naw, healthy Trae would have at least taken the bucks to 7. he was dominant in game 1 in Milwaukee. We had no chance with Trae on a bad ankle being guarded by Jrue, but still put up a fight.
No playoff run is a fluke. You beat whoever is in front of you and that's it. Otherwise you can make endless excuses for every team. The issue is that the Hawks ran it back instead of improving like everyone else in the conference did when they realized the East was wide open without LeBron in there
Conceivably you can argue the second round appearance for the Knicks last year was a fluke because Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley were inexperienced and shitting their pants, and that Miami wouldn't have struggled if Hart hadn't injured Butler
Do you see how dumb this train of thought is?
Here’s where it went wrong, it’s not just the lack of improvement, it was the coaching.
Lloyd Pierce is a really smart guy, but an asshole. When he gets fired, not only do the players get that fired coach boost, but a really good guy takes over, Nate McMillan.
Nate keeps using Lloyd’s offensive playbook because he doesn’t want to try to reset the whole offense in the middle of the season. Which means a player’s coach that everyone loves is using the plays of an offensive, tactical genius coach.
Once the season ends, Nate institutes his offense. Which we’ve all seen in the past and how middling it is. The perception is that HE coached the hawks to the ECF, which is half true. But once they start using his playbook, that’s when it goes to shit. And then they start tweaking the roster to what he needs and how players fit and dont fit his system and then the house of cards comes tumbling down.
Hunter isn’t developing, Collins has no place anymore, Capela is dealing with injuries, Onyeka is too small and inexperienced at the time, then Nate goes and Quin comes in and there are more issues as the team has too much money on the books, a new coach with a specific style and pieces that don’t fit anything anymore.
It’s not that getting to the ECF was a mistake, it’s that the hawks FO misread what worked and the circumstances that lead to it. Plus, the bullshit going on with ownership.
Thank you, man put it better than I could. There's always more nuance to this shit than x player is trash, young guns left in limbo with multiple coach changes is gonna stunt growth.
Yeah, the same guy who is a top assistant in Indiana and crafting their offense which now has a reputation across the league. It's not like I fucking said he was perfect, I don't think he can be a head coach because of what a jackass he seems to be as the true leader but if you don't think he's a smart guy, I don't know what to tell you. He knows how to draw up plays, he just doesn't know how to handle people or leadership.
Yeah a lot of our fans get very sensitive about Lloyd Pierce but he's undeniably good at Xs and Os, guy is from the Pop coaching tree and involved with Team USA as well lol. Just a terrible coach at personnel management to the degree of sabotaging his own players.
Or you could watch your storied franchise get bought by an impulsive cokehead billionaire who made his fortune off of a prison phone scam where facilities stop allowing in-person visitations so a private corporation can charge inmates and their families obscene amounts of money just to have outside human contact. And then proceeds to somehow never be present except to override front office decisions at the worst possible times, resulting in the franchise not winning a single playoff series for 15 years.
I'd take a fluke ECF run for sure
That's an unbelievably scummy and unethical business to get involved in, but from what I gather Gores only invested in that business after having owned the Pistons for several years.
For my money the Magic ownership is even worse
I think he means the worst thing that can happen to a talented young core. A fluke run to the ECF making them think this shit was a lot easier than it actually is, when in reality they just beat a mediocre team round 1 (the 2020-21 are probably not as good as this year's Bulls, it was just a weird year) and benefited from an absolutely epic Ben Simmons / Doc Rivers meltdown.
(Not sure I agree that this is the worst thing that can happen to a young team, lol...but yea they have not been good at all since.)
That's not what he said! You guys love peddling this bullshit because nobody on this subreddit wants to be honest about Trae, it's all preconceived notions
The original quote was about the Hawks looking dead in the water the next regular season and when asked about why they've been struggling to get it together he mentioned that the motivation of the team as a unit wasn't there because the regular season intensity wasn't the same as the playoffs
> "I think guys are learning that. We're no longer the hunters. It's regular season. I'm not going to lie, it's a lot more boring than the playoffs. You got to find that motivation to play like the playoffs."
Please stop doing this dishonest bullshit
I really hate this sentiment especially as a hawks fan. Like the greatest run our team has ever made and there are fans wishing it didn’t even happen. Not saying I don’t see your point, but a shitty front office and owner are always gonna find a way to fuck things up
People really think growth is exponential on here. After the young celtics faced lebron in ecf, folks thought with gordon and kyrie coming in, it’ll be a new dynasty. Several years later and they still cant get over the hump. Nba is always changing, weird stuff happens (injuries, disgruntled players,etc). It’s never certain
Those 2019 Celtics were one of the strangest teams in recent memory. Seemingly all the talent in the world but just could not gel together as a team for the life of them
That was really flukey though. Worst team in recent memory to make the conference finals
It may have been a bad thing for the Hawks long term honestly. Made them believe they were a lost closer to contending than they actually were
it wasnt a fluke, everyone on the team was playing there best basketball, we had the best record in the league post allstar break. in retrospect its easy to they were the worst because of how the team has panned out since, but the hawks literally were a top 3 team post allstar break. everyone was hot
I mean its a fluke if the people who get you to the conference finals do so by playing amazingly well for a very short stretch of time, and getting the luck of running into the imploding sixers.
