Game Thread: Hawks at Bulls, 01/23/19

[jayu70]

The start of a 7 game road trip.

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[jayu70]

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[graymule]

Not Bulls at Hawks - - It's Hawks at Bulls...

GO ATL HAWKS !!

[DirtybirdGA]

Lottofest.

[Jamaaliver]

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Hawks stand in way as Bulls eye rare winning streak

Now that the Chicago Bulls have put an end to their 10-game losing streak, they are ready to point things in the right direction.

The Bulls will try to make it two in a row when they host the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday.

The Bulls have won consecutive games only once this season -- those coming in late December when the Bulls were going through a 4-3 stretch. This will be the second of four meetings between the Hawks and Bulls. Chicago took the first game 97-85 in Atlanta on Oct. 27. The Bulls have won the past five games against Atlanta. These teams also will play March 1 in Atlanta and March 3 in Chicago.

The Hawks could not contain guard Zach LaVine in the first meeting. The guard had 27 points and 11 rebounds in that game. LaVine scored 25 against the Cavaliers on Monday and is averaging 22.9 points, 4.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists.

The Bulls have been better recently on offense.

They have scored 100-plus points in nine straight games, their longest such streak since last January. Chicago averages 101.1 points, 29th in the league through Monday.

Atlanta's main problem in the first game was turnovers. The Hawks committed 22; they average 18.8 turnovers per game, last in the NBA and nearly three turnovers per game more than the next-worst team, Phoenix.

Atlanta has played better over the past month, going 8-9 in the last 17 games. During that stretch, the Hawks have led the league in offensive rebounds and rank second in rebounds per game.

Associated Press

Spoiler:

Much of the credit belongs to John Collins, who has 19 double-doubles -- more than anyone from the NBA draft class of 2017. Over the last six games Collins is averaging 20.5 points and 10.0 rebounds, and is shooting 56.8 percent (50 for 88) from the floor.

Young is averaging 16.1 points and 7.2 assists for the season, but also 4.1 turnovers per game. The team has been helped by the return of forward Taurean Prince, who missed 15 games because of an ankle injury. Prince averages 13.9 points.

[HMFFL]

Chicago is favored by two points.

Sent from my SM-N920P using RealGM mobile app

[ATL Boy]

Ok, so this one wouldn't be the worst game to lose.

[Jamaaliver]

How can a team that young, play so slowly?

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[Steelo Green]

Is Huerter the starter once everyone is healthy?

[Atlanta Hawk Fan]

Is Huerter the starter once everyone is healthy?

I think he has to be unless it is a purely short term benching to feature Baze and/or Prince for trade exploration.

[jayu70]

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[jayu70]

Is Huerter the starter once everyone is healthy?

Yes. Before Baze got hurt, Huerter got the starting spot at SG alongside Prince at SF. Baze was coming off the bench.

[ducler]

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[Hazer]

Printz and Ded in there for the trade block showcase.

[lethalweapon3]

Woe be to the Middle-Aged NBA baller.

In this league, the Middle Ages used to refer to the hoopster pros pushing 30 years of age. But the growing influx of teens, and guys too young to legally drink, stocking rosters and even starting lineups is having deleterious effects on the “veteran” NBA. These days, many players in their late 20s are in their twilight. Meanwhile, those right around age 25 are getting that not-so-fresh look from their coaches and managerial staffs.

Presenting, as one example, Cristiano Felicio, center for today’s opponent of the Atlanta Hawks, the Chicago Bulls (8:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, WGN in CHI). At least, we have some reason to believe he’s still there.

Despite going undrafted, hopes were once high for the burly Brazilian as a developmental project. His rookie NBA season interrupted by just a couple brief G-League call-ups in 2015-16, Felicio was benefitting from the fact that he was not the aging free agent fail that was Pau Gasol, nor was he the ran-into-the-ground remains of Joakim Noah. When Chicago coach Fred Hoiberg’s only other option was Cameron Bairstow, Felicio was looking like a fairly good play.

That was NBA Year One for Felicio. Year Two: 66 appearances off the bench, often closing games with the first unit, and the promise shown was good enough for the two-headed managerial monster, Gar Forman and John Paxson, to offer their restricted free agent a four-year, $32 million deal the ensuing summer.

Year Three: only 55 games due to leg and back injuries, but 16 starts, including 14 in the back half of what was otherwise a turmoil-enbroiled season for his teammates. Now, it’s Year Four. By the looks of it, the Bulls have all but washed their hooves of him.

This is a team that lost playing time from Lauri Markkanen and Bobby Portis, at the outset, due to injuries, and now is likely to saunter along without lotto-rookie Wendell Carter (thumb surgery) for the balance of this season. This is a team that relegated their biggest offseason acquisition, Chi-town native and restricted free agent Jabari Parker, to the bench indefinitely in December, until continual blows to roster depth left Hoiberg’s in-season replacement, droll sergeant Jim Boylen, with little choice.

