thecampster

I for one miss Diesel being this active.

So good news, the league is on notice with it and they can't afford "an incident". If there is any unnecessarily rough play, I'm thinking the whistles and possibly ejections will come out early. Problem is Randle had 2 questionable plays that game and the league noticed. The league reviews film from playoff games and advises the referees when situations are getting out of hand. What I'm more interested in is the situation with Rose. Rose was hobbled at the end of that game, limping. There hasn't been any news about an injury or his status. Sounds like the Knicks are hiding his injury/status so the Hawks can't prepare. If Rose can't go, the Knicks are done.

I've said this before. Members of this board are light years ahead of the typical fan when it comes to understanding the nuances of the game and the game behind the game.

I'll play this round. Guards - Trae/Bogi vs Curry/Simmons - I see this as a push and will change game to game. Simmons from a defensive perspective will give us problems. His ability to pass over the defender isn't helped by Trae being 6'1. But these 2 will have their hands full chasing the Hawks guards behind screens all day. SF - Hunter/Collins vs Harris/Green - I see this is a slight edge for the Hawks. We have a definite athletic advantage here with Philly's forwards getting a professionalism/experience boost. C - Capela vs Embiid. - Obvious Embiid advantage here, but Capela is a good matchup to Embiid. You can't stop Embiid but you can slow him. Capela does a good job of negating Embiid getting to his spots and acting as a facilitator but Embiid is Embiid. You won't stop him completely. Hawks bench vs Philly - Say what you want about Howard but off the bench and paired with Thybulle he is scary good. Those 2 are a very good off the bench duo and really strengthens their bench defense. Gallo, Kevin, LouWill is a great trio off the bench but the series may hinge on how OO plays against Howard. I'm not sure how he competes. I can't believe I'm saying this but I think Bruno gets some run this series. He does much better against slower, bruising center types. He might be a better matchup vs Howard. Hawks are better offensively off the bench but the 76er's are better defensively and that could cause us problems. Coaching - McMillen vs Rivers. So there are a few things from Nate I'd like to see better but he is a master motivator and believes in his players. McMillen elevates his players. Rivers is not the greatest at making adjustments, but is great at working the refs, working timeouts. His greatest strengths come from the respect he garners from players, officials and the league. I believe McMillen is the better coach and better at X's, O's adjustments but Rivers pulls the respect factor and that's bigger than most fans realize. I give the edge to McMillen here but only slightly. Rest - The Hawks really need to win game 5 to get some rest. The 76ers should close things out today and they'll get 3 rest days the Hawks won't get. We'll need to be 100% going into that series. I'd call the series a push with a slight edge to Philly but not a foregone conclusion. It is winnable. We have better shooting and younger legs. The question is going to be one of health and resiliency. I do see the series going 7. One last thought. If I'm McMillen, I'm planting the seed (even at a cost of $25k more) that Philly packs the lane. Both Embiid and Howard could be called for a 3 second call every other trip up the floor. This is one of the reason's their defense is so good against penetration. Nate needs to whisper this a few times in the press conference to try and get some national play. Biggest thing he could do to help his team.

That is changing with this series. I have friends up north saying things like "did Trae improve this year" or "I didn't know ya'll were like this" (translated from Yanked so you all would understand). All of them saying, "Damn I wish that guy was running our team."

Alright, stealing this

this is a great place to look at star power. It's been 10 hours since Trae posted this. 10,000 likes, 813 retweets. His numbers have bounced just from this series.

Well you know I was the biggest Josh fan there was....but Josh wasn't able to capitalize on the marketing push the Hawks put behind him. He worked on his body and it worked against him. He got too stiff which hurt his shot and on the blocks. Eventually killed his knees. Being a star requires that you show out for your team. Josh was great but put up stats a smidge below JC. That's not going to get it done on the national level.

Exactly what I was going to say. Equal to Nique. We get to the conference finals, Trae (and any player that shows out), will get massive marketing opportunities.

