NAW for MIP, mailbag, and Hawks-Nets preview

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On today's show, the hawks are still rolling when we answer your mailbox questions on NBA

Awards races.

A little bit of hawks nets preview for Thursday and more and it's coming up right now.

You are Lockdown hawks.

You are daily Atlanta hawks podcast, part of the Lockdown podcast network, your team

every day.

Hello friends, welcome to episode 2188 of the Lockdown hawks podcast, part of the Lockdown

podcast network, another number one sports podcast network.

I'm your host Brad Rowling coming to you on a Wednesday evening into Thursday here

in the middle of March.

I want to encourage you at the top of the show as I always do to make a Lockdown hawks

your first listen each and every day.

Please subscribe to the show on Apple on Spotify, YouTube, anywhere you get your podcasts

and I appreciate you being here as always today is kind of a grab bag of an episode.

Some mail about questions and later on a preview of the hawks continuing potentially

continue.

I should say they're winning streak on Thursday with a game against Brooklyn at home.

The first one kind of was the topic that I've been waiting to talk about for a little

while.

I got a question about it in the last couple of days and a good chest over the podcast

with this.

So a question from Peter who says, do the hawks have

any real chance to factor in the NBA awards races this season or was spoiled by Dyson

and Zach's races last season?

So the answer to the second part of that question, maybe a little bit spoiled.

Dyson was in two of the major individual race slasher, which is not usually what's going

to happen for most guys, one of which he won, of course, with most improved player.

And then Zach finished second rookie of the year was definitely in it to the end.

So that was probably a little bit more of an outlier than it would be normally for the

hawks at the same time.

The hawks do have some award interest as of mid March with about a month to go in the

season.

And for me, it's three things to watch.

One of them is most improved player where they actually have two candidates for the award.

You have Joe and Johnson for all NBA consideration, which he certainly is in the mix for.

And then I think Dyson Daniels for all defensive teams, not necessarily a player of the year.

He won't win that this year by any means.

But he did have a chance last year and that actually won the entire award because he had

absurd steel numbers.

But basically for a guard to win that's a part of the year, it has to be a perfect kind

of scenario.

And right now with Wembee being eligible and Dyson not having the video game numbers

for steals, he won't win this year nor probably should he.

But he'll be in the mix for all defense, which he should be in my view.

So let's go one by one.

I think I do want to focus mostly on most improved player races because the hawks actually

have two real candidates on that one.

So the first thing I'll say on most improved is that it's very difficult to handicap that

race.

Especially every year, especially while the games are still happening, things tend to

vary wildly in that race because the criteria is really broad.

And different kinds of players tend to be in the mix for it.

For example, last year Dyson won it with a different kind of case than most players actually

have.

I thought it was the right choice, but he usually had to have like big time scoring numbers

on like that.

And he had a different kind of case, but it worked out well for him.

I think he was the right winner in that spot.

But sometimes it's kind of a supporting player going from a supporting player to a main

piece.

And sometimes it's actually more of a like established guy making a jump to like all

star all in the a status.

For example, Tari's Maxie wanted as a star turn.

John Marant wanted in that same vein, Yannis wanted a few years ago with his breakout campaign

and so on.

So occasionally you'll have a role player jump up like Dyson, sometimes it would be like

Ryan Anderson back in the day, but a lot of big names have also won it in recent years.

So it's really a guessing game and to me, it's the hardest award to break down because

it's like almost entirely dependent on your personal criteria for what you're looking

for.

For the record, our friends at Fandall have J.O. and Johnson number two right now in the

most improved player odds at plus 220 only behind Piston Center, J.O. and Durin.

And then he always in our Walker is fifth in the odds at 25 to one behind Kiyante, George

and Ryan Rollins.

The odds are definitely not gospel on this one by any means, especially this early in

the process for most improve.

It's just like such a wide array of candidates.

But it's usually a decent indicator of where the race could shape up in the next month

plus.

As for J.O. and I mentioned this before, but sometimes it's a star turn, get you notice

for this.

I thought J.O. was a real candidate for most improved last season and this year he will

be again.

