Is this what the Hawks are?

[Alex]

27 games into the season and the Hawks sit outside the playoff picture with a 13-14 record.  Despite a hot start the team has played itself below .500 

I don't watch the Hawks unless they are accidentally put on a national game, so I can't speak to anything, but what I read.  Are the Hawks really just an average team like I thought they would be?  Is slump just a slump?  Hasn't it been going on for over a month now?  

[volman]

Weird avatar. 

[hawkman]

If they continue to display low BBIQ on offense and defense, then yes this is exactly what they are. There's no way they should've lost this game after beating the Raptors. Dumb turnovers, bad shots, and Dwight only getting 6 shots after having a monster game the night before are all issues that should be concerning to Hawks fans because they keep happening over and over again. I'm all for being patient with this team due to the changes made during the offseason, but they can't keep taking two steps back for every step they take forward or else they're going to end up in the lottery.

[DS17Fanboy]

The bigs are not the raptors strength. They put everybody they had against him(Siakam, Bebe, Patterson + the Lithanian). And most his points came from offensive rebounds. They tried to involve Howard last night. They tried to hard those times and it lead to bad plays late in the clock because they could not get it going. Zeller really suprises me this season. Didnt think very much of him previous seasons. He's one irritating and smart player.

[DS17Fanboy]

I said in the off-season that the Hawks will be a completely different team on both sides of the floor and that remains to be seen if that will be positive or negative. We really gave up allot in Horfords defensive team/court skills and got in return better in isolated areas of defense, on-ball PG defense and rebounding/rim-protection. I'd led to an allot more gutsy style of play, where we now dont gun and run back on defense, but actually persue offensive rebounds etc. And we lack the reliable cannon-power to stay scoring with good teams when our awful team-defense opens its legs to the opponent again and again. I have a sense it is kinda butched together, but its allot better basis to compete in the playoffs. Think we just miss a piece or two and some time.

Edited December 18, 2016 by DS17Fanboy

[jvell]

Yes, until we get a pure shooter/scorer...

 

[Alex]

10 hours ago, volman said:

Weird avatar. 

No it's not.  I think this is linked to my Facebook account.

[Gray Mule]

Question:  What does a yo yo and the Atlanta Hawks have in common?

Answer:  They both continually go up and down.

Hawks don't stay up.  They don't stay down.  They follow a great game

with a terrible game.  They do this over and over, just like the yo yo,

up and down, up and down.

Perhaps, some day, they will get up and stay up.  Have good game after

good game and win more of these games than they lose.

Perhaps not. If that is to be our destiny this season, then we truly become

OUR LOTTERY BOUND HAWKS !!

[NBASupes]

This is a 38 win team. Truth is, it can be worse the minute we trade Millsap. I miss Pero Antic as a backup center. Moose doesn't do it for me.

[Diesel]

Everybody wanted us to be a complete team the minute we hit the floor.   That's not how Sports work.  This is not your fantasy team.  This team needs some time to gel.   We have to get use to feeding the post.  We have to get use to playing PNR basketball.   We got to get use to being different than a Kyle Korver inspired team.   That's going to take some time.  What you see therefore is flashes of dominance mixed with flashes of inconsistency.    Most of this will change with our PG and him being able to step up and lead without him wanted to  be "the man". 

 

[AUhawksfan]

I wish I knew who we were.  Still can't seem to figure that out even this far into the season.

[Sothron]

We need more consistency. This whole Dwight getting 27 and 15 one game against a very good team on the road and the next night getting only 6 shots is very bad coaching.

Our team has to change and that includes the coaching. Bud the GM brought in different personnel that do not fit his existing scheme. We have to change what we do with what we have. Beating square pegs into circular holes is not going to work.

 

[Thomas]

Yeah its kinda strange that we show some improvement from the wings getting Dwight the ball for a couple of games and then he doesn't even see it hardly at all in a division rival game. Could have easily fouled out Zeller even with the refs wearing those blinders. 

[Guest]

BSPN's Kevin Arnovitz (native Atlantan) just killt the Hawks on NBARadio.

