emeans

Good Post. I totally agree with Wretch. We are in a rebuilding mold and we really don't know what we have so far until we get on the court and see. So we have to cautiously spend in the FA market and not overspend like we have done under Babcocks regime. Kenyon is not worth a max contract. Kobe is but Kenyon is not.

Although I would love to trade JT, the more I think about it the more I don't think Billy is going to trade him. For one this is such a young team, he has to keep a veteran to help at least guide these guys. JT is the only true veteran on this team. Chris/Henderson are not considered veteran leaders on this team even though they are older. Hansen/Diaw are rookies. What better way to have a veteran lead a team than to have JT with the ball most of the time (gulp!!). Good or bad he will be the Point Guard and he is a veteran. Knight will keep JT and see if he improves with a young athletic team before trying to ship him out. I have to agree with Dolfan...Has anyone heard "I want out" from the mouth of Terry?? The answer is NO. He has never said he wants out and if you know Terry he would never blatantly say that. He is usually always positive about winning and improving the HAWKS.

Jackson is as good as gone. He will not be in a Hawks uniform next year. We are rebuilding with several guys that can play multiple positions. This will open up more playing time for the young guys to develop. We are going to throw the young guys into the fire early which I think is good. We will have an athletic high flying exciting team in a few years.

Does anybody no why we drafted this kid? Is there something I missed. I had absolutely no pre-draft information on this kid. I saw him play against North Carolina in the tournament and was not impressed at all. His handles were very shaky and he didn't run the team smoothly at all. I trust in Billy Knight, but I am clueless on this pick. Anyone have any insight on why we drafted him and not the 7'4" Korean or Duhon or Pickett?

You are not a TRUE fan anyway. I hate "bandwagon" fans. If you are a true fan you are with your team when they are down and when they up. I have several friends who were lakers fans and now they are jumping off their laker wagon like Cubans jumping off a boat. I call all of them out. We are true fans on this board because we are with the team during the dog days and the good days. Watch the number of people on this forum triple when we start to win.

Good Stuff..... I really think we got the steal of the draft in Josh Smith. His weaknesses are being over publicized for some reason by the media. Every player in this draft has something to work on. I have seen this kid play several times and the criticism he is getting is unfair and misleading. I hope he uses this as motivation and blow the top off of the NBA and call out everyone who gave him negative publicity when he makes the all-star team in 3 to 4 years. I am very excited about the future of this team. Billy Knight has done well in getting young talent to build with. No we will not win next year but we will be winners in 3 years guaranteed with this young nucleus.

Josh Smith was an excellent pick, especially at 17. Bilas is an a-hole spilling a bunch of non-sense about this kid. This is the best day in this kids life and he is going to call him the biggest bust......at 17 Josh will not be a bust at all. Now if he was drafted in the top 3 and didn't pan out then maybe but he will not be a bust at 17 and he has probably more upside than anyone in this draft. ESPN is always down on all Atlanta organizations, so this does not surprise me.

Shouldn't we sign Sura to play the PG/SG. I really like how this rebuilding is shaping up. We have the potential of being really good in the 2 to 3 years. I have: JT/Sura/Ivey Sura/Childress/Hansen Diaw/Josh Smith/Chris Crawford Donte Smith/Chris Crawford/Udezie(sp?)/Henderson Pryz/Collier That is 14 players. Two have to go. We may not sign Udezie and Ivey may get cut. Suddenly I am seeing too many players. Who stays and who goes?

Viktor Sanikidze SMALL FORWARD | (6-8, 196) | GEORGIA Round: 1 | 2 Prospects by: Players | Teams | Schools | Positions SELECTED BY ATLANTA, ROUND 2, PICK 13, OVERALL PICK 42 Notes: Actually spent a year in junior college in America when he was 15 before returning to his native home in the republic of Georgia. Plays for Dijon in France. Averaged 3.3 ppg in the FIBA Europe Cup. Had a standout performance for the Georgian National Team where he averaged 18.6 ppg and 11 rpg. Positives: Scouts claim that he's got a great perimeter game, and will hit the boards on occasion. Not a bad athlete. Long arms. Negatives: Experience. Obviously from the numbers this 18-year-old will take a few years to develop. Insider prediction: He's one of the few young Euros still in the draft without a guarantee. There's a decent chance a team late in the second will opt to draft him and keep him overseas for a few years.

