REHawksFan

I thought Greg was fair but the PBP guy was obnoxious.

Great win. So very happy for my superstar FINALLY getting the respect he deserves (even from some of our own fans). But can I just say that Bogie has some giant, no gargantuan, stones to hit those late 3s. Goodness he's a stone cold killer.

Bogie Gallo Kevin Gotta give us more.

Interested to see how each team responds out of the early timeout.

Hawks are the better team with the better players. But these are the playoffs so anything can happen. I'm going with my 1st gut instinct of Hawks in 5 but I'm nervous as heck about it. Just win baby!!!

Been watching this Sun's Lakers game and a few observations. 1. Devon Booker is so so so good. I mean, he's elite offensively. 2. Alex Caruso is one of those dudes that you probably love if he's on your side but hate him if he's not. Just annoying and borderline dirty. 3. Speaking of, Chris Paul is dirty as hell man. He's an elite pg and very good player. But he's also dirty. Looked like he tried to pull LBJ arm outta socket. 4. Monty Williams gonna regret not taking the McM $25k fine ahead of this series. The league definitely wants Lake Show in the 2nd.

Watched the Bucks / Heat earlier and this one so far. Lotta missed shots in both. Playoff jitters I guess. Really hope Hawks don't suffer suffer same tomorrow. But it's kinda what I'm expecting.

Of course not. NBA can't have its coaches speaking the truth about agendas of the association. Protect the shield and all that bull$hit. Personally I LOVE that our coach is preparing his players for the inevitable bad calls and bias.

The greatest system or philosophy in the world will fail if not executed properly. That's why this whole debate (in which I also participated) was so pointless. Tanking CAN work. Retooling CAN work. It's all about the execution. If you make the right draft picks and complement them with the right FA signings at the right time, tanking works. If you draft poorly, it'll never work. But the same applies to FA signing and trades. The strategy itself is and always was far less important than the execution of said strategy.

Is that good? Also, Nate is COTY I don't care what anyone says.

Perhaps I worded that poorly. I'm not saying they won't have energy, I'm questioning / skeptical about them creating MORE energy in the postseason than they've shown all year. I'm with you on that being their "thing" this year. I think they are a hard working, tough team that plays every game like it's a playoff game. But my point is they did that this year and beat a depleted Hawks team by 5, 11, and 10 (in OT). So what happens when they face a healthy Hawks team that has increased their energy and focus because it's the playoffs? I'm skeptical that the NYK can raise their level of play to match the Hawks.

I'm very interested to see how much energy the Knicks have and if they level up for the post season. I'm skeptical for sure. As for Payton, his net rating is -11.0 and he avgs about 50 possessions per game. So they are giving up 5.5 pts on average just by sending him out there. In a tight playoff series, that's a lot.

Speaking of minutes for 5-man lineups: The Hawks have four 5-man lineups with over 100 minutes on the season. They are: Young / Huerter / Reddish / Collins / Capela - 194 minutes - NETRTG of -5.8 Young / Huerter / Snell / Collins / Capela - 182 minutes - NETRTG of +11.8 Young / Bogie / Snell / Collins / Capela - 113 minutes - NETRTG of +6.4 Young / Bogie / Huerter / Collins / Capela - 112 minutes - NETRTG of +21.8 The Knicks have 5 such lineups. Here they are: Payton / Bullock / Barrett / Randle / Noel - 554 minutes - NETRTG of -4.6 Payton / Bullock / Barrett / Randle / Robinson - 395 minutes - NETRTG of +1.9 Rose / Bullock / Barrett / Randle / Noel - 145 minutes - NETRTG of +15.8 Rose / Quickley / Burks / Toppin / Gibson - 139 minutes - NETRTG of +19.5 Rose / Bullock . Barrett / Randle / Gibson - 106 minutes - NETRTG of +14.4 For the Hawks, with Reddish out and Snell likely to see a reduced role, their top lineup that will actually be used in the playoffs only logged 112 minutes for the season. That's incredible. The good news is that this is the lineup with the highest net rating so that's encouraging. For the Knicks, check out Lineups 1 and 3 above and tell me why Thibs is hellbent on playing Payton so many minutes. Everything I read says it won't change in the playoffs, but I can't imagine how that is possible. They are so much better with Rose compared to Payton. Also, their top lineup logged more minutes that the Hawks top 3 lineups COMBINED.

