RedDawg#8

I've always disputed this as well. Milwaukee's bigs did not kill us, it was their wings who took advantage of Trae and crashed the glass hard. Giannis led them with 10 rpg, but after that 6-5 PJ Tucker, 6-3 Jrue Holiday, and 6-5 Pat Connaughton were their next leading rebounders against us. Whoever Trae was guarding, they always attacked the glass once the shot went up. Whenever we had the ball, Trae's defender was the one running in. Milwaukee's bigs were active in keeping balls alive, but having wings coming in clean is how they dominated the glass. It was always 3v2 or 4v2 on the glass. Portis and Lopez didn't have a single game with double digit rebounds. But PJ Tucker did, and Trae was almost always guarding him on defense.

We are still digging ourselves out of the deep hole we put ourselves in. All of this great basketball and we are still looking up at .500. I hope the guys can continue to stay locked in. My goal is for us to have a winning record at the break. That is very realistic. After All-star weekend, all bets are off. We have to ball out down the stretch if we want to avoid the play-in.

Huge win last night. You could tell we were on one from the beginning. We needed that win bad to kick off a tough 3 games in 4 days weekend against playoff teams complete with traveling every night. We took care of business against the best team in the league. A really good sign we are locked in. Here is hoping JC is feeling better and Lou can both go tonight

TNT/ESPN Games this year. Combined, Team is 4-4 Trae: 25.4 pts, 10.1 asst, 6.1 rebs per game TNT Only, team is 2-0 Trae: 24.5 pts, 12.5 assts, 3 rebs ESPN Only, Team is 2-4 Trae: 25.6 pts, 9.3 assts, 7.2 rebs NBATV: team is 0-2, Trae only played in 1 of those games, and he laid a stinker going 13-10-2 ABC- Knicks game, Trae didnt play, we lost. 0-1 Team definitely struggles on Nat TV this year, at 4-7, but 3 of those losses came during our Covid Stretch. We were 2-0 to start the year, and we are 2-0 in our last 2 National games. So we lost 7 in a row ( 6 with Trae) But overall, Trae has pretty much balled out per usual on the big networks ESPN/TNT. His scoring only slightly lower than normal,

I will have to research but I feel like he has played much worse on ESPN than he has TNT. (Playoffs not included)

Is the reoccurring theme of our players having wait for their respect. OO undoubtedly will continue to ball out and if he stays healthy, should really make an impact in the playoffs. This is where he will make a name for himself and put the league on notice. It's down the road. It would be nice to have that recognition now, especially since he will have missed his rising stars window, just like Dre and Cam before him. But it is what it is. We can only control what we can.

There are roughly 30 or so games left for all teams in the East. We are roughly 7 games back of 5th place. All of those teams are playing well right now except for Brooklyn. We would not only have to get hot again and stay hot, but you are looking for Miami to fall off of a cliff in order for us to pass them. I think 6th is our ceiling only because of the hole we put ourselves in to. And that's assuming the Nets continue to fall far enough that KD's return cannot push them back over us. I can see us passing everyone to get to 7th easily. Anything else above that is going to require help from those teams. As in they have to play sub .500 and we have to finish like 25-7 or so.

We just have to handle our business at this point and keep finding ways to win games. Too soon to scoreboard watch. Let's get over the .500 mark and stay above it and then we can look at positioning once we reach the break.

Our 10 man rotation is rock solid right now without even having to play a Knox or TLC as a defensive wing off the bench. I don't think there is a spot right now with our top 4 wings all playing well edit: Who are we moving or is losing their spot in the rotation to create space for a SF? Everyone is balling at the 2/3 for us

You cannot argue with results man. I don't care how much you loved Cam, these numbers don't lie. Knox didn't do this on his own. The chemistry is better across the whole unit right now.

I agree. I can't keep my eyes off OO on defense. He is really locked in, flying around, and making highlight reel plays in defense every night. JC, his block on Tatum was absolutely ridiculous. We showed up in a big way to put the C's in their place last night

Yuck. Im good on Simmons and the Sixers organization, I wish we would just drop out of the chase.

