Packfill

In his eight prior seasons Clint has only played 70 games 3 times Murray only once in 5 prior seasons Collins only once in 5 prior seasons Hunter never in three prior seasons Bogi, surprisingly, twice in 5 prior seasons Trae, twice in 4 prior seasons So Trae is the only one batting 500. I doubt the Hawks are outliers in this. NBA season is long and people are going to miss games. Happens to every team.

With respect to Luk, that Mavs team is absolute trash outside of him. Murray is better than Dinwiddie, Cap is better than Woods, Hunter is better than Finney-Smith, etc. Put it this way, if Atlanta wanted to trade its entire roster excluding Trae to the Mavs in exchange for the Mavs entire roster other than Luka, how many first round picks would Dallas need to throw in for Atlanta to do the deal? A lot, and even then Atlanta does not do the deal.

Hawks bubble performance starting to seem more like an outlier performance rather than the norm. Someone prove me wrong please!

Ugh.

Losing at home to a struggling Miami squad without its best player is not a good look. No way around that.

The Huerter trade was a pure business move, and not surprisingly a bad move from an on court basketball perspective. Hawks will need Bogi to get healthy or one of the young guys to step up to give the bench some more teeth. The good news is that Murray and Cap are balling. If Trae gets himself right all will be good, even if Hunter is very meh and Collins has been bad outside of the first two games of the year.

100%

Definitely seems like everyone beyond Trae and DJM are in passenger mode right now. I thought the whole point of getting DJM was to (i) allow the team to have more movement on offense - facilitated by having multiple ball handlers on the court and (ii) allow the offense to function when Trae was off the floor.

Hawks goal should be a top 3 seed in the east and being healthy come playoff time. Won't be easy.

In my view, except in some very unique situations, for a team to succeed in the NBA today you need at least one big who is a good defender and one who can shoot. The Hawks have that. A shooting big will be even more important this year since Murray is not a good outside shooter. Yes Giannis and Embiid are problems in the east but beyond those two there is no big in the east that currently poses a true match-up problem for the Hawks. Maybe Durant also his skillset is so much more heavily skewed to the perimeter that he present a different challenge altogether. Complaining about Collins makes no sense particularly since the team does not have any natural replacements and obtaining a better player at PF is no easy matter without subtracting other assets. We can dream on OO or JJ but both are still question marks as far as their ability to be effective playing starters minutes at PF. Would be great if one or both erase those question marks this season but it is no given that they will. The Hawks biggest problem in the playoffs last year was the lack of a second shot creator and they have attempted to remedy that with Murray this year. How well he plays in that role, and meshes with Trae, will likely be the biggest factor in whether the team take another step forward. Added maturation from the 25 and under players will also be key.

Agree. I have to believe th Hawks view him as an injury fill-in who only finds a larger role if OO or JJ can't step into the back-up PF role. Personally I think most of the back-up PF minutes go to OO and Hunter. JJ will get a chance if injuries happen though, but I think it will take an injury to get him an extended look this year.

I guess I am going to need to get an avatar before the end of the season!

Murray had the ultimate green light last year being far and away his teams best player/playmaker. His game will need to evolve just like Collins due to Trae's gravity. Getting 20 a night on a bad team is very different than doing it on a good team. Does not mean Murray is not a good player. If Trae gets hurt then of course the landscape changes.

I agree with this. I will surprised if JJ gets 20 minutes a night and I am expecting AJ to get rookie JJ treatment as far as minutes. I would also be surprised if OO does not get at least 20 minutes a night. I am also happy to be proven wrong.

I agree. If his shooting does not translate then the likelihood though is that he is not an NBA caliber rotation player - so I view that shooting ability as foundational to his NBA skill set.

I will be very surprised if someone on the Hawks not named Trae averaged 20 or more points per game this season. Bringing in better players is more likely to result in individual statistics going down, but team winning going up - which is obviously what you want.

Of course his shooting will translate to the NBA. That is his carrying skill. The question is whether he will bring anything else to the table. Good health, which hopefully turns back the clock on his athleticism, will go along way toward helping him add value in other ways.

Minny to me has the higher upside due to Anthony Edward's extremely high ceiling, as he could be the best player on that team as soon as this season. To be clear, I am not suggesting he will reach that level so soon or ever, but he is such an elite athlete and has had some real skill development that suggests more is to come. Would any NBA GM trade Edwards for Murray? I don't think so.

Just win and none of the other stuff matters.

Injuries of course will be a factor. But that is why you have vets like Harkless, Kaminsky and A. Holiday and young guys like JJ and AJ to fill the gaps. Out of those five, a couple will need to step up at various points during the season. How many teams, with real play-off aspirations, are deeper?

Baring injuries, I am not concerned about depth at this point. I expect Bogi, J. Holiday and OO to be the primary reserves to start the season - Bogi and Holiday covering the wings and OO the bigs (Murray will cover the lionshare of the PG minutes when Trae is off the court, so I don't see any A. Holiday or any other PG carving out a big role, again, absent injury). JJ and AJ will likely need to show out to get minutes that could otherwise go to vets like Harkless and Kaminsky.

If you look at many of the successful, championship caliber teams today, they have multiple guys that can initiate the offense. While the Hawks offense is already good, having Murray and Trae should really provide value in the playoffs where teams cannot solely key off of Trae. That said, having both playmakers on the team means that their individual assist numbers will almost definitely go down, but that should be something both players expect and understand given the potential overall team benefits that will result from sharing the playmaking.

James Harden and Chris Paul come to mind.

If you surround them with three shooters sure, but if you unload Collins (and assume Gallo is gone) the Hawks are devoid of bigs who can shoot, so the spacing gets messed up.

I still do not understand the Murray trade for ATL. Yes he is a good player and yes he can create a shot and play some defense, but if the deal involves unloading Collins and relying on OO and CC starting together in the frontcourt a starting unit with three non-three point threats seems like a recipe for disaster.