Official Game Thread: Wizards "at" Hawks

[TheNorthCydeRises]

17 minutes ago, Bonkers said:

Here's the problem...DJ was a Point Guard for the Spurs and the Hawks have him as a Shooting Guard. DJ is not a SG, and he's been proving that the he isn't an SG. The Hawks took a gamble thinking he could and they ended up with egg on their faces.

I think DJ could work here if he was THE PG but not as a SG. No way jose

 

The Hawks really thought this was about to be Zeke & Dumars 2.0 LMAOOO

 

Offensively, Murray has been a B player.  Really no major complaints about him offensively, outside of his inability to run a half court offense.  Murray got a ton of transition assists while in San Antonio.  He was used to getting a lot of rebounds and starting the fast break himself in transition.  He has not been good running halfcourt offense.

Defensively, it doesn't matter if he's guarding PGs or SGs, he's been a C- on defense at best, with his ability to play passing lanes only saving him from being lower.  His posture on defense is horrible, and he's way too open at times.  He doesn't body people at all on defense.  Even that play with Avidja or Kispert in the 4th, he backed DJ all the way down under the rim and got the layup.

 

With Trae and Murray, we needed a bigger, more athletic frontline.  We have that in JJ, but we need more athleticism up front.  Capela's missed shots at the rim are becoming more frequent.  OO doesn't play strong enough in the middle, and he struggles at times getting rebounds.  And with only 4 "bigs" on the roster, and only 1 player over 6 - 9, the Hawks are not only small in the backcourt, they're really small in the front court.

[benhillboy]

5 minutes ago, Vol4ever said:

I know we are dealing with a front office and ownership that don't know what they are doing.  

Fixed.

[Hawkmoor]

6 minutes ago, Vol4ever said:

I think we are dealing with a front office and ownership that don't know what they are doing.  

They know exactly what they are doing.  I said it when they bought the team that the Hawks and Philips Arena were a wallstreet flip and its right on schedule.  They tell the fanbase what they wanna hear, increase value of the team and flip it.  Trae Young FITS that thinking.  Its marketing.

Edited January 14 by Hawkmoor

[Peoriabird]

Its so funny how the fan base goats a front office into going in a certain direction like draft Trae and Cam but when it doesn't work out, the Fan base acts it though they never agreed with those types of moves in the 1st place

[kg01]

36 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

You sound like a oe. Ain't no one in here happy about this team being ass

Yall are positively giddy rn.  It's weird. 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

19 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

The Trae Young era might be over in Atlanta

If it is . . that's 5 more years of losing.

[terrell]

47 minutes ago, GameTime said:

Please tell me you aren't blaming Travis for this Ressler clown show?

Without Travis we don't even have Trae and Jalen to build from

I blame all of them.. They ALL played a part in this mess

 

Edited January 14 by terrell

[terrell]

41 minutes ago, benhillboy said:

I can’t even expect the Hawks to have the best player on the floor versus tanking teams now. We gotta worry about the Cade Cunninghams, Anfernee Simons’, Kyle Kuzmas, and Devin Vassells playing their best and controlling the outcome of the game because our players don’t impact winning at all.

The Hawks have simply been lapped by most of the league’s young players since the Conference Finals run.

The only player the Hawks have on a steady improvement incline is Jalen.  Everyone else hit a hard ceiling.  Bogi’s being guarded too closely on and off ball now.  Or free-falling like AJ who has been properly ruined and Clint who is clearly exhausted here.  Or been stagnant since last season which is everyone else.

OO’s overall effort has been infected by the gross coaching disregard for defense. Murray is a headless chicken as a team player and the league has fully unlocked the plethora of iadvantages that accompany Trae’s lack of size, poor makeup, and downright zany minutes share and workload.  I do appreciate the hell outta Bey’s offensive boarding though, the Hawks’ record would surely be even worse without it.

