Can Dyson Daniels Repeat | Atlanta Hawks Dynasty Primer | Other Prime Targets

Can Dyson Daniels Repeat | Atlanta Hawks Dynasty Primer | Other Prime Targets

[Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] We have got a lot to unpack in today’s episode. Uh it’s going to be a fun one. Today is the draft lottery. We will find out tonight who will get Cooper flag, who tanked well enough to land a generational talent. And obviously it’s not actually a true measurement of who tanked the best or whether that’s even a good thing, but it will give one team the gratification of saying, “Okay, this this season, this abysmal season, this my goodness, I hope it never happens again season was worth it because now we have a franchise cornerstone and if we build around that Cooper flag correctly, we could win a championship in five to seven and obviously be a playoff contender before that because blah blah blah blah team building. But there’s going to be a renewed sense of hope for whatever team redeems or receives the favor of the ping pong balls tonight. We will talk about that briefly. Uh we’re going to focus this episode on the Atlanta Hawks, which if you know me, you know I’m going to have a little bit of little bit extra to say for this episode. So, it’s it’s going to be a long one. It’s going to be a good one and there will be plenty to talk about. It doesn’t really the two topics won’t really intertwine much this year because of the way the Hawks draft picks will work, which we will talk about, but before we get into that, I just wanted to remind you that Bet Online is the world’s most trusted betting platform and your number one source for all your sports betting action. Got baseball season going on. We’ve got the NHL playoffs going on. And of course, we have the NBA playoffs going on tonight. We have game four between the Celtics and Knicks and game four between the Timberwolves and Warriors. Celtics are currently favored by six and a half points in New York. I think that there are some factors here that go in favor of New York. I think that the way that the last game went also kind of has a lot of people feeling like, ah, Boston woke up. I mean, that’s like full transparency. My opinion was that Boston was going to have no issues in this series and then seeing them drop the first two games. The way they won game three, that’s that’s the way I was expecting Boston to play all series. So, will New York, but it’s almost being forgotten how much like that New York is uh winning this series, which is kind of interesting. On bet online, you can also bet on the series winner. Currently, the Cavs, who are down three 3-1, are plus 237 to win this series, while the Knicks, who are up 21 and about to play a home game, are plus 252. Very interesting lines. um with a lot of factors going in favor of the Knicks. But of course, the outside opinion or the opinion of oddsmakers is that the Celtics are a superior team and that the homec court advantage that the Knicks have in this series is not going to matter. Uh which is kind of what we saw in game three. And then for the Timberwolves, Warriors, uh the in Golden State, Timberwolves are favored by five points. No, Steph Curry is obviously a big factor. The Warriors are targeting a game six return for Steph. So, they just need to win one just to keep the series alive in the hopes that having Steph return for game six in Golden State would get them the win they need to force a game seven and then hoping that one of the greatest players of all time can get it done. We’ll see if they can. I mean, the last game was was close. It’s not been the dominant, I guess, Timberwolves that we were kind of Excuse me. Yeah. Yeah, the last game was close. It was game two that was not close at all. So, we’ll see. Maybe having homecourt advantage in this one, they can just get just enough offense from someone else. Jonathan Kuminga played really well off the bench in their last game, had the 30 points, and obviously Jimmy Butler stepped up as a scorer as well. They definitely are going to have to figure some things out though. Uh the Warriors are if they’re going to keep the series alive. Um should be some very fun, exciting basketball regardless. All right, let’s uh actually finish up the read. With the largest selection of odds on everything from the MLB to the NHL and UFC, Bet Online remains the number one online source for all your sports wagering info. Bet Online, the game starts here. It’s a Monday, so grant me some grace here uh with the ad read. But now we’ll talk about let’s talk about the lottery first. Just keep it brief. Um we’ll do this. We’ll just pull up No, we won’t pull up Tankathon. I’ll just read things off. Um, so right now obviously if if you are listening to a Dynasty podcast, you probably are well aware of tankathon.com. Um, but if you’re not, tankathon.com is a great great website to mess around with lottery, the draft lottery all year long. Um, you know, you can semi lottery with the actual odds. You can semi lottery with a mock draft. So you can see based on who wins the lottery what I guess spot or who you your team could get based on where they are drafting. They have a nice big board. You can compare previous prospects with advanced stats. It’s awesome. Get the full draft order. You can see here. I’ll you know what? I will share this. I’ll pull this up. Hopefully the ads don’t get too weird. They get random. [Music] Um, this is like the odds of every team making each pick, which is, you know, a pretty nice way for it to be laid out. Um, we’re talking about the Hawks today. So, this Hawks pick down here. If you’re watching the screen, you can see it down at the bottom. They h their pick has a 0.7% chance of being number one, point8 for number two, nine for number three, and one for number four. and then 96.6% for pick 14. You can also hover over it if it’s red and see who that pick will go to. So, since the Hawks pick is unprotected, it has a Spurs logo over all those picks to see where it goes. Now, if we owe one pick up to the Kings at 13, their pick has a 3.8% chance of landing in somewhere inside the top four, in which case they get it because their pick is top 12 protected. But the way it worked out actually worked out really well for the Hawks because it’s top 12 protected, which means if it lands outside and pick 13, 14 or beyond, the Hawks get it. Right now, it’s projected to be number 13, which is the exact perfect spot. Like, it couldn’t have gone much better. It’s now just a 3.8% 8% chance of being really bad or a 3.3% chance of not being that much worse but being worse in theory because if the Hawks pick via the Kings goes down to pick 14 that means that the Hawks that the Spurs pick via the Hawks would have leaped up into the top four which would have been the Hawks pick which was sent to San Antonio in the Dejonte Murray trade. It’s not the end of the world for the Hawks, but it’s kind of like a ah dang. We could have like our pick is going to be C like the one that puts potentially Cooper flag or somebody else alongside Victor Women for 15 years. And obviously had they not done that, the odds may have been different. The team may have