I want to see the Hawks win an NBA Championship. Don’t you? That has to be the goal of everybody in the organization. We officially have one, 1958 St Louis Hawks.
I believe this team can be the team to do it, if they play as a team. It’s wide open in the NBA. This team should be better than last years and even the year before that.
We are supposed to have our own “Big 3”. We saw the possibilities earlier this summer. We have not seen it translate on the court yet.
I believe in the players on this team. However that does not mean I am not critical of players. There is a difference between criticism and hate. I do not hate any players. I want to see players play at their best regularly and if they don’t, I will speak on it. Always have, always will. Team could go 0-82 but if they play as hard as they can and play to the best of their abilities and still get beat, so be it. I’ve said that for 30 years.
That being said, I want to comment on the post-game comments of Murray the other night.
You have fans saying Murray was calling out Trae when it comes to playing as a team. Hold on a minute. Let’s make sure the focus is placed equally on both players that have the ball in their hands more than anybody on this team.
First of all, I’ve said from the very start that Trae has to be a better decision maker in certain situations. He can’t shoot from half court all the time, can’t have 10 turnovers in a game. That is being selfish. I’ve said also that if that is happening, coach can’t allow him to do it, because that directly hurts the team. However, when I hear people say Trae doesn’t do things because he doesn’t trust his teammates, I feel that is incorrect. If you have Trae voicing his frustration over the offensive direction its because of exactly that, lack of direction. He isn’t able to distribute as much as he would like to because of what the offense is. We have no movement “without” the ball. Nobody cuts to the basket. Trae should be averaging 15 or more assists every night. He wants to do that. Because we have no alternatives if the PNR doesn’t work, he tries to score, even if the shot is not a good one. And I’m not saying that you try to remove Trae’s DNA when it comes to his ability to be clutch and wanting to make the big shots. I do feel that he can make better decisions on when to do that, especially in the 4th quarter. Scary thing is, the offense we have is the correct offense, with one big difference. I will explain later in the article.
I’ve watched Murray look off folks all season and shoot the ball, no passes. We all have. He has shot team out of games. As I said in a past video, you can shoot a team out game by missing and hitting shots. That Cavs game he was 4-17, 1-4 from 3, 4 turnovers, but both AJ and John were shut out, despite 7-11 and 5-8 shooting (John got 1 shot in the 4th and missed). That Houston game, he took 24 shots and Trae had 28, both of them waved people out the way so they could iso, we lose that game by 6 to a team with 3 wins all season. Whole season has been about isolation and the pick and roll and that’s it. If nothing comes out of PNR, they go to isolation. There has been no movement, nobody cuts to basket, players stand behind 3 point line. Shot chart shows all of this, quarter by quarter, which I’ve shown that all year. Nothing has been consistent. We watched them play a complete game against Bucks on the road, come home and get blown out by Boston on national TV. I was at that game, fighting Boston fans all night. Did you see the video I did outside State Farm right after the game?
We have had more than enough talent, players have been regulated to bench just based on rotational decisions. But as I’ve said five years ago, if a player is playing bad, or not doing what coach is “telling” him to do, he has to be benched foe a period of time. We have other players that can produce. We have players that can block out and get boards, we have other players that can pass, and move without ball, we have players that can hit open jumpers and some that can create a shot as well. We have had a deep team all year, they have to be allowed to play. It’s not about ability, cause that is obvious when they get more than 5 to 10 minutes a game and have actual “usage”.
Coach controls everything. Can’t keep absolving the main job of a coach. The job is to put players in the best position to succeed, take advantage of their strengths and minimize weaknesses. All the other coaches do it, yearly. The job also is to instill discipline. Goal is to win games, so if a players actions or game play doesn’t put team in best position, a decision has to be made to take a way minutes. There has to be a consequence to messing up. Until that happens you have anarchy. Players can’t be allowed to do whatever, but especially not to iso Joe it each game.
If players do not have the self awareness they are hurting the team, the coach has to do something. To do not do anything makes him complicit on the game result. Coach can easily tell a player “stop shooting 3s” or “need you to drive to basket more” or “need you to set some screens” or “need you to stay with your man” or “I need you to block out more” and if it doesn’t immediately happen, that player has to be benched. Playing time is the only thing a player has that they can’t control. Only the head coach can put you in the game or take you out.
No team is perfect. But when you have a plan to have the team play as a team, imperfections can be masked. We haven’t only played pick and roll for 5 seasons. We had more motion the first 3 years and also John was the primary roll. John can also pick and pop and also he finishes at a rate higher than anybody on team and one of the best finishers in the NBA (78% from 0-5 feet, CC 59% and OO 71%). Yet John has been regulated to shoot 3’s all season, posted up in corner coming down court every time.
When you go to games and see this in person, it hurts cause you know the team is better. When you know what happened last year, this year was supposed to be different. All the issues were supposed to be fixed. We don’t have a plan on offense and we still play no defense on a regular basis. We still don’t do the basics of defense . If we did, we win that Houston game despite two players having all the shots. We would have blocked out, got back on defense and wouldn’t overhelp to the tune of the 2nd chance points, rebounds and points in the paint we gave up.
I produced an episode of Around The ATL on Kevin per the uproar made over his start of season to one, show what he did in 34 games (1st 20 of last year plus 14 games we lost by 13 pts or less). I included the first 20 and showed the games he did well. But the majority of the games he didn’t and we really needed him to. Trae needed help from both sg and sf last year. I also included John’s games and also Trae’s games to show John’s usage, his good games and bad and Trae to show what happened when players didn’t help and when they did. I also showed the final score to show if we had just played defense, we win game anyway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHXLpqC7qRo&t=112s
You can’t get rid of all of the players just because. Can’t have it where LP was good at x’s and o’s but not great with players and Nate is great with players not not great with x’s and o’s. We need to have both. And also you need a coach that will actually initiate true discipline on the court. Other teams have that, and have had it for awhile. Players want to be coached. You have to have something to execute. Someone said players just need to hit shots if all we do is PNR. I say, why not make the shots “easier”? Layups are better than 1 dribble 3s. 10 foot jumper is better than a contested 3. We “don’t” have to shoot 3’s all the time. You can blow a team out hitting 2’s. Going 8-32 from 3 ain’t the move. We don’t have a defense that can hold that up. And even if we did, wouldn’t be right.
We should be running curls for Hunter and Murray. They proficient at midrange. We should be running high and low post for players. Give and go off rubs. John is a good passer. John should be getting the ball 15 ft away from basket or right at basket when he has fought for position and won it. We should be setting screens for shooters. Murray is good at catch and shoot 3s. So is Trae. So is Hunter. So is AJ. And now Bogi is back. AH hits, JH hits. There should be nobody standing for 16 seconds behind the 3 point line ever. Players should always be moving. Trae will find you every time. John can find you. Murray can find you. We have seen it, but only a few times out the whole season. Cut to basket.
