'It Wasn't The Same': What Split Up The Hawks' Famous Starting Five

[Plainview1981]

'It Wasn't The Same': What Split Up The Hawks' Famous Starting Five

 

https://www.si.com/nba/2017/04/17/nba-playoffs-hawks-celtics-cavaliers-al-horford-jeff-teague-kyle-korver

[GameTime]

 

[Admin]

I read this last night and my takeaway was that Sap is gone after this season unless we end up making a deep run that gives him hope for next season. All of his buddies are gone, the system has changed, and I honestly don't think he likes Dwight. Then again if we don't make a deep run with him this year then I am not going to want to max him out as it's highly unlikely he's going to actually get better on his next contract. 

Funny that so may people hated when we traded for Korver but the truth is that without that trade we probably don't get Sap or DMC and we never have that magical 60 win regular season. 

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Dolfan23 said:

Funny that so may people hated when we traded for Korver but the truth is that without that trade we probably don't get Sap or DMC and we never have that magical 60 win regular season. 

I don't remember a lot of fussing about the Korver trade. He was part of the NOTHING we got in the JJ trade and seen as cap filler (part of JJ TPE), with some saying he wouldn't resign as a free agent.

I do remember lots of complaining about resiging him to the 4 year deal though.

[Admin]

Just now, JayBirdHawk said:

I don't remember a lot of fussing about the Korver trade. He was part of the NOTHING we got in the JJ trade and seen as cap filler (part of JJ TPE), with some saying he wouldn't resign as a free agent.

I do remember lots of complaining about resiging him to the 4 year deal though.

Oh it happened. People were saying he was done, couldn't play D, etc. etc. I'm sure I could find the original topic on it if I were so inclined. And yes there was a ton of hate when he re-signed. 

[Admin]

Seems like it's pretty mixed... and damn this makes me miss Danny Ferry. This team has done nothing but go downhill since he left. We actually had a really nice roster and a bright future. Amazing how quickly it's gone away. 

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Dolfan23 said:

Seems like it's pretty mixed... and damn this makes me miss Danny Ferry. This team has done nothing but go downhill since he left. We actually had a really nice roster and a bright future. Amazing how quickly it's gone away. 

Some of these were straight gold. @MaceCase wasn't a fan at all, neither @Sothron.

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Dolfan23 said:

Seems like it's pretty mixed... and damn this makes me miss Danny Ferry. This team has done nothing but go downhill since he left. We actually had a really nice roster and a bright future. Amazing how quickly it's gone away. 

Dig my shit up on Korver and it smells like a rose..:-)

[Sothron]

2 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Some of these were straight gold. @MaceCase wasn't a fan at all, neither @Sothron.

 

Korver was exactly what I said...a one trick pony that killed us defensively. Glad he's gone.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

In the grand scheme of things, that group, along with Thabo ( who was the defensive equivalent that Hardaway Jr is now ), caught about 2 months worth of lightning in a bottle.  Otherwise, the Hawks have been a little above mediocre.

Forget the 17 game winning streak, that group at one point went 35 - 3 over a 2.5 month stretch ( I believe that's 3rd best of all time in a 38 game stretch . . tied with the 71 - 72 LA Lakers, and behind last year's Warriors team that started 36 - 2).  

And it wasn't just the starters.  It was Dennis off the bench, playing like a top 5 bench PG.  Thabo giving us great minutes at SF on defense.  Mike MF Scott playing like Hardaway Jr is now at times on offense.  And ( smh ) Pero . . the King of the Screen.

But when Thabo went down at the end of January of that season, the chemistry started to change.   That season, Thabo played extremely well with everybody . . . except the person he currently still doesn't play well with . . . Bazemore.  

And while the Hawks were still winning, they weren't dominant anymore.  They missed Thabo dearly in that playoffs, and it reared it's ugly head vs Cleveland.'

So 2 months of historic basketball + 3.5 years of average ball = 2nd round playoff team.

 

[kurupt]

vor einer Stunde, TheNorthCydeRises sagte:

In the grand scheme of things, that group, along with Thabo ( who was the defensive equivalent that Hardaway Jr is now ), caught about 2 months worth of lightning in a bottle.  Otherwise, the Hawks have been a little above mediocre.

Forget the 17 game winning streak, that group at one point went 35 - 3 over a 2.5 month stretch ( I believe that's 3rd best of all time in a 38 game stretch . . tied with the 71 - 72 LA Lakers, and behind last year's Warriors team that started 36 - 2).  

And it wasn't just the starters.  It was Dennis off the bench, playing like a top 5 bench PG.  Thabo giving us great minutes at SF on defense.  Mike MF Scott playing like Hardaway Jr is now at times on offense.  And ( smh ) Pero . . the King of the Screen.

But when Thabo went down at the end of January of that season, the chemistry started to change.   That season, Thabo played extremely well with everybody . . . except the person he currently still doesn't play well with . . . Bazemore.  

And while the Hawks were still winning, they weren't dominant anymore.  They missed Thabo dearly in that playoffs, and it reared it's ugly head vs Cleveland.'

So 2 months of historic basketball + 3.5 years of average ball = 2nd round playoff team.

 

I was just about to say that. The bench had Schröder/Bazemore/Sefolosha/Scott/Antic who all played well. Compare that to this seasons bench (before Ilyasova and Calderon arrived) and you have only THJr who played well for the 2nd half of the season.

But I think it's unwise to dwell on this. Virtually the same team (especially the starting 5) before and after that one season won 38 and 48 games respectively. So the 60-win season was an outlier. If Millsap doesn't get hurt and the Hawks go 6:6 in those 12 games instead of 2:10, they would have won 45 games this year - a good playoff team, but nothing that can contend. Just like before.

[JTB]

Yeah I'm tired of hearing about our "60 win team", when they got to the playoffs injuries or not they struggled mightily. Rebounding was a issue we ALL knew the cavs were going to take advantage of but it wasn't one we thought would get taken advantage of so early in the playoffs  that year but truth be told Brooklyn and the Wizards put a great scare in that 60 win team and we all thought we were going to slide past those squads with no issues.

 

Putting that aside I say lets just look towards the immediate future in Dennis, THJ, Prince, Bembry.....none of these guys have hit their ceiling and they are our next set of guys we will watch grow and see what they can become. No sap or Howard will be in future plans probably past this off season unless we can somehow grab melo, butler, or george this summer and those chances are low. 

[MaceCase]

9 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Some of these were straight gold. @MaceCase wasn't a fan at all, neither @Sothron.

 

Well I questioned him coming in to be the team's new SF given that was a glaring hole post Joe and Marvin and I was right seeing that we've watched ~6'5" wonders DeShawn Stevenson and Baze play there over him.