NBA playoffs 2021: Trae Young, Nate McMillan and the pact that sparked the Atlanta Hawks' postseason run

[Atlantaholic]

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/31702170/nba-playoffs-2021-trae-young-nate-mcmillan-pact-sparked-atlanta-hawks-postseason-run

 

 

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  Jackie MacMullanESPN Senior Writer

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THE ATLANTA HAWKS burrowed together, forming an insulating semicircle around Nate McMillan, their 56-year-old coach who calmly disseminated instructions. The apprehensive Game 7 home crowd bellowed for their Philadelphia 76ers to put an end to the madness, to the notion that this inexperienced, upstart Atlanta team and its audacious young point guard with the perpetually tousled coif could possibly shred the plans of a presumptive title contender.

As McMillan addressed his team with 5:49 left on the game clock and the score knotted at 84, Trae Young stood, hands on hips, eyes fixated on his coach, a trip to the Eastern Conference finals just minutes away. His father, Rayford, watching from the stands, was riveted by the unwavering focus of his son.

"The way Trae stands at attention when Coach McMillan speaks, the way he looks him in the eye for the duration of those timeouts, it's night and day compared to previous coaches," Rayford says. "Trae believes in Nate -- and Nate believes in Trae."

As the Hawks broke from the huddle, McMillan corralled his point guard and offered up one final directive: "Bring us home."

Young had already missed 17 shots in the game, one of the worst shooting performances of his nascent career in the biggest game of his life -- yet his coach had entrusted crunch time to him. "Let me tell you," Rayford says, "that goes a long way."

What happened next seems obvious now: Young dropped in one of his signature teardrop floaters, a devastating weapon that keeps defenses hedging until the final second: Will he shoot, or will he loft it to Clint Capela for one of his patented alley-oops?

McMillan will tell you "bring it home" doesn't necessarily translate into "go dominate the game on your own." Quite the contrary. "We've talked about situations like that time and time again," McMillan explains. "Trae needs to organize our team in a way that gives us the best shot to win.

"[In Game 7] against Philly, Kevin [Huerter] had it going, and Trae understood that down the stretch we needed to keep Kevin involved. He has really gotten better at trusting his teammates and understanding they can do some things too."

That does not preclude McMillan from encouraging Young to draw from his seemingly bottomless sack of offensive artistry when it matters most.

"The thing about Trae is, he doesn't show weakness," McMillan says. "Sure, he struggled with his shot, but he's convinced the next one will go in. So am I."

Those who have coached with and played for McMillan rattle off his long-standing mantras. "Don't f--- with the game" is one; he believes when teams get up by 20, players start stat-hunting, and he will not tolerate that. Another is his faith in the three "C's": Stay calm, clear and connected. Do so down the stretch, McMillan surmises, and you will win.

There's a third one he has adopted more recently: Adapt and grow. After nearly 700 career wins and a jarring dismissal from the Indiana Pacers last August, McMillan has taken that particular message to heart. He has gone to great lengths to examine the game he adores through the lens of a (barely) 6-foot dynamo who, in so many ways, embodies everything Nate McMillan is not.

So, McMillan exercises restraint when Young shimmies before he drops a monster 3 in Wednesday's Game 1 Eastern Conference finals win over the heavily favored Milwaukee Bucks, an act that would've been unfathomable to McMillan in his playing days as a no-nonsense floor leader. Young finished with 48 points and 11 assists, yet McMillan was equally pleased with his defense -- like when Young blocked off the baseline to prevent a Jrue Holiday drive, or when he leaned against Giannis Antetokounmpo in the post, even though he was giving up 10 inches and 64 pounds to the two-time MVP.

"Nate has gotten Trae Young to play defense," notes longtime NBA assistant Billy Bayno, who was by McMillan's side at stops in Portland and Indiana. "That tells you everything."

As this unlikely pair of point guards embarks on this improbable basketball journey together, one an old-school coach and the other a new-school star, they made a pact: I will adapt to you -- as long as you adapt to me.

