More Off-Season Rankings

[Thomas]

Yeah, the first big goal being to get by the Cavs and if nothing else we match up better down low now, will get more rebounds and defend the rim much better. LeBron's efficiency should drop because of Dwight being in the paint.

[AHF]

On the age thing, it is not even a year.  December to June.  Roughly half a year.  Never seen a half a year be such a significant age gap.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, kg01 said:

Well, to be fair, the writer may not be an idiot but he certainly didn't do his homework.  He basically wrote a "lowest common denominator" piece.  "Welp, they lost wHorford and gained Howard so I'll just compare the two.  What's that?  They lost Teague and inserted Dennis?  Guess I'll compare them two too."

Basically ripped all our moovs then gave us a B-?  That math don't add up.

I agree with everything except the first line. Idiot idiot idiot!!!

[BigDog90]

2 hours ago, hawkman said:

They also never talk about how soft Horford played the last 2 seasons. It's like the fans are the only people who know that Horf mailed it in.

Yeah dude had Tristan Thompson looking like Ben Wallace out there. Al never put a body on him or Mozgov.

[macdaddy]

The biggest problem we have is the same: wing scoring.   We just don't have a true scorer and going Dennis over Teague makes that slightly worse.   Right now we're hoping for a breakout from either Hardaway or Baze do address that need.  

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Buzzard said:

Bashing Dwight's age but not mentioning the fact Horford is only one year younger. 

@BuzzardYou are soooo wrong.....Al is ONLY 6 Months younger . They'll both start the 2016-17 at age 30. 

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, BigDog90 said:

Yeah dude had Tristan Thompson looking like Ben Wallace out there. Al never put a body on him or Mozgov.

I found a copy of Alicia's birth certificate through an open-records request.  Under "Father", it read: Thompson, Tristan. 

[macdaddy]

14 minutes ago, kg01 said:

I found a copy of Alicia's birth certificate through an open-records request.  Under "Father", it read: Thompson, Tristan. 

[Guest]

55 minutes ago, kg01 said:

I found a copy of Alicia's birth certificate through an open-records request.  Under "Father", it read: Thompson, Tristan. 

[Dejay]

1 hour ago, kg01 said:

I found a copy of Alicia's birth certificate through an open-records request.  Under "Father", it read: Thompson, Tristan. 

Now that's just wrong. LOL....

[Gray Mule]

Last season, the Atlanta Hawks had two players, Kyle Korver and Thabo Sefolosha  playing while recovering

from injuries.  Both should be 100% recovered by this season's onset.

Does any one recall watching highlights of Malcom Delaney?  Can he be half as good as he seems to be as we

watch?  Can either or both of Taurean Prince and Deandre Bremby be counted on to contribute next season?

Back up center should be recovered from surgery and ready to spell Dwight Howard and don't forget our third

center who may be able to occasionally give us a minute or two here and there.

Jarrett Jack should be back near 100% by Christmas.  Seems he's presently recovering so he may be regulated

to our 3rd string PG. to begin the season.

Some odd ball made the comment, "Atlanta didn't do enough to surpass Cleveland."  Really?  Just who in the NBA

did do enough?  Until The King becomes too old, in 15 or 20 years, who can stop them?  Father Time and Mother

Nature will have to take care of that problem.  Until then, we will continue to strive to be the best, otherwise!

Win several games less than last season?  Really?   I have a hard time believing that, don't you???

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Dejay said:

Now that's just wrong. LOL....

What?  You didn't realize Alicia was DominiCanadian?

[Guest]

ESPN predicts 38 wins.

Peachtree Hoops: ESPN’s RPM projections illustrate gloomy picture for Atlanta Hawks in 2016-2017

Quote

Well, that was worse than expected.

In the interest of full disclosure, I didn’t love what the Atlanta Hawks did in free agency. This isn’t a secret to anyone who has read my thoughts since July 1 or anyone who has listened to the Locked On Hawks podcast (and you should!), but it is worth mentioning at the top of this particular post.

With that in mind, a prominent projection system has produced an even morepessimistic viewpoint for Mike Budenholzer’s team in 2016-2017 andKevin Pelton of ESPN Insider ($) brings the details after pegging Atlanta for 38.6 victories.

