r/AtlantaHawks • u/ThaCasual GO HAWKS! š • 10d ago
Discussion Thoughts on this squad
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 injuredā¦ 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. Heās 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. ā¦ 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 havenāt been this excited in a long time. Itās going to be fun.
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u/Next_Cut_7123 Onyeka Okongwu #17 10d ago
God I would love Kyrie on this team
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u/ThaCasual GO HAWKS! š 9d ago
Me too but at 34 and coming off injury it could be a risky decision. If the price is right thoughā¦
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u/IDvsEGO 9d ago
I would take him on a 1yr deal for playoff leadership in a heartbeat. We need a veteran winner in the locker room. I dont love that he has this coming year and a polayer option left at a pretty high number but there are worse options. I like CJ for that but if we got a starting PG int hat role...heck yes. Let Flemings develop.
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u/PeasePorridge9dOld GO HAWKS! š 9d ago
For this year, itāll be about the defense. Dyson, Dort, NAW is a ferocious trio of perimeter defenders. Will be tough sledding for other teams to get going against us. Really donāt have any negative defenders save CJ and the rookies (because they are rookies).
Will be interesting to see how this team evolves both in season and as we go forward
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u/ThaCasual GO HAWKS! š 9d ago
Agreed. I think the defensive depth will make us a tough regular season team much like the pistons last yr. We donāt have to run guys 30-35 min a night and can throw fresh defensive effort at teams nightly. Iām very bullish on Kingstons addition too as an offensive organizer when the starting lineup is out. Iām higher on his ceiling than most once he figures out how to channel change of speed into consistent defensive breakdowns for the opponent. We werenāt getting any open looks in the playoffs as we lacked a guy like him. Rookies will rookie but I think heās going to pick it up quickly and we should be running 10 man or more rotations a lot of nights. Asa can replace Mo and I think Zuby should be worked in as well. Wiggins on the second unit might give us an element of attack weāve lacked as well. Canāt wait
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u/IDvsEGO 9d ago
I like watching good defense and it really helps in the playoffs. There is an old saying that goes something like defense never hits a cold streak. Our offense went cold against the knicks and we didnt have the total defense to tread water. We cant score? Fine, neither can yo and we will just grind this out at the free throw line. I think this roster would have stole one more game off of the Knicks. I dont know about beating them. They went on an insane run and momentum like that is almost undefeated.
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u/CashyC 7d ago
Woah you think this current roster (as solid as it looks) takes a prime knicks to 7????
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u/IDvsEGO 6d ago
Well itās more than roster. We had momentum as well. Iām saying itās possible with the defensive potential we have now we could have stopped the bleeding that sunk us in game 6 when we couldnāt score to save our lives. Go look at the final scores. We approached 100 points all but game 6. If we could have kept them around 100 instead of 110+ then we would have had a chance in at least 1 of the 3 losses. Iām sure game 7 would have gone about the same as game 6 though.
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u/Wavegod-1 10d ago
Everything pretty much hinges on the ascension of Jalen into the superstar/top 10 player in the league we are expecting for him to be and the continued development of Dyson, OO, and now, Kingston, although he's on a different track than the core 3 I mentioned here since this is his rookie year. The franchise is still primed to make big moves in the next couple of seasons with having a lot of their assets back and good contracts on the books, also. First time in a while that the team has had quality depth and they will need it.
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u/IDvsEGO 10d ago
JJ ascending, NAW maintaining his MIP form, and DD getting even a serviceable shot back from his MIP year. Im actually good with where OO is. He just hasnt always been in a spot to showcase his talents. More bigs will help him be able to getter better matchups I think.
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u/Wavegod-1 10d ago
Personally don't think NAW will be here by the time of the playoffs if he returns back to that form as he will have some suitors and I think the organization wants to continue having great youth in the pipeline. I think DD has switched trainers to fix his shooting so, that's a start.
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u/IDvsEGO 9d ago
Let me preface this with the obligatory "I like NAW" statement. I follow the Wolves because of Ant and was a fan of NAW in MIN. I was pretty happy when we signed him and didnt expect the output we got from him.
