Final_quest

5 minutes ago, Afro said:

I don't think anyone is ever calling Mark Bradley or really anyone at the AJC lol. 

They've reduced themselves into straight click bait mess across all georgia sports. 

They're irrelevant. 

Hope you’re right.  Can’t believe Mark Bradley is still there.  Never liked that dude going back to the days when print media was all we could read.

Do not like this story.  The idea of trading Trae is stupid, but I look at the media differently than a lot of people.  That’s why this story worries me.  
At times the media reports what has already been decided, or does the bidding of the local franchise.  They tell you what you should think about their plans.  
Whether this is Trae asking out or Tony wanting him out.  They call the local staff reporter and tell them to write a story like this.  
Or it could be to gauge fan reaction.  I would hate losing Trae.  Worried this could mean they had a meeting with him that didn’t go well.

1 hour ago, ShooterSays said:

I think JJ / Sarr is the ideal pairing at the 4 & 5. Question is whether or not Sarr can be an every-play Center. If yes, this is the easiest pick ever.

If no or maybe, I think he’s still the pick. But it’ll just take some more work to make sure all the pieces fit right.

JJ / OO / Sarr on defense is lights out. Offensively tho… probably not perfect.

Nationally no one is even hinting we might take Clingan.  Sarr seems like a lock.

Also, Sarr/JJ/OO only works on defense.  Need at least one perimeter threat on offense.  Don’t see this trio working honestly.

To add to the wild assertions that Evan Sidery might pick up on post on Twitter:

Could it also be that Trae is not gonna be the Hawk's hype man until they show him they're serious about getting him some help?

26 minutes ago, JustSomeGuy said:

I’m sold. Plus I heard Clingan is already had foot/injury issues?

For now I believe our FO will select him, and I'm sold that he's the right pick.  Waiting for actual news to contradict that is our direction.

4 minutes ago, JeffS17 said:

Good morning Hawksquawk.  Can't believe we got the number 1 pick.  I woke up this morning with a renewed sense of optimism about this team.  We have a lot to look forward to, even if there are posters that are trying to frame getting the number one pick as a bad thing.

My hope for this offseason with the new lotto results:

• Extend Bey on a longer term, team friendly, deal while he recovers from his knee injury this season
• Extend JJ on as team friendly of a deal as possible
• Trade either Trae or DJ, and AJ/Capela for best players available, preferably a dynamic forward
  • I want the front office to test the market for both Trae and DJ and see what makes the most sense.  I'm O.K. if that means next season is primarily development focused.
• Start OO at center next season
• Draft Alex Sarr or whoever the FO deems the highest potential.  I actually prefer to play Alex in College Park at least the first part of the season
  • It sets a precedent that even the #1 pick has to play in College Park until he's ready, i.e guys have to earn their minutes on the Hawks -- no more entitlement because you are drafted high or paid a lot
• Get Mo into the rotation this year
• Kobe needs to be playing heavier minutes this year, backup PG

So many good things we COULD be talking about. 

If we take Sarr, how could he best fit with Trae and JJ going forward?  What does it change about roster reconstruction priorities?

Would the rumored Ingram deal still be worthwhile with the addition of Sarr?

If there is a play for Giannis do we leverage the #1 pick to trade for him?

Main thing that I see with taking Sarr is we still need shooters and POA defenders.  Sarr also doesn't solve all of our needs in the front court particularly defensively.  He can handle weak side support and switching, but what's he gonna do when he has to cover Embiid or Jokic?

I do think there are messages at times in the Young's social media presence.  The reaction or lack of reaction could be nothing...but it's still something to mention and keep an eye on.  

1 hour ago, Dejay said:

And you're surprised by what exactly? All of us have some sort of issue to be fans of this franchise for so long...

This franchise is always a personality disorder, but these past couple years have been a sinister brand of rising and falling actions.  Like if you're child became a celebrity and a few months later started a phase of multiple rehabs while still pursuing their next big acting job.  

5 minutes ago, NekiEcko said:

It's somewhat surprising that Trae is so quiet at the moment... very quiet indeed.

Additionally, it's beneficial for the Squawk, as this place will likely see increased traffic due to the #1 pick and the current situation with Trae/DJ.

No reaction from Trae yet.  It's a bit puzzling.