Of course on defense, we don’t do it each night. We give up 50 plus points in paint each game. You can win some games like that, if you’re doing the other things. Against Orlando, we rotated better, switched better, didn’t overhelp as much but if we did, rotations made up for it. Blocking out is important, find your man when shot goes up. We have no discipline when it comes to that, same with overhelping. You have players with their backs to their man, they have no idea who they are guarding and you see 3 players on 1 guy sometimes. Getting back on defense, we give up just enough fast break points to let teams back into games for no reason. But even all of that can be negated by having offensive possessions that result in a made shot or a good shot taken but missed. We you don’t use the shot clock, a 16 point Lea can easily be made up, as the team has time to come back (per extra possessions).
I just want to see the best of this team each night. As a ticket holder, I’m not asking for a lot. I don’t care if team goes 0-82, if they played as hard as they can at their best and still lose, so be it. But knowing they can play better and watch them lose to teams they have no business losing to is not right. Hornets? Houston (3 wins till the played us, beat us last year too 132 to 126). The Cavs game? Philly without Harden and Maxey? Boston is in 1st, but how we lose by 30 after beating the Bucks?
The plan needs to be better. Discipline needs to be constant. If the coach can’t give that we need someone that can do it. At this point, we need someone that either is a specialist on the offensive or defensive end, or, a coach that has championship experience. Meaning they have won one (as a player or a coach). We have to have implementation of not just winning games, but having the ability to win playoff series.
Last year, if not for the new format, Hawks would have been out of the playoffs. Team finished 9th in conference, 39 losses. We had an ugly first round exit. Trae was shut down (purposely by Miami), John was playing hurt (probably shouldn’t been floor at all but he was), Hunter was balling, Kevin gave team 12, 4, 13, 9, and 8 points in 5 games, and we were out. If we had gotten K’von like we did that Philly game, we beat Miami. I said it then and I say it now. We need more than 12 points a game from Kevin last year. I was one of Kevin’s biggest fan, if you watched any of my videos, listened to Around The ATL or read posts you know that. I called him “Red Mamba” from jump. But last year, he got the extension after averaging 12 points a game and that 27 point game in Philly. We needed 18 to 19 a night last year every game. Instead we got 12 or less.
There are games that you have to ask, could a player have pulled back some to make the game easier to win? Could a player pull back some to make sure the team wins the game? What do players have to try to do to compensate for when players are either missing shots or not getting shots? And why can’t the coach “coach” the players into doing something different? Why can’t we have an alternative to “chucking shots up with no passes made”?
You have to have something to execute when things go bad.
Here are some examples of this, and I’m including games where players “did” have a good shooting night as well. I’m leading off with Murray, because of the contention that he isn’t the one playing selfish all the time.
Murray had a game where he has gone 5-16 from the floor, 2-8 from 3, 2 assists. Trae in that game was 4-16 from the floor, 1-8 from three, had 14 assists. John was 11-17 in that game. Miami wins that game 106-98.
Murray had a game where he was 5-16 from the floor, 1-4 from 3, 4 assists. John had his worst shooting night of his career, 3-12 from floor, 0-7 from 3. Trae was 11-19 from floor, 4-7 from 3, 7 assists. We beat Kings 115-106, but barely, at home.
Murray had a game where he went 7-18, 1-6 from 3, 4 assists. Trae was 12-21, 2-4 from 3, 12 assists. John had 4 shots in that game before fouling out. Hawks beat Toronto in OT 124-122.
Murray had a game where he was 9-23 from the floor, 1-4 from 3, he did have 7 assists. Trae was 8-18, 2-7 from 3, had 11 assists. John had 6 shots in that game. Hawks lose to Philly 121-109.
Murray had a game where he was 9-23 from the field, 1-8 from 3, had 11 assists. Trae in that game was 9-26, 2-9 from 3, 10 assists. John had 6 shots that game. Pelicans win 124-121.
Murray had a game where he was 14-27 from the floor, 5-12 from 3, 9 assists, 5 steals. Trae was 7-22, 2-7 from 3, 7 assists. John had 10 shots in that game. AJ had 2 shots. Hawks beat the Knicks 112-99.
Murray had a game where he was 11-20 from floor, 1-5 from 3, 7 assists. Trae was 10-28, 2-5 from 3, 9 assists. John was 6-8, 1-1 from 3. Utah beats the Hawks at home 125-119.
Murray had a game where he was 7-19 from the floor, 3-6 from 3, 4 assists. Trae was 3-17, 1-6 from 3, 6 assists, 6 turnovers. John was 6-10, 3-5 from 3. Hawks lose to the Cavs 105-99.
Murray had a game where he was 4-17 from the floor, 1-4 from 3, 6 assists, 4 turnovers. Trae was 10-22 from the floor, 1-7 from 3, 10 assists, 6 turnovers. John was 5-9 from the floor, 3-5 from 3, (he had 8 shots through 3 quarters, got 1 shot in the 4th, missed it). AJ was 7-11 for that game, 3-6 from 3. Hit 2 shots in the 4th and didn’t get another shot. This was the aforementioned Cavs game where the Hawks lost 114-102.
Murray had a game where he was 7-15 from the floor, 2-4 from 3, 5 assists, 4 turnovers. Trae was 9-25 from the floor, 2-8 from 3. 9 assists. John had a bad game, 3-12 from the floor, 0-7 from 3. J Holiday was 1-7 from 3. AJ was 3-4 from the floor, 2-3 from 3, played 6:27. Hornets win 126-109.
Murray had a game where he was 9-19 from the floor, 3-5 from 3, 6 assists. Trae was 15-32 from the floor, 5-10 from 3, 5 assists. John was 2-4. Hawks lost to the Bucks, 123-115.
On 12/6/22, the Hawks played OKC at home. John and Hunter were injured. Bogi was playing his 2nd game.
Murray was 10-21, 3-5 from 3, 6 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 3 turnovers. Trae was 6-19, 1-7 from 3, 10 assists, 4 turnovers (missed the previous game w sore shoulder). AJ went 4-15, 3-9 from 3. Bogi was 6-15 from floor, 5-10 from 3, played 22 min. All night we heard Brian Oliver and Nique talk about too much iso, OKC isn’t big enough, moving the ball from side to side, got to get stops. Did we move the ball side to side all night? No. Did we take advantage of the fact OKC had no size? No. Did we stop taking 1 dribble shots with no passes? No. Did we get stops? No. How do we know this?
In the first half, the Hawks shot 24-49 for 49%. 8-20 from 3 for 40%. OKC shot 24-51 for 47%. 5-16 from 3 for 31%.
In the second half, the Hawks shot 20-53 for 37%. 5-18 from 3 for 27%. OKC shot 19-44 for 43%. 7/18 from 3 for 38%. OKC had 58 points in the paint. 17 second chance points. 19 fast break points. Hawks had 18 turnovers. Hawks had a 14 point lead. Hawks lost by 7 points.
So was it impossible to curb AJ’s shots tonight? He was off. He was 1-5 in the 4th. JJ had 2 shots in the 4th quarter.