RPM has had a tough time forecasting the Hawks, pegging Atlanta for near-.500 records each of the past two seasons, when the Hawks have actually finished second and fourth in the East. This time, Atlanta may have to beat its projection to make the playoffs.

While Pelton himself does not necessarily subscribe to this level of negativity (and the system was too low in the past two seasons, as noted above), it is certainly worth noting that the numbers, at least in this case, say otherwise. The 38.6-win projection is good for a 9th-place finish the Eastern Conference and, without giving the entire column away, that places the Hawks behind teams like the Charlotte Hornets and Milwaukee Bucks.

It would take a significant leap of faith to think that, sans injury, the Hawks arelikely to win fewer than 40 games. Personally, I believe that the defensive baseline (provided with buy-in and health for Dwight Howard) provides some cushion for Atlanta in this regard, but the simple possibility that the Hawks could struggle and eventually produce a final mark in the .500 range does exist.

Again, I would not go as far as to say that I expect the Atlanta Hawks to finish with a sub-.500 record next season, but the scenario exists and at least one statistical projection just outlined it for all to see.

 

[macdaddy]

22 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

ESPN predicts 38 wins.

Peachtree Hoops: ESPN’s RPM projections illustrate gloomy picture for Atlanta Hawks in 2016-2017

 

Why it say we finished 2nd and 4th when we finished 1st and 5th?   Or do they mean after the playoffs?  Even then establishing who finished 4th is iffy.    Maybe i'm having a brain freeze.

[Watchman]

2 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

Why it say we finished 2nd and 4th when we finished 1st and 5th?   Or do they mean after the playoffs?  Even then establishing who finished 4th is iffy.    Maybe i'm having a brain freeze.

They don't like us.

[RandomFan]

4 hours ago, kg01 said:

I found a copy of Alicia's birth certificate through an open-records request.  Under "Father", it read: Thompson, Tristan. 

 

Also, who is the idiot that wrote that original article? Sounds like some Kris Willis drivel. That spineless d-bag keeps challenging people that have the nerve to say we will be better defensively, yet has deleted several of my comments answering his challenges. Talk about thin-skinned...

 

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

He lost me as they all do with the Dwight vs Horford drama. Bashing Dwight's age but not mentioning the fact Horford is only one year younger. Bashing Dwight's injury history but not mentioning how many games Al has missed with injury. Just a little more captain obvious research and this could have been a pretty decent article.

I believe the "older Howard" comment was to be taken in the sense of "can't teach an old dog new tricks" and wasn't intending to compare Horford's age vs Howard's age.

Overall, I agree with the message of the article which is this season for the Hawks, considering our offseason moves, is basically a coin flip. Could go either way and who knows what will happen. Adding D8 could be an improvement for us or this could be like Phoenix adding Shaq and completely disrupt the flow of our scheme.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Guest]

How  Charlotte  Became  Cleveland’s  Biggest  Eastern  Obstacle????

What fresh hell is this?  This was my first thought when I saw the headline.  Then I actually read the article and realized the author must be high like a kite.

Quote

As debates rage around the league regarding which team in the Eastern Conference’s rising middle will claim the second seed, the more practical way of framing the question is really this: Which squad has the best chance of beating Cleveland in a seven-game series?

To whatever degree there’s really a valid response here – and there may not be – the answer might surprise you. Hype trains are running at full steam in Boston and Atlanta, and have combined with passionate noise from north of the border after a franchise-best season last year for Toronto. Together they’ve drowned out a group that could stand above them all, and more importantly could test the defending champs in ways the East hasn’t seen against a LeBron-led team in years.

The Charlotte Hornets aren’t sexy; Michael Jordan’s brand doesn’t seem to extend to the ownership suite. They were really bad for a number of years, eventually digging out of that hole through a combination of solid-but-not-flashy drafting and low-key savvy personnel moves.

They didn’t even draw that much attention last year, with arguably the franchise’s best season this millennium relegated to the runt end of a four-way tie for the third through six seeds and a wild first-round loss to Miami. Make no mistake though – this team was good, bordering on great.

