TheNorthCydeRises

This thread isn't necessarily about Howard. It's about the Hawks being in position in the immediate future to challenge for an East crown. My main beef with the Howard trade, is that we basically gave him away, plus draft position in the 2nd round. With all of the dominoes that dropped in the last 2 weeks, maybe Howard could've been dealt for something better than what we received. But forget Dwight. I'm looking at the Hawks retaining Millsap ( an All-Star ), with the emergence of Dennis becoming All-Star level, and with the young talent on the team. And if you keep Hardaway Jr, you're looking at the Hawks being right there with the rest of the East teams. With Cleveland out of the picture, you're looking at a wide open Eastern Conference as soon as the 2018 season.

No one could've predicted the Kyrie Irving news. Many people thought the Cleveland Cavaliers would not only stay together, but be a force for the next 3 - 4 years in the East. What people DIDN'T expect, is for about 1/2 of the East All-Star team to potentially end up in the Western Conference. If Carmelo Anthony goes to Houston, that would make 5 of last year's East All-Stars that would now be in the West. And if Kyrie gets his way, and goes to San Antonio or Minnesota, that will be 6 East All-Stars in the West next year. If Lebron goes to the Lakers, ( if the loss of Kyrie turns the Cavs into a mid-level playoff squad ), that would make SEVEN. So instead of the Cavs dominating the East for the next 4 years, we're now potentially looking at the East being with six 2017 All-Stars + Lebron, going into the 2018 - 19 sseason. Meanwhile, the Hawks could've kept Dwight, re-signed Millsap to a reasonable length deal, matched Hardaway Jr's deal, plus add what looks like to be a young stud in Collins to bring off the bench. PG - Schröder G - Hardaway Jr F - Prince PF - Millsap C - Howard PG - Delaney ( ugh ) G - Bazemore F - Bembry PF - Collins PF - Muscala By the way, everyone with the exception of Delaney, would be on the roster going into the 2018 - 19 season. Plus we'd still have the draft picks. If the Hawks were able to draft a decent backup PG, or add a vet in free agency, how would this team rank in the East, with Lebron gone? The sad thing about dismantling a team too quickly, is that you show your hand way too fast. The Hawks had decided that they not only didn't want to pay Millsap, they simply wanted to start from scratch. Four weeks later, it looks like we may have jumped the gun too quickly.

SMH . . . dream killer. So now the question is . . . why is he following Lil B and Taye Diggs, and do they have a connection to Atlanta in some way, shape or form? Get on it Diesel. Find out the "4 degrees of separation".

Come on now. We're talking about a #1 overall pick here that is only 24 years old, and is one of the top 5 best shooting PGs in the league. What's the use of being bad and having a ton of cap space in the future, when you won't pull the trigger on a guy who is a top 10 - 15 player in the league? Unfortunately though, this pretty much opens the door wide open for Carmelo to go to Cleveland and the Knicks get Kyrie. Scared money don't make no money. The Hawks always playing with scared money.

I'd take a Uncle Drew + Goldie backcourt. That would assure that we'd have one of them on the court at all times. And you could stagger their minutes in which they're not playing no more than 16 - 18 minutes a game together.

Here was that Spurs game referenced in the article.

Dennis + 2 1st round picks. Get it done Schlenk. And I like Dennis, but this is Kyrie. Getting Kyrie would ASSURE the destruction of the Cavs, unless Dennis blossoms under Lebron's wings.m Surely no one on this site thinks that Dennis is better than Kyrie? Right? Despite his supposed "choice destinations", Kyrie doesn't have a no trade clause, and the Cavs can deal him anywhere they wanted. No way would they trade him to a potential contender. This is the time where a team like ATL should use what little assets we have, and deal for a borderline Hall of Famer like Kyrie.

The cool thing for the players on the roster, is that if the Hawks stay below the minimum threshold, they still have to pay up to the floor minimum. That means the players on the current roster will get some extra cash in their pockets, despite it not counting against the cap. And with it being dished out in equal parts, the players making the least will appreciate the extra cash the most. Diamond Stone might buy him a couple of extra karats.

How to win 35 games: - Win 10 games vs the Western Conference . . . ( 7 wins at home . . . 3 on the road . . . 10 - 20 overall ) - Win 25 games vs the Eastern Conference . . . ( 15 wins at home . . 10 on the road . . . . 25 - 27 overall ) The West is loaded, but not invincible. And the East has MAYBE 2 elite teams, and a bunch of mid-level teams. And despite ownership refusing to re-sign our strongest parts of the team, there's one group in ATL that will NEVER tank. They're good for at least 10 wins a year by themselves, especially during weeknight games. At this point, the Hawks are 18 - 28. With 36 games vs the Atlantic and Central divisions, the Hawks would have to go 17 - 19 vs those teams.

That's actually my prediction as well 35 wins . . . get in as 8th seed . . . the kids show game, with Dennis becoming a legit borderline All-Star

I forgot that Indiana signed Darren Collison. That at least gives them a legit floor leader, and keeps Lance out of the starting lineup as the PG. I like Collison's game. So let's bump Indiana up to 11th.

