TheNorthCydeRises

Carmeloooooooo Anthonyyyyyyyyyyy And the reason why BOTH have never won, is because neither of them didn't play with another LEGIT All-Star talent. When I say, LEGIT, I mean a player who is an undisputed top 20 player. Great scorers need help, and the right team constructed around them. Neither Nique nor Melo had that for most of their careers.

I can score . . .

Jinx of the year.

It really is amazing. Just scanning through the game log, I counted 3 games in which the wings scored less than 10 points, and the Hawks still won. Extend that number to 16 points, and that number jumps to about 7 games won. And a few of those wins, even Hardaway Jr didn't ball out. Howard, Millsap, and Dennis have saved this team far more than we realize. Then when you add the games in which Hardaway Jr have saved us, they represent our offensive core of the team. Baze and Thabo are almost like defensive specialists playing at the same time, since you can't depend on their offense. In Baze's defense ( as JayBird pointed out last week ), he has been playing better recently. Still BAD, but not HORIFFIC. Last 20 games: 9.9 ppg 2.9 rebs 2.6 asst 41% FG 34% 3FG 63% FT . . . ( the 81% he shot from the line last season, looks to be an anomaly. He was a 60% FT shooter in his first 3 years in the NBA. This year, he's right around 70%. )

As much as I hate to admit this, you're correct about his off ball defense. He gets caught ball watching, which leads to easy points. I still think he should get more playing time than he's getting, but he has to improve his off ball defense. Bud seems to know when to give guys major run though. He was more than patient with Hardaway Jr, and that has paid off big time. From a defensive standpoint, Bembry is more ready to play than Prince. But Prince is the obvious talent of the 2.

Update: Current season pace, according to overall winning percentage: 48 Hawks are 16 - 6 since the 7 game losing streak ( .727 winning percentage ) . . 38 games left in the season. If we keep winning at that clip, Hawks are on pace to win 53 or 54 games.

Where can you see how the players voted? ( edit: just read your last post )

LMAO @ Embiid's response . . . wow.

Dennis' numbers since this comment was posted 19.3 ppg 6.4 asst 2.8 rebs 50% FG 36% 3FG 85% FT Since the end of the 8 game losing streak, he's shooting almost 52% FG and 40% 3FG. No way would I ever imagined that he'd play this well at ANY POINT in this season, nor less over a 21 game stretch.

Tens of millions of dollars are being spent on Hawks tickets every season. Why should we watch and pay for a bad product, just because the "experts" say we should sell off everyone? The East is a Lebron James turned ankle or sprained knee away in the playoffs, from being wide open. And the teams good enough to at least stay close to the Cavs, shouldn't just roll over and die, because we can't beat them while healthy. It's one thing if we show no signs of being nothing but a .500 or below team. But a squad that can win 50 games in a season should NEVER blow things completely up. Even this offseason, the play the Hawks may make this year, is to do the same thing. You go to the offseason with Millsap testing the market, and you see what his value is to the rest of the league, while also having in mind a number you want to pay him and the amount of years to keep him. If you lose him for nothing, so be it. If you re-sign him to a great contract for him and the organization, that's great. Millsap, unlike Horford last season, has stated that he doesn't want to go anywhere. Even if that's a ploy to just stay on this team right now, and not go to a non-playoff team, you have to take him on his word. We'll just have to see what happens during the offseason. What you don't do, is sell off a real good player, and take back mediocre assets and non-lottery picks, just for the sake of not losing that player.

As for the actual topic . . . Hawks record after 43 games in 2015 - 16: 26 - 17 Hawks record after 43 games in 2016 - 17: 25 - 18 Record wise at this point in the season, there's virtually no difference between the 2016 Hawks and the 2017 Hawks. The 2016 Hawks, however, would go on to lose 5 of their next 6 games, and go into the All-Star break with a 31 - 24 record. So let's see where the 2017 Hawks stand at that point in a few weeks. What Zach Lowe and others need to understand, is that the Hawks were getting MURDERED on the boards last year. And a big reason for that was the lackluster play of Horford, from a toughness standpoint, around the rim. While the Cavs killed us with 3s last season, they also got a lot of 2nd chance points off of offensive rebounds. And it became even more pronounced in the playoffs. The most telling game of the Cleveland series last year in the playoffs, was Game 3. Horford had an outstanding shooting game ( 11 - 15 FG . . . 2 - 4 3FG ), and scored 24 points. The Hawks played very well for about 40 minutes in that game, before melting down in the 4th quarter. But Horford was a whopping ( -26 ) for the game. Why? The barrage of 3s, especially in the 4th quarter, didn't help. But he only grabbed 1 REBOUND the entire game. You just can't have a situation in which your starting center is playing more like a 2 guard, and not doing the dirty work around the rim. To put that rebounding situation in its proper perspective, the duo of Millsap (8) and Horford (1) only grabbed 9 total rebounds. The duo of Love and Thompson grabbed 13 OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS and 28 TOTAL REBOUNDS. That's unacceptable. All of those offensive rebounds, especially a few of them in that 3rd quarter when we were threatening to push that lead into double digits, kept the Cavs in the game. And once they got hot in the 4th, and we went cold, it was GAME OVER. Horford's averages for that series? 15 ppg . . 51% FG . . 39% 3FG . . . . . and 3.5 rebs Horford proved two things in that series: (1) He wanted to play more on the outside . . . (2) There's no way in HELL the Hawks could fully Max him out, if he wasn't committed to hitting the boards. That's why when the opportunity to get a rebound monster like Dwight Howard arose, the Hawks jumped at the chance to get him. We had to do it, to shake up the identity of the team. We just couldn't afford to be soft on the interior like that. Betting that Horford would elevate his game with a new contract, and give us more of what we needed from a rebounding standpoint, would've been a bad bet. The Hawks played the free agency game right. They got the key asset that they needed in Howard. They refused to max out Horford with the 5th year. And they held onto Millsap, just in case things didn't work out. For all of the people who hate the Hawks "mediocrity" so much, that they can't stand to see us not blow things up, we're still here. The Hawks, like the other 14 teams in the East, may not beat the Cavs with 3 potential Hall of Famers, but we're still here. And why should we sell off everyone or tank the season for the hope of getting better, while the East may be on lock for the next 5 years anyway?

