emeans

I have to disagree. While this is not an earth shattering signing whatsoever, I do think Drobjnak is better than Pryz, Collier and Rebraca. They guy has much more playing (starting) experience than all 3 and has averaged about 8 points in his career. Having games of 20 points or better several times. And he has Olympic international experience which we all now know is starting to be important. Solid backup signing....We still need Dampier.

Shooting Guard is a glaring weakness on this team even with Dampier. Childress is not ready to take on that role. We will have some rough nights shooting the ball from the perimeter similar to the USA basketball team. We need to find a shooter or two at the SG.

Will Dampier truly come in and play hard even though he obviously doesn't want to be here? History with the Hawks say "NO". Or will he be a cancer and just come pout and make a huge check ala Alan Henderson? History with the Hawks say "YES". Will Hawks History change under Billy Knights regime? Maybe...the jury is still out. This is a huge risk that we are taking by keeping this offer on the table. At some point you have to make a deadline if only on principle. We are desperate but not that desperate!!

Should be "official" official later today. http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...40805bullstrade,1,4018712.story?coll=cs-home-headlines After 34 days of negotiations that took several twists and turns, the Knicks and Bulls finally consummated a six-player trade that sends Jamal Crawford to New York on Thursday afternoon. Crawford signed a seven-year, $55.4 million contract that still needs to clear the NBA league office. But he and Jerome Williams will go to New York in exchange for Dikembe Mutombo, Othella Harrington, Frank Williams and Cezary Trybanski. "I'm excited," Crawford said by phone from Seattle. "It's been rough because it was supposed to go through a few times. But I'm looking forward to a new challenge." All of the contracts coming the Bulls' way expire after this season, which will save general manager John Paxson $18 million in salary-cap room over the next four seasons. Paxson insisted throughout the negotiations that financial relief was the only path to get a deal done. Since Crawford was a restricted free agent, the Bulls held his rights for next season and thus the power in the negotiation process. That process alternated between a trade looking imminent and stalling over the past five weeks, including a face-to-face meeting between Knicks President Isiah Thomas and Paxson near O'Hare Airport on July 27 that broke down over the inclusion of Moochie Norris in the talks. It's unclear if Mutombo will remain a Bull. Trybanski is expected to attend training camp but likely will be cut. Williams, the former University of Illinois standout, averaged 3.9 points and 2.2 assists in 56 games with the Knicks last season, his second. The point guard should battle Chris Duhon and Jannero Pargo for the right to backup Kirk Hinrich. Harrington is an eight-year veteran who has played with three teams. The 6-foot-9-inch forward owns career averages of 8.1 points and five rebounds. Crawford averaged 17.3 points last season to lead the Bulls in scoring. But he never completely fit into the culture that Paxson and coach Scott Skiles are trying to create. When this summer's free-agent market became inflated, Crawford's price tag shot out of the Bulls' budget plans. Paxson then began scouting for ways to parlay Crawford---whom he calls the best basketball player in the deal---into financial flexibility moving forward. What does this mean for Dampier??

I disagree....There is no way I am taking Duhon over Smith. Now maybe you meant Duhon over Ivey....I may can understand that because Duhon was picked right after Ivey. Smith was a bonified 1st round talent. People were surprised he dropped to the 2nd round. Smith really impressed me during the Summer League even more than Childress.

You are right Diesel....I would be elated if he signed but at the same time he doesn't impress me to the point I will be angry if he doesn't sign. Plus we will keep that money and spend it elsewhere. It is a win/win situation either way even though I think he is dumb not to take the Hawks offer...and I am trying to look at it from an unbiased perspective.

If he is that stupid maybe we don't want him in a Hawks uniform anyway. I see a much larger upside to the Hawks team than the Knicks. We need to pull the offer and sign Pryz and a PG/SG and call it an offseason.

He is leaning toward taken the 1 year deal. His value may drop after the Knicks don't do as well as they think. Plus he better play an entire season. History shows that he will not. He will regret not signing here....trust me!!

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1852303 From all indications Dampier doesn't want to be a Hawk. Let the fool go for less money. What he doesn't realize is that the Knicks are in extremely bad financial standing and they are a year away from rebuilding themselves. The Knicks are not a good team!! And they are about to trade away very important pieces to get Dampier (Kurt Thomas and Nazr). He will be regretting not taking the Hawks deal in 2 years, when he sees the Hawks sitting above the Knicks in the standings. What a fool!!! The Knicks are a year away from disaster and the lottery because of their pathetic cap standing. They can't add anything without giving up something and they don't have a lot to give up other than Marbury. Nobody wants anyone else on that team.