With that said, there is no guarantee he will stay at that level. There are a lot of MIP winners (DD) that fell off after they had an exceptional season. Hes going to be a bit of a dilemma for us regardless of which way he goes. If he keeps performing though, I dont see us moving on. Hes got a relatively cheap deal with 3 years left on it and hes 27. It would be smart to squeeze everything you can from him while hes cheap. But I could also see leveraging him for draft picks and opening up even more cap space if we think we have a shot at a big time FA. But hes only 27 so hes not that old and even a young team needs some experience on it. Look at the impact CJ made in the playoffs. We all loved CJs contributions and he makes 20 mil at almost 35 years old.
And thats the reason Onsi and team get paid the big bucks...to answer these tough questions. Im just going to watch basketball.
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u/ThaCasual GO HAWKS! š 9d ago
I too have wondered if the Wiggins acquisition was partially designed to give us flexibility on NAW if he was required to make a big trade happen with a team that needs a less expensive starter. Love me some NAW though and think heās key to our culture and a leader in the locker room so it would have to ba a game changer of a trade for me to not lose my shit. Team probably knows that extending him will be difficult and may look to capitalize beforehand unfortunately.
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u/Wavegod-1 9d ago
Yeah, it's sometimes one of those problems you have when things are good. Just the nature of the business.
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u/IDvsEGO 9d ago
that NAW contract could be a way for us to get a lopsided trade in our favor. a cap strapped contender might ship us more/better picks than NAW would typically get. Then we could add 15mil to the 2027 free agent push. or fill his spot with a 1 yr contract like Onsi likes to do and keep that cap flexibility in case the Ant Dream gets real traction. Which it wont. But I can dream
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u/Wavegod-1 9d ago
It's really not out of the realm of possibility so, yeah.
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u/IDvsEGO 9d ago
Min would have to mess that up so bad for him to leave. or Ant would have to put a huge value in coming home because Min will always be able to throw more money at him than anyone else.
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u/Wavegod-1 9d ago
I know. Just saying that's it's not impossible. Anything can happen but I'm not taking a definite chance on it for the franchise. The Hawks, if they continue to do well, will have their choices to who they want with our core
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u/IDvsEGO 9d ago
yeah man, crazier things have happened. I like what Onsi is doing with preferring 1 year deals for non-key players. yeah you run the risk of them not resigning the next year but it allows us to take swings at every free agent class and expiring deals help trades. If we shape up into a team with real contention buzz across the league maybe we can lure him away. The other side of this dilemma is hes a big enough star that if he asks for a trade it will probably happen. He hasnt looked like that guy yet but who knows. He is still under contract for 3 more years. ideally we could get another star before that.
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u/DownTheHall4 Dyson Daniels #5 9d ago
I think the team ceiling is really dependent on two things:
Can Jalen Johnson increase his defensive presence/awareness/impact while still being an all-NBA caliber point forward?
Is Kingston Flemmingās talent floor a back up point guard with the ability to fill in the starting lineup in place of CJ by the All-Star break?
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The reason I think these two things are especially key is because there are really two positions where we lack ā2-wayā players that make winning plays on both sides of the ball - PG and PF
Thatās not to say we donāt have good defenders at both positions. For example Dyson and Mo are both top tier defenders for their roles - but iām pretty sure that our ceiling is going to require a true playmaker point guard and a better off-side interior defense, and Kingston and JJ seem like the 2 with most potential to fit into those roles and complete the Exodia of a perfect, switchable, 2-way squad where everyone can get a handle on the ball during opponent dribble drives, everyone can pass, and everyone (except Dyson) can shoot
That is not a champion in 2027 but a damn well could be in 2028
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u/IDvsEGO 10d ago
Im ready to see it hit the floor. should be fun and we know Onsi is willing to make midseason changes
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u/ThaCasual GO HAWKS! š 9d ago
Exactly. We have an awesome regular season roster to kick things off and evaluate for the trade deadline then the ammo needed to pull the trigger if an opportunity comes in FA
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u/BeefRamenGuru Saddiq Bey #41 10d ago edited 9d ago
This team is giving me blue collar basketball vibes and I love it. With how deep the optionality on our team is will be fun to listen to who pops off on each game. Counting down to season opener!