Game 2: Hawks vs Nets - Friday, 01/01/21 | 7:30pm EST | YES

[Prokorov]

Massive over reaction here. When you go 7-37 from three you arent going to beat many good teams...

We got GREAT looks from good/great shooters. Kyrie and KD got to their spots at will. Kyrie couldnt hit. Durant was off from three. TLC was terrible on wide open looks. but we got what we wanted on offense. and if some of those threes go down it opens other stuff up even more.

Defensively, its hard to put forth 48 good minutes when you miss so many long jumpers/threes. it allows them to get early offense while you are scrambling to recover. and alot of their scrubs were hitting shots which doesnt help. huerter/young is one thing. but reddish was knocking those down too.

I will say, thats 2 games in a row Nash was pretty stubborn about not switching the Trae pick and roll. and it killed us 2 nights in a row. sometimes you gotta take the mismatch where your not scrambling vs. not switching but your D is broken down from the screen. Make Trae beat allen/green/DJ whomever and adjust from there.

Not sure why people are on levert. this is the same guy he has been for 4 years. he isnt going to turn into a stopper or an efficient scorer if he hasnt by now.

Allen/DJ debate is blah. they are more or less the same player.

Overall this is a meh game and on to the next one. you lose on bad shooting nights and it was a bad shooting night. only real disappointment for me is TLC so far hasnt sieze the opportunity.

[Prokorov]

Hawks fan here...why is Jordan starting over Allen?

Team politics. He's boys with Kyrie and KD, and he whined about not being a starter last year, and so he was inserted into the starting lineup in the 2nd half of last year.

We all know he's the worse player between the two, and if he's going to be the starter, then we at least just hope that Allen ultimately plays more minutes and is the one closing out the game...which hasn't exactly been the case so far.

when allen outplays him, he will start. its not politics. allen lost his starting job last year because jordan drastically outplayed him for a long stretch. when allen does that, he will get it back.

[Prokorov]

Hawks fan here...why is Jordan starting over Allen?

Because he's KD and Kyrie's boy, but that issue will correct itself very shortly.

AND he hasnt played all that well. he certainly hasnt come close to earning a starting spot

[Prokorov]

Nash has to seriously work on rotations, timeouts. Among other things but it’s glaring as hell.

Also, there is no point in trying to send guards to the paint if they won’t be met with any resistance from Jordan.

He should never see the floor once Claxton is healthy..

The claxton stuff needs to just die. he is a d-league long shot that is a horrific rim protector/rebounder at the 5. he shouldnt see 1 second of real minutes this year

[Prokorov]

Don't know why Nash don't open up his rotations, can't even let Kurucs get some burn, we need energy.

Because he isnt going to knee jerk and overreact like a child. He is going to realize it was a poor shooting night and not give it another thought.

[StepBackCrack]

This team is quite flawed and it's hard to ignore. Not sure more games will reveal something drastically different. KD, Kyrie and Harris have little help out there. Allen will help a lot sometimes but that's still not much at all. Living by the offense only is a bad bad strategy imo. Bench useless DJ and try to improve the defense with more physical players.

I feel a trade is needed before the deadline, otherwise this team can only dream about reaching the finals this year let alone think about winning the title. I was too optimistic before but I gotta be realistic here. This team has a long way to go. Lots of changes needed.

[Prokorov]

This team is quite flawed and it's hard to ignore. Not sure more games will reveal something drastically different. KD, Kyrie and Harris have little help out there. Allen will help a lot sometimes but that's still not much at all. Living by the offense only is a bad bad strategy imo. Bench useless DJ and try to improve the defense with more physical players.

I feel a trade is needed before the deadline, otherwise this team can only dream about reaching the finals this year let alone think about winning the title. I was too optimistic before but I gotta be realistic here. This team has a long way to go. Lots of changes needed.

This is such emotional knee jerk nonsense.