25 minutes ago, kg01 said:

Yeah, there's no need.  Ingram fits better there though, imho.

Here's where I'm confused tho.  When we had Collins,and everybody in the known universe knew we needed to trade him, we had to accept a crap offer.  Why in the actual F, if we're looking to acquire Ingram, would we need to give value?  NOP HAS to trade him.  We don't HAVE to acquire him.  There are other paths to improvement for us.

As you say, ORL isn't gonna gut their roster for Ingram.  Why shld we bother putting a plus offer out there for him?  Why bid against ourselves? 

Simple answer is Collins has no value with that contract.  He was barely able to make outside shots the last year he played with us.  Ingram is capable of being a primary focal point of an offense.  Utah would trade Collins in a heart beat if they could get a decent return.  

Not being an "insider" I can't say for sure, but it's safe to say there are way more teams interested in Brandon Ingram than Collins.  What we think individually doesn't matter.  The league perceives Collins as a much lower tier player.

 

Ingram may not be a high level POA defender like Herb Jones, but he provides other needs that are also difficult to find.  All star three level scorer and good secondary facilitator.  You can’t just gang up on Trae.

47 minutes ago, Spud2nique said:

 

Players please. I’m done with picks we gotta win now!!!! Picks take time and Trae ain’t got it it’s prime time now!

I think in this case they need picks to trade for players.  Jalen, Capela, and filler plus 4 picks for Giannis.  Something like that.  

Duplicate

47 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

How? 

Options to get picks:

Bufkin, AJ, Murray, OO, Bogi

 Could use the TPE to take on unwanted salary for a pick.

11 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

My refresh button is paper thin 

It was all for nothing last year.  Looking for a pay off this year.

Looks like another summer of a lot of page refreshing.  
I’ve always tried to remind people in spite of his flaws Tony has pulled off bigger moves than any owner of the past 30 years. JJ for Giannis.  Bring it.  

6 hours ago, NBASupes said:

Right now, we likely have Trae, Bogi, BI, and JJ. Draft Edey and that fixes most of our troubles. Sure, defense will take some time but we should focus on a world class offense that can score 3 levels like we did when we bad Kevin with Bogi and one that can score easy buckets which we have never had in Atlanta. Only St. Louis with Pettit

I’m warming up to Ingram.  Hoping a better option emerges, but I think Trae and Ingram could be a much better fit than Murray.

29 minutes ago, AHF said:

The analogy doesn't apply to people like @JayBirdHawk because they were advocating the Hawks acquire White before Boston did.  That is is the opposite of hindsight.

Yeah, not sure why you are connecting those other than to point out that our failure to make that move combined with the overpays we did with out own free agents put us in the position where we have fewer draft assets, a roster with some ill fitting pieces, and an undesirable payroll situation with players like CC, JC, Hunter, etc.

Right.  I think the conversation about where we go from here has nothing to do with JC or White.  Those are looking back to see how we got into our current situation.  Where we go from here has to do with conversations like should we want to trade for Ingram given his game and pending contract situation (and if so what is the right price); who should we take in the draft and how should that pick affect the rest of the roster; under what conditions should we resign Bey; should we trade CC, Hunter, Bogi, DJM, Trae, etc. and what should such a trade look like, etc.

To me it doesn’t matter if someone suggested it or not.  

The main point is we got fewer ways to make impactful moves with our current situation.  Bringing up a trade like Derrick White is like saying we’re counting an a miracle.  It’s what all teams dream about pulling off.  

I always hope we make a killer move though.  They could be on the roster already, Mo Gueye or Jalen. 

1 hour ago, AHF said:

Since we had multiple posters advocating that we make a move for White at the time, I'd say this is less analogous to a 2nd rounder breaking out where all 30 teams failed to see his upside when they were picking in the first round and maybe more akin to a poster saying "I said we needed to draft Haliburton at 6!" when at the time of the draft they were saying we needed to draft Haliburton.  If someone is advocating for the move and the move doesn't cost that much, it isn't unfair to look back on our lack of interest as a mistake than if White had truly come out of nowhere.

Again my analogy is every draft is perfect if you get the benefit of hindsight.  That Derrick White trade was a top 10 trade of the past five years.  Every GM is a genius if they get to look back and make all the right moves.  

