aali34

That is a good point, but it hasn't really affected Jordan Clarkson or Julius Randle, plus from what i hear its not like Russel deserves minutes, read somewhere that Byron Scott says even though he is 19 ( now he's 20) he acts like hes 14. If he was pulling that shit on the hawks he would be banished to the bench for a long time. Haven't seen that kind of negativity from Booker

lol yeah

Anyone else agree that Booker is better than Russel?

My question is why would KD want to got to a team where he is one of the older players who is expected to guide all of the young talent they have? One reason why I think Lebron was better in miami was because he was with his peers in Dwade, and CB. Norris Cole was one of the only young players on the team. Not saying the cavs dont have vets, just not reliable ones( JR smith) That also may be why the spurs and warriors have had success. The spurs big three of old and the current warriors trio ere all close to the same age and probably got along better than they would if Tim Duncan was 39 surrounded by 3 year olds. Almost everyone on the hawks are close to KD's age and want to win now, they aren't in a rebuild like the celtics. The celtics are a good team, but their biggest leverage is giving him a big contract and not much else. Even if they try to surround him with talent, the second biggest free agent is ON the Hawks. After that, the rest are'nt as talented.

See, until recently i thought the same thing. But IF KD were to leave, where would you think he would end up? To me, atlanta is the best team for him to go to since, A- This team has been a good team WITHOUT a superstar, think of how it would be if the management added one. B- This team is good enough to be an ECF contender, while at the same time not too god for anyone to insult KD for running to an elite team. C- This current Atlanta Hawks team's bad reputation is meaningless since coach Bud came. He has shown why he is probably the best coach in the east by having his players preform well in situations like losing your best player, or coaching through adversity and distractions like the Danny Ferry incident. One of the main reasons Lamarcus Aldridge chose the spurs was if Coach Pop, guaranteed that he would stick around until the end of LMA's contract. If coach Bud is truly respected across the nba, than it would make perfect sense for KD to come here, before it would make sense if no one wanted to come here, not anymore. D- Free agents must notice that in the last few years players like Paul, Demarre, and Kent Bazemore really increased their value as players capable of getting high paying contracts (we might be seeing it again with Hardaway) All it comes down to is how OKC does in the post season, all this speculation is for naught if they somehow win the entire thing. But if they lose in a demoralizing and frustrating manner(fingers crossed), and KD really wants to win, I dont see why he would not choose the hawks.

To be fair, no one expected Lamarcus Aldridge to leave Portland in the beginning, I remember hearing that he said he wanted to be the best blazer ever and even played through injury to make it into the post season that year.

If KD was watching the games this weekend between SAS and GSW, he would have seen what comes out when elite talent meshes with elite coaching. That is why i think IF he leaves his decisions are either Boston, Dallas, or ATL, and i think Atl is in a better situation to help him win than those other teams. Besides Kerr and Budonholzer are disciples of Popovich, both have proven that they are great coaches, Bud with less talent. ATL should'nt be the last place in a free agents mind since Bud came to town.

Exactly

Looking past all of KD's flaws, are you saying you wouldn't want one of the best players in the nba because his defense isn't as good as you like? Because lebron ruins him? BTW, KD is actually a very underrated defender, and lebron's teams are always a good match-up to those of KD. He is also a good off ball player, but like i said, he doesnt have a coach who can give him more opportunities in this area of his game. One reason stephen curry exploded was because steve kerr doubled the amount of off ball three pointers he took and decreased his ball handling duty slightly. Also, casey may be a good coach, but when it comes to Xs and Os , he is not on coach buds level. Also, why would KD leave an Isolation team to go to another one?

If KD was in the east, he would automatically be in the finals, and would only have to see one of those teams when he gets there. Not to mention i feel Bud would more adequately prepare him to match up with any of those teams when they play, or at least better than Billy Donavon would.

