Official Game Thread: Hawks at Rockets

[NBASupes]

1 hour ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

What could he have done differently tonight?  Please be specific.

He almost had to played a perfect game offensively, and the Hawks still lost.

So what could he have done differently on offense, that would've seen the Hawks come out on top?

 

If you think this was a near perfect game for Trae, you are a part of Trae's problem. His delusional stan base 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

16 minutes ago, Diesel said:

We can definitely go play by play and nitpick.

However, our top to players scored damn near 40 points.  Do you know how freaking rare that is.  Offense wasn't nearly the biggest problem.  We lost the rebounding war by 31 rebounds..  There's your ball game. 

37 - 2 on 2nd chance points.

That means that even on the rare occasions in which we did get an offensive rebound, we didn't score.  Meanwhile, they were getting put backs, or getting fouled after grabbing the board

 

[Spud2nique]

11 hours ago, nathan2331 said:

Dang even in 2K we can't make threes.

The struggle is real. I can’t get the dang shooting down this year and I been playing this stupid thing since 1986 with double dribble.. this thing is nuts lol.

Im playing on superstar level but still. I release super quick and it’s always still late.

COME BACK BOGI!!! That might help the Hawks apparently it ain’t gonna help me.  

[Spud2nique]

9 hours ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

Murray's statline is crazy

 

He’s a menace on steals. I haven’t TRIED to get a quadruple double but one of these nights whether in 2K or real life, he’s gonna have a shot at it. Would be really cool to see Murray get a stat line of 

30 points 11 boards 11 dimes 10 steals

Waiting for that day. It’ll be special. I remember the dream doing it a couple times. 

[Spud2nique]

I’m sorry that’s unacceptable. Nobody in our front court showed up tonight and we missed Capela like crazy. How are you up 16 and end it like that? 
 

AJ busts three straight threes and he’s gone for stretches. Hunter 3-12.. ugh, Okongwu didn’t even attempt a FG the whole time. 
 

Waste of a combined 83 points by Trae and DM.  

 

Bounce back against the Heat at State Farm on Sunday.

 

Go Hawks!
 

 

[Spud2nique]

1 hour ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

I just don't get the terrible hot takes every time we lose a game.

They gave this game away, we can all agree on that.

 

That doesn't mean a team that hasn't even played 20 games together yet, has maximized what all they can do.  We still have Bogi possibly coming back, and this team will continue to play games together and try to figure everything out.

 

This is why I almost don’t wanna come back here when we lose. People say some outlandish stuff. 
 

JC is playing like crap overall and Hunter is inconsistent. That’s why we are up and down right now but we need to chill like you said. 
 

People think Trae is the problem? Lol. If Trae didn’t do what he did we would lost by 30! 

[marco102]

1 hour ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

In the 4th quarter, Trae and Murray were 3 - 9 FG, after being brilliant for 3 quarters.

The rest of the team was 1 - 5 FG . . which continued their cold shooting.

 

The answer that everyone wants to see is . . . pass it to AJ.  That would've been nice.  But once again, this is a coaching scheme.  If Nate wants AJ to get more shots, he can demand that his guys get the ball to AJ coming off screens or whenever he's open.

As for other people, Trae passed the ball to Hunter 3 times for open 3s.  Dejounte passed it to him once.  AJ got it to him once.  All open 3s.  All misses.

Video and Shotcharts | Stats | NBA.com

 

 

Now do the third quarter when we were up 16 and what did they do.

You can't expect players to keep a rhythm and save you in the forth quarter if you don't give the some touches through out the game. 

Yes Hunter may have struggled with the three, in the forth quarter, but that doesn't excuse the way Trae and Murray played. 

If John collins is rolling to the basket and has a small Rocket on him.  Don't look him off and heave a three.  Give him the ball. The one thing he hasn't struggled with is finishing.

I don't understand why you dont' think Trae and Murray deserve some criticism. They are the star players. Yeah, they put up points, but that was the worst case of me ball I've seen in a long time. 

