Atlanta Hawks land at No. 14 in NBA offseason rankings

[JayBirdHawk]

Quote

The Hawks’ roster teardown is nearing completion, but the renovated Philips Arena will come online faster than the team, which now needs Young to live up to all the hype after his one season at Oklahoma. He has incredible range and great potential, but he’ll be challenged every night to stay in front of the legion of great points in this league. Pierce, the former Sixers’ assistant, is going to have a very tough time melding all the newcomers with the small core of players who survived, including John Collins, Kent Bazemore, DeAndre’ Bembry and Taurean Prince.

In addition, Aldridge highlighted the work of Travis Schlenk as the pivot point for the organization, indicating that “the Hawks will live or die by whether Young or Luka Doncic becomes the bigger NBA producer.” That might be slightly hyperbolic but, in terms of overall importance, it is quite fair to point out that the draft night maneuver will be the most important during the summer of 2018.

Beyond that, though, NBA experts have largely lauded the Dennis Schröder swap (with one prominent exception) and, even if the Jeremy Lin trade didn’t garner universal approval, Atlanta’s other peripheral moves appear to be strong. Nothing during the offseason is ever viewed through full-blown agreement across the board but this particular evaluation gives the Hawks something of a “passing grade” and that is noteworthy from a trusted national source.

 

 

[JTB]

Not too bad..not too bad at all!

and to think some “professional” analysts out there believe we are rebuilding this thing the right way.

[thecampster]

2 hours ago, JTB said:

Not too bad..not too bad at all!

and to think some “professional” analysts out there believe we are rebuilding this thing the right way.

Nope...that terrifies me.

[macdaddy]

Aldridge's offseason performance evaluation is pretty interesting.   Jazz one spot higher than us for basically doing nothing but bringing the same team back but that could be argued.

I like that OKC is #1 ahead of the Lakers acquiring Lebron.  I agree.   Not sure I'm on board with the Nuggets being #3.   I think they are likely to disappoint again. 

#5 for Memphis is a real head scratcher.   Lost Evans and added not so much.   Worse, they retain JB as coach.  I don't know why nba commentators have been so in love with this team for 10 years when they can't compete with the contenders year after year after year. 

Hey that reminds me, I saw Matt Barnes at d*ck's sporting goods in buckhead a couple weeks ago.   I was going to say something and then remembered how much i do not like him.

[Buzzard]

2 hours ago, macdaddy said:

Aldridge's offseason performance evaluation is pretty interesting.   Jazz one spot higher than us for basically doing nothing but bringing the same team back but that could be argued.

I like that OKC is #1 ahead of the Lakers acquiring Lebron.  I agree.   Not sure I'm on board with the Nuggets being #3.   I think they are likely to disappoint again. 

#5 for Memphis is a real head scratcher.   Lost Evans and added not so much.   Worse, they retain JB as coach.  I don't know why nba commentators have been so in love with this team for 10 years when they can't compete with the contenders year after year after year. 

Hey that reminds me, I saw Matt Barnes at d*ck's sporting goods in buckhead a couple weeks ago.   I was going to say something and then remembered how much i do not like him.

I think the Lakers are hands down #1. OKC kept their own player and given what they paid him and their cap problems I am not as impressed. Seriously they are still looking at a 1st round exit again, Memphis did nothing but take a flyer on JJJ and gets a top five ranking. I guess players getting healthy is somehow a big off season move. The NBA, as all sports, is what have you done now ( lately ) so the pick we received is not even being considered in my opinion.

By the end of the season Travis will be mentioned as Executive of the Year. He will continue to be mentioned as each draft pick improves and the new ones convey in the coming years; or he trades them for a disgruntled all-star. Trae and the Pick ( what ever it conveys ) vs Doncic. Huge difference for us; not so much for short sighted off season rankings.

[High5]

This is all so volatile. This could be our best offseason ever or one of our worst depending on how Pierce and our picks turn out. Mostly it depends on Trae. If he's the truth then we did well regardless. 

[JayBirdHawk]

6 hours ago, macdaddy said:

 

Hey that reminds me, I saw Matt Barnes at d*ck's sporting goods in buckhead a couple weeks ago.   I was going to say something and then remembered how much i do not like him.

I saw Bembry at Lennox Mall last Wednesday, he was heading out as I was heading in.

[JayBirdHawk]

3 hours ago, Buzzard said:

I think the Lakers are hands down #1. OKC kept their own player and given what they paid him and their cap problems I am not as impressed. Seriously they are still looking at a 1st round exit again, Memphis did nothing but take a flyer on JJJ and gets a top five ranking. I guess players getting healthy is somehow a big off season move. The NBA, as all sports, is what have you done now ( lately ) so the pick we received is not even being considered in my opinion.

By the end of the season Travis will be mentioned as Executive of the Year. He will continue to be mentioned as each draft pick improves and the new ones convey in the coming years; or he trades them for a disgruntled all-star. Trae and the Pick ( what ever it conveys ) vs Doncic. Huge difference for us; not so much for short sighted off season rankings.

I disagree, selling the Lakers to LeBron was easy knowing he wanted to go there.

