Q&A with Budenholzer: How will Hawks replace Carroll?

[High5]

We tried to tell them but the MB GM's wanted Bud/Cox to go in a different direction for some reason

 

Because having Thabo, Tiago, and Dennis as the first three off of the bench would be about as good as it gets. Also, the inevitable injuries to Thabo wouldn't hurt us as much with another legit, veteran SF on the roster. Why wouldn't you want that?

 

Now we're banking on some young, inconsistent, and undersized players to raise their level of play considerably. It could happen, and it should be exciting to watch, but it's obviously not ideal for a team trying to contend. 

[Sothron]

Because having Thabo, Tiago, and Dennis as the first three off of the bench would be about as good as it gets. Also, the inevitable injuries to Thabo wouldn't hurt us as much with another legit, veteran SF on the roster. Why wouldn't you want that?

 

Now we're banking on some young, inconsistent, and undersized players to raise their level of play considerably. It could happen, and it should be exciting to watch, but it's obviously not ideal for a team trying to contend. 

 

Remember, some of these posters here think any player we sign is immediately All Star material after a few months working under Coach Bud.

[sturt]

I call foul.

 

That's, of course, absurd. There have been some glaring disappointments since the Ferry/Budenholzer regime took over.

 

But it's also absurd to ignore that Bud has had some pretty decent successes in two years.

 

No GM bats 1.000 with every draft choice or free agent or trade, and no coach develops every player to his fullest potential.

 

But it's been a long time since we've had the luxury of someone steering this ship who's made as many evidently-correct choices as Bud has... it's natural that there will always be some portion of the fan base that is critical of whoever, but until he screws up a few more decisions than he has and regresses back to the mean, I feel a little silly questioning him.

[Sothron]

I think it is absurd to assume taking a bunch of fringe NBA players and hoping one of them magically becomes a bonafide NBA starter. You should read some of the thoughts from some of the posters here. I love Bud and his development process but there's reasonable expectations of what he can do with castoffs from other teams and unreasonable.

[sturt]

I agree with your last sentence... and while I certainly have my opinions, I just know that I don't know for a fact where the line between "reasonable" and "unreasonable" lies... I can offer those opinions, but once Bud makes his choice on the remaining seat on the roster, I'm inclined to defer to his wisdom.

[Peoriabird]

I think it is absurd to assume taking a bunch of fringe NBA players and hoping one of them magically becomes a bonafide NBA starter. You should read some of the thoughts from some of the posters here. I love Bud and his development process but there's reasonable expectations of what he can do with castoffs from other teams and unreasonable.

Wasn't DMC one of those Fringe NBA players 2 years ago who ended up starting for our team then?

[Watchman]

Wasn't DMC one of those Fringe NBA players 2 years ago who ended up starting for our team then?

You are correct sir.

[Sothron]

Wasn't DMC one of those Fringe NBA players 2 years ago who ended up starting for our team then?

 

No, when we signed DMC you saw several posters including myself talking about how much of a steal that was. If you looked at the Jazz boards when we signed him you would have seen they hated losing him.

 

There's nothing like that for the guys he's brought in so far. I'm hoping that GR3 makes it because when he was  TWolf the players on the team were constantly talking about how good he was in practice and he deserved game minutes. I want to see if that will happen here. But that doesn't mean I expect Bud to somehow make him good. DMC was already good, he just needed more minutes. We don't know that about these wing players.

 

I think that's a rather distinct difference.

[hazer]

Remember, some of these posters here think any player we sign is immediately All Star material after a few months working under Coach Bud.

Not one person has said any such thing. Knowing Bud can spot diamonds in the rough and mold them into good 2nd stringers is a long way from claiming he can make them immediate All Stars. Ridiculousness...

[AHF]

Wasn't DMC one of those Fringe NBA players 2 years ago who ended up starting for our team then?

 

Not even close.  The question was whether he was a legit starter or a rotation guy.  I've never seen anyone on any forum ever question whether he is someone who will get a bunch of DNP-CD.

[AHF]

With DMC, he was rock solid as a big part of the SF rotation with the potential to be a solid starter if he could carry over his per minute stats to a bigger role and especially if he could improve.  Obviously, he did both.  Him not playing major minutes at SF would have been a legit shock.

 

For next year, I have questions about whether these guys can start or play a major role in the rotation at SF:

 

Bazemore - Big enough?  He played 80% of his minutes at SG last season despite Thabo's injury.  I tend to think his size is why he only got 20% of the minutes at SF.

Hardaway - Same story, same question but with additional layers on that question given how bad he was defensively last season.  He played 25% of his minutes at SF.

Holiday - Same story, same question.  He played 18.8% of his minutes at SF.

GRIII - Same story, same question. He played his minutes at PG and SG.  Nothing meaningful at SF.

Millsap - Quick enough?  He played 0% of the regular season minutes at SF.  With Thabo's injury and 4 guys capable of playing PF, you would think he would get token time at least if we would consider him as a serious part of the SF rotation.

