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King Ken wrote:Zero chance we trade Collins for Brodgon. Unlike you headcases who come here from other fanbases and barely watch us. We know how good JC is and that he was 60% this postseason. He's normally extremely explosive and has elite hands. He had nothing athletically this postseason but we needed his mind and a body due to injuries. He gave us all he had even when it wasn't much.
Everyone legit knows what the Hawks need to do.
Get stars.
Primarly target Gobert or Ayton. Those should be our focus targets.
Check in for the all star level players like Ben Simmons, AD, or Siakam
See if someone like Oladipo would be interested in coming to Atlanta as we had interest in him, in the past.
This team has to add guys who have a much higher floor and they have to add someone who can create for themselves and for others but get touches as well.
The Hawks aren't far, they just ran into a great matchup to see where they are and they aren't close to contending. No need to rebuild the house.
Galloisdaman wrote:I think Trae also should look at himself. I thought this last season as well. Im not bashing him. He does a lot of good but he is the team leader. He doesn't play disciplined championship type ball. The careless turnovers, 40 foot shots with no Hawks under the rim, and badly timed techs are not how he will take the next step in to being a winner. He has to decide does he want a reputation like an Iverson or as a Curry.
Sports IllustratedOffseason Questions for the Hawks
Who is Onyeka Okongwu’s best frontcourt partner?Is De’Andre Hunter the second star?Spoiler:What does Trae Young do About his Defense?Spoiler:Spoiler:
Trading Collins is not because he is not good. Its about trading for a player who is a better fit and allowing Hunter to fill Collins role. The Hawks need defenders specifically on the perimeter who can defend pick n roll point guards. Brogdon is a great 3rd teir level star that complement Trae. He can score, ball handle and defend.Buzzard wrote:King Ken wrote:Zero chance we trade Collins for Brodgon. Unlike you headcases who come here from other fanbases and barely watch us. We know how good JC is and that he was 60% this postseason. He's normally extremely explosive and has elite hands. He had nothing athletically this postseason but we needed his mind and a body due to injuries. He gave us all he had even when it wasn't much.
Everyone legit knows what the Hawks need to do.
Get stars.
Primarly target Gobert or Ayton. Those should be our focus targets.
Check in for the all star level players like Ben Simmons, AD, or Siakam
See if someone like Oladipo would be interested in coming to Atlanta as we had interest in him, in the past.
This team has to add guys who have a much higher floor and they have to add someone who can create for themselves and for others but get touches as well.
The Hawks aren't far, they just ran into a great matchup to see where they are and they aren't close to contending. No need to rebuild the house.
I am not against trading anyone except Trae. I agree we need a 2nd star. But I also think Brogdan or any guard that can play both sides of the court would be beneficial. Our defense sucks and so did our offense in this series. Miami pretty much treated Trae like teams treated Giannis two seasons ago in the playoffs. They put a fence around him and would not let him get a layup or floater.
Got to fix the defense. Have to get Trae a 2nd star/scorer to ease those double and triple teams up.
I hope we have CC with Trae for many years but I would like to see CC used more on offense. He needs a real dawg next to him at the 4.
The Hawks started 4-9, and what was bizarre was how they were playing. There was no identity. They were settling for a steady stream of midrange jumpers — something this team wasn’t built to take advantage of. They weren’t trying hard enough defensively. De’Andre Hunter and Cam Reddish were heavily involved in the offense, but it was clear almost immediately that neither should have been. And Reddish, specifically, was a large reason the Hawks were so mediocre up until he was traded.
Reddish requested a trade this past offseason because he wanted a bigger role. Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk waited for a first-round pick in exchange to part with Reddish, who was drafted No. 10 overall in the 2019 draft, and traded him as soon as the Knicks offered him one. His teammates knew he wanted out and yet the team continued to play him even though he was a wild card every time he stepped out on the floor. He could drop 30 points, or he could badly miss multiple stepback jumpers and gamble for steals defensively. As one person inside the organization said earlier in the season, “Cam will be good once he learns how to play basketball.”
All of the analytics pointed to Reddish’s play actively hurting the Hawks, but he remained in the rotation. There was no mandate from the front office to play Reddish to increase his trade value. McMillan continued playing him, sources say, because he felt like if he didn’t, the team’s chemistry would’ve been negatively impacted. It was a bad read from McMillan. The Hawks were 15-19 when Reddish played this season and 28-20 without him.
That was just one of several mistakes McMillan made this season after taking over for the Hawks midway through last season. McMillan’s declaration in mid-March that Delon Wright was out of the rotation surprised sources. They pointed to how the Hawks were in need of better perimeter defenders and Wright was one of the few who were capable of consistently staying in front of guys, but McMillan instead opted for Williams, who wasn’t the spark plug he was last season. Because of injuries to Williams and Collins shortly after saying Wright was out of the rotation, he was once again back in the lineup. But it was another decision that caught many by surprise. Wright ended up being one of the best Hawks in the Miami series.
McMillan’s end-of-game coaching was another sore spot inside the organization. Several sources said there was an over-reliance on Young running the offense himself in late-game situations instead of McMillan drawing up plays. McMillan does have a tendency to let his players figure it out on the court — whether that’s with not calling timeouts to stop runs or with the Hawks playing through the flow of the offense and what he sometimes calls “random play.” The Hawks finished the regular season with a minus-8.8 net rating in clutch time, what the NBA considers games within five points and under five minutes.
When speaking about potential playoff matchups for the Hawks a few weeks ago, one source inside the organization mentioned how the Heat were a bad matchup for Atlanta. When asked why, he said he thought the gap between Erik Spoelstra and McMillan was too wide. Spoelstra is known as one of the best in-game tacticians in the NBA, and that showed itself with how the Heat neutralized Young and how the Hawks couldn’t figure anything out to get him going.
Lloyd Pierce was fired last season because he lost the locker room, and mainly Young. One source was asked after Tuesday’s Game 5 loss if McMillan had support in the locker room this season and if he felt like the players believed in their coach; he just laughed. As of a few days ago, McMillan’s job security was not in question. The manner in which the Hawks lost could change opinions, but that remains unclear right now. This series was another reminder, though, of McMillan’s lack of playoff success. In his 18 seasons, he’s only advanced out of the first round twice: last season and in 2005 with the Seattle SuperSonics.
Where McMillan falls short in many people’s eyes is his rigidity, particularly when it comes to experimenting even if the status quo isn’t working. Rookie Jalen Johnson only received 120 minutes this season, as McMillan was adamant about how the Hawks were out of the development stage. Johnson is certainly raw but teams — even good ones — figure out ways to find playing time for rookies. Instead, he played the 74th-most minutes out of all rookies this season. Different lineup combinations that work well, like Kevin Huerter and Bogdan Bogdanovic together, aren’t used often enough. Lineup combinations that don’t work well, like any you’d like to name involving Reddish, were used too much.
As one source said after Game 5, “McMillan’s unimaginative, and when things aren’t going to plan, it’s hard to make an adjustment.”