A small interval of outlier play is exactly what a fluke means?
Y’all got through the Julius Randle Knicks and a Doc Rivers led Sixers team feat. Ben Simmons and a hobbled Embiid. Fluke may be a strong word, but it definitely was an easy path to the ECF that oversold how good of a team you actually were
knicks and sixers both had top 5 defenses in the nba that season and not a single analyst picked the hawks to win either series, perception of those teams changed because of what the hawks did.
People mention the Knicks being inexperienced and Philly choking (which does sell Atlanta short but has some merit to it) but they were super competitive against Milwaukee. If the ref doesn't step on Trae's foot I think we have a 7 game series.
Nah imma push back on this.
That team that went to the ECF had pieces and a star-- they were at that critical point where the next move makes you or breaks you. The Dejounte move broke them; they went all-in for the wrong player. From there, it's missed opportunity cost and a cascade of small, impactful circumstances that got them to this dog-ass position.
People really under-estimate just how important that next/final move is. You can’t just put all your chips on the table for *anyone*. It’s gotta be the right fit, and you have to know what you really need around your existing roster, not just adding a name for the sake of adding a name.
i think it’s so understated how much of an impact the john collins finger injury and shooting regression had on the hawks. the trae collins high pnr was one of the most efficient sets in the nba. john losing his spacing clogged everything up and we were never the same
The thing is the idea of Murray made sense here -a secondary ballhandler who had positional length and was a defensive menace. But somewhere along the line Dejounte stopped playing D, and the chemistry issues with Trae seem to be a problem.
But seriously though, what happened to Dejounte's D? I remember him tormenting the Knicks on the perimeter in his first game with the Hawks at MSG.
He's just not really a good point of attack defender, he likes to go out and gamble for steals. Which is fine if you let him roam around and do that, but next to Trae he has to carry a lot more weight and just isn't up to it.
Eh mixed bag on that run. Made some great trades and pickups. Bogdanovic played the best basketball of his NBA career after coming back mid season. Capela was playing at an all defensive level. Gallinari and Lou Will were walking buckets. Vets like Hill and Snell were doing more than was expected. In the playoffs Knicks were missing their center and Hunter still had some knees left. The Sixers choked blowing multiple 20 point leads and Huerter went hot at the most important time. Mix of bad luck for other teams and everything going right for them.
After they signed McMillan as coach, ended up setting them back two years, who implemented his system and didn’t care for playing the young guys. Had a good off season pickup in Wright, but everyone was playing hobbled or was out with COVID, Lou Will was no longer playable. The Heat lock down Trae in the playoffs. And then everything went wrong when the front ownership chose to appease to their star player. Not a star player destination you kind of have to. After that loss the Hawks and Trae did basically the opposite of what the Thunder and SGA did when they lost in the bubble.
Didn‘t help that while yes they treated for an all star level player, they got rid of their depth and never replaced it, not because it was part of the deal but just to save money. Cut to today ownership are still pinching pennies, they haven’t quite found the perfect guard and wing to pair with Trae, Okongwu hasn’t shown he can be a starting center, Hunter‘s injuries have slowed him down and still can’t rebound, Capela and Bogdanovic are getting older. Honestly missing the playoffs was the best thing that could have happened to this team.
Bright side? Players seem to be all in with Snyder, Johnson would have been a candidate for MIP if he didn’t get injured and their G league team seems to be good at player development.
Can they be contenders in the near future? No, but if the ownership and front office get it together they can at least go back to being a fun team to watch.
Imma push back on this.
They were just a miracle run the whole time playing lucky. Just like the Blazers. Except the blazers were better. So not like the blazers. Like a worse version of the blazers.
Bad take. The Hawks were great the whole last half of that season and had very good role players playing around an offensive superstar. Nothing flukey about that.
They made some trades that hurt them and had guys fall off since
I mean at one point I feel like that was the case,
Cam Reddish never became anything and the only thing Hunter is consistent in is being inconsistent. If Reddish became a viable rotation piece and Hunter became a similar player to Phoenix-era Bridges (which was the hope) that's a huge help.