Could Bogi’s minutes been switched for him to be available 2nd half of the 4th rather than the 1st half of the 4th?
Could there have been a concentration on making 4 or 5 passes to get the best shot? Rather than going up with an immediate shot, allowing OKC to take the ball down the court and get a shot, sometimes an “And 1”? That happens a lot when we throw up a 3 point shot.
Clint was 2-5 in the 4th. We couldn’t go to him more? Nobody was going to block his shot. He has been more aggressive lately in the post. No, he doesn’t finish at the highest rate on team (from 0-5 feet John hits at 78%, OO hits at 71%, CC hits at 59%). But still, an easier 2 is better than a 3 you’re not hitting.
Murray was 3-8 in the 4th.
Trae was 2-6 in the 4th.
Hawks had 4 assists in the 4th quarter. 2 by Trae and 2 by JJ.
How do we keep getting beat like this? We can’t beat good teams nor bad teams nor middle of the road teams playing like this. We have the 11 losses to prove that. OKC was 10-13, beat us at home.
These games that I have broken down are 12 games where our two starting guards are taking the majority of the shot attempts. Our record in these games? 3-9. That’s all I care about, wins vs losses. What do ya’ll care about? A player showing up another player? Trash talking? Patting someone on the head? That’s what we saw in that Houston game. If you do all that, you have to win the game. Understand this, I don’t mind the spirit of competition. I’m not saying to tone down what is already built inside any of the players. But there is a time or place for everything, I’m sure you agree with that. We weren’t 20 points down in these games, where you could understand some volume shooting, because you’re trying to come back. But we had the lead in many of these losses. When we play as a team and everybody touches the ball and are involved we win those games, we are dominant in those games.
My co-host of Around The ATL Jordan Jackson (@jordan23atl on Twitter) had mentioned to me a statement by Magic Johnson. To paraphrase, “first 3 quarters do your thing, but the 4th quarter is winning time. So you have to make sure that all plays are basketball plays to help win the game. You can’t make mistakes”. Those mistakes include turnovers, poor shot selection, not playing defense, not getting the ball to the players that are making shots, etc. That has happened a lot the past two seasons but especially in the first 20 plus games of the 2022 season.
Are you sure we couldn’t have had more wins and a few easier victories with just a little bit better plan of action? And/or, better decisions from our primary ball handlers? And why couldn’t coach do anything? He has a right to tell players to stop taking bad shots, or to stop looking off players, to be more careful with the ball. But most importantly, he has the ability to run something that would prevent errant shots, shutting players out of the game, etc. He can instruct, and if players go against the instructions, put in another player that will execute the instructions, if instructions are being made. Winning the game has to be the only goal for everybody.
The coaching staff operates as a team, just like the players on the floor. Whether you have a coach that is good at x’s and o’s but doesn’t mesh with players well or if you have a coach that meshes with players but is not the best x and o guy, you need a team of coaches around that person to help out. Melvin Hunt not being on the team makes a difference and not because he isn’t here to throw chairs around. Melvin came up through the Rockets organization initially with Rudy T. Eventually he was on the Mike Brown staff on the Cavs from 2005-2010 (got to the Finals, had a 66 win season, etc). After that he went to Denver. Hunt was interim coach for a short period, going 7-5. One of the things he did was implement an offense that worked for the current Denver team. Read the following synopsis written by writer Adam Mares of SB Nation: “While some new offensive sets have been put in, the biggest change has come from giving the players a green light to make plays and take shots at their discretion. Hunt has given his players a huge amount of trust to play the right way and for the most part, the team has responded by sharing the basketball and playing for each other.
Hunt emphasizes spacing the court first and reacting to the defense and to each other. Players cut and fill spots around the perimeter while leaving the paint open for dribble penetration and cuts to the basket.” (Adam Mares-SB Nation).
Sounds familiar right? Giving players a huge amount of trust to play the right way and make plays. The problem is, this team isn’t following the 2nd part of that quote. We are not spacing the court, reacting to the defense, cutting, filling spots around the perimeter and leaving the paint open for dribble penetration and cutting to the basket. We don’t do any of that. We “stand” behind the 3 point line for the entire shot clock. Nobody cuts to the basket. Nobody moves to a different spot on the perimeter reacting to the defense. Nobody dribble penetrates on a regular basis. And there is nothing from the coaching staff to say “ok, ya’ll doing what you want isn’t working, we need to get the ball to John or AJ”, or whoever is being productive for the game. Again, remember the Cavs game? John was 5-8 with 16 points and got the ball 1 time for the whole 2nd half. AJ ended 7-11 and 2 of those shots were in the 4th, didn’t touch the ball again. We lost that game, we didn’t win, we lost. High post. Low post. Curl for Hunter, curl for Murray. Screen for a shot for AJ, or Murray or Tray. Give and go. We do none of these things.
So with the OKC game, once it was apparent that OKC was not going away, that they were hitting shots, what was the plan? We have blown multiple leads of 14 points or more in the last few weeks, we had another 14 point lead, and we lost the game. We stopped moving the ball from side to side, stop driving to basket, didn’t cut to basket, no post ups. We did nothing but shoot jumpers.
But many of the issues we have had the last 5 seasons would almost be negated if we simply played defense each and every night. We have a ton of games we have lost by 10 points or less (Again refer to this video where I breakdown the first 20 games of last year as well as 14 games we lost by 13 points or less https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHXLpqC7qRo&t=113s ). If we just played basic defense, we win the majority of our games. We averaged 113 points a game last season and gave up 112. This year we average 114 points per game and give up 113 points per game. You can’t consistently win like that. You either have to score more points per game to win, always hit a game winning shot to avoid overtime, etc, etc. What if we just gave up 108 points a game? Where would this team be??? Why can’t we do that??
Look at the final scores of the games we lost. Coach couldn’t tell them what to do in order to get stops on defense? If he “is” telling them to “play harder, give more effort” or all the things I keep bringing up every week for 5 years (stop overhelping, fight through screens, block out, get back on defense, rotate better, etc) and it doesn’t happen, why does he allow players to stay on the floor hurting the team? The tape says they are not focused on defense, because they keep doing it each game. The difference in games that they do win, is the effort is better. That is not going to be enough against great teams, not in the playoffs. Eventually, you have to stop teams. What have I been saying forever? “The other team missing shots is not defense”. We don’t even double team the players that hurt us. We will legit watch a player come down several times and score and we do nothing. That Philly game we watched Shake get 4 layups and hit a 3. We saw Joel get several buckets in a row, even one time had Murray on him and Clint didn’t switch nor double, just left Murray hanging. Why?? We didn’t double Bam when it was obvious he wasn’t going to miss, remember I mentioned that game earlier? What was the final score? We really let Kelly Oubre Jr drop 24 on us. We let Scottie Barnes shoot 5-9 from 3, 21 for the game. We let Lauri get 32, but we couldn’t stop Malik Beasley from coming off the bench and getting 18???? SGA put 35 points on the Hawks, all around the basket.