Me too.....I have been saying that for months. With all due respect lets put the FANTASY trade proposals on another forum. You guys are wasting time talking about fantasy trades that will never ever happen!! Why do guys waste so much time talking about fantasy trades is a mystery to me. Lets deal with reality and what is taking place FOR REAL. In other words....Let keep it REAL!! Lets put real dicussion material on this forum and take the fantasy stuff to the Trade Central forum.

Good Stuff!! The more I marinated on this trade the better it looked. We basically traded a tweener for a bigger body that can score. While I was also a JT fan, he really frustrated me with his play and didn't have the ability to truly lead a team, especially when they were down. Even when the Hawks would get a nice lead, he would screw the momentum up by turning the ball over for absolutely no reason. That use to burn me up!! JT can shoot but he is a streaky shooter and he is too small to guard the 2. The Philly pick is really not a big deal being that we still have our own pick that year and by that time we should be pretty good and not really looking to add very young talent to mentor. Josh Smith should be tearing down rims by then and Childress should be nice too. It will be all about adding veterans here and there at that point. Also, I understand that pick is contigent on NJ excercising a protected pick from another team. I am not sure where he is going with the PG situation but truly we have never had a true Point Guard so anyone would probably be an improvement in that position. I agree the team looked much better when Sura ran the Point. So maybe we will sign Sura and Kenny Anderson to man the PG position.

Why does everyone think Diaw can play PG. He doesn't have the handles to play PG. That would be a disaster if we tried to play him at the Point. Diaw is not a PG!! PG are not made they are born.

I am leaning toward this being a good deal if we picked up another 1st rounder. If not I am borderline at this point.

Kidd is not coming to Atlanta. He would rather stay in NJ than come to Atlanta. They are rebuilding too. If we sign Dampier and sign a good PG, this is a good move because now we would have a semi-veteran young starting team with very young raw talent to back them up and learn in the process. I had to marinate on this move for a couple of hours and it is starting to look a little better than originally thought. Walker and Harrington will be a nice combo. Childress will probably be the SG. Now we need to sign Dampier and a guard and we are very competitive in the East!!

Hansen was starting to really impress me!! Oh well, moving on.....

If this is true....I am not sure where Billy is going with this. Is he trying to build with Walker? or is he a rent-a-player for a year. If that is the case why even make this move? I am not sure if I like this move or not. Billy will have to explain this one.

Good Points. It really doesn't matter to me either. We are rebuilding the right way and we need to stay on course. Like you said Good if we do Good if we don't!! I just have to get in my mind not to get mad when we loose so many games this year. I have to remember this is part of the rebuilding process.

BK is using his rooks to bait the queen right now. He knows he is in a good position by keeping the offer on the table. Even if he makes a deal with another team to trade Dampier after 60 days...that would be smart. He would be upgrading the team somehow. Keep it on the table and make Dampier sweat a little. It is hard for people to turn down millions of possible dollars. It is just not natural to turn down money like that. He will not sleep good at night knowing his check could have been doubled.

Terrible trade....Remember we are rebuilding and that would totally go against what Billy is trying to do. Collins is a scrub and Kidd is on the other side of the prime of his career. The only position I would get an older person is Center and Dampier fits that mold. I would never make that trade!!

Billy did sign JV, but I am going to give him a pass on that transaction because he was still under the Babcock regime. JV would not fit into his NEW and IMPROVED philosophy of athletic, long players, defensive players. I don't think he would do that this year now that he has total control of how this team is going to look in the future. I bet Babcock had a lot to do with JV being here.

Good....Now we can't sign him!! Oh I forgot Pete Babcock is not here anymore. Billy wouldn't do that anyway.

That would be interesting. It comes down to who would you rather have for 1 year....Shareef or Henderson/CC. Hmmmmmm.....

Read the article: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1847658 He is demanding that he be traded or he will holdout. Who would have thought he would be this unhappy about the Portland situation. He is really stuck between a rock and a hard place because of his huge contract. He is almost untradeble. BK got rid of him just in time!!

Exactly...If we sign him, then we should keep him. From what I am reading and understanding, there aren't anymore true centers out there. So what are we going to be rebuilding with? Centers are probably the only position an older (by NBA standards) person can play. That is why Shaq will have at 3 more good years in him. He doesn't need to be quick like a guard. Just man the middle!! We can rebuild with Dampier at 30. Just make sure you bring in someone next year or the year after under Dampier to learn the position and philosophy of the team. This Ogden kid comes out in 2006. He is the next Shaq from what I am hearing. We would have to be the sorriest team in the league to have any shot at getting him. I don't think we will ever be the sorriest team in the league even during our rebuilding years. We need to keep Dampier!!

Al is a big part of the future Hawks. He is still very young and can grow with this team as our go-to guy. They will sign him to a longer contract.