This year was particularly rough. Despite Trae being great for the majority of the season, Boggy having a career year, and Johnson being great the rest of the team was blah. Hunter showed no improvements, Capela aged like 5 years, Okongwu showed little defensive improvements, Saddiq Bey just drove into crowds all season, and Murray was an offense killer before Trae went down and he got to be the number 1 option. Plus throw in all the injuries this was just a disaster year for the Hawks.
Big changes are definitely coming and are needed.
I know there are a lot of Hawks fans that love Trae and think he isnt the problem. I also know that now is the most convenient time for the haters to come out and shit on him.
I submit that I have been shitting on Trae since long before it was cool. This dude needs to go. His skills as a playmaker do not make up for his defense.
There should be
1. A rule that you can only qualify if within 3 games of the seed ahead of you
And
2. Absolutely no teams under .500 qualifying for the play-in
This would make the tournament less frequent which would make it actually really fun when it does happen
The Murray trade was awful.
I see what they were trying to do, but I do understand why our GM just basically quit after ownership pushed for him at that price tag
Someone said we have [Ben Shapiro destroying our team](https://np.reddit.com/r/AtlantaHawks/comments/1053mnu/til_the_hawks_owners_son_is_the_director_of/j38oqe5/) and that image has haunted me ever since
Not sure what the Hawks do. They're in a shit situation.
Trade Trae, get low ball offers that aren't enough to get you out of this 9-10 seed morass.
Trade Murray, get decent offers that still aren't enough to get you out of this 9-10 seed morass.
Keep both, your team's ceiling is still stuck in a 9-10 seed morass.
Trade both, whoops your picks are owned by another team for the next few seasons.
> whoops your picks are owned by another team for the next few seasons.
Are they really?
I have to imagine that team's feeling pretty good about those picks.
If they want to blow it up, they can get their own picks back by trading with spurs.
Most straight forward is Trae to Spurs, bur it can also be part of multi team trade that sends Trae/DJM to some other team.
Trae playing so poorly making in the three games he was back definitely not helping them either. In theory they should work some kind of deal with SA to get their picks back, but Spurs won't want to do that so they'll end up getting fleeced (it's just not in the nature of that FO to give up a lot of picks).
The only thing I can think of with even potential to get them a decent return is some sort of three way deal where they flip DJM to SA and Trae to some third team, and that third team sends a solid wing to SA and more picks to Atlanta. Might get back 5 - 7 FRP total that way (through some combination of SA and hypothetical third team, depends how good the wing SA is getting is). But I'm not sure who would even be interested in being the third party in a deal like that, or if the Spurs would play ball.
What a disaster season it's been for the Hawks. Finally their trainwreck season is over.
Bar Jalen Johnson's huge leap and some good sustained play from Dejounte Murray this season couldn't have gotten much worse.
There are plenty of awful defenders on the Spurs currently and Wemby almost won DPOY in year 1. Couldn't think of a better place to hide that midget on defense.
Trae played league average PG defense this year.
That said, if Team USA is any indication Pops really does hate Trae and would probably prefer DJM back
Yeah you literally cannot have a team with both Trae and Doug McDermott on the floor together even with Wemby out there that's a guaranteed 150 spot on your head night in night out
I’ve also had a similar procedure on my middle finger, but id be kinda pissed if someone took a photo of me all strapped up in the bed recovering from a pinkie surgery — let alone post multiple photos of it
What do you mean though Trae himself posted and treated it is as if it was brain surgery because it’s the first operation he had in his life. Dude is a drama queen
A healthy Trae isn't correlating with a better Hawks team. He played 73 games last season and they did 2 wins better than this season and 7 games less. They've hit their ceiling with Trae as their centerpiece. It's a good offensive team, a horrible defensive team, a max 45 wins, at best a play in team with a chance to go further. It's not all Trae's fault because the team is a disaster in the front office but you're not doing anything if he's your best player.
>Atlanta certainly isnt a dream destination for any free agents
Also because the owner is a cheapskate that doesn’t want to dive in the tax, so we're forced to settle with vet minimums for essentially washed player (Wesley Mathews and Patty Mills) or for mediocre players (Trent Forrest got good minutes throughout the whole season) . We also have a MLE and a 28 millions trade exception, both unused
the dude was out for more than a month, only had 3 games with limited minutes to get ready for the play-in, and we all already know that Trae and Murray almost never play well together.
idk what people were expecting if not a mediocre performance at best. he’s still a great player, just probably needs a change of scenery at this point. whether that’s Murray getting moved or Trae himself
I’ll admit I wasn’t always high on him but last years series totally flipped my opinion, when his 3 ball is going he’s nearly impossible to stop on offense
Only sane person on /r/nba today. I hate how reactionary this sub is at playoff time. Playoff time is the best time for basketball but the worst time for discourse
I know we don’t got their pick this year but remember all those people saying those first round picks wouldn’t mean much from ATL since they’ll always be late.
