Official Game Thread: Hawks at Pacers

[lethalweapon3]

“Shoot, SOMEbody’s gotta guard people around here!”

 

This was supposed to be Tidbits, but this thread for the Atlanta Hawks’ latest visit to Indiana to face the Pacers (7 PM Eastern, Bally Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, BS Indiana) turned into some stream-of-semi-consciousness drivel. Just bear with me, if you please.

Eggs and bacon, hot cakes and sausage, coffee and cream, Hall and Oates, Peaches and Herb, Turner and Hield. I can understand the speculation that certain veteran Pacers would be on the block ahead of the trading deadline. No one’s name, aside from perhaps John Collins’, has been bandied about more over the years than Myles Turner’s (2.2 BPG, 3^rd in NBA; career-highs of 17.0 PPG and 8.0 RPG).

But what I can’t get my head around is the rosterbating dictum from the speculators within the NBA Comic Universe – looking especially at the Laker fans – that somehow Turner ($18 million expiring deal) and Buddy Hield (NBA-high 165 3FGs made, declining salary for 2023-24) can, should, and will only be dealt together. Why Kevin Pritchard and Chad Buchanan cannot entertain and make offers involving these players individually, or separately with other players on the roster, is beyond me. Further, why either has to depart from The Fieldhouse at all.

Daniel Theis (out, knee surgery recovery) and T.J. McConnell soak up a combined $18 million in salary next season with Indiana’s next-highest current contracts, after which is a bunch of rookie-scale and miniature deals for youngsters, led by 2022 first-rounder Bennedict Mathurin (NBA-high 701 bench points, a rookie thriving in his role for his stern veteran coach). There remains ample room to bring back Turner (questionable, back spasms) on a handsome multi-year deal, while also preserving the pending rookie extension deal for Tyrese Haliburton (out for the next couple weeks, knee and elbow injuries).

Most of the salacious salivating over a Buddy-Miles parlay stemmed from the assumption that the Pacers (23-19, tied-6^th in NBA East w/ NYK, 3.5 games ahead of Atlanta) would be no where near their respectable record by now. That the next All-Star representing Indiana would most likely come via the next Draft Lottery or two. That they’d be more than thrilled to absorb other teams’ acquisition mistakes, giving those other wannabe contenders a near-term rocket-boost.

They’ve got an accomplished head coach (Rick Carlisle, in his third stint on the Pacers’ sideline) who is content with where he landed and his lot in life. The head coach knows the people pulling the strings, the folks who sought him out and hired him.

(Congrats to Kahl, by the way. Can we go all-out on the January 2015 dream team, and hand Sap Nick Ressler’s gig?)

Together, they have options to either build around their star guard, with the core cast they have already, or be done with them all by 2023-24’s end, save for Haliburton, and go the tabula rasa route.

Either way, the player core they have, driven hard by their coaching staff, is committed to competing through to the final buzzer, not satisfied with leaving it to the marquee players to lug the team out from huge nightly double-digit deficits. They’re not playing out the string, playing to attract the attention of whoever they’d imagine their next employers might be.

Situationally, from the front office to the frontcourt, Indiana is currently where Atlanta (19-22; headed to 17-25 after passing last season’s hallway mark) once hoped they would reside. Competitive, attractive, occasionally entertaining, with imperfect yet stable management leaving themselves the flexibility to either do more or do-over.

They’ve got an ownership group that only gets its hands dirty when managing its real estate portfolio. So, there is that, too.

The sole commonality for the Hawks with the Pacers, in my estimation, is that these players genuinely want to win for each other, too. Even Collins, like Turner, while acknowledging the nature of this beastly business, hasn’t taken the considerable bait to hint that he would rather be catching his lobs somewhere else.

As we turn into the back half of our team’s season, I would like to see this team evolve to where they occasionally play at, or above, the idea of what they could become. The pick-and-roll tandems of Trae Young (returning from illness after missing Wednesday’s loss vs. MIL) with Collins and the injured Capela (1.22 roller points per possession, 2^nd in NBA East behind NYK’s 1.23) have been fun, but it is more the idea of the threats being available than the reality that propels this team (22^nd in O-Rating) and its stale offensive package.

The tall-for-something De’Andre Hunter (18.2 PPG and 6.6 RPG in past five starts, up from 15.0 and 4.1, respectively), is emblematic of the northward direction the Hawks would like to head. If he can be more consistent with his off-ball rebounding, open threes and paint finishes, Hunter (4-for-14 FGs but a pleasant 7-for-8 on FTs plus 9 rebounds vs. MIL) can return to his status of two Januarys ago, a lengthy forward with boundless promise, prior to his lengthy injury stints. The Hawks (6-2 when Hunter crosses the 20-point plateau), meanwhile, could find themselves more consistently in the win columns.

On nights like Wednesday’s (3-for-11 2FGs, 1-for-5 3FGs, 5 assists, obligatory 2 steals in 38 minutes vs. MIL), particularly before national audiences when other starters are out, and in matchups like the last time the Hawks were here in Indy (4-for-12 FGs, 3 assists in 35 minutes @ IND on Dec. 27) I need Dejounte Murray to match, or eclipse, the idea of Dejounte Murray. Specifically, the preseason notions of what Dejounte (seven playoff starts with the Spurs, but none since 2018) could do as a difference maker for a Hawks team eager to make noise in the postseason once again.

Chocolate and peanut butter, Trae and Dejounte. With a half-season remaining, we’re still waiting for the “two great guards who play great together” part of this season to fully take hold.

