Atlanta Hawks: 60 games down, 22 to go with Glen Willis (Part 1)

Atlanta Hawks: 60 games down, 22 to go with Glen Willis (Part 1)

On today’s show the Hawks have played 60 games this season and it’s not gone super well but there’s plenty to discuss in Hawks land and I’m joined once again by my friend Glenn Willis of ATL and 29 Fame for part one of a two-part episode and part one is coming to you right

Now you are locked on Hawks your daily Atlanta Hawks podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day Hello friends welcome to episode 1666 of Lo on Hawks podcast I your host Brad Roland coming to you on a Sunday evening into Monday here in early March and Today’s Show is brought to you by Folks at FanDuel Sportsbook and right now if you’re a new customer with FanDuel get

150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet at FanDuel and the place to go is fanduel.com lockon to get started also I should tell you the top of the podcast make I you’re first listen each and every day on L house podcast find us at Apple podcast and Spotify as well as

YouTube and anywhere you get your podcast I’m joined on today’s episode for by my friend Glenn Willis of atl1 29 for part one of two part two should be available in your feed of choice right now we get into all things Hawks for about an hour and five minutes total I

Mean hour 10 minutes total across two episodes uh you know from the we I’ve been playing recently without Trey young to challenges in the future challenges in the present the rest of the season Kobe buffkin the young guys the pH opies all that stuff is going to be in these

Two conversations and certainly worth listening to part one right now and also part two after listen to this podcast thanks for listening to the show as always subscribe to the podcast and uh here we go myself and Glenn Willis and part one I am joined once again by my friend

Glenn Willis of ATL and 29 Fame Glenn welcome back to the podcast and for those listening this is actually fallar this this is actually Glenn and I record for the second time behind the curtain we go Glenn how are you technology doesn’t always cooperate yeah I’m good I

You know as as we were kind of talking beforehand it’s been a while since we’ve done this um and it feels like to me like when I think back it feels like it’s been five different little kind of mini Hawk Seasons with different situations they you know they’re missing

A certain player for a while before Hunter came back and then you know jayen miss you know and so it just feels like it’s kind of been different iterations of the season along the way um even though results have kind of been the same you know along the way but yeah no

I’m good it’s it’s good to have the chance to kind of kind of catch up with you on on all things Hawks appreciate you having me no it’s it’s my pleasure uh it’s been a while since I’ve had you on which is certainly my fault it’s not it’s not L’s

Turning me down I I listen to at29 every episode you are frequent with Kevin in season and I’m enjoying that and don’t want to put too much on your plate I know you also have other things going on but it was a good time to kind of catch

Up a little bit after the Hawks played the afternoon game on Saturday kind of Bridging the Gap between you know they’re not traveling which is weird in itself I was talking to people behind the scenes with the Hawks and like no one can find situation where they’ve

Ever been in the same city for six whole days of than at home during the season it’s like they’re actually in New York longer right now than they are during a playoff series CU it’s usually you know 22111 you’re not really in that City for more than maybe three or four days and

They’re in New York for six days right now anyway so it’s a little bit strange they’ve also played 60 games exactly right now which is a nice odd number sorry nice even number um and like you said it’s been a lot of different es and flows they they had a four game winning

Streak about a month ago got everybody excited then you know the injuries that you referenced goes down they lose you know they lose the two games badly before the All-Star break that frustrated everybody on y’s out two they have a little blip where they win the first two games without Trey and then

The last two games were not great in Brooklyn so uh it has been a season for sure Glenn it’s been a basketball season it’s kind of the way that I would describe things not a lot of uh Solace to be taken but you know especially when

You’re on but always on this podcast we talk we try to get into the weeds a little bit uh give you the the nuance and all of that so I’ll just ask this like what do you where’s your head at with this team right now because

Certainly um it is kind of a lot of false starts and clearly the number one story right now is how they’re operating without Trey and even Ona who we should at least talk about because I think it’s a lot of it’s like Trey is out which obviously is a huge deal but they’re

Also missing arguably their best center as well at the moment so um what’s on your mind right now how are you feeling about this team yeah I mean this this season has been frustrating for Hawks fans for sure uh I know I expected them to do better I think I predicted them to

Finish fifth in the East safe to say that’s not going to happen um and and there’s a way to talk about what’s going on big picture there’s a way to talk about what’s going on you know immediately big picture they’re trying to take this thing in a different

