Why do we get blown out so much??

[Wurider05]

We have too  many games like last night. What is going on? It's like some nights they just don't want to play. 

[AHF]

This team has multiple personalities this season.  I have no explanation for it.

[sturt]

Great question... will be interested to see what the Intelligencia gathered here say. I have no solid opinion myself, so I'll wait to see what seems to make the most sense.

[Sothron]

I honestly do not know and it confounds me. I've seen this team show fight and grit in several games this year...and show zero heart, zero drive and play like empty beer cans in several other games this year. We need more consistency but when I say that I don't mean in just general numbers. I mean the heart, the fire, the need to WIN. I don't see that all on a consistent basis.

And that worries me because it points to the coaching and locker room leadership. We have two vets with lots of playoff experience that are the two best players on the team. We have a COTY head coach. We have no excuses to be this wildly inconsistent.

[AUhawksfan]

I think a lot of it is effort and defense.  The common theme in a lot of these blowouts is the opponents 3pt shooting and it seems to start early.

We don't close out shooters early, they get hot, and by then the damage is done and it snowballs.  That's the best explanation I've got.

 

[Guest]

Because rhey think they are better than they actually are. Too many times against bad teams they wet the bed.

 

[HawkItus]

My 2 cents:

• Transition year.  Many of our team "leaders" are either new to the  leadership position or new to the position on this team
• Young PG.  Look youth kills in pro-sports.  When you have an old vet at PG you are less likely to have whole sections of the game where your offense is ineffective
• No go to wing.   When the Clippers wanted to ice us it was Crawford time.   We had Teague time.  etc.  You need a ball handling wing/guard that can shoot and penetrate
• Our best players are not bunch scoring players.  Dwight and Milsap aren't 20 in a qtr guys.

[benhillboy]

They're a mediocre shooting and rebounding team who turns over too much and doesn't get to the line enough.  If a team gets hot from three it's a wrap.

Edited February 2, 2017 by benhillboy

[Guest]

Piggy back on what everybody said...Combination of gelling in the system, lack of talent and lack of heart. It's hard to watch on the nights when we don't bring energy. I understand it's a long season and we have to be worried more about March and April but at the same time, THIS IS YOUR JOB GUYS!!!! You get paid waaaayyyy too much for what you do. You run up and down the court for a living so at least bring some energy.

 

There is no excuse for a young healthy recently paid Bazemore to play like this...I don't mind calling him out because he's an inconsistent BUM. I honestly wish we never signed him a few years back to begin with... BAZE, if you are reading this, get your shit together. I hate him so much that if we could deal him in the next few weeks, I don't care what we would get in return, I'll take it. 

 

Not only Baze, goofy ass Dwight is inconsistent and so is Dennis. Overall, I pretty much hate our roster except for Sap and Prince. We need more talent, some foundational pieces to add to the team or press the reset button and RETOOL. 

 

You cant make predictions on this yoyo ass team. Smh. Having said that, we are prolly gonna go 6-1 from now till the trading deadline and management will be happy about that and stand pat. Fool's gold in my opinion.

[hawkman]

I know some here hate him, but I think Carmelo may be the answer. He's a scorer first and foremost, but the Hawks really need CONSISTENT scoring right now. If the Knicks are serious about not needing a superstar in return, then Baze and the Ghost Of Tiago Splitter should get it done. This isn't a panic move. Something drastic needs to be done since guys seem a little too comfortable losing to bad teams. Lack of talent is excusable, but lack of effort is not.

[MaceCase]

Isn't it the same old "all parts gotta run smooth for the engine to run" business? 

[StephenHawking]

Did you guys recognize that we almost always turn the ball over on the first possession?

I'd say we're highly dependable on Sap and Dennis to play good. I recognized Dennis has to start gain confidence into his pull up jumper throughout the first minutes to be effective. It balances his game.

Sap too often goes for the foul and plays sloppy on defense to start a game. He has to bring more on d. We don't need him to sit back in the lane next to Howard which he does every second possession. He has to stay connected to his opponent.

Baze has to play calm on d. He is falling for every pump fake. He has to slow down. 

These are the main reasons why we start bad I think. Those 3 guys have to have a good start. Baze and Sap defensively and Dennis offensively.