[Watchman]

3 hours ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

What could he have done differently tonight?  Please be specific.

He almost had to played a perfect game offensively, and the Hawks still lost.

So what could he have done differently on offense, that would've seen the Hawks come out on top?

 

I was responding to a general observation, and pointed out that Trae takes it personally (to an extreme) if you ask him to make any adjustment to his game.  He then pouts and refuses to shoot, when no one asked or expected him to do that.  As far as tonight's game, Collins used to be the primary PNR option, but for some reason that got moved to Capela.  Collins is just as good at it, if not better, but for whatever reason, we didn't run the PNR with any regularity tonight.  Why?  OO is not particularly good at itt, but Collins is.  Instead, the fourth quarter turned into our standard dribble around and hoist up threes, which we missed a lot of,  even though we had a big lead.  And the rest is history.

Edited November 26, 2022 by Watchman

[gurpilo]

Team is thin, we knew that, an injury to one frontcourt player was going to have a great impact, we were right.

Kaminsky needs to go and we need a real backup center as Whiheside or Cousins or Thompson, is so clear that I don't understand they are doing nothing to solve this.  Capela has a history of missing 15-20 games.

[benhillboy]

I can imagine there’s a lot of OO hate going on in this thread, I wouldn’t know for sure.  Just check the names above him in Win Shares Per 48 and convince yourself his impact isn’t felt by opposing teams.  Oh yeah he’s on the ball less than of any of these players and one of only 3 bench guys:

 

Stop watching the ball so much and realize winning traits and decision making.  It’ll give you so much more clarity and understanding when watching the entire game.

Edited November 26, 2022 by benhillboy

[TheNorthCydeRises]

1 hour ago, benhillboy said:

I can imagine there’s a lot of OO hate going on in this thread, I wouldn’t know for sure.  Just check the names above him in Win Shares Per 48 and convince yourself his impact isn’t felt by opposing teams.  Oh yeah he’s on the ball less than of any of these players and one of only 3 bench guys:

 

Stop watching the ball so much and realize winning traits and decision making.  It’ll give you so much more clarity and understanding when watching the entire game.

I haven't had a problem with OO all year. I know what his game impact is.

But we needed an energy guy on the boards tonight, and he didn't provide that until midway through the 4th quarter.

If you need plays on offense called for you in order to do your job on the boards, that's a problem in itself.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

3 hours ago, marco102 said:

I don't understand why you dont' think Trae and Murray deserve some criticism. They are the star players. Yeah, they put up points, but that was the worst case of me ball I've seen in a long time. 

Because with Trae and Dejounte taking care of the scoring, we needed the other guys to keep them off the boards.

We scored 122 pts last night, so it's not like we needed more offense. We just couldn't end possessions with defensive rebounding. I put that squarely on the front court.

If you want to play the blame game, Trae and Dejounte get 80% of the credit for us winning the game and 20% for losing it at the end. Trae has to make all of his 4th quarter FTs and both guards must execute down the stretch.

 

[marco102]

26 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Because with Trae and Dejounte taking care of the scoring, we needed the other guys to keep them off the boards.

We scored 122 pts last night, so it's not like we needed more offense. We just couldn't end possessions with defensive rebounding. I put that squarely on the front court.

If you want to play the blame game, Trae and Dejounte get 80% of the credit for us winning the game and 20% for losing it at the end. Trae has to make all of his 4th quarter FTs and both guards must execute down the stretch.

 

They shouldnhave rebounded too as selfish as they were being.

[JTB]

6 hours ago, Diesel said:

We can definitely go play by play and nitpick.

However, our top to players scored damn near 40 points.  Do you know how freaking rare that is.  Offense wasn't nearly the biggest problem.  We lost the rebounding war by 31 rebounds..  There's your ball game. 

Thank you! Capela is our defensive anchor and he’s extremely important to have every game.

8 hours ago, NBASupes said:

Murray wouldn't have had the game he had today if Capela played. 

