AtLaS

I should have clarified. I didn't mean that management would actually want to tank this season. Ownership is probably dumb enough to think that an OO/CC starting frontcourt would work after making this trade, the reality is it won't. BTW OO isn't that much better a rebounder than Collins. The negative impact to our offensive spacing would largely outweigh any slight increase in rebounding.

I think making this trade IS embracing the tank. We are already bottom of the barrel at shooting, now we are going to move OO into the starting lineup with CC? In what world will that work offensively? That has disaster written all over it.

Floor spacing gets a lot worse with this deal. Are we starting OO/CC together? Won't work offensively

Our defense/rebounding and overall effort sucks. The reality is that we don't box out, which is purely effort. Opponent shoots the ball and our guys watch the ball all the way to the rim and then try to outjump their opponent for the rebound. That doesn't work. You have to BOX OUT your man. But our players seem a bit too entitled to get physical and put in the effort to actually box someone out. It's so frustrating to watch something so easy to fix. When I played school ball we would be immediately yanked out of the game for not boxing out. Like immediately. Like is Nate even on these guys about that? Isoball works sometimes, but it can't be your goto for every critical situation. There are times for it and that's OK, but it seems to be our fallback in every scenario. We don't have the personnel. You need big size/athleticism/strength to have consistency there. Trae is too small to be iso'ing for the last 4 minutes of every game, he has to work so hard to get open and routinely will get his shot blocked. Dejounte definitely ain't an ISO guy, and neither is anyone else on the team.

They know Nate is gone by the offseason, he is a lame duck even if his contract isn't technically ending. It's just human nature, you aren't going to buy into what a guy is saying when you know he's gone.

Team gives zero effort at all. Don't box out for rebounds, don't hustle for loose balls, bad body language. That's our biggest problem. These guys don't give a damn. This is generally a time when you make a coaching change.

Ressler can't make this statement without throwing the current team under the bus. He would be saying publically that they aren't good enough to win a championship. I don't think he necessarily lied in his statements this offseason and before about the tax. He just basically said we aren't scared of it. That doesn't mean that we will pay it every year or that we won't. We were a play in team who got smoked in the 1st round, and Huerter was going to be a bench guy after the Murray trade. We also drafted an SG and still had Bogi on the roster who was supposed to be back a lot sooner. Huerter was also bad on defense and we had 3 straight years of Huerters numbers being exactly the same. JH had similar numbers, was cheaper and a better defender. What Ressler didn't take into account was Huerter potentially improving, and JH declining. On paper at the time it was a small downgrade in on court performance, a big savings in money via not paying LT and we picked up a 1st. I didn't like the trade at the time (and defeinitely not now) since Huerter is clearly better, but it's not an unreasonable thing for an owner to do when you are talking about your 6th/7th best player putting you into LT territory. Hawks fans are frustrated, as am I but the Ressler stuff is being way overblown. But I agree with your entire post. Ressler is MILES better than ASG and it's not close. ASG was the worst ownership in the NBA and perhaps all of sports.

He lost 9 of 10 playoff series in the first round, and the 10th he was eliminated in the 2nd round before coming to Atlanta. That is a LONG track record of failure in the playoffs. The league had spoken, he was no longer coveted as a HC. He was now seen as an assistant, and was never supposed to be our HC. But when Pierce was fired, Nate really didn't change anything, was very humble and he was more of a players coach and we went on the big playoff run, almost forcing ownership to offer him a new contract. Then, with a new contract and security he reverted back to classic McMillan and implemented his 20 year failure of a system, and here we are. He is a first round exit coach and doesn't make any adjustments at all. It fails in the playoffs b/c the opposing team knows exactly what we are going to and he doesn't change or adjust.

Well now he basically has to be fired since this leaked. Everyone knows he's a sitting duck so players aren't going to buy into anything he says. I like Nate and wish him well but it's clear he isn't getting the best out of this team.

Its time for a new coach. We have way too much talent to have a losing record right now. We are like the Nets before Nash was fired.