Schlenk built a hell of a roster. It's finally healthy. Time we let them play it out on the court. No need to overthink things

There is so much disrespect for Trae Young. Even the official NBA YouTube account botched their announcement, stating that it is his 1st career All Star Game start. WTF man, do they even do their research before posting. And guess what, it's still up despite people calling out their mistake in the comment sections. I am hella annoyed by this.

Trae has to be the most polarizing star player in the league. The people love him and hate him with the same energy. Trae can miss the ASG completely with the same numbers that made him a starter. It's mind blowing.

Does anyone actually like these? I pray to God he gets to rock the red ones, cuz those light grey ones are not the move.

Some people won't understand, others just don't want to. JC is Mr.Hawk right now. Funny how hard posters fought for Kent Bazemore because he was Mr. Congeniality, but want to ship JC out on the first trade deal that they see.

I tried to warn ya'll, that fan vote carries a lot of weight against split votes from the media and players

Our team is extremely well constructed. There are no trades that are out there that don't damage the fit of the pieces on this roster. I agree that our chemistry is way too fickle for us to sustain through major disruption. And mid season trades almost never produce a winner if both sides are looking to improve immediately. It's not about playing it safe at this point. It's about seeing it through and finishing what we started. We have seen big time improvement the last 2 weeks, now is the time to ride this wave, not cut through it. Our next 6 games are against playoff teams. We just beat 4 playoff teams in a row before the lowly Kings. If we can get through this next stretch with a winning record, then I think we have to accept that this team has what it takes to make some noise again down the stretch. I'm definitely on hold as far as trades go, and the next 10 days will determine if I think we should hang up the phone for good until the offseason.

I hate trading with NY or LA teams. They always ignore our players when we have them, but as soon as they get to a big market, they become the best thing since sliced bread. Disgusting.

Timing is everything. Trae or his teams have always started the season slow since he has been in the league. We have spent the majority of the season playing underwhelmingly. He is the best player on this team. Our team performance is every bit a part of his brand as his sneaker deal or watch commercials. If Trae consistently is associated with losing teams, that ultimately hurts his brand. He went in to this season with all the momentum in the world. The narrative about him had changed, he was one of the most popular players during the playoffs. Our team was set up to win big this year. What did we do? We fell flat on our face for the 4th year in a row, and dug ourselves in to another hole. Blame whoever you want, but Trae is the best player on this team, and he will always get the most criticism. We were 8 games under .500 when most of these guys were figuring out who they wanted to vote for. We are still 3 games under .500 and in the 12th spot. We haven't given anyone outside of Atlanta ANY reason to believe in our team, let alone it's best player. It is what it is.

I liked Cam, but I genuinely hated that thread title. I am a huge NFL fan, and that Randy Moss comparison never made any sense to me at all. The fact we ran with it was the bane of my existence lol

Derrick White = 17.5 million per year Delon Wright = 8.5 for this year only I do not think White is worth that money to come off our bench when Wright has stepped up in a major way lately. Before Wright got here his numbers were very similar to White's on a per minute basis. White's role would be exactly what Wright's is now, as a combo guard who can defend. We are getting really good minutes in that role from Delon at half of the cost. We would also have to send out a good player or two role players to bring in his contract. White cannot do what Bogi did last night. He costs more than Wright and Lou combined. He is subtraction by addition.

With a healthy Trae, Giannis doesn't get injured in the 3rd quarter of game 4, because Lou would not have been playing to throw that low arching lob pass that took Clint's momentum in to Giannis. Just saying, there is a domino effect with all of these scenarios. Healthy Trae likely prevents an injured Giannis. We played out of our minds in game 4 as well because we had an extra motivation without Trae. Us being at home, I like our chances, but I just don't see the Buck being down 1-2 and takings us lightly the way that they did with Trae out

Delon gives us much of what we could expect from Derrick White. Similar size and very similar per minute production. He has finally seemed to settle in to his role for us, and is giving us great play as of late. He and Lou have both stepped up a lot since the Cam trade. I am ok holding on to him. Screw San Antonio