Injuries and absences have played a small part, yet Young and Murray were expected to be among the NBA’s top point-producing backcourt tandems. With Hield (if one counts him as an undersized wing player) and Haliburton as a two-man backcourt lineup, Indiana has compiled 2,700-plus points (incl. 375 made threes), and over 660 assists to outpace the league. Despite 13 fewer free throw attempts, Haliburton and Hield outscored Young and Murray 51-36 in their last meeting a couple of weeks ago, Mathurin and Oshae Brissett chipping into the Pacers' 129-114 win with 34 combined points to outshine the Hawks' bench.

Having played eight fewer games and 300 fewer minutes while sharing the floor, Dejountrae has time to catch up with Budrese, now that Haliburton took a spill and takes a spell. We also need the reality of Murray, as a stalwart defender, surpassing the figment of Murray collaborating with Capela (still out, strained calf), with the forwards, or with Okongwu (minus-67 as a two-man tandem in about 670 minutes on the floor) to lead defensively stout units for Atlanta (15^th in D-Rating).

You’re not going to catch anyone around Indy complaining about Mathurin (-3.87 Defensive RPM, behind only the Lakers’ dream trade chip of Russ Westbrook among NBA’ers averaging 25+ MPG) or Chris Duarte being drags on the Pacer defense (21^st in D-Rating).

Certainly not about Hield, a former Sooner product once derided for his commitment to contest shooters on that end of the floor (+3.09 DRPM, not far from Murray’s 3.29; 37 loose-ball recoveries, 5^th in NBA ahead of Haliburton’s 36). Pacer players are committed to improving individually as defenders, while others anticipate the need to cover for teammates in order to secure stops. It’s the sign of a true coalition of the willing -- a team with a willing coach, and with players willing to listen and respond to the coaching staff’s gameday expectations.

Nate McMillan’s underacheiving, underwhelming Hawks are looking at their mirror, and they’ve got his former team, Rick Carlisle and Lloyd Pierce’s overacheiving Pacers, staring back at them. The challenge going forward, for Atlanta's entire Basketball Club, is to avoid the kinds of vapid inactions, shortsighted errors, and/or rash and too-late overreactions, that can cost them many more years of bad luck.

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Variables on the Pacers' end of the 4:30 PM Boo-Boo Report include Oshae Brissett (sore hammy), Aaron Nesmith (Ye Olde no-it's-not-COVID illness), and Myles Turner (back spasms), all of whom are listed as Questionable. Tyrese Haliburton, Daniel Theis and a second-round rookie Kendall Brown are on the outs.

 

~lw3

[Gray Mule]

Question?  Will we see the newest Hawk, Favors, tonight?

[Spud2nique]

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

As we turn into the back half of our team’s season, I would like to see this team evolve to where they occasionally play at, or above, the idea of what they could become.

This. Play each possession. F the outside noise and handle what you can between the lines.

 

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

I need Dejounte Murray to match, or eclipse, the idea of Dejounte Murray.

@JayBirdHawk we need that DM that you initially wanted, he’s morphing into something not great.

 

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Chocolate and peanut butter, Trae and Dejounte. With a half-season remaining, we’re still waiting for the “two great guards who play great together” part of this season to fully take hold.

Comon baby work it! 

 

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Budrese

 

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Lloyd Pierce’s overacheiving Pacers, staring back at them.

Lloyd prolly telling folks today..

”See what unfolded when I left the Hawks”…

 

Thanks lw3, another gem as usual.

Hawks were fav by 3, now it’s 2.5, Cegas heard about the Nicky drama..

 

GO HAWKS!!!

 

ps Again, I’m hoping the players don’t use this on court stuff as an excuse to lax, you got a job to do, if anything have it light a fire under you!!!

 

LETS GOOOO!!!! 2nd half of the season!!!!

[Spud2nique]

1 hour ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Variables on the Pacers' end of the 4:30 PM Boo-Boo Report include Oshae Brissett (sore hammy), Aaron Nesmith (Ye Olde no-it's-not-COVID illness), and Myles Turner (back spasms), all of whom are listed as Questionable. Tyrese Haliburton, Daniel Theis and a second-round rookie Kendall Brown are on the outs.

 

~lw3

So basically the Pacers are begging the Hawks to please win this game.  Just take it and go. 

[Guest]

Everybody's in the "sky is falling" thread.  
Come here.  It'll be falling soon too! 

[Spud2nique]

DM went off! @JayBirdHawk we need this tonight!

[JayBirdHawk]

1 hour ago, Spud2nique said:

@JayBirdHawk we need that DM that you initially wanted, he’s morphing into something not great.

[Spud2nique]

1 minute ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Same for OO  put everyone on the list!!!

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Great start

Horrible ever since.

 

Let's see what the bench can do, when they get in the game.

There you go Trae.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Oh yeah . . Trae's shot is back.

[JayBirdHawk]

2 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Great start

Horrible ever since.

Wait, game has started already? early start at 7 I guess - I assumed 7:30.

[hawkman]

1 minute ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Oh yeah . . Trae's shot is back.

Him being on his game can turn this season around.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Look at Trae and OO developing a little chemistry tonight.   Good to see.

[JayBirdHawk]

Just now, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Look at Trae and OO developing a little chemistry tonight.   Good to see.

I turned on the TV just in time to see that play. Nice.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

2 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Wait, game has started already? early start at 7 I guess - I assumed 7:30.

 

Indianapolis is Eastern time.

I was thinking the same thing too with the 6:30/7:30 start.  But they start their games at the top of the hour.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

14 & 8 for Okongwu already . . on 7 - 7 FG.

Get that 20 - 20 game tonight.

[ShooterSays]

OO17 with 14 & 8 that first quarter. Probably his better quarter ever. 

[hawkman]

20 and 10 should be a cakewalk for OO tonight. 

[terrell]

Okongwu has his season high - in the first quarter. (I have no idea if this is true, but keep it going.). lol