LOL . . it would've been Armageddon around here, had they blown that game. They cut it to 5? Good lord. The only other meltdown that dramatic, was a game the Hawks lost to Utah, I think back in 2006. Yeah . . . here it is. I remember this like it was yesterday. RIP Lorenzen Wright Basketball RIPs to Speedy Claxton . . Salim Stoudamire . . and Shelden Williams Also, a young baby Sap on the Utah bench.

So I'm assuming ATL's finest did their job last night, and "exhausted" the Bulls. Thank you Cheetah. Thank you Magic City. You are the 6th man, and a tremendous defensive stopper.

Defense and shooting STARTERS Embiid (5) - Unstoppable in the middle Millsap (4) - Frontline defensive stopper Giannis (6) - Mr. Everything ( those 3 would be by far the best defensive frontline in the NBA ) Lavine (2) - 41% 3FG Lowry (5) - 44% 3FG ( young, star backcourt that can shot ) BENCH Schröder (2) - the slasher Sefolosha (.50) - Defensive stopper Anthony (3) - 6th man volume scorer Anderson (1) - 40% 3FG Noel (1) - 1.8 blks, 2.3 stls PER 36 min

Nah . . we don't need to go back to the mid 2000s, when this place was like Southside Chicago.

This pretty much ends his career as a high flying dunker. Almost everyone who suffers an Achilles injury loses most of their explosiveness from a leaping standpoint. He's only 29 though, and has a chance to come back next season and transform his game. No chance he opts out of his contract though this summer. He'll have to take that 14 million he's due next year and hope he doesn't lose all of his athleticism. I know Kobe is the most recent Achilles injury, but our very own Dominique Wilkins had his season ended by an even more freak injury than what Gay had. Nique was 32 when he popped his Achilles tendon. And he hurt it almost the same point in the season that Rudy did last night. The next season, Dominique had one of his best statistical seasons, coming off of an Achilles injury, at age 33. 29.9 ppg 6.8 rebs 3.2 asst 47% FG 38% 3FG 83% FT ( on almost 9 attempts ) Here's Nique talking about that very 1993 season that I'm talking about Rest up Rudy, and come back stronger than ever next season.

OK Detroit, Don't let us get this lead under 16 at halftime!!! Don't let us get this under 16!!

That's why you can't trust NBA.com's recipe for Defensive Rating. If you go by their metric, here's our team by defensive rating. Bembry - 93.4 Prince - 94.6 Delaney - 98.0 Dunleavy - 98.0 Millsap - 99.9 Howard - 101.2 Thabo - 101.4 Hardaway Jr - 102.5 Humphries - 103.1 Bazemore - 104.6 Schröder - 104.9 Muscala - 106.4 Scott - 107.7 I think Basketball-reference.com gives a more accurate depiction on what are players look like on defense. Howard - 100 Thabo - 102 Millsap - 102 Prince - 104 Humphries - 104 Baze - 105 Dunleavy - 107 Scott - 107 Muscala - 107 Bembry - 109 Delaney - 109 Hardaway Jr - 109 Schröder - 109

Theory: The signing of Gary Neal will allow Bud to send one or both of the kids to the D-League.

Better "sending the game into OT" buzzer beater Cenk Akyol or Gary Neal?

He's a point guard that is currently creating about 35 ppg, when you factor in the assist. That's very hard to do, no matter who you are. Plus when you factor in the clutch shot making ability of the kid, his talent and value is undeniable. It's Hall of Fame level talent that you're seeing out of him.

But points are normally the name of the game, when you talk about Hall of Fame play. Kyrie has the point production and the proven shot making ability in clutch situations in the playoffs, to be on the fast track to the Hall of Fame.

But to be a little more fair, these are the players who have shot 45% FG - 38% 3FG ... averaged at least 21 ppg and 5 asst in a season - Curry ( 5 times ) - Bird ( 4 ) - Irving ( 3 ) - Durant ( 2 ) - Kobe, T-Mac, Magic, Chris Webber, Michael Finley, Mitch Richmond, Tim Hardaway ( Sr. ), and Lebron James ( 1 ) Also on the ( 1 ) list, are 3 current PGs in the East: Lowry, Walker, and Thomas So in essence, some of you are dissing a guy who is playing at a Hall of Fame level at the PG position.