored into these much improved ratings. Bruno and Capela have been off the charts defensively in the middle. JJ went from mid to good. Bey jumped from horrible to good. Hunter's defense went from bad to good. And contrary to popular belief, this has nothing to do with Trae Young being out. The effort on the front court has improved . . . with the addition of Bruno being inserted into the lineup. Vit, in recent games, has also helped in this category. And I've told ya'll this about Bruno, dating back to 2019 From the article: Snyder's offense puts the center at the elbow often, a place where Fernando thrives. The strength of his offensive game lies in his ability to time and place his handoffs well while screening and re-screening to free his teammates who curl around him at that elbow. Quin's adjustment, when OO and JJ come back, is to solidify Bruno as the backup center, while playing OO more at the 4 than at the 5. And reducing JJ's minutes at the 4, and playing him more at the 3. And if anyone on the team is playing sub par, don't hesitate to go to the bench to see if one of those guys can give us a spark. GO AWAY FROM THOSE SET LINEUP ROTATIONS IN THE 2ND HALF, IF WE ARE LOSING!!. Coach the game by "feel" . . . not by "script"

Injury report

The bigger defensive wing is actually Hunter, if he'd embrace the role and really work on this ball handling. Even if Murray is moved back to the 2, the adjustment that needs to be made is to put OO at the 4. Quin will not do this though, and continue to play small on the frontline. This team could be much better if we rolled with Trae - DJ - JJ - OO - Capela as a starting group. We'd have 2 guys who can create their own shot, a guy at the 3 who is a jack of all trades, and a 4 and 5 that provides better defensive value, than playing JJ at the 4. This does not mean that JJ should never play the 4. It's just that he'd be a much better player at the 3 ( on both ends ). He could also create open jumpers for both DJ and Trae.

What about the guys in Phoenix? lol

DJ is actually defending worse with Trae out. ( 53% defended FG% in the past 15 games ). His defensive value is with his defensive rebounding. The offense overall has been much worse as well. Everyone mentions Trae, but the people everyone praises for making good contributions ( Bruno, Vit, Mathews ), all play in the frontcourt. Also, OO has been out all but 2 of the last 15 games. Bruno's physical activity in the paint is something OO simply doesn't bring to the table.

Neither have to go. The issue with this team has always been the frontcourt.

I definitely said WTF when he shot it.

Amazing game. Didn't start watching until they cut it to 3. Stopped following in the 2nd quarter when we were down by 26. Didn't want to post here in the 2nd half, for fear of the jinx. Good night to celebrate a win. March is normally magical for the Hawks.

Bruno plays with the right aggression that a frontcourt player needs to play with. You're not supposed to let dudes just push you around or jump over you. But once again, when everyone is healthy, Bruno will be buried on the bench. So I'm starting to blame the coach more and more with the issues of this team. He can fix some of these issues of this team, with simple rotation changes and by playing bigger. LOL . . Bruno was feeling himself with that 3. He can make them though. He made them in FIBA.

Flipping back and forth from the UT vs UT game . . . and seeing Bruno DOMINATE these mo-fos!! And ANOTHER DUNK!

Tubby Smith is like .... "Say what you want about me, but I ain't EVER lost a 1st round NCAA tournament game. And now my predecessor has lost TWO of them?"

Whole SEC going down. 1 - 5 in the tourney so far. Alabama and Texas A&M in grave danger. Only the Big Orange survived so far.

And that's because the other big man only played 4 minutes.

You jinxed him!!

A center and a shooter. Because our shooters are fool's gold.