TheNorthCydeRises

Look up the 10 year record of the Falcons vs the Hawks, and look at the winning percentage. Both are around 55%. The difference came last season, with the Falcons reaching the SB. Otherwise., the Hawks had done everything the Falcons had done, including losing in a Conference Championship after being a #1 seed. Falcons had a great run last season. But let's not act like the Falcons are the flagship franchise for the area. Before this season, they had missed the playoffs 3 straight years, and people wanted Matt Ryan ran completely out of town. This has definitely been a "meh" season for the Hawks, especially at home. But let's not overhype the Falcons as a great entertainment product. Tell the Falcons to have a great season again, and not miss the playoffs.

You swap Baze and Hardaway, you put another scorer on the floor with your best defensive wing ( Thabo ), your all around best player ( Millsap ), your best PG ( Dennis ), and your best center ( Dwight ). This is the reason why that particular lineup has been the most successful this season. Baze is the guy who most of the Hawks problems stem from. With him as the starter, we not only need him to keep defensive honest by scoring the basketball, we also need him to be able to play solid defense on his man. He's only an average defender, so that will come and go. But when his offense is off as well, that's a double negative. At the rate we give up 3s, I don't see how people can keep harping on the pick and roll defense. Guys need to stick with shooters and fight through picks. If we give up the 15 footer, so be it. Charlotte, a few years ago, employed that same tactic with a so-called notorious bad pick and roll defender in Al Jefferson. He sagged back, preventing the drive to the hole, while the guards and wings stuck with the shooters and forced them to take midrange jumpers. The result saw Charlotte become a top 5 defense. Our wings be all over the place, leaving open shooters everywhere. That's not Dwight's fault. He had 14 points - 10 rebs - 5 steals - 3 assists yesterday . . . but was a whopping -19 on the floor because Dennis shot 2 - 14 . . . Thabo shot 0 - 6 . . . and the combination of Lillard and McCullom scored 49 points on 19 - 36 FG shooting But yeah . . . let's blame Dwight.

Dead on the money. As of this moment, when looking at our top 20 2-man groupings, Thabo and Baze is THE WORST grouping, at ( -5.2 pts per 100 possessions ). The best 2-man group is Hardaway Jr + Dennis or Dwight at ( +6.9 pts per 100 possessions ) With the way Ilyasova can take charges, Bud might consider inserting him in the starting lineup, and go with a big frontline, with Ersan being the space shooter, and Millsap doing the all around scoring. PG - Schröder G - Hardaway Jr F - Ilyasova PF - Millsap C - Howard At the minimum, the minutes Baze and Thabo play with each other, should be significantly limited. Thabo's impact on defense is becoming less and less. And Baze's defense isn't improving at all. Prince, as of right now, looks like a better defender than both of them. But Bud won't put him in the starting lineup.

Who plays the best alongside each other? 2-man groups . . . ( Net points per 100 possessions ) . . . Main rotation players only Schröder - Hardaway ( +6.9 pts ) Bazemore - Hardaway ( +3.5 pts ) Thabo - Ilyasova ( +13.5 pts ) Millsap - Prince ( +9.4 pts ) Howard - Hardaway ( +6.9 pts ) Hardaway - Howard/Schröder ( +6.9 pts ) Delaney - Sefolosha ( +6.8 pts ) Ilyasova - not enough Hawk data . . best 5-man group is Dennis-THJ-Thabo-Ilyasova-Millsap ( +27.2 pts ) Prince - Millsap ( +9.4 pts ) Muscala - Millsap ( +2.2 pts ) Who plays the worst alongside each other? Schröder - Muscala ( -10.7 pts ) Bazemore - Muscala ( -14.2 pts ) Thabo - Muscala ( -13.9 pts ) Millsap - Bazemore ( -1.3 pts ) Howard - Muscala ( -11.2 pts ) Hardaway - Muscala ( +1.8 ) Delaney - Bazemore ( -2.6 pts ) Ilyasova - not enough Hawk data Prince - Howard ( -10.9 pts ) Muscala - Bazemore ( -14.2 pts )