looked different. They, you know, blah blah blah. Wouldn’t have actually been like, I don’t know, the Hawk’s fault. but it would kind of be like a what’s it’s this trade that we made that resulted in this super team. So, it’s fun to kind of take a look at these things. I mean, the Suns pick uh is going to the Rockets regardless. Most likely going to be just inside the top 10, but has a chance to get inside the top four, which would be pretty wild for Houston to add another top four pick to their team. Uh the 76ers pick is top six protected. So if it lands out in 7, eight or nine, which is a 36% chance of happening in one of those spots, it will go to OKC, which would be pretty crazy for OKC to add pick 7, eight or nine in this draft. Everything else is pretty straightforward. Um as far as protections, I did write a column on or for Roto World on NBCports.com kind of breaking down the draft lottery, exactly how it works, um some of the history behind it. you it I appreciate if you go check it out, but it’s a a little bit of a a detailed outline of what we can be looking out for. A lot of the things were things I just said as well, but you can go check that out. Um, but I guess the other factor here in Timely News is that there were reports that Giannis would be open to a trade. Now, what does that mean? not that much. But he’s not fully shutting down saying, “No, I’m committed to Milwaukee.” He’s And I don’t even think it was him directly saying it, but it was like a quote, a report that came out saying that this is how he feels. And of course, every team’s fan base is going to fire up some sort of trade machine, whichever one you prefer. But in reality, there are a number of teams that have a or can put together a nice trade package uh for Giannis. I would personally say that Houston will have the strongest case um just off of if they’re willing to part with pieces. They have a number of young former lottery picks, former top five picks, um that they could package together as well as draft picks um as well potent like again they’ll have Phoenix’s pick in this draft if that leaps up what it happens. But what happens in this draft lottery could actually have a very big impact on that because there are a few teams picking at the top here that would love to have Giannis on their team. could and would because you have to weigh your options here. Is trading Cooper flag worth getting Giannis for some teams? No, it’s not. If you’re the Brooklyn Nets, I I understand that the Nets have been targeting Giannis, but I think if you luck out in the lottery and get this generational player, you’re not uh one year away from competing for a championship. You’re multiple years away. You don’t package Giannis or excuse me, Cooper Flag and something else to get Giannis on this team. I mean, they do have some solid pieces to build around or put around Giannis, but it’s not a championship team, but I think that there are teams that could could if I just talk about Houston. if that Suns pick leaps up, it’s like, okay, like yeah, adding Cooper flag to that team would be absolutely insane. And they’ve been committed enough to their young core that maybe they would um just hold on to the pick, but maybe they would also say, “Oh, okay. This makes our trade package a lot easier because the Bucks taking on C taking Cooper flag to restart their franchise instead of whatever other pieces that they would have to try and fit together uh coming from a different team. Yeah. Like maybe that that’s a lot more attractive. So maybe it’s the rights to Cooper Flag and another young player or a pick or two and it’s just a significantly smaller trade package because of the player that we think Cooper flag can be and then you’re adding in Giannis without taking away too much from your team right now. The 76ers, do they? I’m not saying what’s the right or wrong decision here, but if you have aging Joel Embiid and Paul George and you have Tyrese Maxi, you have Jared McCain, you have Quinton Grimes, you have other pieces, do you say, “Oh, Giannis fits our timeline a lot better.” Like, yeah, it’s going to be hard to trade Cooper Flag, but that’s an pretty unreal team. Or the Pelicans, do they do that? I’m not saying I mean, I think any team is going to have to consider it. And I think that there are some that should consider it less than others. And I’m not even saying it’s the right decision for anybody to trade the rights to this generational talent that could be your franchise player for 15 years to get Giannis who is already like 100% a top three bare minimum player in this league about at 29 about turn 30 years old. It makes sense for some teams probably doesn’t make sense for others. some of the teams at the back of the lottery. You have Dallas, Chicago, and Sacramento. Do those team are those teams more interested? I think when we were doing the Chicago episode, I said that Chicago shouldn’t. But if they’re trading less to bring in Giannis, maybe that changes things. I think Dallas makes a lot of sense with the way that Nico Harrison has constructed this team. How do Mavs fans react to him trading away Luca Donic and then trading away the rights Cooper flag? But you’re bringing in AD and Giannis. How does that team fit? There’s going to be a lot a lot of factors here. Um maybe Cooper Flag’s good enough defensively that Nico Harrison doesn’t want to trade him away. I think more eyes than usual beyond this this draft lottery. Not just because of the talent the Cooper flag is, but because this impacts the entire league. teams could easily opt to make a trade. Bring in Giannis. Let’s let’s win now. Could I’m just bouncing around ideas here. Not saying again whether it’s the right decision or not, but do the Raptors entertain it? They have they’re not incredibly young. They have young players, but there are a lot of players kind of in their mid 20s to late 20s that if you’re adding in Giannis here, how does that work? Could it does Charlotte, which is kind of insane to think about, but say we have LaMelo, Brandon Miller, we have Mark Williams, we get the rights to draft Cooper Flag. Like, do we just add Giannis to this team instead? I don’t think it’s what I would do, but it’s going to be an option for a lot of these teams. So, it’s I don’t know. 30 teams will be keeping an eye on this draft lottery, I’m sure, as always. But just the the other outcomes. And of course, I haven’t even mentioned the possibility that the Spurs have two lottery picks. That scares me. How do you uh confidently rebuild your team knowing that In five years, San Antonio could have the top two players in basketball, plus a bunch of other draft picks. I mean, we’re talking about a 15-year dynasty. Very legitimate 15-year dynasty. Um, yeah. Or does San Antonio take these picks? Maybe maybe San Antonio doesn’t get Cooper flag, but one of their picks leaps into the top four and Milwaukee is able to restart their their team with two top 10 picks in a good class or two lottery picks at least plus other stuff and then they’re more willing to move off of Giannis and then you’re adding Giannis to WBY. What does what does that look like? That’s scary. And we’ve talked about I mean