TheNorthCydeRises

He has no choice but to play the kids. This has arguably been the worst 2 weeks of basketball the Hawks have played in about 9 years. Even the 38 - 44 Hawks of 2008 and 2013 were more competitive than these guys. Korver and Baze . . . 0 - 8 3FG and a combined 6 - 18 FG for 14 points. Bud, Einstein once said that the definition of INSANITY . . is to keep doing things over and over again, and expecting a different result. Listen to Einstein, Bud. Don't be insane.

me me me me me me me me We have these players on the team. Bud just refuses to give up the ghost on Korver, and play them. You give Hardaway Jr and Prince the minutes they deserve, and all of this losing STOPS. As far as Rudy Gay goes, he's the #9 ranked SF in the league. Thabo is 22nd Baze is 26th http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/playerstats/17/4/eff

I can score. I just need the minutes.

Well then he needs to be traded. Or coaxed into being the 6th man that plays 25 - 30 minutes a night.

That's a lie. Because the last game we won, was when Korver was on the bench.

Really? Need more from our bigs? Without the play of the bigs, they'd be a 5 - 13 team right now. Most people though Howard wasn't even capable of playing at this level. Now we need MORE from him? Millsap is a little more inconsistent, but still doing his thing on most nights. And Muscala has been a godsend off the bench. Those 3 bigs are producing at a tremendous rate. And they're doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing. It is not the fault of Howard and Millsap that Bud has extended an EXTREMELY long leash to Korver and Baze. When Marvin Williams played like this, people ripped that dude to shreds and he was eventually benched. Hell, even a crippled T-Mac is doing more than what Baze and Korver are doing right now. What Bud needs to do, is play his most productive players, regardless of tenure or salary. If that means starting Hardaway Jr, you start him. If that means playing Prince more, you play him. He can't sit back as the coach and wait for these guys to play better or more consistent. Well, he can, because the rest of the East is inconsistent as hell. But the last thing he wants is to be the #4 or #5 seed, with Cleveland staring you in the face again in Round 2. Bud needs to send a message and flat out bench Korver and Baze. See if they play better with the 2nd unit, while possibly bringing more stability to the starting 5 with different wings. I guess Howard has to play like Shaq now, when people didn't even expect him to play like Roy Hibbert.

In tonight's game: ( Golden St ) Baze and Korver 5 - 21 FG 1 - 10 3FG 11 pts 9 rebs 4 asst 3 stls 5 turnovers At some point, Bud is going to have to give up on this. Either bench Korver, or bench Baze . . or bench both of them. Their horrid play is killing this team.

"I'm supposed to be the franchise player, and we in here talkin' about SCREENS. I mean, listen, we're talking about screens. Not the rebounds, not the rebounds, not the rebounds. We're talkin' about screens. Not the rebounds, not a, not the rebounds that I go out there and DIE FOR. And play every game like it's my last. Not the rebounds. We're talkin' about SCREENS man. I mean how silly is that? We're talkin' about SCREENS. I know I supposed to set screens. I supposed to screen by example. I know that. And I'm not, I'm not shoving it aside, you know, like it don't mean anything. I know it's important. I do. I honestly do. But we talkin' about SCREENS man. What are we talkin' bout? SCREENS? We talkin' about SCREENS man. ( laugh ) We talkin' about SCREENS. We talkin' about SCREENS. We ain't talkin' about the rebounds. We talkin' about SCREENS man. When you come in the arena . . and you see me play . . . you see me play don't cha? You see me give everything I got right? But we talkin' about SCREENS right now. We talkin' about SC--- ( pause ) Man look, I hear ya. It's funny to me too. It's, it's strange to me too. But we're talking about SCREENS man. We're not even talking about the rebounds, the actual rebounds, when it matters. We're talkin' about SCREENS. ( listening to female reporter's question ) "How the hell can I make my teammates better by setting SCREENS?"