Direction with the same roster they had last year basically minus JC um for the most part and uh and and that takes time right and I thought they would look more like they looked in that you know playing game against Miami um that you know having some competitive

Um portions of that Boston series and that’s not really they haven’t sustained any you know play you know for more than a week a week and a half I think maybe two or three times we’ve seen where they’ve kind of been maybe at that level and otherwise it’s just been really up

And down and that stretch in December absolutely killed them when they were you know you basically just like playing basically the worst basketball in the league for about two and a half weeks it felt like you know yeah close to it uh I mean I know I know Washington and and

Charlotte and and maybe I shouldn’t mention Charlotte because the you know dogs can’t beat them it seems like but um you know but for that stretch of play it was about as bad as you as I think you’ve seen seen the season and there been other times where they kind of put

A lot together and look competitive it feels like it was three years ago I remember the first month of the Season feeling like okay even when they’re down 15 points they’re sticking to process they’re fighting hard they’re you know competing and and it really I mean I

Don’t want us to here make excuses for them that’s not what I’m doing but you know the NBA season is a grind and when you’re not getting positive results it’s it’ss harder to kind of stay in that mode uh and such and then the other adversity that’s kind of come along and

So you know big picture I still feel like I understand what they’re trying to do I understand the direction that they’re trying to go I understand that the roster is not constructed perfectly for kind of where they want to go but here you know here more recently you

Know the two wins I know you know it’s you know people out there who are hash better without Trey you know enjoyed those two games that doesn’t quite make sense to me we’ve all talked about it the the guard play of the opposing teams especially offensively was terrible made the

Defensive task for the Hawks easier these last two games they went up against a team that can throw a lot of length at you and that is one of the uh matchup kind of scenarios that’s the worst you know for the Hawks is they just don’t even without Trey right they

Don’t have as much size to when they go up against a team that can you know put switchable defensive lineups on the floor and and all that stuff so even though Trey is out it still feels like game to game match up to matchup is a

Lot of the same variables are in play uh Trey can overcome some things um that the team without him can’t but it still feels like the variables that are most impactful to their opportunity to win a game are still kind of the same to me yeah I think we’re on the same page

There and I was just looking at this actually prepping for this conversation and I wasn’t looking for this exact thing but I realized the last 24 games so almost half the season so far the Hawks have not won and won and lost back-to-back games they’ve had these

Pockets of two or three game winning streaks followed by two three two or three game losing streaks I mean literally I won’t do the entire thing for you back to mid January it’s two losses three wins four losses four wins two losses two wins three losses two wins and then two losses that’s

Literally what it’s SP for 24 games it’s almost hard to do that like it’s it’s like it’s like they’re designing a lab right now to make everybody infuriated but um no it’s it’s right and uh we won’t do the whole thing on uh you know the offense without trade on that’s

Obviously the number one storyline in some ways but um we’ll dig into that a little bit and just talk about like what they can be because like we’ll probably say for the end of this conversation but they are still in the playing race they’re still right now the 10 seed

They’re still I don’t know if they’re favored anymore after these two games um all the projection systems still are not really factoring in that Trey is not there in either Ona so we’ll see but um they’re still in the mix and I know there’s a segment of the fan base that

Doesn’t want to hear that at all they rather just talk about you know Ron Holland or something at this point or but there’s ex exactly but there’s the other side there’s other side of things where it’s like hey the Hawks can make the postseason Trey come back and

They’re you know then they’re a threat again so we’ll kind of uh talk about both both those things along the way today sh was brought brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook and get Buckets right now with your first bet at FanDuel America’s number one Sportsbook because

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The NBA college basketball NFL college football golf MLB tennis soccer auto racing horse racing boxing MMA and much more they also have all kinds of angles on the Hawks that includes the Full Slate up game offerings when they when the Hawks are in action plus future bets

Player props and more and now it’s an awesome time sign up with the folks at FanDuel Sportsbook and the place to go is fanduel.com lockon one more time that’s fanduel.com lockon and shoot your shot with FanDuel official Sports partner of the NBA yeah it’s funny because people ask me I

Understand yeah like what do you think about this draft prospect I’m like I don’t I don’t do draft prospects until April like I literally zero minutes zero seconds I I do more than that but I’m not caught up yet I have to say I mean so we’re recording this on on Sunday

