Official Game Thread: Hawks at Magic (Happy 2020s!)

[lethalweapon3]

“Evan, you really might want to clean up your Google search results.”

 

Your undefeated, first-place Atlanta Hawks, on a roll! Up to 2-0 after dispatching the Orlando Magic in their home debut. 39 and 9 for the totally healthy Trae Young! And, my, what a stout defense! Holding the Magic to just 35.4 percent from the field, 5-for-31 on threes? This is already shaping up to be one heck of a season.

… Welp!

As fans, it’s tough surmising how things will shake out when the calendar turns by a day, a month, a year, a decade. Many times, we think we know. In fact, more often we’re certain we know, using past or even most recent history as a guide. Most often, we have no earthly idea.

Some funny things happened for Atlanta, along the way to 82-0. The Hawks visit the Magic Kingdom tonight to close out the Teens (7 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, Fox Sports Florida), and while Atlanta’s sports-mecca future in the Twenties remains bright, it’s hard to discern in the case of the Hawks (4-27 since beating ORL on Oct. 26) if that brightness is the end of a tunnel ahead, or an approaching train.

Both NBA clubs have reason to be pleased with their point guard leadership, for at least the front end of the next decade. Trae Young (ankle sprain) may have kicked something during this past weekend’s Peach Bowl, and so we will see him return to action later rather than Sooner.  He’s at MVP-Adjacent level already in his second season, and has improved across the board, at least offensively, while helping the Hawks climb uphill on a nightly basis.

Orlando (11-14, 3-7 in last ten, but 2-1 in last three games) has continued to bump its ahead against the .500 wall, and the team’s late December skid as it re-adjusted to Nikola Vucevic’s return, was less then desirable. But they’re pleased as punch that Markelle Fultz (5.2 APG, 40.0 3FG% in last nine games) is steadying himself as a starting PG. Has 2017’s #1 pick arrived? Not quite. Was he worth trading to Philadelphia Jonathon Simmons, a 2019 second-rounder, and OKC’s Top-20-protected first rounder this coming season? You betcha.

Both clubs have young jumping-jack forwards that are proving to be even better than advertised. Jonathan Isaac (3^rd in Defensive Box Plus/Minus; 2.5 BPG, 2^nd in NBA; team-high 1.5 SPG) is already rounding out as one of the top-notch defenders in the league, near single-handedly keeping the Magic in games they have no business being in otherwise.

The latter comment can’t be said, yet, of Atlanta’s John Collins (18.9 PPG, 11.3 RPG, 2.7 BPG in last 3 games), not while the Hawks are getting blown out by teams as good as Milwaukee at home, and as bad as Chicago on the road. But at least he’s producing at both ends of the floor for a Hawks team that’s absent what was, before his return, its two most potent offensive threats in Young and Jabari Parker (shoulder). If he gets some help on either end by some permutation of Kevin Huerter, Cam Reddish, DeAndre' Hunter and sixth-man vet Allen Crabbe (combined 7-for-34 FGs, 10 D-Rebs, 3 steals @ CHI on Dec. 28, in a 116-81 loss), we might actually have ourselves a contested game worth watching today.

As R.E.M. might sing, in the modern NBA, Everybody Hurts. And the truth is, the best teams anticipate overcoming the adversity of unforeseen absences, and these Hawks have yet to be built with the depth, experience, and skillset the best teams possess. Or, even the mediocre ones, as the squad across the halfcourt line demonstrates on a nightly basis.

Orlando’s All-Star center, Vucevic has been in and out of the lineup. Mo Bamba, the 2018 draftee selected one Lottery pick after Young, returns from an ankle injury, but has not been in a condition to be relied upon by coach Steve Clifford significantly. Perhaps trying to overcompensate with heavy frontcourt minutes, Aaron Gordon will now sit to rehab an Achilles that has nagged him for some time. At Amway Center this evening, the Magic will also be thin in their second and third lines, as Michael Carter-Williams (shoulder) and Al-Farouq Aminu (meniscus tear) are both out of commission.

But as long as they have dogged defenders, like Isaac, and low-turnover ballhandlers, like Fultz and D.J. Augustin (no Magicians with more than 1.9 TOs/game), and shooters comfortably working their way out of slumps, like Evan Fournier (42.0 3FG%) and sixth-man Terrence Ross, the Magic can lose games by ten that the Hawks lose by thirty. They can win games that the Hawks lose by twenty. Staying in games you have no business being in, for the balance of four quarters, is the definition of an 8-seed in the East, where Orlando (1.5 games ahead of 9-seed Chicago) currently resides.

Roll back the calendar a bit. About ten years, to be precise.

Finally, could a 50-win season be in the cards for coach Mike Woodson and his 21-10 Hawks? Years of nurturing resulted in what was, as of December 31, 2009, the sixth-best record in the NBA, led by All-Star Joe Johnson and a rare Lottery hit in Al Horford.

The main problem? Standing in their way, in the NBA East, were KG’s Celtics, LeBron’s Cavaliers, and Dwight’s Magic. Coming off an embarrassing end to the 2008 postseason at young LeBron’s hands, did Atlanta have enough experience and gumption to become tougher competitors, like Dwight and the Magic, at playoff time? We’d just have to wait and see.

