RedDawg#8

Trae is now 3rd in scoring, and still 3rd in assists. He is having an amazing season. All that is missing at this point is the wins. We have to get going and go on a winning streak to solidify his quest for All Star and All NBA spots. I know this is not a rule, but remember, we are the Hawks, and the general public will always find any excuse they can to slight our team. We can't be looking up in the standings at big market teams like Brooklyn, Chicago, Washington, Miami and Boston, in addition to the defending champs in Milwaukee and think that they will just award Trae with accolades, even if he has legitimately earned them. Hell the league is ready to anoint Lamelo Ball over Trae as soon as they possibly can find a crack in Trae's armor. Got to win and remove all doubt/hate from the equation.

Facts. I have no qualms with this at all.

My last gripe about Steph. First Take had the nerve to ask if he would be the face of the NBA's next generation. Like, do they not realize he is 33, Lebron is still 36. Steph has had more injuries , and more serious injuries than Lebron over their careers. Steph is likely to retire just as soon as Lebron is. His entire career will have been spent under the King James reign. How can he be the face if that is the case? He may get 1 season with no Lebron around. Sorry, that's not enough to carry the torch.

Yeah they definitely milked the hell out of it. When Ray broke the record they waited until the end of the quarter to make an announcement, and he was in front of his home crowd. No video tribute, no music. Just kept playing. For Steph they stopped the entire game, started playing symphonic music like he was being inducted in to the HoF right there. Again, it's not like this record has stood the test of time. It was Reggie's, then Ray's and now Stephs. Each player played multiple years with the other when they set the record. Its not the same as a home run record like the announcers are saying. Ruths record stood for generations. Aaron's stood for another 33, longer than both Reggie and Ray's record before Steph. I guess I'm just a hater

This Curry record celebration may be the cheesiest thing I have ever seen the NBA do. My goodness they act like he just broke Babe Ruth's record..... It's Ray Allen.... he literally just retired the other day. Curry was in the league. Did they do this for Ray when he broke the previous record....nope. They really are forcing the issue here

No. just that someone else already brought it up earlier and Supes said there wasn't anything imminent from our end to shop anyone to other teams.

Yeah the show doesn't move the needle one way or another for me. It's reality TV featuring the agency he is a part of. His participation in it is literally them showing him in workouts and bts stuff. It's the same as if NBA.tv decided to do a path to the draft type feature on a handful of prospects. The little that he does speak usually highlights him in a good way. Or shows positive commentary about him from others. They even mention how Jalen is like the quietest most lowkey of the 6 in his class. You see first hand he is a super chill kid that doesn't get caught up in all the hype and attention. Who also really wants to prove himself. All good news if you ask me.

Nevermind I just saw his was posted and thrown out already

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/265021/Hawks-Seeking-First-Round-Pick-From-Teams-Interested-In-Cam-Reddish So it's safe to call BS on this RealGM "article" regarding us wanting a pick for Cam?

Yeah, I truly thought we learned to do that last season. We didn't add anyone really to the rotation. Maybe having a reliable knockdown shooter like Snell as our emergency starter instead of a TLC is the only difference. With Clint on the floor, we can't afford to have any other non-shooters out there. Teams can load up the paint and force us to take hero shots. TLC is like Cam to me, where if he is on you want him out there. The other game TLC could not hit from outside, and I'm thinking maybe we should sub in Cam. But then remembered he couldn't scratch from outside that night either. Nate has to keep mixing it up though. No reason to stay with guys who are cold when we are desperate for a bucket. Also, too many times Trae get's subbed in either too late in the 4th, or doesn't take his first shot until we are 2+ scores down and playing catch up. This is where Nate can improve.

He always struck me as a pesky little defender. Short, but still scrappy. The biggest thing with short guys is being able to stay in front of your man, and keeping them out of the lane. If guys are going to be able to shoot over you anyways, make them do it from distance. I think he has a solid foundation to build upon defensively.

Only 2 knocks on Sharife that kept him from being a lottery pick. 1) His height 2) Outside Shooting Glad to see he has put the work in to fix what he can control. He may never get taller, but at least he wont have any other glaring holes in his game.

Yep you totally got it, great job!

Not complaining. Making a counterargument to the suggestion that he needs to do more. And providing reasons why I disagree. I make the same observations with everyone on the roster. I don't care that Kev is only 23, because neither do our opponents. We all agreed that youth as an excuse was no longer. We are trying to compete. So, I see a 4th year player with an important role who sometimes flashes more. Great. I like him in that role. I do not love the idea of giving him more responsibility, mainly because of how volatile this team can be down the stretch of important games against good teams. I don't see anything unfair about my position. I have nothing against Kev. I don't believe that can be misunderstood at this point.