Evening the Hawks the G sorry the Skyhawks College Park played the g- league night team today and they have two potential first picks that were playing for them and I was kind of like hey PSA to Hawks fans why these two guys um but even then like they’re kind of

The only prospects in the G league so it’s an interesting thing there um and you know it’s you’re watching as much for AJ Griffin as you are for the g- league Prospect so I know somebody will tweet at me asking me I’m like someone could just like make up a prospect name

And that that that’s what I would not know that’s where I am like I I any time on it especially this year like you know I know I know that you don’t because we talked about this before but I would bet you in the past you would have probably

Heard of Morgan guys than you have in this cycle because this cycle is uh pretty famously not the best at the top um and we’ll we’ll save that conversation for later but um we will do a little bit at the top here about like the offense in particular without Trey

So let’s get this out of the way now I’ve been sharing the stats and getting some push back for sharing the stats I’m not trying to pick on it it’s just that the Hawks have clearly not been the same offense without Trey that should be pretty obvious it’s not like a

Controversial stance you take their best player off the team especially on offense and they’re going to get worse and yeah defense got better in the first two games um in theory and this is someone who I I think Trey’s very good the defense probably should be better if

You took Trey off the roster and you playing bigger and you’re playing Kobe buffkin and DJ and DJ’s playing point guard you should be better defensively but you know all that said what have you seen like we’ll put all the narrative stuff to the side how have they changed

How have they operated we kind of know the broad Strokes like obviously Murray is now the high usage guy Etc but what have you sort of taken away from the offense in the stretch again I’ll just say this one one time they’re also playing without a Kong Wu and a Kong Wu

Is their best offensive Center so that is part of this too even if Trey is the bigger part of it I think it get sort of sort of BR uh cast aside sometimes that they’re also missing one of their top six guys in addition to Trey yeah the

KGO absence is significant too it’s it is easy to forget about when tre’s missing because Trey has that much presence you know on the team uh so that’s all that’s understandable for me as they came back from the break it looks like and staff expected to see more

Switching and then and and so they have they’re they’re running much more intentional stuff around switching like I thought the best part of the second game versus Brooklyn was the first quarter when dejonte was playing through his teammates as as Brooklyn would switch but you think about what it takes

To kind of you know be a switch right so like sadik has done pretty good work you know kind of he has to be on the Baseline side to attack a smaller Defender and but he still I don’t know if I looked it up I’d guess he’s in like

I don’t know the 55th percenti on I so like statistically speaking Yeah Deonte is like I don’t know like 95th percentile but if we broke that out between when he’s facing a switch a bigger defender on him after a switch versus not it’s it’s different uh it’s

Different with Trey on and off all that sort of stuff and even jayen I think Jaylen is I don’t know somewhere in the 60th percentile range and so when I think about kind of what it’s going to require offensively for this team to be able to not just kind of attack drop you

Know um or you know deal with Hedges you know blitzes you know whatever kind of form of aggressive pick and roll defense this team has got to be able to handle switching and you saw with Brooklyn big lineups of big wings a bunch of wing siiz big Wing sized guys in those

Lineups and the Hawks just had trouble you know kind of doing much you know with with with those Hotes and Hunter is you know one of their it’s kind of funny because Hunter is is likes to function in ISO versus a smaller Defender but he’s still not like one of the top he’s

He’s not ever going to be I think like you know 75th percentile or better statistically speaking even even though his game is well suited for that sadik is kind of forced into that role and he’s physical with smaller Defenders and those sorts of things but what the thing

That it screams out to me is like jaylen’s got to develop the the ability to do that right Jaylen has to be the one I love him in the short role when they’re running middle pick and roll all that sort of stuff but there’s two things you go look at jaylen’s Stats and

Transition they’re not as strong as You’ expect them to be right and I think a lot of that is we see a lot of the times he’s not as aggressive like there’s a smaller defender in between him and the rim just go attack the front of the rim

And that instinct is not there yet right so to me so much of the path of the Hawks having the counters to the things that they are going to run into against bigger defenses better defenses is in that switching and a lot of that is dependent upon Jaylen continuing to grow

Areas of his game where he’s a I think average right now results wise but his tools suggest he can do so much more and I know we’re going to talk later on about kind of the rest of the season I think that has to be developmentally a

Priority the rest of this year is to let Jaylen play in isolation and let give Jaylen a lot of coaching around being more aggressive in in the open court because that that’s really where a lot of the offense has to come as as much as I admire sadik’s willingness to step

