It depends. They could end up with Trae and either Zion/Morant/Barrett/Reddish/Hachimura, plus another top 10-15 player. Now they have their PG, SG, and SF for the future. Go after some big name FA and pick up a couple of seasoned vet minimums and they could be set. Some roster options, PG - Trae Young, Patrick Beverley, Emmanuel Mudiay, SG - RJ Barret, Jimmy Butler, Danny Green, Terrance Ross, SF - Rui Hachimura, Khris Middleton, Bojan Bogdanovic, Harrison Barnes, Rudy Gay, Trevor Ariza, PF - Tobias Harris, Julius Randle, Nikola Mirotic, Al-Farouq Aminu, C - Nikola Vucevic, Marc Gasol, Deandre Jordan, They can't get all those guys obviously but I could see any several of those combinations being very realistic. Would be top 4 in the East after Kawhi bolts and Sixers roster get real thin imo. They are in a nice spot if they don't blow it.
LOL they already blew it by picking Trae Young. Its pretty obvious this is just damage cobtrol from the Hawks the reality is their GM came from GSW and he thought Young was gonna be his own Steph Curry. Maybe he really would have picked Luka at the 3 but he clearly wasn't that high on him teams in the NBA don't trade down unless they believe a player is being undervalued/overhyped like how Boston traded down because they knew Tatum was still gonna go to them.
Ughh...who remembers when people called the Hawks The Clippers of the East? Too many shitstain EC teams vying for the Clippers mantle...
You can't rationally say that until you see what they pick up this year. They could have a top 3 and a top 10 pick and it's expected the top 3 pick will be a future NBA all star. Also Doncic appears to be a future great one but it's only have a season so far. All the amazing rookies last year took a big step back and nothing is guaranteed. Personally I'm not ready to say that Trae Young will be a worse player than Doncic, way too early. IMO, they will both become all stars which makes it a win for ATL if they hit their upcoming picks.
Their top 3 pick now has no bearing to missing Luka Doncic the Hawks were gonna be bad regardless who they picked. If your projection on Trae Young is a future All star then wow you definitely have him highly rated. If Young wasn't a top 3 pick then IMHO he wouldn't even be on a roster right now he would have been cut. You can't justify a non-athletic PG shooting 40% and only 31% from 3 getting so many shots and minutes as he is. You are right though nothing is guaranteed, maybe Young becomes the GOAT. I guess we will see but my money is on Luka always being better than Young from now till they retire.
Trae and Stephs first 30 games are similar despite usage rate and Trae gets to the line at a clip of 4 ft/gm as a rookie which is much better then Steph. He will be more than fine and be an all star. And so will Luka which is my point. Need that other pick to drop and develop before we know.
By similar do you mean Steph Curry shooting 46% FG and 44% from 3 in his rookie year? That's 6% less FG and 13% less 3 pt how the hell is that similar and an indication of Young's all star potential?
FWIW, I don't see a drop off at all for Luca...not like this is his first year of pro ball. I do wonder, for much the same reason, how much better he might get. Especially with KP next year, I could see his stats drop off some even if he, and the team, are playing better.
I thought the same for Mitchell but he dropped off as did Tatum. Simmons basically stayed flat. Lonzo is looking like a bust now. Meanwhile guys like De'Aaron Fox and Jarrett Allen have made huge leaps after a pedestrian rookie season. Fox has his team fighting for Western playoffs right now.
All good examples, and you never know til it happens...but the big questions around Luca was whether or not his skills translated to the NBA, and whether he was athletic enough. Both of those questions seem to have been pretty clearly answered (and his athleticism is actually comparable to Harden's...he's good at deceleration and lgreat at ateral change in direction---ie, he's not only athletic enough...he's a lot more athletic than given credit for). Simmons and Ball had very big flaws in their game...they couldn't shoot. Which made it a lot easier for teams to take away their other aspects. Luca doesn't really seem to have an Achilles heel like that.
Mitchell and the Jazz played the most difficult schedule to start off the season. Tatum's dropoff is easily explained by the fact that they have Kyrie and Hayward to account for now. There's always going to be a possibility for a sophomore slump the way both of their rookie season's exploded. It's too early to write these players off when they showed so much potential last year. Basically, I don't think they are the Tyreke Evans of the world. I'm not a huge fan of Simmons because there's really nothing he can improve upon other than his shooting and it just seemds he dgaf about that at all. So his ceiling is going to be limited.
Exactly. That was my point to @roslolian who was writing off Trae and the Hawks while anointing Luka and the Mavs. Way to early for all of these guys and I happen to think that they are all really good players. Regarding sophomore slumps, I think they are real because too many amazing rookies have hit them for it not to be. That said, we'll see with Luka. The one thing that kid has is the "IT" factor and "CLUTCH" gene. His heroics are uncanny and that to me is the biggest indicator that the Mavs got a really good one. You can't teach that.
Another fine performance by Luka, spoiled by 9 turnovers. He was double teamed out of pick and roll a lot and racked a few when hunting for that 10th assist to complete a triple double. Very Harden-like game. Step-back threes, crafty finishes, lots of fouls drawn, amazing lobs and great passes to open 3pt shooters. Oh, and turnovers of course Another situation that's similar to Rockets' of two seasons ago: Whenever Doncic sits, the offense gets stagnant.