OKC keeping PG was huge, they did an incredible job selling him the team and city considering his mind set of wanting to go home and play for his childhood team.

Consider this:

LAL did not even get an interview

PG told Indy he was planning to sign in LAL when he became a free agent.

OKC put on the full court press.

[Buzzard]

3 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

I disagree, selling the Lakers to LeBron was easy knowing he wanted to go there.

OKC keeping PG was huge, they did an incredible job selling him the team and city considering his mind set of wanting to go home and play for his childhood team.

Consider this:

LAL did not even get an interview

PG told Indy he was planning to sign in LAL when he became a free agent.

OKC put on the full court press.

My opinion is not based on the sell or the sales job. It is based on improving the team (s), LA made a huge jump. OKC stayed the same as did Memphis.

[macdaddy]

1 hour ago, Buzzard said:

My opinion is not based on the sell or the sales job. It is based on improving the team (s), LA made a huge jump. OKC stayed the same as did Memphis.

I don't think so.   Melo is addition by subtraction.   Another year playing together will surely help PG and Russ.   Adding Dennis will help their bench and help keep Russ fresh.   

I'm not that familiar with their other depth.   Seems like they need a better 4 but it's such a strange beast of an offense with Westbrook dominating the ball that I don't know.   

[Buzzard]

12 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

I don't think so.   Melo is addition by subtraction.   Another year playing together will surely help PG and Russ.   Adding Dennis will help their bench and help keep Russ fresh.   

I'm not that familiar with their other depth.   Seems like they need a better 4 but it's such a strange beast of an offense with Westbrook dominating the ball that I don't know.   

I think OKC needs more than Westbrook and George in their starting lineup to improve and they did not get it done this off season. For all the hype about Westbrook, George, and Adam's defense, Ingles, Favors, and Gobert owned OKC in the playoffs with all three posting a eFG over .600.

To add insult to injury, the rookie Mitchell ( eFG .471 ) had a more efficient playoff series than Westbrook ( eFG .444 ) ; and it was not even close. They stayed the same and may get worse than a 4th seed this year.

[High5]

You can't forget about Roberson. He's a scrub on the offensive end, but he's their best defender. They missed him dearly. -Melo +Dennis +Roberson is a pretty nice offseason for them. Not as nice as adding LeBron James, but I'm skeptical about the other moves the Lakers made. Signing Rondo, Lance, McGee, and Beasley to play basketball in LA w/ the Ball family sounds like a pitch for a hilarious reality TV show.

Either way, I'm not putting either of them #1. GS was already ahead of everyone else and then they replaced McGee with DeMarcus Cousins. They could run into problems with his recovery and fit, but the potential to turn their main weakness into a strength for ~$5 million is disgusting. 

[Buzzard]

On 8/13/2018 at 7:37 PM, High5 said:

You can't forget about Roberson. He's a scrub on the offensive end, but he's their best defender. They missed him dearly. -Melo +Dennis +Roberson is a pretty nice offseason for them. Not as nice as adding LeBron James, but I'm skeptical about the other moves the Lakers made. Signing Rondo, Lance, McGee, and Beasley to play basketball in LA w/ the Ball family sounds like a pitch for a hilarious reality TV show.

Either way, I'm not putting either of them #1. GS was already ahead of everyone else and then they replaced McGee with DeMarcus Cousins. They could run into problems with his recovery and fit, but the potential to turn their main weakness into a strength for ~$5 million is disgusting. 

As I said earlier, OKC needed to improve their starting five somewhere. George and Westbrook will get a ton of minutes throughout the season and in the playoffs, regardless of who is on the bench.

LA improved their starting five and it is not even a race. It may be risky to add Rondo and Stephenson but their defensive ability cannot really be questioned. Beasley will be coming off the bench for one thing and one thing only, to score.

GSW is GSW, no one is catching them in the West. I think LA improved the most out West. If Cousins is a 15-20 and 10 guy then they improved also. But I would take Bron over a recovering Cousins every day of the week and twice on Sunday as the better improvement.

[High5]

2 hours ago, Buzzard said:

As I said earlier, OKC needed to improve their starting five somewhere. George and Westbrook will get a ton of minutes throughout the season and in the playoffs, regardless of who is on the bench.

LA improved their starting five and it is not even a race. It may be risky to add Rondo and Stephenson but their defensive ability cannot really be questioned. Beasley will be coming off the bench for one thing and one thing only, to score.

GSW is GSW, no one is catching them in the West. I think LA improved the most out West. If Cousins is a 15-20 and 10 guy then they improved also. But I would take Bron over a recovering Cousins every day of the week and twice on Sunday as the better improvement.

Roberson is a starter.

The Lakers probably did improve the most, but it's easier to improve when you're a lottery team. OKC's smaller improvements could still keep them ahead of the Lakers and make them much more relevant in the postseason. And if the Warriors managed to significantly improve while already being the best then that's incredible (and dumb).

[EazyRoc]

Lakers went from lottery team to contenders. They won the off season by adding arguably the best basketball player of all time. Then took that young team and added a ton of vets around him. There may be some question marks about fit/chemistry, but the Lakers now have to be accounted for.