2024/25 Season's Bench.

[Gray Mule]

Where did we go wrong?  What did we do right?

All of us here on the Squawk and I'll dare to say most Hawk fans tend to look at the starting five and no further.  The true strength or weakness of any team usually revolves around the bench.  They are the players who come in and play when the starting five need a rest.  They are the players who "suddenly" become starters when a member of the starting five is out.

Hawk fans watched last season as our bench furnished us with many starters because of injuries.  We saw opposing teams throw their bench against our bench, only to find it necessary to put their starters back in, our bench playing better than our opponent's.

Check out all our trade proposals.  Major moves.  Perhaps we need to consider our bench.  There will be changes.  It always happens.  Old players retire, being replaced by all the rookies who come in thru the draft and free agency.  I expect last year's draft picks to all be stepping up to the bench and, perhaps, this year's pick.  

I see proposals to trade three or four Hawks for one star.  If this happens, we have holes left in our 15-player roster.  Stir the pot!  See what comes to the top!  A different bench coming next season.  We just don't know yet what changes are in store for us.  Should be exciting!

[JayBirdHawk]

52 minutes ago, Gray Mule said:

All of us here on the Squawk and I'll dare to say most Hawk fans tend to look at the starting five and no further.  The true strength or weakness of any team usually revolves around the bench.  They are the players who come in and play when the starting five need a rest. 

@macdaddy in particular lamented the depth behind the starters, particularly in the front court all last offseason. And we saw the effects early on when JJ got injured, then Hunter got injured.

[Spud2nique]

I don’t overlook the bench by any means I feel like a true squad is pretty cohesive and in tune 1-12. Having said that, the bulk of the load goes to the star ️ players in the playoffs but if the bench has been there all year it lends more support to the team’s star ️ as far as breaking down; fatigue etc. 

 

I’m not sure we did a bad job per se putting it together but honestly we had a relatively young core on the bench based on the recent players we’ve drafted. Not to mention the injuries.. 

 

It was what it was but moving forward we need to keep a keen eye on targeting valuable bench guys who KNOW THEIR ROLES and are a little more VETTISH! 
 

Look, Trae is in his prime, it’s time to put it all together now. What we were saving up for and building around Trae and all, it’s time to go a little more experienced with a couple guys but let the rookies get in there too.

I always though a mix of vets and young guns are the way to go as far as the bench is concerned.

GO HAWKS!!!

[AHF]

We have to be more aware of injury risks given that Bogi, Hunter, AJ, JJ, and OO have extensive injury histories.  Two of our rookies also missed a huge portion of the season last year raising some injury concerns with them as well.  Trae and CC have missed some time as well but not with a concerning regularity over the years.  DJM missed one season but I don’t view that as a current concern.  Bey is already out for next year so he is beyond a red flag in the near term.

We can’t be single spooled for any position or role.  That was a brutal part of last season.