Into a role that’s not perfect for him offensively and do that and with what Hunter can do in that space I Jaylen has to be the one that develops the ability to excel in that phase and he’s got he’s got a ways to go there yeah I was going

To ask you this at some point too so we could just get into it now a little bit you know these these two games in Brooklyn where you are you’re right I mean I was probably guilty of making it too simple about how the Nets are not a

Great defense because they’re not but they do they are kind of Well Suited um personnel-wise to stopping this Hawks this current Hawks team because they can switch they could play a bunch of big bunch of wings together they’re not like the only their only small they really

Play is Dennis shudder who’s a pretty pesky Defender he’s not like incredible but he’s a he’ll get he’ll get into you he’s willing to do that and they have size every everywhere else but Jaylen had two games that were not awful but he was not a huge factor in either one of

Them and I think that you know it’s too reductive to be like okay he has to play great every game without Trey but it is true that like he becomes the clear second option in the way they run their offense when when tre’s not there Deon

Is still going to be the one carrying the most usage that’s just gonna happen um but to your point jaylen’s got to be part of that and um something I’ve been saying broadly even since Trey went down is like look I’m not saying they have to tank they’re not going to tank

Organizationally I can tell you that right now they have not done that I think everybody can see watching these last these last four games they’re trying to win still um but I think and it fits well with what you just said that the big picture priority should be future facing and

They may not think that what you just said they may not think that kind of not necessarily Force feeding but making sure that Jaylen has these opportunities they may not believe is the best possible way to win the game that night that’s that’s there’s two it’s two

Different kind of things there but if you’re the staff I I think it would be smart to do what you said and kind of make it put your guys and especially Jaylen as clearly the highest upside player they have for the future have him be in in these situations especially

Because they don’t have Trey it’s like okay Jaylen we want you to do this this this this and this and this and you know when when when when de is off the court it becomes jaylen’s the number one option etc etc how you want to how how

You want to sort of do that and you know it’s this kind It’s Kind it’s kind of part of the same thing but I was also going to ask you like how just the the offense being different just inherently without Trey and Ona again and Ona less

Space all that stuff how that also negatively affects everybody I mean and I mean everybody on the roster not having Trey makes life harder for every single player on the Hawks roster that includes dejonte now deon’s numbers will go up because his usage is gonna go up that that’s that’s already happened he’s

Gonna take more shots I’m not saying otherwise but defenses are now loading to him in the way that they they do not when tre’s on the court Jaylen same jayen same thing sadik DeAndre the centers everyone’s life is harder and it’s kind of it’s kind of interesting to

Kind of put those two things together because on one jaylen’s looks and the attention he’s getting from the defense is he going to make it actually harder but you also want him to do more and that’s that’s this really difficult um need to thread for a team that is also

Again trying to win basketball games yeah and they’re for sure going to try to win the rest of the way right um they are it’s not it’s not even close by the way like just people ask I’m sure people ask you this all the time I I

Could see maybe a situation in like April like at the very very end of the year if they’re out of the plan already I see them maybe doing the Dallas thing and not pushing to the end but as long as they’re in it they’re not they’re not

Pulling the plug it’s not happening yeah and and it’s funny it’s like if you think about what Quinn is trying to accomplish like his word is habits right how do you how do you accomplish the installation and the commitment and the progress with principles and habits and

All those things if you’re not trying to be competitive and not trying to win that’s hard to do as a coach that said I understand fans thinking yeah you know big picture might be better for us just to optimize our drop pi so I’m not going

To I’m going to laugh at that suggestion no no not not at all I’ve I’ve often said that like I I get it if I was just a fan I I might I might be I might be with them I I mean I can see both sides

But I certainly understand that the 10 seen in the playin is not exactly the sexiest goal in the world to be shooting for and that’s where especially since that’s where they’ve been this will be like the third third season in a row that they’re it’s different if you’re

The Kings forever and you’re terrible and it’s like okay we have a chance at the postseason for the first time in 15 years the Hawks have been in the playoffs more of often than not for quite I mean they had the little low in between pre- tray but even then like

They’re kind of I think fans are sick of being in the play and I don’t I don’t blame you for that either same yeah yeah I agree yeah I totally understand all of that right um but I I do think if you’re trying to kind of move the organization

I don’t we throw the word culture around too much but like to me I’ll use Quinn’s words principles habits etc etc Hulk DNA yeah there there you go that that’s the Landry one right so yes uh and so I do think it’s hard to do that without like

