u/ThaCasual

This post is designed to give you an opportunity to make a bold ish prediction about the upcoming season. It could be anything but let’s keep it from the obvious and try to predict something most people won’t see coming. I’m a Dyson truther so I’m predicting Dyson averages over 20 pts a game this year. I think he built real confidence in his downhill game last year and should have shot regression to the mean bringing him back to a near avg 3 shooter. That’s not really the reason for the projected increase though it will help. I think he continues to improve scoring in the post on drib/drive. He also makes allstar this year and is MIP candidate once again. What’s your prediction? Let’s go hawks!

I think Jokic is playing his last year with the Nuggets. He didn’t sign the extension presumably to get more money but I feel like he is also keeping his options open. I think they will try to trade his at the deadline and hit reset. Maybe they can use the picks they just got to add to the roster in hopes of keeping him but let’s say they don’t and Jokic decides he doesn’t want to spend the next and maybe last 4 years of his career losing. He’s one of the greatest players ever and I think has a very competitive spirit…. What would you be willing to give up realistically to get him. It would take a few players and picks, presumably not just our salary dumps on Kisp and buddy. What core players can we part with and make this work while still being a contender? OO is obvious. I’d say NAW too since he’d be extension eligible soon. That gets us there in the money and then 4 firsts??

We are extremely well positioned to weather a deep east in the regular season. As deep and competitive as the east will be, teams without quality depth will suffer greatly from any injuries to core players. The Hawks on the other hand have depth and quality replacement s for everyone on the roster except maybe JJ whose a 1 of 1 but we should be able to function fine without him for a decent stretch if he gets injured… as for the post season, we still have the same weakness theoretically that we had last yr. However, growth ftom JJ NAW Dd will help. I genuinely think Kingston is going to be very instrumental to our success and he should get significantl playing time early and often to accelerate his growth. He’s a guy that will be hard to pin down defensively just due to his elite speed which should translate into playmaking opportunities even in a playoff environment. … Zuby and Asa will provide quality depth in the front court and the trade deadline may provide an opportunity to grab another established bucket getter or upgrade CJ to Kyrie or something. I haven’t been this excited in a long time. It’s going to be fun.

Everyone has been too quick to anoint Onsi. Wiggins cool, New Orleans pick swap cool, everything else has been hot ass. We are down Trae KP and now Risacher. What did we get? Bench guys and a rental on CJ rental on JK rental on Dort (so far ) and saddled with bad contracts on Kispert and Heild. I know more is coming because he can’t be this stupid can he? Surely there is a plan to package a bunch of shit assets into an Allstar… well had a chance at Brown and got caught sleeping.. bunch of “expiring contracts “ on the team. What’s he going to do with them if he can’t even get a pick swap for Trae. 3 great players out the door for Lu Dort and a 1 yr CJ while having to swallow Kisp and Buddy.. why is everyone so blind that he is Nico Harrison part 2. Got lucky with a trade or 2 and didnt know when to stop. Just has to keep trading for the thrills and headlines. He better be bringing in LeBron or Jokic at this point or he’s a bum. Downvote away. Someone has to say this. That trade was ass. Hope I eat my words but there just too many people with rose-colored glasses praising everything he does. I’m as optimistic as the next guy but I’ve yet to see a real move . Are we building for the future or dumping development guys for win now. Currently he’s saying one thing and doing another. Only team I see that should hit reset is Denver and Jokic would cost more than expiring contracts and picks. A rebuilding team would rather have a guy like ZR as a building block if we are going that route. Not Lu Dort

I know y’all are having a cow right now over the Zuby pick but I love it. I’ll take a gritty grimy physical hard worker all day over a guy 4inches taller with slow feet and no heart. Great pick athletically and culture wise

Gonna be a fun year coming up.

Hard for me to think that Trae isn’t watching Brunson vie for a title, in large part because he took a team friendly deal, and not feel some kinda way because he wouldn’t do the same. Could’ve been an Atlanta legend.. and he is.. but he could’ve been more. There’s no way we weren’t better off having Trae for CJ money. I get it but too bad things weren’t different.

Sorry for the MBJ haters but I had a dream last night that we picked him at 8. He’s my 3rd or 4th preferred option but it is what it is. Still excited to see what he becomes. Welcome to the A… it’s shit post season so take this as such

I don’t care what all the Trae haters say. When you get an opportunity to draft a special guy you go for it and Acuff is very special. MBJ would be the consolation prize for me but Flemmings is probably Cason Wallace II. Wagler may figure it out but his lack of strength and athleticism scares me about his offensive translation and leads me to believe he’d be no better than Acuff defensively. I see Acuff as being in a tier right along with AJ, DP, and Cam. The production was was historic. His measurements are in line with the top scoring guards in the league and those guys end up being max salary players for a reason. If we can bring in that kind of production on a rookie deal we have a real shot at a title the next few years while our core is cost controlled. We’d even have a good bit of salary to use going into the aprons to fill out the front court. I’m not posting this to discuss whether he’s as good as I say he is. He is! The discussion is : what would it take to move up to 5 to get him? Both picks this yr, next yrs first swap as well would be fine to me. Giving up 2 extra firsts to move up 3 spots in this draft would be worth it. What say you? Is that enough? I don’t think the clippers would want to pair him with Darius and may value the picks for the rebuild.

Thunder are going to be looking h go or a counter to Wemby. Nobody is but at least Mara has the size to make him work. I can’t really think of anything the Thunder need more. They have depth and picks galore. I wonder how nikola Topic is doing these days. Maybe we could get our guard in him and pick 12 & 17 for pick 8 & 23. We get a big pg in Nikola Topic grab a couple bigs with those picks in Steinbach Morez, etc .. just trying to think outside the box and if you ask me Topic Morez and Steinbach would be a great haul.

If I could choose one area to improve tonight it would be for guys to box out. We will have 3 rebounders in position but still fail to secure the board because all 3 guys go up for the ball and get beat by a talker bigger player instead of anybody just taking the assignment to box that defender out. I’d rather see 3 guys box out and nobody go for the ball than 3 going for the ball and 0 box outs. This alone would win us the game. We should be able to get 10 more possessions by doing this . Please god!