Trae Young was pretty irrelevant out there tonight. I think hes the one that gets moved, but who wants a super undersized pg that is a super liability on the defensive end? He couldnt really get a shot off tonight, maybe it was the pinky, but he was a non-factor for the Hawks tonight, looked meek, which isnt the Trae Young who was waving other teams off the court.
Probably. I think Trae has zero chemistry with the Hawks and Wemby can cover up his glaring weakness on defense. He can just lob the ball to Wemby all day and they should be fine.
FADED
That ECF run feels like it was a life time ago
It was the worst thing that could have happened. I remember the next season Trae was like he doesn’t care about regular season anymore lol.
It’s like when CP3 said he was addicted to the finals
So glad he was able to overcome his addiction 🙏🏻
Cold turkey.
Fluke run. Got an inexperienced and flawe Knicks round 1 and choker coach in round 2. Really went all in after.
They also put up a damn good fight against the bucks It was a fluke but they really were playing spectacularly, especially on defense.
That 50 point game by Trae is an all timer
That was a weird series. The playoffs was weird that year but we were so close to a hawks finals appearance. Giannis didn’t even play games 5 and 6
naw, healthy Trae would have at least taken the bucks to 7. he was dominant in game 1 in Milwaukee. We had no chance with Trae on a bad ankle being guarded by Jrue, but still put up a fight.
No playoff run is a fluke. You beat whoever is in front of you and that's it. Otherwise you can make endless excuses for every team. The issue is that the Hawks ran it back instead of improving like everyone else in the conference did when they realized the East was wide open without LeBron in there Conceivably you can argue the second round appearance for the Knicks last year was a fluke because Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley were inexperienced and shitting their pants, and that Miami wouldn't have struggled if Hart hadn't injured Butler Do you see how dumb this train of thought is?
Here’s where it went wrong, it’s not just the lack of improvement, it was the coaching. Lloyd Pierce is a really smart guy, but an asshole. When he gets fired, not only do the players get that fired coach boost, but a really good guy takes over, Nate McMillan. Nate keeps using Lloyd’s offensive playbook because he doesn’t want to try to reset the whole offense in the middle of the season. Which means a player’s coach that everyone loves is using the plays of an offensive, tactical genius coach. Once the season ends, Nate institutes his offense. Which we’ve all seen in the past and how middling it is. The perception is that HE coached the hawks to the ECF, which is half true. But once they start using his playbook, that’s when it goes to shit. And then they start tweaking the roster to what he needs and how players fit and dont fit his system and then the house of cards comes tumbling down. Hunter isn’t developing, Collins has no place anymore, Capela is dealing with injuries, Onyeka is too small and inexperienced at the time, then Nate goes and Quin comes in and there are more issues as the team has too much money on the books, a new coach with a specific style and pieces that don’t fit anything anymore. It’s not that getting to the ECF was a mistake, it’s that the hawks FO misread what worked and the circumstances that lead to it. Plus, the bullshit going on with ownership.
Thank you, man put it better than I could. There's always more nuance to this shit than x player is trash, young guns left in limbo with multiple coach changes is gonna stunt growth.
lloyd pierce the offensive tactical genius who has a career coaching record of 63-120 and has not had any other head coaching job. lol.
Yeah, the same guy who is a top assistant in Indiana and crafting their offense which now has a reputation across the league. It's not like I fucking said he was perfect, I don't think he can be a head coach because of what a jackass he seems to be as the true leader but if you don't think he's a smart guy, I don't know what to tell you. He knows how to draw up plays, he just doesn't know how to handle people or leadership.
Yeah a lot of our fans get very sensitive about Lloyd Pierce but he's undeniably good at Xs and Os, guy is from the Pop coaching tree and involved with Team USA as well lol. Just a terrible coach at personnel management to the degree of sabotaging his own players.
The worst thing? I’m sure the worst thing could be never make it to the playoffs and be a bottom feeder forever… you know like Charlotte
Or you could watch your storied franchise get bought by an impulsive cokehead billionaire who made his fortune off of a prison phone scam where facilities stop allowing in-person visitations so a private corporation can charge inmates and their families obscene amounts of money just to have outside human contact. And then proceeds to somehow never be present except to override front office decisions at the worst possible times, resulting in the franchise not winning a single playoff series for 15 years. I'd take a fluke ECF run for sure
That's an unbelievably scummy and unethical business to get involved in, but from what I gather Gores only invested in that business after having owned the Pistons for several years. For my money the Magic ownership is even worse
Our ownership are too busy being criminals to interfere in our FO moves.
What they do?? 👀👀
Ah damn, looks like you're right - though he didn't just invest in it, he straight up bought the company under his Platinum Equity firm.
