Post-Mortem: 2021-22 Atlanta Hawks

[flranger]

Trae is an absolute star. But he ain't no Bus Driver...

[soboMP3]

The Hawks best first move for next year would probably be to cease all talks labeling Trae as a superstar.

[dacrusha]

Hawks are Trailblazers east... a one-trick, offense-only star and a bunch of spare parts around him... and zero defensive culture.

Unless they get a bonafide star to play alongside Trae, they are not much more than a play-in/treadmill team for the foreseeable future.

[Ballerhogger]

Trade collions for some defense . Trade bog for some defense . Fire the coach for defensive minded coach .

[threethehardway]

Very few people in this thread watches the Hawks day in and night out. The people that do are actually saying something worthwhile beyond the typical "Trae sux".

[Sothron]

Very few people in this thread watches the Hawks day in and night out. The people that do are actually saying something worthwhile beyond the typical "Trae sux".

This. It is sad so many people want to troll the few Hawks here but it is what it is.

[Spud2nique]

Trade collions for some defense . Trade bog for some defense . Fire the coach for defensive minded coach .

One last thing! Don’t listen to any of that. That ain’t it chief.

[Ballerhogger]

Trade collions for some defense . Trade bog for some defense . Fire the coach for defensive minded coach .

One last thing! Don’t listen to any of that. That ain’t it chief.

So get worst on defense? Look its obvious defense is the biggest issue. Just about anyone can put 30 on the hawks.

[leo7]

Trade for Myles Turner, and Malcolm Brogdon. Get some assistant coaches who can help Nate run the offense.

[Spud2nique]

Trade collions for some defense . Trade bog for some defense . Fire the coach for defensive minded coach .

One last thing! Don’t listen to any of that. That ain’t it chief.

So get worst on defense? Look its obvious defense is the biggest issue. Just about anyone can put 30 on the hawks.

Nah I just don’t agree with your lil microwave solutions for the Hawks. That may be the way it works with the Lakers, Hawks gotta be a lil more creative.

[Spud2nique]

Trade for Myles Turner, and Malcolm Brogdon. Get some assistant coaches who can help Nate run the offense.

Myles Turner is so overrated!

-Myles Turner

Nah

[TinmanZBoy]

The best solution might be their young home grown players improve a little, each of them Starting with Trae improving his defense and off ball actions, Collins and Huerter should be better on both ends, Hunter is realizing his potential… they have a great future, but they need coaching and development… Kenny should a good coaching candidate for them, being the head or assistant

[TinmanZBoy]

Their team structure is very fine…

[_qubik]

I will ignore the obvious trolls in this thread.

For those who clearly didn't know Collins has been injured since early Feb. He has a torn tendon in his finger on his shooting hand and a fascia tear in his right foot, his plant foot. He came back in the Heat series at nowhere near 100% and it showed. He was having a good season up to the injuries. Capela was out hurt, Bogi was hurt, Trae was hurt after Lowry intentionally clipped him on the knee in game one of the series. It is frustrating to see a season end due to injuries but injuries are part of the sport.

My vote is keep the GM, fire the coach, team is on the rise and performed worse than expected. Injuries and covid account for that.

My offseason wishes would be to fire Nate, trade for a star player and resign Delon Wright. We have plenty of good players on good contracts to make that happen.

I mean, what team in the playoffs is 100%? Kyle Lowry has dealt with injuries all year. Jimmy Butler was obviously not at 100%. Bam had surgery earlier in the year.

I'd say it was a pretty even playing field injury wise. The Heat just game planned better and focused on making Trae's life as difficult as possible and Trae didn't respond well to it. He's obviously the engine of that team so when he is being shut down the team has no chance. The focus needs to be adding players that can take that pressure off of Trae and bringing in defenders because the Hawks struggle there, injuries or not.

We are better at all positions, our bench is better and deeper, our coach is better, our gameplan was better.
Hawks had no business on this series. Trae is exceptional, but he is small, and was playing against great defenders, that are very physical and active. No team is healthy come playoff time, and this series wasnt different.

