thecampster

Anyone else see Trae come over to Prunty after the first foul, put his arm around Prunty and have a laugh together? That should tell you bunches.

Thoughts 1) so much movement. 2) so much rebound and push it up the floor. 3) End of 1st, beginning of second, endless off ball curl screens leading to 6 straight baskets, lots of touches by Bogi going toward the basket. 4) JJs boxing out. Watch him second half, how many rebounds he creates for others. He rode Allen off the basket on 3 consecutive possessions. Old school rebounding.

Do not be surprised if you see curl screens off ball at the top tonight!!! And don't be surprised if you see dump in, kick outs a few times too to JC/JJ.

The enemy of honesty is agenda.

Wondering if our new coach will let the refs molest Trae.

AJ's deal has been his legs. This is the first time he's played more than 25 games in a year (think on that). The pro game is much harder on your legs with little to no zone defense. Lots of chasing, fighting through screens. I made the comment a week ago I was glad no one was in the allstar game, they needed the rest, then remember AJ was in the rising stars game.

Take this with a grain of salt. Earlier in the year I mentioned open conflict within the coaching staff as it pertained to young players, especially Jalen Johnson. After his very stat heavy year at College Park, the assistant coaches, other players expected heavy minutes from Jalen. Nate's reliance on smaller lineups and not giving Jalen Gallo type minutes irked some, especially those who worked most closely with JJ. You can hear in the pressers how they are repeating "someone who connects with the players" (John, Trae, Jalen, etc) and "someone good at developing talent". One of things not yet said is a jealousy the team feels over other orgs developing young players while we play old school and let them rot on the bench. This is one of the things Ressler openly questioned (why don't our young guys play like X,Y,Z). What I'm hearing is that this has been simmering privately for 3 weeks+ and the coaches were basically in pro-Nate vs pro-young guns camp and that the decision to start Saddiq Bey was effectively a big "FU" to the assistants propping up JJ. So too was the near DNP for JJ in his last game. There was some serious discontent in the Hawks locker room and it wasn't between Trae and Nate, but between Nate and 3 members of his staff. A second point of contention was ball distribution and untimely substitution (something many members of this board have noticed). Nate's over-reliance on iso sets created two problems 1) DJ is not as good as Trae in the PnR game and is more of a chaos movement player. 2) Other teams learned from the Heat in last year's playoffs and were determined to trap Trae and get the ball out of his hands. On good authority, one of the more experienced coaches suggested off ball curl screens (opposing top of the key from the ball handler) and switch pin downs as ways to loosen up defenses and Nate insisted their guys "figure out how to beat this coverage and not to rely on gimmicks". As the season progressed, DJ's turnovers increased as he was forced to run sets that are not in his normal bag. Without clear outs or off ball motion, DJ was attacked very similarly to Trae. The rumored Trae argued with Nate at practice that seemed to get covered up was actually Trae making the mistake of agreeing with a coach who openly disagreed with Nate. The critique of Nate from the x's and o's coaches was his over reliance on 1v1 matchups on both offense and defense and insistence on players scrambling off blown coverages. Additionally, Nate's historical tendency and reputation as a hot head led to not only him not engaging officials and fighting openly for his players but limiting his assistants from barking at the refs as well. The players felt often as if they were playing against the refs which showed in their on court whining. Nate tried to limit this as well, limit trash talking. It was summed up to me as "he was taking the emotion out of basketball". The delay in firing Nate was due to the team having a cooling off period and to evaluate their options. When after a few days they saw no way forward, the decision was made to let Nate go now.

