RedDawg#8

After the Luka lovefest for his buzzer beater, it was nice to see nba.com post this video today https://www.nba.com/watch/video/best-of-ice-trae-career-clutch-shots?plsrc=nba&collection=top-trending-videos

I see Trae, I see JC. I don't see Gallo, nor have I lately

I honestly get what you are saying. And I agree a trade up was the only way we would gotten a higher upside player. But I also think that even though OO looks like a needs based pick, he also had the highest upside of any of the guys that were there at 6. He is a young prospect and already looks pretty good. The rest of those guys were all older except for Hayes. OO is actually still pretty raw by comparison, so taking him was also a gamble on his potential and not just a safe pick. This draft was never that deep in Elite potential type players. This was not like 2019 or 2018 where All Star potential prospects were available throughout the lottery. This draft was always the one where after the top 3, you had to trust your scouting. I think we filled and need, but also nabbed a guy who should improve a lot over the next few years. Think more like Clint if anything. He seemed like a pretty solid, but limited role player in Houston, but you see how impactful he is now in year 7 for us. I think OO can follow that same path, and maybe quicker in like 3-4 years.

Speaking to the topic, I was casually watching the Mavs vs Grizz last night, and at one point they put up the East standings on the screen and it had the Hawks in 6th place. I had to double take and realized they were showing the standings from like a couple of weeks ago. Very casually the commentator was like, oh those weren't the right standings, Boston actually has 29 wins right now. I'm like, no mention of the Hawks being in 4th place? Being the first team with 30 wins after the "Big 3" in the East? Being closer to 3rd place finally than to 10th as they keep suggesting every time they talk about the East standings? Nope, nothing, okay cool

Facts. And Clint gets double digit rebounds before halftime almost every game it seems. He is collects huge rebounding numbers so easily within a normal game flow. Trae usually has a double digit assist night less frequently with more moderate assist (7-9) games on a consistent basis. Trae's explosive stat outputs have slowed down a lot this season and I expect that trend to continue as the team around him gains confidence and chemistry. There may be a game where everyone gets hot and Trae so happens to be the only guy dishing the ball out, but its much more likely that he has a lot more hockey assists than actual assists with the way Nate has the offense moving the ball around.

Stephen A touched on it today that a lot of teams medical staffs hold out players who otherwise want to play. I could see this being the case with many of our guys right now.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theringer.com/platform/amp/nba/2021/4/15/22385033/atlanta-hawks-trae-young-nate-mcmillan Good read about Coach

Im not so worried about Trae considering he was standing in the sidelines on his feet basically the whole game last night. Gallo worries me a little bit though.

Solo has filled for us all season as guys have gotten banged up. He has been asked to guard quick PG's, true PF's, and even matchup with Lebron James 1-on-1 It just hit me too, that Solo was with Nate up in Indy. Nate was just the assistant at that time, but I think Solo really has a good understanding of what Coach is wanting to do and can help translate it to the young guys. I wonder if Nate was the one who advocated for us to bring Solo in.

JR Smith too Usually its the opponent drilling it in our face like that, its nice to be on the other side lol

I say rebounds, just because its easier to get some cheapy's on the offensive glass than it is to depend on your teammates to make all their shots. Trae's career high assists is 18. So his best output 78.2% of the record Clint's career high rebounds is 26, 78.7% of the record. Trae averages 9.5 assist, which is 42% of the record, Clint averages 14.2 rebs, which is 43% of the record. So they both top out and average in a near exact range of reaching the records. Until JC comes back, Clint has free range on the glass. Trae has to share assists with a multitude of guys who are playing great lately and sharing the ball. I can see Clint grabbing 30 rebs before Trae gets 20 assists. But both records are probably safe from reach.

Giannis has been out of the lineup lately, and they don't have a timetable for his return. He probably misses our game. Bucks also have a back to back from Minny to Atlanta as well so they may have to manage some other guy's minutes either tonight or against us tomorrow. This season is brutal for a lot of teams. We know first hand.

They need him, but I don't think he would jump at another reclamation project when he just had to fix another mans mess in the middle of the busiest season ever. I bet he would to go to a contender if anything or just stay put.

Fixed it, don't want to sully his record with LP's losing stench lol

If Miami beats a fully healthy Suns team, on the road, they just might be a problem down the stretch.

Great win playing shorthanded tonight. Looking ahead, the next 6 games are HUGE. 5 more Home games, which will start to even out our gap between road and home games left 5 games against playoff teams: (Bucks x2, Pacers, Heat, Knicks). The outcome of these games will directly effect our playoff standings. They will also apply towards tie breaking scenarios as they are all conference games, with division games in the mix too (Orlando is the other game)

Here is what Im looking at. April 5th, Hunter had a non surgical procedure, said they would unload his legs for three days, and he would return to activity later that week, which would have been the 9th. Today they said they just started to reload his legs for the first time yesterday, the 12th. Okay. 3 days later than they had initially planned. And what does re-load mean? They also said on the 6th, Dunn was scrimmaging full court and they just wanted to get him a few more scrimmages to see how he felt. Guess he didn't feel good. Also on the 6th, Nate said that Collins was "further out" than Dre in terms of returning. Implying Dre would be back sooner than John, who has another update due on the 15th, Thursday. As of today, all are showing little to no signs of return this week. Dre was supposed to be ahead of JC to return, which sucks because JC will likely get an update Thursday that says he can just do 3-on-3 for a week or so. Dre is reloading, but does that mean he is moving on the court, shooting, or is he a ways from that too. Dunn went from scrimmaging to M.I.A

You see that @sturt

What about Snell ?

I feel like this applies to Dunn and Cam more than the other guys. Dre to a much lesser extant. Everyone else has had significant playing time with Nate running the show and contributing. Dunn, zero chemistry with his new teammates. Cam, zero chemistry under Nate as HC Dre, 2 small sample size games under Nate.

Im telling you. Just scratch him from the season already. It's April for crying out loud.

IF we can win both of the upcoming games against Milwaukee, and handle our business in between, there is a good chance we can close to within 1 game of them by the end of the month.

Without a big picture, all your baby steps will lead to nowhere.

I didn't realize Giannis was nursing an injury. We may be able to make a move on the Bucks guys. Their next 7 games: Wolves, Hawks, Grizz, Suns, Sixers, Sixers, Hawks Our next 7 games: Raps, Bucks, Pacers, Magic, Knicks, Heat, Bucks Giannis will likely miss our game this week. And both of the games we play them at our house, with them on the 2nd game of a B2B. Our health matters too but those are 2 games we could likely win. Plus, they could easily drop at least 2 of the games against the Suns and Sixers. Our worst game in that span is @ the Knicks on a B2B. If we can take care of business and go 6-1 maybe, we could find ourselves within a game of the 3 seed in a couple of weeks. After that, its go time. We have a mini series against Philly, but they also have one against the Nets, so all bets are off. Get healthy guys, we can make a move and shake up the entire playoff picture.

Got to start getting guys back, but I think 40 wins is the floor.