Hawks made it to the Quarter Turn of the season....

[Peoriabird]

30 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

These 4 games sting.

 

We were up by 15 in the 2nd half of the Cavs and Knicks and had an epic meltdown. No excuses for that. 

The Hornets game were a combination of the 'Trae Headcase' games and we were unable to solve the Hornets Zone defense, we were just throwing up 3s.  I'm please to note we have looked better against the zones we've faced following those 2 games.

I knew you would come thru for me Bird!!!  This is what I'm talking about.  We have a straight up monster in the middle.  A wing that is playing like an all star, one of the best glue guys in the league in John Collins who helps with rebounding, defense and scoring but yet we get beat by these teams???  Something is wrong!

[AHF]

35 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

Only 7 players need to be fully healthy!  The rest are fill ins.  The team's destiny will actually be determined by 2 players...Cam and Trae period.  The other 5 are consistently giving what you need to win.  The only 2 bench players that matter to me are Huerter and Gallo.  The rest don't make an impact.  Okungwu could eventually be included because I do see the talent and what he brings but he needs floor time.  I'm not sold on Bogie being a plus but he could be.  The rest of the bench doesn't offer much.  If Cam and Trae play to their potential I see top 4 potential.  If not, 7 or 8 seed or worse.  That's how I see it.

Anyone who is playing meaningful minutes matters to me and can turns wins into losses or vice versa:

Trae Young

Rajon Rondo

Kris Dunn

Cam Reddish

Kevin Huerter*

Bogdan Bogdanovich

DeAndre Hunter

John Collins

Danilo Gallinari

Onyeka Okongwu

Clint Capela

 

All of these guys are difference makers for me.  Snell and Hill could both end up in material roles depending on injuries and when they are pressed into these more significant rotation roles how they perform will matter.

To me, depth is key this year and ignoring these other players would be akin to ignoring the impact that Thabo Sephalosha played for the 2014-15 Hawks.  It makes a difference in wins and losses.

* Edited in after he was inadvertently omitted.

[Peoriabird]

Just now, AHF said:

Anyone who is playing meaningful minutes matters to me and can turns wins into losses or vice versa:

Trae Young

Rajon Rondo

Kris Dunn

Cam Reddish

Bogdan Bogdanovich

DeAndre Hunter

John Collins

Danilo Gallinari

Onyeka Okongwu

Clint Capela

 

All of these guys are difference makers for me.  Snell and Hill could both end up in material roles depending on injuries and when they are pressed into these more significant rotation roles how they perform will matter.

To me, depth is key this year and ignoring these other players would be akin to ignoring the impact that Thabo Sephalosha played for the 2014-15 Hawks.  It makes a difference in wins and losses.

Thabo was a starter right?  Can't remember.  But anyway,  your list is very generous.  Why would you list Bogie, Rondo and Dunn over Huerter?

[JayBirdHawk]

19 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

I knew you would come thru for me Bird!!!  This is what I'm talking about.  We have a straight up monster in the middle.  A wing that is playing like an all star, one of the best glue guys in the league in John Collins who helps with rebounding, defense and scoring but yet we get beat by these teams???  Something is wrong!

Nothing is wrong! sometimes teams just play badly.  Lakers lost to Detroit last night - you think something is wrong with them?

[macdaddy]

Something WAS wrong.   Seems to have been fixed.   Probably all Hunter's doing 

[Peoriabird]

3 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Nothing is wrong! sometimes teams just play badly.  Lakers lost to Detroit last night - you think something is wrong with them?

But it didn't happen to them 4 time is the span of a week.  If it did, the national media would definitely feast on the Headline "What wrong with the Lakers?"

[REHawksFan]

17 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

I knew you would come thru for me Bird!!!  This is what I'm talking about.  We have a straight up monster in the middle.  A wing that is playing like an all star, one of the best glue guys in the league in John Collins who helps with rebounding, defense and scoring but yet we get beat by these teams???  Something is wrong!

LOL.   Did you even bother to read the original post?  There's literally an entire section dedicated to the fact that we should have won those four games and I'd argue at least one of the two Brooklyn losses.  Not sure why you think no one is saying that. We are literally all saying that.  

But also, this is where you completely lack perspective. Losing those 4 games does not automatically mean "something is wrong."  It just means they had a lousy four games and lost games they shouldn't have. That's not an excuse. That's not saying it's ok that it happened. It's just reality.  But losing 4 games that you shouldn't isn't some overarching narrative on the team that there's some systemic problem.  That literally happens to every team in the NBA.   

The Lakers just lost to the Pistons. The Celtics lost to the Pistons and now the Knicks by 30 pts. The clippers lost to the Mavs by 50.  It happens.  

[AHF]

1 minute ago, Peoriabird said:

Thabo was a starter right?  Can't remember.  But anyway,  your list is very generous.  Why would you list Bogie, Rondo and Dunn over Huerter?

No.  Korver and DMC were our starters on the wings. Thabo started 7 games, played less than 19 minutes a game and averaged 5.3 points.  And he was critical to whether we won or lost games in the playoffs.

I inadvertently omitted Huerter.  Add him to my list.

At point guard, we need Trae to play well and a strong backup behind Trae so we aren't hemorrhaging when he is off the floor.  When we are forced to go to Goodwin in the rotation it costs us key points we are going to lose some games we shouldn't.  Rondo or Dunn are the answers there.  But for injury, Dunn would be the primary guy I was counting on in the regular season with the potential for Rondo to step up in the playoffs.

At our wings, we have 4 key guys with Cam, Huert, Bogi and Hunter.  Hunter is the guy guaranteed a big role.  The other three are all needed to be positive contributors on the floor and to reach out potential we need one to really step up.  Cam is the most talented but also the youngest and rawest.