Not including the new Hawks....some stat looks. All stats are PER36. Games played shown for context. PER36 +/- PLAYERS GP +/- Tyrese Martin 13 3.2 Trae Young 52 1.8 De'Andre Hunter 49 1.1 John Collins 50 1 Clint Capela 43 0.7 Vit Krejci 21 0.3 Frank Kaminsky 26 0.2 Aaron Holiday 50 -0.2 Dejounte Murray 54 -0.3 AJ Griffin 55 -0.4 Onyeka Okongwu 57 -1.3 Bogdan Bogdanovic 34 -1.4 Jalen Johnson 55 -2.6 Jarrett Culver 10 -5 Justin Holiday 28 -5.8 Trent Forrest 18 -8 Same stat last 15 games. PLAYERS GP +/- Tyrese Martin 2 23.7 Jalen Johnson 14 5.4 Trae Young 13 4.1 AJ Griffin 15 3.3 Clint Capela 15 1.1 De'Andre Hunter 13 1 John Collins 14 0.6 Onyeka Okongwu 14 -0.2 Bogdan Bogdanovic 14 -0.6 Aaron Holiday 10 -1.2 Dejounte Murray 15 -1.2 Vit Krejci 4 -18.9 Trent Forrest 3 -21.3 Frank Kaminsky 4 -25.5 Justin Holiday 1 -57 Someone...anyone...please explain to me why Jalen Johnson was set to get a DNP last night until the last 3 minutes!!! He has the highest +/- of any Hawk the last 15 games who has played regularly. His contributions won't always show in the box score but he's played inspired defense, forced movement, passed well and inspired a few wins. WTH Nate!!! Something is not right with Dejounte...is he hurt? Trae has been significantly better the last 15 games than the first 30....why are we still a .500 club? I am tired of the sunshine being cast on Bogie. I miss Huerter....but we all know that. Now Rebounds...again, per36 last 15 games. PLAYERS GP MIN REB Clint Capela 15 393 14.7 Jalen Johnson 14 168 13.9 Onyeka Okongwu 14 296 11.1 Vit Krejci 4 13 8.1 John Collins 14 437 5.9 Dejounte Murray 15 549 5.5 De'Andre Hunter 13 420 4.8 Trent Forrest 3 29 3.8 Aaron Holiday 10 91 3.6 Bogdan Bogdanovic 14 395 3.6 Trae Young 13 447 3.5 AJ Griffin 15 292 3.2 Frank Kaminsky 4 14 2.6 Justin Holiday 1 6 0 Tyrese Martin 2 3 0 WTF JC...WTF DH...WTF Nate. Your biggest issue right now is defensive rebounding and your second highest rebounding rate player was earning a DNP last night while it took a concussion to get your 25 million/yr 5.9 rebound/36 minutes PF out of the game. WTF. Defensive Rebounding again... last 15 games PLAYERS GP MIN DREB Jalen Johnson 14 168 10.9 Clint Capela 15 393 8.6 Vit Krejci 4 13 8.1 Onyeka Okongwu 14 296 6.9 Dejounte Murray 15 549 4.8 John Collins 14 437 4.8 De'Andre Hunter 13 420 4.2 Trent Forrest 3 29 3.8 AJ Griffin 15 292 2.8 Bogdan Bogdanovic 14 395 2.8 Frank Kaminsky 4 14 2.6 Trae Young 13 447 2.5 Aaron Holiday 10 91 2.4 Justin Holiday 1 6 0 Tyrese Martin 2 3 0 I may start drinking. That man didn't get in till 3 minutes to go in the game....Screw you Nate. Screw you! Yah...I'm that mad.

After the back to back steals in the first half by Trae, I really thought we were going to see the comeback. But the lack of movement on offense and lack of effort at the perimeter quickly told me that 3/4ths of the players quit. When Trae Young is giving the best defensive effort on the floor, there is a real problem. I was fuming last night, today its no better.

2 Hawks with Techs now....none for the coach...that's a cardinal sin.

I think Nate is gone over the Allstar break. Dont be surprised if someone else has the clipboard nest week.

And since I started driving at 18, I've only run over 3 or 4 orange cones a year...therefore proving I'm an excellent driver and all criticism is suspect.

I think we're going to finish 5th in the East and face Philly in the 1st round. We should finish at 45-47 wins.

Awwww, I was gonna post it. Bruno looked happy to be back. Clint looked happy to see him.

Poor Kevin getting passed around like old socks.

These deals can/are announced up to a few hours after the deadline. But yes, we should know something in the next 30 minutes.

Privately pondering if Bruno back = OO more time at the 4???

yup...that was the "they F'd us" line. Said JC was consulted and told, we're really close on this, we didn't want you to hear it on social media....and then they flipped.

wrapping my head around this. Out Frank Kaminsky, Justin Holiday, 5 second round picks (eek) In Bruno Fernando, Saddiq Bey, Garrison Matthews cap savings about $500,000. Matthews can shoot the 3, not familiar with his game beyond that. Bruno is a good player to bring back as he's obviously improved and Bey is a wing we needed. We weren't using kaminsky so this is a good set of trades. We had a bunch of extra 2nd rounders so yes except we had the capital to burn.

So there are good and bad things with this. send out 4 players for two with only a 136k cap savings. You'll have to bring back 2 min deals (buyouts) to replace the bench players so this is a cap negative deal that would push us into the luxury tax. The bad. The 3 players we send out who get good minutes would provide about 25 more minutes a game for AJ, JJ, Kaminsky. I see this as a positive. That Frank has been underutilized this year, when he is long and can shoot the 3 (both things we desperately need) and that JJ's had a governor put on his throttle all year is a travesty. He's played very well the last 10 games or so he's been allowed to play. JJ is +50 in his last 10 games (about 115 minutes). John Collins is -9 over that same stretch (about 318 minutes). Kaminsky is +7 in the last 10 he was allowed to play (about 49 minutes). I'm not saying the above plays out if all are given 1000 minutes but the numbers are telling. Collins has been a net negative player lately. Bogi hasn't been worth his 18 million this year or even close. Clint is Clint, a good player with some big restrictions. If we assume all of Clint's minutes go to Ayton and that Simmons takes 30 minutes of what's left of the other 3, that leaves another 25 minutes to distribute....I'd rather see it go to players making a positive impact at both ends.

yup, best not to get behind anything so you can't have it held over your head.

Tobias Harris' name floating around out there and then I find this.

I simultaneously love and hate that.