The basketball gods were not with us. ..

[Diesel]

Here is my deal...

 

This moment ended an EPIC Run by our beloved Atlanta Hawks.  The Basketball gods were not with us. 

I have added a poll to this post.. please fill out the polls. 

Mainly... 

What do you think would have happen if Trae never got hurt in this moment?

Answer the poll then start the conversation.

[Diesel]

I believe that we would have had a harder run through the playoffs than the Suns and just think that we would have been tougher than they.   We would have seen the likes of Giannis and Embiid.   Ayton would not have been a harder task.

Trae vs. Booker would have been interesting.

In Phoenix they beat us 117 to 110.   -March 30

In Atlanta, we beat them 135 to 103.  May 5. 

We gave them that Cinco De Mayo business. 

I think they would have had a hard time beating us. 

 

[Final_quest]

The Bucks had a better superstar and a better supporting cast.  If we beat them it would have been a scenario where Giannis goes down and Trae does not.  We would have most likely lost to Phoenix in the Finals. 

A four game win streak is nice.  I think we need to start winning at 65-70% over 20 games before we start the contender talk again.

[macdaddy]

5 minutes ago, Final_quest said:

The Bucks had a better superstar and a better supporting cast.  If we beat them it would have been a scenario where Giannis goes down and Trae does not.  We would have most likely lost to Phoenix in the Finals. 

A four game win streak is nice.  I think we need to start winning at 65-70% over 20 games before we start the contender talk again.

Even though i voted that we would have won it's hard to really say that.   To me it's not about Trae vs Giannis.  I think that's an argument.  To me the issue is that Middleton is head and shoulders better than whoever you consider our second best player.   

[AHF]

5 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

Even though i voted that we would have won it's hard to really say that.   To me it's not about Trae vs Giannis.  I think that's an argument.  To me the issue is that Middleton is head and shoulders better than whoever you consider our second best player.   

Really hard to predict anything with that.  I'd shrug my shoulders and say we could have won and would certainly have had a much better chance to win with our best player healthy.  The roughest part is that this wasn't even Trae getting hurt on a basketball play.  This was the equivalent of slipping on a drink a fan threw from the stands.  Had nothing to do with the game on the floor and dramatically impacted our best player.

[Spud2nique]

27 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

Middleton

I thought it was super cool when we played the Bucks and Pattie C asked KTe Middleton where he should be on the court and like and OG, Middle said “anywhere it don’t matter”… 

Middleton reminds me of Paul Millsap in a lot of ways. A worker and grinder and I love those kind of guys the most. Seem a bit shy but killers on the court.

In fact… Khris.. hol up  

[swanlee]

I think we would have won that series then won it all. We had some crazy momentum going at the time and we still did well without Trae

[macdaddy]

47 minutes ago, AHF said:

Really hard to predict anything with that.  I'd shrug my shoulders and say we could have won and would certainly have had a much better chance to win with our best player healthy.  The roughest part is that this wasn't even Trae getting hurt on a basketball play.  This was the equivalent of slipping on a drink a fan threw from the stands.  Had nothing to do with the game on the floor and dramatically impacted our best player.

I really believe this was a freak accident.  There's no other logical explanation but it's really weird with the play starting to go the other way that the ref is making no indication that he's going to move from that spot.   I watched the refs usual actions in those situations and 100% of the other times where there is a player right in front of them they move to the side.  Maybe he doesn't because he can look over Trae but it was very weird. 

[Diesel]

4 hours ago, Final_quest said:

The Bucks had a better superstar and a better supporting cast.  If we beat them it would have been a scenario where Giannis goes down and Trae does not.  We would have most likely lost to Phoenix in the Finals. 

A four game win streak is nice.  I think we need to start winning at 65-70% over 20 games before we start the contender talk again.

We can always count on you to be the voice of doubting the Hawks.   It used to be HOTS...  Milwaukee proved that they were the better team between them and Phoenix.   How do you even suppose that we would have lost to Phoenix?

[Diesel]

4 hours ago, macdaddy said:

Even though i voted that we would have won it's hard to really say that.   To me it's not about Trae vs Giannis.  I think that's an argument.  To me the issue is that Middleton is head and shoulders better than whoever you consider our second best player.   

To me... it's all about Game 1 vs. Milwaukee.   They had everybody and we beat them.   Then we beat them again in GAME 4 without Trae. 

