2024-25 Insider Thread

[REHawksFan]

40 minutes ago, RedDawg#8 said:

They have about 4 days to reveal an injury or be ready to catch heat for shutting him down.

If it is because of a trade offer, I wonder if him playing so poorly was driving down his value, so the team is hiding him for that too.

If he isn’t playing on opening night, we will know a lot more. 

Why are y'all losing it about him?  I get that not being on the bench for the 2nd half of the Philly game was weird, but he was there for Miami and OKC, right?  

Dre is a KNOWN commodity.  There's nothing he's going to do in preseason to change the opinions of the coaches and fans.  He is what he is.  

He played only 7 fewer minutes than Zacc and 9 fewer than Clint.  And he played some 20 min MORE than Bogie and OO.  Not a big deal, imo.  

[JeffS17]

They gave Kobe and Vit a lot of run.  I think the coaching staff feels like those are the two players that will make the tail end of our rotation this year.

I only caught pieces of yesterdays game and didn't see OO play.  How did he look?

[kg01]

44 minutes ago, JeffS17 said:

They gave Kobe and Vit a lot of run.  I think the coaching staff feels like those are the two players that will make the tail end of our rotation this year.

I only caught pieces of yesterdays game and didn't see OO play.  How did he look?

The same. 

[RedDawg#8]

1 hour ago, REHawksFan said:

Why are y'all losing it about him?  I get that not being on the bench for the 2nd half of the Philly game was weird, but he was there for Miami and OKC, right?  

Dre is a KNOWN commodity.  There's nothing he's going to do in preseason to change the opinions of the coaches and fans.  He is what he is.  

He played only 7 fewer minutes than Zacc and 9 fewer than Clint.  And he played some 20 min MORE than Bogie and OO.  Not a big deal, imo.  

We know OO was rehabbing an injury. We know Bogi was being load managed due to the Olympics. The team said as much.

Dre is a known commodity, but so are Trae and CC who came back out and played that game. They then came out and started the next game. There is no parallel between how he was handled and other known commodities.

If anything, his shooting was so off that it would have made sense to keep playing him until he could get in to a solid rhythm.

Why risk the injury? Well, because we kept playing our best players. Is Dre more valuable than Trae? Nope. And if Dre was being managed he would have been inactive from jump. The last 2 games are the only ones that you can say he was handled in a way that could align with preseason load management.

We knew CC injured his ankle because they told us immediately. Why haven’t they released a statement about an injury for Dre?

The lack of transparency is absolutely a reason to be curious.

[JeffS17]

1 minute ago, RedDawg#8 said:

We know OO was rehabbing an injury. We know Bogi was being load managed due to the Olympics. The team said as much.

Dre is a known commodity, but so are Trae and CC who came back out and played that game. They then came out and started the next game. There is no parallel between how he was handled and other known commodities.

If anything, his shooting was so off that it would have made sense to keep playing him until he could get in to a solid rhythm.

Why risk the injury? Well, because we kept playing our best players. Is Dre more valuable than Trae? Nope. And if Dre was being managed he would have been inactive from jump. The last 2 games are the only ones that you can say he was handled in a way that could align with preseason load management.

We knew CC injured his ankle because they told us immediately. Why haven’t they released a statement about an injury for Dre?

The lack of transparency is absolutely a reason to be curious.

Agree with everything you stated-- a lot of people immediately discount odd behavior as nothing to be worried just as quickly as some people speculate the worst.  Maybe it's a nothing burger but also maybe it's not.

[AHF]

There is something unusual going on with Dre right now.  I’m not spinning up about it until we know more.  Wide range of possibilities and too little information to do anything other than blindly speculate.  I’m mentally pencilling him in for his normal play on the wing unless and until we learn more.  If it is something of consequence, we’ll know soon enough.

[sturt]

1 hour ago, RedDawg#8 said:

If anything, his shooting was so off that it would have made sense to keep playing him until he could get in to a solid rhythm.

This is the kind of comment that would be valid in any other context except for a preseason game.

This drama/issue did have some entertainment value, but folks... it now has the same entertainment value of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman... let's stop, for your own dignity, please. Nothing left to see here.

 

  

1 hour ago, RedDawg#8 said:

The lack of transparency is absolutely a reason to be curious.

Was.

Maybe will be.

Isn't right now.

[Wretch]

2 hours ago, JeffS17 said:

Agree with everything you stated-- a lot of people immediately discount odd behavior as nothing to be worried just as quickly as some people speculate the worst.  Maybe it's a nothing burger but also maybe it's not.

Never a middle ground though...which is where most of us are I think.  Like, it ain't THAT serious for any of us.  I don't feel like Dre is a crybaby or a cancer and TBH, I don't even put stock into a trade.  I vaguely recall some kind of report last year about a difference of opinion¹ between Quin and Dre and if so, I would put more stock into a trivial (and extremely common) "it's internal" situation that will never be publicly addressed.

