Players choosing their buddy as coach who then chooses his buddies as staff

what could go wrong

I don't know what exactly Amare brings to the table.

I wonder how much his contract is for...

Far less than the Knicks paid him...

lol

Do the Hawks have a path forward to relevance, or am I getting high on my own supply with all this time off from seeing them?

Getting past the franchise-shattering decision to pass on Luka (ugh), we have Trae, who can score and create, but will always be limited defensively.

So we bring in Capela for rim protection, who can run with tempo, to pair with another bouncy young big in John Collins.

We draft De'Andre Hunter, who was old coming out but was probably the most NBA-ready wing defender in that draft.

I'm not really sold on Huerter as Klay 2.0, but he and Reddish have shown occasional flashes. Is there any reason for optimism that they could develop into useful role players, or maybe more?

So I still haven't forgiven the franchise for choosing Trae over Luka, but if you're going to build around Trae, it seems like all the roster moves and team construction after that soul-sucking decision attempts to maximize and build around Trae's strengths, while covering for his limitations.

If you need 2 or 3 superstars to win a title, the hardest step is going from 0 to 1. Does anyone think that can be Trae, or anyone else on the roster?

Can they be a 5th-6th seed? Yes.

Do you consider that relevant? I have no idea.

Same as it always was.

Amare as a big man coach isn't bad tho. It's ideal if your assistants can actually spar competitively with your players.

You'd prefer Darvin Ham?

Can't imagine that the Hawks are that relevant any time soon. They may sneak into the 7th/8th seed in the next two or three seasons. But in the East that's not relevant.

For the next few years, 76ers, Bucks, Celtics, Nets, Toronto and Heat are definitely going to be better.

Can't see Trae being the best player on a championship team.

Yeah... so basically not relevant unless something major changes

It irks me that Trae's 99th percentile career outcome would be "almost-Damian Lillard with worse defense"

This was known on draft day. And we'd be ecstatic if he even turned out that good.

And as much as I enjoy rooting for Dame, if he's your best player, you're never getting out of the 2nd round of the West.

Hey TJ,

I feel your pain.

I wanted the Knicks to offer a Godfather type deal, unload multiple picks and whatever else it took, to land Doncic.

Knicks would still have Porzingis and they'd be working on being real contenders. C'est la vie.

It's just a little bit different for a fan who was hoping his team might make an unexpected home run trade to move up and get Doncic and a fan who sees his team deliberately pass on Doncic when all they had to do was put his name on the draft card.

It's even worse when Doncic is clearly supposed to go #1 or at worst #2 but due to the Suns and Kings doing Suns and Kings things Hawks fans had a few minutes of joy thinking, "Is this really happening?!? OMG it is!" Nope, the Hawks do Hawks things and after putting Doncic's name on their draft card they ship him off for Trae and a future 1st.

I think you heard that first here that that was their predisposition.

He's going to perfect the defense - KD plays good D, KI .. so-so, so those other three 3&D people have to be taught to play D by Amare.


It makes perfect sense.


Burn-down-the-media-dome, build-the-media-dome (and repeat to the rhythm of wax-on, wax-off).

Amare's going to spar with Jarrett Allen???? Did you see how many injuries Amare's had?

lol +1

Thanks for posting. That was fun.

That's savage.

George Karl

lol, k

You think coaches go that hard? Naw. Amare shaking on offense is worth way more than a hustler on defense scaling back the intensity. That's why guys paid to go to the Hakeem camp for a couple of days.

Playing matador d, Amare at ~6'10 is better than 6'7 (Ham) or smaller as most bench coaches are. That's beyond what he can bring to his specialty: the offensive side.

Unfortunately, they gave that up when they traded Luka before he ever stepped on the court.

Obviously anyone not taking Luka is a fireable error. Doesn't matter what the rest of the roster is.

Imo, the only possible path the Hawks have right now is (i) quite long and (ii) through Collins. Trae has to get traded and build the team around Collins .. for 2024/2025.

That's a very uncertain path, because I'm not convinced Collins will be a key-stone of a highly competitive team .. but that's your best bet right now. (Same as Frank is for the Knicks.)

* When I say "build the team around" I definitely do not expect Collins to be the MVP of the team/conference/league .. just that that player is the anchor.

Riddle me this:

value of a Hakeem camp against an Amare camp ??

Well one you get for a weekend, the other you get for an entire season.

No one argues one is better than the other. We're not debating Hakeem vs Amare for bench coach.

I'm really getting tired of arguing tedious things like this.

Amare for bench coach? Nah, he sucks bc he's not Hakeem.

Hakeem didn't want the job tho?

It doesn't matter, hire whomever. Amare isn't Hakeem. Just don't hire Amare.