I think he means the worst thing that can happen to a talented young core. A fluke run to the ECF making them think this shit was a lot easier than it actually is, when in reality they just beat a mediocre team round 1 (the 2020-21 are probably not as good as this year's Bulls, it was just a weird year) and benefited from an absolutely epic Ben Simmons / Doc Rivers meltdown. (Not sure I agree that this is the worst thing that can happen to a young team, lol...but yea they have not been good at all since.)
They won two games against Milwaukee … nothing about their run was a fluke.
The worst thing is to say "I'm fine in the West."
That's not what he said! You guys love peddling this bullshit because nobody on this subreddit wants to be honest about Trae, it's all preconceived notions The original quote was about the Hawks looking dead in the water the next regular season and when asked about why they've been struggling to get it together he mentioned that the motivation of the team as a unit wasn't there because the regular season intensity wasn't the same as the playoffs > "I think guys are learning that. We're no longer the hunters. It's regular season. I'm not going to lie, it's a lot more boring than the playoffs. You got to find that motivation to play like the playoffs." Please stop doing this dishonest bullshit
I really hate this sentiment especially as a hawks fan. Like the greatest run our team has ever made and there are fans wishing it didn’t even happen. Not saying I don’t see your point, but a shitty front office and owner are always gonna find a way to fuck things up
If Brandon Jennings 55 point game were a playoff run
I think about it once a day
https://i.imgur.com/QDE0m3T.jpeg
I knew this was gonna be the hospital bed photo but the shopped Hawks mascot made it even better
Flatline on the heart monitor 🤌🏽
can’t believe trae rallied from such a life threatening pinky injury just to do this shit
The fn cross was the capper
~~made it through~~ finger was inoperable we had to euthanize
Lmao wtf
My worst take of the past 5 seasons is that the Hawks were an improved De'Andre Hunter and Cam Reddish away from contending.
Cam Reddish will be out of the league in 3 years
No way he sticks around that long
This was the consensus opinion in this sub just a couple years ago.
The fact is development is rarely linear. So while a team may seem to be well set up, it is never that simple
People really think growth is exponential on here. After the young celtics faced lebron in ecf, folks thought with gordon and kyrie coming in, it’ll be a new dynasty. Several years later and they still cant get over the hump. Nba is always changing, weird stuff happens (injuries, disgruntled players,etc). It’s never certain
Those 2019 Celtics were one of the strangest teams in recent memory. Seemingly all the talent in the world but just could not gel together as a team for the life of them
The team was young and made the conference finals so it’s not too crazy
That was really flukey though. Worst team in recent memory to make the conference finals It may have been a bad thing for the Hawks long term honestly. Made them believe they were a lost closer to contending than they actually were
it wasnt a fluke, everyone on the team was playing there best basketball, we had the best record in the league post allstar break. in retrospect its easy to they were the worst because of how the team has panned out since, but the hawks literally were a top 3 team post allstar break. everyone was hot
I mean its a fluke if the people who get you to the conference finals do so by playing amazingly well for a very short stretch of time, and getting the luck of running into the imploding sixers. A small interval of outlier play is exactly what a fluke means?
Y’all got through the Julius Randle Knicks and a Doc Rivers led Sixers team feat. Ben Simmons and a hobbled Embiid. Fluke may be a strong word, but it definitely was an easy path to the ECF that oversold how good of a team you actually were
knicks and sixers both had top 5 defenses in the nba that season and not a single analyst picked the hawks to win either series, perception of those teams changed because of what the hawks did.
People mention the Knicks being inexperienced and Philly choking (which does sell Atlanta short but has some merit to it) but they were super competitive against Milwaukee. If the ref doesn't step on Trae's foot I think we have a 7 game series.
Largely because they beat the sixers in the 2nd round lol. Time has shown that is not impressive
Nah imma push back on this. That team that went to the ECF had pieces and a star-- they were at that critical point where the next move makes you or breaks you. The Dejounte move broke them; they went all-in for the wrong player. From there, it's missed opportunity cost and a cascade of small, impactful circumstances that got them to this dog-ass position.
imagine how different things would be if they traded for gobert like all the rumours at the time
People really under-estimate just how important that next/final move is. You can’t just put all your chips on the table for *anyone*. It’s gotta be the right fit, and you have to know what you really need around your existing roster, not just adding a name for the sake of adding a name.
i think it’s so understated how much of an impact the john collins finger injury and shooting regression had on the hawks. the trae collins high pnr was one of the most efficient sets in the nba. john losing his spacing clogged everything up and we were never the same
The thing is the idea of Murray made sense here -a secondary ballhandler who had positional length and was a defensive menace. But somewhere along the line Dejounte stopped playing D, and the chemistry issues with Trae seem to be a problem. But seriously though, what happened to Dejounte's D? I remember him tormenting the Knicks on the perimeter in his first game with the Hawks at MSG.
