Welcome home sweet Lou Williams........goodbye Rondo

[Atlantaholic]

Just now, RandomFan said:

If the offense doesn't turn into  when Trae sits,  then hopefully. 

No star player plays 30 mpg, Lebron James with 1,000,000 miles on his odometer was playing 34 mpg. It's not really optimal to sit the best offensive player on the team by a wide margin for 38% of the game. Plus Trae is 22 years old and lean, there is no reason in the universe his body couldn't handle 34 mpg, back in the 90s no starter played less than that. Fact is we will be playing Lou at SG in stretches along with Trae, unless we plan to underutilize one of the two players, which I don't think is likely. I think as long as we pair Lou and Trae with our best defensive lineup (Hunter, Collins, and Cap) we can definitely survive those minutes. 

[AHF]

1 minute ago, Atlantaholic said:

No star player plays 30 mpg, Lebron James with 1,000,000 miles on his odometer was playing 34 mpg. It's not really optimal to sit the best offensive player on the team by a wide margin for 38% of the game. Plus Trae is 22 years old and lean, there is no reason in the universe his body couldn't handle 34 mpg, back in the 90s no starter played less than that. Fact is we will be playing Lou at SG in stretches along with Trae, unless we plan to underutilize one of the two players, which I don't think is likely. I think as long as we pair Lou and Trae with our best defensive lineup (Hunter, Collins, and Cap) we can definitely survive those minutes. 

This.  Why replace a defensively challenged guy who is a stud playmaker and scoring at a .590% TS% clip and celebrate replacing him with a defensively challenged guy who isn't a playmaker and is scoring at a .529% TS% clip?

[Dejay]

I don't see Trae only playing 30 mpg, star players are normally in their mid-upper 30s; especially when they're as young as he is. Lou is going to be on the court when Trae isn't and also team up with Dunn, Bogdanovich, Huerter, and Reddish...

Edited March 26, 2021 by Dejay

[Atlantaholic]

6 minutes ago, AHF said:

This.  Why replace a defensively challenged guy who is a stud playmaker and scoring at a .590% TS% clip and celebrate replacing him with a defensively challenged guy who isn't a playmaker and is scoring at a .529% TS% clip?

Goal with Trae is to keep him on the floor as long as possible, really. Of course with the current schedule it will be a balancing act in order to keep him fresh. Still, around 34 mpg I think should achieve that gaol. That leaves 14 backup PG minutes which Lou should certainly monopolize, however, if we give him just 14 mpg I'm almost 100% certain dude will start pouting. He's too talented a guy to give him 9th/10th man minutes, not to mention he will be likely playing for his last contract. I think we can get away with throwing 5-6 more minutes his way, but that will mean sharing the court with Trae. It will be up to Nate to shuffle everyone's minutes around to make sure we can pair them with solid defenders for those stretches. It will be a very difficult task because now we will have two SGs on the team that demand minutes (Heurter and Lou) who are both defensive liabilities. 

Edited March 26, 2021 by Atlantaholic

[JayBirdHawk]

I'm not concerned about Lou having a specific number of minutes, I just want him to be effective in whatever minutes he gets.  We sure could have used him last game in the last 5 minutes of the 3rd quarter when Trae went to the bench and we went scoreless - that is where LouWill's value lies - being the guy who can get us an easy bucket when everything breaks down.

[JTB]

Guess it’s just me but I’m not all that hyped up about Lou being back. Not disappointed either. I guess I’m playing wait and see.

With a bench unit of Lou, Bogi, Gallo and eventually snell going back to second unit  I’m wondering who’s going to run point and set these guys up. It just doesn’t seem like a matching fit...clearly the offensive talent is there! No question about that but the fit seems odd to me and as much as some of you don’t like rondo he seemed like a better fit to me.

we do have Dunn as well but Dunn hasn’t played all season I’m not expecting Dunn to come back and suddenly be the first option off the bench for trae.

we are back to square one with playmaker 1 true playmaker in trae, 2 ok playmakers in Bogi and red velvet. If one of them are not on the court at all times I don’t know what we are going to see offensively....probably the Lou iso show

[bleachkit]

Im expecting nothing from Lou, the trade was essentially a salary dump plus some free 2nds. The team is saying the right things out of respect for a long time veteran.

