TheNorthCydeRises

You play Collins behind the vets, but give him 6th man minutes. Collins can play both forward and center, so he could've played alongside both Howard or Millsap. He'd develop a lot more in that situation, than in the current one he's in now. Bud isn't trying to feature him as a legitimate offensive option, so the vets would teach him how to affect the game, even when he's not the feature. If the worst case scenario happened, and the Hawks still weren't a playoff level team, they pick at the end of the lottery and have a chance to get this guy. This is a very deep draft with good players. But unlike most people, I don't believe you have one or two guys who are sure fire Hall of Famers in this draft. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if the star of this class was picked outside of the top 5, or even the top 10.

I will say that the 2nd best thing about Sunday's game, was Harry the Hawk making a no-look half court shot, with his back to the basket. It's not the first time he's done that, but it's always cool when he makes the shot.

I actually went to this game yesterday. The entire trip and game was a disaster. Got held up outside of Nashville in traffic. By the time it started rolling, I saw no evidence of even a construction crew. I still don't know why we were all stalled out like that. I get to downtown Atlanta about 1/2 way through the 1st quarter. And what do I see? Cars everywhere. Atlanta United is playing next door, and all of the soccer fans have taken up all of the parking spaces. I pull into the Hilton Hotel garage, and literally EVERY SPACE is taken. $20 to park, and I can't even get a space. As I'm driving back down the parking garage, a man pulled out ( by the Grace of God ). By the time I get inside Philips, it's HALFTIME. I had no idea Baze had gotten hurt. And of course, Dennis is in street clothes, playing cheerleader. Great 2nd half, and in particular, the 4th quarter, by Prince. I love how assertive he was, and he was literally making everything he threw up toward the rim. But could he get the ball at the end? Nope. Not with Dedmon and Dorsey in full tank mode, jacking up long 3s that they had no shot in making. Get the ball to the hot man. But we're tanking, so . . . . Being at the game live, you could literally see how Bud was trying to throw the game. And with Collins not even playing the last 5 minutes of the game, it just made it worse. And the defense . . . lol. Wide open shooters everywhere. We made Bobby Portis look like Klay Thompson. Tank basketball is DEFINITELY not for me.

You keep saying "no strategy". The strategy was to keep Millsap, if he were to settle for a 3 year contract. 3 years is enough time for him to mentor Collins, and maybe turn that kid into something special. Tim Duncan doesn't become "the great one", without the mentorship of David Robinson. Kids learn from vets. On this team, who is Dennis learning from? Prince? Collins? When you're trying to lose, you don't want to add even cheap vets who know how to play the game. That's why Phoenix doesn't know how to win . . . and are going into their 8th consecutive year of not making the playoffs. This, after making the playoffs 19 out of 22 years. Phoenix royally messed up, and they haven't been able to recover from it. What was one of the great NBA fan bases, has been reduced to rubble. It's sad.

Forever grateful . . . even if you went out like a lil (( bleep ))

Perfect game by the "Medium 3" Channeling his inner Dominique . . . too bad he had the same result

How's the ankle, Keith?

Dynamic Duo

Acting like you didn't love this

Revenge

Greatest defensive stretch in Hawks history occurred in that 3rd quarter. They really thought they had us.

Horrible.

Yep . . . the last 10 years were soooooo horrible . . .

If Sap could've been brought back for 3 yrs / 90 million, that's the offseason move you make. He's the All-Star player and the team's best defender. By the time his 3rd year is up, the hope would be for Collins to have learned enough from Millsap to elevate his game to All-Star status. Play the Dwight scenario for at least this year, if not next year as well. What was the use of even bringing him in, if you weren't going to commit to it for at least 2 years? Add vet minimum contracts to the team. ( Since you mentioned him, Jordan Crawford would be an instant upgrade over any reserve guard we have on the team right now, from a scoring and playmaking standpoint ). Continue the development of Schröder to the point that he becomes the co-leader of the team beside Millsap. Use the 3 draft picks to obtain shooters to compliment our core group. The vets ( Howard and Millsap ) would allow the kids ( Dennis, Taurean, John, Kent ) to develop properly. Instead, now you have everyone trying to do too much, which kills how efficiently they can develop. That's the reason why young teams without quality vets do not win in this league. And like Diesel said, by the time this team is good again, the only person that may be on the squad, is John Collins. Taurean Prince, if he becomes a top 20 SF in the league, may also be re-signed. Dennis will probably be flipped for a late 1st round draft pick to a contending team. Baze will be allowed to expire.

Cool. I'll make it easy for you. Who do you think the Hawks can realistically get? http://hoopshype.com/2018/02/13/nba-free-agency-2018-the-top-players/

It's not a hard question man. Who do you think we can get in the offseason? Millsap was a baller in Utah. DMC has always been solid, but never a deadeye shooter, so he was a surprise. So . . . once again . . what significant player do you think we can get in the offseason, and why?