This upcoming free agency can stamp the Hawks as a legitimate NBA finals favorite for years to come. The key is free agent to be Kevin Durant Many squawkers openly write about how Atlanta is not a free agent destination. I think that the past few years have changed that perception, and as Greg Monroe displayed this past summer, players that are serious about winning do not care about large markets as much as in years past. Why ATL is the best location for KD Out of all the potential suitors for KD aside from OKC, the hawks make the most sense. Think about it, the most realistic ones based on winning potential and cap space are- Boston, Toronto, Miami, Dallas, and us. The main categories are coaching and talent. Boston – Great organization/coach/market but lackluster talent. Toronto- Good Gm, good talent, but average coach/system Miami- Great Gm/coach/roster Dallas- Great Gm/coach, roster complications, in western conference Atlanta- Great coach/system/market, Great roster Based on these 2 categories we can knock out Boston, Toronto, and Dallas. Boston is a good young team with a good coach, but they don’t have the necessary talent to help Durant win a championship. Toronto on the other hand, has talent, but doesn’t have a coach that can help maximize Durant. Dallas is ruled out based on the fact that they are in the western conference, and they have aging core players in Dirk and Deron Williams, making a leave from OKC to Dallas a bad move. That leaves the competition between Miami and Atlanta. Miami poses a good environment with championship experience and some talent with a proven coach. However... After taking a look at their cap space for the upcoming year, signing Hassan Whiteside, Dwyane wade, Joe Johnson would be a tough move, as well as the uncertainty of Chris bosh’s health. It would just be too much of a risk to sign a contract with Miami not to mention the constant comparisons between him and LeBron James during his tenure with the heat. On to the hawks… Market wise, Atlanta is in the top 10 as well as being the hip hop capitol of the world. KD would have a lot of opportunities in increasing his brand here. Cap wise, we will be able to sign KD and Horford while having most of our Roster intact. Team wise, the hawks without KD are an eastern conference contender, and have a proven head coach fresh off a coach of the year award. They have a talented roster with an all-star frontcourt of Al Horford and Paul Millsap and a deep bench with plenty of cap space to improve. Atlanta has an excellent system predicated on good looks and ball movement, as well as a strong effort on the defensive end. Kd is the missing piece to this roster. He would instantly correct all of the constant criticisms which are rebounding (he averages 8 rebounds) and star power. Not to mention that there has been a correlation between top talent, elite coaches, and historic winning percentages this past season. I am convinced that KD joining forces with Mike Budenholzer would have a similar effect as the pairings between Curry/Kerr and Aldridge/Popovich. I challenge anyone to come up with a viable reason as to why the Hawks would not be a smart decision for where KD should sign. If you can’t think of any, than help spread the word of KD possibly coming to ATL P.S. Leave a catchy KD and Atlanta Hawks related hashtag in the thread. Ex- #KDtoATL and maybe a photoshopped pic of him in a 2016 Hawks jersey

He blocks shots more like a Tim Duncan versus a Deandre Jordan. Uses length and timing instead of a big vertical jump.

The reason why Edy is still in the D league is more of him defending without fouling Since he was also in the d league( even though for a shorter time) I decided to compare Edy's stats with Rudy Gobert. Both are 7'3 defensive minded bigs with 7'9 wingspans. Gobert seems more athletic while Edy seems more agile, but overall they look like very similar players. I'm not saying he will become just like Rudy Gobert, but if he does reach his potential, there is no reason as to why he shouldn't be. Stats per Game- Gobert Vs Tavares For Edy, I included two rows, one for his time with Austin and one overall since he played all but 2 games there. As you can see, they post similar stats with Tavares playing 7 less minutes but getting around 1.3 more fouls than Gobert. 2.2 vs 3.35/3.3 Although that may not seem like much, you can see how bad it is per 36 min. Per - 36 min Once you look, you see they post very similar stats if they hypothetically played 36 minutes a night. But you can also see that Tavares averages nearly 6 personal fouls a game while Gobert averaged 3, and according to Espn he averages the same amount in the nba. His foul problem may be somewhat like the turnover problem Dennis has right now. If he fouls so frequently in the D league he can't be expected to play lots of minutes in the nba as of now, but I do expect to see him play next season.

whats also impressive is how good we are defensively without actually having one of the leagues top defenders on the team. I know Bazemore, Splitter, and Sefolosha have defensive reputations, but i mean someone like a Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler or Rudy Gobert type who can be on an all defensive first team.

Hardaway sighting

Pero was a huge need, he was the third best big on the team, right now Hardaway is the 4th shooting guard on the team. If we didn't have Bazemore or Patterson he obviously would be playing. As for Maccalum vs Hardaway - Both are steals in their respective draft positions and could develop to be good players. Just to let yall know I also want to see Hardaway too, but if Bud says he is not ready than he pobably isn't. I would rather see him be able to contribute at a good level rather then watch him struggle