Going out and trying to win every game which is kind of kind of where they are right now um you know and you mentioned like harder without Trey like things like I put I may put bogie at the top of the list of like who is most impacted by

That it’s interesting because when you watch Trey and Trey has multiple Shooters on with him the way he leverages that spacing is very different from what deante deante deante is super aggressive and he has to be to be his best he has to be really really aggressive right but he has looking to

Take advantage of that space and get to his pullup you know attack the space in the middle if he has an average on ball defender or less or below average on ball Defender it’s very hard to keep him out of the middle especially if like a

Bay plus bogy you’re on or Hunter plus one of those two of those three are on deante really does kind of feast in the middle except when team like Brooklyn is switching a big Wing onto him he finds it much harder to kind of kind of get to

That with Trey if you kind of give him that space yeah he’ll get try to get to his floater and he’ll try to get kind of get to a pullup but he’s really going to try to help generate a shot at The Rim as much as he can or a wideopen three

And Deonte just doesn’t distribute the ball like Trey does that’s not a criticism Trey is no what a top five whatever number you want to pick like in terms of his ability to create in that phase and in that way he’s on a very short list of guys currently who have

That capability does not’s a good player he’s just a different player and it’s going to look different when he’s being afforded space from two or more Shooters on the floor than it does with Trey it’s going to result in more deante trying to attack space individually because that’s

What he is that’s what he does that’s what he’s good at um but if one wants to say that doesn’t necessarily lead to maximizing everyone around him then there there’s some some truth in that even if I’m I don’t want to go out of my way to criticize de de players do what

They’re good at Players lean into their skills and their strengths and that’s what the that’s what Dante does today’s show is brought to you by priz picks and demons and goblins are the newest and most exciting way to play at priz pick scores work with Red Demons or Green Goblins give you different

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I think there’s been a I don’t want to speak into the void but there’s there’s this thought that I’m like super low on jante and it’s it’s really not true it’s just that um you know I just kind of identify what he’s good in what he’s not

That great at like if I think if you line up all the all the starting level point guards in the league he’s not exactly an above average passer for for a point guard like he’s a fine passer he makes the simple he makes simple reads

All that stuff but I think it’s more I made this point last night it’s more like if all you do is watch Trey Young play point guard for five years and then you watch Deon play point guard that drop off as a playmaker is it’s massive

It just is um Deon does a lot of things well like obviously he can cook people off the dribble he can get to his spots the pull-ups if if he’s making a jumper impossible to stop it really is true if Deon is making his midranger he can have

20 points in the court we’ve seen it many many times it’s just a it’s just a different way of doing it and also to that point I think dejonte has done no favors without a Kong wo too dejonte and Clint have no chemistry zero they never have and they don’t really They Don’t

Really operate a lot together because it’s usually Trey and Clint kind of doing their thing and Clint his current state we don’t have to spend a lot of time on this but Clint is not the same guy he used to be by any means even this year coming off the injury so like

Having Clint on the court and also having Deon and Clint not having any chemistry makes it harder for him makes it harder for everybody involved there’s Nuance to all of this stuff but that’s what I’m saying it’s it’s not just Trey it’s also it’s also a Kong not being

There um I I do want to ask you schematically um you mentioned a little bit about just like being prepared to see switches I think we actually saw like you said in the first quarter of the game on Saturday they had that full day off which I think um our friend Bob

Rman pointed that out on the broadcast I was like hey that’s true teams are not stats are not used to having a full day off in the same city to prepare for the next game like in a rematch it’s like almost that’s almost a playoff series

Thing so they were kind of prepared for that but what have you not seen like what do you want to see schematically knowing that they’re they’re not going to have Trey for a while longer and Ana for probably a a while longer too what can they do like what would you like to

See them do differently that you had not seen so far through four games yeah it’s such a hard question to answer with the group that they have now because they they are a little bit fixed in kind of the things that they can do I mean

Unless they want to like run bogey more like off of off ball screens which is not a feature in Quinn’s offense typically right yeah they have that one ATL where they dribble the ball to the right three-point break and bring him across they they’ll do it on like

Atos special plays and stuff like that otherwise Quinn wants ball movement he wants to have the ball beat the defense kind of to where they’re going to and you’ll see like when he’s not calling a specific play whether it’s you know one out two out or you know whatever Play