The Houston game was lost because of that mindset, that other team will eventually miss shots instead of stopping them. Because even with Trae and Murray going for 80 points, we win that game if the “team” blocked out (22 offensive rebounds given up, 59 rebounds total given up, 37 2nd chance points), if we got back on defense (15 fast break points), if we knew how to switch and rotate (54 points given up in the paint). Hawks were up 16 points in that game because Houston turned the ball over and missed shots. Soon as they stopped turning the ball over and starting hitting shots, you saw what happened. And we had no answer for it. That’s a problem. John was waved off several times by both Trae and Murray if you remember me saying this earlier in this article.
John has gotten less shots per game for 3 straight years. His 2nd year he gave this team 19 and 9. 3rd year 21 and 10. For some reason, he started getting less usage after that. He gets 9 shots or less a game now. He is a career 55% shooter, better than anybody on team (Clint doesn’t shoot jumpers, because nobody has told him he has to improve there). He is 36% from 3 for his career despite shooting 21% this year. That’s better than anybody on team including Trae, Murray, Hunter, everyone except Bogi, who is career 38%. But somehow, don’t use John anymore is the move. All the other power forwards in the NBA get 15 shots or more, and they get the ball in their spots. John wants to win, he wants to win as an Atlanta Hawk. Listen to his interview on Around The ATL a few years ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxsmhKeVVwo&t=1386s
Hunter got his extension. I like Hunter. However, his defense has not been as consistent from when he first started. He averaged 13 a game last year. We needed more. If he played like he did in Miami for the entire season, we finish higher in the East. Hunter was the number 4 pick. This year he is still haphazardly giving us great games or not so good games. At moment, he is at 15 points and 4 rebounds a game. We need him to be consistent. Are we not supposed to expect that for some reason?
Clint is having a good season, rebounds are right there at top of league again at 12 a game, he gives us 11 points a game. His overall defense has helped team for sure this year. He still has weaknesses with certain centers and yes, he misses those chip shots in front of the rim. But he has been playing with more aggression in the post the last few games, if he keeps that up, we should give him more chances. Along with John!!
Our bench is better than last year if they are used. They are better defensively. Gallo averaged 11 a game last year, but he didn’t play defense. Lou avg 6 a game, he didn’t play defense. Bogi gave us 15 a game, he was ok on defense. Holidays give you team defense and on ball defense and both hit shots. JJ gets you boards, and he also can distribute and get shots. AJ gives you consistent energy, steals (had 3 last night) and if he gets the shots can get you 15 plus a night. OO hasn’t had a good season overall, but he still finishes inside, he has added a jumper, gets you boards and blocks as well. Culver been on been on the bench all year, per injuries, finally getting time and he boards and can score some. This again shows that if players are not playing well, we do have other players that can take their place for a time and you don’t lose much.
Management of course has everything to do with direction of the team, both coaching and players. Do you remember what we used to have??
We are definitely at an advantage with Travis being here. “Trust in Schlenk” is still the move, but he does have the task of having to make a decision on how long to wait before making decisive decisions on direction. Last year Trae led league in points “and” assists and it was brushed off because of our 39 losses, 9th place finish and ugly elimination in the first round. Only one other player in NBA history has done that. Trae is averaging 25 and 9 for his career. No other Hawks have done that. If Trae plays 15 years he will be in the top 5 all time in points and assists. Think about that for a second, a player that many didn’t want, that nobody figured would be in the league after a few years “because he is too small”, could be an all time NBA leader in two major categories. Nique has a statue, Trae will definitely have one.
But we need a championship.
This team should not have 11 losses. Teams shouldn’t know what we are going to do each possession. Teams should never think they can come back from a 20 point deficit. We have too much talent.
Leadership matters. Discipline matters. Winning matters, which is why I did a show based on that. It has to come from both players and coaching staff. It is necessary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtNrjTe3G1Q&t=30s
The team made a decision to go with a coach that didn’t have head coaching experience initially. Then, went to a coach with experience, but without a resume of being great with a game plan. Also, the past resume with former teams doesn’t give you much confidence anything can change. I think you have to make a change in either one or two ways. One, we have to get assistant coaches that that are specialists, either on offense or defense, with a proven track record of success. Meaning, he was part of a staff that saw their team advance to multiple conference finals, advance to the NBA Championship, maybe have an NBA championship win (as a coach or player). Or, we have to get a head coach that has done those things. To do anything less risks wasting the careers of the players we have now and not seeing the full potential of everybody.
Doug Collins wasn’t going to bring the Bulls a championship. They made the change to Phil. Phil brought in systems and discipline. 6 rings. Using Scott Williams, Cliff Levingston, Bill Cartwright, Bill Wennington, Jud Buchler, Luc Longley, Randy Brown, Steve Kerr, John Paxon, Craig Hodges, Will Purdue, Stacey King, Dickie Simpkins, etc……
Scotty Robertson wasn’t going to bring the Pistons a championship. Daly was brought in there.
Rick Carlisle had won NBA Coach of the Year with the Pistons. They still brought in Larry Brown after a few seasons, they win a ring.
Lue replaced a coach that had just made it to the Finals, went on to 3 straight Finals and got a ring.
Casey was replaced by Nurse in Toronto despite winning games. Nurse got them a ring.
Nate is a great coach, I like Nate. But do you really feel he is the guy? That he can put this team over the top? If his resume had a championship, or eastern conference championship, or several appearances in conference finals, you may give a bit more time. He didn’t do that. You don’t get rid of great players to fit a coach, you get a coach to fit the players. Teams that do that have won, to do the opposite….
Trae wants to win badly. He wanted to take the team to the playoffs his rookie season. And to this day I saw we should have made the playoffs Trae’s first 2 seasons for sure. Nobody could stop us scoring, we just couldn’t stop anybody. We were in the Eastern Conference Finals. Do you remember what Trae was doing during the 2020 playoffs? It was not a fluke. Trae wanting to win badly is a good thing and a bad thing, because it blinds him sometimes with his decision making. I again will say his frustration is due to fact that the things that worked in 2020 was removed in 2021 and no adjustments have been made in 2022. Trae loves passing the ball. I said in Trae’s summer league that he is trying to get 20 assists and if he had NBA starters with him, he would have did it. He is trying to get 15 assists a game. Our offense should be built on that. Every time, each and every time we have a play cut to basket or move without the ball, Trae finds the open player. Every time. Yet, our team doesn’t do it. Team hasn’t been trained to do it. There is no philosophy to do it. It is not natural. That’s a problem. Bogi does per how he has played his whole career. You saw him tonight forcing the issue. AJ does per playing college ball with one of the best college coaches of all time. But why can’t the whole team do it, all the time, each game??
For the Hawks to finally get a ring, they have to do something and have to do it now. Will they???