---

TWO YEARS REMOVED from his playing days and still an inexperienced assistant, McMillan was just 15 games into the 2000-01 season when then-Seattle head coach Paul Westphal was fired.

McMillan was thrust into the head-coaching role and tasked with appeasing his friend and former teammate, Gary Payton. Like Young, Payton was a brash and forceful personality with tantalizing skills.

Brent Barry was in his sixth season then and recalls the charged environment that awaited McMillan when he scooted one seat over from the assistant's chair.

 

"There was some volatility," says Barry, now the assistant general manager of the Spurs. "Gary was not thrilled with the direction of the team. When Nate took over, he established some basic pillars -- defense, accountability, consistency. He wasn't going to allow anything happening on the fringes to affect those things. And those guardrails helped us right ourselves.

"It's not all that dissimilar to what Nate has done in Atlanta."

EDITOR'S PICKS

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  Why Luka and Trae represent the next generation of NBA superstars

  17dKevin Arnovitz
• 

  NBA playoffs 2021: NBA world reacts to 'unbothered' Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks

  1dTory Barron
• 

  NBA playoffs 2021: Matchups, schedules and news for the conference finals

  5h

When McMillan assumed his role as interim coach for the Hawks on March 1, they were floundering at 14-20. Young's frustration had mushroomed. He was snubbed in All-Star selections despite averaging 26.9 points and a career-high 9.5 assists, numbers dismissed as empty stats in a losing campaign.

McMillan, whose reputation was built on defensive principles, discussed with Young how he could best manage the pace and the tempo of the game. That included recognizing when shooting those logo 3s might disrupt the rhythm -- and the morale -- of the team.

"Nate has been very straightforward with Trae from the beginning," says Hawks forward Danilo Gallinari.

That conversation included some straight talk on the need for Young to make a more concerted effort to hunt his open shooters.

"Part of what's been going on with Trae is his first two seasons, he was still trying to establish himself," McMillan says. "But this season expectations changed, for him and the organization. For most of his career, he's been a guy that had to do everything, especially the scoring. But now we brought in all this help with Bogdan [Bogdanovic], Gallinari, and he had to learn to set up and trust his teammates. He's never really had to do that before."

That education included watching film, dissecting decisions and highlighting the reactions of teammates when they were boxed out of the offense. McMillan stressed he didn't want Young to stop shooting, but wanted him to better recognize the time, the score and the situation.

His edicts were concise: Don't bail out the defense. If your teammate is feeling it, keep feeding him. Slow down the game, so you can manipulate it to your strengths.

"I told him, 'You're a Ferrari, but even in a Ferrari conditions change,'" McMillan says. "If there's ice on the road, you have to slow down. If it's bright sunshine, go do your thing.

"He's never played in a way where he had to slow it down and say, 'OK, I'm going to wait for you to come off this screen and that will be good for all of us.'"

Young was a willing and attentive pupil, McMillan says, and the results are tangible. Atlanta has gone 35-15 under McMillan, with a fourth-quarter points differential of plus-119, per ESPN Stats & Information research, compared to minus-65 before he took over. While those numbers are significant, the most telling shift might have been Young's relationships with other Hawks players.

"Trae told me, 'Dad, this is the coolest I've ever been with my teammates,'" Rayford says. "He credits Nate for that."

---

 

After Nate McMillan took over as interim head coach on March 1, Trae Young and the Hawks became one of the hottest teams in the NBA. Now, they're one of the hottest teams in the playoffs. Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

DECADES OF COACHING have informed McMillan's ability to manage NBA players. Bayno recalls the 2009-10 season in Portland when the Trail Blazers added veteran point guard Andre Miller to the team. At the time, Brandon Roy was on the roster and preferred operating from the point. Miller struggled to find his footing when they played together because he was a poor 3-point shooter and his defender sagged off and clogged the lane. Miller couldn't conceal his vexation at the spacing issues, and his poor body language rankled his coach.

