Pieces in Place: Hawks Build Around Trae the Right Way

Pieces in Place: Hawks Build Around Trae the Right Way

We get a chance now to talk about the Hawks without a lot of problems. We do. But some people still don’t believe no mistakes were made. You get Nikil Alexander Walker to come in here. You get Luke Canard off the bench. You get Kyle Porzingis as your starting center. So for this year, you have a bonafide team with veterans, proven players, and not a whole lot of ooh ooh, we know these guys can do it. We just haven’t seen it. No, we have guys now that have demonstrated what they are and what they can be for other teams in the NBA and now getting a chance to talk about the Hawks from the start, getting a chance to prove that Trey Young can take this team a long way if he has some people around him. Well, now he’s got some people and some player accomplishments around him.
Yeah. And it’s great to see you’ve built a team differently than you had in the past. You know, in the past, I’m not sure what the plan was. As a matter of fact, I don’t think they had a plan. Nine times out of 10, they tried to go out and get a all-star backcourt mate to go run with Trey Young. Him and DeJonte Murray never fit. It was my ball, your ball a lot of the times there. Now, you think about the guys that are around Trey Young. You bring in Luke Canard. You know what he is? He’s a spot-up, standstill shooter. Doesn’t need the ball in his hand.
Bonafide.
Uh Nquille Alexander Walker, you know what he is? He is a defender who doesn’t need the ball in his hand. You know, you you think about Tyson Daniels last year. He wasn’t looking for the ball in his hand. Jaylen Johnson can do a little bit of everything. You’ve rewarded him with a big contract. You’ve got a Congu there again. Doesn’t need the ball in his hand. Pick and roll. Rim runner can pop out now and shoot the three. Everything is set up around Trey Young. Maybe Zachary Rishes will need the ball in his hand eventually as he gets older in this league. But everything now is set up around Trey where you have ancillary pieces that kind of know their role. You’ve got a guy in Chris Porzingis who can be a 20 point a game scorer. This team is put together in a way that I haven’t seen a Hawks team put together in a long, long time.
Do we believe or will there be some negativity and criticism folks already on record saying they don’t believe? Here’s one of your boys and I respect the guy cuz he was a tough player. Everybody needs a player like this. I don’t like these comments. UD Udonis Hasslam on ESPN talking about the moves that the Hawks have made but now bringing Trey Young into the fold and saying it still might not be enough. And I love it too because you lost DeAndre Hunter. So you bring in another guy who can guard perimeter, who can do the dirty work on on the defensive end. You bring in Porzingis, you have the number one assist guy in the league. Lord knows he’s going to get him the ball and make sure he gets shots. But is he the guy that’s going to lead your team? You’ve had other guys coming. You had the the DeJonte Murray. You’ve brought in other guys to help Trey Young get to that to that level that we and that he thinks he can get to. It hasn’t happened. So you can put the pieces around, but do you have the right ingredients? I mean, you you have the right ingredients, but can you bake the cake? And I think that’s what we’re looking at right now. Can Trey Young lead these guys?
Now, I want cake.
Thank you, Udon. But no, he’s he’s not wrong. So, what we’ve seen out of Trey Young, he puts up unbelievable numbers.
He had one really good playoff run where if he doesn’t step on an official’s foot, the Hawks probably go to the NBA finals that year cuz I think they beat Milwaukee. And Lord knows they could have won the championship that year. But since that point, there has been something a miss. I mean, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. We’ve talked about for a year and a half. Do you get rid of Trey Young because it wasn’t working? So, this is one last opportunity of putting pieces around Trey Young where it becomes, hey, can Trey Young at 27 years old, eight years into his NBA career, finally be a guy that puts a team on his back where he doesn’t have to play great defense because he’s got defensive pieces around him. He doesn’t have to score all the points because you have different guys that can score. Can he be the number one guy to lead this team deep into a post? When have you ever had a team that was built from the jump to be a good team? You went to the Eastern Conference Finals that year, but that was a surprise. That was a bunch of young guys. You got hot. You were playing well. You had momentum. You won some games on the road. There was juice. You were not built at the time to be one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. Now,
well, the problem the problem with that home team, you didn’t build off of that.
No, you didn’t.
It wasn’t just a young team. Lou Williams was on that team. Danilo Gallalinari was on that team. So, you had some veteran pieces, but you didn’t take that Eastern Conference Finals run and grow with it. You You’ve been worse. You’ve been horrible since then. All of those things point away from Trey Young. He doesn’t build a roster. He doesn’t decide to give three first round picks away to get Deontay Murray. He’s not the one that doesn’t have any allstars playing. Now, he’s got himself a bonafide center and a guy who’s an offensive and defensive piece with Chris Taps Porzingis. Now he’s got a guy in the kill Alexander Walker who is a two-way player and can shoot the three and play some defense. Now he’s got a guy coming off the bench like Vit Cree in Luke Canard who can come and be ready when he comes in to give him the ball to knock down the three. He has the most veteran latent team that he’s had and it’s taken eight years for him to get that those and you throw in the fact it’s taken him three GMs to get that. That’s not on Trey Young.
