Aldridge: Hawks enjoyed the #2 best off-season

[sturt]

(... with #1 going to the Sixers.)

 

============================

 

2. Atlanta Hawks

2021-22 record: 43-39; lost in first round

Added: G Dejounte Murray (acquired from San Antonio); F Maurice Harkless (acquired from Sacramento); G Justin Holiday (acquired from Sacramento); C Frank Kaminsky (one year, $2.4M); G Aaron Holiday (one year, $1.9M); F A.J. Griffin (first round, 16th pick); G Tyrese Martin (draft rights acquired from Golden State); 2024 first-round pick (acquired from Sacramento)

Lost: F Danilo Gallinari (traded to San Antonio); G Kevin Huerter (traded to Sacramento); C Jock Landale (traded to Phoenix after being acquired from San Antonio); G Delon Wright (signed with Washington); F Kevin Knox (signed with Detroit); F/C Gorgui Dieng (signed with San Antonio); G Sharife Cooper (waived); G Ryan Rollins (draft rights traded to Golden State); 2023 first-round pick (traded to San Antonio via Charlotte); 2025, 2027 first-round picks (traded to San Antonio); 2026 first-round pick (swap rights traded to San Antonio)

Retained: None

Extended: None

Returning from Injury: F Bogdan Bogdanović (knee)

The Skinny: We like big swings around here, especially by teams that are good — but not quite good enough to truly contend. So we love the Hawks leaning into Trae Young’s superstardom by getting him a young Jrue-like second in Murray, who made his first All-Star team last season and gives Atlanta a wildly athletic and ridiculously young (23 and 25, respectively) backcourt. Don’t know that Atlanta will ever be an elite defense, but Murray should keep opponents from relentlessly hunting Young on D. There are still questions going forward, to be sure. What will happen with John Collins, obviously on the trade block? Does his situation get resolved by training camp? And, while Murray shot under league average on 3s (.327) in San Antonio, Huerter clocked in at 39 percent last season and never shot less than .363 in his four seasons with the Hawks. Can Bogdanović and De’Andre Hunter, who’ve both missed large chunks of the last two seasons in Atlanta with injuries, stay healthy longer?

[RedDawg#8]

Any time I see Bogi listed as a forward a piece of me dies on the inside.

[jy23]

How is Boston not in the top 2?

[kg01]

54 minutes ago, jy23 said:

How is Boston not in the top 2?

What they do?

[AHF]

5 hours ago, RedDawg#8 said:

Any time I see Bogi listed as a forward a piece of me dies on the inside.

I’m not seeing that but probably missed it.  I just see him and Hunter listed as wings who the team will need with the loss of Huerter especially with DM’s poor 3pt shot (career to date).

[JayBirdHawk]

CLUTCHPOINT:

7 most impactful moves of the 2022 NBA offseason, ranked:

1. Dejounte Murray to the Atlanta Hawks 

With the Hawks gearing up for another deep playoff run and doing everything they can to get more help for Trae Young, trading for Dejounte Murray was a huge step in the right direction. Not only does this give them one of the most dynamic backcourts in the league, but it also gives them their star pairing of the future. Murray’s an efficient combo guard that’ll be able to take some of the offensive load off of Young’s plate.

This’ll also allow Young to spend more possessions playing off-ball and creating scoring opportunities for his teammates. Murray’s defensive prowess will help Young to improve his play on that end of the floor. Murray will also help them out on the boards and give them another All-Star caliber player who can come through for his squad in the clutch.

https://clutchpoints.com/7-most-impactful-moves-of-the-2022-nba-offseason-ranked/

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

Sports Illustrated 

Best, Worst and Most Surprising Moves of the NBA Offseason

What was the most intriguing move of the offseason?

Beck: The Hawks’ acquisition of Dejounte Murray. No other offseason move has greater potential to change a team’s trajectory. Will it work? Who knows? But Murray’s length, playmaking and defensive abilities should be the perfect complement to Trae Young. Both guards will have to adjust to having less control of the offense, and both might have to reel back their usage rate. But if they mesh well, it should solidify the Hawks as a top-six team in the East, and potentially as a contender down the road.

Lundberg: Dejounte Murray to the Hawks. I love the possible fit between Dejounte and Trae Young. And given the histrionics Murray has shown in summer runs and the fact that the Spurs were willing to move on from him, rebuilding aside, it should be intriguing to watch the dynamics in Atlanta and whether they can take a jump in the East.

[RedDawg#8]

3 hours ago, AHF said:

I’m not seeing that but probably missed it.  I just see him and Hunter listed as wings who the team will need with the loss of Huerter especially with DM’s poor 3pt shot (career to date).

Look again where it says Returning from injury.

10 hours ago, sturt said:

Returning from Injury: F Bogdan Bogdanović (knee)

 

[sturt]

12 hours ago, RedDawg#8 said:

Any time I see Bogi listed as a forward a piece of me dies on the inside.

Because you don't think he can play SF... or b/c you don't think he should be playing SF? Just curious.

[theheroatl]

We had a glaring weakness of perimeter defense and a secondary scorer. Anyone who doesn’t think we seriously upgraded has their head buried in the sand.

[kg01]

Never thought of this as us adding 'our Jrue'.  I like it.

[RedDawg#8]

6 hours ago, sturt said:

Because you don't think he can play SF... or b/c you don't think he should be playing SF? Just curious.

Well for one, it’s not that deep to me. I just tend to overvalue semantics and Bogi is not a Forward, i.e combo SF/PF.