That's because another one of McMillan's doctrines, Bayno explains, is that the point guard should always be "sunshine." He should be a positive force, bursting with energy and pumping up the team. "You're the opposite," McMillan admonished Miller during an off-day practice, in front of the entire team. "You're like a dark cloud."

Miller was stunned. His head bowed and his shoulders drooped; the gym went silent. As players left the floor, the tension and discord were palpable.

The next day, Bayno says, McMillan assembled the team and asked Miller to step forward. McMillan then apologized to him in front of his peers.

"Nate totally flipped the script," Bayno recalls. "He showed a ton of humility and understanding. You could see the stress and the tension leave Andre's body. It was all good after that. We won 52 games that year.

"All great coaches evolve. If they don't, they crash and burn."

All great players also learn to evolve -- or they, too, can crash and burn. Young was polarizing from the time he entered the league, with audacity that prompted him to bombard opponents with theatrics when he bested them, including his signature shiver to signify his "Ice Trae" persona. McMillan has discussed these moments with him, drilling down on the fine line between freedom of expression and a measure of respect. Young took the input in stride.

"Coach lets us be the best version of ourselves," Young said recently.

"Trae told me, 'Dad, this is the coolest I've ever been with my teammates.' He credits Nate for that."Rayford Young

The evolution of Young's game has been duly noted by some of his fiercest critics. Former NBA coach George Karl, who coached McMillan in Seattle, is one of them.

"I've never been a Trae Young fan," Karl admits. "I don't like that style, dominating the ball. But I will agree that at the end of the season and in these playoff games, Trae has understood that getting the other guys involved is important -- and it makes his job easier.

"Trae is picking and choosing his opportunities instead of forcing his opportunities, so he's more efficient. And that comes from Nate. He's the most unselfish player I've ever coached."

---

MCMILLAN HAS LONG been considered a defensive specialist, while Trae Young has been considered mostly indifferent to the defensive side of the ball. McMillan broached the topic with his young guard by comparing him to Stephen Curry. He said the Hawks would play certain coverages that would assist him, but only if he was willing to be aggressive on defense and utilize his quickness to make an impact.

"These guys are taking advantage because you're allowing them to," McMillan told his star. "If you continue to hide on defense, good teams will find you and exploit you. They'll keep coming at you. But if you commit to the effort, we will find ways to protect you."

The defense remains a work in progress. But since the coaching change, opponents have shot 43.6% with Young as the closest defender, as opposed to 48.6% before McMillan took the reins, according to Second Spectrum.

As a team, the Hawks have posted the fourth-best defensive efficiency (107.9) of all playoff teams and the fifth-best opponents field goal percentage (44.8%).

Playing hard is a key common denominator. While that sounds like an obvious mandate for all teams, Karl insists it's not. "Lots of coaches try to negotiate 'play hard,'" he says. "Front offices want them to be softer on that, because players don't love it. For Nate, playing hard is nonnegotiable. Our league needs more guys like him."

"The thing about Trae is, he doesn't show weakness. Sure, he struggled with his shot, but he's convinced the next one will go in. So am I."

Hawks coach Nate McMillan

 

Young recognizes his naked ambition -- to be a perennial All-Star, an All-NBA selection, a Finals MVP, a champion -- is predicated on winning. He first came into the league in awe of childhood idols Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. But now, as his stature grows, he compares notes in phone and text conversations with Devin Booker, Luka Doncic and Donovan Mitchell. He recognizes he can learn from many different resources, including McMillan, who averaged more career assists (6.1) than points (5.9) but played in an NBA Finals.

"A lot of people are close-minded. Trae is not," McMillan says. "He's allowing me to coach him. Give me a little old school and put it with your new school and we're good.

"Like I told him, 'We're partners in this. If it doesn't go right, there are two people they are going to blame: me and you.'"

