JeffS17

Pretty sure we can all stop dreaming about Herb Jones -- literally every team in the league could use that guy, the hardest type of role player to find (lock down defender and good shooter) and he's on a ridiculously team friendly contract. He might be the most valuable player in the league. And he's under contract through 2027. No way NO has him on the table for anything other than a blue chip two-way superstar

If anything, this signals we're more serious about going into the luxury tax and want someone on board to manage that. You don't need a cap expert to stay under the tax, but it would be very useful to have someone deeply understand (and be able to project forward) the ramification of each apron, the repeater, etc.

Keeping Trae or Murray could both be the best path forward. All depends on what teams are willing to give up for both and what timeline we put ourselves on. The hauls rumored for Murray at the deadline were pathetic though, and teams usually trade hauls if picks for superstars, not loads of talent… tough path either way.

That is pretty egregious, the obvious narrative is we miss after making three straight…

I think the decision to keep Murray or Trae is going to be closer than most here think, and the direction we go could come down to what offers we get for each.

Garrison only player in + for the night, all you haters getting silenced!!, Trae -30 right now is pretty rough, most of the squad in single digits. Trae is playing really poorly and it's not because his shots aren't falling. His left pinky finger isn't making these poor decisions so coming back "early" from injury is not really an excuse tonight.

Rust from Trae being out 6 weeks is showing... he didn't get a chance to assimilate to the physical play theyve been allowing and are this game as well.

How can you ask for anything more than working every deal as hard as possible? It's unfair criticism and the type of results-only thinking that leads to front office and coaching carousels >>> endless mediocrity. It's the exact type of thinking that leads to forced trades where we overpay (Murray). We need less of that, not more. Unless you're suggesting Landry had a reasonable deal on the table and for whatever reason did not pull the trigger?

This first gif is exactly how I remember those Jazz teams. Just working/exhausting defenses for better and better shots until they had a dunk/layup or open three. There were so many good looks created in that one gif. Gobert had a free dunk under the basket, there was a high percentage paint shot, open floater, could have side stepped a three, etc.

It feels like a lot of coaches use pace as a band-aid for roster issues they cannot solve with scheme, so it makes sense to me a lot of the faster paced teams are underperforming. Teams that play really slow are likely leaving easy buckets on the table and not taking advantage of transition in a lot of cases, and teams that find the happy medium know when to push pace and when it settle down. It's, of course, hard to make much of averages of averages, but that would be my summary. For the Hawks, we are built to be a half court team. Trae is tiny and not great in transition because he usually can't go to the rack himself, which makes things easier to defend. JJ is the only real +player we have in transition imo. We excel in half court battles because Trae can break down the defenses routinely and Clint/Hunter are significantly better when the defense is set.

This roster is so stacked lol will be fun to watch these games

Foundational. We spent the first half of the season learning-- constant miscues on defense, lapses in motion on offense, some regression into Nate ball at times, etc. Towards the back half of this season, I think the team started gelling and we started seeing the fruits of Quin's schemes (and the adjustments he and the staff made). I think we can hit the ground running next year and see a good improvement, even without major roster changes. I always felt like years 2-4 under Quin would be where we can really judge him as a coach.

Yes, and this is where the good contract extension comes into play (thanks Landry). IMO we have to get big talent upgrades when they're available like that-- we are not in LA where superstars want to get traded here all the time. As long as we aren't overpaying guys like Schlenk did, we can always maneuver around fit.

Schlenk is a great scout that got promoted beyond his skillset imo

Yeah, he wasn't a fan but still at the helm, probably depends on your perspective how much you want to attribute the move to him or Landry or Ressler. This article is interesting framing, anyways, as they call Heurter a "cost" to the deal, without saying the first we got for him should realistically be netted against the assets in the trade -- and that one of those three first rounders was unlikely to convey. So the correct framing was we "traded" Heurter/Gallo and a first round pick and a first round pick swap for Murray. It was never as expensive as a deal as people framed it to be and Murray >>>>> Heurter so we had a huge net talent upgrade which should help as we continue to shape the roster. So Landry's biggest criticism is that he upgraded our talent but (debatably) paid too much, while Schlenks biggest criticisms are he extended a bunch of mediocre talent on expensive contracts that crippled our flexibility and put a ceiling on our performance.

He doesn't have an edict from ownership to avoid the tax at all costs, but my guess is ownership is not going to greenlight going into the tax to retain Kevin Heurter or John Collins -- not that any GM worth their salt would do that regardless.

Schlenk gave out a ton of really expensive contracts that handicapped this team, including Nate's coaching contract. Also, the Murray trade happened on Schlenks watch, not Landrys. Landry was the one who signed Murray to a team friendly deal. Landry has actually been very good by any objective measurement -- the only reason to not be happy with him so far are things he hasn't done, i.e he has not landed some blockbuster trade. Personally, that gives me comfort more than anything because he's not desperately making moves.

Usually I'd prefer the playoffs but with JJ/Bey/OO all out and no Vit, I think we would get embarrassed by the Celtics if we made it in, and I don't want to watch us get swept. We'd have too many guys in the rotation that shouldn't be touching hardwood in a playoff series: Matthews, Mathews, Bruno, Forrest... JJ/OO are the two players I'd want getting playoff experience the most and they won't be out there.

Coaching. You should know better than anyone what habits Quin and his staff can instill -- Murray's diet went from 23% of his attempts from 3 to 38% under Quin.

Kobe is gonna be really nice, cant wait to watch him more next year. I didnt forget all yall clowning Landry for being excited to get his guy btw

We doing Minny a favor to keep goodwill for the DJ trade this summer

CC hitting KAT in the face made me spit my drink out

Still wish we could have seen OO play under the effectively new rule set where guys get to play defense. He naturally plays physically and has been having to awkwardly adjust how he plays not to rack up ticky tacky fouls. I think if they keep calling games like this, he could take a massive leap next year on the defensive end

Ayton will be on a non-max for his next deal, and then probably 1+1s after that. Eventually teams will give up on turning him into something he isn't

The games with both JJ/Hunter out were the most painful. The roles they play are not replaced by anyone on the team in the same way as Trae/Murray or Bey or OO.