Machiavellian 2nd Half of the Season.

[Diesel]

 

I have called the Hawks the middiest team in the NBA.  We were 41-41... down the stretch win one and lose one.  But here's the hard part...

Down the stretch, the only thing that I saw Quin do differently than Nate was play the young guys.   That was it.  Offense .. the same.  A little more motivation but everything was basically the same. 

Were we employing tactics from "The Prince". 

Our play in game... showed a different Hawks team.  One that new how to:

1. Play with pace
2. Crash the offensive boards
3. Stick to winning fundamentals
4. anticipate the defenses next move.

It was a thing of beauty..  Which brings us back to the second half of the season.. What some would call.... meh times...

Was it that we were just playing dead.   Capela said "We are the actors". 

Instead of being mid...  what if we were the beast.. waiting for our chance to pounce on a new victim so that we can take the spoils?

 

We are the Actors!

[Diesel]

    

   

 

 

   

"We are the actors!"

[hylndr11]

Not sure that's what he meant 

[Diesel]

6 hours ago, hylndr11 said:

Not sure that's what he meant 

But what if it were.   Like Billy Hoyle....  "It's so hard to make something this pretty look ugly"

What if Quin came in...  Told the guys to follow Prunty's gameplan.... while teaching them better spacing.  teaching them to understand the game.   But at the same time watch and learn the players.   Then.. as the playin comes around, Quin starts introducing strategies to beat the teams we would play.  It gives us the element of surprise. 

When you watch the face of the Heat when we were playing them...  They hadn't seen us do none of the things we were doing.   They came out with the 2022 gameplan for us...  And at every turn, we had an answer.  It was like it was scripted.   We knew what they would try and we had an answer for that.   Even when they went on their run (off of our errors), we still played like we knew their secret. 

We took their greatest strength and made it our greatest strength. Their greatest strength is Bam and Jimmy covering the guards...  Those are their biggest players.   We said OK.. we let Bam and Jimmy cover our guards... we put up shots and sent our bigs inside to get all the rebounds and putbacks.   We took their suffocating defense and choked the life out of them with it.

What if we had been playing dead this whole time and this whole time, we have been allowing Quin to gather data. 

 

[RedDawg#8]

I think it is hard for coaches to flex their chops mid season. Most scheme installation takes place in the offseason and the only time coaches can really dial in a strategic game plan is in the playoffs.

Quinn now has 20+ games of team evaluation as a base upon which he can strategize postseason matchups in full detail. I think the point is valid that we haven’t seen our best version of this team under Quinn yet.

We will see some new stuff against the Celtics. And even that will pale against what we will see from the team next season. It’s all a process.

[Diesel]

36 minutes ago, RedDawg#8 said:

I think it is hard for coaches to flex their chops mid season. Most scheme installation takes place in the offseason and the only time coaches can really dial in a strategic game plan is in the playoffs.

Quinn now has 20+ games of team evaluation as a base upon which he can strategize postseason matchups in full detail. I think the point is valid that we haven’t seen our best version of this team under Quinn yet.

We will see some new stuff against the Celtics. And even that will pale against what we will see from the team next season. It’s all a process.

I think the genius of Quin coming in midseason was that he had time to teach. I don't think he changed much  of what we did, but I do believe he did a lot of explaining why we were doing it.  In doing that, I think he begin to gain the team's trust as a basketball expert and at the same time, they begin to learn.   His coaching is dramatic though.  There was that play where we finished with OO dunking.  However, on the sideline Quin is walking the team through every pass.  He was like a proud parent mouthing the words of his kids speech on Easter morning.    Quin is the oracle.

 

 

[Gray Mule]

Well, I just finished reading four pages of Boston Celtic posts on their REALGM.  Most fans there expect a four game sweep.  A few believe Atlanta may win one, making it a five game series.  They all sincerely believe that they are a far superior team to the Hawks.

Their thoughts are, the Celtics are a much better three point shooting team.  Their defense and rebounding are both superior to Atlanta's.  They swept the regular season games and expect the same in the playoffs.  They are already making plans about who they will meet in the second round.

One poor fan even had the nerve to think that, after the Celtics win the first two that the team may loose interest in the Hawks and begin planning for the next opponent, thus allowing the Hawks two wins before winning it in six games.  But, for the most part, they expect a four game sweep.

[dalamchops]

the pace has def been up since quin took over, it's not just a one game improvement.

[BangHolman]

1 hour ago, dalamchops said:

the pace has def been up since quin took over, it's not just a one game improvement.

