RealGM

I see alot of preseason rankings with boston as a 4 or 5 seed and hawks not even mentioned. This seems to be exclusively on recency bias with the hawks rebuilding and Boston a perrenial playoff team going 2+ rounds deep. If you actually look at the teams, I think Atlana could easily top Boston next year.

All the focus for Boston is on Kemba in and Kyrie out. That snags the headlines and i can see an argument where 82 games of Kemba can be as good as 65 games of Kyrie + Chemisty. However celtics had huge Loses. Not Just Horford, which is a huge loss, but ALL of their depth. Rozier, Morris, Baynes. those were huge rotation pieces. they lost 5 guys in their rotation as well. so alot of moving parts. Boston is a team that really lacks size and really lacks depth

Atlanta was 18-24 the second half of last year and Trae Yooung was a better post-ASB player then Kemba was. Young quietly was a 25/9/5 player on 45/35/88 sshooting. he basically gives you all the scoring and shooting of kemba with a ton more playmaking and thats just as a rookie.

John Collins is better then any big on the celtics. Huerter and crabbe add lights out shooting around that PnR duo. Hunter is a legit All-NBA defender day 1... he and reddish are better then anynyouth boston added. they also added the same type of 1 way scoring bigs boston did with guys like parker and len.

maybe boston finishes higher, but dont sleep on Atlana being better then them. they have the best player from either team (Young) and more up front, more depth, more shooting, and more defense.

they also dont have the chemsitry issues boston has or the egos

Boston for sure. They've reached a point now of being extremely underrated around here.

Though I do think the Hawks will be in the playoffs as a 7 or 8 seed. Which is a big success for them considering their core is just getting started

Boston took a huge step back this offseason but not to the point where the Hawks are on their level...

Prokorov while posting this:

It's possible that the Hawks surpass Boston, but I wouldn't bet on it even money

I don't think Atlanta being better than the Celtics is outside the realm of possibility, though I don't think it's likely. But all-NBA defense is an extremely unrealistic expectation for a rookie, regardless of talent.

This is putting some unnecessary expectations on a young atl team.

It frightens me how obsessed you are about Boston.

Is Julius Randle being traded to the Hawks?

Hawks have been getting a ton of love on here, but most people understand they're a few years away. They rely on too many young players right now to be a playoff contender.

DarkAzcura wrote:It frightens me how obsessed you are about Boston.

Its creepy. Very creepy

OP got tired of trolling our board I guess...

Boston easily.

I get the love that the hawks are getting, but they're young, they've had the luxury of no expectations and I think they still have a ways to go before they're considered a good team.

Celts' season was a disaster last year, but they still have a lot of talent that is both experienced and still young.

Boston>Hawks>Nets

Prokorov wrote:I see alot of preseason rankings with boston as a 4 or 5 seed and hawks not even mentioned. This seems to be exclusively on recency bias with the hawks rebuilding and Boston a perrenial playoff team going 2+ rounds deep. If you actually look at the teams, I think Atlana could easily top Boston next year.

All the focus for Boston is on Kemba in and Kyrie out. That snags the headlines and i can see an argument where 82 games of Kemba can be as good as 65 games of Kyrie + Chemisty. However celtics had huge Loses. Not Just Horford, which is a huge loss, but ALL of their depth. Rozier, Morris, Baynes. those were huge rotation pieces. they lost 5 guys in their rotation as well. so alot of moving parts. Boston is a team that really lacks size and really lacks depth

Atlanta was 18-24 the second half of last year and Trae Yooung was a better post-ASB player then Kemba was. Young quietly was a 25/9/5 player on 45/35/88 sshooting. he basically gives you all the scoring and shooting of kemba with a ton more playmaking and thats just as a rookie.

John Collins is better then any big on the celtics. Huerter and crabbe add lights out shooting around that PnR duo. Hunter is a legit All-NBA defender day 1... he and reddish are better then anynyouth boston added. they also added the same type of 1 way scoring bigs boston did with guys like parker and len.

maybe boston finishes higher, but dont sleep on Atlana being better then them. they have the best player from either team (Young) and more up front, more depth, more shooting, and more defense.

they also dont have the chemsitry issues boston has or the egos

Rozier, Morris, and Baynes were not “huge losses”. Rozier was a 3rd string PG putting up a 12.9 PER while sowing discontent in the locker room. Baynes was a backup big who played 800 minutes and will be easily replaced by Kanter who could thrive under Stevens. Morris is the one they’ll miss most and even he was a below average rotation PF by RPM.

Saying Trae was better than Kemba in second half is ridiculous since Trae was probably the worst defensive player in the league. He’d have to be literally James Harden on offense to be as good as Kemba playing D that portly. He’s got a ways to go to even be as good as Marcus Smart as an overall player.

Hawks should be a lot better this season record wise but they still need some seasoning imo. Not enough veteran talent there to balance out the youth but you have to love what they're putting together down there.

Trae Young had a good 2nd half of the season, and he's a promising player, but I wouldn't call him the better player right now. Boston did lose Morris, Rozier and Horford, but it looks likey the drafted well (Grant Williams and Carsen Edwards). They should also see improvement from Hayward and possibly Brown/Tatum. Plus Kanter is okay and Robert Williams might play better. Yes lots of unknown factors, but like Saints14 said above Atlanta is relying on too many young players right now to be a playoff contender.

Not sure how you have the Hawks improving so much?

Dan Z wrote:Trae Young had a good 2nd half of the season, and he's a promising player, but I wouldn't call him the better player right now. Boston did lose Morris, Rozier and Horford, but it looks likey the drafted well (Grant Williams and Carsen Edwards). They should also see improvement from Hayward and possibly Brown/Tatum. Plus Kanter is okay and Robert Williams might play better. Yes lots of unknown factors, but like Saints14 said above Atlanta is relying on too many young players right now to be a playoff contender.

We're only going to miss Horford, he was like a swiss army knife for us.

I won't lie, I wouldnt be shocked if ATL doesn't crack the 30 win barrier again this year. Youre probably going to get big minutes from 2 more rookies, one of whom is far from being able to contribute to winning basketball. Then you have to hope Young doesn't have a sophomore slump and hope he and Collins both improve while also playing winning basketball.

Sac had this issue back in the day. Drafted Tyreke Evans, he was ROY. Then the next year they draft Cousins. Just give them a couple years and their stats will turn into winning basketball, that never happened. Then it was Cousins/Gay/IT, that didnt turn into anything either. PHX has been stuck trying to get over this hump for years now.

Plus Im not really sure ATL really cares about getting that many Ws this year. They have a super young team and didnt really sign any vets. They basically just exchanged Bazemore for Turner and Prince for Crabbe. Not really sure those moves are going to lead to anymore wins. I think ATL is cool with one more year of letting the young guys get all the minutes they can get. Get a better picture on who they plan to keep and if they win cool, if not they just get 1 more young piece to add.