Re: Game Thread: Pacers at Hawks, 04/10/2019....The Finale
Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2019 9:38 pm
by lethalweapon3
The New York Times calls them, “the current breakout stars of the Chinese Hip-Hop world.” That’s right, Higher Brothers will soon grace The ATL, at the palatial Buckhead Theatre off Peachtree and Roswell Roads. MaSiWei, Psy.P, DZknow and Melo (not that one) will share some Mandarin-infused bass-thumping bangers, including new cuts from “Five Stars,” their new studio album, before a packed house of globally-woke fans.
A couple blocks around the corner, a Times-bestselling author will speak at the Atlanta History Center. From his new book, Louis Bayard will offer up a glimpse of the courtship, by Mary Todd in 1840’s Springfield, of a rough-around-the-edges country lawyer named Abraham Lincoln. We all know how it ends by now, Mr. Bayard, but don’t give away the beginning!
For fitness buffs, the Atlanta Cycling Festival will be underway, with a week’s worth of pedal-pushing events all around town, geared (see what I did there) to entertain folks of all ages and skills. Designed for the grown-and-sexy geek set, Science on Tap (ages 21+) returns downtown, serving up knowledge at the Georgia Aquarium.
The chief executive of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Dr. Craig McClain will present to a craft-brew-sipping Aquarium crowd, “How the Mysteries of the Deep Seas Challenge Everything We Know About Life.” Indeed, that’s deep. Alternatively, there’s Trivia Night at Midtown’s Park Tavern, over at the busy intersection of Piedmont Park and the Eastside BeltLine.
Even for Atlanta, there is a remarkable array of unique, intriguing and fun events and activities to help pass the time on a random Tuesday evening. Care to venture a guess, as to where this here fan of the Atlanta Hawks will NOT be, on the evening of May 14, 2019?
Whoa, you only needed ONE guess! Impressive!
The “regular season” draws to a close, at least technically, tonight, as our Hawks show appreciation for their growing legion of fans while taking a worthy bow themselves, in their final scrimmage of 2018-19 against the playoff-bound Indiana Pacers (8 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, Fox Sports Indiana).
Supporters of “tank season” teams like the Hawks know that, until we get back to meaningful playoff runs, the true NBA season is virtually year-round. Coin Flips, Lottery, Combines, Workout Invites, Draft, Free Agency, Summer League, Training Camp. At least until the new 2019-20 schedule gets unveiled in August, we mean it as fans when we insist, “there are no off-days.”
From one Hawks fan to some others, what I guess I’m suggesting is that, in 2019, Y’all need to find ways to save your energies and redirect them in positive ways. With suspense constantly hovering around where our Basketball Club will draft, how many picks they’ll have, whether they’ll fill gaping needs or go consensus B.P.A. at Draft time, it can be hard to stop and decompress. So, as you work toward conserving that precious time and energy, figure out when, and how, to pick your spots as a critical observer in the not-really-off-season.
For the 14th of May, whatever fun and frolic I choose, there will be no phones buzzing, no Twitter, no IG, no text messaging, no sports talk radio, no satellite radio, no RealGM, no ESPN tickers, no Wojbombs or Shamwows. I intend to be quite selective as to whom I spend time with that afternoon and evening, disassociating with anyone who has one eye on, say, the Bravos and Redbirds at BB&ST Park or whatever they’ll call it soon, and the other on the relentlessly distracting doodad they bought from the Apple Store.
Probably from noon on, as soon as I can get out from under the Boss Lady’s purview, through the next morning, it’s gonna be Lethal Unplugged, straight no chaser. There shall be no parking in front of the TV, no watching results on the pocket phone with my fists, or any other anatomical parts, clenched. No throes of joy, no surrender cobras.
My personal goals on 5/14 are to head out, enjoy the local options, stay hydrated, have fun, get home safely, and sleep easy. All with the knowledge that, no matter how fortuitously the Lottery balls bounce that day, Hawks’ GM Travis Schlenk is a man with a plan (lay off him, Jeanie) who I trust to enhance and advance this squad.
I tried to break out the hammock this time last spring, but Mike Budenholzer wouldn’t allow me to just kick back and relax for a few months. The unfolding news of Coach Bud’s allegedly mutual departure, coupled with the coin flip lost to the Mavs, weren’t exactly setting the mood right.
