Official Game Thread: Hawks at Bulls

[Vol4ever]

Dang that 30 win season I predicted is fading daily.  

[NBASupes]

28 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

That's why you play young players, so they can get up to the speed of the game.  

With this season being pretty much over, from an accumulating wins standpoint, Bruno should be playing a minimum of 15 - 20 minutes a night.  The more he plays, the more he'll learn.  Cam and Hunter should get 30 minutes a night.

Also, throw the ball to Bruno in the post at least 2 times a game.  Just a regular post up, so that he isn't just running around setting screens all day.  He can also pass out of the post as well.  I'd rather see this, than for a guard to force a pass to him off the pick and roll.

There are ways to develop guys and tailor your coaching to enhance their strengths.  Making Hunter play the 4 on the NBA level does him no favors.  He's just not physical enough to bigger, much more athletic people.  He could get away with that in college.  

Not having Cam be more of a Pick and Roll facilitator limits his development as well.  He's not a good spot up shooter.  He's much better with the ball in his hands, where he can be in position to attack the paint.  Give him more opportunities to do that.

 

Cam is so good with the ball at the top of the key. He just makes good decisions. Sadly, at the point of attack, he can make the worst decisions. More experience is needed for him, Bruno, and others youngins. 

[Spud2nique]

Rough night again for us. Seemed like a bit more effort than last night but same inconsistencies, same lack of desire and the same outcome. A 35 point defeat.  

 

I will say one thing that I feel is a problem. Situational awareness of time, possession and score. We don’t have that because we are young and we are getting hammered for it by vets and teams with vets. These are the dark days...it’ll get better but hopefully not before it gets too much worse.

Bruno played hard. He earns his minutes. Hunter and Cam ain’t gettin it done yet. Each game is a learning experience though. Keep ya heads up kids! 
 

GO HAWKS!!!!!!

[NBASupes]

 

[JTB]

10 hours ago, Sothron said:

So can we criticize the GM now? You  know, trading a generational superstar talent in Doncic? Not putting any quality veterans on this team except for Parker on offense?  Not having a backup point guard? 

I get we were taking bad deals with one year left to get draft picks or move up in previous draft. This draft capital translated to Hunter and Reddish who are, frankly, not looking like the best picks. Hunter has had some good games after a slow start. Reddish is a walking disaster on offense. 

What about our coach? Remember when the Hawks had Terry Stotts and we fired him? Said he was a bad coach for today's NBA back then? How has he panned out for Portland? Is this what LP is? Or is he just a reeeeeeaaaalllyyy bad coach?

I don't know. I know when you keep getting blown out like this you have to put some of the blame on the coaching staff. To do otherwise would be criminal in regards to responsibility. LP can give all the speeches he wants but this team flat out gives zero effort four of five games. When you get blown out by the KNICKS and BULLS what else is there to say?

Welcome to Atlanta our future lottery pick! Let's hope if you are a generational talent we don't trade you out of town again!

I think you’re focused in too much on the luka and trae comparison! I say don’t  get caught up in that social media bs!....trae is a generational talent without talent around him. Luka is a generational talent with a top 10 head coach, a 7’3 guy who still has a ton of upside to be a superstar player not just at this current all star he is (in porzingis),  & a bunch of VETERAN reliable shooters....a bunch of stuff trae doesn’t have!

This isn’t excuses but it’s clear as day trae is just as good as luka offensively (defensively luka has him beat but luka isn’t that special on defense still and that’s not either players calling) and is better than him behind the 3pt line but you have to give trae talent Just like you have to give luka talent which the mavs did  .

both these guys are in year 2 in top 5 ppg and assist per game with good shooting percentages for the most part...YEAR 2!
 

I’m not saying you or no one else can say luka isn’t better than trae...that’s not my point here. My point is Schlenk made a trade that actually worked out well cause either way we were getting a generational talent apparently. Trae is balling just like luka but what’s around them is completely completely different. I don’t know how people don’t see that.

its not traes fault no one else on this team can create offense for themselves or hit a open shot. Trae literally has to create offense for every teammate including himself.

 
When Luka went down the mavs beat the Mighty bucks and Giannis was easily the best player on the court that night. They also beat Philly pretty bad too in a game that embiid and Simmons played in and though they lost to the Celtics while luka was out it was only by 6 and vs the raptors they only lost by 3. Now you compare the hawks to the mavs when our best player is off the court and we can’t even put up 100 pts! ...Schlenk purposely tanked this season and trae has to deal with it despite putting up superstar numbers.