It’s flow you’ll hear him say time flow and that flow is what he’s looking for is the ball movement and the connectivity having the ball beat the defense you know kind of to a certain spot and and you know Trey like to our like just a dynamic passer and like you

Grab another like I know really good point guard in the league that’s more of a score like I don’t know like Jamal Murray like if you watch Trey play point guard and then like you went from trade to Jamal Jamal marray is awesome like yeah one of my favorite players in the

League but like there’s like almost any player at that level and Jamal Murray’s better than Deonte I don’t I’m not trying I’m just trying to say that even a pretty high level a really high level guard yeah there’s going to be that drop off you know and so when it comes to

Quinn wanting them to run flow and have the ball really really move without Trey any any team that goes to Trey to know Trey it’s going to be a lot harder to kind of generate kind of those principles that that Quinn wants and so for me it’s not so much around um

Something schematically I want to see that’s different you know I think they need to lean into Jaylen right whether that’s for five pick and roll in the middle you know snug or higher or whether that’s just you know switch beaters and things like that but when you watch jayen

Attack a switch he kind of wants to get to to the middle like nine feet right in front of the rim and shoot that turnaround he’s not as comfortable on the Baseline with the bank shot he’s kind of really he’s more inconsistent when he’s working closer on the Baseline

And and for me it’s like I there’s nothing that I want them to lean into schematically that I think is going to really move the needle I don’t think there’s anything there I’m not an so so maybe there’s something maybe there’s something they know that I don’t know

Well that’s why that’s why I’m asking you because you’re you’re you’re better that Seth than I am but I have the I kind of have the same takeaway like there’s not a whole lot and there’s I’m sure they will do little stuff different there’s no question about that but like

There’s not like a magic Elixir at this level it’s it’s it’s a talent issue on some level they don’t have the best talent offensively um I uh I won’t reveal who said this to me but somebody who I think is smart brought up that maybe they want to bring bie bie Off the

Bench again and just kind of maybe get he and Deon away from each other not necessarily because they don’t work together but bogie is number one bet in the bench roll a lot and has operated in the bench roll this year there isn’t obvious option to start in his place

They could go to Garrison or whatever that’s that that’s kind of again back to the talent issue or Kobe some fans will say Kobe maybe you say no and that’s honestly given what I said before about leaning into the future I wouldn’t mind and I said this I I think I would be

Supportive of them playing Kobe 25 minutes a game right now and have him play all the Deon minutes off all the Dante on the bench minutes and then also play him 10 minutes a game with him and just get that experience because in the future they drafted Kobe to be able to

Play a point guard and with and with the two that’s part of the appeal of the Kobe experience so you know the other benefit is that when Kobe’s on about de jonte boki would really really help Kobe and that’s that’s part of the theory too

And um also I’m not sure if you’re if you saw this or have heard it but I thought Quinn was more demonstrative than usual after the third the first loss when they got blown out in Brooklyn on Thursday um about how they they just didn’t break the paint like he was very

He he said he said it several times in his postgame and you know he’s not the most schematically uh open with the media sometimes he doesn’t he doesn’t want to tell you what what he thinks on that kind of stuff but it was postgame he was kind of raw they got blown out

And I’ll be the first to say I’m sure you’d Echo this it’s not easy it’s not exactly an easy thing to do to break the paint it’s hard to get there teams don’t want to let you get there but that’s something that it’s been bangging around

In my mind too that since he said it so forcefully I was watching for it on Saturday and they just didn’t do it that often like dejonte when he gets downhill it looks great like I there’s a reason I always praise when Deon is able to get

All the way to the rim because it’s usually good stuff happens when he’s able to get not just to his 12 foot range but all the way downhill to the to the rim that’s the same for Jaylen it’s the same for even guys like sadik and

DeAndre all the way to the rim really helps but um that’s something that Trey is the guy that does that the most on the roster like when Quinn says we want we have to break the paint guy number one on that list is Trey he does that

All the time and he get he gets spots the guys can’t get to so I don’t know if that like brings up anything in your mind about what’s something they could do but it’s it just struck me that Quinn was so playing with it like hey we just

We just didn’t break the paint at all tonight and it’s like well it’s hard it’s hard to do that and I don’t know how they fixed that either I mean Kobe did a little bit too like he’s capable of it but they don’t have I mean maybe