His game is not a frontcourt game.

He is a wing, and that’s only because he is strong enough to guard some SF’s. But they didn’t say wing, or even use G/F.

They said “F” for forward. And they likely did so because they lazily confused him with his (not)cousin Bojan Bogdanovic who is a 6-8 Forward.

Our Bogi is a guard, plays like a guard, shoots like a guard, dribbles like a guard, etc…

If you are going to use one letter to describe him it’s G, not F.

If you want to use one word to describe his versatility it’s Wing. 

But he should never be called or referred to as a Forward only. Hence, I died on the inside a little lol

 

[jy23]

On 8/13/2022 at 6:58 AM, kg01 said:

What they do?

You serious? Added Brogdon without giving up a thing. That’s a MAJOR plus then added more bench scoring by picking up Gallo. That’s a great offseason for them. What Philly do? 

[Atlantaholic]

On 8/13/2022 at 6:58 PM, theheroatl said:

We had a glaring weakness of perimeter defense and a secondary scorer. Anyone who doesn’t think we seriously upgraded has their head buried in the sand.

It does fill our biggest needs but we lost some depth and two of our best three point shooters. In reality there's quite a few significant changes to the roster coming in so it'll be interesting to see how everything meshes. 

[JayBirdHawk]

On 8/13/2022 at 7:58 PM, theheroatl said:

We had a glaring weakness of perimeter defense and a secondary scorer. Anyone who doesn’t think we seriously upgraded has their head buried in the sand.

Agreed

1 hour ago, Atlantaholic said:

It does fill our biggest needs but we lost some depth and two of our best three point shooters. In reality there's quite a few significant changes to the roster coming in so it'll be interesting to see how everything meshes. 

 ..and agreed.

We went from:

Starters----

Trae, Huerter, Hunter, Collins, CC to Trae, Murray, Hunter, Collins, CC - we lost Huerter's 3pt shooting but we gained defense, ballhandling and more shooting at the rim with Murray’s ability to get in the paint.

 

Bench-----

Wright, Lou, Bogi, Gallo, OO (this was Nate's all bench subs) - our 9 man playoff rotation excluded Lou.

Our biggest losses are Wright and Gallo, so how do we plug those holes. Ball handling duties will fall to Murray and Bogi. 

We'll miss Gallo's versatility on offense, his size to shoot over players especially. We'll just be playing a different style offense with the 2nd unit. We may not depend on the 3 as much - it will require Hunter and Collins to up their attempts.

 

[RedDawg#8]

AJ Griffin was a better shooter as a freshman than Kev Huerter (or JJ even Reddick) were at any point during their college careers. 

I know he is a rookie, but he should help the 3 point shooting we lost if given the minutes.

Aaron Holiday is an identical career shooter as Kev, and better overall shooter than Delon.

J Holiday and Kaminsky are both better shooters than TLC and Knox.

The biggest fall off is Gallo’s ability to draw fouls and hit timely buckets, but I feel like Murray’s shot creation and attacking will offset that.

Any uptick in performance we get from Dre, OO, or JJ will go a long way in our improvement.

I’m actually pretty excited to see JJ get out and run next to Murray on the break. He could take a major leap in production off of fast breaks alone.

Our team’s identity is going to look vastly different with the new options we have. We should not be jacking up the same number of tough three’s as we are accustomed to seeing. Doesn’t mean we won’t have spacing, just that we wont have to rely on it as a bail out anymore.

 

[Gray Mule]

Most of us agree on the new starting five.  The next five will depend on Nate.  Will our three newest draft picks get a lot of meaningful minutes?  Only Nate can answer this.  

[JayBirdHawk]

46 minutes ago, RedDawg#8 said:

 

I know he is a rookie, but he should help the 3 point shooting we lost if given the minutes.

He's an 18 year old rookie (turning 19 in 10 Days)

[RedDawg#8]

2 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

He's an 18 year old rookie (turning 19 in 10 Days)

Yes, and shot better (.447) than Kev (.371), JJ Reddick (.399), and Kyle Korver (.434) at the exact same age in college. Better even than Curry (.408) too but his volume was insane. 

All of their shooting translated to the NBA right away (Kev obviously not the same caliber as the other 2) which is why I am confident AJ Griffin will be no worse than the guy we just lost in Red Velvet; .389 last season/.379 career 3pt shooter.

Health/playing time are the main factors, but if we just ask him to knock down open shots, I believe he can do that for us today, without hesitation, at a .375-.400 clip.

[FL_BRYANT]

11 hours ago, RedDawg#8 said:

AJ Griffin was a better shooter as a freshman than Kev Huerter (or JJ even Reddick) were at any point during their college careers. 

I know he is a rookie, but he should help the 3 point shooting we lost if given the minutes.

Aaron Holiday is an identical career shooter as Kev, and better overall shooter than Delon.

J Holiday and Kaminsky are both better shooters than TLC and Knox.

The biggest fall off is Gallo’s ability to draw fouls and hit timely buckets, but I feel like Murray’s shot creation and attacking will offset that.

Any uptick in performance we get from Dre, OO, or JJ will go a long way in our improvement.

I’m actually pretty excited to see JJ get out and run next to Murray on the break. He could take a major leap in production off of fast breaks alone.

Our team’s identity is going to look vastly different with the new options we have. We should not be jacking up the same number of tough three’s as we are accustomed to seeing. Doesn’t mean we won’t have spacing, just that we wont have to rely on it as a bail out anymore.

 

I hope we  run more. This team should score more fast break buckets.