It was definitely their fault for being selfish in the 4th quarter. 

That doesn’t make any sense. Murray had the kind of offensive game he had because he drained 8 threes. Murray making or missing 3s has nothing to Capela,

8 hours ago, terrell said:

Murray and CC dont fit at all....Its kinda like Westbrook and Capela

Offensively in some instances they don’t fit but Murray and Capela defensively fits like a damn glove. Sometimes you gotta just take your losses somewhere. If Murray continues to hit his 3s well then Murray and Capela will fit better offensively as year goes on…but for these two defense together defensive possessions is just as important.

8 hours ago, NBASupes said:

Of course you now think it's fools gold because you believe his impact wasn't what it was but I am here to say his +/- is accurate and deserved. He played solid.

Watched the game twice Supes….I love OO but just as you have said he is not a center and Bruno was too big for him at times . OO did not play a good game quarters 1-3….he COULD have made way more impact if he played aggressive in those quarters like he did in the 4th.

7 hours ago, NBASupes said:

Unless the Hawks have Capela or better Rudy Gobert, they will always have issues protecting the paint. Okongwu is an excellent rim protector but he's not a paint protector at all. Ayton is a good paint protector but even then, he's a far cry from the Capelas of the world much less Rudy. 

Capela value is priceless on D. Paint protection for us is critical. When you got the WOAT, you gotta protect him in every way and shape

Exactly this but I don’t care about your “WOAT” analysis for Trae even if it’s true because it’s only one way of looking at this whole thing. It’s way too easy to also say Without Traes offense this team is butt cheeks in that area. But back on topic yes, Traes defense isn’t good therefore you need an extremely impactful defensive 5 like capela out there . Its well known and it all goes together that’s why Schlenk assembled that part of it greatly but we really need to stop using OO as a back up center and Frank is ass defensively so he shouldn’t even be out there…. @Diesel was right and this game proves it! we should pickup whiteside to come off the bench for Capela during certain matchups.

the issue tonight was all about defense and rebounding. Capela is the defensive anchor and rebounding machine and I hope everyone now realizes how no one else on this team can do his damn job not even OO. Defensively Capela is good for Trae, Murray, Hunter, & Collins (whole team literally)!

Capela helps significantly to hide Trae defensively, he allows Murray & Hunter to play up in their opponents chest on the perimeter defensively, and last he allows Collins to roam free and create havoc defensively if he can by getting  these weak side blocks or setting up in position to take charges, etc. Capela is this teams best defensive player by far and is the star defensive player for this group and top 5 defensive center in the nba. We need Capelas defense like we need Traes offense.

Really need to get Capela a better backup 5 that can protect the rim and rebound at a decent rate during his absence ….we literally have one rim protector on this team and we are fooling ourselves if we think anyone else on this roster can give us anything close to what Capela gives us. 
 

All this damn arguing about offense is ridiculous when your star players played the way they did…where are the arguments about how we were exposed defensively without Capelas presence? ….where’s the arguing about how it doesn’t appear even our good  defenders are truly good without Capelas presence???….im one of the main posters here who wanted Ayton for Capela but I definitely wouldn’t do that trade anymore. Capela is literally this teams most consistent piece and he been playing lights out.

Give that man Capela his flowers. Rant over.

[NBASupes]

18 minutes ago, JTB said:

Thank you! Capela is our defensive anchor and he’s extremely important to have every game.

That doesn’t make any sense. Murray had the kind of offensive game he had because he drained 8 threes. Murray making or missing 3s has nothing to Capela,

Offensively in some instances they don’t fit but Murray and Capela defensively fits like a damn glove. Sometimes you gotta just take your losses somewhere. If Murray continues to hit his 3s well then Murray and Capela will fit better offensively as year goes on…but for these two defense together defensive possessions is just as important.

Watched the game twice Supes….I love OO but just as you have said he is not a center and Bruno was too big for him at times . OO did not play a good game quarters 1-3….he COULD have made way more impact if he played aggressive in those quarters like he did in the 4th.

