2021 into 2022 OFFSEASON News and Notes

[JayBirdHawk]

10 minutes ago, kg01 said:

Ah man, kg04 got me.  Some may recall, I kept he and kg05 up longer to finish out the Hawks games.

In prepping him for bed, he turns and asks ... "Daddy ... why don't we watch basketball every night anymore?"

I man'd up and said, "Well ... it's not basketball season anymore since the Hawks lost."

He paused and said, "There's 2 .... 3 things I want .. Christmas, my birthday ... and Hawks season."

You got a good one CageyOne!

[lethalweapon3]

Yalllll go right ahead and play around with that first chance at an Olympic medal if you want to.

 

Hope it all clears up quickly and he gets his trip to Tokyo, Because, if not, that'd be a cherry-picking shame.

~lw3

[RandomFan]

25 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Yalllll go right ahead and play around with that first chance at an Olympic medal if you want to.

 

Hope it all clears up quickly and he gets his trip to Tokyo, Because, if not, that'd be a cherry-picking shame.

~lw3

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. There isn't a much more clear case of natural selection than what is currently being observed with 99% of current Covid deaths happening to unvaccinated people.

 

[JTB]

20 hours ago, Threezus said:

Not sure who's coming but i hope it's to deny what this dude said because Cam's work ethic is the one thing no one should question.  His killer instinct i can give em, his lack of confidence sure, his shot being a little weird aight cool.  Although supposedly he changed that over the season while injured and it looked much cleaner in the playoffs.   But his work ethic he was quite known for at Duke and i haven't heard any different from any coach in the nba in an interview.  Cam's work ethic is one of his best attributes for years now.

Lol supes of course …who else ?

[lethalweapon3]

1 hour ago, RandomFan said:

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. There isn't a much more clear case of natural selection than what is currently being observed with 99% of current Covid deaths happening to unvaccinated people.

 

I won't rule out completely that Brad (edit: did) get poked, although Wizard fan boards don't seem to recall him volunteering such personal info.

If he elected not to do so, on his own accord, then he owes it to his USA teammates and the staff to be darn near hermetically sealed so the team can at least make it to the Tokyo Bubble. If he elected not to do so for fear of drawing the hen-pecking ire of his newlywed, and it spreads beyond him to even the vaxxed (à la CP3), where even they get DQ'd from going, then...

Clint tried to warn them. "Stop listening to your crazy relatives on social media!"

 

~lw3

[Spud2nique]

5 hours ago, kg01 said:

Ah man, kg04 got me.  Some may recall, I kept he and kg05 up longer to finish out the Hawks games.

In prepping him for bed, he turns and asks ... "Daddy ... why don't we watch basketball every night anymore?"

I man'd up and said, "Well ... it's not basketball season anymore since the Hawks lost."

He paused and said, "There's 2 .... 3 things I want .. Christmas, my birthday ... and Hawks season."

[lethalweapon3]

Welp!

~lwelp3

[Blunt91]

Looks like Coach Nate is starting to add his "new" assistants to his staff.   Per HoopsHype:

Jake Fischer: Longtime assistant coach Joe Prunty and former Pelicans player development assistant Jamelle McMillan are expected to join Chris Jent on the front of Nate McMillan’s bench in Atlanta next season, per league sources. Jamelle, McMillan’s son, spent 7 years with New Orleans.

39 mins ago – via Twitter JakeLFischer

 

 

 

[lethalweapon3]

I wonder, if Phoenix went ahead with the 2018 pre-Lottery plan and drafted their new coach's pupil, would they still be spinning their wheels, rather than title-contending, right now?

~lw3

[kg01]

7 minutes ago, Blunt91 said:

Looks like Coach Nate is starting to add his "new" assistants to his staff.   Per HoopsHype:

Jake Fischer: Longtime assistant coach Joe Prunty and former Pelicans player development assistant Jamelle McMillan are expected to join Chris Jent on the front of Nate McMillan’s bench in Atlanta next season, per league sources. Jamelle, McMillan’s son, spent 7 years with New Orleans.

39 mins ago – via Twitter JakeLFischer

 

 

 

That's a big deal.  Prunty is well-respected iiuc.

[lethalweapon3]

Quote

 

“We run that more when it’s a typical [baseline out-of-bounds play],” said Williams, per Noah Levick of Yahoo! Sports. “It’s pretty much a combination of something that Brett Brown used to run, and Joe Prunty ran a play when he was here with the Suns — Tyson Chandler got a slap-in. But I wish I was that bright, because I’m not. Jae just made a great pass. That’s the deal. He put it where only D.A. could get it. That’s great awareness by him.”

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/suns-coach-monty-williams-credits-brett-brown-joe-prunty-for-game-winning-inbounds-play/ar-AALmwRX

Joe was also Nate Mac Lite in 2018 after J-Kidd got the heave-ho. Bucks went 21-16 after a slip-sliding 23-22 start, then pushed Al Horford's #2-seed Celtics to seven games in the Playoffs' opening round. He wound up on the aforementioned Coach Igor's bench with the Suns the following season.

