Harry Garris wrote:Geaux_Hawks wrote:Harry Garris wrote:
The Hawks offense has been absolutely terrible given their talent and how good they were last year. I'm not sure why so many people are assuming the Hawks will be fine and figure it out but the Wolves situation is unrecoverable. For as bad as the Gobert fit is offensively so far this season the fit with Trae Young and Dejounte Murray has arguably been even worse, but it flies under the radar.
The Hawks were the #2 offense in the NBA last year, this year they're bottom 10. And yes there are other players and injuries involved in that drop off it's not just the addition of Dejounte Murray, but it also just looks really bad when Trae and Dejounte share the court together. The offense devolves into stagnant your-turn, my-turn iso ball and Trae's having the least efficient season of his career as a result.
There is a world in which Dejounte Murray walks for nothing and Trae Young demands out. In that world this could totally end up being a worse trade than the Rudy Gobert one, especially if the Hawks end up having to give the Spurs a couple of top 5 picks.
You're forgetting Trae Young is also shooting the same shots he did last year, but missing them this year. Murray isn't impacting that. Also, shooters like Huerter and Gallo are gone; Collins is shooting horfficly; Bogi missed 20+ games; and Clint has been dealing with injuries. That #2 offense is bottom 10 because the same guys that made it so good, are either struggling themselves, or not here. Guys don't shoot 31% and 23% because a new player joined the team. These are legit wide open shots being missed btw. This isn't Murray coming in and taking shots away or anything. Trae's still got around the same usage and FGA's. All Murray did was replaced Huerter/Gallo without the shooting.
Again, our problems come from no bench, lack of shooting, missing Capela, and coaching in general. Even just having Capela back fully healthy would swing more games back into our favor. Teams just kill us on the boards most nights without him.
I haven't watched a ton of Hawks games this year so I'll have to defer to you somewhat but from an outside observer the stagnation, lack of creativity, and ball movement in the Hawks offense this year looks significantly worse than it did last year. It's like night and day. Maybe you're right and Trae Young is just going through the worst shooting slump ever and it will self correct but so far the offense looks like it's doing a terrible job generating high quality shots and everyone on the Hawks is shooting as if that's the case.
You can watch all the games you want, if you're watching them through the wrong lens (e.g. to rationalize a trade that saw 3 first-round picks including 2 unprotected go to another team) then it prevents you from making an accurate analysis of the events.
Not specifically dismissing Geaux_Hawks's take here, just making a more general point.
Like you, I've seen a few Hawks games this year, and it's obvious to me the offense looks worse. Trae - who might also be missing shots to compound to the bigger issue - looks uncomfortable within the offense, which has undoubtedly contributed to his poor percentages. He never gets to get in a flow, or to regress to the mean after a bad stretch within the game, because in this case he just defers to Murray, who then takes his turn.
The Hawks didn't add a secondary playmaker, they added a second primary option, who is now just taking turns running the offense with Trae, while neither one of them helps the other while they are off the ball.
Huerter was a much better fit than Murray. Losing him hurt them.