So had we had a Healthy Trae, we would have beaten them in that series. 

[Diesel]

3 hours ago, macdaddy said:

I really believe this was a freak accident.  There's no other logical explanation but it's really weird with the play starting to go the other way that the ref is making no indication that he's going to move from that spot.   I watched the refs usual actions in those situations and 100% of the other times where there is a player right in front of them they move to the side.  Maybe he doesn't because he can look over Trae but it was very weird. 

The sad part is it probably costed us a championship. 

Adam Silver probably saw a possible Atlanta vs. Phoenix series and said.

[Final_quest]

28 minutes ago, Diesel said:

We can always count on you to be the voice of doubting the Hawks.   It used to be HOTS...  Milwaukee proved that they were the better team between them and Phoenix.   How do you even suppose that we would have lost to Phoenix?

I don’t feel like I say or believe anything different from what everyone outside of a Hawks fan forum would say.  If you look at all the years I’ve posted here, it hasn’t been negative in tone.  
 

I loved our playoff run last year.  The off-season came, and very few people advocated for improving the team.  That’s when I got frustrated.  You have to get another star to contend. The “team” approach is an outlier.  
 

We’ll see what happens.  

[Final_quest]

5 hours ago, macdaddy said:

Even though i voted that we would have won it's hard to really say that.   To me it's not about Trae vs Giannis.  I think that's an argument.  To me the issue is that Middleton is head and shoulders better than whoever you consider our second best player.   

Giannis is a perennial MVP candidate.  He has lead his team to conference finals on the regular.  No general NBA fan thinks it’s a question of Giannis or Trae.

But I agree that Middleton is way better than our second best player.  

[Diesel]

4 hours ago, Final_quest said:

I don’t feel like I say or believe anything different from what everyone outside of a Hawks fan forum would say.  If you look at all the years I’ve posted here, it hasn’t been negative in tone.  
 

I loved our playoff run last year.  The off-season came, and very few people advocated for improving the team.  That’s when I got frustrated.  You have to get another star to contend. The “team” approach is an outlier.  
 

We’ll see what happens.  

You kinda described a Fair Weather fan...

That's the same things outside of the fan forum do.  They show up when we're doing well in the playoffs and start doubting as soon as the season is over.

[Atlantaholic]

who knows, I think it would have gone 7.

[Final_quest]

9 hours ago, Diesel said:

You kinda described a Fair Weather fan...

That's the same things outside of the fan forum do.  They show up when we're doing well in the playoffs and start doubting as soon as the season is over.

I've been a fan since the days of the Omni, and watched the 13 win season.  My belief is that the facts are virtually every champion has at least two HOF players.  I just don't see that second guy on our team.  But I still am emotionally pulling for us to win every game.  I just don't let those emotions change my belief in what it will take to get us a championship.  

So let me ask you.  The facts are the majority of champions have at least two HOF guys.  Do you believe we already have two of those guys or that we will win with only one star player?  You either have to pick how we conform to the trend or explain why we will be the anomaly that breaks it.  We don't even have two all stars.  Who is the last champion with one all star?  

[JeffS17]

I think it would have gone to game 7 and Cam shoots us out of the game going 2/13 off the bench.  Just kidding lol

I think the most likely scenario is that we lose anyways.  That Bucks team is VERY good.  Holiday is an absolute dog and plays PG well enough.  Middleton turns into prime MJ every other game... Giannis speaks for himself and all of their roles players can get hot from 3.  Their open court game devastated us and they just had a lot more ways to grind out a win than we did.  I think we overachieved to get a far as we did last year.  I'm not going to say we didn't have a chance to win it all but the odds were stacked against us, even at the point trae had that freak injury.

With that said, super proud of the team and it was the most fun I've ever had watching the Hawks.

[RedDawg#8]

I mean let's break it down.