Asked whu happ'nd the the Hawks.

"This isn't the Hawks!  This is not the 60-win Hawks.  Skip (BazeLess) isn't as good as DMC.  Kyle's just 2 years older."

Said Howard is counter-intuitive to what Dennis does well (driving).  Thinks Howard doesn't fit spacing.

What do they do then?

Mentioned the new arena. Said it'll be the most progressive arena ever (high praise) and that they're trying to make themselves the hip thing in town but the team itself is old.  Says they should consider rebuilding the team.  Didn't appear to be suggesting tanking but retooling by trading not only Sap but others to turn over the roster.

Decent points I guess.

ETA: He also went on to say that the league should shorten the season and that no one will lose (give back) money because of it.  Eh, that's what I get for listening to a BSPN guy.

Edited December 20, 2016 by kg01

[macdaddy]

50 minutes ago, kg01 said:

BSPN's Kevin Arnovitz (native Atlantan) just killt the Hawks on NBARadio.

Asked whu happ'nd the the Hawks.

"This isn't the Hawks!  This is not the 60-win Hawks.  Skip (BazeLess) isn't as good as DMC.  Kyle's just 2 years older."

Said Howard is counter-intuitive to what Dennis does well (driving).  Thinks Howard doesn't fit spacing.

What do they do then?

Mentioned the new arena. Said it'll be the most progressive arena ever (high praise) and that they're trying to make themselves the hip thing in town but the team itself is old.  Says they should consider rebuilding the team.  Didn't appear to be suggesting tanking but retooling by trading not only Sap but others to turn over the roster.

Decent points I guess.

ETA: He also went on to say that the league should shorten the season and that no one will lose (give back) money because of it.  Eh, that's what I get for listening to a BSPN guy.

What we saw last year was a team that played fairly consistently but really wasn't a threat when it came to big games.   I can live with some early inconsistency if we can learn to win big games.   Analysts don't like teams that are unpredictable because it exposes that they really don't know more than anyone else that studies the game.    They just like to predict based on history but you can't do that now with the Hawks because there really is no history. 

The team isn't old though.   Korver and Thabo aren't really that key to our success in the long run.  Their contribution should be replaceable.   Dwight and Sap have some good years left and we've invested heavily in Dennis, Baze, Hardaway, Scott and we have Prince and Bembry.   Now whether these are smart investments remains to be scene but it's not like we're a collection of aging vets. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, macdaddy said:

What we saw last year was a team that played fairly consistently but really wasn't a threat when it came to big games.   I can live with some early inconsistency if we can learn to win big games.   Analysts don't like teams that are unpredictable because it exposes that they really don't know more than anyone else that studies the game.    They just like to predict based on history but you can't do that now with the Hawks because there really is no history. 

The team isn't old though.   Korver and Thabo aren't really that key to our success in the long run.  Their contribution should be replaceable.   Dwight and Sap have some good years left and we've invested heavily in Dennis, Baze, Hardaway, Scott and we have Prince and Bembry.   Now whether these are smart investments remains to be scene but it's not like we're a collection of aging vets. 

Agree with most of what you wrote but this team is indeed old.  Dennis is the only major contributor under 30 really.

[StephenHawking]

As SOTHRON already said people miss the bigger picture. 

Its a chain of reactions. People see the bad play of the wings. specifically their fg%. The reason for this is Howard failing to set a solid screen or being a good passer. 

People also see our horrific d. The reason for this is Howard being bad at trapping, PnR and PnP defense. Kyle being to old and slow and Milsap sagging into the paint. 

But the bigger picture is that the ultimate reason for both issues are Bud and the other coaches. 

The lack of adjustments are the problem.

1.: We should've made trades for wings in favor of Howard. Our wings can't simply play to their strengths. They are spot up shooters and cant create.

2.:Bud plays the same defensive scheme even though we now have the contradictory d player to Horf. There's no way it'll work that way. Stop trapping. Force them into the paint. Defend the 3. 

