DJ Murray

[Vol4ever]

Is the best player on the team.  Good to see Hunter turn the corner. 

[RedDawg#8]

Murray reminds me of Paul Milsap. Workman, no-nonsense, do it all on the court.

He is going to push our guys to play hard and do what it takes to win.

Filled up the stat sheet tonight.

Great debut.

[Hawkmoor]

31 minutes ago, Vol4ever said:

Is the best player on the team.  Good to see Hunter turn the corner. 

Back in December of 2021 I made a mock trade proposal to send Murray to the Nets in a 3 team trade with the Hawks, Spurs and Nets in order to get Kyrie Irving.  I made that mock predicated on the fact that I knew it would take a player of Murray's caliber to make the Nets even ponder a trade of Irving. Even so I didn't know how good Murray was on the defensive end.  He brings waay more to the table in that regard than Irving.  I knew he can score and assist, but the rebounding and defensive end skills are way better than I was aware of.  Fantastic player.  A game changing player.  Keeping him was the better move than getting Kyrie or anybody else on the market or potentially on the market at this point and time.  The Hawks got a literal steal for Murray.

Edited October 20, 2022 by Hawkmoor

[benhillboy]

I could tell instantly from his post game interview that he’s the guy in the middle of the huddle in the locker room alongside John, who feels an obligation as the longest tenured, and Clint as the old vet.  But being that he’s a considerably better player than both he is now the clear team captain.

Edited October 20, 2022 by benhillboy

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[ShooterSays]

His defense, FIVE steals, is exactly what this team needed…and what Trae needed. It led to easy offense in transition all game. I’ve never seen us bleed an opponent in transition like we did last night.

And ZERO turnovers!!

[swanlee]

Houston would have come back and won if it weren't fir DJs defense at the end if the game. Something we did not have before.

[Final_quest]

1 hour ago, ShooterSays said:

His defense, FIVE steals, is exactly what this team needed…and what Trae needed. It led to easy offense in transition all game. I’ve never seen us bleed an opponent in transition like we did last night.

And ZERO turnovers!!

I definitely could be eating my words on being a transition team.  The diet of relentless pick and roll sets we are used to seeing was less of a feature last night.  Additionally DM is NOT better than Trae.  I'm not on that train yet, but that is high praise of Murray.  

[Atlantaholic]

2 hours ago, ShooterSays said:

His defense, FIVE steals, is exactly what this team needed…and what Trae needed. It led to easy offense in transition all game. I’ve never seen us bleed an opponent in transition like we did last night.

And ZERO turnovers!!

Last year we were I think bottom five in causing turnovers which is one big reason we were also bottom in the league in transition. With how good the Hawks take care of the ball you add in Murray and Holliday who will give us 3-4 steals that's huge. Having that turnover advantage every game is going to be one of the biggest reasons the Hawks will surprise a lot of teams and fans this year. 

[AHF]

31 minutes ago, Final_quest said:

I definitely could be eating my words on being a transition team.  The diet of relentless pick and roll sets we are used to seeing was less of a feature last night.  Additionally DM is NOT better than Trae.  I'm not on that train yet, but that is high praise of Murray.  

I don't feel any desire to do a big comparison on which player is better.  What I care about is that both are dynamic players and the focus is on how well they fit together.  Seems like a great fit with their games and strengths and weaknesses fitting very well together (covering for each other and synergizing).  

So the question isn't "who is better Trae or DM?"  It is:  "How good can Trae & DM be together?"  And I'm pretty optimistic about the answer to that question.

[Final_quest]

6 minutes ago, AHF said:

I don't feel any desire to do a big comparison on which player is better.  What I care about is that both are dynamic players and the focus is on how well they fit together.  Seems like a great fit with their games and strengths and weaknesses fitting very well together (covering for each other and synergizing).  

So the question isn't "who is better Trae or DM?"  It is:  "How good can Trae & DM be together?"  And I'm pretty optimistic about the answer to that question.

That sounds nice, but I think they are both relevant questions.  You are not gonna stop people from making the comparison.  As long as chocolate and vanilla exist some people will talk about liking both and combining both, but others will say which one is better. 

To me, I look at it as a positive. We not only have a generational talent in Trae, we now have a guy that people will credibly think is better.  That's a huge win in my book.   I'm not afraid of people asking the question.  We can't stop people from committing this thought crime.  It's best to just accept it then work to prevent it.  

[RedDawg#8]

11 minutes ago, Final_quest said:

That sounds nice, but I think they are both relevant questions.  You are not gonna stop people from making the comparison.  As long as chocolate and vanilla exist some people will talk about liking both and combining both, but others will say which one is better. 

To me, I look at it as a positive. We not only have a generational talent in Trae, we now have a guy that people will credibly think is better.  That's a huge win in my book.   I'm not afraid of people asking the question.  We can't stop people from committing this thought crime.  It's best to just accept it then work to prevent it.  