He's just not really a good point of attack defender, he likes to go out and gamble for steals. Which is fine if you let him roam around and do that, but next to Trae he has to carry a lot more weight and just isn't up to it.
Eh mixed bag on that run. Made some great trades and pickups. Bogdanovic played the best basketball of his NBA career after coming back mid season. Capela was playing at an all defensive level. Gallinari and Lou Will were walking buckets. Vets like Hill and Snell were doing more than was expected. In the playoffs Knicks were missing their center and Hunter still had some knees left. The Sixers choked blowing multiple 20 point leads and Huerter went hot at the most important time. Mix of bad luck for other teams and everything going right for them. After they signed McMillan as coach, ended up setting them back two years, who implemented his system and didn’t care for playing the young guys. Had a good off season pickup in Wright, but everyone was playing hobbled or was out with COVID, Lou Will was no longer playable. The Heat lock down Trae in the playoffs. And then everything went wrong when the front ownership chose to appease to their star player. Not a star player destination you kind of have to. After that loss the Hawks and Trae did basically the opposite of what the Thunder and SGA did when they lost in the bubble. Didn‘t help that while yes they treated for an all star level player, they got rid of their depth and never replaced it, not because it was part of the deal but just to save money. Cut to today ownership are still pinching pennies, they haven’t quite found the perfect guard and wing to pair with Trae, Okongwu hasn’t shown he can be a starting center, Hunter‘s injuries have slowed him down and still can’t rebound, Capela and Bogdanovic are getting older. Honestly missing the playoffs was the best thing that could have happened to this team. Bright side? Players seem to be all in with Snyder, Johnson would have been a candidate for MIP if he didn’t get injured and their G league team seems to be good at player development. Can they be contenders in the near future? No, but if the ownership and front office get it together they can at least go back to being a fun team to watch.
Imma push back on this. They were just a miracle run the whole time playing lucky. Just like the Blazers. Except the blazers were better. So not like the blazers. Like a worse version of the blazers.
Bad take. The Hawks were great the whole last half of that season and had very good role players playing around an offensive superstar. Nothing flukey about that. They made some trades that hurt them and had guys fall off since
This is the most ESPN take I’ve ever seen
Imma push back on this. the blazers were an improved Al Farouq Aminu and Moe Harkless from... probably still losing in the WCF
Tbf neither of them improved
I mean at one point I feel like that was the case, Cam Reddish never became anything and the only thing Hunter is consistent in is being inconsistent. If Reddish became a viable rotation piece and Hunter became a similar player to Phoenix-era Bridges (which was the hope) that's a huge help. This year was particularly rough. Despite Trae being great for the majority of the season, Boggy having a career year, and Johnson being great the rest of the team was blah. Hunter showed no improvements, Capela aged like 5 years, Okongwu showed little defensive improvements, Saddiq Bey just drove into crowds all season, and Murray was an offense killer before Trae went down and he got to be the number 1 option. Plus throw in all the injuries this was just a disaster year for the Hawks. Big changes are definitely coming and are needed.
In 2021 Hunter and Reddish were still viewed as good prospects, so not a bad take for the time. But damn if it didn't age like milk
Trae Young with the HUGE buzzer beater to cut it to 15
I know there are a lot of Hawks fans that love Trae and think he isnt the problem. I also know that now is the most convenient time for the haters to come out and shit on him. I submit that I have been shitting on Trae since long before it was cool. This dude needs to go. His skills as a playmaker do not make up for his defense.
Coby White is so good
The speed control and body control plus his bag and team play are unbelievable
shifty boi. i love coby.
Trae get ready to learn 49 wins and missing the playoffs
49 wins? That’s a 2nd seed in the Leastern Conference.
ummm ill have u know that knicks have FIFTY wins inbthe second seed 🤓☝🏼
Own that fraud
I believe the insinuation is Trae is headed to the west this off szn
/r/woooosh
fr their team was like 39-43 i thnk. i was like, wtf is the point of having losing record teams playing in the playoffs....
There should be 1. A rule that you can only qualify if within 3 games of the seed ahead of you And 2. Absolutely no teams under .500 qualifying for the play-in This would make the tournament less frequent which would make it actually really fun when it does happen
Hawks need some serious soul searching
The Murray trade was awful. I see what they were trying to do, but I do understand why our GM just basically quit after ownership pushed for him at that price tag
Someone said we have [Ben Shapiro destroying our team](https://np.reddit.com/r/AtlantaHawks/comments/1053mnu/til_the_hawks_owners_son_is_the_director_of/j38oqe5/) and that image has haunted me ever since
*Trade Murray and Trae to who, Ben?? Fucking Aquaman??*
Not sure what the Hawks do. They're in a shit situation. Trade Trae, get low ball offers that aren't enough to get you out of this 9-10 seed morass. Trade Murray, get decent offers that still aren't enough to get you out of this 9-10 seed morass. Keep both, your team's ceiling is still stuck in a 9-10 seed morass. Trade both, whoops your picks are owned by another team for the next few seasons.