Exactly this but I don’t care about your “WOAT” analysis for Trae even if it’s true because it’s only one way of looking at this whole thing. It’s way too easy to also say Without Traes offense this team is butt cheeks in that area. But back on topic yes, Traes defense isn’t good therefore you need an extremely impactful defensive 5 like capela out there . Its well known and it all goes together that’s why Schlenk assembled that part of it greatly but we really need to stop using OO as a back up center and Frank is ass defensively so he shouldn’t even be out there…. @Diesel was right and this game proves it! we should pickup whiteside to come off the bench for Capela during certain matchups.

the issue tonight was all about defense and rebounding. Capela is the defensive anchor and rebounding machine and I hope everyone now realizes how no one else on this team can do his damn job not even OO. Defensively Capela is good for Trae, Murray, Hunter, & Collins (whole team literally)!

Capela helps significantly to hide Trae defensively, he allows Murray & Hunter to play up in their opponents chest on the perimeter defensively, and last he allows Collins to roam free and create havoc defensively if he can by getting  these weak side blocks or setting up in position to take charges, etc. Capela is this teams best defensive player by far and is the star defensive player for this group and top 5 defensive center in the nba. We need Capelas defense like we need Traes offense.

Really need to get Capela a better backup 5 that can protect the rim and rebound at a decent rate during his absence ….we literally have one rim protector on this team and we are fooling ourselves if we think anyone else on this roster can give us anything close to what Capela gives us. 
 

All this damn arguing about offense is ridiculous when your star players played the way they did…where are the arguments about how we were exposed defensively without Capelas presence? ….where’s the arguing about how it doesn’t appear even our good  defenders are truly good without Capelas presence???….im one of the main posters here who wanted Ayton for Capela but I definitely wouldn’t do that trade anymore. Capela is literally this teams most consistent piece and he been playing lights out.

Give that man Capela his flowers. Rant over.

Capela is critical to our defense and has been critical for years.

Murray needed space which is where he got hot. Once he got hot, he was then making shots from range. With Capela, he would have never gotten hot. Capela anti gravity makes it hard for Murray

I feel indifferent to OO and how he played tonight but of course, I don't see him as a center. I never have. He's always been a switchable big who defends in space well and protects the rim but he doesn't protect the paint at all and his feel for the game ain't Horford level to where he makes up for his lack of size and length either. He's almost like this generation's Horace Grant. I love OO but he has no future at center on this team. He's much too small and you gotta have a paint protector on the court at all times with Trae. Okongwu is the PF version of a young Pat Bev. To me, thats very valuable in the modern NBA but that's not that valuable on this roster as an undersized center. To me, he needs to be the starting PF but there is zero chance I'll start him next to Capela with Murray as our 2. That's offensive suicide 

I agree with the rest. I still say he's the only one they can trade. He's the only one that plays a role where the impact could be higher. No matter who we trade for JC, they won't have much impact 

Edited November 26, 2022 by NBASupes

[HawkingAwesome]

They're going to fire nate aren't they?

[marco102]

17 minutes ago, JTB said:

Thank you! Capela is our defensive anchor and he’s extremely important to have every game.

That doesn’t make any sense. Murray had the kind of offensive game he had because he drained 8 threes. Murray making or missing 3s has nothing to Capela,

Offensively in some instances they don’t fit but Murray and Capela defensively fits like a damn glove. Sometimes you gotta just take your losses somewhere. If Murray continues to hit his 3s well then Murray and Capela will fit better offensively as year goes on…but for these two defense together defensive possessions is just as important.

Watched the game twice Supes….I love OO but just as you have said he is not a center and Bruno was too big for him at times . OO did not play a good game quarters 1-3….he COULD have made way more impact if he played aggressive in those quarters like he did in the 4th.

