Official Game Thread: Who-Dey-Hawks at Trivial-Blazers

[lethalweapon3]

“Hi, everyone. My name is Tony Snell, and I can’t get down from here!”

 

“Another Day, Another Opportunity to answer more of these same questions!” Having happily played the villain for so long in 31 other International Basketball Association cities, Trae Young is doing all he can to avoid becoming one in the 32^nd.

He has steadied the Hawks franchise through the pandemic era of the Twenties, helped his team sneak into the Eastern and Southern Continental conference finals on a couple occasions, and shattered as many passing and scoring records as there are to have. He has ensconced himself within the upper pantheon of sports greats in this town, making his club a top IBA draw while enriching himself through multiple contract extensions. Yet here sits Young, bristling with a gritted smile belying his rolled eyes, as the reporter-bot seeks to chase him once more around the same postgame topic.

The Goose That Lays the Golden Dimes has declined, repeatedly, yet in a hundred different ways, to fly away from the Atlanta-Buckhead City metropolis he has called home for so long. But this year feels different in The ABC. 2032’s Trade Deadline is fast approaching, and PBO Landry Fields and GM Lance Stephenson may get that knock on their doors to get a deal done, allowing Trae to legitimately chase his first ring for the first time in a long while.

But, where to? Paolo, Zaire and Bronny need a fourth wheel in Seattle, where Trae could reunite with his former coach. Joining forces with Cade and Los Pistones de Ciudad de Mexico is tempting, but finding a way past the Sonics, and then Onyeka and The Jalens in Los Angeles, to come out of the Western Continental sounds daunting.

Lance and Landry wouldn’t dare risk Young sticking around in the East, so that rules Jean Montero’s San Juan Island Kings and Coach CP3's Tallahassee heat out of the equation as trading partners. On second thought, maybe not! If Trae chooses to play hardball with Atlanta, he could threaten to pull a Childress, setting sail for President Giannis’ country to tag along with Luka at Panathinaikos.

“I mean, I never want to leave, certainly not in the middle of whatever I’ve got started,” Young responds diplomatically. “I always believe in my guys, and with Coach Dame in charge, there’s no telling what can happen if we turn things around and make it in.” Trae is looking ahead to Playoffs with the Hawks (16-19). Meanwhile, Atlantans would be simply blissful for a successful Play-In series, one that could forestall the same relegation to Gamma League that befell those poor Knicks.

Trae has been paid handsomely in his NBA flagship city, his annual net worth now exceeding the value of retired teammate John Collins’ vaunted collection of crypto-posters. The rest of the team, not so much. Principal owner Jami Gertz-Ressler’s spend-thriftiness with the rest of the roster, over-reliant on youthful breakthroughs and free agent flops, has left too much on the soon-to-be 34-year-old’s superstar’s plate. Trae’s first-year head coach Dame Lillard, as much as anyone, relates to his plight as much as anyone.

With a hairline now approaching that of Blazer great Clyde Drexler, Coach Lillard stands today in the same IBA locale where All-Star ballhandlers like he and Trae once made history. Specifically for Trae, it’s the tenth anniversary of a classic shootout between the Hawks and Trail Blazers (10 PM Eastern for those with Tesla Time Machines, Bally Sports Southeast, ROOT Sports) that, to this day, is known across the sports universe simply as January 3^rd. Young and Lillard backup Anfernee Simons became the first pair of IBA opponents to drop 75 points in the same contest, and the dimes were doozies, too.

It took a laser bounce pass from Trae through the spindly legs of Portland’s Tony Snell to Clint Capela, then Cameron Oliver’s crafty buzzer-beating cleanup of Capela’s point-blank miss at the rim, to conclude a 201-200 game whose ball sits prominently in the Naismith-Nash Hall of Fame in Springfield, Ontario. Capela skirting what would have been Young’s 31^st assist was the only offensive blemish to that banner day. For Trae, that IBA single-game assist record would have to wait for a few more weeks.

