2024 Hawks Offseason Thread: Draft Over: What's Next?

[NBASupes]

5 hours ago, terrell said:

No Trae hate, he's a good player and all,  but Fans need to stop trying to convince themselves that Trae is anywhere near Luka level...

The Mavs next best player after Luka/Kyrie has been a rookie in Lively. It's not like they're trotting out the 6th man of the year or any other star power outside of Luka/Kyrie.

He just provides MUCH MORE lineup versatility than Trae... He grabs rebounds better than most of our BIGS, can actually make passes OVER THE TOP so you cant trap him,  and can play multiple positions with his SIZE.. Trae cant do ANY of that..

2023-2024

eFG%

Luka 57.3%

Trae 51.6%

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask?q=league+average+efg%+this+season

Note that Luka's eFG% is tied with 3rd place for team eFG% avg. Trae's eFG% would equate to 29th worst out of 30 team averages. Absolutely NO team will ever contend when its "star" is so inefficient on offense that he's worse than 29 out of 30 teams in terms of eFG%. You've got to be able to get a bucket when you need it. Not foul hunt. Not say a prayer. Not hope your besties with the refs. You've GOT to make shots efficiently. Kyrie Irving? Similar size to Trae. 57.3% eFG% this year. I'm not even suggesting your "star" needs to be at THESE levels, but if you are a SIGNIFICANT liability Defensively, yes, you have to.

6 years in, it's not far fetched seeing Luka win a championship at some point in his career

6 years in with Trae, we don't even know if he's a guy you can build around to clinch a top 6 seed in a weak Eastern conference. smh

It is what it is at this point..

Like I said before, LF has A LOT of tough decisions to make this offseason..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luka is way better than Trae but I don't believe underrating Trae is good. Trae literally by himself has us as a top 5 team with shots in the paint but we are bottom 5 at paint efficiency. If we just got Edey or Clingan, that's solved asap. With Edey, that's a massive strength. 

Edited May 25 by NBASupes

[bleachkit]

NBA Draft rumors: Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard ranked as top prospect by several teams, per NBA Draft expert (msn.com)

[sturt]

8 hours ago, sturt said:

(have you?)

(I take the sudden disinterest in that vein of discussion as...   ...  )

[benhillboy]

20 hours ago, NBASupes said:

Dallas understands Luka a lot more than we understand Trae in my opinion. 

When we realize that, I think we may be able to take a step forward.

What’s so complex and mysterious about Trae to understand?

He gets hunted defensively on nearly every action, piles up turns, shoots twos and threes below league average for his career, and does nothing on the glass or off the ball.  These are all well known facts.  A fully-staffed construction crew can’t build around that.

There wasn’t a single lead player out of 16 teams in these playoffs who you can attribute all these weaknesses to.  What are we doing still thinking he’s a viable building block at $40M per?

Edited May 26 by benhillboy

[benhillboy]

You need 4 high character, high IQ fringe All Stars with great size around this kid lol.  Good luck with that.

Did we not see how he performed head to head versus Brunson, Ja, Luka, SGA, and Hali this season?  It was even worse than I would expect.

His performance on a rookie deal was awesome and the main reason for the Conference Finals run.  Appreciate the hell outta him and Nate for clicking at that time.  But contention with him as a core piece with this or any franchise is just a pipe dream guys and gals.

Edited May 26 by benhillboy

[AHF]

1 hour ago, benhillboy said:

You need 4 high character, high IQ fringe All Stars with great size around this kid lol.  Good luck with that.

 

Would be nice to see one next to him.  So far the closest he has had was 2021 Clint and obviously Clint was no AS.  (And obviously that worked well.)

[NBASupes]

7 hours ago, benhillboy said:

What’s so complex and mysterious about Trae to understand?

He gets hunted defensively on nearly every action, piles up turns, shoots twos and threes below league average for his career, and does nothing on the glass or off the ball.  These are all well known facts.  A fully-staffed construction crew can’t build around that.

There wasn’t a single lead player out of 16 teams in these playoffs who you can attribute all these weaknesses to.  What are we doing still thinking he’s a viable building block at $40M per?

You gotta make a decision. Go all offense or get Danny Green, Mikal Bridges, JJ and KAT and just outscore everyone 

We got to go all offense. It's not possible to go all defense with Trae unless those defenders are + offensive players 

6 hours ago, AHF said:

Would be nice to see one next to him.  So far the closest he has had was 2021 Clint and obviously Clint was no AS.  (And obviously that worked well.)

Everyone wants one. The price of them is higher than Trae and that's the first problem 

[NBASupes]

I'll go all offense. I really like our 2nd offense in the NBA with Nate. I just didn't like that it was too spamming but we were good at it. 