[Dejay]

8 minutes ago, Atlantaholic said:

 

The defense remains a work in progress. But since the coaching change, opponents have shot 43.6% with Young as the closest defender, as opposed to 48.6% before McMillan took the reins, according to Second Spectrum.

As a team, the Hawks have posted the fourth-best defensive efficiency (107.9) of all playoff teams and the fifth-best opponents field goal percentage (44.8%).

 

'But but but, the Hawks don't play any defense. Anybody can score on them...'

[Atlantaholic]

8 minutes ago, Dejay said:

'But but but, the Hawks don't play any defense. Anybody can score on them...'

My favorite exchange with a Bucks fan was him telling me the Bucks needed to go after Trae Young on offense. I was like, ok, and who is gonna do that? lol Connaughton?

[Dejay]

1 minute ago, Atlantaholic said:

My favorite exchange with a Bucks fan was him telling me the Bucks needed to go after Trae Young on offense. I was like, ok, and who is gonna do that? lol Connaughton?

Yeah, because he and Tucker are going to suddenly morph into Rod Strickland or Clyde Drexler in this series. And if those two are beating me by hanging up 19/5 apiece instead of Giannis, Middleton, or Holiday doing it, I'm all for the Bucks banking their playoff lives on that happening...

[Atlantaholic]

Just now, Dejay said:

Yeah, because he and Tucker are going to suddenly morph into Rod Strickland or Clyde Drexler in this series. And if those two are beating me by hanging up 19/5 apiece instead of Giannis, Middleton, or Holiday doing it, I'm all for the Bucks banking their playoff lives on that happening...

One major advantage the Hawks have over the Bucks is scoring depth. If one of the Bucks big three is off they are basically toast. 

[RedDawg#8]

15 minutes ago, Dejay said:

Yeah, because he and Tucker are going to suddenly morph into Rod Strickland or Clyde Drexler in this series. And if those two are beating me by hanging up 19/5 apiece instead of Giannis, Middleton, or Holiday doing it, I'm all for the Bucks banking their playoff lives on that happening...

This is what every opposing team/fan finds out. If you want your 5th best option to be the focus of your offense instead of your best players, go right ahead. In the end its not worth it to attack him

[benhillboy]

1 hour ago, Atlantaholic said:

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/31702170/nba-playoffs-2021-trae-young-nate-mcmillan-pact-sparked-atlanta-hawks-postseason-run

 

 

• 
  Jackie MacMullanESPN Senior Writer

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THE ATLANTA HAWKS burrowed together, forming an insulating semicircle around Nate McMillan, their 56-year-old coach who calmly disseminated instructions. The apprehensive Game 7 home crowd bellowed for their Philadelphia 76ers to put an end to the madness, to the notion that this inexperienced, upstart Atlanta team and its audacious young point guard with the perpetually tousled coif could possibly shred the plans of a presumptive title contender.

As McMillan addressed his team with 5:49 left on the game clock and the score knotted at 84, Trae Young stood, hands on hips, eyes fixated on his coach, a trip to the Eastern Conference finals just minutes away. His father, Rayford, watching from the stands, was riveted by the unwavering focus of his son.

"The way Trae stands at attention when Coach McMillan speaks, the way he looks him in the eye for the duration of those timeouts, it's night and day compared to previous coaches," Rayford says. "Trae believes in Nate -- and Nate believes in Trae."

As the Hawks broke from the huddle, McMillan corralled his point guard and offered up one final directive: "Bring us home."

Young had already missed 17 shots in the game, one of the worst shooting performances of his nascent career in the biggest game of his life -- yet his coach had entrusted crunch time to him. "Let me tell you," Rayford says, "that goes a long way."

What happened next seems obvious now: Young dropped in one of his signature teardrop floaters, a devastating weapon that keeps defenses hedging until the final second: Will he shoot, or will he loft it to Clint Capela for one of his patented alley-oops?

McMillan will tell you "bring it home" doesn't necessarily translate into "go dominate the game on your own." Quite the contrary. "We've talked about situations like that time and time again," McMillan explains. "Trae needs to organize our team in a way that gives us the best shot to win.

