Trae Young - The Man, The Viper, and The Prosecution aka The MVP aka Ice Trae

[NBASupes]

He did well 

[bleachkit]

7 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

He did well 

It's an offensive exhibition game where no defense is required, should be right up Trae's alley if we are keeping it real. 

[marco102]

13 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

It's an offensive exhibition game where no defense is required, should be right up Trae's alley if we are keeping it real. 

Up every player in the games alley except maybe 5.

Edited February 21, 2022 by marco102

[Spud2nique]

Trae led everyone in assists.

Overall grade for the weekend:

D-

 

[Spud2nique]

1 hour ago, kg01 said:

Chris Paul should win the LVP for knowing full dayum well he wasn't gonna be able to play but not saying anything soon enough so some other dude could be awarded a spot.

@Spud2nique, I am now rooting for the Suns to (heh) flame out early with the same vigor you root against the Warriors. 

Fair enough but if pinned against one another you can’t pick the scrubs. 

Go Grizz in the west. 

[djjob23]

Delete.

 

Edited February 21, 2022 by djjob23

[djjob23]

Just putting this here. I get it's exhibition so take this with a grain of salt. But this breaks down how many minutes Team Durant players played with Trae Young during the All Star Game. He represented ATL well and deserves so much more respect from stans, his peers, the media, and association. SUPERSTAR!

[bleachkit]

3 hours ago, djjob23 said:

Just putting this here. I get it's exhibition so take this with a grain of salt. But this breaks down how many minutes Team Durant players played with Trae Young during the All Star Game. He represented ATL well and deserves so much more respect from stans, his peers, the media, and association. SUPERSTAR!

Why does he deserve so much more respect? I don't understand this irrational self victimization. He's was nominated as an all star stater. That's as good as it gets. 

[JeffS17]

He did fine, all-star game is pretty much whatever -- fun to watch steph bomb 3s and some nice oops but that's about it.  As much as it's offense oriented, it's not really THAT suitable to Trae because his flashiness is from carving up defenses that are actually trying.

I'm happy he seems to have had a good time though and hope our team rallies after the break.

[AHF]

On 2/19/2022 at 9:58 PM, kg01 said:

Yawn.

Get some friggin rebounds and blocks, big man.  We can sign some specialist to jak 3's.

Meanwhile, I can't watch the dunk contest.  One-a yall take one for the team and tell me how it goes.  G'nite! 

KAT is currently #15 in the league in rebounds per game and total rebounds.  He is currently #22 in total blocks and #23 in blocks per game.  FWIW, he is also one of 9 players averaging at least both 1 steal and 1 block per game.  He has finished (or is on pace this year to finish) top 20 in rebounding 6 of his 7 seasons and blocks 4 of his 7 seasons.  

Counting numbers really aren't his weakness.

[kg01]

4 hours ago, bleachkit said:

Why does he deserve so much more respect? I don't understand this irrational self victimization. He's was nominated as an all star stater. That's as good as it gets. 

Not sure what's more annoying.  The irrational self-victimization or folks' crusade to eradicate irrational self-victimization.

[bleachkit]

51 minutes ago, kg01 said:

Not sure what's more annoying.  The irrational self-victimization or folks' crusade to eradicate irrational self-victimization.

Irrational self victimization is definitely annoying. If my calling it out is also annoying, then so be it. 

[Sothron]

he only played 19 minutes and it looked like they were trying to freeze him out as well. The disrespect is real.

[RedDawg#8]

I too hate self victimization but I think we are generally more self aware as NBA/Hawks fans than say, Falcons fans.

There are still things that mean more than being nominated as an All-Star starter;

All-NBA teams

MVP

Olympic Selection (maybe on the same level, but their is a different kind of respect)

And we aren't even talking about Finals/Championship goals yet.

The voter/opinion based awards rely on Trae to build a case that is air-tight and undeniable. We cannot keep being a losing team at All Star break and think people will give us flowers. And the media was generally easy on Trae this time around, ignoring the record and saying that we are clearly playing better.

 

But facts are facts, and we are 10th in the East. That's never going to cut it if you want people to go to bat for you.

 

So, there is my stance I guess lol

 

Edited February 21, 2022 by RedDawg#8

[JeffS17]

53 minutes ago, AHF said:

KAT is currently #15 in the league in rebounds per game and total rebounds.  He is currently #22 in total blocks and #23 in blocks per game.  FWIW, he is also one of 9 players averaging at least both 1 steal and 1 block per game.  He has finished (or is on pace this year to finish) top 20 in rebounding 6 of his 7 seasons and blocks 4 of his 7 seasons.  

Counting numbers really aren't his weakness.