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Article by Chris Royster
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We can’t be a one dimensional team and expect to win, not when we have 2 guards like Trae and Murray
I want to see the Hawks win an NBA Championship. Don’t you? That has to be the goal of everybody in the organization. We officially have one, 1958 St Louis Hawks.
I believe this team can be the team to do it, if they play as a team. It’s wide open in the NBA. This team should be better than last years and even the year before that.
We are supposed to have our own “Big 3”. We saw the possibilities earlier this summer. We have not seen it translate on the court yet.
I believe in the players on this team. However that does not mean I am not critical of players. There is a difference between criticism and hate. I do not hate any players. I want to see players play at their best regularly and if they don’t, I will speak on it. Always have, always will. Team could go 0-82 but if they play as hard as they can and play to the best of their abilities and still get beat, so be it. I’ve said that for 30 years.
That being said, I want to comment on the post-game comments of Murray the other night.
You have fans saying Murray was calling out Trae when it comes to playing as a team. Hold on a minute. Let’s make sure the focus is placed equally on both players that have the ball in their hands more than anybody on this team.
First of all, I’ve said from the very start that Trae has to be a better decision maker in certain situations. He can’t shoot from half court all the time, can’t have 10 turnovers in a game. That is being selfish. I’ve said also that if that is happening, coach can’t allow him to do it, because that directly hurts the team. However, when I hear people say Trae doesn’t do things because he doesn’t trust his teammates, I feel that is incorrect. If you have Trae voicing his frustration over the offensive direction its because of exactly that, lack of direction. He isn’t able to distribute as much as he would like to because of what the offense is. We have no movement “without” the ball. Nobody cuts to the basket. Trae should be averaging 15 or more assists every night. He wants to do that. Because we have no alternatives if the PNR doesn’t work, he tries to score, even if the shot is not a good one. And I’m not saying that you try to remove Trae’s DNA when it comes to his ability to be clutch and wanting to make the big shots. I do feel that he can make better decisions on when to do that, especially in the 4th quarter. Scary thing is, the offense we have is the correct offense, with one big difference. I will explain later in the article.
I’ve watched Murray look off folks all season and shoot the ball, no passes. We all have. He has shot team out of games. As I said in a past video, you can shoot a team out game by missing and hitting shots. That Cavs game he was 4-17, 1-4 from 3, 4 turnovers, but both AJ and John were shut out, despite 7-11 and 5-8 shooting (John got 1 shot in the 4th and missed). That Houston game, he took 24 shots and Trae had 28, both of them waved people out the way so they could iso, we lose that game by 6 to a team with 3 wins all season. Whole season has been about isolation and the pick and roll and that’s it. If nothing comes out of PNR, they go to isolation. There has been no movement, nobody cuts to basket, players stand behind 3 point line. Shot chart shows all of this, quarter by quarter, which I’ve shown that all year. Nothing has been consistent. We watched them play a complete game against Bucks on the road, come home and get blown out by Boston on national TV. I was at that game, fighting Boston fans all night. Did you see the video I did outside State Farm right after the game?
We have had more than enough talent, players have been regulated to bench just based on rotational decisions. But as I’ve said five years ago, if a player is playing bad, or not doing what coach is “telling” him to do, he has to be benched foe a period of time. We have other players that can produce. We have players that can block out and get boards, we have other players that can pass, and move without ball, we have players that can hit open jumpers and some that can create a shot as well. We have had a deep team all year, they have to be allowed to play. It’s not about ability, cause that is obvious when they get more than 5 to 10 minutes a game and have actual “usage”.
Coach controls everything. Can’t keep absolving the main job of a coach. The job is to put players in the best position to succeed, take advantage of their strengths and minimize weaknesses. All the other coaches do it, yearly. The job also is to instill discipline. Goal is to win games, so if a players actions or game play doesn’t put team in best position, a decision has to be made to take a way minutes. There has to be a consequence to messing up. Until that happens you have anarchy. Players can’t be allowed to do whatever, but especially not to iso Joe it each game.
If players do not have the self awareness they are hurting the team, the coach has to do something. To do not do anything makes him complicit on the game result. Coach can easily tell a player “stop shooting 3s” or “need you to drive to basket more” or “need you to set some screens” or “need you to stay with your man” or “I need you to block out more” and if it doesn’t immediately happen, that player has to be benched. Playing time is the only thing a player has that they can’t control. Only the head coach can put you in the game or take you out.
No team is perfect. But when you have a plan to have the team play as a team, imperfections can be masked. We haven’t only played pick and roll for 5 seasons. We had more motion the first 3 years and also John was the primary roll. John can also pick and pop and also he finishes at a rate higher than anybody on team and one of the best finishers in the NBA (78% from 0-5 feet, CC 59% and OO 71%). Yet John has been regulated to shoot 3’s all season, posted up in corner coming down court every time.
When you go to games and see this in person, it hurts cause you know the team is better. When you know what happened last year, this year was supposed to be different. All the issues were supposed to be fixed. We don’t have a plan on offense and we still play no defense on a regular basis. We still don’t do the basics of defense . If we did, we win that Houston game despite two players having all the shots. We would have blocked out, got back on defense and wouldn’t overhelp to the tune of the 2nd chance points, rebounds and points in the paint we gave up.
I produced an episode of Around The ATL on Kevin per the uproar made over his start of season to one, show what he did in 34 games (1st 20 of last year plus 14 games we lost by 13 pts or less). I included the first 20 and showed the games he did well. But the majority of the games he didn’t and we really needed him to. Trae needed help from both sg and sf last year. I also included John’s games and also Trae’s games to show John’s usage, his good games and bad and Trae to show what happened when players didn’t help and when they did. I also showed the final score to show if we had just played defense, we win game anyway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHXLpqC7qRo&t=112s
You can’t get rid of all of the players just because. Can’t have it where LP was good at x’s and o’s but not great with players and Nate is great with players not not great with x’s and o’s. We need to have both. And also you need a coach that will actually initiate true discipline on the court. Other teams have that, and have had it for awhile. Players want to be coached. You have to have something to execute. Someone said players just need to hit shots if all we do is PNR. I say, why not make the shots “easier”? Layups are better than 1 dribble 3s. 10 foot jumper is better than a contested 3. We “don’t” have to shoot 3’s all the time. You can blow a team out hitting 2’s. Going 8-32 from 3 ain’t the move. We don’t have a defense that can hold that up. And even if we did, wouldn’t be right.
We should be running curls for Hunter and Murray. They proficient at midrange. We should be running high and low post for players. Give and go off rubs. John is a good passer. John should be getting the ball 15 ft away from basket or right at basket when he has fought for position and won it. We should be setting screens for shooters. Murray is good at catch and shoot 3s. So is Trae. So is Hunter. So is AJ. And now Bogi is back. AH hits, JH hits. There should be nobody standing for 16 seconds behind the 3 point line ever. Players should always be moving. Trae will find you every time. John can find you. Murray can find you. We have seen it, but only a few times out the whole season. Cut to basket.