This

[Bonkers]

@NBASupes You know the perfect role for Trae???? As a 6th Man on a contending team, he could do wonders as a 6th man tbh. But unfortunately, his salary requires him to be a starter not to mention his ego is waaaay to big to ever accept that

Edited January 14 by Bonkers

[Carmine]

This is what we get for running off Schlenk and hiring the "yes" man Fields. Sell the team Ressler.

[Hawkmoor]

9 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

Its so funny how the fan base goats a front office into going in a certain direction like draft Trae and Cam but when it doesn't work out, the Fan base acts it though they never agreed with those types of moves in the 1st place

I personally didn't want Trae coming out of college. I wanted Doncic because he had professional experience in Europe.  Trae had a lot of question marks about his game ( takes a lot of 3 pointers), his size and lack of defense.  I wanted Doncic over Trae for THOSE reasons.  When they announced the trade during the draft, I didn't like it. I gave Trae the benefit of the doubt during his rookie season and actually was pulling for him.  During his second season when the Hawks were building out the roster, I wanted his game to change and the hard head didn't do it.  My reason for not wanting Trae changed from his questionable ability to play in the NBA, to his lack of character and nonchampionship playing style.

[terrell]

28 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

They need to move him asap. He's the first one that needs to be moved. They need to show that they are serious about building a team that fits Quin style of play. Murray is next. 

Ressler would never

[benhillboy]

9 minutes ago, Bonkers said:

@NBASupes You know the perfect role for Trae???? As a 6th Man on a contending, he could do wonders as a 6th man tbh. But unfortunately his salary requires him to be a starter

I’ve been saying this for years.  The remarkably low floor he showed as a rookie made it evident to me.  He would have great metrics and actually affect the score tremendously off the pine versus lower IQ players, specialists, and tweeners.  24 minutes tho, nothing more.

I was highest on Trae early in his career when he was pulling 5+ boards and isolating Bigs on switches for drives to the rim.  But it was a short time and so long ago.

Edited January 14 by benhillboy

[TheNorthCydeRises]

20 minutes ago, Vol4ever said:

And should be.  He is a franchise wrecker.  May be why the big meeting happened last night.  

He's the main reason why the franchise is even relevant right now.

I still don't know why this organization hasn't been able to get him adequate help in the form of higher level players.

They made the move for DJ, but traded future assets to do it.  They kept our core young talent and re-upped all of them, but none of them outside of JJ has "star" upside to their games.  So why not deal them?

 

Trae getting the blame for all of Atlanta's problems, is like blaming Karl Anthony-Towns for all of Minnesota's problems before 2021. 

But what did Minnesota do?  They finally got off of their asses as an organization, and really tried to bring in higher level players.  Ant-Man obviously raised their ceiling, but the Gobert trade ( which looked to be a disaster at first ), has turned them into the best team in the league.  Even getting rid of Wiggins for cheaper contracts and expiring contracts, helped them revamp the roster.

Where are those types of moves from our front office?  We're trading players and not even getting assets back.  And if we do, we're not using it.

Instead, people blame the only guy who has done anything for this franchise the last 5 years, for our misfortunes, despite the front office and ownership not going all out to add legit veteran talent to the team.  They value mediocre role players like Clint, and negative analytic players like 12, more than they value getting the star of the team an upgrade in talent. 

 

Trae plays great in December . . the team sucks

Trae plays awful in the first 2 weeks in January . . the team sucks

 

Trae isn't the issue.  It's the mentality from ownership and our front office.  You can't win in this league, and be a cheap MF.  And you definitely can't win, if you're promoting your real estate son to be part of our basketball brain trust.

Edited January 14 by TheNorthCydeRises

[Bonkers]

1 minute ago, benhillboy said:

I’ve been saying this for years.  The remarkably low floor he showed as a rookie made it evident to me.  He would actually affect the score tremendously off the pine in 24 minutes, but nothing more.