I can see that we still have to figure out how to get it done with our wings with wrong skillsets. It looks like KK tries to take 2 dribbles and fake more often and Baze trying to penetrate and dish even though I'm not sure that this'll work out.

I hope Bud will adjust on d sooner than later. It has to be done. 

[Diesel]

3 hours ago, kg01 said:

BSPN's Kevin Arnovitz (native Atlantan) just killt the Hawks on NBARadio.

Asked whu happ'nd the the Hawks.

"This isn't the Hawks!  This is not the 60-win Hawks.  Skip (BazeLess) isn't as good as DMC.  Kyle's just 2 years older."

Said Howard is counter-intuitive to what Dennis does well (driving).  Thinks Howard doesn't fit spacing.

What do they do then?

Mentioned the new arena. Said it'll be the most progressive arena ever (high praise) and that they're trying to make themselves the hip thing in town but the team itself is old.  Says they should consider rebuilding the team.  Didn't appear to be suggesting tanking but retooling by trading not only Sap but others to turn over the roster.

Decent points I guess.

ETA: He also went on to say that the league should shorten the season and that no one will lose (give back) money because of it.  Eh, that's what I get for listening to a BSPN guy.

I think if Dennis develops a drive and dish then Dwight works well.  I also believe that we may need to play Dennis as OG in some rotations. 

I think Arnovitz is making the same mistake that a lot of people make with our Hawks.  He thought that we would just plug in Dwight for Horford / Dennis for Teague and continue with the same routine.    No.. these guys have different games and it's up to the coach to change the team to fit their games. 

 

[AHF]

15 hours ago, StephenHawking said:

As SOTHRON already said people miss the bigger picture. 

Its a chain of reactions. People see the bad play of the wings. specifically their fg%. The reason for this is Howard failing to set a solid screen or being a good passer. 

Please.  The numbers show our wings get among the most wide open shots in the entire league and suck badly at shooting them.  That isn't on Howard.  In fact, we saw that last year.  I bitched repeatedly about THJr's bad jumper last year, Bazemore's broken J the second half of the season, Thabo (well, he has never shot particularly well so I don't complain about that), etc.  It isn't a Howard issue.  These guys are just not very good shooters and they get out of control at times (well, again that doesn't really fit Thabo).  I don't credit Dwight for THJr's greatly improved 2pt shooting this season - he just has shot the ball better from that range.  I don't blame Dwight for the bricked 3's either.  

Can Dwight improve his passing and screening?  A definite yes on the screening.  Passing I'm not holding my breath.  But our wings have sucked on even the most basic shot - the open jumper - and that is nobodies fault but their own.

Our wings were a liability last year with Horford and they are one again with Howard.  It isn't the fault of either big man.

[Guest]

26 minutes ago, AHF said:

Please.  The numbers show our wings get among the most wide open shots in the entire league and suck badly at shooting them.  That isn't on Howard.  In fact, we saw that last year.  I bitched repeatedly about THJr's bad jumper last year, Bazemore's broken J the second half of the season, Thabo (well, he has never shot particularly well so I don't complain about that), etc.  It isn't a Howard issue.  These guys are just not very good shooters and they get out of control at times (well, again that doesn't really fit Thabo).  I don't credit Dwight for THJr's greatly improved 2pt shooting this season - he just has shot the ball better from that range.  I don't blame Dwight for the bricked 3's either.  

Can Dwight improve his passing and screening?  A definite yes on the screening.  Passing I'm not holding my breath.  But our wings have sucked on even the most basic shot - the open jumper - and that is nobodies fault but their own.

Our wings were a liability last year with Horford and they are one again with Howard.  It isn't the fault of either big man.

My goodness.  I'm not even that big a Howard fan but even I'm starting to feel bad for the guy.  It's like Hitler, Stalin, Dwight Howard.

HOU fans are saying his exit is what's spurred their resurgence.  Nevermind the new coaching staff and commitment from management, etc.

Now Hawks fans look to blame him for issues we've had for multiple seasons prior to his arrival.

Clearly most people have made up their minds about the guy and are just trying to make the narrative fit at this point.

#AgendaSquawkStrikes ....