thecampster

I do not have any info on that.

There is one other major distinction to make between Kevin and Bogi. Kevin is available. Stupid I know but its really important. Over the last 2 years, Bogi has missed 36 more games than Huerter. This season, statistically, Kevin has a minor edge in efficiency despite the ole eyeball test. There 36 more games and mildly more efficient for less money. That's my problem with Bogi over Kevin. We can have a Kevin discussion if you want, but I'd like to have the Bogi discussion first.

Do not tell her I told you this, but I take her shopping for girl stuff and support her pink hair for this very reason. Buy your girl perfume you like is a lesson an uncle taught me and it has served me well.

I think that's really common in any disagreement. People say lots of really important things but people focus on the nuance. Think husband and wife discussing money and husband is going through the checkbook. While itemizing, he points out the money spent on makeup and asks if we really need all that. Wife takes that to mean he's not attracted to her any more. Yes, that's a point of discussion, but the main thing is we're about to lose the mortgage. Stay on point.

But are you the hero we deserve????

They're both flawed if we're being honest but our biggest team flaw last year was a lack of size on the front line. He fixes that problem. He'd force more pullups in the lane, less easy lay ups. Length has that effect.

See the 36 second through 41 second mark

So my preference with Ayton is how easy he makes boxing out look. He'll give up an easy drive or two because he's committed to staying with his man. He'll give up the occasional drive but prevent the highlight plays. Because he's committed to his primary defensive target, it makes putting his body on him much easier after the shot goes up. Again, positional defense. It isn't just his defensive rebounds, but the number of offensive rebounds he prevents, lob dunks, cuts he prevents.

I think its fair to say Sothron (then me) are discussing the perception and not necessarily our personal feelings on the subject (just to be clear).

Hey @Gray Mule, Let me clarify this and its a potential landmine to discuss so I'll tread lightly. The main criticism here isn't that the organization or fanbase is giving certain players a pass, but the media. That there is some sort of reporting bias going on and players feel slighted. How true or untrue that is isn't going to be decided in this forum but its been felt and probably is worth noting when you see what percentage of the rotational players in Atlanta fit that demographic makeup as opposed to other cities. Its coincidence (IMHO) but it hasn't gone unnoticed. There has been an issue in Atlanta for a long time in bringing suburban fans in (I remember days when the radio signal barely escaped the perimeter and I'd be in and out of signal at night delivering pizzas). History is not lost internally and team level politics plays a part. Whether this is real or not is not really the issue. That its been discussed at a player level is the story. Again, clarity is that there is a perceived media bias toward our white players and giving them a pass. Measuring, deciding how to present this. Consider Bogi. He's played in 83 regular season games since getting here, missing 46 games. He's missed 1/3 of the games he's played and was downright bad in 20 he played in. Bogi's been good (offensively) in about 1/2 of the games we've played since he's been here. Due to Covid, he had a horrendous start to his Atlanta career. But this season, he had a similar very slow start. This season, he's scoring 13 ppg on 42.5% shooting, 36.8% from 3. Now, he's not a rookie or even on a rookie contract. He's making 18 million a year and was gifted a starting spot coming in that Cam thought was for he and Huerter to fight for. Bogi/Huerter getting the 2 guard start can easily be seen by the players as a political ploy playing to the suburbs. So when Bogi plays bad for a series of games in a row (season starts) or plays terrible positional defense (that joker just can't move his feet to get in front of his man and cut off the lane and always gets crossed over to the strong hand), it devalues any message the coaching staff projects. Let me address this Capela thing. Capela is not a good positional defender. He's a blocks threat but he is not a good positional big. He is late to give help regularly and leaves his man way too often not trusting his guards and wings. He floats out to the 3 point line occasionally leaving our undersized guards in big switches and his main saving grace is he and John have a good defense by teamwork vibe going. Capela does certain things well but defense starts with positioning and bodying up your man and Clint is not good at either. I haven't decided if Clint's failings are a symptom of our poor wing footwork or just him being undersized. So I'm not sold on Clint said it so it must be true. Every member of this team (save maybe Wright/Hunter) needs to look in the mirror and go back to school in the summer working exclusively on positional defense, footwork, staying in front of your man.

The defense conversation all begins with where you body someone up, the seal, establishing the area you're planning to defend. You're defending the floor space, not the basket. If you give up the floor space, its significantly harder to defend the basket. When you hear me saying "move your feet", this is what I'm talking about. Getting your feet to the spot regardless of your lean.

Adam Silver has finally weighed in on the stuff we talked about 10 days ago, doing a lot of damage control. https://www.yahoo.com/sports/adam-silver-says-he-wishes-james-harden-ben-simmons-trade-was-handled-differently-232456293.html “I accept that there will always be conversations behind closed doors, when teams are unhappy, or players are unhappy, [but] the last thing you want to see is for these issues to play out publicly,” Silver said. “One of the things that I continue to do in my role is to think about ways we can improve the system.” “Players forcing their way out of situations is not new in this league. It’s important to have that context,” Silver told Yahoo Sports. “I’d love to find a way where to the extent there’s player movement, it didn’t happen in that fashion.” “I did watch a little bit of James and Ben’s press conferences earlier today,” Silver told Yahoo Sports. “And you’re reminded that when you see them sitting up there, on those podiums doing these interviews, these are human beings, who, in both cases, have gone through very stressful situations. “You want people to feel, at the end of the day, they have outlets for their stress, that they can be productive within their work setting. But I’m not surprised that we’ve seen some heightened flare up of some issues, you know, that might have otherwise been handled behind closed doors. “But this is not the way I would have liked to see it happen.”

