And lo, there was peace in Hawksquawk...

[TheNorthCydeRises]

2 full weeks of tranquility.   Then comes Summer League.

Luckily Cam isn't playing, so there will be no ridiculing him.

I guess Omari will be the target.  Hunter may get a pass, unless he looks like garbage on defense.

 

[kg01]

7 hours ago, Sothron said:

I was reflecting upon this last night. This is the first time since the 60 win miracle season that this board is pretty much happy and content with the direction of our franchise. That does include myself which may mildly surprise some of you. Our team has an outstanding young superstar type player in Young. We have that multi All Star type player in Collins. We just added two wing players that could be the multi positional threats a former GM dreamed of having but never produced.

We have a GM and coach we all seem to believe in. We have a TON of cap space after this season to go after free agents.

There is nothing to be negative about as a fan of the Hawks right now. I know it will not last but for now I am going to enjoy the good karma on this site.

 

I know, Suspicious Chloe.  It says it's soth but I don't believe it's him either.

Let's just monitor the situation.  Any more Trae love and I'm doing a wellness check in Columbus.

Kidding.  I agree, "sothron".  Mood's been nice here and in bizarro land.  There's a thread on the realgm general board with opposing fans opining about how well the Hawks rebuild has been.  Super weird.  I haven't posted there 'cause I'm sure it's some kind of a trap.

5 hours ago, gurpilo said:

The Bol thing is also on my mind, I still think there is some chance he becomes a really good pkayer on the league, we could have had him with 41 or 44....

Gotta move on.  Bol dropped for a reason and it's not because all 32 teams are dumb.

[sturt]

Self-evidently, we have choice but to move on. And part of moving on is understanding and accepting that we accepted light bill money for #44. Win some, lose some. Yes, Bol went low, but he still went. Who knows. Then again, maybe we'll come out better than DEN when all is said and done. Pardon my skepticism. We'll see.

[sturt]

*have no choice*

 

[Buzzard]

26 minutes ago, sturt said:

Self-evidently, we have choice but to move on. And part of moving on is understanding and accepting that we accepted light bill money for #44. Win some, lose some. Yes, Bol went low, but he still went. Who knows. Then again, maybe we'll come out better than DEN when all is said and done. Pardon my skepticism. We'll see.

You are a Hawks fan. Skepticism and doubt come with the territory.

[kerrypack]

7 hours ago, kg01 said:

.

Gotta move on.  Bol dropped for a reason and it's not because all 32 teams are dumb.

I'm old and I'm still partial to centers... but bol has injury concerns and reportedly does not work all that hard.  he is just capable of going out and getting it done.  I think that the concern for other old people is that he'll have the same limited role that manute had as a ceiling, and then the injury risks layered on top.

The hawks don't have the room in any case.

[thecampster]

14 hours ago, gurpilo said:

The Bol thing is also on my mind, I still think there is some chance he becomes a really good pkayer on the league, we could have had him with 41 or 44....

He is going to get killed on the boards. He gets his rebounds on height, not footwork.  There is no world where Steven Adams can guard Bol at the 3 point line but there is also no world where Bol gets double digit rebounds against Golbert, Baynes, Adams, Chandler, Len, etc  Rebounding and defense still wins championships and Bol couldn't box out a 6th grader.  This obsession with centers shooting 3's has to end.  A center gets gets drafted for his work around the basket....if he learns to shoot 3's, god bless him.  He might be amazing at the 3 point line but the game is still won and lost in transition and if you can't get a rebound, you can win transition.

 

Watch this one clip and everything you think you know about Bol shrivels like your plums on a cold day at the beach.

 

[thecampster]

That one defensive sequence will have you begging for more Alpha Kaba.  Don't follow the ball...just watch Bol Bol. You'll throw up in your mouth a bit...maybe a lot. He looks like a drunken sailor on roller skates deciding what to do in the post on defense.