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

3 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Welp!

~lwelp3

I was about to say, USA Basketball, it's getting awfully quiet in there!

Hopefully the other players are still COVID-. Kamiah, your thoughts?

~lw3

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

Quote

Speaking of Schlenk, what would make you most encouraged about this roster moving forward, and what would give you the most pause? 

Hollinger: I’d be most encouraged about the breadth of quality on this team. It was most obvious in the New York series; sure, Trae Young is fantastic, but the Hawks had so many other weapons who could impact winning on any given night. Between John Collins, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Clint Capela, Danilo Gallinari and Kevin Huerter, Atlanta had five players it could reasonably count on as being positives even in a playoff environment. Onyeka Okongwu made serious progress in the postseason too. I think we could add De’Andre Hunter’s name to that list too, and he was a key in the Knicks series, although his knee situation moving forward has to be troubling.

 

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My question is: What do you view as the most ideal outcomes for the Hawks for both Huerter and Collins, and 2) What do you think is the most realistic outcome for both parties? 

Hollinger: I think in the case of Huerter, you have to make every effort to get an extension done. Realistically, I think OG Anunoby’s deal in Toronto last year (four years, $72 million) sets a pretty hard ceiling on Huerter, and his final number is likely considerably less. If the Hawks can get him on a multi-year deal in the teens, that’s a win.

I say that because the replacement cost will almost certainly be much worse. The Hawks can’t count on Hunter due to injuries and Reddish due to everything we discussed above; if they either lose Huerter or have to match a toxic deal a year from now, they will have a hard time getting a quality replacement at any price. Remember, they will be capped out once Young signs his max, so there are no more Bogdanovics coming in free agency. 

 

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Did what you saw from Reddish in the playoffs change your opinion of what kind of player he could possibly turn into? 

Hollinger: Not really. He was crazy hot from 3 (8-of-12 in the final three games), but it’s not like his form looked any different; if your prior take was that he was a 31 percent 3-point shooter, I didn’t think there was enough evidence to shift it. Cynics also will point out that Atlanta’s season turned around at almost the exact moment he left the lineup.

That said, Reddish is still quite young — he doesn’t turn 22 until September — and his size, quickness and defensive hands are pretty compelling tools. He doesn’t need to turn into Michael Porter Jr. to have value; he just needs to become a halfway decent shooter and finisher and be a little less wild on the ball. 

Kirschner: I was definitely impressed with the flash we saw from Reddish. His sophomore season was a frustrating one, considering the buzz coming out of his rookie season was electric. This offseason is an important one for him. He’ll play in Summer League and should be one of the best players in Las Vegas. If he could put it together, as McMillan said after the final game against the Bucks, there is Paul George potential.

 

[lethalweapon3]

Meanwhile, Jerami sings to Brad: "YOU ARE NOT ALONE..."

https://sportando.basketball/en/team-usas-jerami-grant-enters-health-and-safety-protocol-in-team-camp/

~lw3

[macdaddy]

10 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

 

 

 

So Holinger doesn't think Cam will be as good as MPjr?  ok.   I know i'm a homer but that seems like a pretty low bar considering he's already 10x the defender. 

[marco102]

Some players of Hawks Interest

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3. John Collins, PF, Hawks (restricted): $25,595,936

A max contract for John Collins would start at $28 million a year; right now BORD$ suggests he’s almost but not quite worth it. Of course, rival teams trying to grenade Collins out of Atlanta are unlikely to parse such distinctions, which is why overpays on offer sheets can happen in restricted free agency.

Fortunately, Atlanta is in a pretty good position when one sizes up the market. The teams with max cap room either don’t really need a power forward (New York) or aren’t trying to win this year (Oklahoma City), with one possible exception: San Antonio. The Spurs are rebuilding around their young guards and will have max cap room but only have one big (lumbering center Jakob Poeltl) in the pipeline and are losing Rudy Gay, Trey Lyles, Gorgui Dieng and DeMar DeRozan to free agency.

Barring a toxic offer sheet from the Spurs, this may come down to a staring contest between Collins and the Hawks. In the end, it’s strongly in the interests of both parties to get a long-term deal done. A max deal for Collins would be four years, $125 million, and I don’t see that one happening sans an outside offer sheet. However, something in the neighborhood of $100-110 million strikes me as a likely endpoint.

7. Lonzo Ball, PG, Pelicans (restricted): $22,483,316

There’s a lot of buzz that Lonzo Ball may be available, including recent reporting from The Athletic’s Shams Charania, and that could offer an opportunity to get a starting-caliber, 23-year-old point guard in the free-agent market for a needy team. Obviously, the Knicks are the first place to start because they’re always the first place to start with free agents, but teams like Chicago, Dallas, Miami or Toronto could all be players here. (And if we want to get crazy, how about a Lonzo-Lowry sign-and-trade?)

