Source: https://marcstein.substack.com/p/more-of-the-latest-late-night-nba-a2b?r=nuq3a&utm_medium=ios

The Mavericks must finally decide on whether to keep or waive Mavs lifer Dwight Powell.

Retaining Powell — barring a trade that creates some additional roster flexibility for Dallas — would necessitate the release of one Maverick holding a guaranteed contract. There's a growing expectation among rival teams that Moussa Cissé is the Dallas player in the greatest jeopardy.

The Stein Line has learned, however, that Cissé is a real candidate to be claimed off waived in the event he is let go. Chicago, sources say, has interest in the high-energy big man. I'm told Atlanta also has interest even though the Hawks don't currently have an open standard spot.

If Cissé were to be waived Monday and then clear waivers Wednesday, I'm also told that the 76ers and Lakers would have strong interest in signing him to a two-way deal even though neither team currently has a two-way opening. As we confirmed below Saturday, Cissé is not eligible to sign a two-way with Dallas if the Mavericks waive him and he clears waivers. The Mavericks matched a two-year, $4.7 million offer sheet from the Knicks in July to retain Cisse in restricted free agency. He would only be allowed to rejoin the Mavericks on a two-way in such circumstances if he had $91,000 or less in guaranteed money left on his contract.

I can’t sleep and was just doing some pondering on how I’m excited to watch the rookies ball this season. But then it reminded of the crazy circumstances that actually led us to getting the 8th pick, and how we were so close to actually not getting it. A crazy domino effect.

1. The Kevin Huerter Trade: The Hawks traded Kevin Huerter to the Sacramento Kings for Justin Holiday, Maurice Harkless, and a protected future first-round draft pick which was lottery-protected in 2024, top-12 protected in 2025, and top-10 protected in 2026. If it didn’t convey after all these, then the pick would have turned into 2 second rounders.

2. Sacramento don’t tank….but aren’t good: The pick didn’t convey in 2024, so the protection was now top 12. The kings weren’t good which helped us, but funnily enough, didn’t tank which also helped us. I remeber the debacle of hawks fans wanting them to win as many as possible to avoid bottom 12, verse kings fans toward the end of the season wanting them to tank to secure their pick. In Kings fashion though they randomly won a few games at the end of the season they shouldn’t and ended 40-42. Enough for them to squeeze on the play in.

3. Thank you Memphis: Basically the hawks needed Dallas to lose in the play in as they finished with 39-43 record and would be sitting below the Kings, lifting the pick out of the danger zone of not conveying. With the Mavs beating the Kings in the first play in, things where looking a little dicey, as, if Dallas beat Memphis then it was a 50/50 shot at the Kings getting pick 12 (not conveying) or pick 13 (conveying).

Thankfully Memphis got out to a massive lead early and held on. This gave the pick 95% chance at landing outside of top 12. Funnily enough with the Mavs losing, they ended up with the 11th odds which ended up turning into pick 1…Cooper Flagg. So they would be very happy they lost that play in game to end 11th….

4. What was Joe Dumars thinking: At this point we know the completely crazy trade where we traded that number 13 pick to the Pelicans for 23 (where we drafted Asa Newell) and a 2026 unprotected first rounder. I don’t know want went into the Pelicans front office decision making but it was a deal the Hawks couldn’t pass up. (Derik Queen is solid but an unprotected first rounder!?!? Specially when you guys suck???)

5. Pelicans Hatewatch + The Kings suck (but that was no longer our problem): With an unprotected pick we pretty much rode the highs and lows of the Pels season, with them being dead last at some points during the season, to Saddiq Bey turning into LeBron fucking James for no reason. Ultimately they finished with the 7th best odds with ended up as the 8th pick. And we selected Kingston Flemings out of Houston.

Also the Kings absolutely sucked, which is funny because if the top 12 pick didn’t convey, it would have been top 10 protected this year, which we know also wouldn’t have conveyed (they got 6) so we would’ve ended up with two seconds, no Asa (well maybe, cos we may have not traded the lakers pick) and no Kingston Flemings.

I just think this is a crazy story. At the time there were discussions about how we got nothing good back for Huerter, who ultimately never got going. Imagine now a team offering a protected lottery 1st round pick for him. You’d say yes in a heartbeat.

And I know Flemings hasn’t done anything yet, and could be a bust, but I was just tryna point out how literally like a couple of play in games and late season wins turns a potential second round pick into the 8th pick.

Sup everybody! Following up on my previous post, I’ve been working on some fun new features for the sub - you can check them all out on a test subreddit I made here.

The full list of features:

GAME-DAY THREADS

- Screen Shots Of The Game Day Thread Vs Dallas
- Automatic game threads at 5 a.m. Eastern on game days
- One combined pregame and live-game discussion with game information and live score updates
- A separate postgame thread after the game finishes
- A link from the game thread to the postgame discussion, followed by locking the original game thread
- Game Thread and Post-Game flairs, with comments sorted by New
- Big thanks to u/0xgod, who developed these sick game day/off day/post game threads and reached out to help after he saw my original post.