[sturt]

We've had this discussion a lot in the lead-up to the draft, and I'm not particularly interested, me, in rehashing it all because.... to the point of the premise that seemed to re-launch this tangent, we do have to move-on since he's not one of ours anyhow...

But there are three direly missing considerations in the criticism of Bol's defense. First, that freshman in their first nine games of collegiate play are routinely finding their way on both sides of the floor. Second, that that's all the more true when you show up at Oregon, and Dana Altman... a great coach, and he got his start at my alma mater, fwiw... tells you that not only are you hardly ever going to be playing m2m, you're not even going to be playing much of the garden variety zone... look it up, if you don't believe me, Altman plays, and has always played, multiple types of zone. It's not even something, as some have tried to describe it, that he did as a consequence of Bol's arrival. It's just what they do. So, yeah, it's not actually at all  surprising to some of us that a freshman is going to look lost in his first month of play, and probably had there been no injury, it would have taken most of the season for him to be totally settled down and comfortable. He was doing what we see a lot of rookies do when they're having to adapt to new knowledge that isn't yet engrained.... thinking instead of playing.

I do agree with the criticism on the motor. I do agree that it's not readily apparent how coachable he is, or how prima donna he may be, and it make sesne to assume the worst until proven otherwise.

It will always be hard for me to believe though that he wasn't worth a #44 draft pick, until proven otherwise.

My last comment on Bol..... the dirty little secret is, he's not a 5 and probably will never be a 5, so all these comparisons to him with other 5s are misplaced.... he's what Magic Johnson was to being a PG.... many were skeptical that when a 6-9 college player got to the pros, he wouldn't eventually have to play the 4, remember (if you do)... Bol's a wing in a 7-2 body.... when you watch him, he's an extended version of Kevin Durant.... and though he can be beaten at the wing, what people seem to be loathe to acknowledge, he also can catch up and block from behind.... or, more typically, he's got such length, his wingspan allows him to play off his man considerably more than others can--the shooting and passing angles are so much more restricted when you have that freak of nature defending you.

 

[thecampster]

His footwork is atrocious in one on one defense in the post. Like Rosie O'Donnell in a mini-skirt bad.

[txsting]

17 hours ago, Wretch said:

I was thinking the same thing the other day...  It seems like there's a general universal approval right now.  Like, has anyone expressed dissatisfaction with our draft or the direction of the franchise currently?  Even the fans on social media are buzzing. 

Personally, I don't understand my own feelings right now  Hunter and Cam were the bottom two on my wing list and we ended up with them both.  I should be disappointed right now, but I've never been happier with an ATL draft.  TBH, only the experience of 2008 playoffs ranks higher on my list.

Wow - this is exactly me.  I personally preferred Culver and Sekou on draft night.  However, I think it comes down to trust.  Schlenk went where he wanted to go in the draft, and he had free choice, and he chose Hunter and Cam.  He had the benefit of private workouts, interviews, many scouting opinions, and a lot of first hand knowledge.  I trust him, and I'm not dumb enough or have so much ego that I think I know more.  Playing GM is a fun thing to do, and it's more fun in the NBA than any other sport.

I was irritated to lose the opportunity to pick a center, and I valued Bruno most highly.  When he came back in with sniper precision to grab Bruno, he simultaneously stroked my ego and further increased my trust in him.  So I think that colored the whole draft in a nice light for me.

[Spud2nique]

2 hours ago, thecampster said:

His footwork is atrocious in one on one defense in the post. Like Rosie O'Donnell in a mini-skirt bad.

wtf. 

[thecampster]

The reality is there are going to be a lot of disappointing players in this draft.  A lot of teams are going to look back at this draft and wonder wtf were they doing.  The Hawks avoided every one of those players.  Its a huge win based on that only.

[bleachkit]

38 minutes ago, thecampster said:

The reality is there are going to be a lot of disappointing players in this draft.  A lot of teams are going to look back at this draft and wonder wtf were they doing.  The Hawks avoided every one of those players.  Its a huge win based on that only.