I think the kind of a similar case with J.O. and Durin, both guys, first time all stars,

making leaps.

Durin got a lot of attention with the Piston Speed number one seed in the East right

now, etc.

But J.O. and average 19, 10 and five last year and this year it's 23, 10 and 8 assists,

which is obviously impressive, especially as better, your point shooting is better and

obviously a lot more usage as a number one option for the Hawks this year.

I think he has a real chance to win and I would be totally in line and reasonable with

some of the guys who've won it recently like Maxi or Markinin or John Morant, etc.

I kind of in that vein of taking the next step to become like an all star firmly established

guy.

Personally though, I don't know J.O. is the best candidate on the Hawks.

That's my opinion.

Part of the reason why though is that J.O. made a big jump last year.

That's my view.

If people just didn't quite notice that, I think nationally because he got hurt mid season,

I get that.

If he had gone from where he was two years ago to where he is now in one year, I would

be pounding the table that J.O. is the guy.

But I think I'm a little bit less enthused by his candidacy this year because of how good

I think he was last year.

I think that's probably why I find myself different than other people.

He averaged 19, 10, and 5 last year.

He was basically a fringe all star level of guy before he got hurt last year.

He's gotten better this year.

No question about that.

He should be a candidate.

I think it's for me, the other guy on the Hawks roster would be my number one pick for

most improved and that is of course the key Alexander Walker.

The key was not a star like J.O. is or like John Ray it was or he honest was, etc.

He does have a very particular scoring jump for the award, which gets him on the right

there.

I think and probably in part because it's on the Hawks.

He hasn't getting that much buzz.

If the Keele was on the Lakers or the Knicks or the Celtics this year had the same numbers,

I am pretty confident he would be number one in the betting odds for this award.

Now I could be wrong about that, but generally speaking, the Hawks don't get a ton of national

buzz all the time and I would say also team wise they've been what they've been this year

overall.

The Keele though has been tremendous and just to go through this a little bit is scoring

average last year was 9.4 points per game.

This year he's averaging 20.0 points per game that is currently the largest scoring leap

in the entire league.

But what's even close to that is Ryan Rollins who are from 6.2, 15.6 this year and even

that is heavily about Ryan Rollins just playing a ton more minutes.

He's been good and he's a candidate too but the Keele was playing a lot last year.

He is playing more than he was last year but it's only from 25 minutes last year to 33

this year whereas Rollins doubled or more his minutes year over year and he was already

playing.

The Keele was already playing a major role for the Wolves on a playoff good team last

year.

He was closing games, he was playing a lot and rightfully so.

But for me it speaks to how much he's done this year to kind of make this show.

If you told me and look I was very high on signing the Keele, I praised that move that

it was a great move by Ansi and Company this summer, very high on it.

If you told me then in July they'd be averaging 20 points a game after 62 games of his

Hawke's career, I would have thought you were crazy to be honest.

I thought you would score more than you did last year in Minnesota for sure and generally

do more on offense because part of the pitch with him coming to Atlanta was that he'd

have a bigger role.

That was always going to happen.

But the notion of him averaging 20 points a game would have been pretty darn shocking

to me.

I got to be honest with you about that.

Maybe he wouldn't be averaging quite 20 if they had had the roster they thought they're

going to have with Trey and KP.

That's fair to say but even with that, even early in the year, he was putting up 18,

19, 20 point games regularly, even when they had one or both of Trey and KP.

So I think that he would have had that jump anyway to some degree.

Importantly, it's not just about the usage too within Keele.

He's actually, it's a seven season in the league.

He has currently his best true shooting percentage.

His best efficiency as a shooter, as a score this year.

Above like a public average, his best efficiency, even with more usage, is averaging a career

high in rebounds, a career high in assists, a career high in steals.

And again, this is year seven.

He's like a young guy breaking out.

Also has a career low in a good way, turnover rate.

So basically, he's been better at everything this year in year seven in a new team.

He's been excelling and plus he's still a good defender.

He brings it every night.

If it's not to me, I think I would vote for Keele right now.