the only other team I think aside from the the guys at the top Utah Washington haven’t mentioned them. I don’t think that either of them should trade for Giannis. I don’t think that either of them is ready to I think Utah would be technically more ready to um than Portland. It’s an option. Portland has enough young pieces that they could I don’t know. We’ll see. All eyes will be on the lottery tonight. And now that we’ve talked about that enough, we will talk about the Atlanta Hawks now. Um, okay. So, the Hawks have picks potentially 13 to 14 or maybe not that pick at all. And then pick 22, uh, which is an unprotected pick from the Lakers. So, they will have two first one to two first round picks. Sorry, I don’t want to jinx it. I don’t want to lose this pick. Uh, potentially two first round picks. can to add to a younger team that I think outside eyes would be. When I say outside eyes, I mean like non-hawks fans would be willing to give them credit for because the idea is that they are what is it four years removed from making the Easter conference finals? Has it really been four years? My goodness. Um, yeah, since uh yeah, cuz it was the Heat series where Trey Young was abysmal, the Celtics series where Trey Young was good, and then it was two playin losses. So, yeah, this was the fourth year in a row not making it past the first round, and second year in a row not making the playoffs. But it’s everybody thought it’s, oh, it’s still Trey Young, it’s still the same team. It’s actually almost an entirely different team. And a lot of these guys are very, very young. And the Hawks will have options even considering that they have traded away their rights to their first round pick in this draft as well as the next two drafts. They’re actually set up a little bit better than I was expecting them to be. I was expecting it to be like, okay, they’re ready to win now, but if they’re not ready to win now, this is going to be a long, long three years. But they have young players to be excited about. They have picks from other teams, which by the way, if this Kings pick, which is top 12 protected, doesn’t convey this year, it’ll be top 10 protected next year, and then it would turn to two second round picks. So, worst case scenario for the Hawks this year is that the Kings don’t get their pick or get their pick, so don’t give it to the Hawks. they make a top four pick and then the Hawks have a top 10 protected pick next year which hopefully the Kings wouldn’t be inside the top 10 because then it would just be abysmal. But so let’s look at the Hawks roster because we can speculate on the the draft. It actually probably would have made a little sense to wait one more day, but this is the order of that we’re going with and we will talk about the draft lottery tomorrow. any any implications there which the odds are low that anything changes for the Hawks. We’ll talk about that tomorrow. Um so entering next season a lot of the team is back but Clint Capella is a unrestricted free agent. Caris Levert’s an unrestricted free agent. Larry Nance Jr. is an unrestricted free agent as is Garrison Matthews. Um Dominic Barlo has a team option. Katon Wallson, Jacob Toppenhen are restricted free agents. So most for the most part, the young core is still there. It’s the first year of Jaylen Johnson’s extension, so he’ll make $30 million next year, which just a a bargain contract for the Hawks. That he’s so much better than $30 million. Um, which isn’t the only bargaining contract the Hawks have because Yaka Kong’s this was the first year of his 14 million. Next year will be 15 million and then two more years under 17. So I don’t know how they were able to get some of these guys to agree to these contracts. I mean, uh, next year, Aneka Kongu will be making less than Terrence man, who’s also still going to be on the team in a solid rotation piece, but I think the Aong Wu and Jaylen Johnson contracts were great for the Hawks. They’ll have to get Dyson Daniels a new contract soon, but not too worried about that. He’ll he’ll be kept around, but it will I mean the main impact here is that Caris Levert will I mean could these guys could return but as of right now Caris Levert was a really solid reserve for them after they acquired him and now he’ll be gone or potentially gone so they have to find more bench scoring. Could do that in the draft could do that from players returning from injury. Um and then Clinkapella probably gone. I think the way that things went after Onaka Congo kind of took over as a starter with Capella either being out or just it was like weird right before the trade deadline. It was oh he’s injured. Oh no, it’s just personal reasons. Oh no, we’re just he’s not in the injury report. We’re just not playing him. just very very you know strange ending pro likely ending to his time with the Hawks because he was very very good for a number of years and then the past couple years I think in the eyes of many fans the missed layups outweighed the impact of him on the glass outweighed his defensive impact outweighed his impact as a lob threat which granted they were annoying but I think he’s slowly also declined in other aspects that would make up for the occasional or sometimes more than occasional misplay. I assume that he’ll still be able to find a role somewhere else. I mean, the number one team I’ve I think I just go to every single time we talk about a center is the Lakers. Capella made a living off of James Harden lobs, made a living off of Trey Young lobs, and now can make a living off of Luca Donuchs. And I think that even if he’s a backup there and they they bring in another center to actually be the starter, being a backup center for the Lakers, that’s gonna be so much better than what they had this year. We’ll see. Maybe he’ll sign elsewhere. There’s a lot of different spots for him. Um Larry Nance Jr. could return. I think in my mind having him as like a pick and pop center for one of the I mean the first time since Dwayne Deadman for Trey Young and it was kind of like a oh this thing actually works really well. I know we pretty much just run pick and rolls with Trey Young but pick and pops. This is great. Wait, this Congo guy is shooting pretty well. Like maybe we try starting him and it was Anyways, I don’t know. That’s probably not the exact conversation that happened or the exact line of thinking that happened, but having Larry Nance return as a backup or depth center, I wouldn’t hate that. Um, no fantasy relevance there, unless there’s injuries, in which case he can be a productive fantasy player, but just as a backup big that can space the floor pretty good. And then Garrison Matthews, a shooter. If he’s back, cool. If he’s not, okay, I hope he gets a good contract elsewhere. Um their future pick situation is is quite interesting because their first round pick it’s in now in involved in a lot of different stipulations there. But basically they will get they won’t get their own first next year. They’ll get a first depending, but it’s also intertwined with how the Spurs, Cavs, Timberwolves, and Jazz do and then those picks will be decided based on that. So, it’s very complicated. Hard to even project