Official Game Thread: Hawks at Pistons -- The Season Opener!

[lethalweapon3]

Yes, Billy earned himself a statue, too. Sorry, Danny.

 

Good evening, Friends!

I am not just addressing all of you out there in Atlanta Hawks Nation, eagerly awaiting today’s season opener versus the Detroit Pistons (7:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and V-103 FM in ATL, Fox Sports Detroit) at Little Caesars Arena. By “Friends,” I also refer to individuals among us of the Quaker faith. If you’re not one, and you come across one, hug one.

(WARNING: the following may contain perspectives gained from the Cracker Jack Box School of Theology. Viewer discretion is advised.)

Around for over 350 years since its founding in England, the Quakers’ central tenet involves a belief that there exists a spiritual “light within”, a light which each human can internally access through experientialism, as opposed to relying on external, sacramental sources.

Formally the “Religious Society of Friends,” Quakers got their name when their mid-17^th-century founder, a dissenting English preacher testifying amid accusations of religious blasphemy, cited a magistrate judge who mockingly claimed he “bade them tremble” at what the founder asserted was “the word of the Lord”. The basis for “Friends” is a biblical reference in the Book of John, where The Notorious J.H.C. distinguishes his “friends” from mere servants.

Associated with the Quakers’ signature wide-brim hats was the founder’s refusal to remove hats in court, or to comply with orders to be subservient or subjugate to laws that implied some divinely driven hierarchy among humans. It is why many Quakers grew to be acknowledged among the foremost abolitionists and opponents to slavery. It is also why they became one of the Protestant sects most rooted in pacifism. After World War II, the Quakers, many of whom were conscientious objectors, would become the first religious organization to receive a Nobel Peace Prize.

The treatment of Quakers as heretics worthy of persecution was frequent in both the Old and the New World, where a Quaker convert turned colonial by the name of William Penn set up shop in the 1680s.

The recipient of land as repayment of debts the King of England owed to his father, Penn granted 1,000 acres in his new Province of Pennsylvania to the Quakers’ founder, vowing to establish a colony where inhabitants were free from religious persecution and unjust imprisonment. He also planned and developed the capital of the future United States, the city of Philadelphia.

Penn insisted that Quaker grammar schools be open to all citizens. His William Penn Charter School (1689), the first Quaker school in America and the school that, today, claims a strapping fellow named Matt Ryan as an alum, offered education to all races as early as 1770.

Growing schools like Penn Charter began to build campuses outside of Philadelphia’s original city proper. Westtown School (1799) was built for coeds to live in West Chester, a one-day carriage ride away from the secular influences of Philadelphia. Friends Central (1845) moved out of Center City Philly to a sprawling suburban campus in Wynnewood in 1925.

Beginning in the 1960s, notably with Power Memorial in NYC, DeMatha in suburban Washington, D.C., Evan Turner’s St. Joseph’s (of Hoop Dreams fame) outside Chicago, and St. Anthony in Newark, Catholic schools began recruiting and enrolling standout African American prep athletes, especially in the desegregating sport of basketball. The idea was to gain positive notoriety, local prestige and, in the process of building renowned athletic programs, perhaps some new adherents as well.

The successful religious-based basketball programs became powerhouses on a regional, state, and even national scale.  The movement to cast larger nets for basketball talent extended not only to religious schools like Philly’s Roman Catholic High, but the secular suburban ones, too.

Wynnewood, in Pennsylvania’s Lower Merion Township, is home to not only Friends Central, but the public Lower Merion High School that Kobe Bryant and his many jersey-rocking stans have made famous. It was probably around the time of young Kobe’s prominence that Friends Central, and other Quaker schools, decided their athletic programs needed to get in on the act.

The first future NCAA Final Four hero to walk the halls at Friends Central was a pogo stick out of Philly named Hakim Warrick. The Quaker schools ran independently from the state’s interscholastic hoop tourneys at the time, yet in 2001, Warrick helped snag the school’s first Friends Schools League title since 1974 before going on to become a legend at Syracuse. The next year, they drew future Arizona Wildcat Mustafa Shakur away from a Philly public school named coincidentally after William Penn.

By the end of that decade, Friends Central was riding the skills of Philly-kid Amile Jefferson to the first of four straight state independent-school titles, drawing the attention of scouts at Duke University. Jefferson would go on to become a three-time team captain for a Blue Devils squad that won the 2015 NCAA title. No Dookie would ever appear in more games than Jefferson.

Coach K and company didn’t return to this particular well at Friends Central, leaving the state’s 2016 Class AA Player of the Year, senior De’Andre Hunter, who was raised in Northeast Philly near his Under Armour circuit-ball teammate (Hawks two-way contractor Charlie Brown) to settle for a less-accomplished ACC program at the University of Virginia. But Duke was not done with Quaker schools from the Quaker State.

