Official Game Preview: Magic vs. Hawks (MLK Day! 5 PM Tip!)

[benhillboy]

Kyrie and Kevin are so easy to exploit on defense for GS and SA.  Then you go to Thompson and Dellavadova, scoring drought.  

[macdaddy]

I'm just seeing no reason at all that Hardaway isn't playing 20 minutes a game for us at the 2.     Is anyone else?   His D looks acceptable and he is obviously more offensively talented than our other options.     If we want him to be a factor come playoff time he needs to be getting minutes now and not just spot duty.    Barring a trade he's really out only hope for actual fire power off the bench other than Scott heating up from 3.  

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

I'm just seeing no reason at all that Hardaway isn't playing 20 minutes a game for us at the 2.     Is anyone else?   His D looks acceptable and he is obviously more offensively talented than our other options.     If we want him to be a factor come playoff time he needs to be getting minutes now and not just spot duty.    Barring a trade he's really out only hope for actual fire power off the bench other than Scott heating up from 3.  

I agree. I think he looks really solid out there on both ends of the floor. He D's up well and on offense he drives the ball really well and can shoot from outside. He even shares the ball with good passes and keeps it flowin. If he is lacking in any department then I'm missing it. He definitely needs to start playing a bit more to get locked into our 9 man playoff rotation with Dennis, Splitter and Scott.

[Guest]

Maybe THJr's still getting his 'wind'?  Hopefully he plays more.  There's no need to see Patterson or Holiday over him anymore.  Still not sure why they were there in the first place.

[Alex]

52 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

I'm just seeing no reason at all that Hardaway isn't playing 20 minutes a game for us at the 2.     Is anyone else?   His D looks acceptable and he is obviously more offensively talented than our other options.     If we want him to be a factor come playoff time he needs to be getting minutes now and not just spot duty.    Barring a trade he's really out only hope for actual fire power off the bench other than Scott heating up from 3.  

That's on the front office then for not building a bench that can have some sort of scoring ability.

[AHF]

THJr  is improving but don't get too excited. He has exactly 1 game this entire season where he has shot over 50% from the floor and during his recent "hot" streak of consistent minutes he is only shooting 42.8% from the floor and 35.7% from 3pt range.  It speaks volumes to our lack of offensive on the bench that this is considered attractive.  He has pushed his PER up to 8.9 on the season and his WS/48 to .054.  Sadly, these are both better than Patterson and Holiday.  The three of them rank 13, 14, and 15 on our roster in both stats (just behind Kyle Korver's dismal year).

[Guest]

53 minutes ago, AHF said:

THJr  is improving but don't get too excited. He has exactly 1 game this entire season where he has shot over 50% from the floor and during his recent "hot" streak of consistent minutes he is only shooting 42.8% from the floor and 35.7% from 3pt range.  It speaks volumes to our lack of offensive on the bench that this is considered attractive.  He has pushed his PER up to 8.9 on the season and his WS/48 to .054.  Sadly, these are both better than Patterson and Holiday.  The three of them rank 13, 14, and 15 on our roster in both stats (just behind Kyle Korver's dismal year).

Hey, if you give me water in the desert, I wouldn't turn it down. I didn't know his %'s were that low but just on the eye test alone, he seems to be doing well. I'd like to see Bud turn to him in more critical situation at the end of some games to see if he has the confidence to come through as well as possibly build up his confidence. Although judging by his body language, he doesn't seem to have an issue in that area.

[Guest]

The only thing I'm exciting about is that he's played in 7 consecutive games, his defense doesn't appear to be as bad as advertised and he's looking to pass the ball.

[High5]

THJ went from playing 0 minutes a game in 2015 (other than a few games) to 16.3 in January. Of course, we've had a lot of garbage time in January.  I like what I'm seeing, though. He's more athletic than I thought and he's a willing passer. 

[macdaddy]

1 hour ago, AHF said:

THJr  is improving but don't get too excited. He has exactly 1 game this entire season where he has shot over 50% from the floor and during his recent "hot" streak of consistent minutes he is only shooting 42.8% from the floor and 35.7% from 3pt range.  It speaks volumes to our lack of offensive on the bench that this is considered attractive.  He has pushed his PER up to 8.9 on the season and his WS/48 to .054.  Sadly, these are both better than Patterson and Holiday.  The three of them rank 13, 14, and 15 on our roster in both stats (just behind Kyle Korver's dismal year).

Still a really really small sample but are we sneezing at 36% from 3 for a guy barely getting minutes on a brand new team?   That's what JR Smith shoots.  

[Guest]

18 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

Still a really really small sample but are we sneezing at 36% from 3 for a guy barely getting minutes on a brand new team?   That's what JR Smith shoots.  

@macdaddy  Don't mind @AHF he's knit-picking again.    

Percentages also can get skewed taking only  3/4 shots a game.   1 of 3 gives you  33% hit one more you're at a cool 66%.  Same with 1 of 4 25% , hit another 50%.

I'll knit pick here in THJr's  favor (last 7 games) ....In games where he has taken at least 5 shots (3 games) he's shooting 56%.  In games with 4 shots or less (4 games) 20%.  Just saying and pointing out how easy it is to have skewed averages based on sample size.

[AUhawksfan]

11 hours ago, Spud2Nique said:

Ya I get scared sometimes about how accurate these video games are. When I was growing up, I played double dribble and they were basically stick figure, Bill Cartwright lookin dudes lol. Times have changed.

Bill Cartwright, lol.  His body type was the definitely the early video game mold.