At ninth in both cases, the Hornets were one of five teams to post top-10 marks on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor, a common benchmark for elite teams – the others were Golden State, San Antonio, Cleveland and the L.A. Clippers. That balance was evident elsewhere: Nine Hornets saw at least 1,000 minutes on the year and five of these used at least 20 percent of team possessions while on the floor. Head coach Steve Clifford put guys like Kemba Walker and Marvin Williams in the best situations of their careers, plus got solid performances out of young guys.

Charlotte’s 2016 offseason has been productive and understated. What looked like a dangerous summer with several major contributors hitting a historically lucrative open market turned into a significant positive.

A draft-day trade for Marco Belinelli was a bit strange, but it preceded multiple A+ moves. GM Rich Cho cashed in on a modest 2015 offseason gamble, re-signing Nicolas Batum to a long term deal after betting on the franchise’s ability to retain the Frenchman after just one season in town. He inked Ramon Sessions to a team-friendly deal to back up Walker in place of departed Jeremy Lin and nabbed Summer League standout and high-ceiling big man Christian Wood.

His biggest coup, though, was re-signing Williams. Not only did Cho get a huge discount for a guy coming off a career year in a perfect role, but the Hornets were able to fit Williams in using his Early Bird rights – allowing them to exceed the cap while signing him and in turn leaving room for a flier on one-time Defensive Player of the Year candidate Roy Hibbert on a prove-it deal. This sort of savvy maneuvering can separate mid-market franchises from the pack.

The result is a team that’s at least 10 deep, with insurance on the roster for injuries or rough stretches and the versatility to throw a number of looks on the floor. Clifford’s base alignment likely remains Williams at the four and Zeller at the five, a spaced-out unit that poured in buckets regardless which wing played alongside Walker and Batum last year, but he can shift big in a hurry with Hibbert on the back line when Frank Kaminsky plays alongside him. The Hornets can throw a ton of length at opponents without sacrificing much shooting.

Walker is the spark plug, now heavily underpaid coming off a career year that looks more like his realistic output alongside well-fitting NBA talent than an outlier. The biggest test here will be his shooting from three, which jumped to 37 percent after hovering in the low 30s most of the rest of his career. Though there is reason to be skeptical of his higher three-point percentage, the optics are good: Kemba shot way more open and wide open threes last year than in previous seasons, per SportVU data,and his comfort level shooting was clear within a well-spaced attack.

The rest is already there if the jumper stays consistent. Walker is now on two consecutive years setting the league-wide standard for low-turnover creation among volume guards, posting an assist percentage/turnover percentage combo unmatched in the NBA both last year and the one before. Clifford’s scheme is meant to emphasize ball control, and it has clearly sunk in; there are few guards on earth who make you more comfortable with the ball in their hands.

Walker also quietly made big strides defensively, leaping from a bottom-third rating in ESPN’s Defensive RPM two seasons ago to a top-third rating last year, a difference of nearly two points per-100-possessions after accounting for team and opponent context. His limited stature caps his ceiling here, but he’s proven to be a smart positional defender who can do some pick-slithering and keep guys in front of him in the two-man game. Kemba easily could have been an All-Star last year, and continuation plus a few smart additions around him are all positive signs for him staying at that level.

Creation could be an issue when Walker sits, or especially if he misses any time, but Clifford has shown the smarts to make due. Batum is a crafty passer who exploits gravity extremely well to help cover only modest ball skills, and both Sessions and presumed third point guard Brian Roberts are capable initiators. Zeller and especially Kaminsky could be ready for more touches on the block next year, especially with bench units while Kemba sits down.

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist will return from an injury-plagued fourth season, and this is where the greatest of Hornets optimists will get their primary fix leading into the season. The Hornets absolutely destroyed teams during MKG’s brief court appearances last season, with per-possession advantages nearly one-and-a-half times the season-long marks of historically great teams in Golden State and San Antonio. This includes a nine-point win over the full-strength Cavaliers in which MKG played his personal season-high of 36 minutes.