Sports Illustrated, while producing a full-length documentary in 2018, claimed the Westtown School’s basketball team featured, “perhaps the greatest starting five in HS basketball history,” which is lofty praise, indeed. The towering center Mo Bamba commanded everyone’s attention, but it was the super-shy introverted kid, about five inches smaller, that Westtown’s head coach could not stop raving about.

“Cam (Reddish) is the hardest working player I’ve ever had,” said Westtown coach Seth Berger to SI, “it’s not close… You’ll never see him try a move that he hasn’t practiced in the gym by himself… He’s the best offensive player I’ve ever seen in high school… unquestionably, the best combination of skill, size, athleticism, and intelligence.” More lofty praise for Reddish, 2018’s Mr. Pennsylvania Basketball, who grew up in gritty Philly-burb Norristown, same as Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce’s wife. Once more, Coach K was sold.

Outside of high school hoops, Hunter and Brown trained together under Sean Colson, a former Philly prep star and journeyman pro who had a cup of tea in the NBA back in 2001, with ten-day contracts in Atlanta and Houston.

De'Andre took Hakim’s and Amile’s college-championship legacy at Friends Central and turned it into a lineage. He led his UVA Cavaliers on a wild-and-woolly March Madness journey to the 2019 NCAA title while avenging an embarrassing loss when the top-seeded Cavs had to play the 2018 tourney without him. Another accented DeAndre of sorts, the Atlanta Hawks’ DeAndre' Bembry, mentored the college star, Brown, who followed him down the road from Friends Central at St. Joseph’s University. Now they may very well be teammates on an NBA floor.

All of these local connections add credence to those who suspect Travis Schlenk, the Hawks’ GM and new Prez of Basketball Ops, must have aced a Chemistry class or two back in his own school days. Even better, Schlenk came away with a bachelor’s in something called Human Ecology, the interdisciplinary study of humans’ relationships with their natural, social, and built environments.

But I posit there’s more involved than mere Philly roots when Schlenk and the Hawks maneuvered to pair these particular lottery talents with Atlanta’s growing stable of blue-chip pro-spects.

Quaker schools are not into the whole proselytizing business. But both Westtown and Friends Central do require their students to attend a weekly “Meeting for Worship.” It’s akin to a collective for a Protestant church service. Except here, the Meeting of Friends and students involves sitting together, generally in silence, for at least a half-hour.

Exceptions may include a Meeting leader who presents a query, or food for thought, as a point of initiation. Occasionally, after many minutes of pondering, an attendee will be moved by their “inner light” to stand and offer thoughts, or poems or songs, they find to be beneficial to the attending community. After that, it’s back to the silent treatment until the Meeting concludes. If you’ve managed to read this far, you’d know I’d be toast at these Meetings.

If you’ve heard about Reddish, and Hunter, being a bit reserved for the types of players pro teams tend to gravitate toward, I may suggest that weeks after weeks of mandatory Friends’ Meetings will do that to you. The incoming first-rounders are mistaken by those not in the know as bearing some detrimental sense of passivity, of deference, of timidity that won’t fare well as the spotlight shines even brighter at this level.

Schlenk was in the Warriors’ war room back in 2012, when Draymond Green fell into Golden State’s lap at Pick #35. He understands that there is room in this league for the more caustic, extroverted opinion machines like Green, when those teammates commit to improving their own game, conditioning, and leadership skills along the way.

Travis was also in the draft room a year prior, when a decision to take the more reserved, withdrawn Klay Thompson at Pick #11 was at hand. Declining to pass up on either player was key to the bonanza of basketball excellence that would soon support the Warriors’ young, nifty-dribbling, sweet-shooting point guard star.

Thompson, and the reigning NBA Finals MVP, could be categorized as the “strong, silent types” whose game occasionally makes all the noise anyone needs to hear. That “silent, with an emphasis on strong” characterization could very well be the future cases for both Hunter and Reddish, and perhaps 2018-19 All-Rookie selection Kevin Huerter, too. In Atlanta, for now, they can leave the jersey-tugging and flexing and crowd-rousing to 2019 All-Star candidates Trae Young and John Collins.

If Reddish read his press clippings and hogged the ball during his stay in Durham, maybe Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett don’t get enough chances to shine as play-finishers and become Top 3 picks in the 2019 Draft. Maybe the trio of frosh doesn’t outlast Hunter’s eventual Natty winner, UVA, to emerge with the ACC conference title, and advance to within a single point of the Final Four. Cam routinely deferred, stepping forward only when called upon in critical moments, and his team won 32 games anyway.

Now, instead of a 6’6”, 270-pound rim-rocking behemoth at center stage obscuring Reddish, the marquee in Atlanta is for a 6’2”, 180-pound sprite who absolutely craves finding creative ways to share the ball with talented guys like him.