Of course on defense, we don’t do it each night. We give up 50 plus points in paint each game. You can win some games like that, if you’re doing the other things. Against Orlando, we rotated better, switched better, didn’t overhelp as much but if we did, rotations made up for it. Blocking out is important, find your man when shot goes up. We have no discipline when it comes to that, same with overhelping. You have players with their backs to their man, they have no idea who they are guarding and you see 3 players on 1 guy sometimes. Getting back on defense, we give up just enough fast break points to let teams back into games for no reason. But even all of that can be negated by having offensive possessions that result in a made shot or a good shot taken but missed. We you don’t use the shot clock, a 16 point Lea can easily be made up, as the team has time to come back (per extra possessions).
I just want to see the best of this team each night. As a ticket holder, I’m not asking for a lot. I don’t care if team goes 0-82, if they played as hard as they can at their best and still lose, so be it. But knowing they can play better and watch them lose to teams they have no business losing to is not right. Hornets? Houston (3 wins till the played us, beat us last year too 132 to 126). The Cavs game? Philly without Harden and Maxey? Boston is in 1st, but how we lose by 30 after beating the Bucks?
The plan needs to be better. Discipline needs to be constant. If the coach can’t give that we need someone that can do it. At this point, we need someone that either is a specialist on the offensive or defensive end, or, a coach that has championship experience. Meaning they have won one (as a player or a coach). We have to have implementation of not just winning games, but having the ability to win playoff series.
Last year, if not for the new format, Hawks would have been out of the playoffs. Team finished 9th in conference, 39 losses. We had an ugly first round exit. Trae was shut down (purposely by Miami), John was playing hurt (probably shouldn’t been floor at all but he was), Hunter was balling, Kevin gave team 12, 4, 13, 9, and 8 points in 5 games, and we were out. If we had gotten K’von like we did that Philly game, we beat Miami. I said it then and I say it now. We need more than 12 points a game from Kevin last year. I was one of Kevin’s biggest fan, if you watched any of my videos, listened to Around The ATL or read posts you know that. I called him “Red Mamba” from jump. But last year, he got the extension after averaging 12 points a game and that 27 point game in Philly. We needed 18 to 19 a night last year every game. Instead we got 12 or less.
There are games that you have to ask, could a player have pulled back some to make the game easier to win? Could a player pull back some to make sure the team wins the game? What do players have to try to do to compensate for when players are either missing shots or not getting shots? And why can’t the coach “coach” the players into doing something different? Why can’t we have an alternative to “chucking shots up with no passes made”?
You have to have something to execute when things go bad.
Here are some examples of this, and I’m including games where players “did” have a good shooting night as well. I’m leading off with Murray, because of the contention that he isn’t the one playing selfish all the time.
Murray had a game where he has gone 5-16 from the floor, 2-8 from 3, 2 assists. Trae in that game was 4-16 from the floor, 1-8 from three, had 14 assists. John was 11-17 in that game. Miami wins that game 106-98.
Murray had a game where he was 5-16 from the floor, 1-4 from 3, 4 assists. John had his worst shooting night of his career, 3-12 from floor, 0-7 from 3. Trae was 11-19 from floor, 4-7 from 3, 7 assists. We beat Kings 115-106, but barely, at home.
Murray had a game where he went 7-18, 1-6 from 3, 4 assists. Trae was 12-21, 2-4 from 3, 12 assists. John had 4 shots in that game before fouling out. Hawks beat Toronto in OT 124-122.
Murray had a game where he was 9-23 from the floor, 1-4 from 3, he did have 7 assists. Trae was 8-18, 2-7 from 3, had 11 assists. John had 6 shots in that game. Hawks lose to Philly 121-109.
Murray had a game where he was 9-23 from the field, 1-8 from 3, had 11 assists. Trae in that game was 9-26, 2-9 from 3, 10 assists. John had 6 shots that game. Pelicans win 124-121.
Murray had a game where he was 14-27 from the floor, 5-12 from 3, 9 assists, 5 steals. Trae was 7-22, 2-7 from 3, 7 assists. John had 10 shots in that game. AJ had 2 shots. Hawks beat the Knicks 112-99.
Murray had a game where he was 11-20 from floor, 1-5 from 3, 7 assists. Trae was 10-28, 2-5 from 3, 9 assists. John was 6-8, 1-1 from 3. Utah beats the Hawks at home 125-119.
Murray had a game where he was 7-19 from the floor, 3-6 from 3, 4 assists. Trae was 3-17, 1-6 from 3, 6 assists, 6 turnovers. John was 6-10, 3-5 from 3. Hawks lose to the Cavs 105-99.
Murray had a game where he was 4-17 from the floor, 1-4 from 3, 6 assists, 4 turnovers. Trae was 10-22 from the floor, 1-7 from 3, 10 assists, 6 turnovers. John was 5-9 from the floor, 3-5 from 3, (he had 8 shots through 3 quarters, got 1 shot in the 4th, missed it). AJ was 7-11 for that game, 3-6 from 3. Hit 2 shots in the 4th and didn’t get another shot. This was the aforementioned Cavs game where the Hawks lost 114-102.
Murray had a game where he was 7-15 from the floor, 2-4 from 3, 5 assists, 4 turnovers. Trae was 9-25 from the floor, 2-8 from 3. 9 assists. John had a bad game, 3-12 from the floor, 0-7 from 3. J Holiday was 1-7 from 3. AJ was 3-4 from the floor, 2-3 from 3, played 6:27. Hornets win 126-109.
Murray had a game where he was 9-19 from the floor, 3-5 from 3, 6 assists. Trae was 15-32 from the floor, 5-10 from 3, 5 assists. John was 2-4. Hawks lost to the Bucks, 123-115.
On 12/6/22, the Hawks played OKC at home. John and Hunter were injured. Bogi was playing his 2nd game.
Murray was 10-21, 3-5 from 3, 6 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 3 turnovers. Trae was 6-19, 1-7 from 3, 10 assists, 4 turnovers (missed the previous game w sore shoulder). AJ went 4-15, 3-9 from 3. Bogi was 6-15 from floor, 5-10 from 3, played 22 min. All night we heard Brian Oliver and Nique talk about too much iso, OKC isn’t big enough, moving the ball from side to side, got to get stops. Did we move the ball side to side all night? No. Did we take advantage of the fact OKC had no size? No. Did we stop taking 1 dribble shots with no passes? No. Did we get stops? No. How do we know this?
In the first half, the Hawks shot 24-49 for 49%. 8-20 from 3 for 40%. OKC shot 24-51 for 47%. 5-16 from 3 for 31%.
In the second half, the Hawks shot 20-53 for 37%. 5-18 from 3 for 27%. OKC shot 19-44 for 43%. 7/18 from 3 for 38%. OKC had 58 points in the paint. 17 second chance points. 19 fast break points. Hawks had 18 turnovers. Hawks had a 14 point lead. Hawks lost by 7 points.
