jayjaysee wrote:cgf wrote:jayjaysee wrote:Everyone talking about Atlanta tanking…
The play-in is gifting them a chance to just need Trae to be special for two games to make the playoffs and convey a pick in the teens… Trae has to be special to get out of play-in whether they do these trades or not.
No one else wants the 10th seed out East. Philly wants in, but Chicago doesn’t want to be in so Atlanta will get in by default IMO.
Feels like very little changed for Atlanta’s current season by the moves they did and they got the team ready for next year.
Yeah. Before JJ went down I thought they had a shot at snagging the 6th seed if Orlando didn't get back on track or Milwaukee started to slip, but without him they were locked into a playoff spot unless Trae went down to. The east has gotten a lot stronger at the top, but the conference isn't as deep as the west, and one of those final two play-in spots is still very achievable for the Hawks even after selling at the deadline to clear capspace for the summer.
Plus those SAS picks are a sunken cost anyway. Atlanta's ability to improve their team is neither helped nor hindered by handing over a lower pick to the spurs.
Yeah, it would have cost a good asset to get out of the play-in and get to six. But it costs nothing to stay ahead of Chicago imo. The benefit of playing in the East and 5 teams behind you tanking..
But Chicago also didn’t really do what I expected, so maybe they still want to fight for 10th seed and their fans were right? I thought Chicago would’ve gotten value for at least 2 more guys on their roster..
Once JJ went down getting top 6 was out of the question IMO. If he had stayed healthy, however, and their FO been able to upgrade from Capela to someone at least as good as Poeltl, then we could be having a very different conversation and Cavs fans would still be sweating bullets about the possibility of a first-round series with Atlanta.
But for a second season in a row, JJ getting hurt has absolutely tanked the Hawks' season.
And yeah, ownership doesn't want the Bulls to give up on the revenues of gunning for the play-in, even if they've given AK the ok to get younger.
The UC may not be as exorbitant as MSG, but going to a bulls' game is no joke...driving up to Milwaukee for the Knicks' IST game was significantly cheaper than seeing the knicks come to chicago for a generic regular season game, and only about an hour more driving for me roundtrip...and they have kept that building packed in recent years.
Despite the team being extremely mid since they broke Lonzo, Donovan is a very good coach at squeezing the absolute most out of what limited talent management gives him to work with, so they've been inexplicably scrappy.
But even with Chicago refusing to roll over, Philly ostensibly still trying to make the playoffs, the loss of their Jalen, and selling at this deadline; Atlanta really should be locked into one of those play-in spots behind CLE / BOS / NYK / IND / MIL / ORL / MIA / DET. Which is exactly where most people picked them to finish.
Even as someone who really liked their offseason, and was predicting them to win 40-45 games with the potential to surpise, I still had them in the play-in before the season started. Philly's collapse opened the door to the top 8, but Detroit finally starting to look how I thought they would last year balances that out with JJ injured.