For the lottery rooks, their common off-court tutelage brings even more to the table for the young Hawks. Quakers are well-renowned for their structured consensus-building and mutual decision-making process. The underlying assumption is the sense of a common humanity, pulling toward “unity” rather than “unanimity” when there’s a need to reach a resolution.

The “Quaker-based” consensus model produces team members who are well-versed in the practice of active listening, ensuring that every voice, including those of dissenters, is heard and valued equally in discussion.

Adversity looms for all young teams in the pros as they look to make the rugged, slippery climb toward relevance and contention. Rough stretches of quarters, of whole games, of whole weeks, await. Especially eager to face the Hawks, in the early going, are teams loaded with veteran players and highly experienced staff. Teams like the Pistons, a squad that broke even (41-41) under coach Dwane Casey in 2018-19 and secured an 8-seed, one that returns its star talents and most of its starters despite a 4-game first-round bludgeoning at the hands of their division rival Bucks.

Fervent in their belief they’ll need vets couched around Blake Griffin (out until November, hammy and sore knee) and Andre Drummond to better compete, Detroit’s biggest offseason additions were Derrick Rose, Markieff Morris, and soon-to-be fellow tricenarian Tim Frazier.  On draft day, they acquired Kevin Porter and veteran Tony Snell from the Bucks, then cast off the 19-year-old prospect, Porter, for a trove of Cleveland’s future second-rounders and cash.

With eight regular-rotation Pistons having at least five NBA seasons under their belts (almost nine, had they hung on to our old friend Joe), they are a team that can stash youngsters like Sekou Doumbouya, Bruce Brown, Svi Mykhailiuk and Khyri Thomas, pinning their development to the team’s long-term hopes rather than their immediate ones.

Highly regarded NBA rookies and sophomores in repetitive lottery locales like, say, New York, or Dallas last season, will be looked upon to seize the Singular Superstar mantle, solve challenges mostly on their own, and turn things around in ways their predecessor peers could not. They often must swim upstream against veteran squads like the Pistons despite, not so much with, the residual talents of flawed teammates that put them in this situation in the first place.

Conversely, in Atlanta, Hunter and Reddish can demonstrate leadership through listening and collaboration, contributing to an even-keeled locker room. They will have a stern yet relatable taskmaster in Pierce bending their ears, and a host of veterans, including the venerable Vince Carter, to help get them acclimated with all the off-court rigors and on-court tricks of the trade. Barely a couple months younger than the 22-year-old Collins, Hunter enters the league with a maturity and composure one normally would not expect of his newbie cohorts.

For Hawks fans in search of something a lot more tangible in the near term, the rookies, including second-round center Bruno Fernando, step onto the court as the team’s best bets to make immediate impacts on the defensive end of the floor, the side where the Hawks found themselves most woefully inadequate in 2018-19 (28^th in 2018-19 Defensive Rating, 24^th after the All-Star Break, 22^nd in final 15 games of the season; NBA-worst 20.9 opponent points-per-48 off TOs).

The young veterans like Collins (5^th-best in 2018-19 NBA for Roll-Man Defensive points per possession, min. 40 games played), Young and Alex Len will be expected to continue making defensive strides this season. But the first-year performers could be the rising tides that float all the Hawks’ boats.

While both will start tonight, as Huerter’s minutes are restrained due to preseason recovery, whichever of Hunter or Reddish does not remain in Atlanta’s precocious starting five could be one of the strongest rookie candidates for Sixth Man of the Year since the days of Ben Gordon. Surrounded by a host of experienced veterans, including Turner, Bembry, Jabari Parker, Chandler Parsons, Allen Crabbe and Damian Jones, the rookie reserve is sure to have a featured play-making role while also charged with inducing stops on the defensive end.

There’s no certainty that the Hawks’ plans will bear fruit immediately, or even this season, in the form of a formidable postseason contender. Yet the consumer confidence in this team’s long-term potential, carried over from the promising close of last season, has arguably never been higher entering an NBA season. Fan skepticism around an NBA team coming off a 29-53 campaign, conversely, has never been lower.

If the playoff payoff begins to arrive in 2020, at State Farm Arena, there will be a whole lotta quakin’ going on, in the ATL and beyond. In the months and years to come, if Hunter and Reddish have much to do with a sudden basketball breakthrough, with teammates discovering and embracing their “inner light” as they reshape themselves into legitimate contention, Hawks fans will have many a Friend to be thankful for.

Just remember, before you hug any Quakers in appreciation for their contributions, they had absolutely nothing to do with oatmeal or motor oil.

 

Let’s Go Hawks! (and you too, Five Stripes!)

~lw3

[JayBirdHawk]

Not just basketball, a history lesson worth the read!

@lethalweapon3.......

Now....I'm officially ready for Game Day!