Cam is no lock for greatness, he has a lot of question marks. I like the pick, don't get me wrong, but that's just the nature of the draft. Its highly likely someone taken after Cam will end up a better player, just based on probabilities.

[Dnice]

Well I see it's not the weekend anymore...lol

[Buzzard]

On 6/23/2019 at 12:51 PM, thecampster said:

The reality is there are going to be a lot of disappointing players in this draft.  A lot of teams are going to look back at this draft and wonder wtf were they doing.  The Hawks avoided every one of those players.  Its a huge win based on that only.

I am content we got Bruno. You could have thrown Bruno, Goga, and Romeo in a hat and I would be happy if drew either of them at 17. To get one of them outside the 1st round just adds to the feeling of a win.

[JayBirdHawk]

We finally have our Bol Bol answer:

Quote

I don’t know how many times I can say this, but there was zero interest in Bol. None. One of the executives came up to me a few weeks before the draft and asked me why several outlets were projecting the Hawks to draft him, and he made it very clear during that talk how the front office felt about being linked to Bol. Schlenk was at Bol’s pro day workout, but there was never interest in him. Those agency workouts are a good place for GMs to be around other GMs and scouts and get more info about other players.

 

 

[Spud2nique]

51 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

We finally have our Bol Bol answer:

 

 

I’m gonna root for Bol throughout his career. He seems like a humble and great kid and his dad was the most genuine of genuine human beings around. Having said that, he’s a major liability and I never wanted to draft him for us. 

He needs to get stronger and thicker and just less injury prone.

[sturt]

Kirschner strikes me as a young reporter who has no doubt in the world that every one of his sources are always informed and always more than happy to share with him precisely what is true... and highly expectant that everyone should accept he is wise and discerning enough to tell the difference.

Having said that, I appreciate that we at least have a young and eager to please beat writer somewhere in the Hawks universe.

But having said that, this kid appears to not understand even the most basic tenets of journalistic ethics.... eg., most recently, during the Baze trade saga, repeating tweets as-if his sources were all his own independent findings/conclusions, but suspiciously almost immediately following what was broadcast by C-Viv and Chouinard.

 

Okay, to the specific point here, though, there was this said pre-draft......

===================================

 

Quote

 

".......Be careful. Everybody is lying about Bol Bol," one team executive says. "Every team thinks they have him figured out. The ones who like him a lot are spreading negative rumors about him, and the ones who don't want to draft him are propping him up."......

 

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2840430-mystery-man-nba-draft-prospect-bol-bol-has-scouts-execs-split-on-his-potential

 

It's highly plausible to me, for one, that Schlenk was among those who were propping him up.... but otoh, unless Bol's workout was held in ATL or close by, I have trouble digesting it was that important to Schlenk to be present if he had zero interest... time is too valuable, and cell phone service and the face time app are too cheaply acquired these days to think Schlenk would feel compelled to invest the time and trouble.

 

So, we only "have our Bol answer" to the degree that you trust that the new reporter's source was/is unquestionably inside Schlenk's inner circle and, further, anxious to be candid with the new kid.

Skepticism is a healthy thing, imo.

[JayBirdHawk]

1 hour ago, JayBirdHawk said:

We finally have our Bol Bol answer:

 

 

More - This is interesting:

Quote

Chris Kirchner wrote:Q: Had Cam Reddish not been there at 10, what do you think the Hawks would have done? What player would have been next on their list?

A: The Hawks likely would have traded down. I had heard Indiana wanted to move up to No. 10 prior to the draft. The Pacers were going to offer Aaron Holiday in a deal with the 18th pick. It would have given the Hawks a young backup point guard.

I know Atlanta really liked Goga Bitadze and Sekou Doumbouya, but I don’t know if the Hawks would have selected them at 10.

 

I remember seeing this as a rumor floating around the interwebs on draft day.