Packfill

That playoff series was a long time ago now, and The Knicks are definitely a different team with Brunson. Actually both teams have had a fair amount of turnover since.

Thunder still need a power forward who can come in and bang and complement Chet, but their roster is definitely coming together. Given the season SGA had last year I came into this game wondering whether I would rather build a team around Trae or SGA. Now I am wondering if I would swap the Hawks roster for the Thunder roster entirely. Hawks roster is more mature and in a better position to win now (obviously not last night though), whereas Thunder are younger and likely further from being a meaningful post-season team. Hawks should be better this season though and who knows if OKC can pay all these guys if they continue to progress (they may need to do another Harden type trade when the second contracts kick in).

Good for the Hawks that Middleton is getting the night off.

Wiseman is terrible. No thanks.

My overreaction post from the first game is that Charlotte will be lucky to win 35 games this season, maybe far less as I see them unloading vets like Rozier at the deadline to pick up assets to build for the future around Melo, Williams and maybe Miller. It is one game but these are exactly the types of games - meaning against mediocre teams - the Hawks need to win if they want to rise above .500.

I do not disagree with that. I was responding to the "disrespect" perception more globally. That said, there is no doubt that teams that stuck in mediocrity tend to get overlooked in favor of teams that are perceived to be on the rise. Orlando is one of the teams that a lot of people believe is "on the rise". They still seem like they are a year away to me, and that is only if they can find a guard that shoot. I do not know what they were thinking with the Jett Howard pick in the draft.

If the Hawks win perspectives will change. Players, coaches, front office staff and fans all respect winning. I am fine with Trae and the Hawks needing to earn that respect by winning. The rest is noise.

I 100% agree on the Celtics lack of depth. That said, in trading Robert Williams and Brogdan it is not like they are trading two guys who are known for durability. Jrue is getting up there but he seems a lot more likely to play 70+ games then the guys they traded for him. They will have some real challenges during the regular season but if they make it to the post-season with their top 6 healthy the gamble pays off. We shall see.

I would go a step further in saying that playoff Jamal Murray - he does have two pretty historic playoff runs in him now - is a second MVP caliber player that makes the Nuggets so dangerous (and ultimately successful). Regular season Jamal Murray is for sure much more akin to the Hawks Murray.

In my view Tatum would be the perfect star pairing with Trae. Both would benefit from each other's offensive gravity and Tatum's diverse skill set gives him lots of ways to impact winning off the ball.

If the Hawks front office decides that they want to roll forward with the current roster with the idea that player development will unlock additional upside in this roster, and that the team has not yet reached an inflection point where they need to flip from being a "development focused" model to an "it is an all about winning" model, I can understand that, even if it may be disappointing to me. Continuity could also be good. That said, I don't see a contender, but happy to be proven wrong. If they roll with this current roster and are mediocre again I would expect some pretty drastic roster changes the next season. They have been mediocre for a couple years now and that is the wrong place to be stuck.

Would be hard to top UCLA's college all-time starting 5: Gail Goodrich Reggie Miller Jamaal Wilks Bill Walton Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

East appears wide open this year. Opportunity is absolutely there for the Hawks. I am taking a wait and see approach though. Hopefully the coaching is good enough to unlock some things because absent that I don't see a roster built to contend for a championship in the near term. I will be happy to be proven wrong on that. In any event, it is about time for a new power to arise in the east. Whether that is a current fringy playoff team like Atlanta or Cleveland, or one of the bottom feeders that finally coalesce around their young talent (Detroit and Orlando, in my view, both have undeniable talent, but that talent needs to convert into production/winning, which is no easy feet). The west seems stacked to me.

That is super embarrassing for them. I will say, I feel like Dallas has collected a very interesting group of young players (Green. Hardy and Lively).

CC and Gobert is also obviously not going to work for Minny.

Blazers doing the Mavs a favor here I think, particularly since Dallas appears to have Williams in the fold. I am likely an outlier but I think both Green and Hardy have upside for Dallas. I do note that the market for roll-players is now between $10m and $25m per year (think contracts like this and bigger deals for guys like Bruce Brown and Cam Johnson. New deals for OO and Bey next year will not be cheap.

Contractual disputes are never that simple. Axle Co. can effectively tell Ford we cannot supply product to Toledo at the same contract price because of increased shipping costs. While Axle Co. may not have an explicit right to request a price increase, it is also not going to do something where it is losing money. It could, for example file for bankruptcy. Ford needs to weight the potential impact to its business of any non-performance by Axle Co. If Axle Co. is the exclusive supplier, then Ford has no other way to get the Ford F150 trucks to sell to consumers and so it will lose money and have reputational harm and litigation, regardless of the outcome, is unlikely to make them whole. So Ford may make the decision that for business reasons a price adjustment, or other change to the business terms, is preferable to the interruption in business. Suppliers, particularly in the auto industry, fail to meet contract terms all the time (think of the supply chain interruption resulting from Covid, or the ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal). It sucks, but it happens and often times people make concessions because that is the less costly alternative in the long run.

If that trade were to go down you have to imagine that Portland's plan would be to flip Siakam and likely Grant at the deadline.

They have had young teams since Duncan retired. Hard to win with a young team.

Wood is an awful defender which is why he keeps getting moved. Hawks should not want him.

I am not sure I agree with that sentiment. If you have a skill that is so valuable that someone would pay you over $20m a year you are special. Yes Dame has generational wealth but for a guy who has put in his time, been a good citizen and has now decided he wants to chase a ring, I don't see an issue with it. Circumstances can change. He is entitled to use what leverage he has to go somewhere he wants to be. It may turn out he lacks that kind of leverage. As a Hawks fan I do not want Dame to end up on a Heat team with Butler and Bam because that makes the road ahead for the Hawks more difficult. Dame is Portland's Trae. Not easy to send the franchise away.

You could similarly take the view that Atlanta just lost its starting power forward, and thus has a hole to fill. From Toronto's perspective, they may be willing to turn the keys over to Barnes. I find that unlikely, even with Siakam as an additional secondary ballhandler, but who knows, they could finally move to a starting lineup of guys all 6'7" and taller.

I don't think that trade makes sense for the Raptors unless they follow it up with other moves, because they have a comparable center to CC already and that trades leaves them without a viable #1 scorer and a middle age roster with a teenage point guard. Maybe they flip CC for another young player or picks and start building around Barnes, Gradey and Bufkin.

That volume is so low it is hard to say if legit, particularly given his low free throw % (although that too is so low volume it is had to tell if reflective of his true skills). Seems like there is no downside to this move for the Hawks though and one of these dudes could develop. I am not sure why the Hawks are so keen to mine the Rocket's third-stringers though.

LeBron is not his all-time great MVP self but I think he is still a good two way player. They need the depth so they can pump the breaks on his minutes during the regular season and that is why they took (a) the safe bet on former Hawk Prince and (b) a shot in the dark with former Hawk Reddish. They also need Russell to score during the regular season and then they can play Vincent in the playoffs for his defense. It is far from a sure thing. It is really a plan to hopefully get a top 6 seed and then hope they are healthy come playoff time.