Hawks are gaining on them !!

[DirtybirdGA]

By Sunday this could be "them are gaining on the Hawks".lol

[Jamaaliver]

Looks like we're in good company...

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[MaceCase]

Masterful job by Bud to manage to be tied for the 2nd worst record despite having Memphis, Chicago, Sacramento, and Phoenix be worse for the whole season by point-differential. Even with the afterburners (airbrakes?) turned on, three of those teams are still outpacing him by the metric.

[D21]

But only PHO and SAC were also always in negative like ATL on any streak of 10 games.
CHI and MEM had at least a streak of 10 games being in positive points difference

But like you said, SAC look worse on it, and still have more W, so Bud a better tanking manager than Joerger

Odds if season was ending today : more than 50% to be in top 3

[HMFFL]

Phoenix gave up a big lead to Houston.
Houston won the game by one point!

[D21]

Phoenix gave up a big lead to Houston.
Houston won the game by one point!

Too bad, because at this point, it doesn't change anything for Houston to loose some games, especially Vs teams that are not in playoffs spots.
Would have been good for us

[HMFFL]

Brooklyn just beat the Miami Heat in OT.

[Jamaaliver]

Victory over Magic doesn’t hurt Hawks in draft lottery projection

The Hawks beat the Magic on Sunday, but that victory didn’t hurt them in draft lottery race as far as FiveThirtyEight.com’s projections are concerned.

FiveThirtyEight’s model predicts the Hawks (22-55) will win one of their final five game to finish with a 23-59 record, third-worst in the league. That’s the same projected record for the Hawks before they beat the Magic (22-54) at Philips Arena.

If the Hawks finish with the third-worst record they will have about a 15 percent chance to win the lottery, compared to 25 percent for the team with the worst record and 20 percent for second-worst (assuming no ties). With the third-worst record, the Hawks would have a roughly 47 percent chance at a top three pick (again assuming no ties).

myAJC

[Spud2nique]

Victory over Magic doesn’t hurt Hawks in draft lottery projection

The Hawks beat the Magic on Sunday, but that victory didn’t hurt them in draft lottery race as far as FiveThirtyEight.com’s projections are concerned.

FiveThirtyEight’s model predicts the Hawks (22-55) will win one of their final five game to finish with a 23-59 record, third-worst in the league. That’s the same projected record for the Hawks before they beat the Magic (22-54) at Philips Arena.

If the Hawks finish with the third-worst record they will have about a 15 percent chance to win the lottery, compared to 25 percent for the team with the worst record and 20 percent for second-worst (assuming no ties). With the third-worst record, the Hawks would have a roughly 47 percent chance at a top three pick (again assuming no ties).

myAJC

I have the Magic getting 1-2 more wins and us at 0-1. Please let’s lock down 3rd worst at least.

[Jamaaliver]

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[macd-gm]

Picking up 2 wins in the final 3 games is beyond stupid and is the type of thing that messes up our future for no reason at all.

[D21]

The worst point is that it's not really supporting tanking when you're at the end of the season, and you can't get anything except the highest number of lottery odds you can get, and for a team not able to get any superstar via free agency, the only thing to do would be to say "hey, for the first time being not in playoffs in a while, let's go tanking the best we can and try to get a future superstar in the draft".
They can test themselves against the great team if they want, but what's the point of winning it when you know that Brad Stevens is not even plyaing his best players in the fourth ?
You're happy to win a game without the best opponent players ? good, to but if they don't get a future superstar in the draft because of that, it will be the worst management a team can do.

[Sothron]

These two wins are beyond moronic. Schlenk should have called Bud in game and ordered him to sit the hot guys.

[macd-gm]

These two wins are beyond moronic. Schlenk should have called Bud in game and ordered him to sit the hot guys.

Hey Soth! We're definitely going to be cursing those wins for a few years to come. It's literally unbelievable.

[Jamaaliver]

Coach Budenholzer heard the pleas to tank, just ignored them

The Hawks are winning when fans want them to lose

The Hawks are on their best stretch right at the end of the regular season, when fans are calling for the team to tank to increase their chances of getting a top NBA Draft pick.

Finally, the season is coming to an end, but Taurean Prince's recent hot hand and opponents who are resting guys is helping the Hawks win games and, in turn, hurting their chances of getting more ping pong balls for the lottery on May 15.

Fans are frustrated, calling out the team to just throw in the towel. Budenholzer hears them. He understands.



"We’re all big boys and understand there’s lots of different things that people are looking at or prioritizing. We can’t get too worried about what they think or think is important," Budenholzer said. "In a lot of ways, they’re right. It doesn’t mean what we’re doing isn’t important to us, our growth and development. So it doesn’t get under my skin or our guys’ skin."

Even if Bud wanted to tank, he couldn't say it.


Plus, intentionally losing is not how the coaches and players are built to think. They're not playing-- or failing-- to get a draft pick. They're playing for their jobs, especially the ones approaching free agency.

"Players are built to compete and do everything they can on the court to play winning basketball, to make winning plays on defense end offense, and if you do it long enough, you’re going to win games," Budenholzer said. "It’s the way we’re all built."

Budenholzer is proud of how far his roster has come.

11 Alive

[Jamaaliver]

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[Jamaaliver]

FYI --