1) Tons of teams win with offense. its a trend the last 5+ years
2) we have more then KD/Kyrie/Harris. we just lost a starter to a freak injury. it takes more then 1 game to figure out the next guy
3) We have an excellent bench. They helped keep is un the 1st game vs the hawks. outplayed atlantas bench.
4) Our defense is actually pretty solid. Atlana's offense is elite and we didnt make shots which makes it tougher to defend when they are constantly in transition
5) KD isnt even 10 games in yet after a 550 day layoff.
6) Team has alot of new faces. takes time to gel

The team doesnt need a trade. need the 5th starter to shake out. maybe it is TLC, maybe its kurucs. maybe its prince or shamet. maybe temple is brought back.

[CalamityX12]

Would like to see Perry get some burn in... Rodi too.. give KD some relief for fighting down low constantly for rebounds.. let some hustlers go out n hustle...

Would like to know what is the system within the coaches? Is Nash getting good advice but ignoring or is his assistanrs doing him wrong?

[Prokorov]

Would like to see Perry get some burn in... Rodi too.. give KD some relief for fighting down low constantly for rebounds.. let some hustlers go out n hustle...

Would like to know what is the system within the coaches? Is Nash getting good advice but ignoring or is his assistanrs doing him wrong?

Nash is doing an outstanding job early on.

only the worst coaches would make consistent lineup changes 5-6 games into the season. He is focusing on execution, communication, tightening things up. Too early to be yanking guys in and out. Giving a D-leaguer minutes 5 games in and yanking rotation guys is all kinds of awful coaching

[Prokorov]

Reading this thread you would think we were 0-6.

We are a KD missed jumper away from being 4-1 when KD/Kyrie play together... While losing our 3rd best player to injury....let that sink in for a second.

[Papi_swav]

Don't know why Nash don't open up his rotations, can't even let Kurucs get some burn, we need energy.

Because he isnt going to knee jerk and overreact like a child. He is going to realize it was a poor shooting night and not give it another thought.

Letting other guys get some burn in place of guys playing like crap is a knee jerk and a overreaction like a child? that doesn't make any sense whatsoever. If guys are playing bad, put somebody else in.

[StepBackCrack]

Defense is anything but "solid". It's not good. Let's not kid ourselves. Competing seriously for a title requires top 10-15 defense at least. There are much better teams than the Hawks that can wreck the Nets' current defense. It's a legit concern to me. DJ shouldn't even play for ANY contender or a good team. He is that terrible.

[Prokorov]

Defense is anything but "solid". It's not good. Let's not kid ourselves. Competing seriously for a title requires top 10-15 defense at least. There are much better teams than the Hawks that can wreck the Nets' current defense. It's a legit concern to me. DJ shouldn't even play for ANY contender or a good team. He is that terrible.

1) we HAVE a top 10 defense. We are currently 9th. and thats factoring in giving up 140+ the other night. We were also tied for 9th last year with Miami and upgraded defensively adding KD (in place of prince starting).

2) We have been solid defensively. 2 games vs the Hawks (#1 offense in the NBA) should not be used to sound alarms. And despite your claims... not, their are not much better teams then the hawks for "wrecking out defense". maybe there are 1 or 2. but the hawks are elite offensively.

3) The Idea that Jordan should not play for any contender is not based in reality. He is certainly a rotation player on any playoff team and would start on multiple. Allen May (hopefully) earn the starting spot. even if he does, Jordan has a big role as a backup 5.

Way too much over reaction here. Glad the players have shown 0 concern and Nash is saying the right things as far as just working to communicate better and not making idiotic changes to bring d-leaguers into the rotation. The team is playing at a very high level... Despite a major injury 1 week in, the team is 3-2 when KD/Kyrie player and 1 missed KD pull up from being 4-1.

[Prokorov]

Don't know why Nash don't open up his rotations, can't even let Kurucs get some burn, we need energy.