[macdaddy]

I'm sure i'll get killed for this but i'd rather have the ball in Lou's hands on the second unit than Heurter or Bogi's.  But we have Dunn coming back and Skyler has been good on the court this year if Nate would let him back in.   

 

[Atlantaholic]

Yup the more I mull about it the less excitided I am. Still a very nice move, hopefully Lou has his moments and adds a couple of wins to our record, but whatever. Overall I'm happy I'll never have to see Rondo play ever again on the team. 

[JayBirdHawk]

Just now, JTB said:

Guess it’s just me but I’m not all that hyped up about Lou being back. Not disappointed either. I guess I’m playing wait and see.

Just like I did with Rondo, I'm in wait and see mode - and I wasn't happy with Rondo real quick. Missed too many games, he had what i would say were 4 great games as a Hawks, most were un-memorable, and some were down right horrible. He held the ball too long and had some of the worse TOs for a vet that I saw.

[Dnice]

5 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

I'm sure i'll get killed for this but i'd rather have the ball in Lou's hands on the second unit than Heurter or Bogi's.  But we have Dunn coming back and Skyler has been good on the court this year if Nate would let him back in.   

 

Nah, you're safe.. lol Especially with Kevin.

[JTB]

15 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Just like I did with Rondo, I'm in wait and see mode - and I wasn't happy with Rondo real quick. Missed too many games, he had what i would say were 4 great games as a Hawks, most were un-memorable, and some were down right horrible. He held the ball too long and had some of the worse TOs for a vet that I saw.

You know what ???? I don’t even disagree lol but I still feel like he was the better fit. You think the ball is sticking now! Wait until Lou is out there with the 2nd unit geeezzzzzz

the only difference is he’s just a flat out better scorer but he’s not a playmaker what so ever to get others involved so we will see.

[Gray Mule]

Question:  With Rondo out of the picture, does Skylar Mays become our #2 PG?  Will Kris Dunn then have to earn his turn in the rotation?  Lou will probably be the 2 guard when he's on the floor.

Wondering, how long until he joins the team, suits up and ready to play?  Tonight?

[macdaddy]

19 minutes ago, Gray Mule said:

Question:  With Rondo out of the picture, does Skylar Mays become our #2 PG?  Will Kris Dunn then have to earn his turn in the rotation?  Lou will probably be the 2 guard when he's on the floor.

Wondering, how long until he joins the team, suits up and ready to play?  Tonight?

Since Nate hasn't played skyler 1 minute and went with Kev and Bogi as PGs last game I'm going to say that Lou has the backup PG role locked up.  

[JayBirdHawk]

28 minutes ago, JTB said:

You know what ???? I don’t even disagree lol but I still feel like he was the better fit. You think the ball is sticking now! Wait until Lou is out there with the 2nd unit geeezzzzzz

the only difference is he’s just a flat out better scorer but he’s not a playmaker what so ever to get others involved so we will see.

I don't expect Lou to be a playmaker - just do what his strength is - be a bucket getter off the bench.

[JayBirdHawk]

One thing Rondo had going for him that I hope LouWill can step in a provide some of:

Quote

Rondo’s absence means the Hawks are losing a respected veteran inside the locker room. Rondo would gather the young players and break down film with them and answer any questions they had in navigating the league. Before Lloyd Pierce was fired, multiple sources told The Athletic that players were going to Rondo for guidance over Pierce, particularly in the film room. Williams was highly respected in Los Angeles’ locker room, so I would expect he can fill in for Rondo’s leadership.

 

[sturt]

 

Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, birthing and non-birthing individuals...

I think we can read into this we just obtained our permanent #2 PG behind Trae, and with that we can take it that Schlenk hasn't forgotten his preseason pledge that we would see Dunn defending 2s and 3s with some regularity... and with that that Dunn will be getting less time at PG than LouWill.

I think.

[JTB]

56 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

I don't expect Lou to be a playmaker - just do what his strength is - be a bucket getter off the bench.

You don’t but Schlenk apparently does...

 

[JayBirdHawk]

Just now, JTB said:

You don’t but Schlenk apparently does...

 

Lou is a PnR player, that's what I expect.  He won't be a typical playmaking PG

[sturt]

@JayBirdHawk check PMs plz