Even with Baze, he's only really playing well alongside Sefolosha. NOTE: When the Hawks ripped off all of those wins in the 2014 - 15 season, this was the trend then also. It was Sefolosha who was the main cog in the defense playing at a top 3 level, while the offense also played better with him on the floor ( mainly because they were getting stops and fastbreak points ). And as soon as he got hurt, we started losing and becoming a mediocre team. So strictly from a numbers standpoint, it may be time to insert Thabo into this starting lineup on a permanent basis. Both Korver and Baze play better alongside Thabo. But Bud plays either Baze or Korver at SF, to create minutes for a guy like THJ . . who also plays better alongside Thabo, than he does alongside Baze and Korver. So if Baze and Korver can't effectively play SF and be a positive for the team, what then? Baze's contract makes him almost "unbenchable". Korver is the best 3 point shooter, even though he doesn't get up many attempts, and THJ is the most consistent and versatile scorer. Minutes breakdown? SG - Baze ( 14 ) - Korver ( 14 ) - THJ ( 20 ) SF - Thabo ( 26 ) - Baze ( 8 ) - Prince ( 14 ) Korver at 14 minutes? No way. We can't do that, can we? SG - Baze ( 28 ) - THJ ( 20 ) SF - Thabo ( 26 ) - Korver ( 22 ) This is a more realistic possibility, but it essentially kills Prince's PT, despite him doing nothing to warrant this. He's arguably playing better than both Baze and Korver. SG - Baze ( 20 ) - THJ ( 20 ) - Korver ( 8 ) SF - Thabo ( 24 ) - Prince ( 12 ) - Korver ( 12 ) Maybe? But how would that sit with Baze? And the deal he got would look horrible, if he's only playing 20 min/game. The only other alternative would be to play THJ some minutes at PG PG - Dennis ( 28 ) - Delaney ( 15 ) - THJ ( 5 ) SG - Baze ( 24 ) - THJ ( 16 ) - Korver ( 8 ) SF - Thabo ( 24 ) - Prince ( 12 ) - Korver ( 12 ) Here's a thought. If the Hawks continue to lose or play mediocre ball, would they possibly entertain the idea of trading Korver? He could easily fetch a 2nd round pick, or even a low or future 1st round pick, for a team desperate for a shooter. Or he could fetch us another big body.

Interesting when you look at the lineups, and who people play the best with, almost everyone on the team sees their numbers jump when Thabo is playing with them. And I mean significantly jump. When you look at Dwight's lineup numbers, especially when you sort them by minutes played, almost all of his lineup numbers are negative. And they have two or three players involved in all of them ( Dennis - Baze - or Korver, whom he has the worst 2-man lineup number with out of the main rotation players. )

Crossroads game for the Hawks tonight. Win, and you stop some of the bleeding. Lose, and the road trip could end up to be a disaster, with Golden State in the shadows on Tuesday night, and a trip to Toronto on Saturday. Games @Phoenix and vs Detroit aren't gimme's either. Dennis needs to get people involved early and often, and not look for his own offense on every other possession. The points will come for Dennis. He simply needs to pick and choose his spots to. Bazemore lineup analysis: Best 5-man: Dennis - THJ - Baze - Moose - Howard . . ( 15 min, +28 pts ) . . . Small ball lineup, with Howard in the middle. Best 4-man: Dennis - Korver - Baze - Millsap . . ( 45 min, +22 pts ) . . . Would be interesting to see what game this lineup played the most in. Best 3-man: Baze - Moose - Millsap . . ( 64 min, +7.5 pts ) . . . Obviously this had to be over a big 1 or 2 game stretch. Probably a game in which Moose balled in Best 2-man: Baze - Thabo . . ( 75 min, +10 pts ) . . . Definitely needs to play more with Thabo. For comparison, the Baze - Korver 2 man lineup has played 271 min, at -7.8 pts. Neither Baze or Thabo are shooting well from 3, especially recently, which is why Bud probably keeps Baze on the floor with Korver. It's just that the Baze - Thabo duo is miles and away better defensively.

Dang. With the new news on Splitter, there's no way he gets to 600 minutes. Lethalweapon may be right with his prediction of 3 minutes.

