Official Game Thread: Hawks at Raptors (1 of 2)

[NBASupes]

17 minutes ago, terrell said:

Trae played well, but stunk it up when it mattered most..

But youre right about his teammates.. Geez

But LUka doesnt have a great team around him either..

CC vs a rook

Grant vs JJ(Bey)

Trae vs Luka

Murray vs Kyrie 

Dre vs Jones Jr(who they got for nothing)

Bogi vs Hardaway

Plus Hawks have OO.

I dont even know who the Mavs backup BIg is.. lol

Mavs are basically Luka and gang. 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

8 minutes ago, terrell said:

Trae played well, but stunk it up when it mattered most..

But youre right about his teammates.. Geez

But LUka doesnt have a great team around him either..

CC vs a rook

Grant vs JJ(Bey)

Trae vs Luka

Murray vs Kyrie 

Dre vs Jones Jr(who they got for nothing)

Bogi vs Hardaway

Trae was unfortunate to have 2 drives into the paint blocked by Poeltl.  Once again though, where's the help?  And what is the coach doing to put the most balanced lineups in at the end of games?

 

I'll take Lively right now over CC.  Lively isn't going to miss point blank layups. 

Bey and Grant are a wash, mainly because Grant knows how to play defense and can legit play the 4.

Bogi and THJ are a wash.  He's playing very good ball this season and is a legit 6 MOY candidate.

Kyrie > Murray

Hunter > Jones Jr

 

You give Trae 2 players on the frontlike like Lively and JJ, now we're talking.

 

[NBASupes]

2 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Trae was unfortunate to have 2 drives into the paint blocked by Poeltl.  Once again though, where's the help?  And what is the coach doing to put the most balanced lineups in at the end of games?

 

I'll take Lively right now over CC.  Lively isn't going to miss point blank layups. 

Bey and Grant are a wash, mainly because Grant knows how to play defense and can legit play the 4.

Bogi and THJ are a wash.  He's playing very good ball this season and is a legit 6 MOY candidate.

Kyrie > Murray

Hunter > Jones Jr

 

You give Trae 2 players on the frontlike like Lively and JJ, now we're talking.

 

There is no way in the world anyone is taking Lively at this stage over CC. 

Bogi is much better than Hardaway Jr 

Grant is better than Bey but Grant comp is JJ who's better than Grant. 

The Mavs aren't good bro, it's just Luka and his greatness. 

[JayBirdHawk]

PASS THE BALL OUT CC!!!

 

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

7 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

Kyrie > Murray

12 > Jones Jr

 

Edit

[macdaddy]

Man the Luka argument is literally :

Luka is so great he could win with a bunch of scrubs around him.

Why didn't they make the playoffs last year?

He has a bunch of scrubs around him!!

[TheNorthCydeRises]

4 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

There is no way in the world anyone is taking Lively at this stage over CC. 

Bogi is much better than Hardaway Jr 

Grant is better than Bey but Grant comp is JJ who's better than Grant. 

The Mavs aren't good bro, it's just Luka and his greatness. 

 

Once again, you're not a believer in what the data is showing you.

If Trae had a center he can throw the ball to, and that center will make that shot over 70% of the time, that guy will be more effective than Clint Capela.

Lively, at 19, will provide you the same amount of rim protection and defensive rebounding that Clint does.  Clint padding his rebounding stats by grabbing his own misses, is getting old and played out.

 

 

[SalvorMallow]

31 minutes ago, terrell said:

Trae played well, but stunk it up when it mattered most..

Come on man he was 35 and 17 w/ 48% shooting. To win the game, Trae needs to go 40 and 20? We gotta stop pointing the finger at Trae and look at those around him. The door matts are where I'd start personally. 

[shakes]

16 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

PASS THE BALL OUT CC!!!

 

 

he's a .   Been yelling at my TV all year that CC should be TOLD that he's only allowed to dunk the ball and MUST pass the ball out every other time.   

[JayBirdHawk]

14 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

Man the Luka argument is literally :

Luka is so great he could win with a bunch of scrubs around him.

Why didn't they make the playoffs last year?

He has a bunch of scrubs around him!!