right now. Basically, the Hawks won’t get their own first round pick. I guess they could depending on how the standings play out, but would be very weird. Um, and then in 2027, they their first round pick goes to the Spurs unprotected. And then there’s also some sort of swap with the Jazz and Cavs in 2028. Um, and then after that it’s back to normal. Uh, the Hawks also have in 2027 they’ll get the least favorable between the Pelicans and Bucks picks, though I think it’s got to be outside the top four if I’m reading that correctly on Fans. That seems a little bit better to me than it did I guess when the trade happened. I don’t even remember which trade that was that brought that pick in. But that pick now that Giannis could be gone because before it’s least favorable. It’s like okay, who cares what Pelicans do? The Bucks are going to be good. Pelicans still could be good. But now it’s like okay if Giannis goes somewhere other than New Orleans because that would be stinky for that. I mean, that could be two lottery picks and the Hawks get the least favorable. That’s possible. So, that that’s me being a little bit of an optimistic fan here, but it’s possible that the Giannis Giannis being traded away and the Pelicans not figuring things out, which they have too much talent. It’s hard for me to just totally bank on them in two years still having issues, but we’ll see. Let’s talk about these players now. Or I guess they went 40 and 42 this year. We’ll just kind of recap that briefly. Um where the eight seed lost playing game to the Magic and then lost a playing game to the Heat. Kind of a disappointing end to the season. I mean, at one point I think they were kind of almost seeming like they were going to be a six seed and then things slowly got worse and then just kind of a playin team. So I I think the way that they finished out was fine and then losing the playin that was kind of annoying. Trey Young said after the season this the last time that he’s going to miss the playin. How do you interpret that? Superstar player says the la that tweets after the game. This is the last time I’m missing the plan or miss excuse me missing the playoffs because that he’s not missing the plan. That’s his that’s his time to shine. Um goodness I hope they’re good enough to miss the play. But last time he’s missing the playoffs. How do you interpret that? Do you say I mean it could be that he’s saying this last time I’m missing it because I’m not missing again so the entire team isn’t missing it again. We are making the playoffs next year. Or would you say that he’s saying oh no this last time if I miss it again I’m gone. Is that a way to interpret it? Is it both at the same time? Could it be an emotional reaction to losing in the playin tournament and him being upset and then actually being like, uh, we’ll figure that out in a year from now if it happens. Yeah, that’s probably the most likely option. Um, so do you read into it much? Probably not, but I do think it’s kind of interesting because then they the Hawks go and fire uh Landry Fields as GM. Um, I don’t think that they’ve officially, and apologies if I’m pronouncing his name wrong, but Anzi Salah uh is filling the role. Yeah, he was promoted fully to general manager um to replace Landry Fields, which was an interesting move to me because I didn’t love every move that Landry Fields made as GM, but it seemed to be in line with what ownership wanted. And I think losing in the playin tournament after finishing 40 and 42 which was if I’m not mistaken a better record than the year before despite trading away to Jonte Murray and not having Jaylen Johnson for most of the final couple months of the season. Just quickly pulling up the record because they went 36 and 46 the year before. So improved by four wins. I don’t know. Pretty pretty strange. But if they felt like, hey, we can get a better GM in here, then cool. Hopefully it it works out. Solid came from Golden State. So, I don’t know. I don’t know exactly what that means. I don’t have any insider information as to who’s a good GM or like how much of it a role that he had with the Warriors or exactly what his role was. Um, actually I could probably look up exactly what his role was, but like specific moves he made or how his reputation is. Don’t have that insider information, but obviously the Hawks feel good about him. So, we’ll see what moves he makes and it’ll he’ll first get a chance in the draft to see what type of GM he’ll be. All right, let’s talk about this team, about the players because we’ve been talking about the team because now it’s I guess this is one more thing. They have new GM, same head coach. I don’t think Quint Snider’s on the hot seat. Um I think he’s a incredibly bright mind in the NBA. So, and like they like having him there. Trey Young loves him and they’re committed to building around Trey Young. So, how do you do that? You honestly kind of do it the way they have been doing. They add have added um some really good defenders around him, good four spacers, a lot of length to make up for his defensive deficiencies. I’m going go and put Jay Young on the screen for those watching. I think uh yeah, Jay for fantasy purposes, Jay Young’s going to continue to be fine. fine as in a very very good option that’s not going to shoot a high percentage or hold on to the ball. He’s going to cough it up and turnovers are going to be an issue. This year averaged 24.2 points, 3.1 rebounds, 11.6 assists over a steal, almost three threes. Field goal percentage was a bit worse than usual. Um assists continued to improve. Every year of his career, he has improved his assist mark. Will he get over 11.6 assists per game next year? I wouldn’t bank on it. Would be cool. Uh it would be very very impressive if he improved that number again. But I think as of right now, Trey Young is still the franchise player. He is the player they are building around and he’s going to be a big factor in every decision they make and a big part of the offense. and they’re going to do their best to hide his defensive deficiencies. Though he has improved, I think it’s worth noting that he has been better on defense, but better does not mean very very good. I think he makes plays that he’s capable of making. Like he he is able to get a good bit of steals, like force turnovers. And I think if you’re a small guard like he is, being pesky on defense and getting the ball, getting more possessions, that’s a good thing. Helps make up for all the turnovers as well. But obviously, and then I think he moves his feet a little bit better and gives more effort at times. There’s still definitely those plays where it’s like, come on, man. Like if you’re serious about locking in and wanting to be, you know, one of the best point guards in the league, Hall of Famer, winning championships, if you’re serious about these things, like you can’t have possessions like this. There there are those on both sides of the floor. And those I don’t it would be nice if those went away, but I’m not expecting those to go away. So, I think we just need to look at the reality of what the situation is and who he is as a player. One of the best passers, if not the best