[NBASupes]

Its back, @lethalweapon3.

 

I am hearing Reggie might be out so the Pistons lineup should look like this

Rose
Brown Jr
Snell
Morris
Drummond

The defensive matchup should look like this:

Brown Jr on Young
Rose on Cam
Snell on Hunter
Morris on Collins
Andre on Len

This is a game where we need Reddish to be extremely aggressive like he was v. NY. They will blitz the PnR and double Trae often. We need Cam and Hunter to really make DET pay. Movement and making open looks will be key. If Cam and Hunter go off, we should win this game handily.

[lethalweapon3]

Adding to @NBASupes' injury status notes, Pistons' Game Notes lists Markieff as Questionable (lower back tightness, as with Reggie, for now listed as Probable).

Sarah Spencer (our new C-Viv at the AJC) noted earlier today that Huerter's status was upgraded from Probable to Available.

~lw3

[kg01]

Coach: Hey Brown.  We gonna put you on Trae this game.  Let's watch some game tape, get prepped:

DET teammates (new): 

DET teammates (old:): 

Brown: 

 

[Buzzard]

The Raptors, Pacers, Celtics, Magic. Heat, Nets, Pistons, Bulls need to be our measuring stick. Game one against a team in the East picked to make a playoff push of some type. Go Hawks!

[Gray Mule]

50 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Not just basketball, a history lesson worth the read!

@lethalweapon3.......

Now....I'm officially ready for Game Day!

Me too!  Great way to introduce the Squawk to our new draft picks !!

[thecampster]

Might be the best you've written...not enough likes no matter how many it gets.

[JayBirdHawk]

Things I want to see:

1. Trae to control the pace of the game and limit TOs

2. Reddish and Hunter to have good 1st rookie games

3. Some defensive improvement across the board

4. For Len to have no more than 1 shot blocked by the rim and to limit his 'stonehands-izness-

5. John to be John

6. Bembry to have offensive control but be the spark off the bench on defense.

7. If Damion is backing up Len - just look the part of an actual NBA player or just throw Bruno in the fire

8. Huerter's knee to be A-OK.

9. VC turning the clock back and yamming on Drummond

10. A win! 

[bleachkit]

Cam getting the start over Kevin? I think CLP is jumping the gun here, if starting means anything.

[AHF]

18 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

Cam getting the start over Kevin? I think CLP is jumping the gun here, if starting means anything.

I think that reflects Kevin's 15 minute limit.  I'm betting on Kevin starting within the next few games.

[JayBirdHawk]

22 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

Cam getting the start over Kevin? I think CLP is jumping the gun here, if starting means anything.

I think it has more to do with KH coming off injury, not having played in Preseason and his minute restrictions.

John came off the bench last year for 2 games coming off injury for 12 and 20 mins.

[NBASupes]

Just now, AHF said:

I think that reflects Kevin's 15 minute limit.  I'm betting on Kevin starting within the next few games.

It might take a couple of weeks for that to happen, that said, this should be the starting five for the next 10-15 years. Kevin will be much better with the 2nd unit. 

[JayBirdHawk]

2 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

It might take a couple of weeks for that to happen, that said, this should be the starting five for the next 10-15 years. Kevin will be much better with the 2nd unit. 

Just saying, but...John came off the bench last year for 2 games coming off injury for 12 and 20 mins.

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[AHF]

6 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

It might take a couple of weeks for that to happen, that said, this should be the starting five for the next 10-15 years. Kevin will be much better with the 2nd unit. 

You know every game that Cam starts at SG and Hunter at SF is one in the bank for me on our bet, though.  Right?  

 

On 7/18/2019 at 4:32 PM, AHF said:

Doubling down on Cam with Supes today:

Looking forward to my appreciation thread when Cam wins league MVP but starts all 82 games at SG.  

 

[kg01]

I envision a lotta layers from the Pistons POV:

- Rose will be a problem.  Smelling like he's fully healthy and hungry.

Speaking of smells, RegMe Jackson should smelling his minutes being shifted to Rose so look for him to be ultra aggressive .. hopefully to the detriment of his own team, as usual.

Drummond is a bipolar player.  Always comes out strong the first 10 or so games then peters out.  He'll either come out gangbusters or he'll barely show up being content that he excelled last night.

Will Rose + Drummond - RegMe - Drummond = a Pistons win?  Tune in tonite, ladies and gentlemen.

[bleachkit]

7 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

It might take a couple of weeks for that to happen, that said, this should be the starting five for the next 10-15 years. Kevin will be much better with the 2nd unit. 

10 to 15 years? That's a really long time. I don't think any starting 5 lasts that long these days.

[AHF]

I think Drummond will do well against us.  We are the type of matchup where he puts up nice numbers.  Now, he might do that while his team plays poorly overall but he will get his bullying our center rotation.