 

 

[Dnice]

Crapela... lol   He's the new Charles Smith of NY 1993

 

Edited December 14, 2023 by Dnice

[Packfill]

16 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

Man the Luka argument is literally :

Luka is so great he could win with a bunch of scrubs around him.

Why didn't they make the playoffs last year?

He has a bunch of scrubs around him!!

Last year the Mavs deliberately avoided the playoffs so they could keep the pick that turned into Lively.  

[macdaddy]

Just now, Packfill said:

Last year the Mavs deliberately avoided the playoffs so they could keep the pick that turned into Lively.  

Only after they couldn't get out of the 10th spot in the west.   They were trying to make the playoffs until the last week.  

[JayBirdHawk]

18 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

Man the Luka argument is literally :

Luka is so great he could win with a bunch of scrubs around him.

Why didn't they make the playoffs last year?

He has a bunch of scrubs around him!!

Too funny...can't stop laughing. Reminds me of this:

[AHF]

1 minute ago, Packfill said:

Last year the Mavs deliberately avoided the playoffs so they could keep the pick that turned into Lively.  

Only after Luka led them to essentially a .500 record.  Atlanta and Dallas were producing at essentially the same level last  year before the Mavs tanked.  That isn't a good thing for either team.

[BangHolman]

No JJ or Dre. We only have one other real NBA Wing on the roster. We came into the season super thin there and it's killing us right now. Meanwhile, the Raptors are probably the strongest wing team with Barnes, OG, and Siakam healthy. I'm surprised we were in the game.

[JayBirdHawk]

2 minutes ago, Packfill said:

Last year the Mavs deliberately avoided the playoffs so they could keep the pick that turned into Lively.  

They tried hard to make the play-in until they couldn't...with about a week left into the season.  

Regardless it still counts, as nobody gives Trae a pass for the first two tanking seasons out of the playoffs.

[AHF]

As a complete non-sequitor, are power forwards considered wings now?  When did that happen?

[JeffS17]

There are a lot of ways we can critique this iteration of the Hawks: the front office, ownership, the players, injuries, etc.  At the end of the day, the reason all of these problems exist is we do not have enough high end talent.  If you don't have at least a couple guys that are top 10 at their position, or even top 15-20, you just are not going to consistently win.  And it makes the job very hard for the coaching staff, and it makes being a player difficult as well because the fan bases expectations for you are going to be higher than what you can achieve (for no fault of your own).  The front office is also in a tough spot because it becomes impossible to upgrade talent without giving up draft assets.

And... as much as people here love to take shots at Ressler, it makes being the owner that wants to win difficult as well.  You literally cannot spend to win when your only option is to spend on mediocre assets.  Fielding a team of JCs and Kevs and Delon Wrights into the luxury tax isn't getting us a championship.  You need top 20 players or at least top 5 guys at their position to spend on, otherwise you're just spending to spend and will be in an even worse hamster wheel than the one it feels like we're in now.  @txsting put it best, below:

16 hours ago, txsting said:

I'm pretty convinced that winning in the NBA comes down to having real difference makers in talent at 2 to 3 positions.  Guys who can get done what they want to get done in the pivotal moments of a game, the "winning time".

Guys like Huerter and Collins are good players, and great to have on your team while they are more valuable than their contract.  However, the NBA is full of guys like them:  solid player, on second contract, who is now paid solid player vet money (or more).   We have a bunch of those guys on contract already (Capela, Hunter, Bogdan, Murray, Kong).  What Huerter and Collins can bring to a basketball team is more than replicated by the mid-level players we continue to employ.  You need some guys like that for depth, but you don't need 7 of them.

Stockpiling those mid dudes makes little difference in winning or losing, IMO.  Get what you can for them when the situation dictates that you need to move them along.

We have 1, maybe 2 DUDES on this team.  We need another.  Almost any trade in any combination of replaceable level players that returns a "dude" should and must be considered.  Otherwise we are stuck on the treadmill.

And this is why I think bringing Siakam in makes a lot of sense.  Is he the perfect cure-all?  No.  But he does significantly raise the level of talent in our starting 5 and he should be relatively cheap right now.  Getting Siakam on this roster for a single pick would be a big win.

[JayBirdHawk]

1 minute ago, AHF said:

As a complete non-sequitor, are power forwards considered wings now?  When did that happen?

positionless is the new term.  confuses the hell outta me.