1) Cleveland - Lebron is still the best player in the East, with Kyrie being the 3rd best player in the East 2) Milwaukee - Giannis becomes the MONSTER with Parker becoming a very good #2 guy 3) Boston - Uncertainty with IT's hip, plus they take a step back defensively with the loss of Bradley 4) Toronto - Unless Derozan develops a 3 point shot, they'll be right there( ( NOTE: Top 4 in East all win 50+ games ) 5) Washington - 4th best backcourt in the league, still didn't improve defensively 6) Charlotte - The Dwight Effect puts them back in the playoffs 7) Miami - Won't be as good as they were in the 2nd half of last year, but good enough to make playoffs 8) Atlanta - Dennis is not a tanker, and threatens to make All-Star team. Hawks win 35 games and get in The rest 9) Philadelphia - until I see how this team plays on defense, you can't elevate them to playoff level 10) NY Knicks - If Melo isn't traded before the start of the season, he eventually will be traded before A-S break 11) Detroit - Intriguing defensive potential, but where will the offense come from? ( NOTE: The following teams may not win 25 games this season ) 12) Chicago - Wade will be traded by Christmas 13) Brooklyn - Russell will make them slightly better, but not by much. 14) Orlando - Biyombo and Fournier are both making 17 million per year. That's all you need to know. 15) Indiana - Unless you believe Olidipo or Lance Stephenson become 18 ppg scorers, they're the worst team in East. The reality of the East is that you can pretty much pencil in those top 7 teams, barring injury. But the 8th spot will be similar to the fight that went on in 2013 - 14, when the 38 win Hawks got into the playoffs. Unless Dennis is on board with tanking, or if Bud coaches the team and puts out rotations that will lose on purpose, the Hawks are going to win games in the East by default. Questions for the Hawks: - What will they rank defensively? - Does Prince take the big leap in Year 2? - Can they generate enough 3 point shooting? - Will they emphasize transition offense? - Does Bazemore improve or regress? - Can they get defensive rebounds, with the loss of Dwight and Millsap? - Will Collins start from Day 1?

At center. Of course, we're talking about 2012 Josh. And he would've given Josh a little leeway with taking 3s. And with Josh's passing skills, he possibly could average 4 assists a game.

And we still haven't signed another PG. I guess we're done then.

Of course they did. Why obtain a big guy that may help you from a shooting standpoint? That goes against "tank philosophy".

I have to agree with Sturt on this. Schlenk has changed the narrative about this offseason about 3 - 4 times now. First it was "retool". then it was "be competitive", then it was "having fun" . . now it's "we don't want to send the message that we're fine with losing". Well, which is it? He said decent things about Dwight, then traded him days later. He said that they were going to make Millsap their best offer, and never offered him anything. And he says that we wanted to develop our young core, but waited until the Knicks gave Hardaway Jr a very inflated offer that they felt they couldn't match. So now with Dwight gone, Millsap gone, and Hardaway gone, he has no choice but to act like we're not going to be in the lottery every year, because that will completely turn off the fan base. But in this free agency, he's done little or nothing to try to improve the team. We don't even have a reliable backup PG signed yet. If Dennis regresses, this franchise is in deep trouble. If he improves, and plays close to the level that he played during the Washington series, we'll be OK, even if we miss the playoffs this season. But this can turn ugly, very quickly, if Schlenk doesn't possess the ability to add the right vets with these young guys. It's easy to bottom out a team. It takes no skill to do that. Question is, can you build it back up?

Well if it's shade thrown at Ball, that's stupid, because the Lakers traded their best PG away for the specific purpose for Ball to start on Day 1. I don't believe for 1 second that it was aimed at Ball. Here's a twitter post from the previous day, and Prince's response: Looking at both tweets, I have to conclude that the July 13th tweet was a general shot at guys who are balling in Summer League, including Collins. I also agree that this was a way for him to deflect from his lackluster Summer League performance.

The "tank crew" should love a signing like this. He's a good enough scorer to keep us "competitive" in games, but horrible enough on defense to give up the game winner at the end. Defensively, he's like putting a curtain up as your front door, when a hurricane is coming. Shabazz is a "professional scorer". No long midrange game whatsoever. Just a dog around the rim, who can get hot from 3 point range on occasion.

I liked the regular season version of Ersan, so I don't mind the signing. But if Bud uses this to bring Collins off the bench, and justifies starting Ersan because he can draw a charge, I won't like this at all. Collins needs to start from Day 1. Let him play with the best players on the team, instead of trying to be a scorer with the 2nd unit. High draft picks back in the day used to start from Day 1 all the time, and they became star players because of it.

That wouldn't fly in Georgia. So we need to come up with something else. Nique and Bob will come up with something. "The Anchorman" was a good one for Millsap. And Nique came up with "9 to 5" for Ivan.

So in his 3rd game, you see Lonzo Ball in full display, much like we saw John Collins in full display today. When that dude plays fast and aggressive in the open court, he's outstanding. His speed with the ball in his hands is something else. After playing the passive game in the 1st half, he really went into attack mode and started to get to the rim. 36 pts - 11 rebs - 8 asst - 5 steals - ( 6 TO ) . . . 3 - 10 from 3 ( shot better, but still horrible overall this summer league ) . . . 12 - 22 FG ( which means that he was 9 - 12 from 2 point range . . 75% . . which lines up with what he did in college ). How nice would it be to have a passing PG like Lonzo on the Hawks, teamed up with Collins? One can only dream I guess.

Yes.

And . . . the youtube version.

The again . . . Smoove's dunk package is great. That dunk in his rookie year. . . whoa.