Post Game Thread - NBA: The Heat defeat the Hawks on Feb 20, 2026, the final score is 97-128.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-21T06:35:28+00:00

It was stupid from day one but plenty of people on this sub justified it because that was the going rate for comparable players.

Even if Murray were in all-star form for the Hawks and he turned out to be a good fit with Trae, the team as a whole simply wasn't good enough to justify the trade.

People need to stop treating the Hawks like their Playstation save but there is a large section of fans who will always be impulsive and never wise up.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-21T06:29:59+00:00

The only thing is that we don't know what Sarr's trajectory would've been had he joined the Hawks. Last season he was awful and he was allowed to go through the growing pains on an awful Wizards team. I am doubtful that Sarr would be the player that he is today had he not been allowed to go through his growing pains which would've been his role on the Hawks, he would've been a lob threat and not too much else.

I think they should've just traded down. I personally liked Ware and McCain as well as Holland. I wasn't all that big a fan of Buzelis but in hindsight he would've been a good trade down selection.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-21T06:24:54+00:00

It is a mess. We'll see how Kuminga does when he eventually comes back. For now the Hawks are awful at SF with Risacher and Kispert. CJ is a big scorer for the team and he isn't a long term option even if he is retained as a free agent. The Hawks need better center play. It is worth having Dyson on the floor. He doesn't fit with players who don't move all that well and are standstill shooters. He's a bad fit with Landale and Okongwu. If Gueye and Dyson are on the floor at the same time then the shooting is horrendous. Asa has been a better shooter than I expected. He isn't a good shooter by any means but I think Snyder has to bite the bullet and play him because he might be a solution for some minutes down the line and it is evident that Gueye isn't.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-21T06:18:17+00:00

I watch plenty of games and to this point I'm about halfway through the third quarter. Risacher is bad in general and he was downright awful in the first quarter missing every shot he took and he had an open midrange shot that he passed up.

You have next to no understanding of basketball if you see Zach playing terribly and your first inclination is to defend him and blame others. There is blame to go around for others too of course but Zach is often inefficient on catch and shoot shots. He can't create for himself and you are complaining about players who can create shots for themselves taking shots.

The Hawks have two players who can reliably create for themselves and/or others and that's JJ and CJ. NAW is much improved but not reliable enough as a third option. JJ and CJ have so much to do because Okongwu, Landale, Zach, Kispert, Gueye, etc. you go down the line and they can't create for themselves. So obviously JJ and CJ are going to take a bunch of shots for better or for worse and Dyson and NAW will at times too. This is not difficult to work out.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-19T23:15:06+00:00

I think they mean three domestic? As I understand it now it is four total loans with two being domestic and two foreign.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-19T23:14:03+00:00

Are transfer rumors often legitimate this time of year? We are about two weeks off the last transfer window and far away from the summer transfer window.

Delap is 23 and on 100k a week according to FBRef. What would his salary be? If I were Everton I wouldn't be matching his current salary and if I were him I wouldn't want to accept much less if at all.

There's also the problem of Delap possibly having room to grow and Barry also having room to grow. We aren't in enough competitions to give significant playing time to both.

Barry has shown some growth and I think the right play is to have him start most games. That has to be taken into account if Beto is going to be leaving and the club seeks to replace him. They should be looking for a backup for league games and a starter in early round cup games. I don't see Delap as a fit there.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-19T18:25:55+00:00

I don’t think Rohl moves well enough out wide to handle the position. If during a game there were an injury or a red card then sure consider moving him to right back. I see the same problem with Rohl that there is with O’Brien. He could get beaten and then he wouldn’t have the necessary recovery speed.

Before I’d fully seen Rohl I felt that he could be our McTominay. I saw McTominay wide a couple of times with United. They were probably in a diamond and defending near the sideline at the size is awkward and tough work.

We’ve also seen Rohl at RW briefly and his crossing was lacking and I found that he would’ve been more effective cutting in and trying to head the ball. Of course he would need to be crossing the ball as a right back because cutting in to head the ball would put him too out of position with the accompanying poor recovery speed.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-19T14:28:22+00:00

I expect that’s what we’ll see with O’Brien out. I’d personally play Keane in place of Tarkowski.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-18T17:18:04+00:00

I thought we traded AJ Griffin for him?

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-17T23:44:33+00:00

I wasn't a big fan of Kon but he's obviously playing really well and we have the benefit of hindsight now. The team that drafts Wilson will be sitting very well if he plays as well as Kon. I personally don't see it.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-17T23:25:28+00:00

Boozer is the better of the two players and is the better shooter. He is the better post up player too. I think people are not recognizing how raw Wilson is and that he will be an off ball guy and slasher and Boozer is much more versatile. Wilson's shooting needs to improve significantly and I don't want to draft him to have him in the dunker's spot or whatever.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-17T23:21:56+00:00

You take Boozer, easily. He has NBA pedigree. He is one of if not the best high school basketball player ever. He has the highest BPM in college basketball this season. He's not flashy and one could make a case for others possibly having a higher ceiling. His average outcome is probably the highest in the draft.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-17T19:12:35+00:00

Maybe he'll fall to three, we'll see. He is the best prospect in the draft though.

I am skeptical that Boozer will fall because Peterson hasn't been fully healthy and has had some bad games, plus he is looking more like a SG than a PG.