I don't have a vote.

But if it was up to me on March 11th, this could change.

And look, if you're new to the podcast, I don't always say the whole sky should win.

I'm very impartial on these things.

I covered the rest of the league too.

I looked at it today a lot.

Yeah, you could vote for Jayland Duren.

You could vote for Ryan Rollins, you could vote for Jayland Johnson.

All those are reasonable votes.

If I had a vote today, I vote for Keele.

And that speaks to how good he's been and have the Hawks go back to back and then award

with guards who were relocated to their team, et cetera.

But he should be a big time candidate for sure.

And I'll leave it there for now.

On the other side, by the way, I did a segment on Jayland's All N B A candidate to see

only like two weeks ago on episode two, one, seven, nine.

So I'll do the whole thing again now.

I think he says a really good case for 13 at least.

And I think he probably will make it if I had to guess right now.

It'll be close, but I think he'll probably get on there.

And then for me, Dyson should absolutely be in all defense candidate.

Now, I don't think he's going to be a first team candidate probably given the way

that the betting market looks right now.

Also, it's positionalists.

So bigs get the default there for obvious reasons.

I think because Dyson's only like fifth or fourth of third and assist this year,

he's not getting the same attention as it was last year.

But if anything, the impact metrics are actually even better this year.

So the catch on numbers defensively are still absolutely leap for Dyson.

Night in, night out.

He has been unbelievably good defensively all year long.

I think he is even when you include positionalist stuff, throw everything out.

For me, a top 10 defender in the league.

And that's why it should be all defense.

So I don't know if I go first team on him, but if it was me and I had a vote,

I have him on second team all defense and maybe even trending towards the bottom of

the first team.

That's why he's going to win defensive part of the year, as you should.

If you want to go with Chet or with Rudy or whoever else you want to throw out there,

I get it.

But Dyson is one of the best defenders in the league full stop.

Maybe I'll do a deep job on that once the season is over.

But we're always speaking one more time.

I would pick Nikiel right now, most improved player.

If you, I don't know, the league is going to root with me.

But if you kind of go in depth on the numbers, on the case, on his improvement, and look

at it pretty closely, I think he has this good case, then it's anybody for sure.

Okay.

In a second, I'll dive into more mail-back questions, plus a preview of Hawks' Nets

later in the show.

And it's coming up in just one moment.

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All right, more about questions now.

I should also say here, mailbag is always open.

I want to always ask for them about questions, but they're always available.

Send a email if you want to at lockdownhawks at gmail.com or send questions to me on Twitter

slash X at BT Rowan or the show is at lockdownhawks plus I'm on blue sky at BT Rowan and also

my Patreon is available for questions patreon.com slash BT Rowan.

Okay.

A question from Bradley and that's not me, a different Bradley.

What is the value of the pick swap right now that the hawks have with the calves from

the downer hunter trade?

I was reading it's Cleveland early in the year and I kind of gave up when they started

to win games.

So as a refresher here, the hawks could swap picks with the calves this year because of

the hunter trade that happened a few months ago, I like that at the time and it looks even

better now for the hawks.

Honestly, it looks like an awesome trade for Atlanta, but anyway, the spurs do have

the hawks pick in a swap this year.

That's going to be happening this bridge having a great season, but the hawks can then

turn around and swap the spurs pick with the calves, which boring a surprise will be

a positive for Atlanta.

They'll go up swapping from the spurs to the calves.

That could be at least three spots, could be seven spots, could be five spots, eight

spots.

We don't know yet, but it will be a bump in value.

Like for instance, if you go from like 29 to 24 in the draft, that's something that's

something you have to trade up to do normally and the hawks are getting it for effectively

free after the hunter trade.

So right now on Wednesday night, the hawks will get you the 23rd, 24th pick from the

calves.

There's a tie right now.

Anyway, you get the general range.

There are six games.

Sorry, six teams separated by one and a half games right now in the NBA standings.

That is crazy.

So there's actually a pretty big swing on where the pick could land between like 21 and

27 basically, but it is good for the hawks when the calves lose in general.