passer in the league. incredibly talented scorer um especially at his size, but his commitment to being more of a leader and more of a playmaker for his teammates as opposed to not saying he wasn’t a playmaker before because he’s been an incredible playmaker throughout his career. But obviously, as the assists go up and the points go down, we can see what his priority is. And that’s a good thing. It’s not a bad thing. So, I expect that the numbers aren’t going to change ne much next year. It would be nice to see him have an improved field goal percentage season. Um, get back to what he did 2021 2022. Shot 46% from the field. I think our expectation needs to be that it’s not going to happen. But if it does, that’d be great because it’ll help his points go up. It’ll help improve his uh field goal percentage obviously because and like make him less of a liability in that category. We’re looking at closer to a first round finish than a top 50 finish. Obviously, he’s still going in the late first to early second rounds of drafts next year. Um, maybe he gets pushed down a little bit, but I think if you build this team right, he’s one of the best players in fantasy. You just need to basically punt field goal percentage of turnovers or get a bunch of players to make up for it. One of the two. Those are your options. But this is kind of what it is. Trey Young is the franchise player for the Hawks. His role isn’t going to change. the numbers have like I guess slightly fluctuated yeartoear um with points going down assists going up but neither is going to take a dramatic hit dramatic change next season even with Jaylen Johnson back for the entire year two Zachary Reese’s Shay Dyson Daniels in year two with the Hawks having a Kongu there I think opens things up for Trey so we’ll see we’ll see exactly how this thing looks next year. They do have an off seasonason to make any moves that could change things, which we’ll continue to talk about those options, but Trey Young is not going to change much in the box score. That’s basically the way it’s going to work. But we can talk about Jaylen Johnson now, um, who is an incredibly incredibly valuable player in dynasty leagues. um anywhere from like a borderline top 10 dynasty asset to at least like a top 25, top 30 dynasty asset, depending on how you look at it. Uh this year averaged 18.9 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, 1.6 steals, one block, 1.23, shot 50% from the floor, 74.6% from the line isn’t great. Almost three turnovers isn’t great, but those aren’t terrible marks. He’s the secondary playmaker for this Hawks team behind Trey Young, which I think is a role that he excels in. He’s really good on defense. He’s improved as a shooter. Uh, still probably shoots more threes than I’d like, but I think the threat of him as a floor spacer opens things up for his game, opens things up for his teammates. Dude’s a stud. Um, you can look at his last two seasons, the first two seasons of him being a full-time starter and be slightly discouraged by the lack of games. 56 two years ago and 36 this past season, but it’s not like some other injuryprone players or players that have an injury history is probably a better way of putting it. He doesn’t have Joel Embiid’s knee issues. He doesn’t have LaMelo Bal’s ankle issues. It’s different injuries. He did have ankles, but this past year shoulders one shoulder that made him miss a few games and then the other shoulder that set him out for the season. Like I’m not just worried about his shoulders now. Like I think those are just freak injuries, random injuries that happen. So I’m excited to have him back next year on the floor in fantasy as a Hawks fan. Um I think he could continue to see those numbers go up. I can see him getting to be over 20 points per game as a scorer. I think the rebounds being over 10 per game is another thing that could stick. Um, and yeah, Kungu, one of his deficiencies, which we will talk about, the fact that he’s a little undersized. He’s not a phenomenal rebounder. And I think the reason that Clint Capella was still starting for so long outside of maybe just Trey Young really liking Capella is that he’s a better uh rebounder. That’s the number one reason. And I think he did things better defensively than Anyaka Kongu did more as like a help defender um or as like a switcher on the perimeter. Though Aongu obviously showed plenty of flashes for that. Uh going as far back as the Hawks Eastern Conference Finals run, Akongu was playing really good minutes guarding both Giannis and Embout the postseason. But Capella was still better at certain things. But I think having Jaylen Johnson there as a rebounder helps make up for one of Akongu’s weaknesses. So it’s a it’s a really strong front court here that fits well with Trey Young. And I think that’s going to be the key for a lot of the players we talk about and we’re going to see that is not only is this player really successful and really good, but I guess part of the reason that they were successful in their role this past season is because of how well they fit next to Trey, which is the Hawks whole goal of this. I think it was something that’s like as these moves were happening some of them I was like oh like I get the idea of it or sometimes I didn’t even really fully get the idea of it but it was like okay if this works out maybe in in this way then sure I could this could work and I think Jaylen Johnson opens the door for a lot of that because if we look back at um when the Hawks lost to the Heat in that first round series right after they made the Eastern Conference Finals Trey Young was terrible the Heat applied the pressure and the Hawks just could not rely on Kevin Herder and Bogdon Bogdanovich uh to run the offense. Like they tried but it just didn’t work because even with the Heatounding Trey Young, they’re still a really good defensive team. It just wasn’t enough. So that’s why they went out and made the Dejonte Murray trade. But now Jaylen Johnson kind of being this point forward secondary playmaker, it’s like, “Oh, okay. You guys want to pick up Trey Young and double team it at half court? Cool. We’ll flip it up to Jaylen Johnson. Get have four on three advantage and we’ll get a bucket. keeps teams honest uh without this clunky fit of two point guards playing next to each other which even though the Hawks tried to make it work and I think it did have the potential to work and at times did work in some capacity wasn’t it didn’t end up being the best move and now Dejante Murray’s already gone before any of the pix straightaway even convey so quite interesting how this works but Jaylen Johnson’s going to continue to be a stud and hopefully fully healthy to start next season and he can have better luck next year. I think he had a break he broke out two years ago this past season would have probably one most improved player if he was healthy all year. I really think he would have but it’s okay because his teammate won it. Like how do you how are you not optimistic about the future of this team when you have a player that probably could have won it or at least would have been in contention for it and then another player that actually did win the award and probably had a case to win defensive player of the year. Another player that was a finalist I think finished second in voting for rookie of the year. There’s a lot to like about this team but there’s this idea that because Trey Young is entering his prime that this is this win now team which isn’t necessarily the case. So, it’s kind of a a middle ground thing that they’re trying to figure this out, but there is almost a little bit of a timeline on it with Trey Young’s age. Not saying he’s old, but he’s at the age he’s entering his prime when years. So, but we’ll talk about one of the other guys that I just mentioned is an important part of this core, and that’s our our our king, our sweet prince, the great barrier thief, Dyson Daniels, who averaged 14.