Hawks are 17-24. What's happening?

[The KnicksFix]

Trae is fake hustle. Can’t launch yourself into defenders to draw fouls anymore. He doesn’t give anything to you on defense. On offense he would run pick and roll with Capela and stop on a dime to initiate fake fouls. You can’t do that anymore and he can’t launch himself into people trying to shoot from 35 feet out. Defense is a wash. They don’t guard anyone.

That hawk team is just not that good

You sound Salty af. Then why couldn't the Knicks stop him or the hawks? TBH I thought both teams overachieved.

How’s it being salty when we played without our starting center who is a beast down low on defense and nullifies the pick and roll. You see what happens to your team if you play without capela. Now try playing a playoff series without him. You think the pick and roll needs a quality center who can defend the opposing center who constantly sets the pick? Duh

If you take away the pick and roll then he’s left jacking up contested shots, which is exactly what you have currently. And what does that lead to? Losses

[shakes0]

Trae is fake hustle. Can’t launch yourself into defenders to draw fouls anymore. He doesn’t give anything to you on defense. On offense he would run pick and roll with Capela and stop on a dime to initiate fake fouls. You can’t do that anymore and he can’t launch himself into people trying to shoot from 35 feet out. Defense is a wash. They don’t guard anyone.

That hawk team is just not that good

The above post has ZERO to do with why the Hawks are struggling.

Trae Young having a better offensive season than last year is NOT a reason the team is struggling.

[shakes0]

Trae is fake hustle. Can’t launch yourself into defenders to draw fouls anymore. He doesn’t give anything to you on defense. On offense he would run pick and roll with Capela and stop on a dime to initiate fake fouls. You can’t do that anymore and he can’t launch himself into people trying to shoot from 35 feet out. Defense is a wash. They don’t guard anyone.

That hawk team is just not that good

You sound Salty af. Then why couldn't the Knicks stop him or the hawks? TBH I thought both teams overachieved.

How’s it being salty when we played without our starting center who is a beast down low on defense and nullifies the pick and roll. You see what happens to your team if you play without capela. Now try playing a playoff series without him. You think the pick and roll needs a quality center who can defend the opposing center who constantly sets the pick? Duh

If you take away the pick and roll then he’s left jacking up contested shots, which is exactly what you have currently. And what does that lead to? Losses

Lol, love it when homers think their team is the only one with injuries. As if the Hawks didn’t have guys hurt in that series. Reddish didn’t play and Hunter played rusty after missing the previous several months. But yea, a bench scrub lke Mitch Robinson is going to turn around a 5 game one sided series

[Else_where]

We're blaming the Hawks D entirely on Trae, but I think Bogdanovic also has a big share of responsibility. His D looks misleading because he does move fairly well and stays with his guy, and he has this massive wingspan, but he doesn't actually do much with it. Doesn't swipe, doesn't push, doesn't block the lane, he's pretty passive and soft and guys often go right through him. I think he gets targeted a lot when he's on the floor.

Gallinari as well, Huerter used to do well in steals but he sucks after getting paid too.
They need a major trade with 76ers for Ben Simmons or a trade with Kings imo.

[NatiboyB]

You can remove the Raptors from that list because that literally never happened to them.

Raps never had a single big over achieving season and then came back crashing down

Let's remember that without Kawhai they were the #2 team in the NBA prior to the nba shutdown

2009-2010

huh? they were under .500

They still played above their expectations. That’s the BLUF sometimes teams play above their level for a season for one reason or another trend back down the next season. The Suns did it at one point a few seasons ago also. What ends up occurring is teams end up resigning people they otherwise would of moved on from.

[jayu70]

We're blaming the Hawks D entirely on Trae, but I think Bogdanovic also has a big share of responsibility. His D looks misleading because he does move fairly well and stays with his guy, and he has this massive wingspan, but he doesn't actually do much with it. Doesn't swipe, doesn't push, doesn't block the lane, he's pretty passive and soft and guys often go right through him. I think he gets targeted a lot when he's on the floor.

Bogi is awful on defense, this isn't just a this season thing, he plays with his hands down and lets guys go right by him. Pretty much everyone on the team outside of Capela, Okongwu and Hunter are awful defenders. And Hunter/Okongwu have both missed more than half the season. Trae isn't great either but he's not historically bad as some make him out to be. We can generally hide him on the opposing teams worst backcourt offensive player. The problem is our other players are crappy defenders too so it doesn't really make a difference.