Scott - Quick enough?  He played 0% of the regular season minutes at SF.  Same issue as for Sap.

 

 

* Position stats according to 82games.

 

Korver has shown he is better at SG, but I think he can play some regular minutes at SF if needed if he is healthy.  Thabo is a no brainer at SF.  Health is the only question there.

[macdaddy]

With DMC, he was rock solid as a big part of the SF rotation with the potential to be a solid starter if he could carry over his per minute stats to a bigger role and especially if he could improve.  Obviously, he did both.  Him not playing major minutes at SF would have been a legit shock.

 

For next year, I have questions about whether these guys can start or play a major role in the rotation at SF:

 

Bazemore - Big enough?  He played 80% of his minutes at SG last season despite Thabo's injury.  I tend to think his size is why he only got 20% of the minutes at SF.

Hardaway - Same story, same question but with additional layers on that question given how bad he was defensively last season.  He played 25% of his minutes at SF.

Holiday - Same story, same question.  He played 18.8% of his minutes at SF.

GRIII - Same story, same question. He played his minutes at PG and SG.  Nothing meaningful at SF.

Millsap - Quick enough?  He played 0% of the regular season minutes at SF.  With Thabo's injury and 4 guys capable of playing PF, you would think he would get token time at least if we would consider him as a serious part of the SF rotation.

Scott - Quick enough?  He played 0% of the regular season minutes at SF.  Same issue as for Sap.

 

 

* Position stats according to 82games.

 

Korver has shown he is better at SG, but I think he can play some regular minutes at SF if needed if he is healthy.  Thabo is a no brainer at SF.  Health is the only question there.

 

 

I don't think we'll see Sap or Scott at the 3 much.   Baze, Hardaway we probably will.   If they have to defend Lebron then that's a problem but we've got 82 games to play and not all 3s are that tough or anywhere close.  

[AHF]

I don't think we'll see Sap or Scott at the 3 much.   Baze, Hardaway we probably will.   If they have to defend Lebron then that's a problem but we've got 82 games to play and not all 3s are that tough or anywhere close.  

 

I don't consider Lebron or Durant a benchmark.  They are so good they are going to abuse most anyone.  I am more concerned with seeing them guard more normal SFs like JJ or Jeff Green or Tobias Harris who will have a significant size advantage on them.  Even an offensively challenged guy like Kidd-Gilchrist would be rubbing his hands at the prospect of being able to post up a much smaller guy like Baze or Hardaway.  I have more optimism regarding Bazemore's ability to step up in that role than any of those other guys, personally.

[Peoriabird]

Not even close.  The question was whether he was a legit starter or a rotation guy.  I've never seen anyone on any forum ever question whether he is someone who will get a bunch of DNP-CD.

   

•  
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    16.8 2.3-4.9 .460 0.3-1.1 .286 1.1-1.5 .765 1.3 1.5 2.8 0.9 0.4 0.9 1.8 0.5 6.0    

•  
•  

    26.0 2.3-5.6 .415 0.8-2.5 .316 0.9-1.1 .768 0.8 2.8 3.6 1.5 0.3 1.3 1.5 0.9 6.3   '

•  
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    24.0 4.0-10.2 .389 1.7-5.1 .342 1.8-2.2 .801 0.2 2.1 2.2 1.8 0.2 0.3 1.7 1.2 11.5   '

•  
•  

    28.0 4.8-10.7 .451 1.4-3.9 .371 2.0-3.2 .644 0.2 3.1 3.3 3.1 0.3 1.3 2.6 2.2 13.1

Above are the stats of 4 players the year before coming to the Hawks...Which one is DMC?  The rest are these scrubs that barely played

[AHF]

Caroll is the one who played 66 games, starting 12, for a 43 win Utah Jazz team that started Marvin Williams and Gordon Hayward (who choked the minutes available to him) and who was productive in his minutes every season in the league (his scoring being his main limitation).

 

I was fine seeing him come in because of his reputation as a scrappy player and his solid productivity on a per minute basis.

[BigDog90]

I'm starting to think that might be turning more into wishful thinking on our parts. Like for me I would LOVE for us to get rid of Scott and trade for another SF type. But I'm about ready to give up on that dream of never seeing Scott in a Hawks uniform again...

 

Also, this should make it crystal clear that Thabo and Bazemore are viewed as the top two players in the SF rotation, while recognizing like Bud said that the wing positions are interchangeable. But he did acknowledge that there will be players they have to get creative in defending, and most would assume he's talking about the larger SF types.

 

Scott is the new Pero. Hopefully Bud doesn't continue to give Scott a lot of minutes over Muscula like he did during the last few games of the ECF.

[sturt]

If Scott comes back with about 10 fewer pounds and a previously unseen lateral quickness to allow him to be half-decent at perimeter defense, I strongly plead with Random's family to remove all knives, firearms and sleeping pills from his residence.