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists, three steals. Three steals led by the league by far. A three per game, 49% for the floor. much improved from the first two years of his career. The free throw percentage is bad. It’s a weakness for him. Doesn’t shoot too many. Helps make up for it, but shooting both at the free throw line and from beyond the arc is a weakness for Dyson nails right now. Though he’s had games where it’s it’s gone well or like showcase like flashes, but it’s an area improvement for him. And I think the number one thing that he needs to work on to make this fit next to Trey Young even better because right now he makes up for a lot of the things that Trey Young can’t do or doesn’t do. I think he operated well as a secondary playmaker with Jaylen Johnson hurt. I think just having him as a third playmaking option in the starting lineup works really well. Good rebounder for a guard because he’s a bigger guard. Obviously the defense is incredible. don’t have to worry about Trey Young guarding anybody because Dyson nails will pick up the best offensive player on the other team, especially if it’s a guard and then Trey Young can they can hide him somewhere and then the other length of the other positions helps make up for that as well. Uh, rookie year Dyson Dale shot 41.8% from the floor. Year two, Dyson Daniel shot 44.7% from the floor. Year three, 49%. It wasn’t just I mean we could see the steals coming a mile away. Uh not three per game but kind of seeing him as like okay this guy that can average one and a half to two steals per game average 1.4 and 22.3 minutes per game in his last year with New Orleans. So coming into the season it was like okay Dyson Daniels I assume that he’s going to start at shooting guard but Bognam Bagdanovich is here and they like him as the six-man. Maybe bogey plays north of 30 minutes and D nails is the starter that plays 26 to 28 minutes. That is a thing that happens in the NBA. It definitely could have been a thing here. But Dyson nails was so good that it wasn’t. So had he played 28 minutes per game, I still think he could have been close to two steals. So it was like great, this is a valuable fantasy player. And then he ends up playing more than we expect. He ends up being significantly better on offense than we expect and leads the league in steals by mile. So, it works out incredibly well. Could not have been a better trade for the Hawks. They also added the two first that that was where they got the uh now I’m remembering they got the Lakers first um which will be pick 22 this year in the Dejante trade, excuse me, the Dice Eagles trade and then they got the 2027 least favorable pick between the Bucks and Pelicans in this trade as well. um could end up being two very good players. But what we need to see Dyson nails improve is as a floor spacer because having Jaylen Johnson as a average floor spacer, a Congo as an improving floor spacer, Reese Shay, that’s got to be his game, which we’ll we’ll get to that. There needs to be as much space for Trey Young to operate as possible. Daniels was enough of a threat from three-point range that I think it wasn’t like they like they were able to fully fully just not worry about him forcing shoot threes, but not a great three-point shooter. And the free throws don’t help his case of saying, “Hey, this guy has shooting upside.” So, we really need to see that type of improvement um for this for the sake of this team and to help him improve even more as a fantasy producer, as a player. If he he doesn’t need to be a volume three-point shooter, but if he can hit a decent percentage, let me pull up his basketball monster doesn’t put it right here for me. Uh he shot 34% from three this year, 3.1 attempts. So could we see him get to like do the Hawks even want this? But him get to like five attempts and shooting 37%. Probably get some I’m not going to do that exact math off the top of my head, but like 1.7 1.8 threes per game. Just just some extra space. We need him to improve just to be able to hit some catch and shoot threes. See him doing that and he’s going to be like a borderline all-star talent. He’s also that’s the crazy part. He’s only 22 years old. And there’s so much room for him to still grow. I think that’s like Jaylen Johnson’s 23, Dyson Dale’s 22. Recently just turned 20. Kong was still young, which we’ll get to him in a minute. So, there’s plenty of room for these guys to grow. Dyson Dales might be, I’ll just say, one of the best perimeter defenders in the league. Um, there are some obviously just incredible defenders in the NBA. So, it’s hard to exactly say who’s definitively the best because some of them are better at certain things than other things, you know, maybe better at switching, fighting through screens. Obviously, Dyson Dance, I would say, is the best at forcing turnovers and getting steals and deflections, but there’s still room for him to grow on offense, which is very exciting to me because he did improve on offense. I think the field goal percentage was a big thing. like had he come over to the Hawks and been a elite defender, but still like a struggling offensive player, he doesn’t get the same hype that he did. He doesn’t have the same success that he did. He really made strides on offense and that can’t go under the radar or he probably does go under the radar because of how good he the defense was. Hopefully he’ll continue to improve on that. um bright bright future for for Dyson Daniels, but also having all the defense’s attention beyond Trey Young, beyond Jaylen Johnson makes things easier for him. So, this is a great fit for him for him, excuse me. Having Trey Young and Jaylen Johnson as the two primary playmakers, just having Dyson nails as as a tertiary guy, it works just fine. Maybe we don’t see him average 4.4 four assists per game, assists per game again, but can still be a solid playmaker situationally and see him get some easy looks. He’s a good cutter. Trey Young can find him. Those things work out well. All right, we’re going to continue to talk about this young core. Uh let’s talk about the rookie, the number one overall pick. Can you remember a number one overall pick that had less hype and less of a a following, less media attention than Zachary Reese? I understand this rookie class was had very very low expectations and that’s fine. But I mean Paulo Vancero is one of the guys everybody says, “Oh, he doesn’t get enough attention for number one overall pick.” That’s true because he does tend to go under the radar at times, but I mean, we’re probably looking at Anthony Bennett as the last number one overall pick that really just wasn’t cared about. And I don’t think I need to like I mean, I think I have at this point, but like walk back my comments or my opinions from before the draft where I was like anyone but Reese Shay for the Hawks. Did not want him. didn’t really see it things translating. Didn’t think he was great. Um he had solid stretches and then really bad stretches in his last season uh before being drafted. Um as a rookie, 12.