Official Game Thread: Cavaliers at Hawks

[terrell]

13 minutes ago, AHF said:

We've faced weak sauce opposition but you can't choose your opponents so take it as a small sample size of good performance.  That won't stop against tanking Memphis or tanking Portland (they are both premium weak sauce opponents).  

Wish we could have faced this level of competition all year.  We'd probably be 40-22.

Well Ive seen weak sauce opponents scorch us over the years so.............Its good to see us defend vs ANY NBA squad..

Yall must've forgot how random guards usually have their career game vs us.. lol

Edited March 7 by terrell

[AHF]

17 minutes ago, terrell said:

Well Ive seen weak sauce opponents scorch us over the years so.............Its good to see us defend vs ANY NBA squad..

Yall must've forgot how random guards usually have their career game vs us.. lol

I have us with 22 losses against that hypothetical weak sauce schedule.  I get your point and agree with you.  All we can do is face the opponents we face.  But I'm not going to use a short stretch of games against weak and hurt teams to try to establish a baseline for performance without Trae and OO either.

[terrell]

20 minutes ago, AHF said:

I have us with 22 losses against that hypothetical weak sauce schedule.  I get your point and agree with you.  All we can do is face the opponents we face.  But I'm not going to use a short stretch of games against weak and hurt teams to try to establish a baseline for performance without Trae and OO either.

I never said it was a baseline..

All I did was post the math.. lol

I don’t think we are a better team without Trae, but I do think these games have shown a lot about the type of roster you need to play defense under Quin.

If Quin and Trae can’t field a defense above 20 or higher together, then somebody has to go.....

Being bottom 5 in defense isnt going to cut it.....

[NBASupes]

31 minutes ago, terrell said:

I never said it was a baseline..

All I did was post the math.. lol

I don’t think we are a better team without Trae, but I do think these games have shown a lot about the type of roster you need to play defense under Quin.

If Quin and Trae can’t field a defense above 20 or higher together, then somebody has to go.....

Being bottom 5 in defense isnt going to cut it.....

Elite offense can be your best defense. 

Edited March 7 by NBASupes

[TheNorthCydeRises]

49 minutes ago, terrell said:

I never said it was a baseline..

All I did was post the math.. lol

I don’t think we are a better team without Trae, but I do think these games have shown a lot about the type of roster you need to play defense under Quin.

If Quin and Trae can’t field a defense above 20 or higher together, then somebody has to go.....

Being bottom 5 in defense isnt going to cut it.....

 

Bruno is a huge difference on defense.  Watch what happens when OO comes back and Bruno gets zero minutes again.

[Hawkmoor]

1 hour ago, terrell said:

Well Ive seen weak sauce opponents scorch us over the years so.............Its good to see us defend vs ANY NBA squad..

Yall must've forgot how random guards usually have their career game vs us.. lol

Weak sauce?  The Cavaliers were 40-21 coming into that game against the Hawks.  I agree with you. A good defensive showing against ANY team is good, especially a 40 win team.  The Hawks are gelling now, learning how to play cohesively.

[AHF]

4 minutes ago, Hawkmoor said:

Weak sauce?  The Cavaliers were 40-21 coming into that game against the Hawks.  I agree with you. A good defensive showing against ANY team is good, especially a 40 win team.  The Hawks are gelling now, learning how to play cohesively.

The Cavs were missing 3 of their 5 starters, including their best players.  The Hawks were favored by 2.5 points by Vegas, and we aren't a very good team.  They are a good team that was devastated by injuries and a shell of themselves against us.  Playing a team when their best players and 3 of 5 starters are injured is weak sauce.  If that is your measuring stick, you aren't getting back meaningful measurements.

1 hour ago, terrell said:

I never said it was a baseline..

All I did was post the math.. lol

The numbers are just interesting trivia unless they project forward meaningfully.  I was commenting on why I don't think they are a big enough sample size yet to project forward.  No issue with you sharing the numbers.

[bird_dirt]

25 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

Bruno is a huge difference on defense.  Watch what happens when OO comes back and Bruno gets zero minutes again.

Do you (the royal collective “you” not just you NCR) think Bruno has proven himself enough to Quin to be a capable, reliable second string center?

Has he shown enough to the coaches/FO to give them the confidence to trade CC and roll with OO, Bruno, and a rookie 5? Or Trade CC & OO and get an upgrade to our starting 5? 

I think so, at least at his contract price point. I just wonder if Quin will be willing to roll with it. 

[NBASupes]

37 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

Bruno is a huge difference on defense.  Watch what happens when OO comes back and Bruno gets zero minutes again.

I actually think Bruno has done some good on the possession to possession front but naw. 

[terrell]

44 minutes ago, Hawkmoor said:

Weak sauce?  The Cavaliers were 40-21 coming into that game against the Hawks.  I agree with you. A good defensive showing against ANY team is good, especially a 40 win team.  The Hawks are gelling now, learning how to play cohesively.

