Official Game Thread: Hawks at Jazz

[bleachkit]

7 minutes ago, benhillboy said:

Good teams just salivate on how to get him involved on defense (especially in a transition communication event, my goodness) and offensively off the ball where he’s a statue, making it essentially  4-on-5 basketball.  Schlenk better be glad he isn’t in NY or Boston he’d have to answer questions about Trae’s off ball and defense standing in the grocery line.

They say when you draft a guy the first thing you need to ask yourself is, "who is he going to defend?"

[benhillboy]

3 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

They say when you draft a guy the first thing you need to ask yourself is, "who is he going to defend?"

Thats way back in the days when “the men knew who the men were, the men knew who the women were, the women knew who the women were, and the women knew who the men were.”  Insert Jordan crying emoji.

Edited January 16, 2021 by benhillboy

[JTB]

37 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Did you think that Schlenk paid $38 million for FAs to let Trae shoot at will everytime in every game? (granted they're in street clothes).

Of course big I know they have to be involved.

 

29 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

To clarify...I'm not saying they should be more a focal point of the offense.

Example: The reason to bring in Bogi is because he's adept at running the offense out of the PnR, he's been relegated to being more or less a spot up 3pt shooter, that's not maximizing what he does and giving us offensive versatility.

What I'm saying is, although the offense is built around Trae it has to be diversified enough to win games when it matters.

I agree with this but why can’t Trae be Trae while we implement this new offense???

 

[High5]

I don’t know what to say about Trae except that he’s buckling under the pressure of expectations (if he’s not injured). Which is not something I ever thought would happen. His supreme confidence had been perhaps his greatest strength before this stretch of games.

I don’t buy that he’s “pouting” and intentionally humiliating himself or that any change in the offense is making him score 4 points on 11 shots.

[JayBirdHawk]

18 minutes ago, JTB said:

Of course big I know they have to be involved.

 

I agree with this but why can’t Trae be Trae while we implement this new offense???

 

For Trae to be Trae he needs to get out of his own head. His 3 ball isn't working, his floater isn't floating, his drives and finish lacks crispness, sometimes because it looks as if he's debating with himself if he should pass or actually shoot it. Right now it's about confidence to take the shots - it's just not there right now. There are expectations for this team to actually win now.  I think we sometimes forget, he's still a young player.

If teams are going to play ball deny in the backcourt, what is the plan for the offense besides waiting for Trae to shed the 2 defenders to get the ball and initiate the offense. Why not have Trae do something different instead of just focusing on getting the ball back at the top of the key to initiate the offense.

 

[JayBirdHawk]

Let's hope we can bottle this for Cam

 

 

[bleachkit]

1 minute ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Let's hope we can bottle this for Cam

 

 

It'll be a 2-13 shooting tonight.

[JayBirdHawk]

Who gets the assignment guarding Dame tonight? Reddish or Hunter? 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[macdaddy]

I watched the whole game and 'running the offense through Hunter' seems wildly overstated.  

Honestly we need to get back to Hawks basketball which runs through Trae.   I know he stunk last night but I just don't know what this team is doing.   Everyone looks lost. 

[terrell]

 Trae is just a tease.."All flash no substance"..He showing the same traits he showed in College.Put up stats but cant lead his team  when it matters(shouldnt of made NCAA tourney)...Hell, he cant even put up stats atm playing with better players..When things go bad, he blames others(teammates)..It's like he cant take criticism....All of this talk about winning this summer.........People blamed Collins suspension last year for our horrible season(we won 20 fkn games). Now they're blaming Steve Nash,The refs,etc.........Nah..Its on Trae. Hes showing his true colors this year.... Hes just not that dude.  He talks (and tweets) a good game, but his defense, shot selection, true pg skills are still booty cheeks..And oh yeah, I saw Hunter look at him like wtf man recently after he chucked a deep 3 early in the shot clock..So I think it's more than just Collins who's getting sick and tired of Trae......Remember Dre came from UVA..He's used to playing smart basketball..

Edited January 16, 2021 by terrell

[JayBirdHawk]

3 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

I watched the whole game and 'running the offense through Hunter' seems wildly overstated.  

Honestly we need to get back to Hawks basketball which runs through Trae.   I know he stunk last night but I just don't know what this team is doing.   Everyone looks lost. 