This is a team where the coaches admitted they were overplaying their Finnish prodigy, the 21-year-old Markannen, out of position at the 5-spot, despite the second-year seven-footer continuing to work through elbow soreness, following a sprain suffered in training camp that held him out for six weeks.

Yet here sits Felicio, now 26, raking in $8.5 million this season, and $15.5 million guaranteed the next two seasons, with 13 DNP’s over Chicago’s past 27 games. Of his 14 appearances, Cristiano was granted double-digit playing time just once, 17 disastrous bench minutes when the Bulls were waxed 133-77 at home by Daniel Theis and Al Horford-less Boston.

The Bulls would love to keep Robin Lopez in mothballs, in hopes of finding a suitable deal partner before the league’s trade deadline arrives. But Carter’s injury has left the Bulls (sorry, Felicio, were you saying something?) with few options. RoLo has returned to the starting lineup, issuing four assists and nine rebounds as Chicago ended their ten-game losing skid in punchless Cleveland.

Chicago hopes to soon ship Lopez somewhere, as they have already done with 29-year-old former Hawk Justin Holiday, so they won’t have to buy his expiring contract out, as Lopez reportedly wishes. That pending move is likely to leave Felicio the team’s senior member, the sole player on the Bulls’ roster aged 26 or over. Next oldest, Shaquille Harrison, the early-season waiver-wire pickup who is part of the cadre of backup guards (Ryan Arcidiacono, Antonio Blakeney, the waived Tyler Ulis and Cameron Payne) Chicago cycled through while working through Kris Dunn’s injury absence.

It’s one thing when fans have soured on the promise of an NBA prospect just a few years into his pro tenure. But it seems as though, in the minds of big-spending NBA managers about players like the 23-year-old Parker, a former 2nd-overall pick as a teen from five drafts ago, and less-heralded folks like Felicio, The Future Was Last Year already.

If you’ve reached three NBA seasons and are not touted as at least a peripheral All-Star prospect, the effort that goes into developing the player’s skillset wanes, his formerly untapped potential has tarnished, and he holds utility only in the emergency event that more prized prospects are unable to play.

Enes Kanter used to be the teenager that was forcing his coach’s hand, muscling his way into frontcourt rotations on a playoff roster that included Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson. Seven seasons later, Kanter’s 26, as young as Millsap was in 2012. Yet the former is being asked to quietly collect his team-high $18.5 million paycheck and park his hiney on the pine, so the Porzingis-less Knicks can trot out “youngsters” Mitchell Robinson and Luke Kornet – oh, hold the phone, Kornet just got hurt. You mind being upgraded to a second-string sub, Enes?

When he’s not treated like an expensive stopgap, Kanter often gets to sit beside similarly “washed” players in their mid-20s, highly-hyped college stars turned detritus like 26-year-olds Tim Hardaway and Trey Burke, 23-year olds Mario Hezonja and Noah Vonleh, former teen dream Emmanuel Mudiay. Age-wise, they’re all still young. In terms of NBA career arcs, at least in New York, they’re all tired and poor, yearning to breathe free.

The “geriat-Knicks” are all getting pressed to sit and watch Kevin Knox (age 19), Frank Ntilikina (age 20), Allonzo Trier (age 23, but just a rookie), and Damyean Dotson (age 24, but just his second season) hog the spotlight due to popular demand. If the “experienced” players are sharing the floor, it’s only because they’re actively being shopped – future draft picks preferred, please.

By comparison, Atlanta’s staff impresses that they’re not giving up on their Middle Age Hawks. The trade deadline heat lamp shines upon established vets like Kent Bazemore, who would at least be a key bench cog were he not still rehabbing, backup guard Jeremy Lin and starting pivot Dewayne Dedmon. But Middle Agers like Alex Len and DeAndre’ Bembry are far from being left-for-dead – certainly not anymore, in the case of the discarded former Suns center.

For better or often worse, Taurean Prince (career-high 50.4 2FG%, but career-low 15.2 percent of shots taken around the rim) is getting playing time. His coach, Atlanta’s Lloyd Pierce, returned him without hesitation to the starting lineup when rookie Kevin Huerter came down with a neck strain before the Hawks’ 122-103 loss to visiting Orlando on Monday afternoon. Prince struggled during his first start in four games since returning from injury, but it is all part of the Hawks’ willingness to let players take their lumps, together on the floor, while learning on the fly.

Tilting at windmills to keep up with All-Star candidate Nikola Vucevic, Dedmon’s 24 points against the Magic tied a career-high in what may have been his Hawks home finale. But Len (1-for-7 FGs vs. ORL) isn’t likely to lose much in the way of floor time once Dedmon departs, even as Pierce ramps up rookie Omari Spellman after the All-Star Break. The Hawks are 4-1 when Len has logged 28 or more minutes.