So was it impossible to curb AJ’s shots tonight? He was off. He was 1-5 in the 4th. JJ had 2 shots in the 4th quarter.
Could Bogi’s minutes been switched for him to be available 2nd half of the 4th rather than the 1st half of the 4th?
Could there have been a concentration on making 4 or 5 passes to get the best shot? Rather than going up with an immediate shot, allowing OKC to take the ball down the court and get a shot, sometimes an “And 1”? That happens a lot when we throw up a 3 point shot.
Clint was 2-5 in the 4th. We couldn’t go to him more? Nobody was going to block his shot. He has been more aggressive lately in the post. No, he doesn’t finish at the highest rate on team (from 0-5 feet John hits at 78%, OO hits at 71%, CC hits at 59%). But still, an easier 2 is better than a 3 you’re not hitting.
Murray was 3-8 in the 4th.
Trae was 2-6 in the 4th.
Hawks had 4 assists in the 4th quarter. 2 by Trae and 2 by JJ.
How do we keep getting beat like this? We can’t beat good teams nor bad teams nor middle of the road teams playing like this. We have the 11 losses to prove that. OKC was 10-13, beat us at home.
These games that I have broken down are 12 games where our two starting guards are taking the majority of the shot attempts. Our record in these games? 3-9. That’s all I care about, wins vs losses. What do ya’ll care about? A player showing up another player? Trash talking? Patting someone on the head? That’s what we saw in that Houston game. If you do all that, you have to win the game. Understand this, I don’t mind the spirit of competition. I’m not saying to tone down what is already built inside any of the players. But there is a time or place for everything, I’m sure you agree with that. We weren’t 20 points down in these games, where you could understand some volume shooting, because you’re trying to come back. But we had the lead in many of these losses. When we play as a team and everybody touches the ball and are involved we win those games, we are dominant in those games.
My co-host of Around The ATL Jordan Jackson (@jordan23atl on Twitter) had mentioned to me a statement by Magic Johnson. To paraphrase, “first 3 quarters do your thing, but the 4th quarter is winning time. So you have to make sure that all plays are basketball plays to help win the game. You can’t make mistakes”. Those mistakes include turnovers, poor shot selection, not playing defense, not getting the ball to the players that are making shots, etc. That has happened a lot the past two seasons but especially in the first 20 plus games of the 2022 season.
Are you sure we couldn’t have had more wins and a few easier victories with just a little bit better plan of action? And/or, better decisions from our primary ball handlers? And why couldn’t coach do anything? He has a right to tell players to stop taking bad shots, or to stop looking off players, to be more careful with the ball. But most importantly, he has the ability to run something that would prevent errant shots, shutting players out of the game, etc. He can instruct, and if players go against the instructions, put in another player that will execute the instructions, if instructions are being made. Winning the game has to be the only goal for everybody.
The coaching staff operates as a team, just like the players on the floor. Whether you have a coach that is good at x’s and o’s but doesn’t mesh with players well or if you have a coach that meshes with players but is not the best x and o guy, you need a team of coaches around that person to help out. Melvin Hunt not being on the team makes a difference and not because he isn’t here to throw chairs around. Melvin came up through the Rockets organization initially with Rudy T. Eventually he was on the Mike Brown staff on the Cavs from 2005-2010 (got to the Finals, had a 66 win season, etc). After that he went to Denver. Hunt was interim coach for a short period, going 7-5. One of the things he did was implement an offense that worked for the current Denver team. Read the following synopsis written by writer Adam Mares of SB Nation: “While some new offensive sets have been put in, the biggest change has come from giving the players a green light to make plays and take shots at their discretion. Hunt has given his players a huge amount of trust to play the right way and for the most part, the team has responded by sharing the basketball and playing for each other.
Hunt emphasizes spacing the court first and reacting to the defense and to each other. Players cut and fill spots around the perimeter while leaving the paint open for dribble penetration and cuts to the basket.” (Adam Mares-SB Nation).
Sounds familiar right? Giving players a huge amount of trust to play the right way and make plays. The problem is, this team isn’t following the 2nd part of that quote. We are not spacing the court, reacting to the defense, cutting, filling spots around the perimeter and leaving the paint open for dribble penetration and cutting to the basket. We don’t do any of that. We “stand” behind the 3 point line for the entire shot clock. Nobody cuts to the basket. Nobody moves to a different spot on the perimeter reacting to the defense. Nobody dribble penetrates on a regular basis. And there is nothing from the coaching staff to say “ok, ya’ll doing what you want isn’t working, we need to get the ball to John or AJ”, or whoever is being productive for the game. Again, remember the Cavs game? John was 5-8 with 16 points and got the ball 1 time for the whole 2nd half. AJ ended 7-11 and 2 of those shots were in the 4th, didn’t touch the ball again. We lost that game, we didn’t win, we lost. High post. Low post. Curl for Hunter, curl for Murray. Screen for a shot for AJ, or Murray or Tray. Give and go. We do none of these things.
So with the OKC game, once it was apparent that OKC was not going away, that they were hitting shots, what was the plan? We have blown multiple leads of 14 points or more in the last few weeks, we had another 14 point lead, and we lost the game. We stopped moving the ball from side to side, stop driving to basket, didn’t cut to basket, no post ups. We did nothing but shoot jumpers.
But many of the issues we have had the last 5 seasons would almost be negated if we simply played defense each and every night. We have a ton of games we have lost by 10 points or less (Again refer to this video where I breakdown the first 20 games of last year as well as 14 games we lost by 13 points or less https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHXLpqC7qRo&t=113s ). If we just played basic defense, we win the majority of our games. We averaged 113 points a game last season and gave up 112. This year we average 114 points per game and give up 113 points per game. You can’t consistently win like that. You either have to score more points per game to win, always hit a game winning shot to avoid overtime, etc, etc. What if we just gave up 108 points a game? Where would this team be??? Why can’t we do that??
Look at the final scores of the games we lost. Coach couldn’t tell them what to do in order to get stops on defense? If he “is” telling them to “play harder, give more effort” or all the things I keep bringing up every week for 5 years (stop overhelping, fight through screens, block out, get back on defense, rotate better, etc) and it doesn’t happen, why does he allow players to stay on the floor hurting the team? The tape says they are not focused on defense, because they keep doing it each game. The difference in games that they do win, is the effort is better. That is not going to be enough against great teams, not in the playoffs. Eventually, you have to stop teams. What have I been saying forever? “The other team missing shots is not defense”. We don’t even double team the players that hurt us. We will legit watch a player come down several times and score and we do nothing. That Philly game we watched Shake get 4 layups and hit a 3. We saw Joel get several buckets in a row, even one time had Murray on him and Clint didn’t switch nor double, just left Murray hanging. Why?? We didn’t double Bam when it was obvious he wasn’t going to miss, remember I mentioned that game earlier? What was the final score? We really let Kelly Oubre Jr drop 24 on us. We let Scottie Barnes shoot 5-9 from 3, 21 for the game. We let Lauri get 32, but we couldn’t stop Malik Beasley from coming off the bench and getting 18???? SGA put 35 points on the Hawks, all around the basket.
