Official Game Thread: Who-Dey-Hawks at Trivial-Blazers

[JayBirdHawk]

11 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

THE BEST PART OF WAKING UP...

...IS FOLGER'S IN YOUR LAP!

~lw3

Travis started that off with a BANG!  He is not pleased.  He is taking his share of the responsibility for the team he put together....the rest...oh boy! He is not liking this defensive EFFORT at all.

[Peoriabird]

1 hour ago, REHawksFan said:

Again full of BS.  I've never once said the Hawks should play more like Charlotte.  

That must have been your brother Northyde.  Bottom line is this team cannot win with offense alone.  They are 2nd in the league in offensive efficiency and are below the Mason Dixon line.  Nate needs fine line ups that will work defensively and get the team to buy into playing defense instead of Gallo to the recuse when they get behind approach.

[kg01]

11 hours ago, bleachkit said:

There's absolutely no reason to lose a Dame-less CJ‐less Blazers team,  amirite?

I'm officially requesting you to take a self-ban.  This jinx was beyond bad when you made it.  That it came to spectacular fruition should cause you shame and dismay.

I'm not saying it has to be forever but I think you know you deserve to sit in timeout for a while.

10 hours ago, kg01 said:

Is simons playing?  If so, I'm expecting him to go for fiddy. 

And, just like that, kg is posting from 2023 on y'all foo's.  I'm mixing a witches brew of alcohol, 'shroom, and ivermectin (not covid, just because).  I'll emerge with more visions for the future?

[kg01]

14 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Travis started that off with a BANG!  He is not pleased.  He is taking his share of the responsibility for the team he put together....the rest...oh boy! He is not liking this defensive EFFORT at all.

What'd he say?  I can't listen at the moment.

[REHawksFan]

8 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

Bottom line is this team cannot win with offense alone.  They are 2nd in the league in offensive efficiency and are below the Mason Dixon line.  This needs fine line ups that will work defensively and get the team to buy into playing defense instead of Gallo to the recuse when they get behind approach.

And I agree with all of that.  My issue is you literally walked in, said, "I didn't watch the game. Shoot a Trae doesn't work"

News flash.......Trae shooting wasn't the culprit for losing the game.  Why not the first reaction be, "giving up 136 pts doesn't work"  or "someone needs to guard Simons and not give up 46 pts to him" or "Gallo can't be in position to guard Nurkic late in the game?"  

No, it's "Trae shoots too much"

Get real. The team loses because they suck at defense.  But the opposite of sucking at defense is not Trae shooting less. All that would accomplish is instead of losing by 5 they lose by 35.   

[Peoriabird]

Just now, REHawksFan said:

And I agree with all of that.  My issue is you literally walked in, said, "I didn't watch the game. Shoot a Trae doesn't work"

News flash.......Trae shooting wasn't the culprit for losing the game.  Why not the first reaction be, "giving up 136 pts doesn't work"  or "someone needs to guard Simons and not give up 46 pts to him" or "Gallo can't be in position to guard Nurkic late in the game?"  

No, it's "Trae shoots too much"

Get real. The team loses because they suck at defense.  But the opposite of sucking at defense is not Trae shooting less. All that would accomplish is instead of losing by 5 they lose by 35.   

It kinda is because when he focuses that much on offense, he doesn't focus at all on defense.  It take too much energy to do both when his usage rate is that high on offense. The Hawks won't win consistently until the get this defense together

[mrhonline]

55 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Woke up to a nice cup of coffee thrown on me, in the form of Travis Schlenk on 92.9. You'll hear it all soon. Is... is this caramel?

 

~lw3

Wowza. You should post this as its own thread. 

[mrhonline]

23 minutes ago, kg01 said:

What'd he say?  I can't listen at the moment.

He's frustrated with the defensive effort and implies he's overrated some of the players on the team. 

[Atlantaholic]

8 hours ago, MarylandHawk said:

Delon Wright has to go. He is playing like he is on a tanking team with no urgency or purpose. It is like he doesn't understand why he is here.  High motor defensive effort while going hard in the 18 minutes he gets a game. Push the pace for fast breaks and be ready to hit open shots when they come. 9 mil should get us that. 

Wright is not the issue. He was +8 yesterday, and for all the bitching we do about defense he is literally the only wing player on the entire team atm that plays defense at a high level. Yes, including Cam. 

[kg01]

1 minute ago, Atlantaholic said:

Wright is not the issue. He was +8 yesterday, and for all the bitching we do about defense he is literally the only wing player on the entire team atm that plays defense at a high level. Yes, including Cam. 

I'm torn.  I see his limitations and hesitations on offense but his rebounding, effort, and overall defense is needed on this team.

It's Lou that has to gou.  He should be our Haslem who never actually plays when it matters.