1 - I'm saying difference of opinion here because people take words on the Internet and run with them.  I'm not saying physical altercation, shouting match, disrespect, hatred, animosity, or anything close to any of these extremes.  I'm also not 100% certain of what I remember, so there's also that.  

[REHawksFan]

1 hour ago, RedDawg#8 said:

We know OO was rehabbing an injury. We know Bogi was being load managed due to the Olympics. The team said as much.

Dre is a known commodity, but so are Trae and CC who came back out and played that game. They then came out and started the next game. There is no parallel between how he was handled and other known commodities.

If anything, his shooting was so off that it would have made sense to keep playing him until he could get in to a solid rhythm.

Why risk the injury? Well, because we kept playing our best players. Is Dre more valuable than Trae? Nope. And if Dre was being managed he would have been inactive from jump. The last 2 games are the only ones that you can say he was handled in a way that could align with preseason load management.

We knew CC injured his ankle because they told us immediately. Why haven’t they released a statement about an injury for Dre?

The lack of transparency is absolutely a reason to be curious.

Well first of all, you didn't say you were just curious about it.  You said, "They have about 4 days to reveal an injury or be ready to catch heat for shutting him down."

That statement struck me as more than just a casual curiosity. If I'm misunderstanding you, then I apologize. 

But to the rest of your post, I just don't agree.  Zacc played 3.5 min/game more than Dre.  Considering that Zacc and Dre are likely battling for the same position, I don't find it odd to give Zacc a little more time with Trae and Jalen so properly evaluate him.  Again, we all know exactly what Dre is and isn't.  There's no mystery there.  They didn't have to play him at all this preseason in terms of evaluation. 

Dre has had a long training camp and played in 2 games, averaging about 19 min per game.  I just don't see anything worth "catching heat" for.  And again, I agree that it was weird that Dre wasn't on the bench for the 2nd half against Philly.  That's the ONLY part of this that strikes me as odd though.  

[RedDawg#8]

Just now, REHawksFan said:

Well first of all, you didn't say you were just curious about it.  You said, "They have about 4 days to reveal an injury or be ready to catch heat for shutting him down."

That statement struck me as more than just a casual curiosity. If I'm misunderstanding you, then I apologize. 

But to the rest of your post, I just don't agree.  Zacc played 3.5 min/game more than Dre.  Considering that Zacc and Dre are likely battling for the same position, I don't find it odd to give Zacc a little more time with Trae and Jalen so properly evaluate him.  Again, we all know exactly what Dre is and isn't.  There's no mystery there.  They didn't have to play him at all this preseason in terms of evaluation. 

Dre has had a long training camp and played in 2 games, averaging about 19 min per game.  I just don't see anything worth "catching heat" for.  And again, I agree that it was weird that Dre wasn't on the bench for the 2nd half against Philly.  That's the ONLY part of this that strikes me as odd though.  

Fair, and by catching heat I meant that they won’t get the same grace once the regular season begins. We can brush it off now as being preseason and the fact teams aren’t required to disclose injuries. But if they are still holding him out when the season starts they will have to have an answer. If they say it’s an injury then we can move on. But if they say he’s perfectly healthy as they have so far, then there are going to be big questions. The key premise of that position is if Dre doesn't play next week. If he does play and they don’t say anything, then we are left with speculation about what happened this week, but we move on regardless.

 

[deester11]

3 hours ago, REHawksFan said:

Why are y'all losing it about him?  I get that not being on the bench for the 2nd half of the Philly game was weird, but he was there for Miami and OKC, right?  

Dre is a KNOWN commodity.  There's nothing he's going to do in preseason to change the opinions of the coaches and fans.  He is what he is.  

He played only 7 fewer minutes than Zacc and 9 fewer than Clint.  And he played some 20 min MORE than Bogie and OO.  Not a big deal, imo.  

Who the hell is trippin about Hunter?  You stated it..we know who he is, what he is...and what he ain't.  He's a KNOWN commode. Trade him so we can get on with our lives!

[RedDawg#8]

1 hour ago, REHawksFan said:

But to the rest of your post, I just don't agree.  Zacc played 3.5 min/game more than Dre.  Considering that Zacc and Dre are likely battling for the same position, I don't find it odd to give Zacc a little more time with Trae and Jalen so properly evaluate him.  Again, we all know exactly what Dre is and isn't.  There's no mystery there.  They didn't have to play him at all this preseason in terms of evaluation. 

Dre has had a long training camp and played in 2 games, averaging about 19 min per game.  I just don't see anything worth "catching heat" for.  And again, I agree that it was weird that Dre wasn't on the bench for the 2nd half against Philly.  That's the ONLY part of this that strikes me as odd though.  

I can make a concession that maybe Dre was only supposed to play a certain amount of minutes and he met that number by halftime against Philly.

But to your point and what has been the red flag about all of this, why did he not sit on the bench after halftime

This would not have been a topic had he sat there and watched the 2nd half with the rest of his teammates.

Nobody would care about sitting out game 3+4 like Zacch did. It’s all about how that was handled.

[warcore]

54 minutes ago, deester11 said:

He's a KNOWN commode.

