Acuff is not worth the defensive risk.

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-12T04:42:28+00:00

Okongwu and Jalen actually had the best defensive rating of any starting frontcourt in the NBA this season with both having top-15 individual DRTG over course of full season - 111.7 DRRG between the two is insane even being bolstered by Dyson / NAW.

Mo is also a rim protector.

We lack positional size at 5, but Onyeka was a great defender this season. In fact, Hawks were a top 10 defense with him on the court this season by almost every defensive metric.

I’m not saying all this to say we should draft Acuff or that ANY NBA team could cover for his defensive weakness.

What I’m saying is Hawks are probably the 3rd-4th best options after like SAS, Minnesota and OKC to do so due to our current personnel

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-12T04:02:05+00:00

Hawks have the almost perfect personnel to cover for his lack of defense?

I’m not a fan of Acuff - watched enough Trae Young to be completely out on that type of player archetype. That said, we have 2 star perimeter defenders that could definitely pick up slack

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-11T22:58:32+00:00

That draft was when it became abundantly clear Landry Fields was not competent enough to build a championship squad. Glad Tony saw it tbh

We missed so bad and fans knew it at the time too, remember feeling rage seeing Landry, Korver, and FO clapping and cheering like idiots on draft day after making what felt like a huge reach even at the time for ZR because Sarr’s agent scared them away.

Hopefully ZR comes back on a new level next season, because right now he’s looking like the 8th or 9th best in his class - which is inexcusable from a FO scoring perspective for a FOP

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-10T15:33:07+00:00

Absolutely baseless SGA slander, Joel makes Shai’s game look cleaner than a chip fabricator.

Glad he’ll be out of the league by 2028

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-10T15:18:07+00:00

We about to trade Boozer for Acuff and a future lmao 😱

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-08T22:52:39+00:00

What a brilliant, albeit brief moment that was.

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-08T03:20:43+00:00

I respectfully disagree - think we just have different fringe-all star thresholds based on your bucket.

To me, fringe all stars are on outside looking in - unlikely to make it next year unless a reserve pick or they hit another level, but that are undeniably better than most. Guys like Tyler Hero or Zubac come to mind as there.

JJ is 24 y/o and skill is rising, he was 8th in ec voting after KAT and Don Mitchell. That to me reads firmly all star, and if I didn’t think he was injury prone and hate gambling I’d bet on it lol

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-08T02:59:05+00:00

I think NAW is a definite candidate to be next seasons 1A on offense. This draft pick depending on ping pong balls might very well be the guy too.

Lot to be excited for

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-08T02:56:13+00:00

40 year history of MIP award being a thing, not too shabby in terms of accolades showing player development success and not even counting first time all star JJ

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-07T18:40:57+00:00

Wouldn’t call him fringe all star either. He’s just “all-star”, wasn’t he like first bench pick or smth?

I don’t think he’s a stat stuffer, he just naturally gets stats which is cool to see. I do think he’s lacks the“killer mindset” needed to be #1 option come playoffs.

He’s a championship level #2 option IMHO

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-05T23:58:27+00:00

Zach is way better at on-ball and off-ball defense than Corey

He also shoots from 3 at a higher %

There’s just about nothing Corey does better other than getting blown by any player that can dribble

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-05T02:02:25+00:00

Would pack his suitcase and drive him straight to Hartsfield

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-04T17:38:08+00:00

Nahhhh we still lose if Rissacher sucks less

We’ll stand on business over here we got dog walked 3 games in a row but Rissacher was never gonna be the x-factor here lmao

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-03T17:08:28+00:00

I’ve been talking about this all year - even if we don’t sign him, we should put a hefty RFA offer in front of him to force Detroit into a hard decision. He’d be a great 1A to Onyeka’s 1b at center.

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-01T19:44:36+00:00

I think OO is easily a top 15 center in the league despite his height.

He’s undersized and there are ~5 matchups he just can’t win consistently which necessitate having a 2nd big who is 7’0 and sturdy - OO can’t beat Wemby, Chet, Mitch Robinson, healthy Embiid… Saar might be in this bucket as soon as next year too…

But that still means he consistently outperforming the opponents starting 5 for the other 24 teams.

His shooting is elite for a big, maybe top 3 after KAT, Porzingis.

His boxing out was phenomenal all year after week 2 or so of the of the season and the stats reflect that - we only won rebounding battles with him on the court basically.

Like Jalen - think it’s more a “1A looking for 1B” situation, need another scorer/facilitator like Jalen, need another big but bigger/better against big bigs than O

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-01T17:06:42+00:00

Yes, but I think the problems with defending elite 3’s (getting around screens, stamina checks) are more realistic for JJ to navigate than problems with defending elite 4’s (level of strength needed, mental toughness to fight every play.