Trae will be better, he is young, with better teamates and sharing the ball more, he can have much more success

[lordjeff05]

I think they should run it back. There's no obvious second star that's a clear upgrade to who they have, and most of their key pieces are younger with the potential to improve. This team had some really good lineups that they were just limited in being able to play.

Trae, plus Collins and Capela is a plus 8 net rating per 100 this year, but the Hawks were only able to use it for 43 games. Bogi, Galo and Okongwu have a plus 16.7 net rating per 100, but only got to play 25 games because of injury. I'd resign Wright, use the full midlevel for a 3 and d wing, and keep your powder dry for mid-year trade if things don't improve.

If you were able to play both of those lineups for 60 or 70 games rather than 30 or 40 it wouldn't be surprising at all to see a Grizzlies-like year next year.

[_qubik]

Hawks are Trailblazers east... a one-trick, offense-only star and a bunch of spare parts around him... and zero defensive culture.

Unless they get a bonafide star to play alongside Trae, they are not much more than a play-in/treadmill team for the foreseeable future.

Was going to post that, Trae is in the Dame path, the city darling, with a mediocre roster that cant complement him

[Texas Chuck]

I think its interesting that Atlanta had a disappointing regular season followed by a sad showing in the playoffs and the position of some Hawks fans is any criticism is trolling.

I'd be taking the approach we have too much talent to accept this and would be looking for some changes, particularly defensively. Not just thinking if the world didn't have this crazy bias against the Hawks for reasons they can't possibly provide we'd win every game.....

[FNQ]

Hawks had the #2 offense in the league. So that has to count for something. But it was too often inconsistent and predictable. Defense needs improvement.

I'd replace Nate McMillan with Mike D'Antoni or Kenny Atkinson.

And trade Capela plus change for Gobert.

Draft Ochai Agbaji. And take the regular season seriously next year.

Mostly, the offense needs updating to put Trae off ball more often and include more off ball screens and movement in general.

note that Atkinson does not come free, he will bring Chris Chiozza with him, and might even insist on him playing.

You've all been warned

[FNQ]

I think the move here is to trade Collins though.. he's a good player and a good trade chip, but I dont know that the Hawks have the core, right now, that they want to move forward with.

For all those saying deal Trae, lol quit it.. he's the only one for sure to keep, even after having a bad series. I honestly would have expected more from the glut of wings/forwards they had: Huerter, Hunter, Gallo, Bogdan.. their defense isnt good enough for where their offensive efficiency ended up. Wind up with a better perimeter defender and a better defender at the 4 for next year, and I like where they're at.

Could also move on from Capela, but you can set your clock to him. He's going to rim run, block some shots, grab a lot of boards, but he's no gamechanger. But I also dont think he's as much of a problem as the 2-4 spots currently are. They have a good GM, so I'd expect a lot of movement, roster-wise in the offseason

[hamncheese]

Saw this today in article on the Athletic by Chris Kirschner.

Despite all of Young’s struggles, the Hawks still had a chance to send this game to overtime. With 5.2 seconds left on the clock and their season on the line, the Hawks needed a 3 to tie. McMillan said Young, who finished the game 0-of-5 from 3, was the first option on the play he drew up. What makes that interesting is that, while McMillan drew on his dry-erase board, Young wasn’t involved in the huddle. He sat on the bench and stared directly ahead, away from McMillan, as John Collins and Danilo Gallinari blocked his view of the huddle. When they broke as a team, Young was already walking toward the court.

What then transpired was about the worst end-of-game play you’ll see, considering the stakes. For someone who was supposedly the No. 1 option on the play, Young didn’t break free for the ball. He ran into Onyeka Okongwu’s back, then backpedaled away from Delon Wright, who inbounded the ball. When Wright passed it to Gallinari, who was trapped in the corner, Young did not attempt to break toward Gallinari in the hope he’d throw a wraparound pass. Instead, Gallinari tried passing the ball toward the paint when they needed a 3, and the ball was stolen. The Hawks didn’t get a shot off to save their season.

How can a coach be drawing up a play for a player not there. I thought it hurt the Hawks to have done so well last season that McMillan got the full-time job. He's really not been good in his previous jobs.