RedDawg#8

I been saying this since the 1st matchup. Some dudes just love to play against certain teams. Randle circles the Hawks on his schedule. I think over the course of a series we can figure them out, but I'd be interested to see the history of teams that face each other in the playoffs where one swept the other in the regular season.

At this point, it's looking very likely that a 4v5 matchup will involve Hawks and Knicks 3 is Milwaukee. Of all the games we have played would you rather face the Knicks as a 4 or 5 or drop to 6 and play the Bucks?

Facts, and we all know that other than Capela, the best defenders on this team are all in street clothes cheerleading. So the improvement is not because of being surrounded by elite defense. If anything, you have to give a lot of credit to Nate. He is getting the most out of this banged up roster. He is playing Young, Bogi and Huerter together and not getting blown out of the water. He told Kevin that we need him to be better defensively, and Kev has responded. Trae is not locking anybody up, but he for sure is able to his job and has been on the court for many of those 4th quarter defensive stretches. It takes each guy individually to commit to defense for the team to look good. Trae deserves credit for his role in that. Prime example, and I wish I had receipts. But every time the cross matchup tries to post up Trae, they usually come up empty handed. Teams can try to pick on Trae, but he does not reward them with easy buckets. Only when he ends up on the "star" does he really get burned.

The best part about Bogi's play lately is that we actually NEED it and he has been able to produce. So often I see guys get hot for a stretch when things are clicking for the team and then disappear when it matters. Bogi has been hot, but he has also been clutch. He has been covering our butts every night with all the guys out of the lineup. I was wrong about him. Did not see any of this coming. This guy is a baller.

I just want to remind all of the detractors that "lack of size and defense" were the main reasons we decided to pass on Chris Paul in favor of Marvin Williams. 15 years later, he we are nitpicking Trae's D and ignoring his offensive and overall impact. I would also like to point out that whether you use defensive win shares or defensive rating, Trae is far from the worst defensive player in the league. Or at his position. He is better statistically than some of the guys people would replace him with: Morant, SGA, Llilard, Ball, Fox, Kyrie, Lowery, Harden, Beal.... I mean its a who's who of guys Trae can't guard who apparently can't guard Trae either. https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defense/?sort=DEF_WS&dir=-1&Season=2020-21&SeasonType=Regular Season&PlayerPosition=G He HAS gotten better, and he will continue to improve. Change this narrative.

Facts. And to be honest we don't win a lot of these 4th quarter comebacks without Lou getting buckets. Everything happened for a reason and got us to this point.

Loving the vet lineup

Lol saw that too. Schlenk's offseason is looking real good

I'm concerned about when Dre returns and his level of play once he does. But if he can play the way that he was before he got hurt, we are going to be a major, major problem. That 5 man lineup is hard to defend and score against.

Facts. Them boys playing well right now. Ever since Stephen A called Russ out. They have always have been talented with two All NBA type guards leading the way.

I dont wanna hear nothing else about OO being too small to play center. Either keep that energy about Bam, or put it to rest. OO is physically the exact same size as Bam with visually bigger arms on him. Bam looks like he lost some weight this year. But regardless OO can matchup just as well as Bam does. Give him the same amount of time to develop in the NBA and there will be zero question about that.

Wow, dude is everything ok? Wtf did Trae do to you bro?

https://www.nba.com/news/report-trae-youngs-ankle-injury-not-considered-serious According t o ESPN Trae is already listed as out for Sunday too

Facts. Typically recovery is different than NBA recovery. And NBA recovery is different than Hawks recovery lol Trae will fight to come back sooner than later, and they may let him. Now Gallo and Snell, Im interested to see if they put some pressure on the staff to stop dragging out their "soreness" and let them suit up with Trae out. We may have a worst case scenario on Friday with ALL of the listed names on the report having to sit out. But maybe we see up to 4 names return by Sunday or Monday. I'm praying for fast recoveries and hopefully Dunn and Hunter upgraded to doubtful or questionable next week sometime

Knock on wood, but Trae's size, or lack there-of, really helps him in these situations where larger/heavier players would have most certainly messed up something more serious.

Aint no trophies for try-hards. Knicks have swept us this season. I similar fashion each time. It's bigger than last night.

Some of us don't need to find out the answer to that question. Screw the agendas.

Please tell me what player can defend Giannis 1v1? And Randle has been unstoppable lately. Collins does have some matchup problems I agree. These tweener SF/PF types that are perimeter oriented enough to get him on skates are bad matchups. That's Randle and Gordon, eventually Zion who I dont think JC faced this year. If all they had was a post game, he would be fine. But because they can take him off the dribble and get him to move his feet, he gets off balance and loses his base which makes it look like he is getting bullied. But lets keep it a buck, Randle got a lot of points off of jumpshots and fade aways that were well contested. JC got out knocked down trying to draw a charge which typical gets called. That being said, JC has done just fine overall this year. There are some bad matchups here and there, but this isnt a nightly thing. Playoff time there is: Durant - nobody can stop one on one Harris- He can hold his own Giannis- nobody can stop one on one Randle- tough matchup, has been tough for anyone to slow down Tatum- tough matchup on the perimeter but he can hold him down low. Ariza- he can hold his own Bridges/McDaniels- he can hold his own Theis- he can hold his own Turner- he can/has held his own Those top 5 teams all have some tough covers for JC, but we would likely cross match if Hunter is healthy on most of them (Durant, Tatum and maybe Randle) Elite MVP level guys aren't getting shut down 1 on 1 anyway, its about team defense. JC shines in that capacity this season. Long story short, its a little overblown because Randle continues to go off on us. But his size isn't what did us in, it was his outside shot, which then opened up the lane for him.

Trae's sprits are no match for Chelsea Lane. I dont care how positive he feels, that lady has the team under ball and chain.

Im not concerned about him long term. But in the short term it would be nice to let him take his time to rest it. Dunn out here dunking in practice, and we in the middle of a playoff push. Let his ass play and get a little nicked and protect your REAL asset, Trae.

Typically I love that expression, but in this context it just makes me angrier lol

They nursing these guys who are 95% healthy, tryna get them to 100, and the ones who have to suit up in their absence are dropping like flies. We are about to have 7 or 8 guys sitting out on Friday and only one (Trae) is actually injured. Everyone else is just sore at this point.

Swelling has been our worst enemy this season. Worse than injury, Covid, LP, or scheduling. All pale in contrast to "swelling ", the devastating force that has grounded multiple key players for weeks and months at a time.

No matter what happens we are going to end up sitting Capela against the Heat now too

DAMMMMMIT!!!