That’s like asking who was better, Horford or Milsap?

They both were well rounded, all star level players, with intangibles to boot.

They still had their own style and impact on the court though and would find ways to win us games whether it was their night or not.

This is my hope for Trae and DJM. I hope Murray becomes that defensive playmaker and tough guy that we need. Trae will always be a walking 30-10 guy. His impact will open up things for everyone include Murray. I don’t know yet that Murray could have the kind of gravity that would make Trae’s life significantly easier. He can take pressure off of Trae, but teams will always gameplan for Trae first. 

Murray’s defensive impact is what closes the gap on overall impact. And because those strengths are so different, I don’t think it’s even worth comparing who is better. They just need to do them and we will benefit as a team. They are the perfect compliment to each other.

[AHF]

37 minutes ago, RedDawg#8 said:

That’s like asking who was better, Horford or Milsap?

They both were well rounded, all star level players, with intangibles to boot.

They still had their own style and impact on the court though and would find ways to win us games whether it was their night or not.

This is my hope for Trae and DJM. I hope Murray becomes that defensive playmaker and tough guy that we need. Trae will always be a walking 30-10 guy. His impact will open up things for everyone include Murray. I don’t know yet that Murray could have the kind of gravity that would make Trae’s life significantly easier. He can take pressure off of Trae, but teams will always gameplan for Trae first. 

Murray’s defensive impact is what closes the gap on overall impact. And because those strengths are so different, I don’t think it’s even worth comparing who is better. They just need to do them and we will benefit as a team. They are the perfect compliment to each other.

The comparison I would make is to Steph Curry and Klay Thompson (apologies to Spud).  Not that I am saying they are the same player at all but Curry is the engine for the offense and the elite scorer.  Thompson is the plus defender and key secondary scorer.  DM will have more a playmaking role and do less for floor spacing than Klay but I think they compare pretty favorably in terms of one putting up the bigger scoring totals and handling more of the playmaking and the other being capable of stepping up and dominating on any given night while making the team much better on the defensive side of the ball.

The one thing that doesn't work for me as much in the Millsap / Horford comparison is that while Sap was the better scorer he wasn't a game changer engine on offense and both Horford and Sap were very strong defenders.  Curry just tries not to be a negative on defense but is transformation on O which is close enough to Trae for this kind of loose comparison while both DM and Klay can be two-way standouts.

[Hawkmoor]

2 hours ago, Final_quest said:

I definitely could be eating my words on being a transition team.  The diet of relentless pick and roll sets we are used to seeing was less of a feature last night.  Additionally DM is NOT better than Trae.  I'm not on that train yet, but that is high praise of Murray.  

There was no reason to even... Nothing.  Carry on.

[Final_quest]

32 minutes ago, RedDawg#8 said:

They are the perfect compliment to each other.

I don't mean to diminish how well they compliment each other.  I'm just saying as long as people like the OP think DM is better, we are going to have people share that thought. 

Some people will focus on how they compliment each other and still have an idea of which one they think is better.  I'm fine with whatever people actually think, and for them to feel like they can share that thought.  

[AHF]

1 minute ago, Final_quest said:

I don't mean to diminish how well they compliment each other.  I'm just saying as long as people like the OP think DM is better, we are going to have people share that thought. 

Some people will focus on how they compliment each other and still have an idea of which one they think is better.  I'm fine with whatever people actually think, and for them to feel like they can share that thought.  

I've got no issue with that either.  Some people felt Clint Capela was the best player on the team two seasons ago; most thought it was Trae.  That discussion will happen and it will be fine.  I'm just not interested personally in that question generally and definitely not early in the season when we have such a small sample of games to extrapolate from.  Conversely, I am extremely interested to see how they pair together on the floor and how Nate manages their minutes.

[Final_quest]

2 minutes ago, Hawkmoor said:

There was no reason to even... Nothing.  Carry on.

This entire thread's main point was suggesting DM is the best player on the team.  It was essentially saying DM is replacing Trae as our top player effective immediately.  The desired effect was to create conversation around that idea.  

[Hawkmoor]

13 minutes ago, Final_quest said:

This entire thread's main point was suggesting DM is the best player on the team.  It was essentially saying DM is replacing Trae as our top player effective immediately.  The desired effect was to create conversation around that idea.  

Not one poster said Dejuante is better than Trae.  What you are doing is trying to stop a narrative before it even begins.

 

Edited October 20, 2022 by Hawkmoor

[AHF]

2 minutes ago, Hawkmoor said:

Not one poster said Dejuante is better than Trae.  What you are doing is trying to stop a narrative before it even begins.

 

The first post on the thread says that DM is the best player on the team.

[JayBirdHawk]

3 minutes ago, Hawkmoor said:

Not one poster said Dejuante is better than Trae.

the very first line of the very first post????