We had 

Trae

Kev

Bogi

JC

CC

It worked till the 4th and teams basically said, CC has to beat us and lol, we lost. 

I keep saying, if that's an offensive minded 5, we could be a top 5 NBA team.

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[kg01]

3 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

I ain't going to no party "fueled by natural gas".

[bird_dirt]

Just now, kg01 said:

I ain't going to no party "fueled by natural gas".

It would be funny as hell if they advertise a draft party only to trade the pick for a player already in the league. 

[Spud2nique]

16 minutes ago, kg01 said:

I ain't going to no party "fueled by natural gas".

I’ll go!  What’s the worst that could happen?

 

Edited May 27 by Spud2nique

[JayBirdHawk]

54 minutes ago, kg01 said:

I ain't going to no party "fueled by natural gas".

I'm dying 

[Spud2nique]

Same  

[kg01]

51 minutes ago, Spud2nique said:

Same  

The site reads like there's a gas leak somewhere the last few days tbh..... 

[macdaddy]

On 5/25/2024 at 2:22 PM, terrell said:

The Mavs next best player after Luka/Kyrie has been a rookie in Lively. It's not like they're trotting out the 6th man of the year or any other star power outside of Luka/Kyrie.

I mean i don't know what exactly this means.   2 HOF'rs and defenders with size?  

Is Kyrie as good as Trae?  Most folks would say yes or better.   So you don't think adding someone of equal talent like that to play with Trae would make us contenders.   There's only 5 guys on the court.   Two elite players is huge.  

[JTB]

On 5/25/2024 at 9:33 AM, NBASupes said:

I believe it starts with action and planning.

Dallas realized in year 1, this group around Luka isn't gonna work. They traded everyone in his rookie year and said they are only going to find fits that Luka. 

Did it work, partly but missed on KP like we missed on Murray but Murray got better for us, KP got worse. 

They traded KP in the season for fit and it worked, they went to the WCF. 

The issue was, they realize, they aren't good enough to win a title the next year, they traded for Kyrie who based on their scout seems like a tremendous fit with Luka. Well, they had flashes but athleticism regressed way too much with Kyrie due to the trade. That offseason, they got fits who had the athleticism needed and BBIQ who are optimal fits around heliocentric Luka. P.J., Lively, Gafford, Jones Jr. 

Now they are two games from the NBA Finals. 

What they do?

They aren't scared to trade when shit clearly doesn't work. KP and Grant Williams was traded as soon as they knew for sure it doesn't work. 

They do their homework. They know Luka is heliocentric and you just gotta fit what he does, not him adjusting to what you do. Everyone Says the ball moves a lot better without Luka but their effectiveness is shit without Luka, so what. That means the ball moving more doesn't mean shit. 

The Mavs did this before with Dirk and now with Luka. He knows how to build a team around a star and he doesn't mind making bad decisions and going away from them. 

With the Hawks, I really don't see that. I still don't know if we know how to build around Trae. 

I still don't understand the Bufkin pick for Trae. I understand it for Quin but not for Trae. He's never going to be big enough to be his backcourt mate. Things like this make me think the Hawks don't know Trae or they just don't care. I never got that feeling with the Mavs. All of their picks since Luka has Luka in mind. 

Man this is so true it just hurts to admit it!

On 5/25/2024 at 1:35 PM, terrell said:

Schlenk wasnt even all in before he left..

Now Trae cerebral is taking passive shots at the new F.O.  lol

He did the same with a tweet about Siakam the other day....

 

Well he has a right to! I think we want a star who is just going to shut up and play but if the fit isn’t right than it really need to be heard out loud.

We are going to lose Trae for stupidity reasons.

im all for drafting Sarr at number 1 but we HAVE to get back in the top 8 to take Clingan or Edey just for better fitting purposes. I know folks hate Edey but we are in the perfect draft situation to make two excellent moves to fit around Trae and impact winning.

[KB21]

10 minutes ago, JTB said:

Man this is so true it just hurts to admit it!

Well he has a right to! I think we want a star who is just going to shut up and play but if the fit isn’t right than it really need to be heard out loud.

We are going to lose Trae for stupidity reasons.

im all for drafting Sarr at number 1 but we HAVE to get back in the top 8 to take Clingan or Edey just for better fitting purposes. I know folks hate Edey but we are in the perfect draft situation to make two excellent moves to fit around Trae and impact winning.

Explain to me how a slow moving oafish big who can't defend is a better fit for Trae?

[JTB]

1 hour ago, KB21 said:

Explain to me how a slow moving oafish big who can't defend is a better fit for Trae?

[kg01]

6 minutes ago, JTB said:

I dont care how mad I am or how bad my day is going.  That Bugs Bunny pic/gif always gets me to smile.