"[In Game 7] against Philly, Kevin [Huerter] had it going, and Trae understood that down the stretch we needed to keep Kevin involved. He has really gotten better at trusting his teammates and understanding they can do some things too."

That does not preclude McMillan from encouraging Young to draw from his seemingly bottomless sack of offensive artistry when it matters most.

"The thing about Trae is, he doesn't show weakness," McMillan says. "Sure, he struggled with his shot, but he's convinced the next one will go in. So am I."

Those who have coached with and played for McMillan rattle off his long-standing mantras. "Don't f--- with the game" is one; he believes when teams get up by 20, players start stat-hunting, and he will not tolerate that. Another is his faith in the three "C's": Stay calm, clear and connected. Do so down the stretch, McMillan surmises, and you will win.

There's a third one he has adopted more recently: Adapt and grow. After nearly 700 career wins and a jarring dismissal from the Indiana Pacers last August, McMillan has taken that particular message to heart. He has gone to great lengths to examine the game he adores through the lens of a (barely) 6-foot dynamo who, in so many ways, embodies everything Nate McMillan is not.

So, McMillan exercises restraint when Young shimmies before he drops a monster 3 in Wednesday's Game 1 Eastern Conference finals win over the heavily favored Milwaukee Bucks, an act that would've been unfathomable to McMillan in his playing days as a no-nonsense floor leader. Young finished with 48 points and 11 assists, yet McMillan was equally pleased with his defense -- like when Young blocked off the baseline to prevent a Jrue Holiday drive, or when he leaned against Giannis Antetokounmpo in the post, even though he was giving up 10 inches and 64 pounds to the two-time MVP.

"Nate has gotten Trae Young to play defense," notes longtime NBA assistant Billy Bayno, who was by McMillan's side at stops in Portland and Indiana. "That tells you everything."

As this unlikely pair of point guards embarks on this improbable basketball journey together, one an old-school coach and the other a new-school star, they made a pact: I will adapt to you -- as long as you adapt to me.

---

TWO YEARS REMOVED from his playing days and still an inexperienced assistant, McMillan was just 15 games into the 2000-01 season when then-Seattle head coach Paul Westphal was fired.

McMillan was thrust into the head-coaching role and tasked with appeasing his friend and former teammate, Gary Payton. Like Young, Payton was a brash and forceful personality with tantalizing skills.

Brent Barry was in his sixth season then and recalls the charged environment that awaited McMillan when he scooted one seat over from the assistant's chair.

 

"There was some volatility," says Barry, now the assistant general manager of the Spurs. "Gary was not thrilled with the direction of the team. When Nate took over, he established some basic pillars -- defense, accountability, consistency. He wasn't going to allow anything happening on the fringes to affect those things. And those guardrails helped us right ourselves.

"It's not all that dissimilar to what Nate has done in Atlanta."

EDITOR'S PICKS

• 

  Why Luka and Trae represent the next generation of NBA superstars

  17dKevin Arnovitz
• 

  NBA playoffs 2021: NBA world reacts to 'unbothered' Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks

  1dTory Barron
• 

  NBA playoffs 2021: Matchups, schedules and news for the conference finals

  5h

When McMillan assumed his role as interim coach for the Hawks on March 1, they were floundering at 14-20. Young's frustration had mushroomed. He was snubbed in All-Star selections despite averaging 26.9 points and a career-high 9.5 assists, numbers dismissed as empty stats in a losing campaign.

McMillan, whose reputation was built on defensive principles, discussed with Young how he could best manage the pace and the tempo of the game. That included recognizing when shooting those logo 3s might disrupt the rhythm -- and the morale -- of the team.

"Nate has been very straightforward with Trae from the beginning," says Hawks forward Danilo Gallinari.

That conversation included some straight talk on the need for Young to make a more concerted effort to hunt his open shooters.