I would guess they'll probably be like a 24, 25 pick ispians, projection is 25 right

now.

I think we'll buy the pure numbers.

But the calves do have some bad teams on the schedule.

They have Dallas twice, they have Chicago, New Orleans, Utah, Indiana, Memphis, and Washington.

So that's not good news for Atlanta.

They're going to allow those games obviously.

But the hawks do have two head-to-head matchups with the calves in the last week of the

year.

So they'll have a chance to help themselves.

Then when both of those games, I would definitely help them in multiple ways.

So regardless, that's a real pick the hawks have in the 20s.

I get that the focus will be understandably on the Pelican slash bucks pick in the top

10.

But having another first rounder to either use on a player or to trade or just have is

really helpful.

And at 23 or 24 or 25 or whatever, that's a real pick in this draft that can add a nice

player or a nice draft asset or trade asset or whatever in the future.

So just a small thing there, but I'm going to keep in mind the hawks do have two first-round

picks.

And then pretty sexy one, the other one's less sexy, but certainly still has value in

this class.

All right.

Question from Casey.

How would you react if someone on the hawks was going for 83 points and they were fouling

and challenging and making a mockery of it all like the Miami Heat did with Bam?

Okay.

I'll keep it short because there's a lot of discourse about this across the internet.

And I've written things about it out of necessity.

Anyway, what the Heat did and Bam out of bio did on Tuesday got a lot of attention.

If you somehow miss this, Bam scored 83 points, 83 points last night.

He had a career high before that of 41 points, which is kind of tells the story in a lot

of ways.

Bam is a great player, all-star player, but not someone that anybody would have ever

guessed to be even a 60 point score, much less a 70 or 80 point score in a game.

He passed Kobe on the list, all that stuff.

What I will say, and I recommend watching the game to get the full context.

I did watch the second half in full and part of the first half as well.

But what I've got me to react negatively on the Hawks side, which is what Casey's asking

about.

How do I react about the Hawks?

The thing that bothered me really only to actually bother me was that Miami was intentionally

fouling at the end of the game and trying to extend the game.

They were up by 25 or 30 points.

Like if they had fouled in a game where they're down by, they're down seven and they're trying

to win, that's different.

But that was the only thing that, you know, the question in case you use the word mockery,

if you thought it was a mockery, that would be what I would reference as the part that

was like kind of out of line was Miami literally trying to game the system to get bam more

and more opportunities to score.

That was silly.

That probably shouldn't happen.

And it's kind of funny to me, given the bluster that the heat organization always has

about how serious they are.

And you know, the message that was written on the corner about the hardest working team

and all that stuff.

It's kind of funny that that was the team that did this is basically a circus into the

game.

I thought I was amusing.

I thought I was funny about it.

Like I didn't think there's a lot, there's a lot of bad hot takes about all sides today.

I don't really have one of those again.

The only that bothered me was the intentional fouling.

That was kind of crazy.

Spoke me to challenge.

That's kind of probably a little bit aggressive.

But really the fouling was one of them without me that much.

But I will say this in defensive Miami and defensive BAM who by the way had a great game.

Like it is what it is.

But the wizards have been pretty embarrassing for a while and the product they're playing

on the floor.

Like I know why they're doing it.

They're trying to rebuild.

They're trying to get a high draft pick, all that stuff.

But BAM would have had 70 plus, even without the crazy stuff at the end of the game.

Which speaks to the wizards.

It speaks to BAM too.

But the wizards just kept fouling him over and over and over again and it wasn't like

it was like he was foul-baiting.

If you watch the film, a lot of the fouls are real fouls.

He set the NBA record for free throw attempts in a game.

BAM might have hired.

Not like a huge free throw guy.

So regardless, they're also to laugh about, honestly, including the fact that BAM is

a center who shot 50% or actually both 3% from the field in the game and at 830 points

that shouldn't be able to happen.

But there were so many free throws.

Took a lot of threes.

All that stuff.

Again.

But the only stuff that I will be serious about, a lot of funny jokes, a lot of silly

takes that were in their feelings about too many different things.