There's a ton of double standards in regards to Trae. Empty stats on a losing team (hello Brad Beal) Plays no defense (Dame anyone?) Ballhog (usage less than Luka) Takes too many FTs (still less than Embiid and similar to Luka) Complains too much (ever watch LBJ or Luka?) And the list goes on and on....

I've never thought of Tony as being particularly great defensively, but I guess I didn't realize the difference was that great between he and Kevin. But as others have said, some of that is probably competition too. I haven't been able to figure out how to see what games those lineups were in to tell.

Speaking of lineups and their effectiveness.....Check this out: Lineup 1: Trae / Bogie / Snell / Collins / Capela - 113 minutes - 128.1 OFFRTG - 121.7 DEFRTG - +6.40 NETRTG Lineup 2: Trae / Bogie / Huerter / Collins / Capela - 112 minutes - 123.1 OFFRTG - 101.3 DEFRTG - +21.8 NETRTG Is Kevin really that much better than Tony defensively??

MY MAN!!! That's what I'm talking about.

Projected Hawks starters have played 16 minutes together total across 5 games. There's just no way to scout that. Now the big question is whether that group is a good as we all think it is and whether they will show it in the playoffs. I'll admit it's an unknown. We all just assume they will play as well as they can despite having such little time together.

I've seen several knicks fans and writers in general say that Thibs has them playing playoff basketball all year so there really isn't a bump up in intensity or effort. I pray that's true because it wouldn't bode well for them if they play the same as they did in the regular season while Atlanta gets healthy AND increases their intensity.

I don't follow. Game 1 Sunday. Game 2 Tuesday. Game 3 in Atlanta would be Thursday or Friday, right?

Figured the media would jump hard on knicks but gotta admit I wasn't expecting THAT lopsided. A lotta folks in for a rude awakening I think. And again I'll just say, I don't think people are actually stopping to think about the Hawks being healthy for the first time all season. We've seen all of our guys individually for stretches throughout the season but really never seen them all together. This could be a fun ride.

My "fear" for the postseason is we show up and shoot something crazy like 5-40 from 3pt. It's only happened a few times this year, but when it does, it can get ugly fast.

I gotta be honest, I really WANT to say Hawks in 5 because I think a healthy Hawks team is A LOT better than the Knicks. But I'm a little scared of officially putting it out there. LOL.

I've read a lot of "expert" opinions on this series and I've yet to see anyone actually spell out the injury situation for the Hawks. I think that's going to be a real eye-opener for a lot of folks. When healthy, the Hawks are the better team. By how much? That's the question. I personally think by a good margin, but we'll see. Rotation vs Knicks: Trae - Played 3 games (missed 4th and OT with injury) Bogie - Played 1 game (off bench for 1 with 3 shots) Hunter - Played 1 game JC - Played 3 games (missed OT due to min restriction) Capela - Played 3 games Gallo - Played 1 game Huerter - Played 3 games Lou - Played 1 game Snell - Played 0 games Gonna be fun to a take a full squad to MSG this weekend.

This is a great analogy, but my only comment would be that Nate would have to have his head plugged deep into the sand to not consider this a viable possibility when he took the assistant job. Everyone in the NBA, including fans, thought he was being brought in to eventually take over for LP. Even if he dismissed the possibility to start with, the combination of the public playoff decree, free agent spending spree, and Nate's experience in the NBA should have clued him in that a slow start would very likely result in him being approached to be the interim. So again, love the analogy and agree that he probably didn't come into Atlanta expecting to be the HC, but I just can't believe he didn't at least consider the possibility of things unfolding exactly as they did prior to taking the job.