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

[AHF]

1 hour ago, JeffS17 said:

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

I agree but it is such a small tweak especially given that we added Clint Capela, Bogi and Gallo.  Did anyone think his shots per game would be perfectly identical when you were swapping Damion Jones for Clint and Deandre Bembry for Bogi?

His usage rate his rookie year was 28.4% and it was 34.9% last year and is 33% this year.  Much closer to last season and higher than his career average for his first two seasons which would indicate there wasn't some huge transformation.  

He went from 15.5 fga/gm his rookie year to 20.8 last year and then 17.7 this year.  His highest shot per game month this season was actually the month of April under Nate.  Once you remove the one game where he played only 16 minutes due to injury, you barely see any shift between Trae under LP (18.09 FGA and 6.5 3pta per game) versus under Nate (17.2 FGA, 6.2 3pta per game) and that is before you start to normalize for pace where Trae would naturally shoot more with more possessions under LP.  I'm not going to crunch the numbers but I'd bet Trae's total % of the team's FGA was almost identical under both coaches.  (I think I'd be belaboring the obvious but I'll point out anyway that the reduction in 3's was not a Nate thing either since that was seen all season whether under LP or Nate).

In short, he shot a little bit less this season which should have been expected given the upgrade in the roster.

He shot a small amount less under Nate than under LP which should have been expected given the slower pace under Nate.

There was no marked transformation as far as his willingness to pass to his teammates when Nate took over.  He was the same Trae he has always been but this time with better teammates than the prior season and with two coaches who ran the team at different paces during their tenures.

[Jdawgflow]

1 hour ago, RandomFan said:

 

I would add “has the heart of Iverson”

[benhillboy]

5 hours 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.   

We can agree to disagree.  Nate tore down and rebuilt.  I wouldn’t trash the kid for my health he was horrendous in too many areas.  Nate and Bogi’s health to a much lesser extent were the only changed variables that flipped Trae from a player who got thoroughly outplayed by guys like DJ Augustine, Marcus Smart, Kendrick Nunn, and Jalen Brunson to a player who can outplay MVP candidates throughout a series.  That’s two totally opposite ends of the impact spectrum.  If not for Nate we would've been in the lottery and most would be blaming everyone except Trae because 29 and 10.  

Reality is any coach who can’t demand and force his PG to defend and foster team chemistry ain’t worth a sh*t, here’s looking at you Lloyd.

Edited June 25, 2021 by benhillboy

[hawkzlova123]

Nate has done an incredible job

[AHF]

18 minutes ago, benhillboy said:

We can agree to disagree.  Nate tore down and rebuilt.  I wouldn’t trash the kid for my health he was horrendous in too many areas.  Nate and Bogi’s health to a much lesser extent were the only changed variables that flipped Trae from a player who got thoroughly outplayed by guys like DJ Augustine, Marcus Smart, Kendrick Nunn, and Jalen Brunson to a player who can outplay MVP candidates throughout a series.  That’s two totally opposite ends of the impact spectrum.  If not for Nate we would've been in the lottery and most would be blaming everyone except Trae because 29 and 10.  

Reality is any coach who can’t demand and force his PG to defend and foster team chemistry ain’t worth a sh*t, here’s looking at you Lloyd.

If you think Trae got thoroughly outplayed by DJ Augustine, Marcus Smart, Kendrick Nunn and Jalen Brunson before Nate took over as coach then I don't even know what to say to you.

Example:  Trae hasn't even played Brunson since Nate took over as coach.  To date, it is Trae 21 points / 8.3 assists / 4.5 rebounds / 0.7 steals / 0.3 blocks vs Brunson 12 points / 3.3 assists / 2.8 rebounds / 0.3 steals / 0.0 blocks.

Trae has way more assists and points than any of these guys when they have faced off with the exception of Marcus Smart who has more assists than Trae (7.2 to 5.2) but whose scoring output is dwarfed by him (Smart has exploited Trae to score 7.8 ppg on 36% shooting).

Let's also recognize that Nate never had the chance to tear down and rebuild.  His range of what he could do was somewhat limited due to the limited practice time available and lack of an offseason.  Whether it was because he took over in-season or because he didn't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater, Nate has kept a lot of what we did under LP intact and made key adjustments to the pace and tweaks to how certain players were used and what action we emphasized.  The effects of those adjustments are big but it wasn't a matter of burning everything to the ground that preceded his time as head coach and then doing something completely new.

