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Could’ve won the game, once Teague and Korver were subbed out, all momentum was lost. Alas, I said 2-2 in this stretch with a very outside, outside shot of 3-1.

Seriously, I think Horford is more worried about a third pectoral tear than trying to win. But if you're just not trying to get hurt, you're usually going to get hurt.

I said this was real close to a schedule loss, still in it but by a thread.

Back to back after a late game last night and it’s in a tough venue.

I'll say it one more time. Korver is a problem if he's not hitting 3's at a ridiculous rate. Closing with Korver/Bazemore on the wing likely won the game, but it's looking like Korver is an even bigger issue than playing with a limited offensive player in Sefolosha in the starting lineup. Not hitting 3's and getting roasted defensively.

24 minutes ago, Diesel said:

  Al has to produce

Stopped right here.

The problem is expecting more from Al than what he is. He can't create his own shot off the dribble or in the post, the ONLY thing he does well is pnr and pnp. Think it's far enough into his career to say he's not much more than a 15-16 and 8 big unless its in big minutes....so he's doing what he usually does.

The only guys that can create their own offense in the starting lineup are Teague and Millsap, everyone else can't.

19 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

You don't think Korver at 43% (where he currently stands) is valuable?

Well he was at that mark in the latter half of last season and Atlanta struggled a lot in it.

I’ll actually go as far as to say this. The only really big differences between last season and this season so far are two of the top 7 players on the team have crashed back to earth in their play, and a minor difference that may be nothing due to a few difficult matchups recently and him having to defend PGs on a not 100% ankle (at least early when he came back, like the first few games) is a non-Kyle Korver starter’s defense has been really bad (and no this also isn’t Al Horford).

All three are fixable, but the first one almost requires a trade if said player can’t get their 3 point shooting up to 45% or above again because if he can’t, it’s really not worth it to play him 30 or more minutes.

15 minutes ago, Diesel said:

Im not buying that R-E-L-A-X  statement that Dennis fans give in this case.  The scouting report have gone out and teams are backing up and daring him to shoot.   HIs mentality is that he's going to take the shot.   It's cool if he can hit that shot, but he's shooting less than 30% from 3.  For a guy that doesn't like to work within the offense and whoose main strength is the speed of his drive, he becomes Harold Miner pretty easily for us.   It's time for a return of the Mack!!

 

Here’s the thing with that, Mack mainly looks to get his too. Way I see it is he’s a chucker with solid to good defense. Schröder is a chucker with average to sometimes well below average defense right now.

If Mack is hot, he should be ridden, but the only advantages with him are defense and very little turnovers. If he isn’t, there’s a threat of him shooting Atlanta out of it.

One more thing: Atlanta can't play within the offense all of the time anymore because of two seasons of tape on them. Reporters have said it, and I've seen it.

Long answer, this:

Dennis Schröder has been struggling to adjust to the scouting report on him. He’s taking 3.5 3PA a game and making them at below 30%, and since teams are playing him to drive he’s also struggling to finish at the rim. Most of the time, his running of an offense has been pretty poor. It’s been Harden like, in which every move is late in the shot clock and it either leads to him bricking a shot, a turnover, or a teammate not expecting the pass from him and turning it over or throwing up a wild shot.

I'll say it again, if Schröder was average when he had to start, Atlanta likely beats Utah and Brooklyn. So the Schröder situation has already proven very costly.

Atlanta isn’t beating OKC off of a back end of a back to back after a late game in Dallas. That’s real close to a schedule loss. The best that can likely be hoped for in the final four games of the tough stretch is wins vs Dallas and Miami. If the win vs Dallas doesn’t happen, it could quickly turn into a disaster.

Best case scenario is lose to OKC at OKC and the Spurs, win the rest of the games, but that's not likely.

Schedule is no longer an excuse after the Miami game, but if this 4 game wrap up of the difficult stretch is 0-4 (AND I'M NOT SAYING IT WILL BE), then there are major problems. It HAS to, absolutely HAS to be at least 2-2.

21-13, lose at OKC, vs SA, vs Detroit, and split Indiana/Houston.

12 minutes ago, Hawkmoor said:

I'm telling y'all why the hawk's aren't making moves to get OVER the top, but excuses are being made For the investors. It's all good. I guess perennial playoff exits are enough to placate Hawk's fans.....carry on. .

Its gonna take more than adding like a Howard and trying to play more inside out when your shooters are questionable. In fact, that’s likely not even the answer.

The answer is likely trading for a LEGIT replacement for Korver and forgetting the idea of playing with two stretch big men entirely, question is, will the latter happen under this regime? I deeply doubt it. It’d likely take moving on to yet ANOTHER regime to forget the idea of two stretch big men.

I can see a way of acquiring someone like an Alec Burks, but I'm just not seeing a quick fix for the latter. It's not Faried, as he's not a center and I'll pass on Howard and Cousins due to the extracurricular stuff.

Honestly, until shown otherwise, do any of you realistically think that ANY Atlanta pro sports team can become a legit perennial contender and not just "good" without a lot of luck (like the 1990s Braves)?

If you don't like this fact, I suggest....perhaps not rooting for any Atlanta pro team?

Wish they would have tried to trade for Jeremy Lamb instead.

Otherwise eh.

This tweet should sum it up:

On a more positive note, the net rating for the starting lineup with Thabo is starting to approach +14 with a great defensive rating. There's some lineup combos that are starting to emerge that have great net ratings.

Every perimeter player other than Sefolosha is total TRASH on defense.

If a team is going to a three guard lineup specifically because they think you only have one great perimeter defender, then you might have a problem with most of your perimeter players on defense idk idk (really every single one of them but one).

If Schröder wasn’t struggling, I would have liked the idea of trying to go to that three guard lineup, but since he had been only one option made sense and it would have been a very bold move (and probably a little stupid), and it was go with Teague/Patterson/Sefolosha.

I still think only one move really needs to be made if they’re sticking with most of this team (said so on another forum), but I’m not sure of how it would be pulled off. To get an elite two way wing player (not good, like a Carroll/Green, elite like a Butler/Leonard).

It’s either that or press the reset button entirely and do it fast.

Korver needs to be off of the court as soon as ANY team goes to a lineup that has three players with good handles.

I mean there's only two adjustments I see: Starters back sooner and Sefolosha on Lowry before it was too late.

Wasn’t just Schröder, the bench was left in entirely way too long and outside of Sefolosha, they took turns roasting every other perimeter player on defense. I don’t think Mack playing makes any difference. Only adjustment to Bebe defensively is to make your jump shots.

Annnnnnnnndddd, it's them, not the back to backs. Great game one night, horrible game the next, and then repeat. Jesus F Christ.

That’s ballgame. What a sh**y, sh**y loss after being up by 17.

28 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

We haven't played anybody except San Antonio and Cleveland.  OKC & Memphis are Meh!

By your standards then (and my standards kind of), there's only three legit contenders and everyone else is everywhere from just good to meh. Golden State, San Antonio, and Cleveland.

Memphis and OKC had both been hot though.

Tonight will be a good litmus test to see if oddly, back to backs was what was bothering them last week. Three quality wins but a couple real head scratchers (again said that SA off of a back to back in Memphis was a schedule loss from the start, but it was about doubly worse than I thought).

Most of the reason for Durant not getting the ball much in  the 4th was Westbrook being a ball hog, but there was some strong ball denial applied on Durant in a few crunch time possessions.