Even while Bembry struggles to spread the floor, or to make his freebies (last 14 games: 26.3 3FG%, 62.5 FT%), he has become a vital defensive starter (4 steals, 2 blocks vs. ORL) for a Hawks team that could use all the help in that area they could get. Tyler Dorsey and Justin Anderson, despite their respective challenges, are likely to get more play in the coming weeks, particularly with the Hawks embarking on a season-long seven-game road trip.

Teams like the Bulls and Knicks, who have been on the tanking gerbil wheel far longer than they anticipated, would leave cats like Bembry and Len twisting in the wind. Conversely, the Hawks give off the air of a team that hasn’t been at this long enough to fear failure, whether deploying rookies or vets. Keeping these players developing, honing underutilized skills, and applying what they’re soaking up versus live NBA opposition, is elevating their near-term value, to this team and to others.

On the season, both the Hawks and Bulls are subpar defensive rebounders (71.4 team D-Reb%, tied-22nd in NBA). Atlanta can build up an advantage over the course of 48 minutes tonight, if they break out more frequently than Chicago (Last in NBA for Pace over last 15 games) in transition, and if they continue to crash the glass (Atlanta’s 34.9 O-Reb% 1st in NBA over past 15 games) versus the Bulls’ depleted and often mis-utilized frontcourt.

Former Hawk turned Finnish coach Hanno Mottola has long mentored Markkanen. He is aligned with Bulls fans who want Lauri Legend (38.7 3FG%, 81.1 FT%) to recognize there’s not much getting in his way in terms of producing his own offense, aside from maybe Zach LaVine (career-high 31.5 usage%, 6th in NBA; 22.9 PPG; 49.1 2FG%, up from 40.5% last season) chewing up the shot clock.

“When I got to the NBA,” Hanno recalled to The Score during Markkanen’s rookie campaign, “I realized the only bad shot was the one you didn’t take.” Given the options on Lon Kruger’s ’02 Hawks squad, I see few lies there. Markkanen and Dunn (double-digit scoring in three of last seven starts) must begin recognizing that their ability to chart their careers toward stardom have shelf-lives, ones shorter than their elder teammates had at the same ages.

To that end, another tutor of Markkanen’s, Finland national team coach Henrik Dettmann, wants to see Lauri pushing the ball up the court in transition, although I’m sure he’ll want to run it by Boylen first. “I know I have the green light when I get the rebound to push it,” Markkanen was quoted by Bulls.com after last week’s 30-point loss in Denver, “and I tried to be more aggressive with it tonight.”

If Lauri and the Bulls indeed get more assertive with fastbreak opportunities, Atlanta (NBA-highs of 22.7 points per-48 allowed off TOs, 20.8 on fastbreaks in past 15 games) will want to get back and seal off driving lanes when the predictable turnovers occur.
While they’ll be psyched at the prospect of feasting on putbacks and lobs, John Collins and the Hawks’ big men must show better activity in retreat. The frontcourt contributors cannot leave Bembry and Atlanta’s wings on a defensive island around the rim, keeping Chicago shooters like Markkanen and Portis from slipping out to the corners (39.9 team corner 3FG%) for uncontested shots.

Life moves pretty fast, once remarked a famous Chicagoan character, and that has never been truer when it comes to NBA careers. If you wait too long on the opportunity to establish a respectable, star-caliber reputation around the league, chances are good, you could miss it. You could quickly become known, overripe, and undesired commodities like Cristiano Felicio, or Jabari Parker.

Even if you once were a young NBA star, if you fail to adapt to the shifting demands of the modern league, a wayfaring bag-man, like former "Hawk" and momentary "Bull" Carmelo Anthony, might be the best you could ever hope to become.


Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3

[Spud2nique]

Nice game thread lw3! Geriatriknicks was a stroke of genius, loved. Also love Hanno the x Hawk, whenever he’s mentioned an automatic smile comes with it. Last but not least, a FERRIS reference??? One of the best movies of my childhood and it’s true, you gotta stop and look around once in a while or you could miss it!

The Bulls are atrocious and don’t seem to have a plan in place as you described. Unfortunately though I have a feeling it’s gonna be the Bulls or Knicks who get the Zion prize in June.

As aforementioned, this is a good game to experiment and try new things...and maybe drop.

GO HAWKS!

[bws94]

Hawks tend to start very strong. They look really good when shooting the 3 well, which is what's happening so far this game.

[peoriabird]

Yep...them hawk sure look like they are tanking this game! LOL! @hazer

[kg01]

Bulls have so much more raw talent than us. Their effort is pitiful.

I don't care about the tank. Run these shameless fools.

[benhillboy]

Trae’s passing my God. That bounce And-1 to The Baptist was a Stockton-to-Malone hologram.