Anyone else catch yourself yelling "move your feet!" At the tv?

In our private conversations, I said I won't speak on the above but I will talk on another aspect. Players talk to each other and the Hawks locker room issues reached other teams and management expressed frustration this crippled them in off-season trade talks. They were very upset it hurt their negotiation position with Bogi, Gallo, Collins, potential deals. The original deal to move Cam to Cleveland was pulled after Cleveland got wind of the locker room issues. Similar hesitancy from Minny, Portland dealing with others. I wouldn't call it a mess, but a few more losses it will be.

I really don't see a problem on offense, that better defense won't fix. See below. The difference between the Hawks and Hornets right now is 8 ppg (in transition).

Check this video and watch every pass in this drills video. Every pass is being forced from inside the stripes. This is purposeful and this is what we need to deny. You deny this, you win basketball games. You execute this, you win basketball games. The game isn't just who can dunk, who can shoot. Its about executing all the stuff before that happens. Watch where every pass comes from in these drills. Count the number of passes that happen in the lane, the number that happen when the player doesn't reach the lane and see the difference on the angle, time it takes for the pass to come, the smoothness of the drill. Its a timing game. Its all about shortening the length of a pass for success or on defense, making them pass outside the lane to create turnovers.

The Hawks are 2nd in the league in committed turnovers at 12.6.....the problem, we are 3rd from the bottom in forcing turnovers at 12.3. Far too many possessions where we are having to generate offense. You asked what does Ayton give us that Clint doesn't in another thread. People keep talking about who shoots better between Bogi and Huerter or who has better handles. Players like Ayton, Simmons defend space. Basketball isn't a game of 1v1, its a game of space. 4 more forced turnovers per game would lead to our opponents scoring 4 or more less points and us scoring 4 or more points. We are not athletic enough on the defensive end to create easy buckets in transition. Its really that simple. Every trade idea I've posed. Every change I think we've needed is to get better at denying the dribble drive and interrupting passing lanes. Fix that, you fix these Hawks. Offense is not our problem. We are scoring plenty. We are 3rd in the league in offensive rating. 8th in EFG. 9th in pts scored. The problem ain't offense, its defense. Specifically, denying dribble penetration which is collapsing our defense and opening up wide open 3's. Every game it feels like teams set records on us from 3. 1 player on the other team goes 5 for 5 for a quarter and our announcers keep talking how unreal it is. Its not unreal. You're an NBA sniper and you get a chance to set your feet, receive a pass above the waist, you are going to knock down the 3. You are an NBA team, make the pass harder to make. Make it skip to the corner. Make the shooter bend down to get it and have to shuffle his feet, rush the shot and you'll disrupt more than you allow. It all starts with denying dribble penetration at the top of the key. Force your man to the corners. Don't let him get middle. It was true 30 years ago. It's true now. It's pretty simple science. The shortest passes all begin at the free throw line. From the free throw line you have the shortest aggregate distance to all spots on the court. The passes take the least time to get to their man and thereby give the shooter the most time to approach his shot. All of the angles are best when the pass is received from the free throw line because the person receiving the pass is already in position to shoot. Game after game, I see Bogi get crossed over and his man goes middle on him while Bogi Ole's. I see Clint and John take the bait and follow a big who can't shoot outside the paint left or right. I see our guys body people up well but someone comes to help vacating the middle, leaving a cutter who makes John or Clint leave their big. Over and over, bad choices all centered on leaving the lane open. Its really simple spacing based science. A pass from outside the lane is much more likely to be deflected than a pass from inside the lane because of the distance the ball must travel. Stop giving up the lane.

There was conversation after the Cam trade about how the Hawks had kept quiet any locker room discontent. So much so, people on this site didn't want to believe it even though the media talked about how their was locker room discontent or the team improved post trade. See this story about the Nets locker room pre trade of Harden. Very little of this leaked to the media, but Harden/Durant weren't even on speaking terms. https://www.yahoo.com/sports/sixers-nets-trade-aftermath-kevin-173707950.html Teams do a really good job of keeping this stuff in house. If the players don't talk about it, the agents don't leak it, it doesn't get out. The team reporters toe the line.

I can't take credit for this. It's all them.

Its not the hill I want to die on but it is a matter worth lamenting.

Making a mental note to revisit this thread a year from now when JJ is putting up meaningful minutes and contributing substantially to a winning culture/team.

Again.....AHEM!!! I play great team basketball, but you don't want me suiting up for the minutes Solo got. The guy just has a quiet 17/10 nightly. Makes good passes and freaking cuts to the basket and oh yah, gets the rebounds you are supposed to get. If he blows a defensive assignment because he's new, I can live with that. What I can't live with is giving up a parade offensive rebound put backs every night because everyone on the floor is flatfooted when a shot goes up.