I don’t watch hawks basketball, when did you realize he wasn’t gonna play at 1st ovr expectations?

i mean the account will still be funny with a guandong tigers tag instead of a Hawks one

It’ll just be DNP-RD (did not post - redditors decision)

they always get the best pick ever while the east gets a shit #1 pick or they never get the #1 pick. the hawks gets #1 in the worse draft class just for the Mavs to get cooper flagg shit is dumb. now watch someone from the west will get Dybantsa

Over the past 30 years, the West got Wemby, Duncan, AD, Ant, and Blake as top overall picks. The East got LeBron, Howard, and Kyrie.

The big advantage isn’t the top overall picks, it’s the West drafting Curry, Durant, Dirk, CP3, Harden, Jokic, Westbrook, Kawhi, Dame, Shai, Luka…

We’ll take it considering the East got LeBron and Jordan

Half of the eastern teams have trash front offices and culture so of course the rookies they get don’t pan out

Does luck have a lot to do with it? Sure.

But it doesn’t help that the East teams also wind up picking the wrong guy, or pick the right guy and then surround him with trash until he leaves.

West teams in the last 25 years, in general, haven’t done things like draft Anthony Bennett #1 like Cleveland, or take Bargnani #1 like Toronto.

The Spurs didn’t draft Wemby, then immediately panic and trade away all their assets for mediocre veterans like Cleveland with LeBron.

Cleveland got the #1 pick three times in four years. Philly got the #1 pick two years in a row. But their teams have been run by idiots for a good portion of this century.

It’s not just pure luck that they wound up with busts. The East has had way more than their fair share of dumbass GMs.

Luka could have been in the East this entire time, but the dumbass Hawks wanted Trae Young instead.

Atlanta could have Steph Castle right now, but they took Risacher, who never showed anything that suggested he might have star potential. He rated out as “pretty decent” at lots of things, but there wasn’t exceptional athleticism, shooting, or playmaking that should have made anyone think “yeah, I could see a path to him being a star.”

But look up and down the lottery each year and you’ll see one example after another of an East team making a baffling decision like taking Bilal Coulibaly over Cason Wallace, or drafting Patrick Williams or Killian Hayes over much better players, then foolishly sticking with those guys long after it became clear that those were mistakes.

It’s not just that the West has had the best luck with #1 overall picks. Most of the top-20 players in the league were not the #1 overall pick. East teams have found a way to screw it up with the second or third or fourth pick, too.

There are counter examples, too. West teams don’t get everything right. But the East has had some truly epic draft blunders that has had a multiplier effect on whatever bad luck they’ve had in terms of not getting to draft Wemby or Flagg.

The spurs are the luckiest franchise of all time

looking past the fact that Sarr and Castle were there for the taking when the hawks took Risacher, lets look at top MVP candidates this year from the NBA ladder…

Shai - drafted #11 overall

Jokic - 2nd rounder

Wemby - #1, so this one supports your case

Doncic - drafted #3 after Ayton/Bagley, drafted by the franchise being discussed here and traded to the west for Trae

Jaylen Brown - #3 overall to the east

Cade - #1 overall to the east

Jalen Johnson - #20 to the franchise being discussed here

Kawhi Leonard - #15 overall

Durant - #2 overall, supports your case

Donovan Mitchell - #13 overall

It’s beyond parody.

You will also get fans of teams like the Spurs and Mavs mock those teams to argue against how much luck they’ve benefited from.

“So and so teams also got top picks and they’re still bad/mediocre.”

The real advantage is bad West teams getting better draft odds than bad East teams every year due to playing harder schedules.

In fairness, stars don’t always correlate to the #1 pick. Yes Ant, Wemby & Flagg make it seem that way, but they’re countered by Luka, Steph, Brunson, Tatum, Shai, Joker, Giannis, Melo, etc….

It’s alright silver has something cooking for us

Pistons fell to 5 after the worst season in the history of the sport

Hear that NBA? This is your chance to even that inequity.

Monkey Paw Curls: Bucks trade Giannis to the Lakers and then get the first overall pick.

Cade might want a word with you

Cade

Sure man, fuck it

Yeah after the hawks decline his 4th year option

Honestly I see LAC trying to grab him as a reclamation project. They pretty desperately need wing depth.

hell yeah, former number one pick!

Bucks about to field a lineup of: Ousmane Dieng/Nate Ament/Risacher/Giannis/Turner

Interesting way to spell Shanghai Shark

Hilariously enough i signed him in my MyNBA with Milwaukee and he’s a 92 overall now averaging 15/5/5 on like 48% from deep. 2K obviously has a lot of faith in him panning out.

Bucks fans want Jalen Green tho 👀

It’s just that the team changed around him, he needs a Trae that can feed him but NAW and CJ are different. If he wants his then he has to get his now and he just can’t do it, and his defense is nowhere near enough to justify playing someone who can’t shoot dribble drive or playmake. He can be decent off the bench for a team like the Lakers as maybe a 10th man but that’s it.

Kings will pick him up

Clippers can offer you a slightly used Bogdan Bogdanovic for him. He would look great in a Hawks jersey.

Troy Weaver is legit obsessed with reclamation projects so Risacher is going to the Pelicans

I think a Heat for Jovic trade makes some sense. Both players need a change of scenery. Heat desperately need frontcourt players and the Hawks need facilitators

Zacc was a trae young pick not a bpa so it would be good for him

Would actually be a great fit

Where the actual hell would he get playing time on that roster lol

True, the Ouizards could use another Frenchman

If you set aside being Bron’s son, I will maintain that in a vacuum, Bronny was a good pick at 55

He’s not a worldbeater and was never going to be. But he has some defensive upside and will make the shot in the NBA which a very good outcome for a late 2RP

They should have just taken Sarr.

What would Sarr have realistically done if he was drafted by them? Stay in France or sit out?

You can pick a guy that doesn’t want to go to your team

4 Steph Castle

7 Donovan Clingan

9 Zach Edey

11 Matas Buzelis

Some of these might have been reaches, but they all would fit the current Hawks better than Risacher.

He’s still not as much a bust as James Wiseman though, who the Warriors passed on LaMelo and Tyrese Haliburton

yeah it’s not a good look but he’s not even 2 years in. he’s a string bean too. now if next season ends like this one is i’d be worried. 22 and 3 years in is still young with plenty of room to grow but i’m not sure about paying him what a dude coming off his rookie deal prolly wants.

He needs a real pg, this isn’t the right system for him.

They’d rather have the greater cap flexibility though

Brother I would rather have Zacch rot on the bench than have to deal with AD’s contract.

Considering zac actually plays games and ad doesnt ur percentages are backwards

How would that trade even work? AD makes $40 million more per year than Risacher

Bro no one wants to pay AD lol

I’d rather Zacc catch dnps on our team than have AD on the roster

We’ve made franchise altering decisions almost every year in the 2020s, some of which would tank any other franchise, but the power of the Midlanta Hakws will always prevail

Right. Guaranteed he would be good on Spurs. He needs a PG to help set him up. If he went to Wizards and got 25+ mins he would be a 16-20pt scorer with 6-10 reb a game along with great defence.