Then, finally, a break: We moved up, not down, in the Draft! But for Hawks fans, even that stroke of luck proved not to be a galvanizing moment. The ensuing 37 days were spent awash in polarizing arguments over This Guy’s Guy versus That Guy’s Guy. Schlenk eventually got His Guy, but not before people were at each other’s e-throats, insisting we would rue the day he went with ((Guy who wound up in Memphis)) over ((Guy who wound up in Sacramento)).
“No, not another bust named Marvin!” “Will he even be the best Jaren ever?” Keystrokes wasted, damning college stats unleashed, foolhardiness asserted, fandoms and manhoods questioned, sick burns foisted, egos bruised, Mods exhausted. Archaeologists will have a hard time unearthing any of the jibber-jabber, because the most vociferous vehemence occurred on a website that, not very long afterwards, vanished into thin air. Perhaps, it’s for the best that it did.
I sure talked a good game on the interwebs, about staying all high-road and low-key and all that. But by the time Draft Day mercifully arrived, I had sold myself of the virtues of the Serbian Wonderkid, and was running around town and in break rooms (sorry, Boss Lady) assuring anyone who’d listen that this was the Hawks’ Guy, that a season’s worth of tanking has led us to him, and him to us, that he will be the Chosen One to help the Hawks ascend to as yet unseen glories.
I managed to stop short of putting on a sandwich board, but I was far from alone with my assessment. The crowd at STATS sports bar for one of the Hawks’ draft parties had hyped themselves into believing that he’d be the Hawks’ pick at #3, too. Turned out, we were right! As with Anything Hawks… BUT!
The news leaking out that we were moving Wonderkid to Dallas, for Trae Young, college hoops’ leading scorer and assist-maker, somehow managed to suck all the air out of the Draft Party room. All of it. Oh, did I mention this "room" was an outdoor rooftop patio?
As the rumored trade was formally announced on the big screens, one of the hundred or so diehards at STATS offered up a meager clap, more like pity applause for a golfer who just double-bogeyed to miss the cut at Augusta National. The rest of us deflated fans were drowning our sorrows into our pitchers of brew and soda.
The fun wasn’t over yet. I’ll never forget the crestfallen face of the child seated with his parents across from me at the “Party,” the moment His Guy, coincidentally My Other Guy, the breakout star of 2018’s NCAA Final Four, was snatched up by Milwaukee, a mere two picks before Atlanta “settled” for a relative unknown with a broken hand in Kevin Huerter.
This was one of those, “I just saw the first halves of Bambi and The Lion King,” looks that the poor child displayed. Not all that trumped-up fakeness the Knicks Kid put on to align himself with his equally gullible pops. With no cameras rolling, this kid’s countenance exuded genuine discontentment. Sad children, sadder, drunker adults. What kind of Draft “Party” is this, anyway?
Golf-clapper dude was the only soul among the scores of us at the rooftop bar who learned a lesson from 2018’s Draft (hello there, John Collins) and remembered to take “In Travis We Trust” to heart before showing up. If you need humor to kill time in the off-season, go check out the finger-wagging Draft Grades from paid know-it-alls about the Hawks in 2018 and 2019. The external pundits’ nonchalance fuels our internal consternation, and vice versa.
Turns out, Schlenk did fine, and The Kids Are Alright. The ones on the team, at least. They’re more than just alright, and that’s even accounting for My Other Guy’s college teammate, Omari Spellman, who went to the Hawks at the end of the first round.
Now we’re headed toward 2019-20 with a talented young core, under contract control for a while, developing and continuing to grow under the watch of a skilled and well-connected head coach, one who is as dedicated to this job and this challenge as anyone Schlenk could find.
Beyond Schlenk, there are a few individuals I am hoping can make the Hawks’ 2019 off-season the best it can possibly be. I’ll call them out here.
Chelsea Lane. We’ve come a long way from the days of butter-fried tilapia sandwiches. This summer, as Atlanta’s executive director for athletic performance, Lane will have a crucial role in demonstrating why she was the Warriors’ “secret weapon” for many years. Players new to the league often need a couple years to build up “strinth” (btw, props to whoever Nique’s linguist is, our color analyst did great this season), and she’ll toil in tandem with head trainer Scottie Parker, conditioning coach Michael Irr and the Brookhaven brain trust to get these players in tipper-topper shape for the next 82 (plus)-game haul.