On a side note, I never really watched the guy that much but man that free throw form....I don't know who was worse form wise - him or Anthony Mason.

[DS17Fanboy]

vor 5 Stunden, Alex sagte:

That's on the front office then for not building a bench that can have some sort of scoring ability.

I see the hawks bench outscore the opposing bench almost every game these days and it was a big reason for last years succes as well. Heck Dennis and Splitter are both +3.7, Scott +2.8, THJ +5.9 and Thabo +0.1. Scoring itself is an issue with any of the new SG/SF not panning out well, but at least between Dennis and Scott alone, they get you 17 points a game of the bench.  Hope THJ keeps it up. He has it all in him.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, AUhawksfan said:

Bill Cartwright, lol.  His body type was the definitely the early video game mold.

On a side note, I never really watched the guy that much but man that free throw form....I don't know who was worse form wise - him or Anthony Mason.

Haha ya they were both pretty hideous. Not sure if double dribble got copyrights from Cartwright to use him in the game lol. Come to think of it, Cartwright should have been paid by the Seinfeld show as well...."well did you say Costanza or ...."I yelled Cartwright.....Cartwright ....just like that...nobody answer, I hang up. "Lol

[AHF]

6 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

@macdaddy  Don't mind @AHF he's knit-picking again.    

Percentages also can get skewed taking only  3/4 shots a game.   1 of 3 gives you  33% hit one more you're at a cool 66%.  Same with 1 of 4 25% , hit another 50%.

I'll knit pick here in THJr's  favor (last 7 games) ....In games where he has taken at least 5 shots (3 games) he's shooting 56%.  In games with 4 shots or less (4 games) 20%.  Just saying and pointing out how easy it is to have skewed averages based on sample size.

Agreed it is a small sample size no matter how you slice it.  Just to keep up my nit-picking, on the season he has shot 5 or more times in 4 games and is shooting 47.6% in those games.  In games where he hasn't shot 5 or more times (7 games) he is shooting 25%.

For him, a single game can skew the numbers a lot.  

Take out his best game, and he is shooting 30.5% on the season.

Take out his worst game, and he is shooting 39.5% on the season.

For whatever it is worth, he shot 38.9% last season, 42.8% his rookie year and shot 41.3% in the D-League this year (he has shot more there than in his NBA games).

[AHF]

6 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

@macdaddy  Don't mind @AHF he's knit-picking again.    

Percentages also can get skewed taking only  3/4 shots a game.   1 of 3 gives you  33% hit one more you're at a cool 66%.  Same with 1 of 4 25% , hit another 50%.

I'll knit pick here in THJr's  favor (last 7 games) ....In games where he has taken at least 5 shots (3 games) he's shooting 56%.  In games with 4 shots or less (4 games) 20%.  Just saying and pointing out how easy it is to have skewed averages based on sample size.

Agreed it is a small sample size no matter how you slice it.  Just to keep up my nit-picking, on the season he has shot 5 or more times in 4 games and is shooting 47.6% in those games.  In games where he hasn't shot 5 or more times (7 games) he is shooting 25%.

For him, a single game can skew the numbers a lot.  

Take out his best game, and he is shooting 30.5% on the season.

Take out his worst game, and he is shooting 39.5% on the season.

For whatever it is worth, he shot 38.9% last season, 42.8% his rookie year and shot 41.3% in the D-League this year (he has shot more there than in his NBA games).

6 hours ago, macdaddy said:

Still a really really small sample but are we sneezing at 36% from 3 for a guy barely getting minutes on a brand new team?   That's what JR Smith shoots.  

Yeah - I am sneezing on what we have gotten from the 3rd year vet we gave up our #15 pick to get - especially when he is actually shooting 31.8% from 3pt range this year.

[Lurker]

3 hours ago, DS17Fanboy said:

I see the hawks bench outscore the opposing bench almost every game these days and it was a big reason for last years succes as well. Heck Dennis and Splitter are both +3.7, Scott +2.8, THJ +5.9 and Thabo +0.1. Scoring itself is an issue with any of the new SG/SF not panning out well, but at least between Dennis and Scott alone, they get you 17 points a game of the bench.  Hope THJ keeps it up. He has it all in him.

It's pretty much revisionist history to say that the bench wasn't the main reason for the Hawks success last season and this season when they've played well. Problem is relying on staggered scoring from the bench and starters is usually not flying in the playoffs unless the bench players are close to starter quality.

There is a way in which it might for Atlanta but it requires a lot of hope. Hope that Schröder continues improving his decision making, but not only that, also hope that Splitter and Sefolosha stay healthy. Because if one or both of them isn't, and they may not be with their histories, it's going to completely break ATL's bench again. If one of them isn't it will have a countereffect of making Mike Scott unplayable once again like last season.

[bumpyphish1]

Glad to see Timmy finally getting some burn.  Maybe he's finally freed.

[AHF]

Since I am the thread's Debbie Downer, I will say that what we gave up is a sunk cost at this point and I am hoping Hardaway proves he can be a valuable contributor in the rotation.  I am just having a hard time dealing with what we gave up for him and those kids on my lawn.  

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, AHF said:

Since I am the thread's Debbie Downer, I will say that what we gave up is a sunk cost at this point and I am hoping Hardaway proves he can be a valuable contributor in the rotation.  I am just having a hard time dealing with what we gave up for him and those kids on my lawn.  

Ah, don't sell yourself short.  You're the world's debbie downer, not just this thread's.