Forty days is what separates us today from the end of the 2021-22 regular season. A month and a half before the Playoffs – or the Lottery – each franchise honed its weapons during the trade deadline on February 10, then recently took advantage of a week of All-Star Break to ask itself some essential questions. to a regular end in the nails. The objectives are not the same everywhere, of course, but we also quickly settled on the main themes of the six weeks ahead of us, by selecting for each franchise three small questions, three ideas to develop. Non-exhaustive choice obviously because otherwise it never ends, and we leave without further delay on the end of the season of… Hawks.
Which franchise will Trae Young air-condition in April?
We often talk about this sweetie, but we’re going to talk about it again today if you don’t mind. Four seasons in the League? 25 points and 9 average assists, two All-Star stars and already legendary Playoffs on the CV. And it is this last point that interests us today since if globally Trae Young is ahead of an all-time career, it is in the very short term the desire to see him bleed a city while whole on a postseason series that excites us to the highest degree. Since last May Ice Trae has owned a hundred city blocks in New York and revealed himself to the basketball world by air-conditioning Madison Square Garden before trampling the Sixers and surrendering to the future. champion, so regardless of the current tenth place of his Hawks this season, we what we want is Trae Young on a dry match during the play-in, we what we want is Trae Young who sticks 45 to the Hornets and 50 to the Nets to afford a first round revenge against the Sixers or the Bucks. Is that possible? Come on NBA, stoplai.
Wouldn’t the Hawks be above all a Playoffs team?
We do not really know on which foot to dance with these Hawks. Why ? Because last spring we discovered a rather crazy horde of soldiers, whose offensive talent was matched only by their defensive toughness, for whom each difficulty turned into an immense challenge. From Trae Young the artificer to John Collins the watchdog, from Clint Capela the beacon to snipers Bogdan Bogdanovic and Kevin Huerter, from the snail Gallinari to the young cracks De’Andre Hunter and Onyeka Okongwu, too rarely glimpsed since their draft, each member of Nate McMillan’s squad has been able to sublimate themselves in the Playoffs, and this year it is this pressure that seems to be missing from these Falcons who have become doves. Wouldn’t the tension that emanates from a playoff series act as a particle accelerator for the Georgian franchise? Wouldn’t the Pioupioux be better back to the wall? That’s what we want to tell ourselves, because the talent and the desire demonstrated last spring, the desire above all, cannot be a mirage. This team has shown that it can defend, it has real individual specialists in the matter and therefore has no right to miss out collectively. Plus the right. So we roll up our sleeves and do – at least – the minimum until April 12, and then… everything is possible?
But besides, are we sure that the Hawks will play the Playoffs?
Rolling up one’s sleeves yes, that’s the crux of the problem. Because while Trae Young and his Youngers probably really want to win every game they play, 1) it’s not enough to want and 2) the competition will be tough in the East. As of February 28? The Hawks are only five games behind in sixth place directly qualifying for the Playoffs but, above all, only two ahead of the eleventh Wizards. Washington, which honestly does not scare a fly, but the Hawks’ schedule, for its part, can spin cold sweats to Nate McMillan and his future in Georgia. Boston, Chicago and Milwaukee in the next ten days, three weeks between fig and grape but, be careful, a Wild Wild East square to finish the regular with the Cavs, the Heat, the Nets and the Raptors, during a last fortnight which could decide a lot of things on the right side of the United States. Currently tenth, the Hawks are masters of their own destiny but would be well advised to get as close as possible to sixth place, because despite the arguments set out in the previous paragraph, a cutthroat match is never welcome when we could have gone six quiet days watching this damn play-in at the hotel. So ? In what place in the end these Hawks?
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