We need that lethal scorer

[JTB]

Our biggest problem year in and year out: 

Huge need of lethal scorer! PERIOD ....which typically is a superstar player.

I just can't take our Hawks as having a real legit opportunity to compete for the gold until a lethal scorer/superstar is added. 

We seem to always have a solid team around to offer such a player but we just can't seem to ever land one.

 

 

I just wish I could get a better understanding of the philosophy in our front office. Truth is that elite offensive players are always unstoppable! There's no such defense to stop or even contain these players.....so what is the obvious choice? You fight fire with Fire or in this case elite offense vs elite offense, magic vs bird, Jordan vs Malone, Kobe vs AI...etc.

Theres no way possible to avoid this step when trying to build a contender. You have to have that guy that can if needed drop 30 literally every game including playoffs.

 

 

looking at the future in the Hawks case I can only hope Dennis and THJ become something special on offense.

[Thomas]

1 hour ago, JTB said:

looking at the future in the Hawks case I can only hope Dennis and THJ become something special on offense.

Hoping we can hang on to Tim and he becomes a big scoring part of the equation next year and moving forward for us night in and night out. He's got the stuff necessary.

[Watchman]

Our scorers are lethal.  To the Hawks. On many occasions.

[Lurker]

Like I've said in other threads, in the NBA you can't get away with simply hoping to "get hot" like in other sports, you have to have a top 15-20 caliber player. And even that may not be enough.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

1 hour ago, JTB said:

Our biggest problem year in and year out: 

Huge need of lethal scorer! PERIOD ....which typically is a superstar player.

I just can't take our Hawks as having a real legit opportunity to compete for the gold until a lethal scorer/superstar is added. 

We seem to always have a solid team around to offer such a player but we just can't seem to ever land one.

 

 

I just wish I could get a better understanding of the philosophy in our front office. Truth is that elite offensive players are always unstoppable! There's no such defense to stop or even contain these players.....so what is the obvious choice? You fight fire with Fire or in this case elite offense vs elite offense, magic vs bird, Jordan vs Malone, Kobe vs AI...etc.

Theres no way possible to avoid this step when trying to build a contender. You have to have that guy that can if needed drop 30 literally every game including playoffs.

 

 

looking at the future in the Hawks case I can only hope Dennis and THJ become something special on offense.

Nah . . . ya'll don't mean it.

 

Because it's always a "yeah, but . . . . " when we have these discussions.

The perfect player does not exist.  If a player has an elite or borderline elite skill set, but is flawed in other areas, people tend to act like the negatives outweigh the positives.

Not true.

But this ship has passed, at least until the offseason.   Let's see what happens then.

[BrazilianHawk]

Hm. I'm thinking what we do need is to improve our perimeter defense. 

If I'm not mistaken, the Cavs were the 7th (7th, for crying out loud) team that set their season record in 3-pointers against us. There's a pattern. Teams know we have a good interior defense and then they shoot from downtown. For 3-pt machines such as the Cavs and Rockets, that's great. All we can hope is THEY don't get ridiculously hot. Which is obviously wishful thinking, given our perimeter D sucks so bad. Bud needs to fix that ASAP. Enough of being buried by threes. It gets annoying after a while. 

But, at the end of the day,we did score 130. Our offense was very good last night. So there's reason for hope. We definitely can play with the best of them. We just need to stop playing down to the level of the competition (most of them anyway) and we'll be fine. I fear no one in the playoffs. Worst case scenario would be getting paired with the Cavs or Wiz, but I'd be very confident against the green ones and the Raps.

[Lurker]

A lot of the Hawks need is for Bud to swallow his pride but what's needed might not even work.

A switching lineup is the only realistic hope against a couple of teams.

Edited March 4, 2017 by Lurker

[Vol4ever]

Lou Williams was available.  

[NBASupes]

We a scorer who can score 20+ points but can defend James.

[Thomas]

2 hours ago, NBASupes said:

We a scorer who can score 20+ points but can defend James.

Sounds like some kind of android. Thabo may be one of the better players able to defend against LeBron but is an example of that kind of player is not going to be a scorer and the one who is will not be available because a guy like Kawhi is probably truly the one that could fit the bill. I wish they grew on trees.

[sturt]

LeBron is a generational talent. No one disputes that.

We have no shot at ever having him play for us. No one disputes that.

It is highly likely that his best years will be spent in our conference. No one disputes that.

So, short of a miracle of LeBron ending up in ATL, we're tasked with being that franchise that is ready to challenge at that moment when CLE becomes vulnerable. And it will happen at some point.

Remember that as good as he is, he is human and has never been able to shoulder the whole load. Kyrie and Love have both been prone to injury on occasion. What's more, even with a full roster, it's been noted on this forum that CLE seemingly has come back to earth quite a bit this season for whatever reason.

Our mission, then, is to have distinguished ourselves as the clear #2 a month from now.

To the point of the OP, a lethal scorer wasn't what was missing Friday night, but rather as Brazilian lays out, we clearly have some defensive shortcomings on the perimeter that have yet to be solved. And bigger picture, it's not like we haven't flashed exceptional perimeter defense--e.g., the Houston game, iirc, our perimeter D shut them down.

We are capable.

The player who solves all of that if his development continues is Prince. The combination of consistent scoring from the 3 and consistent defense from the 3... and again, we've seen flashes, but obviously still a work in progress... holds the key to this season.

[Vol4ever]

2 hours ago, NBASupes said:

We a scorer who can score 20+ points but can defend James.

I don't think that person exists.