RedDawg#8

JJ may be "raw" but he is a better player than a lot of young guys that are getting minutes right now. He is more than capable of being a reserve for us. You never know when we may have an emergency injury or foul trouble. He should definitely be around as an option.

Bogi's chest sounded like stone on that chest bump. Ole swole ass Serb lol

On the 2nd night of a back to back, we are winless so far this season. Depth is already a concern. Now wear and tear becomes a factor. Plus the TWolves are a lot tougher than some may think. They have already beaten some better teams than the Hawks this season. We may get our feelings hurt tonight the way we been playing.

It's the stupid jerseys man. The Pope blessed the MLK's. These mustards need divine intervention as well.

This might be the shittiest weekend in a long time for Georgia sports. Holy cow this is an annoying loss especially following the Philly game.

Defense would be nice right about now. Have to stop guys if you want to win.

One day JJ and JC are both going to be on the court at the same time and it's going to be the most exciting show you have ever seen.

It's hard not to notice Trae's improved effort on defense. He can still be had in the PNR game easily, but when they try to iso on him or play bully ball he has really gotten better. His best asset is being scrappy off the ball. He is generating more turnovers just from effort alone. Great work this offseason Trae

Jeeezus with the jump balls. Have we had a single offensive possession in our last few trips? We have got to get some good looks and put Capela back in

JC back on the floor thank goodness

Why are we back to a bench mob unit when we are already undermanned? Starters should be staggered on the court at all times

I had no issue with Pierce the person. I thought everything he did off the court was freaking awesome. I was proud to have a coach represent the city and organization like that. In regards to him as a coach, I did not blame him for the team's performance for his first 2 years. We were young and rebuilding. With that said, LP was the one who went out and said that our team was good enough to make the playoffs during the 2019-20 season. He was the one who doubled down and pushed those expectations prior to the 20-21 season. He was the one who acknowledged that he would be held accountable and fired one day for the team underperforming. So we can all agree that there was nothing unfair or personal about his treatment and eventual dismissal last year. In regards to Trae, on more than one occasion, he had the opportunity to stand up for and defend him and he did not. When Trae was snubbed for team USA, Lloyd could have said nothing at all, but he decided to support the decision for guys like Barnes and Plumlee to be chosen instead over him. Saying Trae had not earned the honor. https://clutchpoints.com/hawks-news-lloyd-pierce-reacts-to-trae-young-being-left-off-olympic-roster/ Mind you, this is the list of 44 finalists that were chosen before Trae that year. LP was okay with Derrick White at PG before Trae? He was fine with Javale McGee, Kuzma, Plumlee over John Collins? https://www.usab.com/news-events/news/2020/02/men-olympic-finalists.aspx' LP had an inside track to promote his best players and allow them the opportunity experience international basketball and he sat on his hands and chose the tough love route instead. Meanwhile Pop was allowed to give their spots to his own guys like Derrick White and Keldon Johnson the following year. So it was obvious that being ready and "EARNING" it were not requirements for team USA, just for LP's guys because that's how HE wanted to bring them along. Pierce is a smart man. He should know how important it is to have a strong relationship with your best player(s). We all know how bad Trae has been getting snubbed and dragged throughout his career so far. Trae doesn't complain much publicly, though he may throw shade on twitter from time to time. It would have been nice for his head coach to go to bar for him instead of being a bystander or publicly joining in with his naysayers. One of the first things Nate did when he took over was establish a bond with Trae. Nate has constantly praised him and built him up. And when he has a criticism for Trae, he keeps it light and not personal; like joking about his turnovers to the media, while likely schooling him about it behind the scenes. You see that positive reinforcement also works as Trae's TO's have dropped this season. LP decided that tough love was the way to go, but that only works if you stand up for your guys against the outside. Like a big brother saying Im the only one allowed to pick on my younger brother. But if you are being a hard ass behind the scenes and letting your guys get dragged then why would they ever trust you? I say all that to say, I defended LP when he was here. but this team took off when we moved on from him. At the end of the day this fanbase and franchise will be around long after any coach or player. I care about results more than anything, and the proof is that we have been without him. Giving him props for being professional on NBA tv is fine. But do you really think he would have been as kind if this team fell off a cliff after firing him? Every coach would have been screaming I told you so, and LP would have not stopped them. He HAD to bite his tongue because after years trying to humble Trae, he was the one who got humbled the most. Poetic Justice

LP thought he was giving them tough love and providing the medicine they needed to grow and grow up. The whole Im big brother and Im going to tear you down to build you up strategy. Thing is it was sabotaging the locker room from the inside out. Pierce may be a brilliant young basketball mind in coaching circles, but coaching is more than what you know. You have to get buy in from the players to execute your brilliance. Nate is less innovative than LP, but players trust him and respond to his coaching. That's all that matters at the end of the day.