Coach Dame has a long way to go to catch the titans of the IBA, like the SuperSonics’ Nate McMillan, another coach who boldly bailed Atlanta, in his case after recovering triumphantly from a bout with long-haul COVID, in search of greater glories elsewhere.

Despite the feats of fancy and occasional postseason heroics from Young, the many seasons of defensively flawed, shallow rosters spinning their wheels under coach Kent Bazemore’s watch was a colossal waste of Trae’s time. That time has become all the more precious with each passing season as he nears the peak of his stellar career.

Lillard was hired to make sticking around worth Young’s while. The one-time franchise face and IBA85 Honorable Mention remembers vividly being strung along in Portland, under then-team president Neil Olshey and coach Terry Stotts, only to have a legendary guard-turned-coach, Chauncey Billups, foisted upon him. Then (13-22), as now, the results for Portland have been lackluster. Coach Dame wishes the rising 32-year-old version of himself had been wise enough to grant himself greater agency, demanding either a drastic change in personnel or a meaningful change in venue.

This evening, before a nostalgic crowd, Damian’s distinctive “0.0” jersey gets retired, lofted into the rafters of a vapid Beaverton arena-luxury-condo complex he never played in, by a team that’s rumored to be on the move to Boise anyway.

Loyalty has long been inside Lillard’s DNA. “I’m grateful for the Portland fans, who stuck with me through all those trying times. It’s just hard, looking back upon it all, to get a sense as to what it was all for.” Similar to the one-time fate of “Mr. Sonic,” McMillan, it is difficult to grasp what value being “Mr. Blazer” holds in a pro-sports town that may soon shift to following the Timbers and Thorns full-time.

Dame's long removed from the days of January 3^rd, when injuries to him (strained abs) and his backcourt co-star C.J. McCollum (recovery from collapsed lung) greased their team’s 3-14 slide out of relevancy. Without either, the Blazers scoring against Atlanta, becoming the first in IBA history to eclipse 200, was hoped to be the spark for Portland to mount a comeback that season.

Alas, their on-ball defense (NBA-worst 55.5 opponent eFG%) was as pathetic as the offense, led on that historic evening by Norman Powell, Anfernee Simons and Lillard’s cousin, current Hawks assistant Keljin Blevins, was prolific. With Jusuf Nurkic and Cody Zeller (Protocols) out, and with Larry Nance, Jr. fouling out, the current governor of Northern California, Oliver, barged in and spoiled Portland’s party.

Despite the lack of late-career prosperity, Lillard went down with the ship, all the way into retirement. He suffered through the slings and arrows of critics eager to lay blame for Portland’s longstanding woes on him and his once-hefty cap hit. The experiences of being always a David, and never a Goliath, echo for him as he looks upon Young’s highlight-laden career in Atlanta. "Back home, they should give Trae his flowers while he's here," Coach Dame declared, referencing the days when people rode racehorses into the ground.

Whether the replacement for ShareCare Arena winds up at Atlantic Station or Fort McPherson, Gertz-Ressler has been badgering Killer Mayor Mike for local financing to expedite the transition of the downtown land into a casino palace. Wherever the new venue lands, on opening day, it will need at least one showstopping IBA player, on par with Young, to serve as an attraction.

That’s the challenge facing Jami, Lance and Landry going forward, as the Trade Deadline looms. The team would much rather ride into the sunset with Trae. Yet, they don’t want their Hawks, once the freshest ticket in town, to grow stale and become the Blazers of the South. Or, worse yet, the Knicks. Whether Lillard, Young, or The ABC, is ready or not, it's 2032, and it's Traede Time.

 

 

Happy New Year! Let’s Go “Hawks”!

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

I have been downgraded to Questionable for making it all the way through tonight's West Coaster without ing.

~lw3

[shakes]

like all west coast games I will attempt to watch the first half and then watch the rest before I go to work in the morning.  And I'm central time zone.  Can't even imagine who terrible this is for you east coasters.  I personally have a rule that I won't watch a game if it starts after 8:00 central time unless its the Hawks.    

