Official Game Thread: Clippers at Hawks

[lethalweapon3]

“Aye! This not how Trust Falls work, Mane!"

 

The Atlanta Hawks had their All-Star, ace scorer and playmaker, however controversial the acquisition. They had their athletic, futuristic big-man prototype. They had their no-nonsense head coach. They had young wings and forwards bustling with potential.

But on the back end of season #6 of the Hawks’ rebuilding managerial regime, Atlanta still found itself just on the wrong side of the playoff line.

Billy Knight understood the task in front of him. He had to do… something.

Out went veteran point guard Anthony Johnson, his graying backup and longtime Hawk Tyronn Lue, first-round disappointment Shelden Williams, and the late Lorenzen Wright. Reggie Theus’ Sacramento Kings were already tiring of missing the playoffs, too, and needed reinforcements in hopes of a swift turnaround, that year or next.

In came Mike Bibby, recently returning from a thumb injury that had him out for most of that season. As the Grizzlies’ GM, BK had previously shipped Bibby to Sactown in 2002, for the rights to Jason “Kobe’s Not a Top 5 Laker” Williams and Nick Anderson. Didn’t work out, probably helped cost him his job. But he bounced back with the Hawks, and eight years after dealing the Bibbster away, reeling him in might have been what he needed to keep his current one.

Didn’t work out. The keeping-his-job part for BK, that is. But in the meantime, Bibby upped the tempo and his scoring and dime-dropping boost helped the Hawks eke into the postseason for the first time in the millennium, with the added benefit of giving big, bad Boston a scare in three noisy first-round games at The Highlight Factory.

Whatever our feel for the next decade of Hawks playoff basketball that ensued, it only began when Atlanta’s lead basketball executive felt pressed to go out and do… something of substance.

You all know that ITIT as much as anybody around the 404. Around this time last year, at the Trade Deadline, Travis Schlenk surveyed the landscape, plucked a hesitant Lou Williams from coach Ty Lue’s LA Clippers, plus some down-the-road second-rounders, for the low-low price of former big, bad Boston guard Rajon Rondo. Schlenk didn’t add anyone else to the mix and, as it turned out, he didn’t need to.

Lou Will gave our Hawks all the patchwork offense he could muster, and the improved health and organic growth under Nate McMillan’s watch paid off, this time with several more ear-splitting playoff games in Atlanta.

The rip-roaring postseason fun was undoubtedly worth building upon. Yet, in the ensuing offseason, Travis brought Lou back, and Solomon Hill, too. Skylar Mays was retained on a two-way. Jalen Johnson and Sharife Cooper seemed to fall into our Hawks’ laps at draft time, a perception that glistened during Summer League. Kris Dunn begat Delon Wright. Gorgui Dieng and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot were inked to deals. Cam Reddish wanted to shoulder the load somewhere else, so Schlenk dealt him in January to kick the tires on Kevin “The One Who” Knox.

Aside from the 35-year-old Lou Will’s kind contributions midway through Wednesday’s loss in Milwaukee, none of the aforementioned were factors as Giannis did his three-yards-and-a-cloud of dust routine at John Collins and Clint Capela’s expense. Most didn’t play. Many haven’t played, and won’t, save for absolute necessity. I destroy Girl Scout cookies with as much zeal as anybody this time of year, but these rows upon rows of Tagalongs can get mighty stale after a while.

Oh, but wait! Schlenk did do… something. He did bring back Bucks’ world champion and longtime ex-Hawk Jeff Teague. Not as an unsigned free agent offering veteran backcourt depth, though. No, Teague punches the clock these days as a team scout, closely watching March Madness for the next set of Diaper Dandies that Nate Mac will have nothing to do with.

It's too easy to rag on the Hawks’ (latest) beleaguered head coach for not knowing, or caring to know, how best to utilize deeper lineups, especially when the top dogs are taking turns waging through off-night struggles in the midst of a playoff chase. I turn on the telly, and I witness teams that didn’t really have to go for it doing just that. Where, I beseech, is our DeMarcus Cousins this time of year? Shoot, where’s our Norman Powell?

Other teams in the East are going out and doing… something. After dealing away party animal James Harden for the off-chance of Ben Simmons reanimating himself, and getting Seth Curry to boot, Brooklyn spatchcocked the Sixers last night and left new pickup Goran Dragic in there to clean up the bones. Isaiah Thomas hasn’t sniffed the playoffs since his Leprechaun years ended a half-decade, but he just might get the chance alongside Charlotte’s recent acquisition of Montrezl Harrell.

