RedDawg#8

Speaking of the list, done good Hawks content today. Do y'all agree or disagree with their opinions?

Most definitely. Amnesia is real amongst the talking heads.

Here was their logic: Hawks fans are so focused on competing right now, but we probably aren't going to win a title this year. We would be better off sacrificing a few wins by grooming Cooper now as the featured backup to Trae so that in 2-3 years when the team IS ready to play for a title, he will ready to go. They think we will regret not developing him in lieu of playing vets.

They did drag the Mavs for not building around him the way we did Trae. They were very complementary of our front office, but it was also a built in scapegoat by saying Trae has the better team and that's why Trae had better playoff success.

The folks who really watch the game had to have noticed just how good he was before injury. If he returns to that, I truly think we will be a force. My dream scenario is to have playoff Trae, late season Bogi, early season Dre, JC without foul trouble, and regular season Clint all show up at the same time. That is championship level starting 5

Decent preview from non-Hawks fans. A couple of points that I dont agree with but that some posters on here have mentioned before: They see Dre's best fit as a PF long term They believe Bogi would be better suited off the bench They think Cooper should get regular minutes at backup PG sooner than later. They admire our depth but consider it to be a problem going forward They say Trae is merely an All Star level guy as opposed to MVP level guy (like Luka)

C We have more uber-talented young players than we have minutes to give right now. GS is in salary cap hell and needs to find good cheap talent they can groom to surround their expensive core. They also just drafted a player who dropped out of school early and are now trying to get rid of him. I can see why they pass on Jalen. Spurs are rebuilding, they need to hit and establish a culture, can't risk guys who aren't willing to buy in to Pop's way. OKC could have for sure, don't know why they didn't. Memphis who knows. Look. Jalen will have growing pains and take his lumps, nobody is saying he is perfect, but the talent is there. He looks really good for a guy picked 20. He looks as good if not better than JC did during his rookie offseason/summer league. It was quite obvious JC was a steal at 19, and now he is rated as a top 5 pick in his class. This 2021 class looks very VERY good so far, much better than 2017. So Im not going to predict Jalen jumps over 15 other guys, but his ceiling is sky high and he can easily make a case to have been in the top 10 let alone lottery. You do not find many kids his size that can dribble, pass, shoot and play above the rim. He is a slam dunk because players picked 20 don't flash that kind of ability right out of the gates. They usually all have holes. All Jalen needs is time and experience. The game is there.

NBA GM's are idiots as a collective group. They do dumb ish all the time. Do you think Anthony Bennett was in the same stratosphere as Giannis? Well he went 1st overall and Giannis went 13th. Many of the posters that are high on Jalen are projecting his potential. Of course none of us have seen him in an NBA game yet, but some of us don't need to wait for the same idiots who passed on him to admit they were wrong to see that he is clearly ultra talented and a freak athlete. And lets all be clear about this when discussing Jalen. He did not fall to #20 because there were question marks about his playing ability. There was no consensus scouting report that said he couldn't do X,Y, or Z well. So that's not a good argument. He was passed up because of question marks about OFF the court stuff. His loyalty to the teams he played with and his overall desire to compete. That's why he fell. His talent is undeniable. Even to the idiot GM's. We were in a position to take a flyer on him because of the depth we have. We needed a PG but he was too good to pass up, and if we missed then oh well, we still a squad ready to compete in front of him. Teams played it safe because they couldn't miss. We could afford to make a splashy pick. Jalen was a slam dunk so far

Damn, no Tobias love?

They will at least get a shot, which is more than what they are getting now. That was my biggest issue. They would invite cats that were not on the same level and give them more opportunity to prove themselves.

I'm so happy about this. Not because it's Grant per se, just that it's not Colangelo and Popovich running the show anymore. Their excuses for constantly ignoring Trae were unforgivable. I want guys who are not tainted by the old way of thinking. A fresh start for the program top to bottom, I love it.

Parker was a bucket with us. Problem with him was having to start due to JC's suspension. As a scoring big off of the bench he was okay by me.