It's coming, don't worry. Or Prince at least will be starting. I still say that Bud needs to find Bembry some minutes in this rotation. The starting wings aren't playing with any consistency, so this may have to be a situation in which you "ride the hot hand". Also, Dennis needs to start trying to get others involved first, before looking for his own shot. He's playing PG like he's Allen Iverson.

LOL hawkman. That's a good damn question.

LOL . . I'll take that award. Millsap is dead asleep out there. Hopefully they'll come out like the arena is burning down in the 2nd half.

Millsap rubbing his hands together like Birdman, with the news that he's facing Diaw, and no Favors.

The issue with this, is that "Kial" has to get up shots, in order to have an impact on the game. We need him, on more nights than not, either coming close to, or matching the production of his counterpart on the other team. If he's not ( and if Baze is struggling ), we need Hardaway Jr to play hero ball of the bench.

Key word is minimum. So he's gone until at least January 2017, if not longer, because it may take him a while to get back into basketball playing shape. May as well bring back Edy and try to cut our losses with Splitter.

I like Aldridge as an offensive player. He's straight up lethal at times. But he's not rugged enough to play any type of style. The Spurs aren't a top 10 defensive team anymore, and rely on offense to win games. That will prevent them from getting deep in the playoffs, even if they continue to win 50+ games. The Millsap - Howard frontline, on the other hand, gives us the best defensive frontline in the game. They're #1 and #6 in Defensive rating in the league, according to basketball-reference.com. And Thabo is #4 in Defensive rating. When talking about battling a team with Lebron James and Kevin Love on the frontline, I'd much rather have the guys on the team now, than trying to upgrade the offense with LA. The Golden State game is going to be a good barometer to see if we can play any style of basketball. If we can't slow down Golden State, can we keep pace with them offensively? I think we can slow them down though. Zaza will be up to the challenge to try to slow down Howard, and may even get a few flops in to draw fouls. If the starters can keep the game close, our bench may be the difference in the Golden State game. If Baze and Dennis can start playing consistent basketball, this team may reel off a bunch of wins in a row. They don't even have to be great, just don't suck. LA would be GREAT along a Hassan Whiteside.

Too Easy And check out the Millsap to Howard lob. Shades of Josh Smith to Horford. With Dennis struggling as a playmaker at times, Millsap is showing that he can be that guy at times. His 3.8 assists are 2nd on the team, and the highest level of his career.

I agree . . . somewhat. The most encouraging sign about the Hawks, despite the weak schedule, is that they've already beaten 3 of the top 10 teams in the league ( Cleveland, Chicago, and Houston ), and have a +5.7 point differential ( 4th in the league ). Outside of the LA Lakers and New Orleans debacles, they've been playing like a top 5 defense, while just providing enough offense to win games comfortably going down the stretch. My thing is that even with the schedule, very few of you ever dreamed that the Hawks would be 10 - 5 at this point. I thought it was definitely possible, with me predicting that they'd win 57 games this season. This road trip will go a long way in determining if a 55+ win season is possible. I'm looking for them to go 4 - 1 on this trip, despite the struggles of Baze and Dennis. I really like what this team is doing on defense, and how the bench has really stepped up their level of play. Dwight got an EASY 23 and 20 last night, despite Korver being out and Dennis and Baze playing like garbage. That's scary for the rest of the league.

To validate your point, the Hawks are 29th in Strength of Schedule at this point in the season. Whose last? These guys

The other thing most of you aren't taking into account about Schröder, is that maybe, just maybe . . other NBA teams are game planning to slow down or stop Dennis a lot more. That will make life a little more harder for him. He'll come around and be more efficient as the season wears on. And if he doesn't, Bud won't play him heavy minutes, and risk losing games. He didn't do it when Teague played sub par basketball, and he won't do it with Dennis. Dennis will be OK.

LOL @ AgendaSquawk . . . I like it. My agenda is to see Prince and Bembry play more. Prince is slowly proving his worth, while Bembry can't crack the rotation yet. I don't "hate" any player on the team currently, although I'm not a believer in the value of Korver on the floor, even when he's not producing points. Last night was a good example of that.

10 - 5 record. .667 winning percentage. Projected record at this pace . . . 53 - 29 Just so you guys know.