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists, over one and a half threes, uh 24.5 minutes per game. Was really bad in two playin games. Reese was in that role where it was he was a starter for most of the year. I think he came off the bench for the first two games. Yeah, first two games and then was starting for most of the year, but not playing starters minutes. And there were some games where it was like, oh, he’s got it rolling. He’s going to play 30 minutes this game. It’s others it’s like, ah, he’s not really going well, we’ll set him around 25. We’ll defer to especially late in the season. Carvert a little bit more. Terrence man a little bit more. And then there’s some games that were just really didn’t go well. He played 16 minutes. That happened in the loss to the Heat and a couple other times throughout the season. Not too many, but definitely happened, especially earlier on, but the flashes, the idea of what he could be was very clear, basically. And I I think we talked about this when we were talking about this past draft class with the rat a couple weeks ago. The idea is that he can be taller Klay Thompson. And now we’ll just go ahead and address the obvious stipulation that he’s not going to be one of the greatest shooters of all time and an elite defender and a Hall of Fame player. Setting those expectations is unfair. I’m not saying that. But the idea that he is this 3 and D player that hardly dribbles the ball or doesn’t really like that’s not his game and hits a lot of like spaces the floor. He can be that. It’s a Klay Thompson archetype. I think he had or like showed flashes of creation a little bit more than I was expecting from him. Uh some solid passes. He has good footwork in the post. like tries to do that a good bit. Works with his left hand in the post. Sure, showcase it in his rookie year. I think uh it was a good year to do that with Jaylen Johnson sideline. I don’t I didn’t have expectations for the Hawks make a playoff run. Like sure would have been fun to watch, but it was kind of like a hey, like let’s let’s develop. Let’s have Trayon figure things out with these guys. Let’s get these guys some minutes, some experience next year. Try and reload, make this thing work a little bit better. So good year for Risa Shay to work on things, but still he was because the way the team was operating, the team wasn’t operating like that. They were operating as if, hey, we’re going to try and win games. So having Reese in that environment, I think was a good thing for his development. And I think it’ll pay off long term because we’ve talked about this. Some rookies are in a situation where it’s like, yeah, we’re going to play you 30 minutes per game and you’re our future of the franchise. So you have a green light. You can work through your mistakes. We want to see, no, we don’t want to see you turn the ball over and miss shots. We want to see you try things. We want to see you grow. We want to see you develop, figure things out with your teammates. That’s not how it worked for Reese. It was, hey, we’re trying to win games. If you’re not hitting shots and you’re not contributing, you’re going to sit down. If you’re if you got things going, we want to see it. We still care about your development, but we got to win games. Happened in the playing tournament. Lost the Heat. He played 16 minutes, shot one for 11. I mean, if you take 11 shots in 16 minutes and miss 10 of them, yeah, okay, you’re probably going to sit down. That makes sense. But I think when the thing when things went well, it looked really good. He had a couple games worth 30 plus points. He had 38 point game um just before the end of the regular season against the Nets, 36-point game in March against the Bucks. Uh scrolling through here, 30-point game against the Cavs in January. What’s the one I’m looking for? Here it is. Um, early season November against New York. 33 points, seven rebounds, three assists, three steals, two blocks, six threes, I don’t expect that type of production from him consistently or anywhere close to that. But I think the idea that he can be a very good defender and he’s tall enough and long enough to force some turnovers, get some defensive stats, that’s great. occasionally get a couple assists. Not gonna be great in that category. Hopefully improve as a rebounder, just get stronger. Um, but again, he’s 20 years old. So, he has time to get stronger. Um, and then the main thing obviously is the floor spacing. So, if you have Trey Young at point guard, you have an elite defender, pretty good with the ball in his hands, proving on offense, Dyson Dales, you have this really, really good floor spacer. Reese J who can also play defense and is a long defender. You have Jaylen Johnson who does a little bit of everything and is an all-star talent. And then you have Oneka Konga at the five who we’re going to pull up on the screen right now for those watching as opposed to listening. Um as a center that can space the floor and play really good defense and have stretches of decent rebounding. not a great rebounder, but have his uh let’s see, when Aongu took over as a starter in January, he averaged 15 points, 10.1 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.2 steals, 0.9 blocks, and 0.9 threes. I think those are fantastic stats. I I don’t see how you let a Kongu get past the fifth round and you’re in a red draft league next year. And that might be I might even take him earlier. We’ll see um how the board shakes out, but my goodness. Um yes, he is a little undersized at center. it probably makes sense to have like a true sevenfooter as a backup for certain matchups or for, you know, so when you’re going against a guy like a Jokic, if things aren’t going well for a Congo, you can have a bigger body to try to guard Joic because there there just simply like might not be some good matchups for him as an undersized center. But I think if he just he can just still improve like he’s 24. I think from what I like the the the player comp here that the idea of what a kangu could be was like a bam bio don’t think that he’s going to reach that level at this point but even Bam has tough matchups but he’s one of the best defenders in the league. So if Akongu can be this versatile defender that can space the floor a little bit, I think that works out great for both fantasy for the Hawks. So I think if we can see him improve as a rebounder and get stronger this summer, that increases his upside here. Maybe even fourth round guy next year in