The idea that Ball can’t shoot is now officially tired; he made 37.8 percent of his 3s at a high volume and shot 78.1 percent from the line last year, and is at 35.3 percent career from 3. The bigger misgiving is about his shot creation inside the arc and his still-iffy ability to run pick-and-roll in the half court. Ball can guard the position and is gifted in transition, but he works best with another perimeter shot creator.

As a result, teams are likely to pump the brakes well short of a max contract on Ball. Something in the range of four years and $100 million seems a more likely ceiling given the offensive concerns; that’s already spendy for somebody who can be the third-best player on a good team but probably no more than that.

10. Richaun Holmes, C, Kings: $18,269,033

This number is going to be a deeply troubling one for Kings fans because Sacramento only has early Bird rights on Richaun Holmes and thus can only offer him a contract beginning at about $11 million a year. The irony, of course, is that this is only the case because Sacramento signed Holmes to such a great contract in the first place; had the Kings overpaid him originally, the cap rules would make it much easier to keep him. Even when the Kings win, somehow they lose.

Sacramento only has two ways around this. The first would be to trim several million in cap room, possibly by trading Buddy Hield or Harrison Barnes, and then re-sign Holmes with cap space. The second, sneakier way, would be to sign Holmes to a two-year, $20 million deal with a second-year player option and then pay him more when they have full Bird rights on him a year from now. (The Kings and Holmes’ reps would have to have some kind of understanding about what might happen next summer, which is technically illegal and I personally never would have done, but I’ve heard stories of other people doing it.)

The center market will be interesting in general, and only a few teams have glaring openings, but Holmes makes a lot of sense for Charlotte and Toronto in particular, and the fact that teams know they can go over the top of any Kings offer should make him an attractive target in the opening minutes of free agency.

11. Jarrett Allen, C, Cavs (restricted): $16,013,853

Again, the decision to pay Jarrett Allen is based more on his future than his present, which is why the 23-year-old is likely to do better than his projection. On a four-year deal that pays him until he’s 26, it doesn’t seem crazy to get in the $20 million a year range, especially if there are competing offer sheets.

Those sheets might not be forthcoming immediately due to the perception that the Cavs will match any reasonable offer. That could change, however, if  Cleveland selects USC’s Evan Mobley with the third pick in the draft,

18. Spencer Dinwiddie, PG, Nets (player option): $13,076,247

Spencer Dinwiddie has one of the more fascinating free-agent trajectories this offseason. For starters, he has a player option for $12.3 million for next season. While it’s unlikely he picks it up, it is theoretically possible he could do an “extend-and-trade” starting from that number that would allow the Nets to move him to another team and get something back.

Less fancifully, there is the question of Dinwiddie’s value if he signs with another team outright. Coming off a partial ACL tear and having already torn an ACL in college, how much should teams discount his potential production at age 28? Is he worth paying as a leading man, or is he better off in a sixth-man role?

He’ll be further down the list after Conley and Lowry for teams shopping in a strong point guard market but will likely cost less. Dinwiddie averaged 20.6 points a game in the Before Times of 2019-20 but only shoots 31.8 percent from 3 for his career and plays more to score than pass. Can you live with that for, say, three years and $40 million?

• T.J. McConnell, PG, Pacers: $12,171,529
• Alex Caruso, PG, Lakers: $12,154,644
• Lauri Markkanen, PF, Bulls (restricted): $11,916,654
• Will Barton, SF, Nuggets (player option): $11,722,836
• Montrezl Harrell, C, Lakers (player option): $11,536,230

I'm hoping the Hawks can sign John at the numbers Hollinger is suggesting. 

[JeffS17]

On 7/14/2021 at 11:37 AM, RedDawg#8 said:

I forgot that France was loaded too, Gobert, Batum, Fornier, Frank Nitty from the Knicks and TLC from the Nets.

 

Gobert with legal goaltending and no 3 seconds feels unfair

[NBASupes]

1 hour ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

 

 

 

Atlanta season turned around when LP got fired you jackass (Hollinger). The lamest shit ever is to blame Cam for our Ls when he had a positive WAR till the wheels fell off for him and he lost 1.2 WAR points in Feb outside of the three games with Nate and even at the end of Nate. Cam was done. We lost 3 of the next 4 games without Cam. We started winning the second LP was fired. 

[NBASupes]

Blaming Cam for the Hawks struggles is the first sign that you are a dumbass. John Hollinger, you are a dumbass

[marco102]

22 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

Blaming Cam for the Hawks struggles is the first sign that you are a dumbass. John Hollinger, you are a dumbass

I'm not sure he was blaming Cam per se, but he was referring to his poor production on the offensive end on that side which wasn't helping the Hawks.