jayu70 wrote:Meanwhile, time was quickly becoming of the essence. With the smashed-together schedule of this season offering few real opportunities for practice or major strategic shifts, the upcoming week off during the All-Star break provides the only real opportunity for a new coach to get some traction. I suspect Minnesota was compelled by similar logic. I also won’t be shocked at all if this is the last coaching change until May because there is just no opportunity for a new coach to get rolling once most of the league tips off the second half on March 11.
Nonetheless, it’s amazing to look at this season and see how much of this was mostly or fully beyond Pierce’s control. The Hawks went all-in for the playoffs by signing Kris Dunn, who hasn’t played a game, and Bogdan Bogdanovic, who is also injured, and Rajon Rondo, who might be the worst backup point guard in the league, and Danilo Gallinari, who has been the walking definition of toast. Is it any surprise, then, that they’ve been a disappointment?
Even the successes turned sour. The Hawks did a great job developing De’Andre Hunter, who was a strong candidate for Most Improved Player, and then he got hurt too. Atlanta has been so denuded by injuries and ineffectiveness that Solomon Hill, with his 7.0 PER, has become someone they count on. Subtract all the injured or ineffective additions, and these Hawks basically end up with last year’s 20-47 team plus Capela, which largely explains how a
The clock has now started ticking on this front office, led by general manager Travis Schlenk.
The Hawks’ mandate to make the playoffs this year precipitated a torrent of spending that has largely proven fruitless, as noted above, and while the injuries to Dunn and Bogdanovic were unfortunate, the Rondo and Gallinari additions have been clear failures.
Moreover, the depth pieces just aren’t there; there haven’t been any crafty minimum or low-dollar exception guys making up for the disappointments elsewhere. Look at Atlanta’s roster this season: six of the 11 players with at least 250 minutes played have a PER of 10.0 or below. Minor injuries or foul trouble have an outsized impact because the second-line players have been found so clearly wanting.
With all that said, interim coach Nate McMillan inherits some basic nuts-and-bolts of a good team as he tries to salvage at least a play-in spot, and the rest of the East isn’t exactly running away from them.
Nonetheless, the trade deadline looms and some important decisions are right on the horizon. Schlenk may only have one more offseason to get this right, and he has a lot of questions to answer in this second half of the season.
Is John Collins part of the future? If so, is he worth a likely max contract? If not, can they trade him for something that they like better?Is the sixth overall pick, center Onyeka Okongwu, any good? If so, might they play him in a game at some point?Can they swing a trade or signing that finally addresses the carnage at backup point guard?Can they salvage something from Gallinari and limit his exposure on defense?Is McMillan part of the solution going forward, or a mere stopgap before the Hawks open a full coaching search this summer?
Figuring out the answers to those questions and similar ones (while we’re here, what’s up with Kevin Huerter?) over the next 12 months will likely define the future for the Schlenk regime. For now, we can say that if the Hawks weren’t all-in on their coach in the first place, they probably would have been better served doing this sooner and bringing in their first choice.
Hate this take. First he says that it's not Pierce's fault, bad team too many injuries, then he says that Nate will have good pieces to work with. This team was tanking and I say it's on Pierce. Too much talent for things to go so bad.
Nate is about to show how good this team can be and the players are going to get back to normal now that the problem has been removed.