I get all that.

My only actual reaction was that the fouling was a bridge too far for me.

Beyond that, it's fair game.

The Wizards just kept fouling and fouling and fouling and being embarrassing and being

terrible.

And Miami did, obviously, try to get BAM the record.

And I was okay with it until the last two minutes, three minutes, something like that.

So BAM probably, quote unquote, should have had like 75.

That's still crazy.

I mean, that's a wild number in itself, but that'd be my reaction.

And you know, everyone draws the line at a different spot.

My only line that would have been drawn would have been the intentional foul, because that

was a little bit silly.

But everything else, fair game, Washington should just be better.

This is professional sports.

College.

It's not high school.

You don't have to play.

Like, these guys are getting paid.

Played to the whistle.

I'm all in all that stuff.

So we'll leave it there for now.

Okay.

In a second, I'll dive into the Hawks Nets preview for Thursday and the Hawks have a chance

to win an eighth straight game.

Yes, eight games in a row.

If they can win on Thursday, we're getting that and more coming up.

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All right, and the Hawks are back in action on Thursday evening, as always, I'll have

a podcast after that game is concluded, and the Hawks are going for an eighth consecutive

victory, which is pretty rare for this Hawks team.

Atlanta saw Brooklyn pretty recently.

In fact, the winning streak began with a home win over the nets on February 22nd, a couple

of weeks ago, at this point in time, if you recall, that was a game the Hawks actually

played very poorly for a lot of it.

They were down by 11 points with eight minutes to go in the game.

They played very badly despite being big favorites at home, and then they left the game in

a more positive note with a 24-to-2 run at the end, so they saved it, everything was fine,

they won the game, and then defensively, that changed the tone.

They were pretty bad defensively, most of the game, and then Dyson and company just

like changed the game at the end, a lot of two points in the last eight minutes, et cetera,

et cetera.

Brooklyn being a bad team, but they won the game, it's all the matters.

Now, fast forward to now, and the Hawks are playing much better basketball than they

were then, for sure, and the nets are still pretty bad.

I will say, the nets did just beat the pistons in pretty shocking fashion on Saturday,

so only five days ago, right now, Kay didn't play, so it wasn't quite the full pistons,

but still, a reminder that even a bad team, even a tanking team, can beat anybody in

the league.

I always say that, it's because it's true, nothing's ever assured, and that is another

big matter of that.

The Hawks have won games in the last couple of years as huge underdogs, teams can do that

all the time.

With that said, Brooklyn then beat a Memphis team, it's also taking, but then they got

blasted by Detroit on Tuesday by 38 points.

So, the nets at one point this season were 10 and 19.

Now they are not 10 and 19 anymore.

They are 2 and 11 in the last 13, they were 7 and 29 in the last 36, isn't going well

for Brooklyn for a while.

Now, I do think that the nets are better, generally speaking, than the Wizards and the

Kings.

They had a real coach in Jordan for Nandes.

They have some real players, all of a sudden those guys are going to miss the night, it's

starting at the end of Thursday.

With that said, they're all pretty bad in most areas on the court by the numbers.

They are bottom five in the league in offense and defense, this season, they're 27th in the

league of true shooting, 29th in the league in turn of red in offense.

They are dead last and 50% in a loud on defense and 30% in a loud on defense.

They fell a lot.

It's a bunch of young guys who make mistakes, like, they're well coached, but they are not

a very good basketball team.

We saw that at the end of the game previously, by the way, when the Hawks did come back,

people kept insisting to tell me that the nets were like, the net's players were tanky,

players don't tank, generally.

And that wasn't what happened.

Brooklyn was playing their starting lineup.

There have been teams this year, last night, by the way, they happened against the Hawks,

but Memphis was winning that game last night and then pulled everybody and they lost.

Utah has sat guys most famously this year, Washington's on this too, where teams just

pull their best players.

Brooklyn played their guys in Atlanta.

They were doing it on the court.

They were on sharp.

Nick Collack said they all were playing.

They also played some bad young guys because they had bad young guys on this team and

they also missed their shots.