Sadly, Gallo is misplaced on this team.  Pains me to say it because he helped us win in the playoffs.  But he's hurting more than helping now.

[ATLHawks3]

Point of attack defense needs to be addressed at the deadline, as well as backup PG.

Also, Gallo needs to go. Gallo plays a really important position that is supposed to help anchor a defense, and he is suboptimal at it.

The coaching staff needs to have the a discussion with Lou and let him know that he’s no longer a part of the rotation. If you aren’t at least scoring at a high clip anymore, you aren’t providing value to the team. It sucks because Lou has done so much in this league, but he is COOKED on both ends of the floor.

[Atlantaholic]

4 minutes ago, kg01 said:

I'm torn.  I see his limitations and hesitations on offense but his rebounding, effort, and overall defense is needed on this team.

It's Lou that has to gou.  He should be our Haslem who never actually plays when it matters.

Sadly, Gallo is misplaced on this team.  Pains me to say it because he helped us win in the playoffs.  But he's hurting more than helping now.

Let's keep things under perspective though, this team is still missing THREE main rotation wing players and John Collins and Dieng. Yes I agree Lou and Gallo were awful yesterday but... who are we playing in their stead? TI agree once we get players back Lou needs to be an emergency type guy. Period. I think Gallo still has a role, he was clearly struggling yesterday first game back and thrust into basically a starting role because we have no bodies. Having said that though with the state of the defense throughout the entire season I am more than open to giving him up if we can get an impact defender. 

[mrhonline]

You can tell Schlenk tried to improve the bench defense in the offseason. The problem is that they're mostly one-dimensional players. 

[REHawksFan]

21 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

It kinda is because when he focuses that much on offense, he doesn't focus at all on defense.  It take too much energy to do both when his usage rate is that high on offense. The Hawks won't win consistently until the get this defense together

Trae can absolutely give better effort on defense, but Trae's defense is 100% NOT the issue with the Hawks defensively.  He could give max effort and forsake the offense altogether and if none of the other players change their defensive effort the team will still suck defensively. There's a ceiling to how well Trae can be defensively and it's frankly not worth the drop in offensive production to continually harp on Trae's defensive liabilities.

Trae is not the problem, despite how much you want him to be. The issue is they are playing other guys for their offensive production that aren't providing much offensively while also not providing anything defensively.  Guys like Gallo, Lou Williams, and even Huerter to an extent. Add in that Clint has not been the defensive anchor that he was last year and it's just a mess right now.  These guys either can't or don't play any defense and their offense is either too inconsistent or too offset the defensive liability.    

 

[Atlantaholic]

1 minute ago, mrhonline said:

You can tell Schlenk tried to improve the bench defense in the offseason. The problem is that they're mostly one-dimensional players. 

If they were two way players they would be stars. Not many of those at any position. We have the pieces to be much better defensively. Not being healthy basically the entire season and questionable effort are the huge factors here. 

[kg01]

Not sure what people are wanting from Trae if they think he's "the" problem.  Not sure why they don't just admit to just not liking the guy.  It's fine.

[mrhonline]

4 minutes ago, Atlantaholic said:

If they were two way players they would be stars. Not many of those at any position. 

Oh, I definitely agree. I was just pointing out that he's had defense on his mind for a while. Sounds like his hesitancy to trade some of the core to really improve the D may be waning.

[Atlantaholic]

35 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

It kinda is because when he focuses that much on offense, he doesn't focus at all on defense.  It take too much energy to do both when his usage rate is that high on offense. The Hawks won't win consistently until the get this defense together

Trae's defense is never going to be "good" but he can be less bad. He was actually just as bad last year though when the Hawks went on a torrid run that saw  two wins away from a finals appearance. So to say we'll never win with Trae not playing good defense is almost certainly not true.  What we need is for the team defense in general to be better and for the wings to stop penetration, fight through screens.

[Peoriabird]

4 minutes ago, REHawksFan said:

 

Trae is not the problem, despite how much you want him to be.

 

Are you related to Trae or something??? When has my focus been solely on Trae Young??? To refresh you memory, here are just a few of my past statements

1. Bogi and Hueryer are not starters because their point of attack defense is poor

2. Capela is overrated as a defender

3. Lou William should have never been resigned because he is washed on offense and useless on defense.

4. Gallo kills the Hawks both defensively and on the boards

5. Nate should start Reddish at shooting guard and convince him to focus more on defense rather than superstardom

Now...does that sound like I am placing the defensive problems solely on Trae Young????   Please stop this goofy narrative!!!

 

[capstone21]

9 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Prunty made the wrong call to start the 4th.

Woody had the ol'set rotation ... no matter how well a player was playing they always played their certain minutes and substituted at the same times.  Look how well that worked