I know you're just refuting the counting stats statements, so this isn't necessarily directed at you, but I have to chime in to comment on just how bad of a defender KAT is for a big man, mostly because a lot of people here want him on the Hawks which I think would put a ceiling on how good this team can ever be.  I'm using defensive raptor but most of the advanced stats are aligned here -- he's the second WORST defender on the TWolves... as a center... a position most people would argue advanced stats favor for defense.  I think it's usually only fair to compare players to their teammates for advanced defensive stats because it's impossible to account for different schemes and coaching across teams.  So look at how KAT ranks against his teammates versus other centers in the league:

 

Gobert, best defensive center in the league, as a bench mark

Capela, second on our team.  Wright actually tops him... our team defense is so bad none of these numbers are impressive.  Lots of interesting data points on our chart

 

Here's where Embiid sits on the Sixers, second only to a bench player who focuses solely on defense.  He's been the best defender for Philly all year while putting up MVP level offensive stats

Here's Jokic, a center that is sometimes criticized for not being a good defender.  Side note, his stats are absolutely incredible and he is probably the deserving MVP in the truest sense of being "most valuable" but part of why his on/off numbers are so good is because the rest of the team is trash with Murray/MPJ out

And finally here is KAT, second to last on his team -- impressively bad defensively for a big man.  

 

I know this is just one metric but it usually matches the eye test pretty well.  I checked a lot of other teams and every one I checked the starting center was AT LEAST a net positive on defense.  It's mind boggling bad to be a minus defender as a 7 foot center.  Pair that with Trae who we could see as by far the worst defender on our team and we have an All-NBA free buckets defense.

[Spud2nique]

2 minutes ago, RedDawg#8 said:

So, there is my stance I guess lol

[bleachkit]

16 minutes ago, Sothron said:

he only played 19 minutes and it looked like they were trying to freeze him out as well. The disrespect is real.

KAT only got 14 minutes. Mad disrespect. Lavine only 11 minutes. FVV only nine minutes. It's an all star game, everyone can't get 30 minutes. 

[AHF]

51 minutes ago, JeffS17 said:

I know you're just refuting the counting stats statements, so this isn't necessarily directed at you, but I have to chime in to comment on just how bad of a defender KAT is for a big man, mostly because a lot of people here want him on the Hawks which I think would put a ceiling on how good this team can ever be.  I'm using defensive raptor but most of the advanced stats are aligned here -- he's the second WORST defender on the TWolves... as a center... a position most people would argue advanced stats favor for defense.  I think it's usually only fair to compare players to their teammates for advanced defensive stats because it's impossible to account for different schemes and coaching across teams.  So look at how KAT ranks against his teammates versus other centers in the league:

 

Gobert, best defensive center in the league, as a bench mark

Capela, second on our team.  Wright actually tops him... our team defense is so bad none of these numbers are impressive.  Lots of interesting data points on our chart

 

Here's where Embiid sits on the Sixers, second only to a bench player who focuses solely on defense.  He's been the best defender for Philly all year while putting up MVP level offensive stats

Here's Jokic, a center that is sometimes criticized for not being a good defender.  Side note, his stats are absolutely incredible and he is probably the deserving MVP in the truest sense of being "most valuable" but part of why his on/off numbers are so good is because the rest of the team is trash with Murray/MPJ out

And finally here is KAT, second to last on his team -- impressively bad defensively for a big man.  

 

I know this is just one metric but it usually matches the eye test pretty well.  I checked a lot of other teams and every one I checked the starting center was AT LEAST a net positive on defense.  It's mind boggling bad to be a minus defender as a 7 foot center.  Pair that with Trae who we could see as by far the worst defender on our team and we have an All-NBA free buckets defense.

KAT's value is definitely on offense.  His issue isn't counting stats, it is more positional defense.

[JeffS17]

1 hour ago, bleachkit said:

KAT only got 14 minutes. Mad disrespect. Lavine only 11 minutes. FVV only nine minutes. It's an all star game, everyone can't get 30 minutes. 

Yeeahhhh I'm with @bleachkit, Trae had the 3rd most shots of anyone on his team and the most assists.  He had very high usage while he was on the floor which is likely why his minutes were limited.  I don't think there was some agenda against Trae -- this is a game with ~20 of the leagues best players... look at Ja, the other starting guard: 18 mins he had 6 shots and 3 assists.  If we think Trae is being disrespected, Ja is basically being completely blacklisted as someone who has had just ALMOST as good a season as Trae and on a much more successful team.

[bleachkit]

1 minute ago, JeffS17 said:

Yeeahhhh I'm with @bleachkit, Trae had the 3rd most shots of anyone on his team and the most assists.  He had very high usage while he was on the floor which is likely why his minutes were limited.  I don't think there was some agenda against Trae -- this is a game with ~20 of the leagues best players... look at Ja, the other starting guard: 18 mins he had 6 shots and 3 assists.  If we think Trae is being disrespected, Ja is basically being completely blacklisted as someone who has had just ALMOST as good a season as Trae and on a much more successful team.

Facts my brother.