And he's what it is.

But the nets do generally try and generally play hard, even if your roster is not great.

With that said, there's some injury stuff between now and Thursday.

Jonathan Kaminga is questionable for the fourth straight game before the Hawks were left

knee bone bruise.

If you missed it, he missed the game on Tuesday.

They did change the listing to bone bruise after the first two games.

No further update.

Just questionable.

I don't know what to make of that.

Honestly, the Hawks did not have practice today.

So we'll see if they have anything new or coming as around or TBD.

The official listing right now is questionable for Kaminga.

Elsemore, Dyson Day knows it's not an injury report.

As questionable with a toast sprain on his left foot, presumably suffered during the game

on Tuesday.

That could be questionable.

It could be anything there.

I don't know what to make of that.

Dyson's been largely available all year long.

I do think if it's close at all, they might lean to giving him a night off against Brooklyn,

but we'll see how that manifests.

But in the end, two of the top seven guys on the roster are injured right now, almost

to some degree, and questionable with a game.

Now, Brooklyn has two guys out that are two of their best four players.

Like a poor junior, is the best player?

He's not playing.

They are on sharp.

Is really good as a backup center.

He's not playing either.

Plus, two of their first round rookies are out, Agor Demon and Noan Tarrori, who were

both part of the loss the last time for the Hawks, sorry, for the nets in Atlanta.

So four of their guys who usually play minutes for Brooklyn are out.

So even with the Hawks might having two guys out, Brooklyn's got more guys out in this

game.

Our friends at Fandall have not, as I'm recording this podcast on Wednesday evening.

I'm looking at right now to make sure they have not released a line that I have seen.

Yeah, I still don't have a line for the game on Thursday.

With that said, I looked it up to make sure I wasn't crazy.

The last time they played in Atlanta a few weeks ago, the Hawks were favored by nine

and a half points at tip off, and that was with poor junior and sharp both playing.

So it could be even higher than that.

With, especially if Dyson is applying or coming into the plane or both, the Hawks will

be big favorites.

I don't know how big, but news to say, with poorer out, especially with sharp out, especially,

the Hawks will be expected to win this game.

No, expected to win is not mean guaranteed win, but any means, but they will be expected

to win.

And as they're on the show last night, the Hawks are on their first semi-game winning streak

since January of 2022.

It's been a while.

They haven't won eight in a row since March of 2021, which was their Conor's final

team, and that was when they're red hot, late in the season, that year.

They haven't won nine in a row since 2015, which was that famous team that won 60 games.

So, you know, the discussion has been favorable for sure.

The Hawks have been playing really well, and they have a chance to add to the winning streak

on Thursday.

And by the way, on Saturday, they have a home game against Milwaukee, they'll be favored

again most likely.

Chances in front of them to stack some wins.

And I would say this is an absolutely prime opportunity for a win.

I will never say guaranteed win.

I'll never say must win any of that stuff.

But what I will say, it does not get much more favorable than playing the nets without

Porter, Jr. and Sharp at home.

Maybe the Wizards, maybe the Kings, but anything else other than that, like this is a very

soft spot.

And we'll see if the Hawks can show up and look more seriously, try to avoid what happened

in the first three quarters in the last matchup because the Hawks show, when that game

too, and they did, but they had to kind of pull around out of the hat at the end, more

like what happening at the Wizards when they blew them out twice would be more encouraging

on Thursday.

All right.

I'll be in the building for that game.

And as always, I'll talk about what actually happens when it's over.

But please lock in on lots of Hawks and please subscribe to the show anywhere you get

your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, etc.

Check out the show on social media.

I am at, I'm at lots of Hawks is the show for Twitter slash X.

I am personally at BT Rowland.

I'm also on Blue Sky at BT Rowland and then my non podcast coverage of the Hawks can

be found at patreon.com slash BT Rowland.

Everybody enjoy the rest of your Wednesday into Thursday.

We back in about 24 hours with a full breakdown of the Hawks and the Nets.

What's up everybody?

This is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Lockdown Podcast Network.

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