That's because the right lineups aren't playing together. Bud likes Hardaway's production off the bench, but the team can't survive with Thabo and Baze continue to start games and play big minutes alongside each other. That puts way too much pressure on Dennis and Millsap to score the basketball. And since they aren't going inside to Howard, it makes it even worse. Thankfully, Prince is cutting into some of that time with the wings, but it's still affecting the team. One of the best 5-man units this season has been . . . PG - Schröder . . . G - Hardaway Jr . . . F - Sefolosha . . . PF - Millsap . . . C - Dwight The starting lineup of . . . PG - Schröder . . . G - Bazemore . . . F - Sefolosha . . . PF - Millsap . . . C - Dwight . . . has consistently been one of the worst lineups we put out on the floor. Baze is by far the biggest negative on the team among the main rotation players. Hardaway Jr is the biggest positive. But everything revolves around Millsap, with everyone being a positive with him on the floor . . . except Bazemore.

That should be the starting lineup going into the playoffs. Let Baze and Thabo ( since he's fallen off the map since his return ), come off the bench. That would at least take some of the pressure off of Dennis and Sap to provide all of the offense for the starting unit.

Man . . . my bracket is about as shaky as a dancer at Magic City right now. I went 4 for 8 today. Good thing that most people didn't get more than 6 out of 8. But I could easily be down to 8 Sweet 16 teams, with only 4 of them able to get me more points, by this time tomorrow night. No Money Team made a big move tonight. Duke can rack up big points for him. while I can't get anything in the East, after the 2nd round.

And . . . . Villanova LOSES Cause that's what I got right now, NOTHING . . . A 30 win 1st round . . . REDUCED TO (( BLEEPING )) RUBBLES!! Let's go GAMECOCKS!!

Ryan and I are in a sharpshooting contest. The 1st separator comes in a few minutes, with the SMU vs USC matchup. I got SMU in the Elite 8. An early loss would be a killer.

To your point . . . Hawks are 15 - 4 when Dennis scores 22 points or more . . . 4 - 10 when he scores 11 points or less Hawks are 11 - 4 when Dwight grabs 6 offensive rebounds or more . . . 10 - 17 when he grabs 3 offensive boards or less So we need Dennis scoring, and Howard getting on the offensive glass, and putting the ball back in the hole. The big question is . . . why does this team play so poorly at home? Too comfortable? Too many distractions? Blame the "adult entertainment" in the city, in which a few players are fond of? The Joe Johnson era teams were schizophrenic, because they were normally terrible on the road. But the one thing those teams did, was put on a good show at Philips. This team is the exact opposite. Their biggest wins have come on the road, which will bode well in the playoffs. But they'll drop a home game vs anybody.

Blame Dwight, but no mention of Dennis going 4 - 16? OK

(( BLEEPING )) VANDY !! Messed up a perfect day for me! And that kid was balling all game. But no matter what he does in life, he will always be remembered for this moment. Next to the Chris Webber "time out", this was the worst blunder in tournament history.

But he's not doing this all the time when the game clock is running. He's does it sometimes after stoppages of play, when the clock is stopped and the other team is down the court. So the game clock isn't going to start until he touches the ball. The first time this bites him in the butt, the fan base and the coach are going to erupt.

I have a background in advertising and marketing. Yes, he's a marketing genius. You are talking about the dad of a college basketball star, on an NBA fan website. He's the ultimate hype man for his boys, while also subliminally marketing his clothing line every time he's on camera. He's basically doing what Trump did during the campaign. Say the most outlandish things, knowing that all of the news networks will cover your every word. Trump did that to perfection, and Lavar is doing it too. If Lonzo and UCLA go far in the tournament, the camera will be on him constantly. And what will you see? His clothing line brand, because that's all he wears on camera. The next step will be for one of the major sports apparel companies ( Nike, Adidas, Under Armor, etc ) to put HIS brand under THEIR brand. As for his boys, Lonzo is definitely looking like the 2nd coming of Jason Kidd. And his other 2 sons may be in the league as well in a few years. He has a big enough mouth, personality, and camera presence to rile up even a big mouth like Barkley. He's a marketing genius.