Also I don't think it's a good method to sub all starters early in the qtr.

[AUhawksfan]

1 hour ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Because rhey think they are better than they actually are. Too many times against bad teams they wet the bed.

 

Do they wet the bed or is it their tight sphincters?  Sounds like it's coming out of one end but not the other, lol.

[lethalweapon3]

Off the top of my head...

Bud wants to push the pace, up to a level that is more than 2-or-3 over-30 starters past their athletic primes can reasonably sustain from quarter-to-quarter, much less game-to-game.

The elevated pace forces a lot of possessions out of both teams, and the team with the better-quality series of shots (fewer turnovers; less-contested shots), and the mechanical know-how to hit them, gets the upper hand early. Unlike Kyle and DeMarre circa 2015, the starting swingmen are not hitting shots routinely enough to mask the team's flaws, forcing sub-optimal choices like the point guard, the power forward, and the backup center, to help the team keep afloat along the perimeter.

Bud would like to push the tempo even higher than he squeezes out of this bunch currently, but his floor general is in Season 1 of his multi-year learning curve as an NBA starter, and lacks both the ability to steer momentum away from more seasoned opposing PGs (this, during the Golden Age of Mega-Star PGs) and sufficient assertiveness to push his veteran colleagues to keep the heck up.

Bud The Coach would like to draw from a deeper bench, but Bud The Exec set him up with shallow options at the point and in the frontcourt, while the rookie wings are not ready to make an immediate splash (if they are, Bud The Coach doesn't really want them to know). The bench is thin, both figuratively and literally.

Bud The Coach lost a GM to Shenanigans and two key assistants to Utah and Brooklyn, respectively. One assistant was effectively not replaced by Bud The Exec, and the team is relying on a lot of NBA newbies in their coaching/development roles to figure things out.

It should be noted that these meltdowns were even happening during The Year of Our Horford 2015, too, only the dynamics were a little different, and the paths out of funks a little easier to navigate due to (age+conditioning, mindsets, coaching, prior experience, stability, take your pick).

~lw3

[Guest]

33 minutes ago, AUhawksfan said:

Do they wet the bed or is it their tight sphincters?  Sounds like it's coming out of one end but not the other, lol.

The tight sphincters are for end of games...mostly, or high profile games.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

The tight sphincters are for end of games...mostly, or high profile games.

Aka Tonight on TNT...:-(

[Guest]

Just now, Spud2Nique said:

Aka Tonight on TNT...:-(

Oh no, the  game is on TNT?

Chat's gonna be  fun 

[NBASupes]

3 hours ago, AHF said:

This team has multiple personalities this season.  I have no explanation for it.

It's quite simple. No one other than Millsap is consistent and he's in a role that's too big for his britches. He's a very good #2 option and a good over defender but he's closer to Joe Johnson than Dirk N. Nothing wrong with that, he's an excellent player but he's not a #1 option. Nor is Dennis. Clearly Dwight isn't at this stage. He's not even a #1, 2, or 3 option. Bazemore is more of a #4 and best off of the bench and Thabo just isn't a starter. He's best off of the bench as well. This team lacks a #1 option. It's been that way for awhile but Al kinda do so much within the game that he made it not as obvious till  the playoffs. This team is a typical EC #4 or #5 seed. No legit chance of winning pass the 2nd round. 

[NBASupes]

1 hour ago, hawkman said:

I know some here hate him, but I think Carmelo may be the answer. He's a scorer first and foremost, but the Hawks really need CONSISTENT scoring right now. If the Knicks are serious about not needing a superstar in return, then Baze and the Ghost Of Tiago Splitter should get it done. This isn't a panic move. Something drastic needs to be done since guys seem a little too comfortable losing to bad teams. Lack of talent is excusable, but lack of effort is not.

It's not about the Knicks, it's about Melo which is why his trade value isn't all that. He has limit his teams to three teams. If he can add us, we can give them Baze and Splitter and with picks they would value. 

 

I am afraid to say but if we do not land Melo, this team will be rebuilding this off-season. Sap has options and most are better than another year in Atlanta. 

[Alex]

They aren't very good.