[NBASupes]

I have little to no issues with the draft picks that TS made. Most of them. That means Spellman too. Dorsey was the only one where I felt TS could have did better. I rathered Dillon Brooks more who was Dorsey teammate. 

Other than that, I understood every pick and all of them made sense. I didn't like the selling and trading of picks. That part I didn't agree with.

His roster management in year 1 of the LP era wasn't good but it wasn't awful. We didn't have much depth at all but we had a decent starting rotation with decent at best potential. It showed in the 2nd half. We had shooters but we couldn't defend shit and our depth was so limited.

This year, it was horrendous. We have nearly no depth. No starting center. No vets. Defense is even worse. Offense is awful, especially without Trae and that's with massive offensive improvement from Trae and decent improvement from John. Kevin been hurt all year and the rookies like most rookie wings who are thrown into the fire are rare as shit. 

[Sothron]

2 hours ago, JTB said:

I think you’re focused in too much on the luka and trae comparison! I say don’t  get caught up in that social media bs!....trae is a generational talent without talent around him. Luka is a generational talent with a top 10 head coach, a 7’3 guy who still has a ton of upside to be a superstar player not just at this current all star he is (in porzingis),  & a bunch of VETERAN reliable shooters....a bunch of stuff trae doesn’t have!

This isn’t excuses but it’s clear as day trae is just as good as luka offensively (defensively luka has him beat but luka isn’t that special on defense still and that’s not either players calling) and is better than him behind the 3pt line but you have to give trae talent Just like you have to give luka talent which the mavs did  .

both these guys are in year 2 in top 5 ppg and assist per game with good shooting percentages for the most part...YEAR 2!
 

I’m not saying you or no one else can say luka isn’t better than trae...that’s not my point here. My point is Schlenk made a trade that actually worked out well cause either way we were getting a generational talent apparently. Trae is balling just like luka but what’s around them is completely completely different. I don’t know how people don’t see that.

its not traes fault no one else on this team can create offense for themselves or hit a open shot. Trae literally has to create offense for every teammate including himself.

 
When Luka went down the mavs beat the Mighty bucks and Giannis was easily the best player on the court that night. They also beat Philly pretty bad too in a game that embiid and Simmons played in and though they lost to the Celtics while luka was out it was only by 6 and vs the raptors they only lost by 3. Now you compare the hawks to the mavs when our best player is off the court and we can’t even put up 100 pts! ...Schlenk purposely tanked this season and trae has to deal with it despite putting up superstar numbers.

I like how this was the only thing in my post you talked about.

But let's talk about it. If you don't think Doncic is better than Trae then I don't know what else to say. I love Trae Young. But he's not as good as Doncic. Doncic is putting up 30/10/10 while playing average to good defense. He's also several inches taller than Young and can play multiple positions. Trae will only ever be a point guard.

There is no comparison between the two. Michael Jordan vs Reggie Miller. Both are in the HoF but which would you rather have? 

He traded Doncic and we all knew the deciding factor would be how that extra pick panned out. Reddish has looked like complete ass on offense this year. He's a young kid so I'm not going to throw in the towel on him when he's surrounded by G league talent. Both Doncic and Young played like gangbusters as rookies and sadly that is what people will expect of high draft picks now.

Now let's get back to the rest of my post. This team isn't built just to tank. This team is completely flawed and has no chance of actually helping our young players get better. Hunter is playing like 38 minutes a night as a rookie. That's crazy! We have no backup point guard. That's crazy! We traded for all these sucky ass veterans on bad deals. And who knew they wouldn't give a damn about playing with any effort or helping the young guys. What a shock!

People can defend LP all they want like @NBASupes can. I know what my eyes tell me. This team flat out gives zero effort four out of every five games. That's on the coach. I knew this team would struggle to get 30 wins but now we are going to struggle to get 20 wins. Absolutely pathetic. 

[NBASupes]

I disagree @Sothron, they give effort. They got too much on their plate. LP gets these guys playing hard. I seen it even last night. Playing hard and effort has been an issue for us this year at times but not recently. We been playing hard over the last 3 weeks outside of the New York game. We just suck

[smoove31210]

This team will not win 20 games as constructed....that is for sure......

[Sothron]

Just now, NBASupes said:

I disagree @Sothron, they give effort. They got too much on their plate. LP gets these guys playing hard. I seen it even last night. Playing hard and effort has been an issue for us this year at times but not recently. We been playing hard over the last 3 weeks outside of the New York game. We just suck

Getting blown out by almost forty points by a bad Bulls team is not giving effort.