OFF-DAY DISCUSSIONS

- Automatic discussion threads at 5 a.m. Eastern on days without a Hawks game
- The next four scheduled Hawks games
- Yesterday’s NBA scores
- A featured Hawks-related Wikipedia article drawn from a 200-article collection, rotating without repeats until the collection is exhausted
- Hawks history drawn from 100 individual performances and 100 team performances, with supporting links
- History labeled appropriately as “Today,” “This Week,” or an archive selection, depending on the date match
- Useful Hawks links, including the team website

THREAD ORGANIZATION

- Automatic highlight rotation between game, postgame, and off-day threads so the current discussion takes priority
- Schedule handling that accounts for NBA Cup games and schedule changes

CUSTOM BOTS

- BobRathbunBot: celebrates exceptional Hawks plays and achievements with Bob-style reactions
- DominiqueBot: reacts to standout plays, hot streaks, mismatches, and player achievements with Dominique-style commentary
- SteveHolmanBot: responds to Goga Bitadze mentions with Steve’s memorable commentary. The current build uses the name mention itself as the trigger
- CawBot: responds to “caw” in posts or comments with a randomly selected hawk GIF
- Bot controls for enabling, pausing, and adjusting response frequency

SIDEBAR ADDITIONS

- Hawks roster and front office
- College Park Skyhawks
- All-time team leaders
- Hawks podcasts and blogs

The bots are a little behind schedule unfortunately, which is my fault. I didn’t understand the full process of installing them at first and now they’re pending full approval from Reddit which might delay them past opening night.

Everything else is good to go. The mods have had the instructions for most of this stuff for the better part of the week, so use this thread to let them know if you approve and want these changes.

All of the important possession stats this team did really good. I think they are the biggest surprise to me this off-season so far. If I was a Hawks fan I would be happy by these numbers maybe even more than the results.

https://possessionbattle.com/?team=atl#/

Led the team in blocks during the playoffs. Definitely not lacking in effort on the defensive end with that many swats. Never call him a bum on defense.

Just wanted to put this interesting tidbit out there, seems like most fans don't have the slightest idea.

I live about 110 miles from ATL. Too far for the antenna to work. I live in north east ga close to south Carolina. I'm too far for local tv but too close to where I get black outs. Someone help. I want a reliable way please

Trae and Risacher mostly. I don't get why their are fans praying on our old players downfall. Can we just move on? Its kinda crazy we hating on our former best player and Risacher who is just starting his career even if he's a bust on his time at the Hawks. Like this negativity on our former players is crazy, they never did us wrong man. They played hard.

10/16/26 vs Mavericks, 135–111

Note: my logo edits are not endorsements of the brands depicted

The Hawks and Heat could meet in the Play-In for the third time since 2022. Atlanta narrowly avoided another appearance last season, but one prediction has the two teams facing off again. And there’s even a championship prediction for the Hawks.

Read for free.

I am probably over weighting a single game, but Nikiel changes the gravity on both defense and offense. When he is out there with Dort the chemistry looks great too.

If he shoots 12ish 3's a game while getting to the line 7+ times, given his defense that is gonna be really close to superstar production. Especially paired with 4-7 assists. I know that seems like unreal usage, but I think that's within the realm of possibility.

I don't know if it's just me, but it took till last night to see that vision. Let me know if I'm crazy.

"If Towns isn't extended, he could opt out and enter free agency. There definitely are teams -- starting with the Golden State Warriors, LA Clippers and Atlanta Hawks -- that would probably line up to make big offers. This is what other teams are studying with the Knicks."

Let’s go Hawks, Caw!!

Game Thread Game Thread Game Thread Game Thread Game Thread Game Thread Game Thread Game Thread Game Thread Game Thread Game Thread Game Thread Game Thread Game Thread

Started a last min ESPN league and have some openings. Anyone interested?

Fanatics will also take over in-arena operations and open a dedicated Atlanta sports store in Centennial Yards, which is slated to open in 2027.

WSB-TV also states the new Fanatics in-store experience will be open during the home opener on October 24.

https://marcstein.substack.com/p/the-nbas-latest-late-night-intel

Memphis is shopping GG Jackson and Walter Clayton Jr. I'd give up Kispert and a 2nd round pick for GG. He's 21, 6'9", and on an expiring $2.4M deal, so it's a cheap swing on the upside.

If the preseason game is unavailable on YouTube TV is that indicative of the regular season games not being available in my area (Savannah)?

With his and Bob Pettit’s death I believe every player of the Hawks 1958 NBA Championship team has now passed away.

We all (should) know this season is already lost if OO remains the starting 5 all year and in the playoffs, but who can we realistically acquire during the season that will give us the length we need to avoid being bullied in the paint and on the boards on both sides of the court?

… and rookie point guards are almost always bad for their first season or so.

I just have a feeling this sub is gonna start crashing out when Mara is competing for all-defense teams while Kingston Flemings is relegated to the bench.

But just understand that the Kingston Flemings pick isn’t a short-term swing, it was always a future-facing pick, and will likely take years for him to achieve his full potential. So we need to be patient with him.

And I’m saying this as someone who wanted Mara.

Gotta be click bait yeah? seriously, only 14th?