IIRC, I think Trae was on the bench when Hunter was the focal point of the offense during the 1st part of the 2nd quarter.

[terrell]

3 hours ago, BrazilianHawk said:

Absolutely YES. We lost that trade the moment it went off. Some of us really like undersized shoot-first PGs but yeah... That trade was a disgrace.

[benhillboy]

13 minutes ago, terrell said:

 Trae is just a tease.."All flash no substance"..He showing the same traits he showed in College.Put up stats but cant lead his team to NCAA tourney when it matters(shouldnt of made it)...Hell, he cant even put up stats atm playing with better players..When things go bad, he blames others(teammates)..It's like he cant take criticism....All of this talk about winning this summer.........People blamed Collins suspension last year for our horrible season. Now they're blaming Steve Nash,The refs,etc.........Nah..Its on Trae. Hes showing his true colors this year.... Hes just not that dude.  He talks (and tweets) a good game, but his defense, shot selection, true pg skills are still booty cheeks..And oh yeah, I saw Hunter look at him like wtf man recently after he chucked a deep 3 early in the shot clock..So I think it's more than just Collins who's getting sick and tired of Trae......Remember Dre came from UVA..He's used to playing smart basketball..

Booty cheeks lol.  I thought I was the resident Traeter last year but you and a few others take the cake lol.

I just lowered my expectations and I’m cool with the dice roll that is a Trae-centric team.  Against gritty PGs (like Conley reverting back to his Grindhouse days) he, and the Hawks, will struggle mightily.  Versus PGs more in line with his style (like Lilliard tonight who doesn’t even know what a ball denial is) it should be much better.  Beating Memphis twice in a week got us gassed, me included.  The young a$$ team probably felt like it won the ‘ship after beating Brooklyn.

Edited January 16, 2021 by benhillboy

[terrell]

3 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

so what did you do to counter this?  Asking for a friend.

[terrell]

6 minutes ago, benhillboy said:

Booty cheeks lol.  I thought I was the resident Traeter last year but you and a few others take the cake lol.

I just lowered my expectations and I’m cool with the dice roll that is a Trae-centric team.  Against gritty PGs (like Conley reverting back to his Grindhouse days) he, and the Hawks, will struggle mightily.  Versus PGs more in line with his style (like Lilliard tonight who doesn’t even know what a ball denial is) it should be much better.

Ive tried my best to like Trae as a player the last 2 years. Believe me..He was the one guy I didnt want the Hawks to draft at the time though. And then we trade the best prospect in years away for him..That was tough...I just thought he was too small to ever defend anybody and too careless with the basketball(looking for highlights instead of making the smart play)..Hes reminding me of 2nd half Oklahoma Trae right now..Not good..lol

Edited January 16, 2021 by terrell

[benhillboy]

I’m no defender of sports media and the ridiculously trite inquiries they parrot but Coach Lloyd acting way too cavalier in pressers.  He questions reporters’ (decent) questions and tried to assail their knowledge or memory.  It’s not very endearing.

[bleachkit]

9 minutes ago, terrell said:

Ive tried my best to like Trae as a player the last 2 years. Believe me..He was the one guy I didnt want the Hawks to draft at the time though. I just thought he was too small to ever defend anybody and too careless with the basketball..Hes reminding me of 2nd half Oklahoma Trae right now..Not good..lol

Imagine if the Hawks could go back in time. Draft Luka, then trade back in and take SGA. Damn, we would be stacked.

[terrell]

1 minute ago, bleachkit said:

Imagine if the Hawks could go back in time. Draft Luka, then trade back in and take SGA. Damn, we would be stacked.

I wanted Mitchell Robinson over Spellman too..lol

[terrell]

3 hours ago, bleachkit said:

Trae might be saying all the right things, but the body language suggests he's not comfortable. In retrospect, maybe we can see why he turned down offers from big schools to play at Oklahoma. He has to be the man, he has to take a lot shots, with a lot of dribbling and controlling the ball. Im not impugning his character, that's just how he likes to play and how he's always played, and playing another way is going to be a brutal adjustment for him. 

Mini Harden....Hawks drafted Trae knowing this is how he likes to play..They marketed him like Mike Vick for 2 seasons, now all of a sudden they want  him to be Matt Ryan..lol