My original post had a qualifier that you continue to omit. Im not calling him turnover prone at default. I said he is when he tries to do too much. That is a key part of the statement. I started noticing this long before last night. Good news is, he generally DOESNT try to do too much. But there are times, when the pressure is on, his heart starts to beat like a rabbit and he makes mental mistakes. He is not alone in this. A lot of the young guys participate in this. But this is a Kev thread. And I think that he has a great role now, and asking him to do more and be more aggressive may result in that shiny 1.4 to/per game you keep mentioning to climb. 2.4 assists , 1.4 turnovers. That's the same as Trae averaging 5.6 TO's to get his 9.5 assists. Im on board with Kev always shooting open shots and getting to his midrange looks. Im not on board with him trying to lead the offense in high leverage situations. There is a clear distinction

When trying to do too much, especially in clutch situations. Did you watch last night? He definitely hurt us with those 2 late game turnovers. One of the biggest reasons we have lost close games late, is guys not named Trae trying to be Trae and keeping the ball out of Trae's hands in the process. It's not just Kev, but this a Kev thread.

Kevin is still turnover prone when he tries to do too much. I dont mind him hunting his shot if it means not settling for a 3 all the time. But I don't want him trying to create offense for others in clutch situations. Either get the ball and go, or get rid of it.

WTF Kev...... Why has Trae not taken a shot since coming back in? This happens too much in these close games. Your best ball handler needs ti have the ball. Not role players who can't handle the pressure of the moment

"How fast they were coming off screens" "They were running 2-3 actions and Trae was coming off a screen roll throwing lobs" This has LP's fingerprints all over it. Hate him or not, at our best, his offensive system was a nightmare to defend WHEN we ran it properly. .

My biggest knock against AD is that you don't get to be called a "dominant" player if you play down a position just to avoid contact. AD would be one of the most talented Centers ever, and in the modern game he is a stretch 5, but he refuses to play C and only wants to be a PF. He did the same thing in Nola. As far as being a champion, AD only won a ring because he played with Lebron. He has never carried a team to anything great. You see how bad the Lakers are when Lebron is out. So no, HE did not win a championship, he was on a championship winning team with the rest of the ring chasers. He was the 2nd fiddle, and he was able to shine because Lebron was out there with him.

Solo's role was unique because we used him as a 2,3 and 4 when needed. Even though he mostly only had to fill in at F for us, he still could guard PG's if needed. I really want us to elevate JJ and give him the spare change minutes left by Solo, but we are more in need of a true wing, or at least a forward with guard capable versatility on defense (like Cam and Dre). Last season, our reserves gave us a huge boost when we needed it. Mays, Goodwin, Knight each had their moments/highlights. I would love for us to tap back in them. They way we are middling around they aren't going to shoot us in the foot much more than what we have been seeing. In other words, they wont make us better, but they wont make us THAT much worse either. Hopefully Cam comes back Friday and none of this ends up mattering much

Weight problems, something we will never have to worry about with Trae. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32818403/dallas-mavericks-luka-doncic-admits-having-issue-weight-conditioning

He was up and down with his own injury luck too for his first couple of years. And until Nate took over, he was just as much of a defensive liability as Trae was. The way he turned things around last season was awesome. Nights when his shot didn't fall, he was still able to give us some good defensive minutes. Kev's cold streaks have become further and further apart. He can now give us consistent shooting night in and out. I agree that he has become the best of the 3 particularly on the back of availability and reliability. The ceilings are still higher on Cam and Dre. If they could stay on the court it would do wonders for their development.

I started a Twitter back in college, barely used it comparatively speaking, and eventually deleted the app, but not my account. I recently got back on it because I wanted to start tweeting again and boyyyyyy was I surprised at some of the crap I used to post in the pre-cancel days. All kinds of vulgar language and reckless talk lol I immediately panicked and tried deleting the bad tweets but couldn't fast enough so I just completely deleted the account. Times were different before I had real responsibilities to hold me accountable as a person. You could take one look at my page and say, yep, this guy doesn't have a real job smh

I could care less about Turner's family tbh. We let all that non-basketball stuff affect our opinions a little too much. He has been in Indy his whole career on decent teams that never really had a shot to win anything. If he was ever going to be a problem-child it would have happened. If the "rumors" that we have heard about his over involved family are true, than I can deal with that. It could be a lot worse. Who am I giving up? Well the following players would not be safe at all. Lou, Wright, Hill, TLC, Dieng The following I would totally consider Bogi, Gallo, Clint I would have a hard time including the following, but one of them would likely always have to be included in a major trade: Dre, Kev, Cam, OO. What I like about a Clint trade is it really opens the floor up to have JC and Turner next to each other. Imagine Trae, Kev, JC, Turner and any of the remaining wings we have left on the court together. Our spacing would be crazy beautiful.