TheNorthCydeRises

He did that in straight garbage time. You know that he was horrible in those first 3 quarters. I liked the pick, but I'm not making excuses for the guy at all. Tonight, he's playing like he's supposed to be playing. Still having problems converting at the rim though. Commentators calling him unimpressive . . and they're exactly right. No excuses.

3 pts - 3 asst . . . 1 - 3 FG . . . 1 - 1 from 3. A GREAT quarter for Trae. Just run the team. Score when needed. Horrible foul at the end, after he got shook, but overall, he's doing exactly what he should be doing.

Heck . . . I'll take a 4 - 10 FG . . . 2 - 6 3FG . . 3 - 3 FT . . 13 point - 6 assist - 2 turnover game. Is that too much to ask from a guy playing 30+ minutes in a summer league game?

He's also a top 5 pick. I'm not a believer in babying people. I'm not asking him to drop 30 tonight. Just don't suck for the 3rd consecutive game. That's all.

We just don't want Trae to suck. He's pretty much sucked the previous 2 games. I want him to settle down and try to make others better, before looking for his own offense. Is it too much to ask him not to suck?

I knew he wouldn't be ready . . . which is why I want to keep Dennis around here. Way too early to get rid of him.

You know you miss this

I'd rather have Zaza than Plumlee, that's for sure.

Right now . . . Trae is . . . trying too hard to be the "superstar". Just play the game the right way. Stop shooting from Kennesaw, and just play more intelligent. I want to see a dunk lob to Collins today, before I see one of Trae's patented 28 foot 3 pointers. Just run the damn team . . period.

That entire interview is pure gold. And Taylor is a goddess. As smart as she is, he even had her baffled at times.

I totally agree. At least you can go to pay for a game, and expect them to win more than 60% of the time. Now, you're leaving the arena disappointed more often than not. Indiana understands this, which is why you'll NEVER see them tank.

What do you mean . . . let? Also, Bud would still be the coach here. It would be Bud's decision to either start Collins over Howard. And let's not act like Collins, Plumlee or Dedmon did anything to stop Dwight 4 months ago, when he came in here and flat out destroyed us.

It would be interesting to see where we would stack up in the East, had we not hit the reset button, and re-signed at least Millsap and kept Howard throughout his contract. PG - Schröder ( 15.5 million ) G - Bazemore ( 18.1 million ) F - Prince ( 2.5 million ) PF - Millsap ( 29.2 million . . . . considering we signed him to a 3/90 or a 4/120 deal ) C - Howard ( 20 million ) We still would have the 3 1st round draft picks, but not the high lottery pick. Guys like Huerter and Spellman would've still been available to obtain. With another one of those picks, maybe we pick up a PG like Landry Shamet, a 6-5 PG who can shoot from NBA range and be a playmaker ( whom Philadelphia added to their roster, by the way ) PG - Shamet G - Bembry / Dorsey F - Huerter PF - Spellman C - Collins ( 6th man ) That lineup gave the Hawks 3 potential All-Star caliber players, plus a dearth of young talent to develop. The big thing with this lineup would be Taurean Prince. If he continued to improve his shooting, that would make that lineup even more lethal. So you go for it for 1 year w/Howard on the team. Going into 2019 - 20 season, Howard comes off the books, and Collins moves into the starting lineup as a 3rd year player, with Millsap being potentially overpaid, but the undisputed team leader. This would also be the last year of Baze's contract, before he becomes an unrestricted free agent . . and Prince, before he becomes an unrestricted free agent. If Trae is a bust, Schlenk won't be here long, and everybody outside of Collins probably will be too. The GM needs to do everything in his power to turn Trae into the best player possible. And that doesn't mean to keep playing the lottery.

That would've been almost the ideal scenario.

I disagree. Because we've seen too many teams that have been bad for way longer than what they should've been, trying to build through the draft. If you purposely pass up on high level talent that can make you better, in order to stick with the "plan", you get what you deserve. The teams that stay bad, are also the teams that can't attract good free agents to add with their young stars. Young teams need quality veterans on their squad to help them win games. If our current young guys like Prince, Collins, Young, and even Schröder keep getting better, adding a very good player to the mix could accelerate the development curve of the youngsters. Even with the Joe Johnson Hawks, it took the acquisition of Mike Bibby to really give us that veteran leadership in order to get to playoff level. Without him, they probably miss the playoffs again in 2008, and the ASG may have hit the reset button again in order to remake the team. Orlando is a perfect example of what trying to stay young will get you. After they lost Dwight and all of their veterans, they've completely lost their way. They've let 2 of their lottery picks go, with one of them looking like he's going to be a top 10 player in the league soon. Phoenix is the same way. So yes, I think the Hawks made a mistake by not making a decent play for Boogie. I guess after Dwight Howard, they didn't want to go down that route again.

The coaching in Summer League is an extension of Pierce's philosophy. The "chuck and duck" is exactly what they were doing in practice last week. I wonder if the shots were falling in practice. At any rate, I don't think they're trying to change anything about Trae's game right now, per his comments. Or maybe this is Pierce's way of humbling the kid, and forcing him to play the right way.

Pierce flat out said that he wasn't going to try to change the way Trae plays in Summer League. He wanted "Trae to be Trae". Well, he may want to change that philosophy up by the time we get to Vegas this weekend.

Also . . . let's not make excuses for Trae, when the other top prospects in the draft are having NO PROBLEM doing what they're supposed to be doing. The guys he's passing to may not be making shots. But the guy passing them the ball isn't making shots either. Even Salim Stoudamire used to light up Summer League. If Trae is supposed to be a scoring PG, I want to see that ability, as well as the passing.

I thought you LOVED the coach.

Panic? No. Legit concern? Yes. Let's keep it real here. We saw a guy in Los Angeles who was highly touted coming out of college, who shot the ball horribly in Summer League, minus 1 game. And that trend continued going into the season. With Trae, you want to see what can immediately translate to the next level. His passing is on point, so I'm not worried about that. But if he can't make shots, that's a problem. A BIG problem. Everyone he's going to face in this league is more than likely going to be bigger and possibly faster and more athletic than he is. So if he has trouble finding a rhythm to get his shot, that's a HUGE issue going forward. Playing with a guy like Dennis may actually be to his benefit, when he wants to get an open look. All of these PGs are gunning for Trae, to not let him even think about getting loose from a scoring standpoint.

If we're going to play this type of "run and chuck" style, we need a coach who knows how to coach it. Call up the "Big Baller". Shoot . . . LiAngelo Ball can shoot better than some of these guys we have in Summer League.

Actually they're much better. Most of these guys were either the star player or the #2 player on their college team. On most college teams, you maybe have 2 guys who even have a shot at the NBA ( unless you're talking about the 1 and done programs ).

Starters PG - Schröder G - Baze F - Prince PF - Collins C - Dedmon Bench 6th - Spellman ( PF ) 7th - Bembry ( F ) 8th - Young ( PG ) 9th - Dorsey ( G ) 10th - Plumlee ( C ) 11th - Huerter ( G/F ) 12th - Muscala ( F/C ) Ladies and gentlemen . . . your Atlantaaaaaaaaa Haaaaaaawwwwkkkkksssss

Thanks to Dwight Howard and Wilson Chandler, Trae isn't trending yet. Give it time though, if he has a duplicate performance like this in the 2nd half.

LOL . . Collins is like . . "These dudes suck ass."