 

 

I mean you're not wrong.... 

Edited Friday at 06:50 PM by warcore

[Spud2nique]

Lebron baby  

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBGXgquo6Oe/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[JayBirdHawk]

1 hour ago, deester11 said:

He's a KNOWN commode.

 

[Final_quest]

57 minutes ago, RedDawg#8 said:

I can make a concession that maybe Dre was only supposed to play a certain amount of minutes and he met that number by halftime against Philly.

But to your point and what has been the red flag about all of this, why did he not sit on the bench after halftime

This would not have been a topic had he sat there and watched the 2nd half with the rest of his teammates.

Nobody would care about sitting out game 3+4 like Zacch did. It’s all about how that was handled.

A lot was answered the day after when the Hawks Twitter account posted a Hunter appreciation post.  It says to me they aren't going to make a big deal over anything that happened, if in fact anything happened at all.  

My best guess is Hunter got irritated at half time and showed his ass, and Quin told him to take the night off.  That or he just had a family thing that he got approval to leave early.  

[REHawksFan]

1 hour ago, RedDawg#8 said:

I can make a concession that maybe Dre was only supposed to play a certain amount of minutes and he met that number by halftime against Philly.

But to your point and what has been the red flag about all of this, why did he not sit on the bench after halftime

This would not have been a topic had he sat there and watched the 2nd half with the rest of his teammates.

Nobody would care about sitting out game 3+4 like Zacch did. It’s all about how that was handled.

I've already agreed that it was a weird look.  I just think in the preseason it doesn't rise to the level of anything major.  The team doesn't have to divulge anything and they didn't.  The actual issue could be anything under the sun.  It was weird in the moment but the fact that he was on the bench with the team two days later tells me it was nothing that has lingered so I'm not sure why it's still being questioned.  

 

[sturt]

26 minutes ago, REHawksFan said:

I just think in the preseason it doesn't rise to the level of anything major.

 

       

 

[terrell]

22 hours ago, AHF said:

I would not say he never had a chance to be the starter.  His health got in the way.  Availability is the most important ability as they say.  See last year.  CC got hurt so OO went on a streak of nice games as the starter.  Then OO suffered yet another injury.  You can't seize the job when you can't stay on the floor.

He also didn't perform as well as CC.  The fact that neither Nate nor Quin turned the role over to OO, imo, says that both thought CC was the better option.  That doesn't mean you didn't have a chance to be a starter but when the starter is outperforming you then it is on you for failing to seize the job.  And I'm not just talking about the defensive force that Capela was during the ECF run.  Last year Capela played 25.8 minutes a game.  OO played 25.5 minutes a game.  What did they average in the same amount of time?

Clint:  11.5 points, 10.6 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, 0.6 steals

OO:  10.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.1 blocks, 0.5 steals

OO needs to look in the mirror to see who has kept him out of the starting role not to the coach or front office.

Just sayin we traded for a starting center then drafted another one with the 6th pick....

The same would go for trading for a starting wing, when we just drafted our future one at #1......

That's what I meant... lol

[terrell]

22 hours ago, Wretch said:

No argument about his contract.  If he were paid less, this deal wouldn't even be on the table.  It's not about MPJ though.  Players that draw a lot of attention to the paint need shooters.  This is LeBron, Giannis, Shaq, Dwight Howard, etc.  You put shooters around these guys to open the game up.

He's not a big, but Trae draws that same kind of gravity to the paint.  We rode that all the way to the ECF's and it all that came to a screeching halt when teams started packing the lane and forcing another Hawk to step up.  We haven't recovered since.  DJM was an failed experiment to alleviate the problem and get Trae off the ball.

Trae needs a big man that can command a double and pass it out or he needs shot up shooters (both is a championship formula).  MPJ is an elite shooter and MUCH better rebounder than Dre.  He's an ideal fit if he's healthy.  We're overpaying on the contract sure, but I don't care about that mediocre 1st or the loss of depth.

As far as OO...  The front office made a commitment to win games.  Capela didn't block OO's growth, he was brought in as a veteran to help Trae compete.  He was not our C of the future.  The plan was always to groom OO for that.  Be it health or performance, he never took the leap and we're still waiting.

If we're tryin to win games, then starting a rookie probably isn't the best bet.  This isn't a thing for playoff teams.  Not unless the rookie is just sensational.  In which case, there's no one in the front court that will keep him on the bench regardless of what moves we make.  That said, unless one of these tall dudes can guard the two, a decision on the wings would have to be made between Risacher, MPJ, and JJ

Defensively...I don't know that MPJ is a bad defender.  I think he's probably an average defender, but because he's not a defensive standout people immediately scream "HELL NAW WE NEED SOME DEFANSE!" and all of a sudden everyone who isn't DD is a liability.  I don't follow him that tight, but whatever he is defensively...it hasn't stopped Denver from contending and winning a title. 

They found a way to make it work, but his back will always make you question if he has mobility issues on D.

We just drafted a shooter #1 overall.. Thats all Im sayin

Edited Friday at 09:24 PM by terrell