The sample (just 205 minutes) obviously begets a healthy grain of salt with these numbers, but this looks and feels like much more than some hot-shooting outlier. Kidd-Gilchrist is among the game’s premier three-position defenders, and he’s a terror in a lineup with four other above-average offensive players: The Walker-MKG-Batum-Williams-Zeller unit, this year’s presumed starting five, more than doubledthose Spurs and Warriors’ per-possession domination last season.

His limited shooting hurts much less in units like these, and Clifford now has many more options available to deploy similar lineups that mask MKG’s weaknesses and emphasize his elite skills.  Kidd-Gilchrist can play virtually 100 percent of his minutes with at least three long-range threats, and Clifford could even juice things to the max by sliding him up to power forward and running Kaminsky at center.

As Jonathan Tjarks suggested on a recent Basketball Insiders podcast, these kinds of lineups could emulate Billy Donovan’s usage of Andre Roberson as a roll-man in Oklahoma City last year – MKG is a good finisher at the rim with enough passing instincts to survive, and a Walker-MKG pick-and-roll with gravity-inducing shooters dotting the perimeter could throw even good defenses out of whack. And of course, at just 22 years old with a lost season behind him, Kidd-Gilchrist may not have reached his offensive ceiling yet.

With MKG back in the fold, the outline of a tough out for the Cavaliers begins to take shape.

Batum and Kidd-Gilchrist are two of the conference’s best-suited LeBron defenders (to whatever degree such a thing even exists), and having both presents a fascinating option against Cleveland’s bread-and-butter James-Irving two-man game: Put MKG on Kyrie. He should be fully past any injury residuals come playoff time, and has enough athleticism to stay with Irving when he’s 100 percent.

Meanwhile, Charlotte’s resulting ability to switch Irving-James actions and negate the instant mismatches that carried the Cavaliers to a title last year could be a really big deal. This leaves Walker on J.R. Smith, an iffy option to be sure, but there are no perfect scores against the defending champs defensively. The Hornets have the personnel to funnel things differently than nearly any other Eastern Conference challenger.

Speaking of funneling, no big man in the NBA has had more success against a downhill-rolling LeBron than Hibbert over the last several years. Maybe this isn’t 2013 Indiana Hibbert anymore, but those willing to write the 29-year-old off completely after a year in NBA defender’s purgatory under Byron Scott are jumping the gun. Hibbert was still an elite rim protector during his last season under a competent coach; his effect on James in their playoff matchups was real, and he alone offers more of a challenge at the rim than all three of Cleveland’s Eastern opponents in last year’s postseason combined.

It may not be enough to topple the Cavs, but the Hornets match up with Cleveland in a unique way that might give them more problems than anyone else in the conference. Walker will make Irving work on the defensive end, just as Batum will with James; Clifford has both the personnel and the chops to play the matchup game if Tyronn Lue tries to hide either of these guys elsewhere.

Williams is a strong foil for Kevin Love, a shooter who can stretch Love out on one end and do just enough against him down low on the other. MKG can check either of Cleveland’s stars, and one of he or Batum can be on the floor for 100 percent of LeBron’s minutes in a given series. Guys like Zeller and Kaminsky have the foot speed to do better than previous challengers against the Channing Frye bench units that smashed the East last May.

The Hornets were already better than you thought they were, and they’ve only improved after one of the best offseasons in the league. They’re primed to compete for the two seed in the East, and could stand above starrier names as the greatest challengers to the conference’s dominant defending champion

http://www.basketballinsiders.com/how-charlotte-became-clevelands-biggest-eastern-obstacle/

[macdaddy]

Charlotte?    I'm not on that wagon that's for sure.   I think Lin and Jefferson provided them some veteran quality that they didn't really replace.    They're happy to get Marvin signed ?   That's not exactly swinging for the fences.  I know Marvin has been great for them but still.   Hibbert is probably ok as a backup center but i don't see him moving the needle at all.   I think they'll find that the east is tougher than it was last year and they needed to do more.   

 

[Guest]

@JayBirdHawk That article was written by Alan Cho, Rich Cho's dad who was a former journalist who has now retired and enjoys smoking hash and writing articles on how the Hornets are the biggest challenge to the Cavs.