Because he isnt going to knee jerk and overreact like a child. He is going to realize it was a poor shooting night and not give it another thought.

Letting other guys get some burn in place of guys playing like crap is a knee jerk and a overreaction like a child? that doesn't make any sense whatsoever. If guys are playing bad, put somebody else in.

after 5 or 6 games. yes. ESPECIALLY 5-6 games to start a season. only an immature emotional type who cant handle his team not being 6-0 would have that kind of reaction. Why in the world would Nash make a change (to D-leaguers no less) after just a handful of games, which have been mostly successful, because a few guys have struggled early?

Hell if we were 0-6 a change would be unwarranted, let alone 3-3.

[Papi_swav]

Because he isnt going to knee jerk and overreact like a child. He is going to realize it was a poor shooting night and not give it another thought.

Letting other guys get some burn in place of guys playing like crap is a knee jerk and a overreaction like a child? that doesn't make any sense whatsoever. If guys are playing bad, put somebody else in.

after 5 or 6 games. yes. ESPECIALLY 5-6 games to start a season. only an immature emotional type who cant handle his team not being 6-0 would have that kind of reaction. Why in the world would Nash make a change (to D-leaguers no less) after just a handful of games, which have been mostly successful, because a few guys have struggled early?

Hell if we were 0-6 a change would be unwarranted, let alone 3-3.

This is the perfect reason why he should open up his rotation and let the "d leaguers" ,as u put it, get some shine. It is early in the season, and we shouldn't want to play them heavy 38-40 minutes a game a yet, it's ok for a game or 2 but not every game so early in the year. Let them ease their way back into better shape and get their legs under. This might be a reason why shots were not falling today.

We have to also see what kind of players we have and what rotations work. not to mention, everybody that was playing did not play well and was off today except for KD. That's when u put someone else in and see if they can change the momentum. 2 steals from Kurucs and some fast break points can give us a little boost, this is why u put different guys in. This is what coaching is about.

Bruce Brown was a starter last season, granted it was Detroit but he has shown he can play solid d and his offense isn't horrible. Cheeze also shown he can give us a little boost. Kurucs has been here for 3 years, we know what he can do. And Tyler Johnson is not no scrub, he can give us solid minutes. Don't disregard these guys like they don't belong here or they can't play. Yes Cheeze might be a d league player but he can step in for a few mins here and there and be a pesk and knock down some shots as well.

So your plan is to keep the rotations as is and let them play 37 minutes every game. This is not a knee jerk reaction to play your guys, you have 15 plus players on the roster for a reason.

And what the heck are u saying immature emotional type? It seems like you're personally attacking me for no reason. Because if you actually read the rest of my posts here you would see that I said we shouldn't sweat it, our shots just wasn't falling after we got great looks and we need to be patient. Sounds like u need to take your own advice buddy, and stop with the knee jerk reactions and acting like an immature emotional type when ppl don't agree with u. But in this case you're actually saying what I already said here about not being upset about the loss.

[therealbig3]

I agree that we're overreacting to a 6 game stretch where we're not 6-0. Like, we're 3-3 after 6 games. Things could be A LOT worse.

Also, we don't go from being a championship contender to a team that now needs significant roster improvement all of a sudden just because Dinwiddie is out. If we needed him that much to be a championship contender, we probably weren't one in the first place.

[ecuhus1981]

We need both KD/Ky going off to match up their offensive intensity. ATL is sure gonna blowing out lot of teams. But not us.

It’s reasonable to expect star duos to go off for a quarter, but not an entire game. Bailing us out can work for the short term but it’s a recipe for disaster long term. We need the team’s offensive sets to work well enough regularly so that when we need an extra punch our stars have the energy to give it to us.

This.

We're taking and occasionally making difficult shots, and then giving up easy shots. That's a recipe for meltdown, and we saw the toll it took on Kyrie last season. You wouldn't think that two superstars would need much help, but we have role players actively working against us right now. That's got to stop. Steve needs to rein in the shenanigans, we're taking on water.