As for the defending Eastern Conference champion Magic, having sent LeBron packing in the playoffs along the way, the future was shining as the sun went down on The Aughts for the final time. Sitting at 23-8, a second-straight 59-win season was on the way. Dwight Howard was certain to be a franchise flagship until his retirement, respected and feared throughout the league, while joined at the hip with coach Stan Van Gundy to push the team into many Finals to come. Heck, LeBron’s probably heading past his prime, anyway. Bring on The Teens!

Tell some Laker fans in December 2009 that the Lakers would soon poach Dwight, as they have done with many a Hall of Fame big man over the decades, out of Central Florida to pair with Kobe for another championship run. That they would re-sign him, too, although not in a way they might expect. And, while their team’s trophy count would soon go up from 15 to 16, the NBA’s Franchise of the 2010s would hail from California, but not Los Angeles.

Humor yourself while letting them guess which division rival, and how. No, Andrew Bynum didn’t leave them for Sacramento. Those Laker fans might put you on trial for witchcraft. “Awww, c’mon. You’re pulling our leg. The Warriors? Jerry West’s Warriors? Pass on some of that stuff you’re smoking!” (Don’t tell them some of that stuff will be street-legal by 2016).

9-22 was the record of Travis Schlenk’s Golden State Warriors as the calendar turned to 2010, tied for the fourth-worst mark in The Association. The Dubs were giving up a league-worst 112.4 points per game, nearly five points more than the second-worst. Dead-last in fouling, dead-last in rebounding. Andris Biedrins, Anthony Tolliver and Corey Maggette were the last frail lines of defense.

Don Nelson’s devil-may-care defensive strategies were offset, however slightly, by the Warriors’ high-scoring offense that now had rookie Stephen Curry in the mix. But from most long-suffering fans’ perspectives, it was tough to envision a championship future for the ensuing decade, one that didn’t somehow have Moped Monta Ellis guiding the way. It’s Kobe’s World, after all, Dubs fans figured. Oh, well. Let’s just putter our way into the 2010s and hope for the best. We’ll always have 1975.

As an eventful 2019 comes to a close, Young pilots a stronger core of prospects and young talents than Curry had at his disposal one decade ago, and The Basketball Club is wedded to allowing the young pro coach grow alongside Trae and the rookies and sophomores, as they all take their lumps together.

The Atlanta Hawks’ future foundation, for seasons yet to unfold, remains solid. It’s just understandable that, at this particular moment, without knowledge of any major maneuvers in the coming month or two by Schlenk, our “2020 vision” seems a little too blurry.

 

Happy New Year! Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Design of a Decade, Hawks-Magic edition: Errybody, Do The Banked-Three Bounce!

~lw3

[hawkzlova123]

We're gonna get demolished in the paint. Watch us get outrebounded by 20 at least.

[JayBirdHawk]

 

I'd be ok if we start Len vs Vuc.

[lethalweapon3]

The Squawk as the calendar left the 2000s and turned to 2010 (second-half collapse, ref screwjob w/ LeBron's Cavs) was Livid!

~lw3

[TheNorthCydeRises]

OH

MY

GOD!

 

Is this a new offense?   Nice 1st play to begin the game.

[hawkman]

I like them feeding Collins on the first play. Keep it up. 

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

Horry sheet! We have a lead! 2-1.

[hawkman]

Just now, TheNorthCydeRises said:

OH

MY

GOD!

 

Is this a new offense?   Nice 1st play to begin the game.

They absolutely have to play through him at this point. Force the Magic to focus on him inside.

[Bonkers]

TRADE HUERTER!!!

[hawkman]

How In THE WORLD is Vince the first big off the bench????? 

[terrell]

VC? lol

Cam Cam cam slow down man.

[Bonkers]

1 minute ago, hawkman said:

How In THE WORLD is Vince the first big off the bench????? 

But but but LP is a good coach lol

[Cwell]

Cam gotta work on his bunnies. He has zero lift when attacking the basket

Edited December 31, 2019 by Cwell

[terrell]

OK LP trippin now. VC 1st center off the bench? Wow.

[Bonkers]

Just now, Cwell said:

Cam gotta work on his bunnies. He has zero lift when attacking the basket

His body doesn't generate any power yet

 

Like I said a solid offseason is gonna do wonders for Cam

[Marvin24Williams]

I'm already over the John at center experiment

[TheNorthCydeRises]

(( sigh ))

Bruno picks up the 2nd foul . . . LP goes small with Vince instead of bringing in Jones

Magic promptly go on a 6 - 0 run.

 

Collins isn't going to body up Nikola.  Vince isn't a rim protector.

Please stay somewhat big at all times.  It's not that hard man.

[Bonkers]

Just now, TheNorthCydeRises said:

(( sigh ))

Bruno picks up the 2nd foul . . . LP goes small with Vince instead of bringing in Jones

Magic promptly go on a 6 - 0 run.

 

Collins isn't going to body up Nikola.  Vince isn't a rim protector.

Please stay somewhat big at all times.  It's not that hard man.

Hawks have the worst coach in the league