In the frontcourt, we will run into problems when Bruno and Hill are playing big minutes at the 4 and/or 5.  They just aren't good enough yet.  On a given night, any of JC, Gallo and Cap can swing games for us and all of them should be some of the most consistent performers we have on the entire roster.

[Peoriabird]

1 minute ago, REHawksFan said:

  Not sure why you think no one is saying that. We are literally all saying that.  

 

You said it not everybody did

[Peoriabird]

2 minutes ago, AHF said:

 On a given night, any of JC, Gallo and Cap can swing games for us and all of them should be some of the most consistent performers we have on the entire roster.

Why don't you include Hunter in this group?

[AHF]

1 minute ago, Peoriabird said:

Why don't you include Hunter in this group?

Because I want him at SF and not PF or C.  I included him among the wings and not among the bigs.  He should only play very limited minutes at PF, IMO.

[JayBirdHawk]

2 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

But it didn't happen to them 4 time is the span of a week.  If it did, the national media would definitely feast on the Headline "What wrong with the Lakers?"

Sigh!

 Again - the Charlotte games was the 'Trae Headcase games - so that is what was wrong, nothing to be done there.

The Cavs and Knicks game we were up big and lost focus on what was working, we slowed the tempo and played prevent offense to run the clock, the defense wasn't good, ill advised shots, coaching decisions, TOs, the other team got hot and we folded - everything went wrong in the second half of those games. Piss poor execution.

But again, teams without playoff experience and young players go thru bad stretches, but overall....NOTHING IS WRONG!  They went thru a bad stretch of easy games where they should have won at least 3 of the 4.....but again, NOTHING IS WRONG! 

[Peoriabird]

1 minute ago, AHF said:

Because I want him at SF and not PF or C.  I included him among the wings and not among the bigs.  He should only play very limited minutes at PF, IMO.

Oh I misunderstood.  So you don't think Cam should have a major role?  You mention that he is the youngest.  I actually think that he should be included in the top 5 who will determine this team's destiny night after night.  Huerter and Gallo will contribute off the bench and their impact might be needed on some nights but its not vital that they play well for us to win games or put this way, they will not be winning many games for the Hawks with impact plays like the other 5.

[Peoriabird]

3 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

....but again, NOTHING IS WRONG! 

Hmmmm!

[JayBirdHawk]

3 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

Hmmmm!

Tell the Squawk what is WRONG!

[AHF]

6 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

Oh I misunderstood.  So you don't think Cam should have a major role?  You mention that he is the youngest.  I actually think that he should be included in the top 5 who will determine this team's destiny night after night.  Huerter and Gallo will contribute off the bench and their impact might be needed on some nights but its not vital that they play well for us to win games or put this way, they will not be winning many games for the Hawks with impact plays like the other 5.

I think he can play a huge role for this team and certainly came into the season thinking he had the highest ceiling of our wings (Hunter has made a case for that distinction much to my enthusiastic joy).  If we are re-evaluating at the quarter point of the season and changing expectations, though, I have to lower the my expectations for Cam.  I was hoping he would follow Trae's path by having a disaster of a 2019 followed by big improvements in performance and consistency in the 2020 of his rookie year and then follow that up with incremental improvement on top of his Jan - March 2020 numbers.

So now I am very confident he will be the best of our 2's defensively but am not locked into him having to be the big guy offensively from that position.  Bogi (whose FG% has been wayyyyy worse than his career average) rebounding and stepping up could fill that role and Huerter when he is "on" could likewise fill that role.  So I don't think Cam has to play more than a rotation role for the team to have a fine year but I'd sure like to see it.

[Gray Mule]

They also serve who only sit and wait.

Sometimes a player only gets in a game for a short time because the player he is replacing is in bad need of a brief rest.  Others come off the bench and play quiet a few minutes, sometimes as much or more than the starter they replace.

With all the Covid19 + all the injuries, more and better bench players are necessary.  I agree with Peoriabird, Hawks need only a few bench players to play major minutes IF all the team is healthy.  But, we need these other players who can come in for a couple of minutes here and there and not let the opponent explode while they are in the game.

Our young players, including CC, are solid.  If we ever get our others healthy, look out NBA, here we come.  Making the playoffs and then making a lot of noise is the goal!

GO ATL HAWKS !!

 

[Peoriabird]

10 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Tell the Squawk what is WRONG!

Doing that 4 game losing streak...Trae young was Horrific.  John called the dude out for his poor decisions which resulted in fans and the media to side with Trae even though John was absolutely correct.  It also reveal Trae lack of leadership persona.  Trae still struggles with leadership and poor decisions which was on full display even the Hawk's last game.  Everyone on the team was hitting shots but him but yet time and time again the guy called his own number.  They Hawks cannot be at their best if this is the case.  I can go on and on.  How much time do you have? LOL!

[Peoriabird]

6 minutes ago, AHF said:

 So I don't think Cam has to play more than a rotation role for the team to have a fine year but I'd sure like to see it.

Them fight words!  Get um @NBASupes

[JayBirdHawk]

21 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

Doing that 4 game losing streak...Trae young was Horrific.  John called the dude out for his poor decisions which resulted in fans and the media to side with Trae even though John was absolutely correct.  It also reveal Trae lack of leadership persona.  Trae still struggles with leadership and poor decisions which was on full display even the Hawk's last game.  Everyone on the team was hitting shots but him but yet time and time again the guy called his own number.  They Hawks cannot be at their best if this is the case.  I can go on and on.  How much time do you have? LOL!

But I've already pointed out the 4 game slide and summed up pretty much the issues, but your...Something is Wrong statement....as if it's current doesn't make sense.

So I get it noe......the something is wrong is about Trae! You're on your own.