The Houston game was lost because of that mindset, that other team will eventually miss shots instead of stopping them. Because even with Trae and Murray going for 80 points, we win that game if the “team” blocked out (22 offensive rebounds given up, 59 rebounds total given up, 37 2nd chance points), if we got back on defense (15 fast break points), if we knew how to switch and rotate (54 points given up in the paint). Hawks were up 16 points in that game because Houston turned the ball over and missed shots. Soon as they stopped turning the ball over and starting hitting shots, you saw what happened. And we had no answer for it. That’s a problem. John was waved off several times by both Trae and Murray if you remember me saying this earlier in this article.
John has gotten less shots per game for 3 straight years. His 2nd year he gave this team 19 and 9. 3rd year 21 and 10. For some reason, he started getting less usage after that. He gets 9 shots or less a game now. He is a career 55% shooter, better than anybody on team (Clint doesn’t shoot jumpers, because nobody has told him he has to improve there). He is 36% from 3 for his career despite shooting 21% this year. That’s better than anybody on team including Trae, Murray, Hunter, everyone except Bogi, who is career 38%. But somehow, don’t use John anymore is the move. All the other power forwards in the NBA get 15 shots or more, and they get the ball in their spots. John wants to win, he wants to win as an Atlanta Hawk. Listen to his interview on Around The ATL a few years ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxsmhKeVVwo&t=1386s
Hunter got his extension. I like Hunter. However, his defense has not been as consistent from when he first started. He averaged 13 a game last year. We needed more. If he played like he did in Miami for the entire season, we finish higher in the East. Hunter was the number 4 pick. This year he is still haphazardly giving us great games or not so good games. At moment, he is at 15 points and 4 rebounds a game. We need him to be consistent. Are we not supposed to expect that for some reason?
Clint is having a good season, rebounds are right there at top of league again at 12 a game, he gives us 11 points a game. His overall defense has helped team for sure this year. He still has weaknesses with certain centers and yes, he misses those chip shots in front of the rim. But he has been playing with more aggression in the post the last few games, if he keeps that up, we should give him more chances. Along with John!!
Our bench is better than last year if they are used. They are better defensively. Gallo averaged 11 a game last year, but he didn’t play defense. Lou avg 6 a game, he didn’t play defense. Bogi gave us 15 a game, he was ok on defense. Holidays give you team defense and on ball defense and both hit shots. JJ gets you boards, and he also can distribute and get shots. AJ gives you consistent energy, steals (had 3 last night) and if he gets the shots can get you 15 plus a night. OO hasn’t had a good season overall, but he still finishes inside, he has added a jumper, gets you boards and blocks as well. Culver been on been on the bench all year, per injuries, finally getting time and he boards and can score some. This again shows that if players are not playing well, we do have other players that can take their place for a time and you don’t lose much.
Management of course has everything to do with direction of the team, both coaching and players. Do you remember what we used to have??
We are definitely at an advantage with Travis being here. “Trust in Schlenk” is still the move, but he does have the task of having to make a decision on how long to wait before making decisive decisions on direction. Last year Trae led league in points “and” assists and it was brushed off because of our 39 losses, 9th place finish and ugly elimination in the first round. Only one other player in NBA history has done that. Trae is averaging 25 and 9 for his career. No other Hawks have done that. If Trae plays 15 years he will be in the top 5 all time in points and assists. Think about that for a second, a player that many didn’t want, that nobody figured would be in the league after a few years “because he is too small”, could be an all time NBA leader in two major categories. Nique has a statue, Trae will definitely have one.
But we need a championship.
This team should not have 11 losses. Teams shouldn’t know what we are going to do each possession. Teams should never think they can come back from a 20 point deficit. We have too much talent.
Leadership matters. Discipline matters. Winning matters, which is why I did a show based on that. It has to come from both players and coaching staff. It is necessary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtNrjTe3G1Q&t=30s
The team made a decision to go with a coach that didn’t have head coaching experience initially. Then, went to a coach with experience, but without a resume of being great with a game plan. Also, the past resume with former teams doesn’t give you much confidence anything can change. I think you have to make a change in either one or two ways. One, we have to get assistant coaches that that are specialists, either on offense or defense, with a proven track record of success. Meaning, he was part of a staff that saw their team advance to multiple conference finals, advance to the NBA Championship, maybe have an NBA championship win (as a coach or player). Or, we have to get a head coach that has done those things. To do anything less risks wasting the careers of the players we have now and not seeing the full potential of everybody.
Doug Collins wasn’t going to bring the Bulls a championship. They made the change to Phil. Phil brought in systems and discipline. 6 rings. Using Scott Williams, Cliff Levingston, Bill Cartwright, Bill Wennington, Jud Buchler, Luc Longley, Randy Brown, Steve Kerr, John Paxon, Craig Hodges, Will Purdue, Stacey King, Dickie Simpkins, etc……
Scotty Robertson wasn’t going to bring the Pistons a championship. Daly was brought in there.
Rick Carlisle had won NBA Coach of the Year with the Pistons. They still brought in Larry Brown after a few seasons, they win a ring.
Lue replaced a coach that had just made it to the Finals, went on to 3 straight Finals and got a ring.
Casey was replaced by Nurse in Toronto despite winning games. Nurse got them a ring.
Nate is a great coach, I like Nate. But do you really feel he is the guy? That he can put this team over the top? If his resume had a championship, or eastern conference championship, or several appearances in conference finals, you may give a bit more time. He didn’t do that. You don’t get rid of great players to fit a coach, you get a coach to fit the players. Teams that do that have won, to do the opposite….
Trae wants to win badly. He wanted to take the team to the playoffs his rookie season. And to this day I saw we should have made the playoffs Trae’s first 2 seasons for sure. Nobody could stop us scoring, we just couldn’t stop anybody. We were in the Eastern Conference Finals. Do you remember what Trae was doing during the 2020 playoffs? It was not a fluke. Trae wanting to win badly is a good thing and a bad thing, because it blinds him sometimes with his decision making. I again will say his frustration is due to fact that the things that worked in 2020 was removed in 2021 and no adjustments have been made in 2022. Trae loves passing the ball. I said in Trae’s summer league that he is trying to get 20 assists and if he had NBA starters with him, he would have did it. He is trying to get 15 assists a game. Our offense should be built on that. Every time, each and every time we have a play cut to basket or move without the ball, Trae finds the open player. Every time. Yet, our team doesn’t do it. Team hasn’t been trained to do it. There is no philosophy to do it. It is not natural. That’s a problem. Bogi does per how he has played his whole career. You saw him tonight forcing the issue. AJ does per playing college ball with one of the best college coaches of all time. But why can’t the whole team do it, all the time, each game??
For the Hawks to finally get a ring, they have to do something and have to do it now. Will they???
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Article by Chris Royster
Credits: Adam Mares-SB Nation