Yeah after watching this Hawks team the last few years, NO TEAM is weak sauce.......lol

[terrell]

33 minutes ago, AHF said:

The Cavs were missing 3 of their 5 starters, including their best players.  The Hawks were favored by 2.5 points by Vegas, and we aren't a very good team.  They are a good team that was devastated by injuries and a shell of themselves against us.  Playing a team when their best players and 3 of 5 starters are injured is weak sauce.  If that is your measuring stick, you aren't getting back meaningful measurements.

The numbers are just interesting trivia unless they project forward meaningfully.  I was commenting on why I don't think they are a big enough sample size yet to project forward.  No issue with you sharing the numbers.

They did beat the C's coming from 20 down the previous night.. Just sayin.. lol

[AHF]

18 minutes ago, terrell said:

They did beat the C's coming from 20 down the previous night.. Just sayin.. lol

They also weren't missing 3 starters against the C's but I am not saying that garbage teams or gutted teams can't win games.  I'm saying they are too weak to be good measuring sticks. Likewise, good teams will lose some games to bad teams.  (Boston lost to the Hornets; the Wizards beat the Thunder; etc.).

Feel like some people are missing the point here which is not that games against gutted or bad teams are automatic wins.  Nothing is automatic in the NBA and on a given night extremes happen.  Heck, the 72 win Bulls lost to the 21 win Raptors. 

The point is that success against a gutted or bad teams is not a strong indicator of a team's ability against good (and healthy) teams.  So us winning against CLE and NY when they are missing 3 and 4 starters and us winning against the tanking Grizzlies, etc. are not good ways of evaluating whether this team is making real progress or not.  We need a larger size samples of games and a lot more against teams that would be expected to be in the playoffs on a full season basis.  New York without OG, Randle, Brunson, and Mitchell Robinson is not a playoff team.  Obviously.  That is a weak sauce win.  That is better to losing to weak sauce opponents but should be viewed for what it is.

[Spud2nique]

3 hours ago, kg01 said:

Nique did say that mofo was "eating good".  Hahaha.... 

at this point I’m not sure if  heard and side stepped it or just plain missed it ahhhhhh classic Hawks broadcast. those guys. 

[Hawkmoor]

28 minutes ago, terrell said:

Yeah after watching this Hawks team the last few years, NO TEAM is weak sauce.......lol

Had they lost the last two games the narrative would have continued that they have to play with Trae to win.  The have to learn how to win with whoever suits up.  

[Hawkmoor]

1 hour ago, AHF said:

The Cavs were missing 3 of their 5 starters, including their best players.  The Hawks were favored by 2.5 points by Vegas, and we aren't a very good team.  They are a good team that was devastated by injuries and a shell of themselves against us.  Playing a team when their best players and 3 of 5 starters are injured is weak sauce.  If that is your measuring stick, you aren't getting back meaningful measurements.

The numbers are just interesting trivia unless they project forward meaningfully.  I was commenting on why I don't think they are a big enough sample size yet to project forward.  No issue with you sharing the numbers.

Win with whoever suits up for either side.  They have to learn how to win regardless.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

56 minutes ago, bird_dirt said:

Do you (the royal collective “you” not just you NCR) think Bruno has proven himself enough to Quin to be a capable, reliable second string center?

Has he shown enough to the coaches/FO to give them the confidence to trade CC and roll with OO, Bruno, and a rookie 5? Or Trade CC & OO and get an upgrade to our starting 5? 

I think so, at least at his contract price point. I just wonder if Quin will be willing to roll with it. 

I've been calling for this scenario since Christmas.

Ideally, the frontline rotation would look like this:

PF - JJ ( 32 ) - OO ( 10 ) - Bey ( 6 )

C - Capela ( 20 ) - OO ( 16 ) - Bruno ( 12 )

[Dnice]

Rather quiet on the Jalen front, going into the 17th hour.

[Nash]

1 hour ago, AHF said:

The Cavs were missing 3 of their 5 starters, including their best players.  The Hawks were favored by 2.5 points by Vegas, and we aren't a very good team.  They are a good team that was devastated by injuries and a shell of themselves against us.  Playing a team when their best players and 3 of 5 starters are injured is weak sauce.  If that is your measuring stick, you aren't getting back meaningful measurements.

The numbers are just interesting trivia unless they project forward meaningfully.  I was commenting on why I don't think they are a big enough sample size yet to project forward.  No issue with you sharing the numbers.

That "weak" Cavs team just a day before beat  #1 team in the entire nba

It's never easy to win in nba no matter who you play. We saw that in Brooklyn 

[JayBirdHawk]

3 minutes ago, Nash said:

That "weak" Cavs team just a day before beat  #1 team in the entire nba

It's never easy to win in nba no matter who you play. We saw that in Brooklyn 

They also had Evan Mobley available for the Celtics game.

But I'm not getting too high off these wins nor too low on the losses.  The games are what they are right now - preparation for next season.

[Nash]

1 minute ago, JayBirdHawk said:

They also had Evan Mobley available for the Celtics game.

They were down big when Mobley was in the game. They crushed them after Mobley left the game