RealGM

Hawks probable starters

Teague
Bazemore??
Carroll
Millsap
Antic



Kings probable starters

Macallum
Mclemore
Casspi
Landry
Cousins

Poor. d so far.

Pero playing well. Not really making any shots, but providing us with some good toughness and defense.

I like Muscala's touch but he needs to work on his screen setting.

Better 2nd quarter .

Cousins getting a T for mocking the ref's stance made me laugh out loud.

Muscala half a step slow and getting ABUSED by their bigs.

Schroeder getting too fancy

Cousins is a punk man. So is Andre miller

BAZ3MOR3

The last 2 minutes of a game takes 20 minutes with the way the Hawks close out games.

One more win, and we get to hang a banner for winning the division.

Teague and Millsap combined for 42 points, 14 boards, 10 assists, 2 blocks, and a steal... and I didn't think either was really on his game. I guess that's why they are All-Stars - they can make that look ho-hum. Bazemore continues to impress me. Even though this wasn't one of his better games, he seemed to make an impact even before his dagger 3 late - just seemed to be a nuisance to SAC all game long. I thought Mack played OK overall but that miss will be on the worst plays of the night / week / season and rightfully so - he flat flubbed it.

The Pero / Brand / Muscala rotation has to tighten it up - Jason Thompson goes for nearly 20... Wth? I haven't been able to watch all the games here recently - has Pero lost the primary backup position to Brand and is competing with Muscala for the #3 spot or was that a 1 game occurrence? At least Cousins was there to bail us out. Classic case of $M talent / $.10 head there. If a coach ever gets through to him the sky is the limit, but he's lazy and a showboat to boot... Glad he's not our headache.

Stats don't reflect it, but I was impressed with McLemore. D'ed up the PG and was able to take Mack in the post. After his season last year, I honestly had given him up for dead, but it looks like he could still be a nice role player, epspecially for a Seth Curry type PG who you don't mind saving some on D. Not as bullish on Stauskas though - looked overmatched athletically and looked semi-desperate every time he had the ball. Hopefully the kid can come out of it and salvage his career, but man that was tough to watch him out there.

theatlfan wrote:
The Pero / Brand / Muscala rotation has to tighten it up - Jason Thompson goes for nearly 20... Wth? I haven't been able to watch all the games here recently - has Pero lost the primary backup position to Brand and is competing with Muscala for the #3 spot or was that a 1 game occurrence? At least Cousins was there to bail us out. Classic case of $M talent / $.10 head there. If a coach ever gets through to him the sky is the limit, but he's lazy and a showboat to boot... Glad he's not our headache.

Pero has typically been sat on the second game of back to backs so I was a bit surprised to see him play in Sacramento after starting in LA the previous night. I would assume that Bud had to shift him into the lineup with only Muscala available off the bench.

Muscala i cant put my finger on it, but he just doenst look good. He had the nice put back dunk which was a hustle play. he had 1 nice block. But he seems to ALWAYS be out of position and not boxing out his man. Its like he loses him in the lane or he shows way too much on the high PNR.

A ton of that is just fundamentals he will have to get with more PT, but, wasnt that impressed with what I saw last night. They NEVER looked for him in the lane or post, and he never picked and popped and got the ball that i saw (I watched from 3rd quarter on) because i was watching Better Call Saul

PandaKidd wrote:Muscala i cant put my finger on it, but he just doenst look good. He had the nice put back dunk which was a hustle play. he had 1 nice block. But he seems to ALWAYS be out of position and not boxing out his man. Its like he loses him in the lane or he shows way too much on the high PNR.A ton of that is just fundamentals he will have to get with more PT, but, wasnt that impressed with what I saw last night

I think, ultimately, he may have been done a great disservice by bringing him over early. He was putting up stellar numbers in the Spanish league last season. We fell on hard times as we had a few bigs go down. But I have been very disappointed he hasn't gotten much consistent burn in the time here. And when he has been on the floor...it hasn't been overwhelmingly positive.

I still think he can have a long NBA career if he likes. But I suspect he may not get a full opportunity with this squad. I think his ideal situation would have been to stay in Spain for a couple of years. Dominate. Get stronger and more experienced. Come over this Fall with a specific role already laid out for him.

I didn't think he'd be a starter, but I at least expected him to be a rotational player by now. He's got the size, the IQ and the skillset. Yet he still doesn't seem to have carved out a niche just yet.

he seems unsure, like hes a CENTER trying to play PF. Hes gotten bigger since last year for sure, but hes just not there yet. To be fair, neither was Dennis, minutes seemed to help DS

The problem with Muscala, as I'd diagnose it, is that offensively he doesn't do the small things for his guards that make them inclined to look for him.

First off, when he sets screens they're weak, which means that the guard has to work harder to break free. He also slips screens a disproportionate amount of the time. Strike 1 against him from a guard's perspective.

Second off, he doesn't get clean post position. Part of this is technique, part of this is his lack of strength. Either way, it makes for a difficult entry pass.

Third, he calls for the ball too much, and from awkward angles. A lot of the time he will post up while his man is at the top of the key. That's a REALLY awkward entry pass which has to thread multiple defenders and lots of space, which combined with his soft post position means it's a bad call. He also calls for the ball all the time when he slips the screens while he's just thrown his guard into a soft double, which again makes for a difficult pass.

All this means that when he IS open guards often miss him because they've tuned him out from his overcalling. Which is a shame because he has great touch, but he needs to work on those little fundamental big man things outside of scoring before he's going to get the ball.

Defensively he just needs to hit the weight room a little bit and learn to not overhelp.

^^^ EXcellent post

Man..thats like one of the more awesome post I have seen on here.

I attributed his "I'm so lost" nature on him coming over late last year, but he still shows it. He plays like a guy that has depended on his athleticism to get here. He doesn't really box out but can get boards in traffic because he is long and jumps. He can challenge a shot at the rim well, but doesn't seem to rotate well...

Raw, but I still like him. But he doesn't offer the little things that Pero does. Now if I could just convince Pero to step in a few steps, abandon the three for the long 2(which is his real range) I would be okay.

BTW I don't mean to bag on the kid. He clearly has some NBA skills, he plays hard, and his stats are all really impressive in the minutes he's played. He's also only 23.

Personally I think it's a great thing that he gets to see minutes this year, and that we have veteran bigs to coach him on the small things, especially Brand, who's managed to stay relevent in the league solely because he still does all those fundamental things.