So what significant player do you think we can realistically add this offseason, with the cap space?

Yep https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_3MllZyrPo Yep

Coaching was the reason. No way should Moose have received those minutes in the playoffs. And who are we playing for in this offseason? Who is the target in this offseason that we can realistically get? Let me rephrase that question. Who is the guy that you think that we can realistically get?

It was dumb coaching on the part of Bud. Howard averaged 30 minutes a game during the regular season. Bud tried to get cute, and give Moose extended minutes during the playoffs. It backfired severely, because Gortat pretty much used him every time he entered the game. By Game 3, Dwight and the boys had neutralized Gortat. And once again . . . if Howard was so terrible, why did we trade him for a worse player, and a contract that lasted longer than Dwight's?

If we were going to be a very bad team with Dwight, why did we make the deal? Plumlee's contract went 1 year longer than Dwight's. So you mean that we sacrificed the chance to have 23 million come off the books in the Summer of 2019, to have a net of 10 million come off this season, and just 10 million next season? Or did you forget that we still owe Plumlee 25 million over the next 2 years?

So why did we make the deal?

He wanted to bottom out the Hawks . . . period. You have to make salaries close to match in this league, in order to make trades. It's not like we could trade Dwight and get a few draft picks, because the other team would have to send back a significant salaried player, or a few of them, in order to make the deal work. Charlotte thought that adding Dwight to their squad would improve them to at least playoff level. That hasn't materialized the way they thought. Was it Dwight's fault though? You decide by looking at the numbers. 2017 - 18 Charlotte Hornets PG - Walker ( 8th ) . . has to do way too much to sustain them offensively. He's either great, or below average. F - Kidd-Gilchrist ( 33rd ) . . He's simply not ( or incapable of ) producing. He's the defensive opposite of Marvin F - Batum ( 12th ) . . somewhat misleading, because he's not playing anywhere near he did 2 - 3 years ago. PF - Williams ( 40th ) . . and it's not that Marvin is playing bad, he's simply not producing. He's the offensive opposite of MKG C - Howard ( 12th ) . . doing exactly what he did last year. 7th in scoring and 5th in rebounding among centers. PG - Carter-Williams ( 70th ) - Can't hit the broad side of a barn. Can't believe he's fallen off like this G - Graham ( 63rd ) - D-League sensation. Pretty much our version of Dorsey on the NBA level G - Monk ( 84th ) - Started out great, then couldn't hit anything. Back and forth from D-League. G - Lamb ( 18th ) . . has been very solid this year coming off the bench F - Kamisky ( 44th ) . . too soft around the rim, but is a decent role playing big

I threw out 4 advanced stats at you ( PER, WS, WS/48, and VORP ) that all stated that Dwight was more than decent last season. When you look at the numbers via NBA Efficiency last season by position, you'll see exactly where the Hawks were weak. The names listed in Green played above their position and place as a starter or role player. Players in Black played about what you'd expect as a starter/role player. The players in Red played below the level as a starter/role player 2016 - 17 Hawks PG - Schröder ( 18th ) G - Hardaway Jr ( 22nd ) G - Bazemore ( 34th ) PF - Millsap ( 5th ) C - Howard ( 7th ) PG - Delaney ( 62nd ) F - Sefolosha ( 29th ) F - Prince ( 58th ) F - Ilyasova ( 21st ) PF - Muscala ( 58th ) Let's not play stupid, and act like Howard was one of the major reasons why this team wasn't successful last season. When you have a starter ( Bazemore ) playing at the level of a basic bench role player, you're going to have major issues with the team. The strength of this team was Millsap and Howard, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Get rid of those two, and you have the season we have now. Millsap and Howard were the heart of the defense. Take that away, and you suck . . . period. And once again, I can do the exact same thing, and you can see why the team is where they are now. 2017 - 18 Hawks PG - Schröder ( 14th ) G - Bazemore ( 17th ) . . . . wish he played at this level last season. It would've made a hell of a difference F - Prince ( 26th ) PF - Ilyasova ( 33rd ) C - Plumlee ( 57th ) PG - Delaney ( 63rd ) PG - Taylor ( 77th ) G - Belinelli ( 41st ) G - Bembry ( 66th ) G - Dorsey ( 68th ) PF - Muscala ( 51st ) PF - Collins ( 20th ) C - Dedmon ( 22nd ) Funny how the two guys who were balling off the bench for most of the year, have just now received a chance to start and play together. But even with this, their minutes are limited because they can't be "too good". Gotta keep that tank rolling ( rolling eyes )