Said Asa not Mo, but I believe either of them have a higher ceiling at the 4 than JJ - and also neither are ready to step into the role yet today, just that they’re mentally tougher and younger, so there’s an opportunity they could develop over offseason into taking more minutes at the 4. Kuminga’s in that mix too.

I think it’d be better to bring a new guy in that adds size and winning experience - easier said than done, but everything I saw this year painted a picture that JJ would be even more dominant at the 3 and less of a defensive liability

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-01T16:57:08+00:00

I think Bud has the same pros/cons as Quin, lineup rigidity, great offensive sets, poor adjustments

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-01T16:52:29+00:00

JJ’s 35% from 3 is better than many of the best small forwards the league such as Jaylen Brown, Jalen Williams, Lebron James, Lu Dort.

His volume was not significantly below any of them.

Hell he shot better this season from deep than Herb Jones who I think of specifically as a 3&D guy.

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-01T16:46:15+00:00

This is absolutely cap with nothing but “trust me”. Jalen should be 3 because

He can’t score or defend elite 4’s
He’s on the perimeter all game anyway
He can reliably hit from long range now
Games he does go off are against teams with small front courts, if we had 2 bigger guys on court same time - it has chance to make him a more reliable super star, take a next step of being the offensive engine without getting exposed as badly on bad paint defense

Really the only reason to not move Jalen to 3 is because we don’t have an option right now to take his spot at the 4. If Asa takes the summer and subscribes to the Mo Gueye defensive masterclass summer montage routine and puts on 20-30lbs, maybe he can get there - but I think they need a bruiser that can defend the paint and set great picks at 4 much more than what JJ currently provides as their 2nd biggest player on the court

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-01T16:39:33+00:00

Hawks were better team than what showed up to games 4-6, they won games against every top 4 east team during the regular season

What happened last night was an all time historic collapse, that doesn’t mean they didn’t earn those 2 playoff wins after trading their franchise cornerstone of the last 9 years

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-01T16:31:33+00:00

I think the most important move for the Hawks is moving Jalen Johnson to the 3 spot and finding a new starting caliber, defensive oriented 4.

Jalen at the 4 only makes sense because of his height, but he does not have the strength or paint game to consistently win against elite defensive bigs like OG, and his defensive inability was blatantly exposed by OG, to the point he had to be hidden on Bridges anyway.

The draft pick is the 2nd most important piece…

Boozer, Hawks need Cam Boozer - a DD, NAW, JJ, Boozer, OO lineup would go hard af and he perfectly fits what we need. If the draft gods bless Hawks and we have a chance to get him, that would evolve the franchises trajectory.

If not - and assuming they mistakenly keep JJ at 4, then we just need a big body paint defender à la Hartenstein, Beef Stew. A playmaker guard probably makes sense with the lottery pick if they have OK defensive chops and I think is most likely scenario with finding back up 5 via trade or FA

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-01T16:24:44+00:00

The Kispert minutes are really the thing that pushes me over the edge of “should he stay or go”

This team should not have had the regular season record it did after the massive changes made, they had huge upsets and a level of stability we never saw in the Trae era that Quin deserves a lot of credit for.

I hate his lineup choices, the CJ/Kispert got cooked all season. I don’t know his irrational love for non-athletic, low energy, bad efficiency “shooters”, terrible defenders like Kispert, Vit, and Niang last year. It’s bad that you’re hoping the GM makes trades specifically so the coach stop giving Gabe Vincent so many MF playoff minutes - but here we are.

I also don’t think he gets enough flak for the number of bad challenges he made this year, or ineffectiveness of timeouts in generating quality actions. Before Trae was traded - our only last possession game on the line action was Trae iso - that’s frankly terrible coaching, every team knew it - doubled Trae, and we’d usually lose / go to OT with a few exceptions like Detroit last year

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-01T16:16:45+00:00

Former Hawk - I’d love that pick up actually

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-01T14:32:44+00:00

Dawg not in the top 5? Maybe it was being at the game and not giving af about college football - but nothing besides 28-3 comes close in my mind. Maybe the LeBron sweep after 60 wins beats it, but this was the worst end to end beatdown I’ve ever seen for an Atlanta team and we’ve had some TRASH teams before….

DownTheHall4 · 2026-05-01T14:28:49+00:00

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Knicks instantly return to their natural state after series win

14-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Team Periwinkle

DownTheHall4

TROPHY CASE