It’s jayen like to bring It full circle maybe it is Jaylen that they have just get ask to get in the middle of get in the middle of the paint and just go from there and it leads to sprays and kickouts and something uh our mutual friend Kevin said recently and he’s

Right about this is three the three-point volume is way down without Trey and that’s not just Trey’s passing it’s also that’s number one on the list probably but it’s that you’re not collapsing defenses teams are not having to react to you and normally three point three-pointers that are not off the

Dribble are created by the defense collapsing and you’re kicking out and spraying out passes they don’t have that going on right now a lot yeah and it’s funny because Quinn said that after the game and Brian Oliver on the was telling us the whole game they’re not breaking

The paint right that’s the number one issue that they and and I thought Brian Oliver does a great a great job he he does very well sh shouts to be by the way who also and not everybody does this in that role especially but even when

He’s doing pre and postgame he goes to press conferences and asks questions which a lot of guys do not do in the analyst role Brian’s like pregame postgame like hey what did you see here what did you see here that’s a little thing but it’s like that’s how you get

To know what’s going on I’m sure they also have their own meetings Beyond like they obviously have access we don’t have to Quin and the staff behind the scenes on travel and on planes that stuff but I always appreciate Brian like being really really uh not necess in qu what’s

The word he’s very curious about what’s going on which I appreciate yeah and it’s it’s a little thing that’s kind of a big thing right because like you said it’s a difference for when when other folks in that world maybe don’t always do that and and I you know I I enjoy you

Know Bob’s to me the Bob’s the best of the business Legend and and and while you know there’s a lot of entertainment value to what his and nique’s chemistry even even if you have a prefer a different style of color com whatever their chemistry is super entertaining

But like with Brian’s in there like you could it’s nice you get a different just kind of presentation of what’s going on and I enjoy I enjoyed a ton so um yeah it’s it is they are having a harder time right and and and like I said I think I

Think leaning into Jaylen comes with tolerating some mixed results it’s not going to be good right off the bat right but those reps are valuable to him and maybe with him it needs to start with I don’t know if you can adjust your rotation to where he’s doing that

Against the other team second unit more than against their first unit like the first I don’t know I mean there’s only 22 games left so the I don’t know maybe even the rest of the way that needs to be play because if you throw like the next four defensive teams they play are

Are 11th or better when I checked yesterday in defensive rating and have a lot of size on their own you know things like that so you know so it’s going to be interesting to see if quind does lead into that but like Brooklyn was loading

Up for switches up the floor and you saw like Deonte in the first quarter the game on Sunday was you know hitting sadik letting sadik work on the Baseline side you know I think they miss Ana’s ability to kind of duck in which is and and create pressure from the weak side

In the ways that he does that a way that Clint just doesn’t have the lift and the no agility kind of right now to to offer that the other part of that is you know if you’re playing jayen a lot the five you may be limiting your ability to kind

Of put him in the offensive role you want to so that’s tricky there like how much Bruno do you want with jayen at the four versus jayen at the five and so it’s it’s it’s there are some hard choices for the Hawks to make I mean you

Know on paper like for a video game you’re like I was playing 40 minutes playing 20 minutes Center 20 minutes power for you know that’s not conducive to kind of probably to what you really really want to but I think they do have to kind of thread the needle I they I

Think you know because we accept they’re going to try to win games I think they have to kind of lean into building up some capabilities in leaning into reps that are going to maybe not serve their best interest short term in terms of wins and losses but kind of set

Themselves up for having some of that to carry into the offseason as an input into what you want for example jaylen’s developmental objectives to be once the season is over all right that is all for part one of this two-part episode myself and Glenn Willis part two should be

Available in your podcast feed of choice and it should be there right now so go go ahead right now if you want to and listen to that show click on that one download it Etc and enjoy the rest of the conversation please subscribe to the podcast on Apple and Spotify and YouTube

Follow the show on Twitter SLX at loton Hawks follow me there as well at BTR Rolland also run about the Hawks on a regular basis at patreon.com BTR Rolland with all that said listen to part two and we’ll see you all next time

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland, DIME on UPROXX) hosts episode No. 1666 of the Locked on Hawks podcast, and he is joined by Glen Willis (@willis_glen, ATL and 29) for Part 1 of a 2-part episode. The discussion focuses on the Atlanta Hawks through 60 games, recent play without Trae Young and Onyeka Okongwu, long-term development for Jalen Johnson and Kobe Bufkin, the rest of the 2023-24 season, and much more.

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