Donte Smith is an excellent pick. He should have been a late 1st rounder. Good job Billy!!! Finally a draft that I am totally happy with. Notes: A dominant player in community college who was supposed to transfer to Louisville this year. He helped the Falcons to a 33-4 record and a fourth place finish in the NJCAA National Tournament. Louisville coach Rick Pitino was furious with Smith's decision to turn pro. His CC coach, Todd Franklin, thinks that Smith might just have a chance. "I think he's more prepared than most players coming out. He's a 6-7, 230-pounder who plays the '2' but can be a legitimate point guard. He's got a seven-foot wingspan. I don't know any other guys coming out with a better NBA body than him." The list of players who have recently tried to make the NBA from two-year schools is littered with players like Qyntel Woods, Kedrick Brown, Ernest Brown, Cory Hightower and Tim Cole who haven't panned out. Upside: Donta Smith reminded Pitino and many other people of Ron Artest. He's a big time athlete and defender who is tough as nails. Offensively, he's way ahead of where Artest was when he declared. He's a good shooter from the perimeter and can put the ball on the floor and get to the basket. He also uses his strength to post players up. The most impressive attribute of Smith is his ball handling and passing. Several scouts believe that he has the ability to be a point forward in the pros. He already has an NBA body and has a 7-foot-1 wingspan. Downside: Experience and a tattered legacy for junior college kids who go straight to the pros. Remember, Kedrick Brown went No. 11 and Qyntel Woods went No. 21. The fact that Pitino trashed Smith hasn't helped things either. On the basketball side of things, scouts claim that while he's a very good athlete, he doesn't have bouncy vertical. Insider Projection: Watch him closely. He's under the radar right now, but NBA scouts know about him and like him -- a lot. He's drawing rave reviews at all of his workouts and has a pretty hefty schedule up to the draft. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he ends up somewhere in the late first round.

Thank you KB!! This could be the next Dominique Wilkens. He has special incentive because he fell so far in the draft and he is playing for his home town. This guy has a huge upside and any player can be bust in this draft.

Now lets get Josh Smith at 17!!!

Livingston Deng Iggy

That is a tough call, but I think I prefer Deng because I know more about him and have seen him play more in this geographic area. I would pick Deng at 6.

is there do you select him or Iggy? Deng or Iggy?

Good article about Josh Smith in todays AJC. http://www.ajc.com/hawks/content/sports/ha...04/23smith.html

It should be tense and exciting. I will be there!! What about you guys?

I would be pumped too Traceman!!

I agree also.....We need to get one of those 4 guys!! I personally think we will do well regardless. This draft is deep to about 21 picks.

Those are the the two players I want the Hawks to draft. If they can pull it off I would go buy my season tickets on Friday!! As most of you know Josh Smith is my favorite for the #6 pick. ESPN's mock draft is exactly what I want this organization to do!!!

Why even take him at #17 if he can't shoot, dribble and is not motivated?? That doesn't make sense. Why waste a 1st round pick on a player who can't play basketball!!! That is a very inaccurate, untrue assertion by KB. Don't believe everything you read. KB is very wrong on this!!

You are being extra dramatic KB. Josh Smith can dribble, Josh Smith can shoot and Josh Smith is motivated to win ball games (His team went Undefeated and ranked #1). If he couldn't do those things why in the world would he even be considered a 1st round draft pick and signed a 15 million dollar deal with Adidas and make the McDonald All-American game. Come on you make it seem as if he just picked up a basketball. Remember this guy was projected before workouts and interviews to be in the Top 5 picks. Several people had him as the number 2 pick in the draft. So don't say those things as if he never played ball on a very high level because he has and he has produced to the point that his coach says he is the BEST that has ever come through Oak Hill. You statement is totally misrepresenting this kid. If he can't do all those things why is he even playing basketball. Get real KB.

KB21...don't get me wrong I respect and understand what you are saying and they are very valid points. However, I read through all of the weaknesses of the first 20 players projected to be picked and just about 3/4 of them either have problems creating their own shot, shooting and ball handing. So you are going to get a weakness regardless of who you pick. It is a matter of what weakness are you going to live with. There is no perfect player they will be have deficiencies in something. So pick your poison. Josh Smith is not a point guard. I am not looking for him to be able to have point guard handles. He excels in transition probably similar to Kenyan Martin. The main thing for him is to get into position to score and leave it up to the point guard to get him the ball in these positions. We haven't had an electrifying scorer on the break since the Dominique days and we are about to pass up on the next one. Did Dominique have handles??? I don't think so.

I am not comparing him to Kobe. I am just saying that Kobe had to work on his shot also. Charlotte even traded Kobe to LA for probably the same reasons we are criticizing Josh Smith. I just hope we want be sitting here in a few years saying WOW we just missed out on the next Superstar of the NBA. You can coach fundamentals and techniques of the game.....You can't coach athleticism. Also, the kid led his team to the No. 1 ranking in High School and they went undefeated if I am correct and he is considered the best talent to come out of his High School. We just can't overlook that!!! I just have a gut feeling we are about to make the biggest mistake of the 2004 draft by not selecting him.