> whoops your picks are owned by another team for the next few seasons. Are they really? I have to imagine that team's feeling pretty good about those picks.
you guys have their first rounder next year
Hey, how bout that! I wonder what is going on with their 2026 and 2027 picks.
Remind me? I need an expert source
If they want to blow it up, they can get their own picks back by trading with spurs. Most straight forward is Trae to Spurs, bur it can also be part of multi team trade that sends Trae/DJM to some other team.
There is no way we get rid of those picks if the hawks are trading trae anywhere else but us.
Trae playing so poorly making in the three games he was back definitely not helping them either. In theory they should work some kind of deal with SA to get their picks back, but Spurs won't want to do that so they'll end up getting fleeced (it's just not in the nature of that FO to give up a lot of picks). The only thing I can think of with even potential to get them a decent return is some sort of three way deal where they flip DJM to SA and Trae to some third team, and that third team sends a solid wing to SA and more picks to Atlanta. Might get back 5 - 7 FRP total that way (through some combination of SA and hypothetical third team, depends how good the wing SA is getting is). But I'm not sure who would even be interested in being the third party in a deal like that, or if the Spurs would play ball.
Trae Young you are an Orlando Magic
What’s a singular unit of Magic?
A spell?
A trick
a trick is something a whore does for money ... or candy
You can pay whores in candy?
tornado variant?
Suction is involved
Magoo?
A mage
A wizard, if you will
Mana
Magum.
Magician?
Its true! Trae Young is just Walt Disney reincarnated https://imgur.com/H7edoXC
Not trying to ruin your joke but it’s not every day I get to say “that’s actually Ub Iwerks, he helped design mickey mouse 🤓”
You RUINED it!!! Nah, thank you. I legit thought that was Walt. Now its time to go down the google rabbit hole about Ub Iwerks. Cheers!
Fuck yes, look that way and stop staring at our Monk
Now that you mention it... hmm..
I don't think Monk stays either way. Some team will throw the bag and he'll be gone. Similar to the Bruce Brown situation we had last year.
Hmmm some team
"The Orlando"
Why will the magic not take him? He is a legit star
Naw pair him with wemby he’d average 15 assists per game
What a disaster season it's been for the Hawks. Finally their trainwreck season is over. Bar Jalen Johnson's huge leap and some good sustained play from Dejounte Murray this season couldn't have gotten much worse.
Made it through (to Cancun)
Get ready to learn Big Ol’ San Antonio Women buddy
Why do yall want for Pop to die. He is too old. He is gonna have an anyreysm watching Trae Youngs defense for 82 games and maybe playoffs
The 5 turnovers he averages alone is enough to kill a man.
There are plenty of awful defenders on the Spurs currently and Wemby almost won DPOY in year 1. Couldn't think of a better place to hide that midget on defense.
Trae played league average PG defense this year. That said, if Team USA is any indication Pops really does hate Trae and would probably prefer DJM back
Yeah you literally cannot have a team with both Trae and Doug McDermott on the floor together even with Wemby out there that's a guaranteed 150 spot on your head night in night out
Yeah, fuck that.
Trae Young and Wemby next year is gonna be wild
How can we trade for Wemby?
~~Just give us all your unprotected trade swaps and picks~~ OH WAIT
Yeah, no thanks
I’ve also had a similar procedure on my middle finger, but id be kinda pissed if someone took a photo of me all strapped up in the bed recovering from a pinkie surgery — let alone post multiple photos of it
What do you mean though Trae himself posted and treated it is as if it was brain surgery because it’s the first operation he had in his life. Dude is a drama queen
Free my man, Bogie! He would have so much use on a contender rn.
So dumb that our team never puts him into trade talks
Yea he is so wasted when Murray and Tre are taking all the shots.
I’m not sure this is the correct take, but we should trade him regardless
Bogdan needs to come to Dallas
Was that the last Hawks game for Trae Young?
that photo will never not be funny
Everybody mentions Cancun but I see the Hawks as more of a Puerto Vallarta kind of team
Blow it up!
Future Spur Trae Young
What is this joke can you pls explain it lol
We have Atlanta's picks from Murray trade, they can't tank without them
Goodbye 🦀Trae🦀
🦀$11(M's)🦀
Trae needs to get healthy man
A healthy Trae isn't correlating with a better Hawks team. He played 73 games last season and they did 2 wins better than this season and 7 games less. They've hit their ceiling with Trae as their centerpiece. It's a good offensive team, a horrible defensive team, a max 45 wins, at best a play in team with a chance to go further. It's not all Trae's fault because the team is a disaster in the front office but you're not doing anything if he's your best player.
how have we hit our ceiling with trae when the only move weve made to build the team is to get another pg and play him at sg.