[OneZilion]

I am little bit nervous for some things and weaknesses that I saw againts Hawks.

First of all I understand apsolutly idea of Caris as a 6th man leader of second unit, but after injurof Spencer I would try with best 5 players starting to get much more common for them to play together Irving, Levert, Harris, KD, Allen. You can make anyway rotation where one of primary ballhanders is on the floor... I would try to explain why, when Caris comes he plays similar to Harden in Houston with bench guys and he needs minutes in the regular season with our stars to get chemistry with them for playoff and end of the games.

I didnt like TLC last night on offence at all, he was very bad... Maybe we could start thinking of giving Brown a chance... that guy has a dog mentality

Jordan is one of things that is biggest concerns. His letheral moves are too slow for todays game and is no near athlete that he was, that is ok with his age but in this point of carrer it is unreal that he left open capela on offensive board without boxing out. He has to bring strong inside presence not to be just somewhere around the basket... I think when locked in to that role KD is best at protecting the rim of all our players include Allen, but KD has so much more to do and is coming of injury he still is little bit raw I would say. Also in GSW days in regular season he was so sometimes not so focused od rebounding but when he starts putting effort on that expect big things there from KD... he is just natural scorer, not a rim protector at first, but he has skill and tools for that

I was very angry of how much open looks we missed, ok that is kind of night 7/37 that is not often but guys that dont do much on offence bas to put the ball in basket if they get open looks. Kd and KI looked like in second half lost little bit faith in some players... I just dont see third legit option, Caris has to be somewhere 18-20ppg scorer on this team without Spencer

We just lost so much with Spencer and It is going to be extremly hard to replace him, cause there is hard to find high IQ players that has all the tools and skills of his calibar ready to sacrifice for team.

Landru Shamet again was a non factor and he is one of biggest disapointments for me in first 6 games of season.

It is way to early, but after Spencer injury we look like a team that has big problems with rotations and has to do something creative by Nash adn stuff. TLC is just not starter for championship team yet... also Jordan is not anymore... Jeff Green and Prince where not bad, can say solid but that is all...

KD is not at full of himself yet, but we all know who he is... only thing I dont care is KD when it will really counts he will be there for sure, but for some big playoff run we need much more from others, Irving game is thing of art he is unreal talent, but now he has to put more on trying to make others better, Nash has to make that from him...

[ecuhus1981]

Why does Nash hate timeouts?

He wants to let them play through it and figure it out on their own I guess.

It's a valid approach, but there are certain times where he really needs to call one before it becomes a blowout.

This is something that MDA and Vaughn should be helping him with tbh.

There's light-touch, Zen master coaching, which can be the most effective in the long run IMO. This requires an elite level of psychological influence. If you fall short of that, it's just deer-in-headlights coaching, and the players can feel that they aren't being given a direction for in-game adjustments.

This was the knock on Kenny, and while it's way too early to draw conclusions, Nash is not doing himself favors to eschew the comparison.

[ecuhus1981]

Wow, Kyrie is clearly off. It’s pretty safe to say he’s in a slump. I hope he finds other ways to contribute offensively until his touch comes back.

I wouldn't say a slump yet, but I take your point.

Before this series, Irving was red hot from all levels. Atlanta has strategically cooled him off, and he's going to have to counter the counter. Other assistant coaches will scout and pick up on the effectiveness of the Hawks' strategy against him.

One of the many reasons that I lamented Spencer's injury was that it made Kyrie easier to stop, since he's bringing up the ball more often AND looking for his own shot. I thought that TLC's 3&D would do the most to help our starters, and it still may. It's too early to change it now, we can give him a bit more time to adapt. But gosh, he certainly hasn't wowed anyone so far with this golden opportunity.

Maybe we need a tough-nosed defender in the 1st unit, who can also bring up the ball and give Irving a break. Where ever shall we find such a player????