I mean that role suits Trae perfectly!!!

He could be Vinnie Johnson 2.0. Too bad his salary is too big to justify that tho lol

[NBASupes]

14 minutes ago, Bonkers said:

@NBASupes You know the perfect role for Trae???? As a 6th Man on a contending team, he could do wonders as a 6th man tbh. But unfortunately, his salary requires him to be a starter not to mention his ego is waaaay to big to ever accept that

He would hate it so no. 

It would be on an elite team with a star at the 4 or 5 who depends on Trae heavily for PnR but he can get his in the paint and draw doubles. 

Him playing next to another guard who can take some pressure off Trae but he has size because we all know Trae needs size around him.

Just being on a stacked squad who allows Trae to dominate the rock as usual. At some point the problem becomes salary. Those players will cost you a ton 

Edited January 14 by NBASupes

[NBASupes]

5 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

He's the main reason why the franchise is even relevant right now.

I still don't know why this organization hasn't been able to get him adequate help in the form of higher level players.

They made the move for DJ, but traded future assets to do it.  They kept our core young talent and re-upped all of them, but none of them outside of JJ has "star" upside to their games.  So why not deal them?

 

Trae getting the blame for all of Atlanta's problems, is like blaming Karl Anthony-Towns for all of Minnesota's problems before 2021. 

But what did Minnesota do?  They finally got off of their asses as an organization, and really tried to bring in higher level players.  Ant-Man obviously raised their ceiling, but the Gobert trade ( which looked to be a disaster at first ), has turned them into the best team in the league.  Even getting rid of Wiggins for cheaper contracts and expiring contracts, helped them revamp the roster.

Where are those types of moves from our front office?  We're trading players and not even getting assets back.  And if we do, we're not using it.

Instead, people blame the only guy who has done anything for this franchise the last 5 years, for our misfortunes, despite the front office and ownership not going all out to add legit veteran talent to the team.  They value mediocre role players like Clint, and negative analytic players like 12, more than they value getting the star of the team an upgrade in talent. 

Trae plays great in December . . the team sucks

Trae plays awful in the first 2 weeks in January . . the team sucks

 

Trae isn't the issue.  It's the mentality from ownership and our front office.  You can't win in this league, and be a cheap MF.  And you definitely can't win, if you're promoting your real estate son to be part of our basketball brain trust.

Relevant locally, sure. Nationally, we are irrelevant as usual. 

He's not the guy you think he is. 

[Sothron]

One of my sources told me during the hockey game that after tonight's game there was a huge meltdown from Ressler to the FO about the complete lack of effort. Source says Trae is now frustrated to the point that Ressler is worried he's going to ask for a trade out this offseason.

I am so glad I was not able to watch the last two games because I intentionally chose to support my local hockey team with season tickets and myself and Mrs. Sothron have a blast there.

 

[Peoriabird]

2 minutes ago, Hawkmoor said:

I personally didn't want Trae coming out of college. I wanted Doncic because he had professional experience in Europe.  Trae had a lot of question marks about his game ( takes a lot of 3 pointers), his size and lack of defense.  I wanted Doncic over Trae for THOSE reasons.  When they announced the trade during the draft, I didn't like it. I gave Trae the benefit of the doubt during his rookie season and actually was pulling for him.  During his second season when the Hawks were building out the roster, I wanted his game to change and the hard head didn't do it.  My reason for not wanting Trae changed from his questionable ability to play in the NBA, to his lack of character and nonchampionship playing style.

A lot of people did want him and celebrated the pick.  They also vehemently defended some of his obvious short comings to the point where their consistent approach to team building was to keep Trae at all cost and if things did not work out, trade everybody but Trae.  Some obviously still believe in that approach but many have now taken the stance of "Why did Schlenk draft this guy" knowing full well that they were in favor of the pick even years afterward

[kg01]

Just say you hate the one guy.  Don't try to pretend this is aNaLySiS.