[lethalweapon3]

Over in PDX, Robert Covington and Anfernee Simons are fresh out of protocols and available for tonight.

As for the rest:

~lw3

[Diesel]

9 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

I have been downgraded to Questionable for making it all the way through tonight's West Coaster without ing.

~lw3

This is a great game to let Cam sit.   Let him get his ankle well.  Let one of those 10 dayers get some run. 

[Spud2nique]

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

“Mr. Blazer”

Hope he doesn’t leave Portland.

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Northern California,

Yes sir 

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

That’s the challenge facing Jami, Lance and Landry going forward, as the Trade Deadline looms. The team would much rather ride into the sunset with Trae. Yet, they don’t want their Hawks, once the freshest ticket in town, to grow stale and become the Blazers of the South. Or, worse yet, the Knicks. Whether Lillard, Young, or The ABC, is ready or not, it's 2032, and it's Traede Time.

May Lillard and Trae retire with the Blazers and Hawks respectively!

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Happy New Year! Let’s Go “Hawks”!

And a happy one to you lw3! Nice preview.

Go Hawks!

[Spud2nique]

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

 

I have been downgraded to Questionable for making it all the way through tonight's West Coaster without ing.

 

 

[Spud2nique]

I’m kidding a 10pm start is late, wait lol we play the Lakers and Clipps, another half hour. Assuming I’ll be in the chat room alone tonight. May as well stay on the thread. East coaster@TheNorthCydeRises will prolly be the only one up tonight lol.

[Spud2nique]

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Over in PDX, Robert Covington and Anfernee Simons are fresh out of protocols and available for tonight.

As for the rest:

~lw3

Lillard (abdominal tendinopathy - management),
 

Does that mean he gotta doo doo ?  Isn’t that filed under load management 

[Spud2nique]

You got this Dame!

 

[Spud2nique]

Hawks favored by -4.5 wow  

[Sothron]

We gotta win this one. Btw my yellow City Trae Young jersey came in. Still no word on my JC City edition jersey though...

[Spud2nique]

2 minutes ago, Sothron said:

We gotta win this one. Btw my yellow City Trae Young jersey came in. Still no word on my JC City edition jersey though...

Hope you get it soon, also your boys (other) (no other other) ya the Nuggs got a big one at the Mavs tipping in 30.

Jokic vs Doncic & Marjanovic ( no Jockitch tonight tho he’s on the injured list).. 

[Dnice]

3 hours ago, shakes said:

like all west coast games I will attempt to watch the first half and then watch the rest before I go to work in the morning.  And I'm central time zone.  Can't even imagine who terrible this is for you east coasters.  I personally have a rule that I won't watch a game if it starts after 8:00 central time unless its the Hawks.    

It's  rough,  i may fight off sleep sometimes or get a second wind, if not i can watch  part of a repeat..at least they'll  have  them out of the way soon, so i can't complain. 

[bleachkit]

I'll be up late watching, the rest of you softies can go to bed

[kg01]

44 minutes ago, Sothron said:

We gotta win this one. Btw my yellow City Trae Young jersey came in. Still no word on my JC City edition jersey though...

You mean .... my JC jersey? 

2 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

I'll be up late watching, the rest of you softies can go to bed

Looks like it's gonna be just me 'n you. 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[bleachkit]

9 minutes ago, kg01 said:

You mean .... my JC jersey? 

Looks like it's gonna be just me 'n you. 

Cool, hopefully my stream won't freeze up at critical moments in the game. 

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, kg01 said:

You mean .... my JC jersey? 

Looks like it's gonna be just me 'n you. 

I'm all in for watching tonight too.  It pays to be retired!

[hawkman]

3 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

He needs to rest. He's just aggravating it and setting his recovery back every time he tweaks it. He hasn't been the same since he sprained it the first time.