Exactly this but I don’t care about your “WOAT” analysis for Trae even if it’s true because it’s only one way of looking at this whole thing. It’s way too easy to also say Without Traes offense this team is butt cheeks in that area. But back on topic yes, Traes defense isn’t good therefore you need an extremely impactful defensive 5 like capela out there . Its well known and it all goes together that’s why Schlenk assembled that part of it greatly but we really need to stop using OO as a back up center and Frank is ass defensively so he shouldn’t even be out there…. @Diesel was right and this game proves it! we should pickup whiteside to come off the bench for Capela during certain matchups.

the issue tonight was all about defense and rebounding. Capela is the defensive anchor and rebounding machine and I hope everyone now realizes how no one else on this team can do his damn job not even OO. Defensively Capela is good for Trae, Murray, Hunter, & Collins (whole team literally)!

Capela helps significantly to hide Trae defensively, he allows Murray & Hunter to play up in their opponents chest on the perimeter defensively, and last he allows Collins to roam free and create havoc defensively if he can by getting  these weak side blocks or setting up in position to take charges, etc. Capela is this teams best defensive player by far and is the star defensive player for this group and top 5 defensive center in the nba. We need Capelas defense like we need Traes offense.

Really need to get Capela a better backup 5 that can protect the rim and rebound at a decent rate during his absence ….we literally have one rim protector on this team and we are fooling ourselves if we think anyone else on this roster can give us anything close to what Capela gives us. 
 

All this damn arguing about offense is ridiculous when your star players played the way they did…where are the arguments about how we were exposed defensively without Capelas presence? ….where’s the arguing about how it doesn’t appear even our good  defenders are truly good without Capelas presence???….im one of the main posters here who wanted Ayton for Capela but I definitely wouldn’t do that trade anymore. Capela is literally this teams most consistent piece and he been playing lights out.

Give that man Capela his flowers. Rant over.

Capela is definitely critical for us on defense and the boards.  OO is still a center.  His current skillset screams center rather we like it or not. I believe Capela was a game time decision.  I think the team would have played better if they had time to game plan for Capela being out.  That wasn't the case and they took the L.

This was a team loss. Yes Murray and Trae deserve blame for playing with their food and not running the offense. The other guys deserve blame for not bringing the energy defensively and rebounding. 

They better show up against Miami and Philly.  Hopefully, they can beat both.

[NBASupes]

As of right now, Capela is the only one we can trade and get better. 

We can get Ayton for him and Ayton fit with Okongwu is massively better and his fit with JC is better and most importantly, his fit with Murray is better. Trae and Ayton will need some work tho. That will take time. 

There is no trade out there for JC that makes us better. None.

There is no trade out there for Hunter that makes us better. None. 

Same for the rest of the team. 

Capela is the only player with the trade value that could make us better even if it makes us worse as a RS team. We gotta raise our ceiling. Right now, this is a 1st round exit team, likely playin team. I felt our ceiling was higher last year even though our floor was much lower.

Edited November 26, 2022 by NBASupes

[TheNorthCydeRises]

4 minutes ago, HawkingAwesome said:

They're going to fire nate aren't they?

As long as Nate has a winning record and has us in playoff contention ... no.

One bad loss does not get a coach fired.

And it's not like the organization went all out to put the best product out on the floor. Otherwise, we would've kept Huerter and paid a little Luxury Tax.

This is not a "championship or bust" roster they constructed.  But if he misses the playoffs, yes, Nate is gone.

[NBASupes]

1 minute ago, marco102 said:

Capela is definitely critical for us on defense and the boards.  OO is still a center.  His current skillset screams center rather we like it or not. I believe Capela was a game time decision.  I think the team would have played better if they had time to game plan for Capela being out.  That wasn't the case and they took the L.

This was a team loss. Yes Murray and Trae deserve blame for playing with their food and not running the offense. The other guys deserve blame for not bringing the energy defensively and rebounding. 

They better show up against Miami and Philly.  Hopefully, they can beat both.

His current skillset screams classic PF to me on offense and his defensive skillset screams excellent defensive PF.