The biggest payback was Lloyd getting a gig on NBATV and having to talk about the Hawks and how much we improved after we changed coaches, and how great we were playing in the playoffs lol Talk about awkward.

I don't even consider Steph a PG. if he was 1 inch taller he would be considered a unanimous SG. He has played true point guard for only a handful of seasons and most of them came under Mark Jackson and Don Nelson. Steph became an elite MVP, future hall of famer when Steve Kerr moved him off of the ball. The things that make him special have nothing to so with playing the point. Not to mention, Draymond is their leading assist player during the Kerr era. I got blasted for pointing this out on social media. Doesn't take anything away from his greatness. I just cannot put him in the same positional category of guys like Magic, Zeke, Nash, Stockton, Kidd, and CP3.

Shhhhh, don't tell anyone lol

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/who-has-the-most-career-games-with-30-points-and-10-assists For anyone who wants to track it, Trae is on pace to climb in to the top 10 all time (and likely higher) this season passing guys like CP3, Dame, Jordan, Kevin Johnson, and DWade along the way. He has an outside shot at catching Isiah as well who has 43. At his current pace he can totally do it, but his career pace is slightly slower than this season. Harden, Lebron, and Russ are the only active players with some real distance between them and Trae. After them its Magic, Iverson and Isiah. Trae will be right there with those legends by the end of his 4th NBA season.

The Reddish injury concerns me a little because he was listed on the injury report before the Knicks game with a wrist injury and still decided/was allowed to play. I don't know if he just aggravated it or made it worse, but I don't necessarily trust his pain judgment. The same thing happened last year with the achilles. He was in and out of the lineup with the injury before they finally shut him down for what was basically the rest of the season. I know he is listed as day to day but there is precedent of him having a seemingly mild injury become a prolonged issue. The best news is that the team took an MRI so they're not going strictly off of his testimony. But I don't want him rushing back just to miss more games with the same sore wrist later on. I hope he let's it heal fully before coming back this time.

John clearly hates that. He feels like they are openly acknowledging that he isn't being prioritized and are fine letting whatever happens to him in a game happen. It rubbed him wrong when LP said it and still bothers him with Nate. Basically, they are admitting that whether John gets touches or not is not a big concern to them because he is good enough to perform without intentionally being given the ball. They mean it as a compliment but I believe JC takes it as a bit of a slight because numbers have a huge impact on a player's perceived value. He likely thinks they are not using him to his full potential which ultimately hurts his career in the end. Whether they run plays for him or not I'm sure he would prefer if they just stopped saying it out loud as if they are proud of it.

Interesting snippet on us from NBA.com https://www.nba.com/news/power-rankings-2021-22-week-7 We are 10-6 if you take out the 2nd game of back to backs. That is crazy, I did not realize we had that many B2B's (5) already and were so bad at them in general.

That's wild, but when you consider that Thibs prides himself on Defense, I can see why he would feel that way about playing 3 small guards together. They were really struggling on the defensive end this season. Still wild though.

I feel like I saw all 3 were in the top 20 at some point last week, and we were the only team that could say that.

I want to cry for the kid man. He could have been a star, but that back is likely going to bother him for the rest of his life, even after his career is over. He spoke on how it dropped him in the draft and no lottery team wanted to touch him Trae's had doubters question if he could hold up in the league, but he never had any legit injury concerns for that to ever be an actual issue.

TLC was a starter for Brooklyn last year before the Harden trade. Not saying we should start him, but expanding his role should not be a scary proposition. I like Mays coming back up, he gives us some good offense, isn't afraid to attack the basket and get to the line, and can function as a ball handler as well. I know Nate loves to keep his rotations in tack not to disrupt the chemistry, but I would totally shuffle some things around to help us balance the lineups out. Wright would get the starting nod in place of Bogi for me. He gives you the secondary creator/ball handler option that you had with Bogi, obviously is a good defender at the point of attack to take on the best guard. And I believe that his offense will come around playing next to the starters. He becomes the 5th option, the guy that will be left wide open. He can knock down open shots historically, this may boost his shooting. Off the bench, its not pretty but I like Williams, Mays and TLC as a unit until Cam returns. Mays gives you the option so that you don't NEED Lou to be PG offensively. Mays can spread the ball around as well as knock down open shots. He has never played scared since day 1. He attacks the basket and doesn't just settle for jump shots, which we always could use more of if you ask me. That gives you 2 shot makers and a primary defender in TLC on the wing off the bench. Also, I know we are short on bigs but do ya'll remember how effective that Gallo-JC- Clint lineup was in the playoffs? What if we used more of that while Cam is out and gave Jalen some more minutes as supplement? Just a thought

It will catch up to them in the end. Just like last season. We got it handed to us up until that 8 game road trip. After that, we were able to cruise to the finish line. Just have to weather the storm until things even out.