"Part of what's been going on with Trae is his first two seasons, he was still trying to establish himself," McMillan says. "But this season expectations changed, for him and the organization. For most of his career, he's been a guy that had to do everything, especially the scoring. But now we brought in all this help with Bogdan [Bogdanovic], Gallinari, and he had to learn to set up and trust his teammates. He's never really had to do that before."

That education included watching film, dissecting decisions and highlighting the reactions of teammates when they were boxed out of the offense. McMillan stressed he didn't want Young to stop shooting, but wanted him to better recognize the time, the score and the situation.

His edicts were concise: Don't bail out the defense. If your teammate is feeling it, keep feeding him. Slow down the game, so you can manipulate it to your strengths.

"I told him, 'You're a Ferrari, but even in a Ferrari conditions change,'" McMillan says. "If there's ice on the road, you have to slow down. If it's bright sunshine, go do your thing.

"He's never played in a way where he had to slow it down and say, 'OK, I'm going to wait for you to come off this screen and that will be good for all of us.'"

Young was a willing and attentive pupil, McMillan says, and the results are tangible. Atlanta has gone 35-15 under McMillan, with a fourth-quarter points differential of plus-119, per ESPN Stats & Information research, compared to minus-65 before he took over. While those numbers are significant, the most telling shift might have been Young's relationships with other Hawks players.

"Trae told me, 'Dad, this is the coolest I've ever been with my teammates,'" Rayford says. "He credits Nate for that."

---

After Nate McMillan took over as interim head coach on March 1, Trae Young and the Hawks became one of the hottest teams in the NBA. Now, they're one of the hottest teams in the playoffs. Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

DECADES OF COACHING have informed McMillan's ability to manage NBA players. Bayno recalls the 2009-10 season in Portland when the Trail Blazers added veteran point guard Andre Miller to the team. At the time, Brandon Roy was on the roster and preferred operating from the point. Miller struggled to find his footing when they played together because he was a poor 3-point shooter and his defender sagged off and clogged the lane. Miller couldn't conceal his vexation at the spacing issues, and his poor body language rankled his coach.

That's because another one of McMillan's doctrines, Bayno explains, is that the point guard should always be "sunshine." He should be a positive force, bursting with energy and pumping up the team. "You're the opposite," McMillan admonished Miller during an off-day practice, in front of the entire team. "You're like a dark cloud."

Miller was stunned. His head bowed and his shoulders drooped; the gym went silent. As players left the floor, the tension and discord were palpable.

The next day, Bayno says, McMillan assembled the team and asked Miller to step forward. McMillan then apologized to him in front of his peers.

"Nate totally flipped the script," Bayno recalls. "He showed a ton of humility and understanding. You could see the stress and the tension leave Andre's body. It was all good after that. We won 52 games that year.

"All great coaches evolve. If they don't, they crash and burn."

All great players also learn to evolve -- or they, too, can crash and burn. Young was polarizing from the time he entered the league, with audacity that prompted him to bombard opponents with theatrics when he bested them, including his signature shiver to signify his "Ice Trae" persona. McMillan has discussed these moments with him, drilling down on the fine line between freedom of expression and a measure of respect. Young took the input in stride.

"Coach lets us be the best version of ourselves," Young said recently.

"Trae told me, 'Dad, this is the coolest I've ever been with my teammates.' He credits Nate for that."Rayford Young

The evolution of Young's game has been duly noted by some of his fiercest critics. Former NBA coach George Karl, who coached McMillan in Seattle, is one of them.

"I've never been a Trae Young fan," Karl admits. "I don't like that style, dominating the ball. But I will agree that at the end of the season and in these playoff games, Trae has understood that getting the other guys involved is important -- and it makes his job easier.

"Trae is picking and choosing his opportunities instead of forcing his opportunities, so he's more efficient. And that comes from Nate. He's the most unselfish player I've ever coached."