Lavar is a marketing genius.

No . . . he shouldn't be doing it at all when the Hawks are leading in a game. No reason whatsoever to do it. I can remember him almost turning the ball over twice doing that. I believe he did it in the Indiana game in the 4th quarter . . . a game we lost at the buzzer. It would be like a football team being up by 7 with 2 minutes to go, purposely running plays to get out of bounds, to have more time to score. Dennis thinks he's being smart in doing that, but he isn't. A quick PG is going to bait Dennis into a turnover, if he continues to do that. They'll turn their back to Dennis and act like they're talking to a teammate . . . then turn around real fast and go for the ball.

Which is why Dwight's offensive rebounding is important to this team. When guys start shooting bricks, you better get extra possessions.

done

Horford vs Dwight HORFORD PPG - 14.0 REBS - 6.9 ASST - 4.7 . . . ( 1st in the league among centers ) STLS - 0.7 BLKS - 1.4 PER - 16.8 . . 2nd lowest of career WS - 4.2 WS/48 - ( .119 ) . . 2nd lowest of career VORP - 1.9 ( value over replacement ) TS% - ( .541 ) . . . Lowest since rookie year FG% - ( .459 ) . . . Lowest of career 3FG% - ( .348 ) . . . . ( 5th among centers taking 3 or more threes a game ) FT% - ( .817 ) . . . highest of career . . . on 2.7 attempts ( 2nd lowest of career ) REB% - 11.7% . . . lowest of career ASST% - 23.8% . . . highest of career ORtg - 111 DRtg - 108 . . . worst of career HOWARD PPG - 13.3 . . 2nd lowest of career REBS - 12.9 . . . ( 4th in the league ) ASST - 1.3 STLS - 0.9 BLKS - 1.3 . . lowest of career PER - 21.2 WS - 6.9 WS/48 - ( .188 ) VORP - 2.0 TS% - ( .631 ) . . . highest of career . . ( 4th in the league ) FG% - ( .640 ) . . . highest of career . . ( 4th in the league ) 3FG% - ( .000 ) . . . on 2 attempts FT% - ( .528 ) . . . on 5.7 attempts ( 2nd lowest of career ) REB% - 24.1% . . highest of career . . . ( 2nd in the league ) ASST% - 7.1% ORtg - 116 . . . highest of career DRtg - 100 . . . ( 5th in the league )

Looking better than ever . . .

If Nique were to ever be replaced on the TV broadcast, I say bring in Brevin Knight. He calls it like he sees it, and isn't a homer. He's flat out ripping the Grizzlies players in this postgame. Questioning their effort after the All-Star game. Grizzlies fans blaming Coach Fitz, more than the players. "We're just bad right now. For whatever reason, we just can't get it together. We missed so many open shots. We battled hard." - Fitz Haflway laughing through the postgame presser. He's in disbelief. Knight going in on the players again . . . "If that's battling, I don't want to see when they don't battle. One way this team win games, physicality, defense, not making mental mistakes. They don't have the personnel to shoot 29 threes."

The return of the TRUE BALLER Welcome back dude

SMH. This is Bud's way of having a reason to play Moose. Watch Moose start, with Bud saying . . . "we decided to start Moose, because we like Ilyasova coming off the bench."

He brings the gritty toughness that Muscala and Scott lacked. He's just not all offense. And he's big enough for Bud to have him out on the floor during crunch time, when Dwight's FT inconsistency could hurt us. Very good pickup by Budcox.

If Dwight came off the bench, this team would be dead in the water. People still don't realize how many extra possessions we get, when these guys start throwing up bricks, and Dwight gets the rebound. The Hawks are 25th in the league in 3 point shooting, but 13th in offensive rebounding. Without those offensive rebounds, we'd be a .500 or less team. Dwight is giving us 16 points and 16 rebounds on a per 36 minute basis, yet, people want him benched? Dude has a 21 PER and a .187 win score/48 minutes. Keep that "Dwight is a liability" narrative over on Peachtreehoops. It's these inconsistent wings and bad backup PGs that are the problem with the Hawks, not the center in the middle that is doing exactly what he was brought in to do.