Trae was cooking them in game 3 before he went down. No way we lose that game despite Middletons heroics in the 4th. Trae would have been able to answer. Series 2-1 Hawks 

Game 4 is where it gets tricky. If we win game 3, no way the Bucks come out the gates slow in game 4. No way we smother them defensively the way did without Trae. And, it's very likely Giannis doesnt get hurt without Lou to run that play. I see a similar scenario to Philly series where they get even with us out of sheer pride and desperation. 2-2

We go back to Mil for game 5 and no way are we getting blown out with Trae fully healthy. That's the key to this series. Win or lose, Trae would have had these guys playing on their heels and not bulldozing over us. I think it's reasonable to say that we could have snatched game 5 on the road. 3-2 Hawks 

I think here is where it gets more tricky. Milwaukee proved that they had another gear when they are on the brink of elimination. They were able to close us out easily without their best player, so imagine Giannis still in the lineup. Trae could have gone nuclear and put them out of their misery in 6 games, OR Mil could have pounded us on the boards and grinded out a tough win. Toss up. Hawks win series 4-2, or Bucks even it 3-3

If we don't win the series in 6, I believe that game 7 is a controversial, ref dominated win for Milwaukee with bad whistles all night against us. Nate gets ejected in the 3rd, Trae has a hard time keeping cool and starts to force some bad shots and passes. Giannis goes to the FT line a record number of times. The league office has their fingerprints all over this game. They took a chance against Philly thinking we would crumble on our own under the pressure, but against Mil they leave nothing to chance and make sure to get us down and keep us down.

Trae makes it respectable on the scoreboard, but we lose and end our magical run there. Bucks 4-3

So much is hypothetical, but in reality, Im super confident that we win game 3 if Trae stayed healthy. 2-1 series at that point, we have the upper hand and homecourt. I like our odds in that scenario.

[Diesel]

6 hours ago, Final_quest said:

I've been a fan since the days of the Omni, and watched the 13 win season.  My belief is that the facts are virtually every champion has at least two HOF players.  I just don't see that second guy on our team.  But I still am emotionally pulling for us to win every game.  I just don't let those emotions change my belief in what it will take to get us a championship.  

So let me ask you.  The facts are the majority of champions have at least two HOF guys.  Do you believe we already have two of those guys or that we will win with only one star player?  You either have to pick how we conform to the trend or explain why we will be the anomaly that breaks it.  We don't even have two all stars.  Who is the last champion with one all star?  

Most of the time, that's statement about 2 HOFers is in Hindsight.

What I mean is.. that if we win a championship, somebody on this squad will soon become a HOF guy. 

I mean let's prove this to you.

Milwaukee won last year.  Who are their two HOFer?

When GS won their first championship... did they even have a HOFer?

After Lebron won in Cleveland, Kyrie's name started to get HOF buzz. 

Houston had Olajuwon and they still haven't found anybody HOF worthy (from his first team). 

Detroit both groups were just a series of Great players when they first won the title. 

 

The times when you had bonafide HOFers ona championship team from the beginning of the season is;

1. IF the team was put together.  such as Boston's big three... Lebron pulling HOFers to play with him or the old Celtics. 

2.  guys played long enough to finally win a ring...  Such as Dallas (Kidd and Dirk)  Most of the Bird led Celtics.  Every Laker team after Magic's first year.  Jordan and Pippen (But Pipp didn't really get in the conversation until the Bulls won their first one.

So first, I reject that notion.   Not everyteam is going to make themselves into a super team to win a championship... Giannis proved that... And not every team needs to.

Here's the cold hard Truth that should really blow your mind.  Had Trae not gotten hurt, we would have beat Milwaukee and I believe we would have beat Phoenix...  And had we done that...  Either Gallo, Clint, or Bogi would be headed to the HOF.   That is how it works.  You win first, then you are rewarded. 

[Diesel]

6 hours ago, JeffS17 said:

I think it would have gone to game 7 and Cam shoots us out of the game going 2/13 off the bench.  Just kidding lol

I think the most likely scenario is that we lose anyways.  That Bucks team is VERY good.  Holiday is an absolute dog and plays PG well enough.  Middleton turns into prime MJ every other game... Giannis speaks for himself and all of their roles players can get hot from 3.  Their open court game devastated us and they just had a lot more ways to grind out a win than we did.  I think we overachieved to get a far as we did last year.  I'm not going to say we didn't have a chance to win it all but the odds were stacked against us, even at the point trae had that freak injury.

With that said, super proud of the team and it was the most fun I've ever had watching the Hawks.

We didn't have Trae for Game 4 and we beat the Bucks.   With Trae we won game 1.   Without Giannis and having a healthy Trae, we would have beaten them in 6.