No, it’s not. But you know what is on Trey Young pulling up for a 30-footer with two minutes to go with a game on the line.
You’re on to something.
Yeah, that’s the part that I think Udonis Hasslam is questioning is can Trey Young refine his game even a little bit more? And and I love Trey. I love the way he passes the ball. I love the way he’s fearless. His three-point percentage is not great. He needs to take better shots. And in the fourth quarter, he has to be the guy that’s going to make the biggest shots. I’m sorry. The ball is going to be in his hands over anybody else. So, if he drives and kicks and it’s open for somebody, great. But there’s also going to be times that Trey’s got to make the right shot.
Well, Walker Alexander is a guy who can he can be ready to go now. Now, you don’t have to have 15 passes to have guys who are shot makers. Walker Alexander can make a shot. Luke Canard can make a shot. Um, you know, Chris Porzingis can make a shot. You have guys who can make a shot. It’s not a one-two dance with Deontay Murray and Trey Young while a bunch of other guys standing around. And then when you had, you know, guys who were supposed to be here, they couldn’t make shots when they were supposed to. Here’s Tim Leggler, he likes the Hawks moves, but like Udanis Hasslam, he’s questioning Trey Young. They’re not idle. And I do like these moves. And you look at their approach seems to be continue to improve their defenses. Now you put a guy like Nquille Alexander Walker out there with the Dyson Daniels. I mean, you’re talking about two lock down corners on the floor at the same time. You also had a Porzingis who could protect the rim. Health’s always going to be a factor with Chris Tapsing. You’ve got Jaylen Johnson there who who’s going to be the future eventually. So, the Atlanta Hawks, yes, absolutely. They’ve been very busy, very active rounding out their team. I I like that the moves that they have made.
I at the end of the day though, it’s going to come down to the same question you and I were talking about earlier.
Is Trey Young the guy that’s going to lead you to the problem? That’s what you have to buy into.
Now, in fairness, your superstar always has that moniker and those questions attached to him. Can you take them all away? We saw Giannis do it. We saw Jamal Murray and the Joker do it. Uh we just saw Shay Gilis Alexander do it, but I don’t know if they were questioned like Trey has. Now Trey has been questioned because of all of the things that go into maybe his attitude, his shot selection, uh the fact that whatever it is, his his peers around the NBA just don’t want to put him in the All-Star game. That being said, those were things when he was a younger guy. Now that he’s in his mid20s, he’s a little more mature. And now on paper, it looks like he has the best team he’s ever had. I think you can still question whether or not he can do it, but now at least he has a a chance to be criticized with some players around him, right? Uh the chance to be criticized is it’s well warranted though with Trey Young. Again, I keep talking about there was no market for him. We’ve talked about trading him and everybody said there was no market to trade for him. You know why? Because other people in the NBA don’t value. And it’s crazy to think a guy that’s 25 and 11 that they don’t value him. But there’s something about him that people don’t like in this league. It’s time for him to prove people wrong. This is this is a team put together in a dead Eastern Conference. A dead Eastern Conference. I know uh Cleveland made the move to go get Lonzo Ball, so they’re going to be a little bit better in the back court. You lose Isaac Aoro. Big deal. The Bucks, who knows what they’re going to do, what they’re going to do. There’s already rumblings about Giannis could be on the move. The Pistons lost Malik Beasley. We we’ve well chronicled what happened obviously with the Pacers and with the Celtics. The Celtics are a shell of themselves, a shell of themselves. The only thing Trey Young has to prove now is can you take this team, top four seed in the Eastern Conference, and actually win a couple of playoff series. We have seen the Toronto Raptors. We have seen the Denver Nuggets. We have seen the Milwaukee Bucks. We have seen the Oklahoma City Thunder win titles. It now feels like you don’t have to be one of the blueb bloodoods. You don’t have to be the Lakers. You don’t have to be Boston. You don’t have to be Chicago. You don’t have to be the Mavericks in order or the Golden State Warriors now, one of the new blue bloodoods to win a title. And this just feels good. It’s almost I’m in shock that nothing bad has happened over the last few days. We heard a name and then you didn’t get him. It looks like Oni So has gotten everybody he wanted to get and he has a plan and he’s executing it.
Yeah. The the interesting part about all of this is the only one to me that kind of well two came out of left field. Chris Porzingis that trade completely out of left field. Never saw that come and Luke Canard yesterday. I hadn’t really heard his name. Nquille Alexander Walker the Hawks had been tied to him seemingly for about a week. That was kind of a name that was thrown around. But Anie Cleet has done a fantastic job of making people give a damn about the Atlanta Hawks

The Locker Room, hosted by “Hometeam” Brandon Leak, John Michaels, and former Atlanta Falcon Brian Finneran, discusses the renewed optimism surrounding the Atlanta Hawks following an active and promising offseason under new General Manager Onsi Saleh. The hosts highlight the strategic acquisitions of Kristaps Porzingis, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Luke Kennard, and rookie Asa Newell, emphasizing how this revamped supporting cast is better suited to complement star guard Trae Young. The conversation focuses on how these moves could mark a turning point for the franchise, contrasting the current roster construction with past shortcomings.

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