TheNorthCydeRises

Trent knows the assignment. Feed #24

Might need 30 and 10 from DJ tonight. And feed BRUNO

Crazy how the Falcons got talked out of adding Lamar, who won the MVP. But then turn around and overpay for Cousins, who has 1 playoff win in his career. Lamar was the perfect fit.

Schultz was a troll. Even when the Hawks were much better than they are now, he rarely gave the team credit for anything. Lauren is easily the best asks beat writer since Sekou.

Yes and no. Of the rookies that have played 1000 minutes so far this year, 8 of them play for teams currently over .500 and will at least make the play-in. Our rookies? Bufkin - 89 minutes in 9 games Lundy - 52 minutes in 9 games

Lauren has been OUTSTANDING with her coverage of the Hawks this season. This interview was A+. And as soon as she said that "the Hawks maybe need to address their size issue at the wing, and possibly at the 5" .... I started hitting my lounger and said "Dammit Lauren! I've been saying this all year!" Get bigger in the frontcourt, and a lot of the defensive issues we have, go completely away.

You know what it means. It means that these guys weren't as solid all around, especially in the frontcourt, than Landry led us to believe. Gave up a big in Collins, for nothing in return. And had people thinking that we were OK from a roster standpoint.

Try to continue to win? Yes Play people ridiculous minutes to achieve that? No. The last person I remember doing that, was Woody back in 2008, when he cut his rotation down to 7 players, to try to make the playoffs. It made sense for that team, because they were young and never been to the playoffs as a group. For this team, when you're down 75% of your main rotation players, not so much.

If we draft Knecht at 9 or 10, does he crack the rotation in year 1? If no, then Quin needs to be fired.

That's fair.

We're reaping bad karma because Ressler and the entire front office didn't set this team up right. Got people playing out of position everywhere. All of that hustling that Bey was doing, was a direct result of playing out of position and trying to play bigger than what he really is. The injury was a freak play. But it's also a play that Bey isn't accustomed to making. Bey would normally be running to the 3 point line.

You pull the plug by not playing Murray 39 minutes a night, which is what he has averaged the past 4 games.

The big difference is athleticism. He's much more athletic than Bogi. He's also a much better shooter/scorer than Herro was in college. I'm not expecting him to be anywhere near 10, once the NCAA tourney is over.

That's also an injury that could cost Bey tens of millions of dollars, if it is more than a knee hyperextension. Hopefully there is no structural damage and he'll be OK in 2 - 3 weeks.

If NBA scouts don't think that Dalton Knecht is a top 7 player in this draft, they need to find a new hobby. He has a NBA ready game that could instantly make him a rotation player from Day 1. Can score at all levels. Can spot up shoot from 25+ feet. Can drive to the basket with ferocity. And he can take and make difficult shots. They're going to use his age against him and pass him up. If he's there at 10 - 14, Landry bet not pass him up.

Talk about foreshadowing. I cant see the game but I'm following the box score. Who was ( or wasn't) guarding Murphy in the 1st half?

When we lose to bad teams, normally 3 things are happening: 1) We can't secure defensive rebounds and are giving up 2nd chance points ( top reason ) 2) Some non-star dude is lighting us up, along with the star player 3) We miss a lot of wide open 3s

Only did it once this year, vs San Antonio on MLK Day. We've done it 3 times since Trae has been out. We've also held the Knicks to 100 and Cleveland to 101 points. So let's make that 5 times we've had great defensive games since Trae has been out. So the easy correlation is that with Trae out, the defense is better. Once again though, it's not our guards that are stopping people. It's our frontline defense that has gotten better. And it helps that we're not playing the offensive engine + main shooters on some of these squads. But we all know the narrative that people want to believe. I've always contended that it's our frontcourt that is the problem. If you go back to most of those games that we lost to a depleted team, it was mainly our frontcourt / wing defense that failed us. Not defense at the point. And the one thing I've always said is . . . if Trae is the biggest problem on defense, why wasn't our defense significantly better with him out of the lineup? I'll even go so far as to say that Hunter moving to the bench, has helped our entire defense overall. He doesn't have to solely worry about defending and going up against the main offensive threats on the other team, until the final 6 minutes of the 2nd and 4th quarters. This may be preserving him a lot more and able him to be more effective. But on the 2nd unit, his defense may be good enough to slow people down. The absence of Trae alone isn't making a 20 point difference on defense. A lot of factors are going into this.

People only focus on Trae being out, but OO is out as well. I'm going to be VERY INTERESTED to see how the team is functioning on the frontline, if and when OO comes back, and Bruno's playing time gets cut to zero. Quin isn't going to commit to playing big on the frontline, with Bruno still playing spot minutes at the 5, and OO getting 10+ minutes a game at the 4.

Memphis 3/8 Defense https://www.nba.com/game/atl-vs-mem-0022300913/box-score?type=defense Pretty stellar defense from everyone with the exception of Murray, and Capela in the 1st quarter on JJJ. Murray got caught ball watching at times on some of the 3s he gave up, and on a baseline pass to a big who was behind him. Capela got smoked by JJ in that first half, with JJ going 6 - 7 FG. In the 2nd half Capela locked him down, and held him to 1 - 8 FG. So while JJJ shot a respectable 7 - 15 FG vs Capela, it was a tale of 2 halves. Vit and Bruno are the unsung heroes of the game defensively. Their activity in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, in my opinion, set the tone defensively for the team. Bogi was a ROCK on defense, holding his man to 2 - 10 FG, with 2 blocks and helping to force 4 other turnovers via steals or help defense. Hunter defended 7 different players who took shots while he was on them, and held them to 3 - 13 FG and 0 - 6 from the 3 point line. A very nice on ball defensive game from him. Hustle https://www.nba.com/game/atl-vs-mem-0022300913/box-score?dir=D&sort=oppTeamTricode&type=hustle A very good game from a contested shot standpoint, although the way I'm calculating it may be wrong. Still, when you have 41 contested shot stats on 74 shot attempts by the Griz, that's a good sign that the defense wasn't giving up wide open looks to people. As noted in the defensive section, Capela did his work contesting shots. The 1st half, JJJ was making everything over him. The 2nd half, Capela kept contesting his shot and shut him down. Dejounte, despite his inability to stop people, did deflect a bunch of passes. The team as a whole had 16 deflections, which is very good for them. I need to start paying attention to contested 3 point shots. I would say that a team that is connected well defensively, should be contesting at least 60% - 70% of 3 point attempts. Last night we contested 16 out of 26 three point shots = 61.5% of shots. Memphis only made 10 threes.

It has to be superstar fit, not a role playing fit, if you're moving Murray. The Hawks made the right move in acquiring DJ, in my opinion. But they can't be reluctant to trade away the so-called important complimentary players, even if they're young. Giving all of those role players those long deals was ridiculous. Roster construction is obvious not a strong suit of this front office, whether it was Landry of Schlenk.

Good to great defensive teams are NOT defined by the defense of the backcourt. They're defined by the defense of their frontcourt.

Keep them together. They are NOT the issue with this team.

That guy would've been Luke Kennard, if he played last night.

This is why you need high level offensive players who can carry a load like this, when need be. Sometimes, the team just need to defer their shots to the guy who can get it done. Looking at you . . .