The Wizards make room for Tomas Satoransky. The Knicks. The Pacers not only remodel with Haliburton and Hield, but also figure out how to make use of Phoenix’s Jalen Smith. They also grabbed Tristan Thompson and released him just in time to ragdoll the Hawks and freak out Ayo Dosunmu as a member of the Bulls.

None of this is to say that any of these additions-by-transaction are great. But they are… something. I don’t mean to Even the Clippers the Clippers, 33-32 and sneering down at the Lakers in a masterful coaching job by Lue. Certainly, not while they’re in town (7:30 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, BS SoCal). They could have waved the white flag and punched their ticket to Lotto Land after Paul George joined Kawhi Leonard on Gucci Row, and even the Clips’ fanatical owner would have understood.

Yet they got… something, out of trading for Robert Covington (out for today, personal leave) and Powell, at least out of the latter (out indefinitely, 21.0 PPG w/ LAC) until he injured his toe three games into his tenure. They’re doing… something behind the scenes, and it seems to have energized the short-staffed Clipper rotation into doing some things on the court.

Reggie Jackson (team-high 17.0 PPG on 39.5 FG%, 4.8 APG, 2.3 TOs/game) gets to live out his All-most-Star dreams with little restraint from Lue. Marcus Morris gets to do Marcus Morris things. Nobody tsk-tsks Nicolas Batum anymore. Ivica Zubac has free reign in the post with Serge Ibaka gone.

Luke Kennard goes bananas from deep range one night, Terrance becomes a Mann among men the next. The Clips do this neat trick, where they retrieve 20-year-old Norcross native, Klutch Academy member and deep-second-round rookie B.J. Boston from Agua Caliente G-League duty and, more times than not, actually play him, and let him learn the ropes in real time with the big fellas. (At least Jalen and Sharife are helping with a playoff chase… down in College Park).

No PG and no Kawhi allows this to happen, of course. Yet they’re winning ball games, too. Somehow, they’ve managed to win six of their last 8 games, including five straight until last week plus Wednesday’s 115-109 home win over Washington (Jackson, Morris and Kennard combined for 77 points incl. 12-for-20 on 3FGs) for which fans of the Hawks (31-34 in 10th, 1.5 games ahead of the Wizards) are grateful.

With a championship ring already in his pocket, T-Lue aged into his 30s in Atlanta, waiting for Billy Knight and the ragtag ownership group to transform the Hawks into… something, anything more meaningful than an NBA laughingstock. He’d get the chance to perform in the playoffs in 2008, but instead with Dallas, who went out and did… something, scooping Tyronn up after clearing waivers with Sacramento.

Having pocketed another ring in another capacity, Lue gets to coach once more, today, against the latest Hawks point guard left to simply mind the store until management decides to do… something more. A three-game homestand versus the Clips and two sub-.500 visitors was supposed to be the comforting part of the late schedule. But fans are just waiting to count how many more T-Balls where the Hawks will whiff (welcime back, Bravos, by the way). At least somebody around here is clearly comfortable.

“We looked at a lot of different stuff, but we’re comfortable with our group,” Trader Trav said to the AJC, after the deadline for deals passed last month. “We know this group has the ability to be successful, as we saw last year. And we want to give them the opportunity to prove it to the world they can do it again.” Again, ITIT, ITIT, ITIT, until the Chick-fil-A cow comes home. BUT… as the season nears its sunset and the final roster spot stays unfilled, I get the sensation that Schlenk sees, and saw, the magic carpet ride of the 2021 Playoffs as a one-off.

As long as Trae Young continued to provide the entertainment, and John Collins the occasional highlight-worthy flush, there was little pressure on Schlenk to do anything substantive, much less something drastic, to improve Atlanta’s immediate playoff hopes. That was true, up and until 2021.

Then, 2021 happened. Now that Trae’s postseason majesties have brought the present-day ownership useful and unexpected revenue streams that won’t run dry anytime soon, there is even less pressure for Schlenk to ensure the product on the floor is winning, competitive and sustainable. At least for the time being.

With no urgency, beyond the locker room to enhance either Atlanta’s postseason position or potency, Schlenk seems fully recommitted to the slow-growth approach as he looks ahead to his sixth season in charge of the Hawks. The headline on Travis’ Playbill reads, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Fourth Straight Lottery Offseason,” and he intends to kick back and enjoy each act of the show. Why bother… doing something?