Still none of that has anything to do with the notion that it's easy to reset your roster after you've spent up to the luxury line and you're a .500 team.  Saying we should have traded for Derrick White two years ago somehow means any team can easily get out of that situation?  It's not even related to the problem. 

Similarly many said we should have not signed Collins or Hunter, but I'm talking about how to make a shift after we did sign those players and trade for Murray.  If we traded for White instead of Murray, we're in a completely different situation.  

1 hour ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

The fact that we almost did once, was incredible.  But like I said, vets like Gallo and Lou Will came up huge in some of those playoff games.  And they were the right type of vets with the right type of skill sets.

Said on Brad Rowland’s pod by Glen Willis, Hawks went from 2nd on spot up efficiency in 2020-2021 to 29th in 2021-2022.  They had the offense humming and that probably boosted the defense quite a bit.  You make your shots and set your defense.  

Remember when Nate brought in his offensive scheme after the ECF?  Oops.  

Trae had healthy Clint for PnR, and could kick out to Bogi, Gallo, and Huerter.  Three volume shooters.  JC was 38% or more as well.  

I still believe Trae can turn this around with the right guys.  

13 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

I'm addressing the often thrown out argument that there was no way we could have acquired these players because of our contract mismanagement.   These were guys who were moved to our rivals that we could have easily worked deals for despite our supposed financial constraints.  These are real deals that would have been equal or better than what the teams actually got for these players.  

 

I’m not saying there’s no way to acquire players, but we’re a lot more limited.  To the best of my knowledge we didn’t hear a rumor that OG for Murray was on the table.  At the time Murray was looking pretty inefficient, could be Toronto had no interest in him.

I think the entire league wishes they traded for Derrick White.  But we can also fantasize about dream scenarios of drafting major contributors with late first round picks and 2nd rounders.    

I will say easy is the wrong word to use when talking about options to amend our roster after we spent on guys like JC, Clint, and Hunter who all had long contracts.  Then we used the draft capital on Murray.  Nothing has been easy after that.  Possible to make some very impactful moves, but not easy.  
 
Our FO definitely missed on opportunities.  JC for Markannen and picks! They are on the clock to right the ship.  

2 hours ago, thecampster said:

 

Holds make up 24 million of the cap, the 10th pick (projected) makes up another 5+ million.

We got a lot of payroll committed.  Only 3 teams have more than us going into 2025-2026.  Jalen needs to get paid as well.  Also Bey?

If trading Murray isn't the answer, who is Capela, Dre, or Bogi gonna bring back in a trade?  People seem to expect guys like Josh Hart.

1 hour ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

A trade involving Murray isn't the key for us to improve, because we're still keeping the same guys that we grossly overpaid for.  Some of those guys have declined, while others haven't improved.

• Capela - declined
• Bogi - stagnant
• Hunter - slightly improved offensively, stagnant overall

That's the core players that should've been involved in deals that bought us back better fitting pieces, while keep our top level guys intact.  But now, we're talking about switching out one of our top 2 guys, but keeping the "Mediocre 3" in place for another season?

Murray, at minimum, is a borderline All-Star talent.   If you trade him for a better defensive option at the 2, you're still asking Trae to do a hell of a lot on offense.  If you trade him for role players + picks, that's a signal to Trae that we're not about winning, and you may lose him too.

When talking about winning teams in the playoffs, you need

• at least 2 All-Star caliber players who can get you a bucket.  Preferably with one of those All-Stars playing at MVP level
• a 3rd guy who can get you a bucket or knock down critical shot
• a frontline who can defend at a high level
• random role players who can make key offensive or defensive plays in the middle of game.

I agree with a lot of what you say.  The reason I think Murray is the key trade is because he has the highest value.  But trading Murray and keeping the other guys is not what I had in mind.

Bogi is tradeable, but I think they might want to keep him as one of the top bench gunners in the league.  If they do trade him, it will be for a similar useful role player that could start if needed.  

Hunter and Capela can be moved but only in a JC type of transaction.  But I agree we can’t start both of them next year.  I see at least one gone, most likely Capela.  

Murray ideally gets us a borderline all star, like Ingram.  Just have to see if another option besides Ingram emerges.  I do think the fit is not there with Murray and Trae. 

You make a good point I’ve been thinking about.  We can’t win with Trae and a cast of role players.