Just in case there was any question of was it premeditated.

I'm just reading through the game thread now. This was epic.

That team would look 100 times better with Lonzo at the point.

FYI, time for some Kevin Huerter love. Kevin made a huge difference in this game. Played solid D, a few poke aways, etc. But that flagrant foul set the tone the rest of the night. There was a message in that. I posted weeks ago that Kevin was seen by his team as the ultimate team guy. This was it in a nutshell. He watch Trae get tripped, Deandre shoved to the floor, John tackled, Bogie elbowed. Kevin pounced with the super hard payback foul and didn't even jaw, went straight back to the bench. He was on a mission, knew what he was going to do and the second he did it, walked away proud. IMHO, it was the play of the night, the ultimate team play from the nicest guy on the team. Here's to hoping Kevin is a Hawk for life. It was a "we aren't taking your BS play, you're in our house now". Raise a glass for Kevin.

How about "Dont' spit"!

So F'ing stupid. Real analysis. Trae is a pick n' roll maestro. You could try stopping Trae by denying the pick. Once the pick is in play, the only way to stop the pick n roll is to throw a 3rd body at it...3 vs 2 basketball. Works great unless the playmaker is an above average passer. Throw a 3rd defender in the mix to trap the playmaker works great on a head down score first point guard like Dennis Schröder. Its meat for Trae. The way to beat Trae Young is to make him play defense. You take his legs out. Wear him out on the defensive end so he has to take plays off. How do you do that? You start D.Rose. You tell D.Rose to go at Trae every offensive possession and don't settle for switches. Whoever Trae switches to, you pass the ball that way. I'd be running Rose in the starting lineup and using Barrett to free him up so Trae has to switch onto Barrett. You make Trae work on defense. Problem is, Tibbs isn't an offensive coach and NY doesn't have the jump shooters / ball handlers to make that strategy work. If Brooklyn wasn't iso ball U, they could do it easily.

Trae is living rent free on a multi year lease in the collective heads of New Yorkers right now. Mayor Bill de Blasio took time out of a speech today to complain about Trae foul hunting. The article even mentioned the Barrett foul late in the 4th. https://nypost.com/2021/05/25/bill-de-blasio-tries-psyching-out-trae-young-to-help-knicks/ 2 things. 1) The foul wasn't on the body contact, it was on the inadvertent slap to the head right before it. Its why Trae knew he was too close. 2) On the last play, Collins got pinned to the ground by Taj Gibson before the ball was inbounded. It should have been 2 shots and the ball, game over. If anything, the Hawks got screwed on that call and bailed out by the good Trae floater. See here 4-6 second mark.

I'm copyrighting that before any of you get any ideas.....Traevid vs the Goliaths.

Interesting read. I'm not sure how much the writer understands that 1/2 of NBA fans watch Trae play and whisper quietly "Dang I wish he was on our squad!" . But a good read, enjoy. https://www.yahoo.com/sports/trae-young-could-be-a-knicks-killer-and-the-villain-the-nba-needs-041650044.html Nothing like national exposure for the squad. Double post...delete please

Better late than never. There's room on the train, I'll scoot over. I saved you a seat.

Wow, no need to troll. They are straight eating their own over there.

Off to troll the Knicks on RealGM

Gallo breaks out the WarHawk https://twitter.com/gallinari8888/status/1396481562410106886/photo/1

Supes you might wanna check this out. A girl I knew did an oral report on this topic in high school. It always stuck with me. Link to a doc about it. http://newsreel.org/guides/struggles.htm. People always question the things I say about the north south thing but its things like this that have always influenced my opinions.

I can't like this enough. I 100% stand behind a restaurants free market ability to establish a dress code. and I 1000% agree a citizen's right to denigrate that decision. The best answer, open a competing restaurant across the street with an outdoor patio and street dancing competitions. You'll make more money and run them out of business.