Alot of people are questioning Budenholzers reasons for benching Schröder ,never playing Hardaway and keep on playing Korver. Even though the Atlanta Hawks are not exactly like the spurs, one thing i feel that they are very similar to each other is the way they run the team. Coach Popovich is never afraid to cut someones playing time if they are not living up to his expectations. If you look at a few years back there was like a 6 or 7 game stretch where Danny green lost his starting spot to Marco Belinelli around the all star break and then earned it back. Even though Schröder may have had a few good games before getting benched, we don't know what happens during practice or if his games have a positive effect on the team winning. Plus, it's only been 2 games. This could just be an experiment to see which lineups work best, than they could go with a more specific set as the year goes on. As for hardaway, this is a guy who has been playing for one of the worst organizations in the nba (last year), he isn't familiar with the system ad that is why he is playing for the spurs D league team. The spurs are doing the exact same thing RIGHT NOW with point guard Ray Mccalum who last year was a regular contributor with the Sacramento Kings, another bad organization. I expect Hardaway to either play some minutes after all star weekend or not at all until next season, it depends on how well he does in Austin. Doesn't anyone remember when the same thing happened to Dennis? As for korver, he is a vet whose future replacement is not even in the same state as him right now. No other wing on the team knows the system as well as him besides Thabo and Bazemore and one of them needs to be on the bench for defense. The only way for a shooter to regain his shooting touch is to keep shooting. I don't even care if he keeps missing, it at least makes it obvious that the team has to change a bit to be able to win without his shooting. Plus, wasn't he also a +15 when he was on the court during the knicks game that we lost? And for anyone who says the hawks are not the spurs, i agree with you to some point. Budenholzer is not Popovich and Horford is not Duncan but if your telling me that after staying with an organization for nearly a decade and a half and being a part of all that success that Bud wouldn't be doing a lot of the things that Popovich does, than your crazy. Just go to the spurs version of peach tree hoops called pounding the rock and read some articles regarding their younger prospects and you will see some similarities in how they use them.

i don't think they are gonna be anything big now, but in 2-4 years they could be a really good team in the nba with core that could stick together for years. Wiggins - two way athletic freak Towns - two way athletic freak Lavine- Athletic freak ( haven't watched him enough to make a generalization) I dont know, i just like them more than philly plus they got this talent in only two years

no i mean Wiggins,Towns,and Lavine

Yea, but Danny Green was cut twice from the spurs before he was a starter, and Splitter used to see no minutes at all. By the way, Splitter is playing like trash because he plays best with good passing guards (manu Ginobili)

I don't think so, For me personally, I think the Hawks are gonna pull a Golden State and replace their starters with their bench. I might be wrong, but this is possible - Schröder - Teague Hardaway - Korver Tavares - Horford This has been a thought of mine for a while, and i thought when they drafted Oubre that he would eventually be our starting small-forward. It may seem dumb, but all those dudes could be something if they reached their full potential. But just as it is in Atlanta, luck never goes our way.

If anyone is wondering, I have a wireless keyboard and I dropped it so my post submitted itself before I was done.

Or they could do it right and end up like the Minnosata Timberwolves

right on the money the hawks don't have the personal the spurs have - 2 40% percent shooters in thier starting lineup and Tim Duncan

No superstar to build around. You only get high level players two ways, draft or free agency and so far no such luck. tried to replace a 6'8 small forward with a shooting guard Trade away anything that has actual or potential worth for a bag of peanuts - Lucas Noguiera,Lou Williams.Adriean Payne,Kelly Oubre Put more work into second round picks instead of first round picks Spurs comparisons - Before I liked it, now i don't. Yeah there are some similarities, but a hella lot differences- Hawks- EVERYONE tries to shoot threes including the bigs Spurs - Only two bigs shoot threes - Matt Bonner(bench warmer) and Boris Diaw (used to play small forward but switched to power forward.) And don't say that the other bigs are bad at threes, if Lamarcus Aldridge was playing for the Hawks he definitely would be taking 3's Hawks - No post play Spurs - FOUR post up bigmen - Tim Duncan, Lamarcus Aldridge, David West, Boris Diaw ( Youtube it, his footwork is amazing) Hawks -Can't do sh-t with any first round pick, they had the 15th pick and gave it up (except Schröder who still has been playing like sh-t) Spurs - Gues who they got with the 15th pick they trade George Hill for? Kawhi Leonard Hawks - Fail to adress problem early on Spurs - When they have a problem, they try to fix it. When they got swept in the first round because of poor defense on the wing, what did they do? Dratf a defensive small forward. When Tim Duncan had to rest during the regular season becuase of age, what did they do? Draft a defensive minded center. When they lost in the first round of the playoffs last year what did they do, unload on us and score bigtime. The comparisons gotta stop, The spurs stay ahead of the curve while the hawks are on it. Budenholzer is not Popavich. Popavich hates threes and budenholzer loves them Im not syaing he is a bad coach, just different coaching styles. By and large, this has been a very disappointing season so far. Maybe things will tun around and maybe they won't. I cant really stay mad at Bud since the team is basically a group of complimentary pieces to a superstar player. I always tried to stay optimistic but now I gotta be realistic. I see the Hawks winning a championship down the road with the same coach, but a different group of players.