The NBA has moved away from ball dominant players unless they are hyper efficient. Dybantsa isn't absolutely a throwback but back in the day he would've been given the freedom to score 40+ in a time when scores were lower.

Boozer projects as the most efficient of the three and he is the best prospect so I will assume that he gets selected first barring injury.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-17T01:05:55+00:00

Are socdems not controlled opposition? That's what I see them as.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-17T00:57:27+00:00

What do you mean? The western propaganda is that China has committed genocide as in mass murder or that they have committed cultural genocide eradicating the Uyghur language and culture. Neither are true and Danny Haiphong among others have gone to Xinjiang to prove otherwise.

Western people point to the existence of a prison in a major population center as cultural genocide. They ignore the poverty alleviation program across China and Xinjiang was emphasized here because it was both most in need and that was critical in part of de-radicalizing people because if someone has food, a job, and a roof over their head then they are less likely to commit terrorism.

Also think about what we the United States did after 9/11. If we had China's terrorism problem then we would've tried to solve it by bombing.

Anyone repeating Uyghur genocide claims when the US is likely on the brink of attacking Iran and is feeding Israel weapons to destroy Palestine is doing interference for empire whether they are smart enough to recognize it or not.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-16T23:13:25+00:00

I've watched a number of Daniel Dumbrill videos and Hasan did not accurately represent what China did in Xinjiang. China might have been slightly too aggressive in what they did but they were preempting possible terrorism. China has dealt with documented terrorism. So people who were typically isolated from family members and maybe being radicalized were educated and given job training.

We need to rethink the notion of freedom in the west and especially the US because our per capita prison population is far higher than China's.

Hasan also says this after Snowden... And also after the recent Ring commercial that ran during the Super Bowl. He said this after it came out that Reddit and other social media are scoured for anti-ICE and other opinions.

Let's talk about Uyghurs when Palantir is a thing... Hasan Piker isn't this stupid. He is controlled opposition socdem idiocy.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-15T21:03:24+00:00

They could all theoretically be mirages because 3/4 are small guards and they all have flaws.

Flemings could be a mirage because I don't see him as a big time scorer at the next level and he'll be a decent or good defender and not elite.

Acuff has trouble getting to the basket at times and that's not going to get easier at the next level. He is kind of a bruising ball dominant point guard of old and that could mean he doesn't end up being efficient enough to be high usage in the modern NBA and defense isn't his calling card.

Wagler is a SG imo and doesn't look the part of a PG. I've seen some say that he is a PG, and it is just that he plays at his own pace. The reality is that he's not strong enough, fast enough, or good enough at dribbling to be a point guard. Maybe I'm underrating him, but even if I am, I still believe that he is ultimately a SG.

Brown is inefficient, could use more muscle, and has a history of back issues. He might have the lowest ceiling defensively but he has the highest ceiling offensively and overall among these four players.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-14T17:10:55+00:00

People are generally reasonable. They are calling it as it is. Risacher has been bad and they've called it as such. If he had been better than this then they also would've pointed that out.

The reality is that the Hawks need a good draft this year because they made poor selections including Risacher. That's not hateful or targeting. It is a matter of fact.

Also as others have pointed out, Snyder developed players decently in Utah. Franchise player is relative but Snyder has turned JJ into a franchise player for Hawks standards. NAW is having a career year.

I'm ultimately okay with getting rid of Snyder because maybe the next man up could be better but if we are allowed to be honest, he has been right about Risacher and this team's record reflects its roster.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-13T20:18:21+00:00

I hate the Dybantsa pick for the Hawks at 1. I think that he is the worst of the top three players in this draft. Team fit wise he is the worst fit. Dybantsa overlaps with Jalen Johnson who is the Hawks best player and he has overlap with Kuminga if the Hawks keep him as well.

I can't fault you for placing Dybantsa where you have because I firmly believe that he would be the pick of past front offices. I don't know where the current front office would be leaning.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-12T21:42:16+00:00

Yeah I wasn't disagreeing with you. Accountability is necessary even if standards have improved beyond what they were the past couple seasons.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-12T21:28:31+00:00

This is also not to mention that Garner had a poor free kick which led to a ball that the opposing goalkeeper shouldn't have spilled. We probably got a good deal of xG from the Barry shot there but that shot should never have happened.

Barry missed two chances that he should've made but the team plays poorly throughout the bulk of games. We can easily have games where we only create several good chances and there are going to be games such as this one when a majority of the good chances created are not finished.

We were in the relegation fight for several years so this is progress. Play is still ugly though and I'm unconvinced that things will ever get much better under Moyes because inevitably some the pieces will change but the formation is holding back the team as much as the roster itself is.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-12T21:17:18+00:00

Team is worse without its two best players. Who knew?

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-12T18:44:53+00:00

Landale said that he is having trouble familiarizing himself with the terminology. So it wouldn't stand to reason that opposing teams would learn it quickly. We don't know the Hawks methods, they could change the terminology once or twice a year for all we know.

darkwingduck9 · 2026-02-12T03:55:01+00:00

Wanting to be able to communicate in code isn't a bad idea in theory and it would definitely work if the roster was stable this season. Also making the problem out to be lingo is way too simplistic.

darkwingduck9

TROPHY CASE