I think this is also a big factor defensively:

Read on Twitter

?s=20

Then there is this from a continuity and communication perspective:
The Hawks haven’t played a SINGLE game this season in which these seven players were all active…
Trae Young
Bogdan Bogdanovic
De’Andre Hunter
John Collins
Clint Capela
Kevin Huerter
Onyeka Okongwu

[KembaWalker]

I think a lot of people at the beginning of the season would have listed the Hawks as being one of the teams most capable of dealing with the varying rosters every team is having to use due to protocols. Their depth was the big thing last year

[Pachinko_]

Οkongwu figured out the first rule of defending Giannis: no flopping, hacking, sneaky fouls and other BS, you gotta straight up try and block him.

[CP War Hawks]

Οkongwu figured out the first rule of defending Giannis: no flopping, hacking, sneaky fouls and other BS, you gotta straight up try and block him.

He plays defense like that vs everyone. He just needs to stay healthy. He's missed every off season develop time from injury. He's behind on his offensive development, could really be a decent low post scorer.

[Pachinko_]

Οkongwu figured out the first rule of defending Giannis: no flopping, hacking, sneaky fouls and other BS, you gotta straight up try and block him.

He plays defense like that vs everyone. He just needs to stay healthy. He's missed every off season develop time from injury. He's behind on his offensive development, could really be a decent low post scorer.

He's good. I never bought it that you can't play D in the modern NBA, you can, it's just harder.

[DusterBuster]

This honestly happens to a lot of teams. Just because a team has a great run one offseason doesn't mean they're destined for greatness going forward. Sometimes a team just catches lightning in a bottle, but we're really playing over their heads. No real big secrets below the surface other than that. It's looking like that was the case with the Hawks last season and going into this year. The team still needs a lot of work.

Reminds me a lot of the Blazers team in 2015-2016 right after Aldridge left. Everyone thought that team was going to be awful but ended up making the playoffs and beating the Clippers in the first round (after CP3 and Blake got hurt). They got beat by the Warriors in the 2nd round (no surprise), but everyone was sky high on the team so Olshey resigned everyone to big deals to keep the team together and they flamed out the next few seasons. The team wasn't actually as good as they showed, they just caught a bit of luck. That team did have one solid run the year they got to the WCF though, and they didn't do so with the help of injuries that season iirc, but overall... yeah... ownership and management blew their load on a team they should have been more patient with.

[Threezus]

Οkongwu figured out the first rule of defending Giannis: no flopping, hacking, sneaky fouls and other BS, you gotta straight up try and block him.

He's actually better against elite post players like Embidd and Giannis he rises to the occasion very well so far and is scared of no one. His problem so far is the stretch guys that brings him out of the paint and even then he is pretty good there but he can be has some out there. But the best thing about that is those guys are easier to handle with team defense and easier to learn to handle going forward with experience from Okongwu. The hardest thing to do is handle elite players because most players never learn to hold up to them so King Kongwu has top tier upside based on what he can already do imo.

[HotRocks34]

2-game win streak for the first time since November

[Sothron]

OO is such a difference maker for us. This team has not had ONE GAME where our top eight rotation players were all healthy this season. This team just needs to get healthy.

[Sothron]

Three wins in a row over quality competition. Still have not played one game all season with our top seven rotation players healthy. Unreal. Team is starting to climb out of the hole that covid, injuries and bad team defense caused.

[Jamaaliver]

Read on Twitter

[RamonSessions7]

Hunter

[Mr Puddles]

This team is far more talented than their record. They'll be in the mix again come playoff time. The Hawks had a pretty slow start to the season last year as well if I remember correctly.

[Gasolina]

Trae is fake hustle. Can’t launch yourself into defenders to draw fouls anymore. He doesn’t give anything to you on defense. On offense he would run pick and roll with Capela and stop on a dime to initiate fake fouls. You can’t do that anymore and he can’t launch himself into people trying to shoot from 35 feet out. Defense is a wash. They don’t guard anyone.

That hawk team is just not that good

You sound Salty af. Then why couldn't the Knicks stop him or the hawks? TBH I thought both teams overachieved.

Because with Robinson being injured we had nobody to stop Clint Capela who killed the Knicks in that series. Mitch would have shut their pick and roll down. Not saying the Knicks would have won the series, but Mitch being injured played a huge part.

Robinson is not a good player.

[Lalouie]

it's a team of 4th option players and one star