In a look at some of the offseason questions that the Hawks will have to address later this year, Chris Kirschner of The Athletic points to head coach Lloyd Pierce‘s job status as one of those unanswered questions. As Kirschner explains, Pierce has done a good job developing Atlanta’s young players, but there are other factors that could impact his job security.
For one, star guard Trae Young hasn’t always been on the same page with Pierce, according to Kirschner, who suggests the All-Star guard has disagreed with some coaching decisions and didn’t love Pierce’s comments about Young not being named a finalist for Team USA’s roster. Sources with knowledge of the Hawks star’s thinking “have confirmed that his relationship with Pierce isn’t strong,” Kirschner writes.
Some Hawks players have also questioned Pierce’s in-game decisions and rotations. According to Kirschner, one player even offered the following assessment when discussing those decisions: “It’s almost as if we actually are tanking on purpose.”
Here are some other subjects that Kirschner touches on in his story for The Athletic:
- DeAndre’ Bembry has been a personal favorite of Pierce’s, but he may have played his last game for the Hawks, according to Kirschner, who hears from sources that the RFA-to-be was “readily available” leading up to the trade deadline.
- Kirschner is also skeptical that Jeff Teague or Damian Jones, who will be free agents this offseason, will be back with Atlanta in 2020/21. However, he believes Skal Labissiere is a candidate to be re-signed, despite not yet playing a game for the Hawks, since the recently-acquired big man has long been a favorite of GM Travis Schlenk.
- If the 2019/20 season doesn’t resume, the Hawks won’t get a chance to evaluate the on-court fit between Clint Capela and John Collins before the latter becomes extension-eligible, and Kirsher thinks it’ll be hard for the team to offer Collins a massive long-term deal without having seen whether that frontcourt pairing works.
- Given the lack of a clear-cut hierarchy at the top of this year’s draft, Kirschner speculates that the Hawks would be open to trading down or trying to trade that pick for an impact player, even if they were to land the No. 1 selection. Schlenk showed a willingness to move down in 2018, passing on the chance to select Luka Doncic.
Feels like Hawks GM overvalues his young players. Not one max player on the team.
By clearing the mess of role players before them to actually see what they can do I think not. I wish people would just let it play out.
Whatever happened to coaches running the team?
ha!…that ship sailed several years ago
This team reminds me of okc when they were coming up.collins is solid.. I think trae will be elite.. I like cam reddish.. they have some good young pieces huerter and hunter.. Capela will work well with trae young
Hawks
PG: Young. Teague (resign)
SG: (Edwards draft)Heuter
SF: Hunter. Reddish
PF: Collins. Harry Giles (sign)
C: Capela. Dedmon. Fernando
I like Pierce… but if he can’t see eye to eye with Ice Trae he will have to go, not even a discussion, HC’s don’t make such a difference… but a megastar like Ice Trae, that is what will bring success back to Atlanta, very overdue if you ask me really!
Someday they will regret not taking Doncic
Rookie Head Coach as well as every single player he coaches the previous and future several seasons. Schlenk a rookie GM also…its ok people, let things play out!
Surprised at some of the post!
1) LP was brought to Atlanta because of his alleged player development skills. guess what, he’s done that! John, Trae, and now Can have all shown improvements in the second half of their first season with LP. And yes that comes at the cost of some games, the young are not going to get the experience to win, if you play the vets to close out winnable games.
2) I love Trae, but he needs to STFU! When they traded Donic for you, you knew this was going to be a process. He doesn’t play defense at all, so he needs to start there before questioning the coach and crying about winning.
3) I believe Trae and Cam can be top five players at their positions, if not the best at their positions! So we have two very young, very cheap building blocks. Collins will begin to get expensive now, the Hawks should NOT MAX him. Despite being a very good player, He doesn’t have the skill set offensively or defensively to carry the team on either ends. That doesn’t mean he won’t be an all-star or twenty/ten player! It’s just the way he gets that twenty, that you can not build an offense around.
4) I believe Weismann should be the pick if available. Just can’t teach that height, athleticism, and skill. He may be slower to develop than Edwards, but I believe his ceiling is so much higher. The Hawks now have some depth at the 4 and 5 to give him that time.
That’s all for now. Playoffs in 21’