14 and 4. That's what Brook Lopez did against us in 6 games. He had a big game 5 when he had to log heavy minutes without Giannis and he went for 33 and 7 rebs in the game of his life. If you want to give him praise for that sure, go right ahead. We laid an egg, the entire team did, in that game 5. His averages for the other 5 games, 10.6pts and 3.4rebs. We weren't having an issue slowing him down outside of 1 game when the team got molly whopped on the road. Milwaukee was +42 against us on the series, Brook Lopez was +25. That means the Bucks were actually 17 points worse against us when Lopez was on the floor over the series.

Thabo's frame, just not Thabo's game, got it. i can see the physical comps, but yeah TLC looks like a better shooting worse defending version. But their measurements are uncannily similar

Their options are to spend money to add talent, or lose Dame to a team that will. Wall is slightly better defensively than CJ, but still not good. Comparatively Defensive Rating/Defensive Win Shares Wall; 111.8/(0.82) CJ 112.8/ (0.78) Trae 113/ (0.76) Dame 115.6/ (0.54) I agree, his outside shooting is not on the same level CJ. But he offers playmaking that could alleviate a lot of stress off of Dame. IDK, just a thought. I prefer that than seeing Wall cash out and go jump on a super team bandwagon somewhere

If you're Portland and trying to keep Dame happy, do you do a McCollum and Wall swap? Is Wall even really better than McCollum at this point in their careers? I like Wall's size better next to Dame, and he is a much better playmaker than anything they have. That's it though

I for real forgot he was even in Houston. My money says he somehow ends up on a contender, regardless of contract.

They are a joke and borderline dumpster fire. They literally cannot play the sport of football well anymore. Im full time Hawks year round now

Idk enough about TLC to compare him to Thabo. All I know was Thabo was flat out special on defense, and that 60-win team's ceiling and potential went up in smoke the moment he got injured because contrary to the narrative, our defense is what transformed us from good in 13-14 to elite in 14-15 and right back to good after his injury. DMC and Thabo could lock up any player in this league. Thabo goes out, we finish the year .500. DMC's leg gets injured and now we limp into the ECF with Kent Bazemore guarding Lebron, HA! I say all that to ask, is TLC special like that on defense? Can he effect a game and lock guys up like Thabo? Or is he just another Kent Bazemore, Cartier Martin, or Deandre Bembry, aka "inconsequential "?

I don't believe it either. What I think happens is say Barrett was officially 6'5.5 without shoes during last training camp. He may have put on some muscle which spurred a small height increase to the effect of slightly less than half an inch. So now a year later he is closer to 6'6 without shoes, but because its the offseason he and his trainer measured him in shoes at 6'7.5 and then decided to round up to 6'8. Now his team is going around saying he grew 2 inches from 6'6 to 6'8. And on top of that he looks taller due to bulking up so people buy in to it and repeat it. That's my hypothesis on how these things get started. Again, the timing was my point of emphasis. The fact that you hear it "over the summer" because that's when guys are with their own trainers and agents who are doing these unofficial measurements and spreading them like gospel. You won't hear about height or weight change during the season, only right before.

Not that I believe they are actually growing that much, but I think the "over the summer" aspect is because they are only getting measured during the offseason and before training camp (which is end of summer), but not during the actual season. So they could in theory be growing at a constant all year long, but with no tracking of it until they get in to the end of the offseason when they are getting physicals done ahead of the next season. Those results then become their new measurements for the next calendar year regardless of any changes during the season. 2 inches is still a lot, but more reasonable if considered over a calendar year vs a few months

Sabonis also got his deal before he became a starter.

Mario West was one of my favorite no name guys. He brought size and toughness on the wing. I wish we held on to guys like that more

Yeah Im too lazy to go any deeper

As starters it looks like they were 20-15 when all three started together. Additionally: Kev was 29-20 as a starter (.591) Trae was 36-27 as a starter (.571) JC was 34-29 as a starter (.540)