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[HawksNWaffles]

May have something for this game , will keep ya posted 

[Diesel]

My concern tonight is Zubic and Jackson.   Offensively the Clipps are going to work the two man game with Zubic (or whatever his name is) and Reggie Jackson.  Defensively, Jackson will stubbornly try to gaurd Trae.    When that happens, Trae got to put him on skates...

[Spud2nique]

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Out went veteran point guard Anthony Johnson

Hey!  The cagester and I were just talking about Jevon Carter “beetlejuice” Johnson! 

 

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Jason “Kobe’s Not a Top 5 Laker” Williams

What the, I kinda liked jdub he was chill but that ain’t cool. Kobe is a top 5 Laker imo.

 

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

I destroy Girl Scout cookies with as much zeal as anybody this time of year, but these rows upon rows of Tagalongs can get mighty stale after a while.

I just got a box of thin mints. Hey, stick those puppies in the freezer and thank me later. Samoas are awesome too, if you like the coco’s nut. 

 

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Jeff Teague.

Hope can can scout!

 

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

It's too easy to rag on the Hawks’ (latest) beleaguered head coach for not knowing, or caring to know, how best to utilize deeper lineups,

Frustrating to watch as a fan.

 

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Yet they got… something, out of trading for Robert Covington (out for today, personal leave) and Powell,

Doubt they hold onto Kawhi, PG13, Powelland Roco but imagine that team in next year’s playoffs. Yikes.  

 

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Reggie Jackson (team-high 17.0 PPG on 39.5 FG%, 4.8 APG, 2.3 TOs/game) gets to live out his All-most-Star dreams with little restraint from Lue.

Last game I saw him play he was toying with the Lakers. He was giving it to Russ so mad I just started giggling and saying sttttttoooooppp 

 

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Somehow, they’ve managed to win six of their last 8 games,

This team is disciplined. Whoever they have going knows what to do and rarely messes up. (Jinx!)

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Bravos, by the way).

Yes siiiirrr!!! 

 

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Let’s Go Hawks!

Yes siiirrr. You the man @lethalweapon3! I don’t think any other franchise fan base in the NBA sets us up like you. Appreciate them all! 

Hawks -7.5 is the Vegas line as of now.

Go Hawks!

[Spud2nique]

Hawks go 64% FG 41% 3’s and 100% FT

JC scores a season high 33/7/5/4 blocks

Trae 33/2/11/3 steals 

 

Hawks by 32. Played within the rhythm and flow of the game and stayed true to the game. 
 

Go Hawks!!!!

[Spud2nique]

Whoa JC and Trae were both 15-20 FG. That’s some eerie stuff!

[Dnice]

Delon in the doghouse?

[JayBirdHawk]

Good 1st quarter.

[Hawkmoor]

I like what I see so far with Trae.  He is running the offense and getting everybody involved.  

Edited March 12, 2022 by Hawkmoor

[Dnice]

Here come the hawks sucking again empty possessions, lead gone  and folks are just laughing it up.

[NBASupes]

This team is so inconsistent within a game on offense but so bad consistently on defense 

[JayBirdHawk]

33 points in 1st

19 points in 2nd and not defending, smh.

[JayBirdHawk]

8 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

33 points in 1st

19 points in 2nd and not defending, smh.

And then they go on a run, lol.

[Hawkmoor]

13 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

This team is so inconsistent within a game on offense but so bad consistently on defense 

"What he say?"

" He said the Hawks can't figure it out"

Edited March 12, 2022 by Hawkmoor

[bleachkit]

Feel like we will probably win this game. Our energy looks good.

[JayBirdHawk]

57 minutes ago, Dnice said:

Delon in the doghouse?

Still no Delon?? 

[skimaskway23]

Where's everybody?

[TheNorthCydeRises]

54 minutes ago, Hawkmoor said:

I like what I see so far with Trae.  He is running the offense and getting everybody involved.  

 

But every time he does it, the game is either close or the Hawks are behind.

This team needs his scoring because he's the most explosive scorer on the team.

[Diesel]

2nd Unit did it's job..

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Bogi is 4 of his last 25 from 3.

Trae went through the bad stretch a few weeks back.  Now it has spread like COVID to Bogi.