Melvin Hunt. How bananas is Summer League about to be? I’m excited to see what Spellman, maybe Huerter and DeAndre’ Bembry, and the new rookie class can bring to the floor in Nevada, and Hunt is the right guy to get the newer prospects acclimated. If all goes well, our Vegas Hawks may not need to use the pot holding the lobby’s plant to go out and celebrate.
Chris Jent. I don’t know how the roles and leadership gets divided, but the assistant coaches have a full offseason to make measurable improvements to players’ anticipation, reactivity and cohesiveness on defense. If Jent isn’t the assistant capable of instituting Pierce’s desired defensive schemes, then I hope Schlenk will give Pierce latitude to find the right person to add to the staff.
Derek Pierce. I’m a former longtime resident of College Park (not the infamous Godless Godby Road part, but the more bucolic central part of town), and as far as PR goes, that sleepy burg sure could use a jumpstart of the Agua Caliente variety. We’re about to have a G-League squad in town, at the new Gateway Center by the Airport, and I hope the metro embraces the Skyhawks at least as well as they do ATLUTD 2 and the (spell-check in effect) Stripers. Beyond just getting folks in the door, and getting the former Erie Bayhawks competitive in the G-League, maybe D-Pierce can bring the Skyhawk mascot back from the IR.
Steve Koonin. I’m grateful for all you’ve done to bridge the gap from the tired old regime to the new one, from one stodgy arena look to a fresh and fun one. Using your engaging wit and candor, you have managed to bridge gaps among the fanbase by actively listening to a wide range of our interests. I have but one major off-season request for our dear CEO. Ditch the three-tone triangles. Please, sir, and thank you.
Nique, Grant, Koonin, and The Resslers. All will be sitting together on somebody’s living room couch this summer, some maybe trying to wow people with 3-D visual tricks created by the internal staff. Each will have their few minutes of shpiel to offer up compelling appeals about Atlanta, and the Hawks, to a free agent player or two. I do hope that they’ll have the presence of mind to conclude by stepping aside, sitting down, closing their mouths, and letting Coach Pierce do his thing. At free agency time, LP is The Closer.
Finally, Tracy Gates. She doesn’t even work for the Hawks, but she is arguably one of the hardest workers in town. She took over for her father in the 1990s at the Busy Bee Café, the historic soul-food eatery on MLK Drive, and doesn’t really know the meaning of a day off. What Tracy does know, though, is how the best Red Velvet Cakes in town get prepared daily. Somebody, please, grab a hold of Kevin Huerter, and get him in line at the original Busy Bee, pronto. One bite, and he will finally get what all the hullaballoo is about. Heck, he knows already, but let Omari tag along, too.
There is the perfunctory matter of playing out the final 48 or so minutes tonight, but the Pacers’ fate as a 5-seed in the first round versus Boston is set in stone. Pacers coach Nate McMillan has done a splendid job of keeping Indiana (47-34) even-keel after losing Victor Oladipo for the season, and he won’t overdo things by using players essential to the NBA East’s best defensive unit outside of Milwaukee, namely Myles Turner (NBA-high 2.7 BPG), Thaddeus Young and Domantas Sabonis.
Conversely, Atlanta (29-52) has as full an active roster as they can reasonably field, save for maybe Deyonta Davis (questionable, sore knee). Unshackled of any remaining lottery-odds implications, Pierce and the Hawks can go full-bore in their season finale before the home crowd. In what may or may not be a farewell performance, Kent Bazemore can go for open threes and elicit no groans from the fans, especially if he makes some.
Astute, supportive and appreciative fans, cheering on astute, supportive and appreciative players and staff tonight. Let’s hope that this is the kind of vibe that sticks for our home team, our Basketball Club and its future stars, all the way through this eventful summer until the next official tip-off. In mere months, tickets to The Farm for a Hawks game may get hotter than Cheryl’s She-Shed. This time around, the excitement will be more due to the up-and-coming product Atlanta puts on the floor than their opposition.
Our moods on or after May 14, June 20, or July 1 need not be swayed so drastically. But, just to be sure, there will be times where you may want to shut off your devices and go grab a beer, or a bike, maybe catch a great lecture or a concert. It's Atlanta, and the opportunities here are almost endless, so please consider doing any of that, or anything other than chewing out this team or your fellow fans. Your keyboard, and your blood pressure, will thank you later.
Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
so you play that game too huh? It’s a tricky one!