Tag / blake griffin

Atlanta Hawks, Dejounte Murray, Southeast Division, NBA, Atlantic Files
by Alex Fischbein

Will Dejounte Murray turn around the Atlanta Hawks | TAF246

This week on The Atlantic Files, we preview the Southeast Division where Dejounte Murray looks to help the Atlanta Hawks get back to deep playoff runs, Blake Griffin signs with the Boston Celtics, the NBA Preseason is underway, Oklahoma City and Houston traded a bunch of players, the Toronto Raptors are monitoring Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s situation, and we take a look at the annual GM survey from the NBA!

A lot of depressing rosters have made their home in the Southeast division over recent years. The only team that really was a championship threat was the Miami Heat. This time around, there are still a few depressing rosters, but both the Heat and the Atlanta Hawks look like they could make some noise! Dejounte Murray found himself move from a tanking situation to a contender, so can he help Atlanta get back to the Conference Finals?

Blake Griffin is officially staying in the Atlantic Division! After playing with the Brooklyn Nets last season and then not getting another offer, he found his home in Boston. The cleanup crew just got even better for the Celtics. Griffin is bringing his charge drawing abilities on top of his high effort in all of his bench minutes. Yet another sneaky good addition from Brad Stevens and company.

The NBA Preseason is officially underway! We’ve seen the Phoenix Suns lose to an NBL team, the Philadelphia 76ers blowout the Nets without most of their starters, and so much more. We gave our top observations and takeaways from the games that have been played so far.

In trade news, the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets swapped a bunch of bench players so that the Thunder could get under the tax line. A couple pieces of the trade have already been waived, so this really has no effect on the day-to-day talent of each team.

Rumors are now swirling that the Toronto Raptors and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are starting to form a link. The Raptors are reportedly keeping tabs on the situation in Oklahoma City just in case Gilgeous-Alexander doesn’t want to wait for this tank job to finally end.

Finally, we take a look at the survey that’s done by all of the NBA’s General Managers. They answered a ton of questions about the current state of the league and even some predictions for how the season is going to turn out. We gave our thoughts to the best and worst answers.

Timecodes:
00:00:00 Intro & Dennis’s dungeon
00:07:09 2022-23 NBA Southeast Division Preview
00:39:03 Observations from the NBA Preseason
00:54:32 Blake Griffin signs with the Boston Celtics
00:56:08 Toronto Raptors are monitoring Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
01:03:23 Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets trade
01:04:58 Reactions and thoughts on annual NBA GM Survey
01:28:12 Outro

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Julius Randle, New York Knicks
by Alex Fischbein

Last night in the Atlantic (11/5/21)

The trio of Atlantic games last night was highlighted by a big-time win by the Knicks. Both New York teams actually got a win with Toronto’s game ending in a little bit of a controversial way.

Standings:
Philadelphia 76ers 7-2
Brooklyn Nets 6-3
New York Knicks 6-3
Toronto Raptors 6-4
Boston Celtics 4-5

Let’s talk about last night.

Julius Randle

Julius Randle, after a bit of a rough streak, finally got back to his ways from last season. He dropped 32p, 12r, 4a, 2b in an awesome comeback win against one of the top teams in the East! Randle was leading the way for the offense again and it shows that this team really fires on all cylinders when Randle is going. The biggest question is if he can stay consistent and if he doesn’t, can this team win despite that.

Gary Trent Jr.

Gary Trent Jr is really proving to be an awesome return for the Norm Powell trade. He’s been playing some great basketball and making sure he’s playing his way into the starting lineup. His defense has improved and his quick trigger on offense has given the Raptors some great shooting to go along with their main core. He finished with 17p, 2r, and SIX steals!

Blake Griffin

Kevin Durant had another great scoring night, James Harden had another triple-double, but this time we’re showing love to Blake Griffin. The guy that’s bringing his hard hat and lunch box to the game and doing a lot of the hard, dirty work. He even has a celebration that goes along with that. He deserves even more of a shoutout because he has bought into his role and has been playing it perfectly for this team.