Pace and space, baby!

[REHawksFan]

11 hours ago, Diesel said:

 

I have called the Hawks the middiest team in the NBA.  We were 41-41... down the stretch win one and lose one.  But here's the hard part...

Down the stretch, the only thing that I saw Quin do differently than Nate was play the young guys.   That was it.  Offense .. the same.  A little more motivation but everything was basically the same. 

Were we employing tactics from "The Prince". 

Our play in game... showed a different Hawks team.  One that new how to:

1. Play with pace
2. Crash the offensive boards
3. Stick to winning fundamentals
4. anticipate the defenses next move.

It was a thing of beauty..  Which brings us back to the second half of the season.. What some would call.... meh times...

Was it that we were just playing dead.   Capela said "We are the actors". 

Instead of being mid...  what if we were the beast.. waiting for our chance to pounce on a new victim so that we can take the spoils?

 

We are the Actors!

Rather than playing dead, I think it's far more likely that Q was playing around with lineups, teaching the team in limited practice, and generally just learning the team (what they are capable of and what they aren't).  Now that the "real" games are here, he can do more coaching which he will excel at.  So I think we saw the beginning of that vs Miami and will likely see more of it vs boston.  I fully expect them to show different things, maybe play different lineups, and play their best ball of the season this series.  Don't know if it will be enough because boston is really really good.  But I don't believe this is a cakewalk like the media says it will be.  

[Diesel]

1 hour ago, REHawksFan said:

Rather than playing dead, I think it's far more likely that Q was playing around with lineups, teaching the team in limited practice, and generally just learning the team (what they are capable of and what they aren't).  Now that the "real" games are here, he can do more coaching which he will excel at.  So I think we saw the beginning of that vs Miami and will likely see more of it vs boston.  I fully expect them to show different things, maybe play different lineups, and play their best ball of the season this series.  Don't know if it will be enough because boston is really really good.  But I don't believe this is a cakewalk like the media says it will be.  

I think a mix of Boston's overconfidence and Mazzulla's greenness could provide for good theater and us coming out with a series win.  On paper, you're right.. Boston runs away with this series... But I believe that the paper lies.

We are the actors. 

 

[macdaddy]

Just now, Diesel said:

I think a mix of Boston's overconfidence and Mazzulla's greenness could provide for good theater and us coming out with a series win.  On paper, you're right.. Boston runs away with this series... But I believe that the paper lies.

We are the actors. 

 

We beat the Heat because of 22 offensive rebounds.   I'm not sure how we beat a better Boston team if they keep us off the glass.   We are going to have to really shoot a lot better. 

[Diesel]

13 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

We beat the Heat because of 22 offensive rebounds.   I'm not sure how we beat a better Boston team if they keep us off the glass.   We are going to have to really shoot a lot better. 

Boston's defense does leave holes because of their rebounding.   Just like Miami's defense left holes for second chance points because of their defensive pressure.   What makes Miami a little different is Smart.   A great defender at the Guard position... if we can't make their guards need help... their defense will be set.   Only thing it leaves for us is to turn the pace way up and not let their defense to get set. 

The good news is that they don't have a Bam like player who can trail our guards and get hands on balls in the passing lanes.   I think Miami is the best passing lane closers in the game. 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

On 4/11/2023 at 10:59 PM, JayBirdHawk said:

I think Quin is our secret weapon.

He can add wrinkles to our offense and defense that the C's would not have scouted. He can spend more time game planning for just the one team.

 

 

I posted this a few days ago^^^

 

5 hours ago, RedDawg#8 said:

I think it is hard for coaches to flex their chops mid season. Most scheme installation takes place in the offseason and the only time coaches can really dial in a strategic game plan is in the playoffs.

Quinn now has 20+ games of team evaluation as a base upon which he can strategize postseason matchups in full detail. I think the point is valid that we haven’t seen our best version of this team under Quinn yet.

We will see some new stuff against the Celtics. And even that will pale against what we will see from the team next season. It’s all a process.

 

4 hours ago, Diesel said:

I think the genius of Quin coming in midseason was that he had time to teach. I don't think he changed much  of what we did, but I do believe he did a lot of explaining why we were doing it.  In doing that, I think he begin to gain the team's trust as a basketball expert and at the same time, they begin to learn.   His coaching is dramatic though.  There was that play where we finished with OO dunking.  However, on the sideline Quin is walking the team through every pass.  He was like a proud parent mouthing the words of his kids speech on Easter morning.    Quin is the oracle.

 

See above!