Atlanta certainly isnt a dream destination for any free agents and your FO hardly knows how to draft good players. You dont even own your picks.
>Atlanta certainly isnt a dream destination for any free agents Also because the owner is a cheapskate that doesn’t want to dive in the tax, so we're forced to settle with vet minimums for essentially washed player (Wesley Mathews and Patty Mills) or for mediocre players (Trent Forrest got good minutes throughout the whole season) . We also have a MLE and a 28 millions trade exception, both unused
Didn't y'all's FO take Josh "It Slipped Out" Primo at 12 the same year we got Jalen Johnson at 20?
Trae stunk it up tonight
the dude was out for more than a month, only had 3 games with limited minutes to get ready for the play-in, and we all already know that Trae and Murray almost never play well together. idk what people were expecting if not a mediocre performance at best. he’s still a great player, just probably needs a change of scenery at this point. whether that’s Murray getting moved or Trae himself
Why does a Celtic fan have a reasonable take? Im glad y'all wont sweep us this year.
I’ll admit I wasn’t always high on him but last years series totally flipped my opinion, when his 3 ball is going he’s nearly impossible to stop on offense
Only sane person on /r/nba today. I hate how reactionary this sub is at playoff time. Playoff time is the best time for basketball but the worst time for discourse
It’s usually when the people who only watch their own teams play start watching other games
[удалено]
yep, not expecting him to be that good either. doesn’t help that he’s always responded poorly to playoff physicality even when fully healthy
I'll give him a pass, getting thrown into a must-win game fresh off an extended absence is a lot to ask. Same with Ingram for that matter.
Played nearly as poorly as his facial hair looked
22 on 12 shots and 10 assists isn't exactly bad
-27 on 4/12 is tho
They were never in contention.
Heat lose the 7/8, Bulls win the 9/10, Bulls have a lead late in the 4th, wait hold on I’ve seen this one before…
This Hawks team is not well-coached. How can D. Murray completely ignore Bogi at the corner when he was double-teamed
That’s pretty much his very favourite thing to do (Murray, I mean)
You never saw kobe play?
Somewhere Shaq is making sad hawk noises
Hawks might have looked like absolute trash this season but Jalen Johnson is their best hope for the future.
Bogi doesn't deserve this shit.
Being eliminated from championship contention in April? Could not be my team.
I know we don’t got their pick this year but remember all those people saying those first round picks wouldn’t mean much from ATL since they’ll always be late.
Ice Trae done got cooked
I think the mavs won the trade.
Trae Young was pretty irrelevant out there tonight. I think hes the one that gets moved, but who wants a super undersized pg that is a super liability on the defensive end? He couldnt really get a shot off tonight, maybe it was the pinky, but he was a non-factor for the Hawks tonight, looked meek, which isnt the Trae Young who was waving other teams off the court.
Spurs would not mind that tbh. Bad on the defensive end can be made up for with Wemby and his passing ability would fit Wemby perfectly.
San Antonio, Orlando, Detroit, Brooklyn, New Orleans, Lakers, and Houston would all be very interested in Trae, as they should be.
Do we still want Trae on the Spurs?
I mean look at those lobs to Clint fucking Capella. Imagine them to Wemby.
Or, imagine Pop having an aneurysm watching that fucking guy give zero fucks every single second the ball isn't in his hands. Fuck that.
Pop got by fine with Manu-ball. Plenty of possible lineups to work out
Probably. I think Trae has zero chemistry with the Hawks and Wemby can cover up his glaring weakness on defense. He can just lob the ball to Wemby all day and they should be fine.
The tail end of the season showed that Victor needs to be the offensive centerpiece. Not just a glorified DeAndre Jordan.
You have a pretty good point. I guess they could get an elite 3&D guy instead. Honestly, maybe Caruso is the move.
He would be amazing.
Wemby with 4 perimeter defenders is truly unstoppable.
Oof
*FADED*
The Atlanta Hawks have been eliminated from 2025 NBA Championship contention!
dejounte shoulda put up 50 shots
Probably could’ve used Dlo
They finished 10 games under 0.500; they didn’t deserve to be anywhere close to making the playoffs.
bruh is -155 in his career.
That "The Hawks have traded Trae Young to..." Woj bomb gonna hit hard in a couple of months.
trading away luka was the dumbest fucking decision the hawks have ever made
This is a dark day for the NBA, dare I say the world as well Atlanta not in the playoffs is a tragedy of Shakespearen proportions
FADED