[NBASupes]

Just now, Sothron said:

Getting blown out by almost forty points by a bad Bulls team is not giving effort.

Brad said it best yesterday. This felt like a 20 point blow out game wise. Atlanta couldn't buy a bucket in the 4th and Chicago was hitting miracle shots with non shooters.

[bleachkit]

27 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

Brad said it best yesterday. This felt like a 20 point blow out game wise. Atlanta couldn't buy a bucket in the 4th and Chicago was hitting miracle shots with non shooters.

Teams always seem to have their best shooting performance of the season against us. How can our perimeter defense still be this bad?

[NBASupes]

2 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

Teams always seem to have their best shooting performance of the season against us. How can our perimeter defense still be this bad?

A big part of that is due to our bigs who can't defend the perimeter at all. Then you have Kevin who never defended 3pt shots well. It truly is personnel based. We had this same issue last year, our collective offense is just much worse. 

[JayBirdHawk]

Lots-O-0fers and 1fers and 2fers in this one.  Lack of consistency and non-existent communication on both ends. Players trying to do too much beyond their skillsets, those with the skillsets taking a backseat.

Starters except Collins:

KH: 2-12

CR: 1-5

DH: 2-9

BF: 2-6

That's 18 TOTAL Points from 4 starters. 3 rookies and 1 2nd year player, I get that they are young players - but that's just B.R.U.T.A.L.

Trae and John are our 1-2 scorers, but I'mma need at least 1 of these wings to add at least 15 ppg with some consistancy.

I do agree with @NBASupes that Hunter may be hitting the proverbial rookie wall, he's playing quite a bit of minutes most games except when he has to sit with foul troble.

Thought Bruno was a hustle/energy guy. I guess he's too overwhelmed, and I think he's in his own head trying to play mistake free.

 

Edit: no other player hit more that 2 shots.

WHY CAN'T WE SHOOT??????

[NBASupes]

23 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Lots-O-0fers and 1fers and 2fers in this one.  Lack of consistency and non-existent communication on both ends. Players trying to do too much beyond their skillsets, those with the skillsets taking a backseat.

Starters except Collins:

KH: 2-12

CR: 1-5

DH: 2-9

BF: 2-6

That's 18 TOTAL Points from 4 starters. 3 rookies and 1 2nd year player, I get that they are young players - but that's just B.R.U.T.A.L.

Trae and John are our 1-2 scorers, but I'mma need at least 1 of these wings to add at least 15 ppg with some consistancy.

I do agree with @NBASupes that Hunter may be hitting the proverbial rookie wall, he's playing quite a bit of minutes most games except when he has to sit with foul troble.

Thought Bruno was a hustle/energy guy. I guess he's too overwhelmed, and I think he's in his own head trying to play mistake free.

 

Edit: no other player hit more that 2 shots.

WHY CAN'T WE SHOOT??????

Cam college stats for me said I should expect what he gave us this month with more volume. For most of the season, that hasn't happened. 

Expecting Hunter to do more from 3 than what he has so far is just insane. His college numbers say what he is doing is actually better than expected. 

Prince was shooting 7.3 a game while shooting the strongside wide open 3s at a crazy percentage. Baze shot 6.3 a game at a decent clip. We lost shooters on the wing but the biggest is Dedmon. He was one of the best volume shooting 5s and we just haven't been able to replicate that. 

Kevin just has too much on his plate which is a problem as we have no one outside of him who can handle it either. 

Edited December 29, 2019 by NBASupes

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

 

[Cwell]

7 hours ago, bleachkit said:

Teams always seem to have their best shooting performance of the season against us. How can our perimeter defense still be this bad?

it's not just the defense. We don't make teams work at all when we're on offense so they're able to calmly take shots on the other end. You don't have to exude much energy to guard a guy standing still. Players react differently when they're being pressured. Playing us is like playing against 5 beanie babies, no fear.

[JayBirdHawk]

 

BRUTAL. I think we should just concede back-to-back games going forward.

[yungsta]

35 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

BRUTAL. I think we should just concede back-to-back games going forward.

Yea that is horrendous but what is funny is that when you take a 2nd look at who we played. Besides the bulls, any team in the league would have difficulty winning against those teams on the 2nd half of back to back especially ON THE ROAD.

Our schedule has been comically brutal.

Its like whoever made our schedule wanted to make sure the momentum, confidence, and spirit we had from the end of last season was crushed immediately with no hope of recovering.

[Plainview1981]

On 12/28/2019 at 7:34 PM, NBASupes said:

Cam is going for 50 tonight. Let's go!

This didn’t age well...