---

MCMILLAN HAS LONG been considered a defensive specialist, while Trae Young has been considered mostly indifferent to the defensive side of the ball. McMillan broached the topic with his young guard by comparing him to Stephen Curry. He said the Hawks would play certain coverages that would assist him, but only if he was willing to be aggressive on defense and utilize his quickness to make an impact.

"These guys are taking advantage because you're allowing them to," McMillan told his star. "If you continue to hide on defense, good teams will find you and exploit you. They'll keep coming at you. But if you commit to the effort, we will find ways to protect you."

The defense remains a work in progress. But since the coaching change, opponents have shot 43.6% with Young as the closest defender, as opposed to 48.6% before McMillan took the reins, according to Second Spectrum.

As a team, the Hawks have posted the fourth-best defensive efficiency (107.9) of all playoff teams and the fifth-best opponents field goal percentage (44.8%).

Playing hard is a key common denominator. While that sounds like an obvious mandate for all teams, Karl insists it's not. "Lots of coaches try to negotiate 'play hard,'" he says. "Front offices want them to be softer on that, because players don't love it. For Nate, playing hard is nonnegotiable. Our league needs more guys like him."

"The thing about Trae is, he doesn't show weakness. Sure, he struggled with his shot, but he's convinced the next one will go in. So am I."

Hawks coach Nate McMillan

 

Young recognizes his naked ambition -- to be a perennial All-Star, an All-NBA selection, a Finals MVP, a champion -- is predicated on winning. He first came into the league in awe of childhood idols Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. But now, as his stature grows, he compares notes in phone and text conversations with Devin Booker, Luka Doncic and Donovan Mitchell. He recognizes he can learn from many different resources, including McMillan, who averaged more career assists (6.1) than points (5.9) but played in an NBA Finals.

"A lot of people are close-minded. Trae is not," McMillan says. "He's allowing me to coach him. Give me a little old school and put it with your new school and we're good.

"Like I told him, 'We're partners in this. If it doesn't go right, there are two people they are going to blame: me and you.'"

Thanks for posting, Jackie is excellent.  
 

Y’all can’t front though I said all of this sh%t in numerous rants.  From his teammates’ poor body language toward him to Nate not allowing that awful effort and showing him film of Steph on D.  Nate singlehandedly transformed him.  I’m not surprised that he did, but the immediate  timeframe in which he did is nothing short of a miracle.

Edited June 25, 2021 by benhillboy

[macdaddy]

Great article.   I disagree though that Nate singlehandedly transformed him.   It was all there and Nate polished it up.  Perfected what Trae was doing to make it winning basketball.   

[JayBirdHawk]

1 hour ago, Dejay said:

'But but but, the Hawks don't play any defense. Anybody can score on them...'

....the defense under Nate is not talked about enough in all of this.

[JayBirdHawk]

58 minutes ago, Atlantaholic said:

My favorite exchange with a Bucks fan was him telling me the Bucks needed to go after Trae Young on offense. I was like, ok, and who is gonna do that? lol Connaughton?

Every single team we have played, their fans keep saying this but....

 

....going away from your best players on offense to target Trae. Hawks would love that, we'll take PJ Tucker posting Trae everytime, lol.

[RandomFan]

24 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

Great article.   I disagree though that Nate singlehandedly transformed him.   It was all there and Nate polished it up.  Perfected what Trae was doing to make it winning basketball.   

Yeah, great article but I think she needs to pump the brakes on the tone of Nate completely changing Trae's mindset from basically being a ball hog into a distributor. It's not like Trae hasn't been in the top 5 in assists since he entered the league or anything.

I enjoyed most everything in the article, other than this insinuation that Trae just all of a sudden learned how to share the ball. It smacks of someone who was an empty-stats critic looking for a way to justify her previous wrong opinion. 

Edited June 25, 2021 by RandomFan

[Atlantaholic]

51 minutes ago, RedDawg#8 said:

This is what every opposing team/fan finds out. If you want your 5th best option to be the focus of your offense instead of your best players, go right ahead. In the end its not worth it to attack him

Sixers were able to attack Trae at times, especially when he ended up having to guard Curry. But the Bucks don't have the depth, Philly was a MUCH deeper team scoring-wise. Divicenzo not playing is big for them this series.