Offensively he is a perfect fit. Mitchell's offense is recession proof and he's a legitimate 3pt shooter. Murray isn't. Defensively we would have challenges as we do now, but Murray really isn't great when he isn't getting steals and fast breaks which by nature is going to be inconsistent. I'm certainly more negative right now and frustrated after a loss so there is exaggeration here but what I'm saying isn't false. At the very least we need a new coach before making any major moves, this team has tuned Nate out. Brooklyn canned Nash and immediately started balling. We did the same a few years ago after firing Pierce. I respect Nate but he's never been a championship coach, it's time to go.

This team isn't good. Playing ball together just seems like a job. Too much bad body language. And we are reverting back to last seasons zero defense policy. Murray is in a terrible slump. Someone is always slumping on this team, we just aren't playing with confidence. We should've gone after Mitchell over Murray. He's 100x the offensive player and 20 lbs heavier. Murray is a tough fit with this team, we all knew it. He does help in certain areas but him and Trae together, the parts are worth more individually than both of them together.

We cant stop them at all.

Here are my reasons. Ball dominant guys who aren't good on defense are hard to build around, unless you are GOAT level. He is in the Harden, Westbrook (prime Westbrook), Iverson category. I would even put Luka in that conversation. Those guys can ABSOLUTELY win championships, it's just a bit more difficult. It's just hard to get in an offensive rhythm when you're standing around watching someone pound the rock all game. This type of offense is also susceptible to playoff defenses which is why these guys have had some atrocious playoff series in their careers. Unless you are GOAT level like Bron it's hard to run that type of offense and win championships. Sure coaching can help some of that and I want to see Trae moving without the ball. He lets Murray handle the rock a lot now but he just stands in the corner when he does. It seemed like we were making the effort early in the season to get guys moving without the ball and that has now completely stopped. We had struggles with it and i think they just gave up on it and went back to what they know best which is PNR and everyone standing on the perimeter waiting for the kick out. The problem is we don't have the greatest shooters, we aren't going to beat teams with better shooters than us with that type of offense.

You can look at the 5 games series against Miami, or you can look at the 3 series in 2021 and ECF appearance that we had no business making. He has performed well in the playoffs and been clutch. Last year was bad, but he had no Capela or Collins (Collins couldn't even dunk in that series, kudos for him gutting it out but he was awful) so no lob threats and Miami double/tripled/trapped and switched everything against him. No other ballhandlers on the team could make plays. Trae absolutely could have played better but it's literally 5 games. This season he's not playing bad, its just that his shot isn't falling. We have 3+ seasons of data that says he will get back to those averages. There would definitely be teams willing to trade big for him. If there aren't we wouldn't trade him. We have all the leverage.

When there is smoke there is usually fire. And there is a LOT of smoke. Trae is like my favorite player ever and I want to win with him more than anything, but he is hard to build around. Murray isn't close to the scorer/passer or offensive player in general but he is easier to build around. We would need another offensive star if we traded Trae. No way we are getting Mitchell now but he would fit perfect beside DJM. Regardless, we have him under contract for 5 years, we have all the leverage and I don't think we would trade him, but if we did it would be for a monster return. Really hope it doesn't come to this. Would rather try a coaching change first and we can always look to make moves in the offseason or next year. It takes time for teams to gel. We've really just lost a lot of close games that we have blown leads, we could easily be top 3 in the East IMO.

Hard to be negative? The Bulls were on a back to back, we were at home and the Bulls aren't any good anyway. Yet we got down by 18 that early in the game? We didn't deserve to win.

Deserved the loss. I hate to be negative but we just aren't a good team. Lots of talent, ZERO chemistry.

We have a lot of talent but ZERO chemistry. Bad body language too. Trae finally seems to be getting it going and now Murray looks like he's lost his confidence. I haven't really been on the fire Nate train, but maybe the guys just need a new voice or something. We look awful on offense. Just everyone has a complete lack of awareness.

That would've been the worst loss of the season. Thankfully we pulled that out.

LOL this game is over. We deserve to lose. Major changes needed

THAT is the best shot we can get? Wow

We just need to try and score a basket, dont milk it all the way down and get a bad shot at the end of the shot clock. Orlando will beat us

Lmao last 4 possessions. AJ passes to noone, ball goes out of bounds JJ gets stripped AJ/JJ both fight over the defensive rebound, ball goes out of bounds Moving screen on Hunter Trent Forrest passes to the wide open ref out of bounds This is comical

This game is ugly