reddraft leagues, but very valuable in Dynasty. Turned 25 in December. still very young on this incredibly team-friendly contract. Like think about the numbers that I just said, which was 15 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, over a steal, almost a block, and almost a three per game at $15 million a year. About six 16 the next after not this season, two years after that. Team friendly is the way that contract is. He’ll get a much bigger contract if he continues to produce at this level after that. Let’s uh so that’s the starting five. You have these these veterans um George Niang, Terrence Man, a couple of the guys that we like Carrie Levert if he returns. Um for the sake of this episode already being in almost an hour, we’ll just mention a couple of these other guys. Um the three that I think that are really worth mentioning beat [Music] Cr very very small contract uh but played really well this past year much like Jaylen Johnson who spent the first year of his career playing in the G-League who we can just go back to Jaylen Johnson just briefly was predicted to be a top five pick had the weird situation at Duke where he left the team and fell down to the Hawks at 20. So, he’s a top five talent or borderline top five talent with character concerns. Hasn’t been an issue at all. Spent his year first year in the G-League. Had no, there was no quotes coming out of there saying Jaylen Johnson’s pissed to be first round pick playing in the G-League. No, he played center in the G-League at times. Like that was kind of his role for the Hawks in the G-League, playing center. And now he’s obviously not doing that, but he’s averaging 10 rebounds per game. Maybe something help with there. Something help with that. beat Crerachche has improved as a shooter and spent a lot of time in the G- League. The Hawks have utilized the G-League a lot better than most other teams have. So there there are definitely teams that also use it, but the Hawks have a number of examples. Uh Muhammad Gay is also for former second round pick for the Hawks or I guess is a for not also but is uh who kind of was like the starting power forward in place of Jaylen Johnson down the stretch but was also in that role where sometimes he was only playing like 15 minutes per game but when he played a lot he was able to kind of contribute statistically across the board. don’t really see what his role is going to be or he could still play like a minor reserve role next year, but they may opt for more of a veteran presence as opposed to another young player consistently in the rotation with Jaylen Johnson healthy, but he has upside. I still like him as an upside piece. And then the main one is Kobe Buffkin, who the Hawks drafted in the first round two years ago, spent most of his rookie year in the G-League, and then injured his shoulder, which my goodness, these shoulder injuries, uh, early in the year, this past season. Missed most of the year. So, I still have faith in Kobe Buffkin. Was not very good as a freshman at Michigan, but improved a lot. was very good as a sophomore, which is why he went in the first round. Um, I believe that pick 15. So, the the main thing about him that everybody has said, all the reports have said that he is a hard worker. Like he’s like never I forgot which Kosa was, but said that they had never had a harder worker at Michigan uh than Kobe Buffkin. So, I still have faith that he’s could be like a a really solid backup point guard for Trey Young, which is has been an issue his entire time with the Hawks. I mean they they tried everyone when they made the uh conference finals. Lou Will was the backup and I think he he did pretty well but like they went they had Rajan Rondo at times. They had Jeff Teague at times. Um they even that’s why they brought in Deontay Murray partially. So when Trey Young was on the floor they had a ball handler. Um this past year Katon Wallace spent time in that role. I’m probably even missing I mean I know I’m missing a bunch of Jeremy Lynn I think spent time as like the amount of players that have spent time playing backup point guard for Trey Young. The list is insane. Um Ken Koe Buff can be the guy that is an okay scorer but really is there to play defense and facilitate when Trey Young isn’t on the floor. Can he fill that role? I still believe he can. Hopefully, we’ll see, but hopefully we’ll see it this next season, but the time is kind of running short, kind of running out for him. So, we need to see a big year from him, which it’s unfair to say to a player who has played 27 games, but now we have a new regime in here. We have a new new GM. They he didn’t draft Kobe Buffin. That’s not his guy. So, he either has to prove it or he’s probably going to be gone. And we’ll see. Maybe the Hawks draft a different point guard in the first round different to be kind of TR’s backup and then that makes it even more difficult for Kobe Buffkin. So, we’ll see how the uh how the draft plays out for for him, but I think he’s still worth stashing and definitely has some upside. It has gone over an hour. It’s the longest episode. My goal coming in making this podcast was to make shorter episodes. And look at me. I can’t keep my mouth shut. Um but that’s going to do it for this episode. We will be back tomorrow. Um, I guess here’s my fun announcement. If you made it through this hourong episode, then you will get the fun announcement that tomorrow we will be doing a post lottery mockdraft. We will be having Matt Lawson back on and we will be doing just a uh immediate reaction mockdraft and probably talking about players that we don’t draft that we also like. uh how the fantasy impact will work. We’ll we’ll dive into it all hopefully be a shorter episode than this. Uh but also the I guess the more of the announcement thing is that Matt’s going to be on the plan is every Tuesday. So Matt Lawson Tuesdays will be a thing and we will discuss all things Dynasty. Um and we will do that hopefully just moving forward. So maybe even into the regular season we get to that point and Tuesdays you can hear from me and Matt right here um weekly giving our updated Dynasty thoughts. So that’s the plan um moving forward. So make sure I mean you I would appreciate if you tune in every week or every episode goodness not every week every day basically uh to like subscribe comment share your thoughts ask questions but especially on Tuesdays uh you can bring Matt bring your support for Matt would be huge. I’m sure he would love it and we really appreciate um him hopping on here and bringing his mind because it’s it’s the best in the game. So, be on the lookout for that. That’s going to be a fun one. Uh but that’s going to do it for this episode of the Young Man Squad Fantasy Basketball Podcast and I will see you guys tomorrow.

Though they lost in the play-in tournament again, there is plenty to be excited about in Atlanta. Of course, Noah spent plenty of time highlighting Dyson Daniels.

Plus, a few minutes previewing Monday night’s draft lottery! Who will land the top pick? How will it impact the rest of the league? Come hear what Noah has to say!

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