I'm all for giving Nate his due because he absolutely made a huge difference and deserves the praise but let's not **** on Trae by pretending Trae was a POS PG who couldn't compete with those scrubs or overreach on what Nate did to make the point.  

[marco102]

18 minutes ago, benhillboy said:

We can agree to disagree.  Nate tore down and rebuilt.  I wouldn’t trash the kid for my health he was horrendous in too many areas.  Nate and Bogi’s health to a much lesser extent were the only changed variables that flipped Trae from a player who got thoroughly outplayed by guys like DJ Augustine, Marcus Smart, Kendrick Nunn, and Jalen Brunson to a player who can outplay MVP candidates throughout a series.  That’s two totally opposite ends of the impact spectrum.  If not for Nate we would've been in the lottery and most would be blaming everyone except Trae because 29 and 10.  

Reality is any coach who can’t demand and force his PG to defend and foster team chemistry ain’t worth a sh*t, here’s looking at you Lloyd.

Any excuse to make yourself feel better by straight up hating on our role player who is dominating the playoffs.  He's in his third year, you expect him to have growth.  Growth isn't always linear as you can see as soon as Trae hit the playoffs. Taking care of the ball. Making all the right reads. He started taking care of the ball later in the season.  He's always been great at reading the defense out of the pick and roll  and his defense had improved before the playoffs too. You can say Nate had something to do with it or just getting rid of Lloyd. 

What we do know is you called him a role player and was serious about it.  

[Jdawgflow]

Listening again to that LP answer to Kirshner in the clip Sturt posted today helps me understand why the players tuned him out.  And I agree Nate played a big role in Trae changing some subtle things that have led to a huge difference in outcome.  Trae even said himself in that espn Jackie article today about how he is getting along with teammates better (a quote from Trae’s dad)

[marco102]

2 hours ago, Jdawgflow said:

Listening again to that LP answer to Kirshner in the clip Sturt posted today helps me understand why the players tuned him out.  And I agree Nate played a big role in Trae changing some subtle things that have led to a huge difference in outcome.  Trae even said himself in that espn Jackie article today about how he is getting along with teammates better (a quote from Trae’s dad)

Winning generally does that though. 

[Thomas]

7 hours ago, hawkman said:

It's obvious nobody really watched the Hawks until this postseason.

All they know is Trae is an inefficient ball hog looking for stats over wins. Just a tad off they are.

[HawkingAwesome]

The biggest thing nate brought to trae is his effort on defense and realizing when to push and when to give.

[MarylandHawk]

20 hours ago, RandomFan said:

 

Isaiah Thomas is probably the best comp. but he is playing even better than Zeke did. 

[RedDawg#8]

On 6/25/2021 at 3:01 PM, Jdawgflow said:

I would add “has the heart of Iverson”

Yeah the more I think of it its pretty accurate. Minus the dunking early in Iverson's career.

Trae is Iverson if you swap the athleticism for Nash's passing ability 

[bird_dirt]

On 6/25/2021 at 1:15 PM, RandomFan said:

 

 

-scores like steph/dame

-passes like nash

-gets to the line like harden

-defends like Nash/Harden

 

[AHF]

On 6/26/2021 at 9:58 PM, RedDawg#8 said:

Yeah the more I think of it its pretty accurate. Minus the dunking early in Iverson's career.

Trae is Iverson if you swap the athleticism for Nash's passing ability 

I missed this but I think Iverson was a ball hog who was a very difficult person to build around.  Iverson was a fearless competitor (on game day) but wanted the offense to be all about him to the detriment of other players on the roster.  It was why Larry Brown ultimately surrounded him with a bunch of defenders who didn't need the ball and who would be ok being passed over if they were wide open to watch Iverson take a high degree of difficulty shot on his way to putting up an inefficient 30 points on a good night.  

So I definitely do not compare Trae with Iverson at all except to say that both are confident gamers.  Trae involves his teammates, has no problem with other guys going off, and scores at a .574% TS% compared to Iverson's .518% TS%.  I'll take Trae every day of the week over Iverson and twice on Sundays.