Official Game Thread: Hawks at Rockets

[JayBirdHawk]

Like I said last night, I did not watch the game, but some of this stuff...smh. does not make me happy. None of this looks good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[NBASupes]

Yesterday convinced me more than ever we need to trade Capela and Bogi for Ayton and Crowder 

Seeing Murray with space is a much different player. Will we lower our floor again, sure but I don't think it will be close to as low as last year's while our ceiling is back to last year if not higher. Right now, our ceiling is Highlight factory Hawks.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Jock Landale was an ideal 3rd big to keep on this roster. He brings energy, rebounds at a decent clip, and has a little versatility on offense. 

But they traded him off to avoid paying the tax as well.  Jock has been very good in his role in Phoenix.

[JayBirdHawk]

18 minutes ago, marco102 said:

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. 

This can't be said enough, total team loss. I would have liked to hear from the players after this one. Any interviews available?

[NBASupes]

1 minute ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Jock Landale was an ideal 3rd big to keep on this roster. He brings energy, rebounds at a decent clip, and has a little versatility on offense. 

But they traded him off to avoid paying the tax as well.  Jock has been very good in his role in Phoenix.

All of the bigs been good PHX outside of Ayton in their roles.

[JayBirdHawk]

10 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

His current skillset screams classic PF to me on offense

In this offense next to Clint we are using our PF as more of a stretch 4 this year. Instead of PnR and PnP we are using the PnF (pick and FLOAT to the 3 point line). OO can't do any of that.

[StonedDogs]

6 hours ago, Spud2nique said:

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! 

Trae is a big part of the problem. Coaching will be a revolving door with him. He has an ego issue. Its so obvious he wants his numbers. He wants his all star voting. He wants to be the main event. Its just obvious at this point. This team needs a coach to come in and make him an NBA point guard. 

You say without Trae they lose by 30? I'll say with Ja they win by 30. Ja just understands the game better. Ja would see that AJ was hot. Ja would get JJJ involved. Or Bane involved. He would see Brooks has the hot hand. 

Team needs a coach to coach the PG, draw up plays and tire opponents defense out. This whole coaching staff and culture needs to go. Im tired of interim and assistant coaches. Team needs a head coach with good playoff success to come in with his own staff to change the culture. 

There's just no reason why both PGs should have that many shot attempts. No team is doing that

[NBASupes]

9 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

In this offense next to Clint we are using our PF as more of a stretch 4 this year. Instead of PnR and PnP we are using the PnF (pick and FLOAT to the 3 point line). OO can't do any of that.

I think we all agree, there is no chance he can play next to Capela, especially with Murray on the court as well.

[terrell]

7 hours ago, NBASupes said:

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

No need to even debate NC about anything concerning Trae Young.. Good grief..

[marco102]

18 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

This can't be said enough, total team loss. I would have liked to hear from the players after this one. Any interviews available?

No,idea. I was too busy ranting last night to hear the post game comments..lol

[terrell]

4 hours ago, gurpilo said:

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.

Schlenking...

[Spud2nique]

19 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

Crowder

You were just bashing Crowder.

[marco102]

20 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

Yesterday convinced me more than ever we need to trade Capela and Bogi for Ayton and Crowder 

Seeing Murray with space is a much different player. Will we lower our floor again, sure but I don't think it will be close to as low as last year's while our ceiling is back to last year if not higher. Right now, our ceiling is Highlight factory Hawks.

A wet fart could have convinced you of that because you've already made up your mind even before the game. 

[Spud2nique]

15 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

OO can't do any of that.

Neither can JC apparently. We can’t start blaming the guy behind the guy here. It’s JC folks we gotta stop covering for him.

[NBASupes]

2 minutes ago, Spud2nique said:

You were just bashing Crowder.

And I'll bash him as a Hawk too but he makes salaries work for a trade. 

[Final_quest]

Can't believe we gave away games to Houston with abysmal 4th quarters in back to back years.  I do think there is some blame for Trae and DJM because after that skirmish they wanted to show out and failed.  They played emotionally and lost and they look foolish, but that's not mainly where we lost the game. 

The second chance points and rebounding is the heart of the story.  Is there anyone who still believes Okongwu can adequately replace Capela?  Our front court is out of balance even with Capela.  

Positively I loved seeing DJM go off with his shot.  He is dedicated to working on his game.  If he can successfully incorporate that into his skillset, we are dangerous.     

[NBASupes]

1 minute ago, marco102 said:

A wet fart could have convinced you of that because you've already made up your mind even before the game. 

No, believe it or not. I have been heavily weighting that trade.

The good don't outweigh the bad. Capela has been outplaying and producing far more than Ayton this year. His impact on defense is extremely valuable. He's been better in his role which is the same as Ayton. The thing is, we need Capela to add more offensive responsibility and that's just not possible and we need him to add more gravity which once again, is not possible. 

So while he's our most critical player, he is f***ing up our fits outside of the obvious elite one with him and Trae. 

Ayton has underperformed this year. His defense while still good isn't great. His offense has taken a step back. He's having some of the same struggles as JC where they have seem a drop in touches and quality touches at that. Although I will say, Ayton offense has been more consistent than JC of late. Then you add that he's laxxed like Kevin and that's not exactly what we need. He does not have that dog in him like Clint does. 

There is a lot of questions for me with that trade but yesterday told me what I already knew. Murray needs space. While defense will clearly regress with Ayton, Okongwu can play the 4 which means defense will still be closer to 15 than 30. With JC and Ayton, they just don't have enough individual defensive talent with the bigs. 

I just think we need to understand what we are. This current core, ain't it.

[JayBirdHawk]

10 minutes ago, Spud2nique said:

Neither can JC apparently. We can’t start blaming the guy behind the guy here. It’s JC folks we gotta stop covering for him.

I'm speaking specifically about OO and his current skillset.

JCs current struggles are well documented this year, the difference is nobody is going to guard or chase OO off the 3pt line.

[JayBirdHawk]

12 minutes ago, marco102 said:

A wet fart could have convinced you of that because you've already made up your mind even before the game. 

And on a night when defense and rebounding was problem too.

Murray took more than half his shots from 3 (13) and made more than half (8), that is what opened up his midrange game.

[NBASupes]

1 minute ago, JayBirdHawk said:

And on a night when defense and rebounding was problem too.

Murray took more than half his shots from 3 (13) and made more than half (8), that is what opened up his midrange game.

No. He got going at the basket and with the mid and then he started shooting 3s and couldn't miss.