[sturt]

To Jackie's credit, I remember she was pro-Hawks before pro-Hawks was cool. It all runs together now, but she was in one of those panel segments, and the three others on the screen had all made light of the Hawks success against either NYK or PHI... and she was the one who said, in effect, she wasn't ready to buy into their cynicism, and went on to highlight why ATL may be more legit than the others were perceiving.

To my own credit, and others who thought like me... so much of the script flip has been about, simply, players trusting their head coach. And to a large degree, this article affirms exactly that, at least where Trae is concerned. Trusting that the head coach knows what he's talking about, and that the things he's preaching will bear fruit if heeded. It's less about rotations, less about Xs and Os, less about game strategy... more about trust... and with the foundation of trust, then, comes the buy-in and enthusiasm to work/play hard and execute the plans of the lead dog and his staff.

 

[hawkman]

1 hour ago, RandomFan said:

Yeah, great article but I think she needs to pump the brakes on the tone of Nate completely changing Trae's mindset from basically being a ball hog into a distributor. It's not like Trae hasn't been in the top 5 in assists since he entered the league or anything.

I enjoyed most everything in the article, other than this insinuation that Trae just all of a sudden learned how to share the ball. It smacks of someone who was an empty-stats critic looking for a way to justify her previous wrong opinion. 

It's obvious nobody really watched the Hawks until this postseason. The idea that Trae was this ball hog that constantly froze out his teammates before Nate took over is straight up wrong. These narratives cost him an All Star spot and a place on one of the All NBA teams. Those are individual achievements, but it still has to be frustrating to play well and not get recognized for it. The irony of all of this is while they were portraying Trae as a "ball hog" and an "empty stats" player, they were heaping praise and accolades on other players who were hogging the ball and freezing their teammates out of the offense. Hot takes and social media narratives do not equal competent sports analysis. That's why I can't respect these sports writers and talking heads as they try to explain why the Hawks are a good team and in the ECF or why Trae has become "good" all of a sudden.  

[AHF]

2 hours ago, RandomFan said:

Yeah, great article but I think she needs to pump the brakes on the tone of Nate completely changing Trae's mindset from basically being a ball hog into a distributor. It's not like Trae hasn't been in the top 5 in assists since he entered the league or anything.

I enjoyed most everything in the article, other than this insinuation that Trae just all of a sudden learned how to share the ball. It smacks of someone who was an empty-stats critic looking for a way to justify her previous wrong opinion. 

His assist % is basically identical to last season.  45.6% last season; 45.5% this season.  There was no big transformation from ballhog to distributor.  He was a distributor who also looks to score from day 1 and remains that to this day.

[JeffS17]

11 minutes ago, AHF said:

His assist % is basically identical to last season.  45.6% last season; 45.5% this season.  There was no big transformation from ballhog to distributor.  He was a distributor who also looks to score from day 1 and remains that to this day.

I think his usage is down a bit though, he isn't taking quite as many shots as last year, almost all of the reduction coming from 3PA

[RandomFan]

 

[bleachkit]

18 minutes ago, AHF said:

His assist % is basically identical to last season.  45.6% last season; 45.5% this season.  There was no big transformation from ballhog to distributor.  He was a distributor who also looks to score from day 1 and remains that to this day.

The biggest reason we are better is defense. People are forgetting how bad we were on defense in 18-19 and 19-20. 

[bleachkit]

6 minutes ago, RandomFan said:

 

Very true. The biggest thing in this post season is not the rise of Trae, that's a media narrative. The most critical thing is we have made timely plays down the stretch to close out games, and it's come from many different guys. I don't know if that can be quantified, but making the key plays down the stretch is everything. 

Edited June 25, 2021 by bleachkit

[RandomFan]