Adreian Payne on his First Preseason Game

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

 

"Felt good to get the first one under my belt."

 

Adreian Payne had a mixed bag of basketball results after his first ever preseason game in the NBA. Payne was 1-6 from the field, including some point blank misses at the hoop, but he also grabbed a quick seven boards in his 20 minutes of play, an indicator of his abilities in that much needed area of the Hawks on-court contributions. Also, Payne drilled both free throw attempts and showed nice touch on a pair of assists.

 

"It's a process of getting better every game," Payne said after the game. Ï felt good, but there are really a lot of areas I can improve on. There's always improvements."

 

Payne showed every little bit of why he seemed to be a great fit for the Hawks rotation this season. We mentioned the boards, long been an area of growth potential for the Hawks. There is also the athleticism and motor, both of which were on display for the Hawks faithful that attended.

 

Also, between he and Mike Muscala, they made things difficult for a much taller team inside. Their energy and efforts gave the Pelican big men fits with tipped balls, rip aways and general annoying buzzing around with their perpetual engines running when on the floor.

 

"That's what coach wanted to do," Payne laughed.  "He wanted us to be physical and we were."

Payne can move on now without the nervousness of being on the Philips Arena floor in a competitive game. "Felt good to get the first one under my belt," Payne admitted, and the Hawks fans see a solid rotational big and what he may be bringing to the table next season.

 

Payne is positioning himself for a role that might take away from the minutes Pero Antić and Elton Brand got a season ago. If Payne continues to fill up the stat sheet with his high-energy play, it's very easy to see how that may happen.

 

http://www.peachtreehoops.com/2014/10/8/6933285/atlanta-hawks-adreian-payne-nba-debut

 

 

Hopefully he can become our Kenneth Faried.  He and Muscala look to be the future of the Hawks and predominate guys off the bench in the short term.  They give us much needed rebounding and interior presence while still being able to score.  I'm thinking Brand and Pero won't be retained after this season and I wouldn't be too upset if Millsap left for a bigger deal.  Not to turn this into another true-center thread, but if the Hawk were able to secure a legit center next offseason to put next to Horford, we would have a pretty dominate front court with Payne and Muscala on the 2nd team.  Plenty of scoring and rebounding.  Also, with Payne and Muscala's play, signing Monroe makes no sense since Muscala plays a similar game.  Defensive center or bust.

[JETSET]

Every move made by Ferry and Bud screams to me that they want competent offensive players at every position.  You will most likely be waiting for a very long time if you are wishing for a Tyson Chandler type of addition.

 

A center that has a strong set of offensive skills while also being a good defender could be an option.  (i.e. Marc Gasol)

Edited October 8, 2014 by JETSET

[Guest]

Also, between he and Mike Muscala, they made things difficult for a much taller team inside. Their energy and efforts gave the Pelican big men fits with tipped balls, rip aways and general annoying buzzing around with their perpetual engines running when on the floor.

 

"That's what coach wanted to do," Payne laughed.  "He wanted us to be physical and we were."

This is what I liked most.

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

Every move made by Ferry and Bud screams to me that they want competent offensive players at every position.  You will most likely be waiting for a very long time if you are wishing for a Tyson Chandler type of addition.

 

A center that has a strong set of offensive skills while also being a good defender could be an option.  (i.e. Marc Gasol)

 

I agree the best option is to secure a two-way center like Marc Gasol or Demarcus Cousins, but we'd also be paying them $17 mil/yr too.  Do we want close to $30 mil invested in our front court?  I'd rather invest that money in the front court than the back court cause I'm a little old school, but $30 mil is a lotta cheese.

 

This is what I liked most.

 

Same here.  We need to establish an interior presence and Moose/Payne give it to us.  Problem is that neither are starters.  I'm really interested in seeing Payne and Horford play together.

[JETSET]

I agree the best option is to secure a two-way center like Marc Gasol or Demarcus Cousins, but we'd also be paying them $17 mil/yr too.  Do we want close to $30 mil invested in our front court?  I'd rather invest that money in the front court than the back court cause I'm a little old school, but $30 mil is a lotta cheese.

 

 

Same here.  We need to establish an interior presence and Moose/Payne give it to us.  Problem is that neither are starters.  I'm really interested in seeing Payne and Horford play together.

I would be more than happy to invest $30 million in our front court if it was Horford/Gasol.  It would probably cost us more like 35-38 million once it's time to re-sign Horford.

Edited October 8, 2014 by JETSET

[Wurider05]

They got Payne as forward-center on the Hawks roster page.

[ATLHawks3]

With a new TV deal that will soon come into effect, we might as well invest $30 million in our frontcourt.

[Atlantaholic]

If the guy continues to rebound at the rate he has done the first couple of games he should be a very valuable player for us off the bench regardless of how he fares offensively. If he starts hitting that three though, than we can kiss Pero's minutes good-bye.

Edited October 13, 2014 by Atlantaholic

[JTB]

I agree that Monroe is no longer needed and I also agree that bud and ferry have made it obvious that they want a offense player at every position....makes sense why we didn't really go hard after asik!

So do I think it's worth throwing 30-40 million in our front court?...hell yes!

I still believe championships are won by BIG MEN! A huge reason the heat look so pathetic against the spurs is because they couldn't answer the spurs great big man rotation! I want that so badly for our hawks.

We don't need elite point guards...Teague when he's playoff Teague anyways is good enough. But we do need more defensive wing guys that are 3 & D type players.

So this summer I would definitely go after Marc gasol or cousins....I mean I would drop big money on them because they are good offense players and great defense players. To pair that with horford and have moose and Payne off the bench and maybe another old vet like brand next year if not him would make us contenders.

[JTB]

This is what I liked most.

This was my favorite part as well but I have to ask...since we always seem to have rebounding problems, what if moose and Payne show that they are better rebounders as a tandem than sap and horford?.... Does bud decide to maybe start moose or Payne depending on the need of grabbing more boards?

Good situation to have if it comes true and the young guys really are better rebounders.

[Guest]

This was my favorite part as well but I have to ask...since we always seem to have rebounding problems, what if moose and Payne show that they are better rebounders as a tandem than sap and horford?.... Does bud decide to maybe start moose or Payne depending on the need of grabbing more boards?

Good situation to have if it comes true and the young guys really are better rebounders.

Too soon to tell - it'll be more than grabbing rebounds though, it's also team and individual defense.

Maybe we see a big lineup sometimes of Payne/moose, Al and Sap.

Last season Moose got his hand on a lot of tip balls but he was too weak to grab the actual rebounds. Seems to have gotten stronger this season. I think he'll be much better this season from his experience last season.

Edited October 14, 2014 by JayBirdHawk

[GameTime]

If the guy continues to rebound at the rate he has done the first couple of games he should be a very valuable player for us off the bench regardless of how he fares offensively. If he starts hitting that three above 32% and 15% during the playoffs, than we can kiss Pero's minutes good-bye.

 

Fixed.

 

Pero serves no other purpose.

[macdaddy]

Fixed.

 

Pero serves no other purpose.

 

 

I don't know why people want to jump all over Pero.   I can't imagine that he didn't exceed the expectations of the coaches last year.