Wretch

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The second greatest player prediction, getting his opinion in for future reference: ...and I'll get my own dang flowers...!

You're 1000% right of course, but when I consider the idea that the game is being tilted towards players/markets/betting odds...it makes me sick to my stomach. Consequently, I sort of suspend my disbelief in ref shenanigans. It's hard for me to enjoy the game otherwise. FWIW, I don't believe the whole of the lottery is rigged. Especially now with the odds changes, I have a bit more faith in the system. Fun fact: I tried to hide that word from you specifically and you zeroed in on it like a Hawk! lol

I love it too. It absolutely gives incentives to play hard. It's one game and ANYTHING can happen on any given night. Nobody wants to fool around with the play in and risk missing the playoffs. This combined with the league officially pushing back on "load management" is good for the game. Side note: I dislike the rigged lottery system. I think there should be a similar tournament for the lottery. Separated into tiers where borderline playoff teams aren't destroying absolute bottom feeders obviously with certain players being ineligible to play depending upon the number of regular season games they missed.

Considering that we're going into the "no pick zone," I'm not interested in the draft as much as I am in fielding the most competitive roster possible. I've also been lazier than usual scouting prospects, so I don't have any kind of list yet. Right now I'm taking notes on who everybody likes and waiting to see how the standings/play-in shake out. There are a few guys whose names keep popping up that I've taken a cursory look at, but I haven't studied anyone in depth to give a solid opinion.

I've been talking about Hunter for a long time and I think I've been clear on my opinion. I'm going to say this for the record again though... I like Hunter and I do not think he's is JUST a bench player. I think the construction of our team limits how effective he can be in the starting lineup. Unless he develops instincts for finding open guys and our system features him that way...then he will always be 3rd isolation option behind Trae and DJ - and further down the totem pole with Jalen Johnson starting. Coming off the bench, he's a primary and not surprisingly everything is definitively improved: ...along with his usage and he's doing this in FEWER minutes. It's not so much how good/bad he is. It's the fit with the starting unit. Unless he really separates from the pack, or we have major injuries or roster moves, I don't see where he's going back to starting.

I understand what you're saying, but I don't necessarily mean a 1:1 upgrade of Hunter...or even the wing position for that matter. I'm also ok with sacrificing depth. It's the least of my concerns while the core of the team has struggles to secure a play in. . *edit - I'm also taking into consideration that we don't own our own draft picks. So I'm in no way advocating gutting the team and rolling the dice with whatever we put on the court. I just don't believe that trading/packaging Hunter is going to break us as a team.

So my opinion on Hunter hasn't changed since we got Murray. Health issues aside, I think his biggest limitation has been playing in the shadow of Trae and DJ. It was more apparent in Nate's "take turns/no 3's" offense, but there's really not a situation where I'd want the ball in Hunter's hands when Trae, Murray, and now JJ are on the floor with him. I'm happy seeing him finding his groove off the bench. Offensively at least, he's more useful and has more freedom playing with the 2nd unit. It's also a win/win as we get to showcase him for potential upgrades.

This is a good great time to repeat some things that I say year in and year out and have people looking at me sideways lol Everything is negotiable© Potential has an expiration date© Sell high© I'm not blaming management for not making deals because I have no idea what was and wasn't discussed behind closed doors. I'm just saying that I hope they don't cling to sacred cows the way we do on the Squawk. I have my favorites like everyone else, but I take no issue with dangling them out there to see what we can catch.

More than half of a season seems fair.

I dunno man...getting hit by a tank is pretty serious. Don't know how quick he can bounce back from that.

Yup. It has been an....exciting weekend. Not in a good way and work is BUH-nannas. I finally got 2 seconds to breathe, catch up, and then...

Alrighty then....

I'm out to dinner with the wife and the game is on. I only logged in to tag @TheNorthCydeRises re: that Bruno dunk

I honestly don't know what to expect or what I want. On one hand, I believe in the core talent of this team. On the other hand, we've not shown that we can be consistently good. I don't want to give up and put my hopes in a rigged lottery, but I am also not interested in the play in. All signs point to a play in 2-step and at best, an entertaining 1st round. All of these questions have been answered or are easy answers I think...

KAT is a loser that doesn't play defense and doesn't know how to win. I hope the TWolves get to The Finals and win it all. Then maybe Hawks fans would stop talking about trading for him and we can focus on defense.

I didn't realize my guy was at the end of his deal. Even though Ingram has been at the top of my wish list for a very long time, his FAcy is too much of a gamble even for me. If we're trading Murray, we need to maximize on the return. A rental ain't it without knowing for sure we're going to contend.

Holy sh!t really...? Wow... Yeah, Hayes was I guy that I liked, but he wasn't my overall pick in 2020. Lamelo is who I wanted and was hoping we'd trade up for. My second option was trading out of the draft or down for Nesmith.

I wholeheartedly disagree. For one, I don't think we really had a debate as much as the Squawk loved both players and maybe favored one over the other. Secondly, I can say with absolute authority that player development takes longer than a year and a half. There simply is not a good enough sampling to judge AJ's ceiling or floor right now - made more complicated by whatever is going on with him this year. I would err on the side of caution and try to develop him. I can't imagine anything he returns right now making a real difference for us.