Bruno gets the Zach Lowe shout-out: https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/st...riddled-east-why-lebron-deserves-make-all-nba Do I care that the Hawks are worse with Fernando on the floor -- that he's undersized, fouls everything in sight and has a shooting range that barely extends beyond the length of his arm? I do not. This dude is a blast -- a pure chaos machine who wants to dunk people through the floor and rip the rim off the basket. What a week for dunks. The Nuggets earned pole position for the West's No. 1 seed amid a Peyton Watson and Christian Braun poster party -- including Braun providing one of the dunks of the year with his one-handed lefty snap jam on Gobert's face. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Torrey Craig and Drummond clinched Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor in the Blooper of the Decade category with their synchronized botched backboard-pass-dunk attempt. Just incredible work. Can someone make an addendum to "The Last Dance" that is just 45 minutes on this -- including Michael Jordan watching it on his iPad while taking shots of his own branded tequila? Back to Fernando: He's actually a pretty skilled pick-and-roll hub, faking handoffs with one player and then pitching the ball to a second ball handler whirling around the perimeter. The Hawks offense is hard to track with him in the middle of it: Bogdan Bogdanovic handoff, letting Bogdanovic fly by and whipping the ball out to Kobe Bufkin for a rapid-fire pick-and-roll. Fernando slips screens with Amar'e Stoudemire-level impatience and fury. He sucks in tons of attention -- opening up 3s for Atlanta's spot-up shooters. At times, you'd wish Fernando might mix up tactics and hammer someone with a screen. Prefer a soft Euro-steppy finish? Sure! Prefer a soft Euro-steppy finish? Sure! Onyeka Okongwu, who is likely out for the season with a toe injury. Fernando's plus-minus numbers -- which aren't too bad -- would be better if he played more with Trae Young. Those two have shared the floor for only 124 minutes. Young is back as the Hawks prepare for the junior varsity play-in showdown with the Chicago Bulls; the winner then advances to play the loser of the No. 7-8 game for the No. 8 seed and a date with Boston.
If the Rockets bring back Bruno, should they start him over Sengun? And if they do so, should we give them props for doing it early?
