TheNorthCydeRises

If I were the GM, and was content on bringing everyone back . . - You offer Millsap . . . 5yr - 125 mill ( 25 mill a year ) - You offer Hardaway . . . 4 yr - 60 mill ( 15 mill a year ) - You try your damndest to trade Bazemore for anything - You renounce Moose, Thabo, Kelly - You DON'T trade that pick and move out of the 31st spot. - You draft Collins or Swanigan ( PF ), Thornwell ( SG ), and Motley ( C ) PG: Schröder / Delaney G: Hardaway / Bazemore / Thornwell F: Prince / Bembry PF: Millsap / Collins-Swanigan C: Howard / Motley Add 4 journeymen players to supplement the kids ( PG, shooter, PF/C, scrub ) Goal is to have Millsap - Howard keep the team defensively stable, while the kids ( Schröder, Hardaway, Prince ) develop their offensive games even more. Hawks remain a top 5 defensive team. but may get back into the top 10 offensively. By the time the summer of 2018 comes around, Dwight is in his last year, and is a very movable contract if a team wants to cast off a disgruntled star player. And you still have multiple 1st round draft picks. This new plan might in the slightest possibilities see us get the superstar player in the draft, but have very little around him, unless Schorder or Prince turn into something special. And by that time, Dennis may be on his way out, while Prince may sign a max offer sheet from somebody. And forget about defense.

Exactly who I was thinking about. And if that happens, I don't want to hear anyone defend this GM, and his quest for "flexibility".

What makes Bud any more special than those guys? And I'm a Bud supporter . . . but not a Bud apologist. Last season he did not do an above average job coaching this team. He was a C coach last year. Spoelstra was outstanding the 2nd half of the year. Lue has gone to 2 straight NBA Finals. And Brooks kicked out butts in the playoffs. Even with Casey, the Hawks always have problems with Toronto. Honestly, Bud's legend here is based off of 2 months of almost perfect basketball, with a bunch of mediocre basketball surrounding that. WE had one . . . but we traded him to Charlotte.

You know the REAL SECRET with San Antonio and Golden State? Their system is actually predicated on DEFENSE, not offense. Golden State didn't become this great team, until they became a better defensive team. Once that happened, it opened up the offense via transition points. With San Antonio, their defense was so good, that they could win any style of game. Duncan was the defensive anchor of the Spurs. Green is the defensive anchor of the Warriors. Who is the Hawks defensive anchor? Oh I forgot, we let him walk without even talking to him.

Not when they're first starting out. It takes years to build a championship level team, and this is even after you become good. Maxing out a good young player is nothing, because they're not going to even be making 20 million a year. It's contracts like Bazemore, that become problematic for teams.

Watching this game, a few things stood out to me. 1) He's going to help the Lakers with the way he can really pass the ball down court. In that 1st half, despite not doing too much offensively, he did push that ball up the court immediately with long passes, that set up a few guys for open shots or drives to the basket. And with the way he passes, it will encourage others to make that extra pass. With better players out on the court with him, they're going to like how he can really get things going in transition. 2) The 3 point misses aren't a concern. But he can't make a living taking 28 - 30 foot threes. You can't shoot from that distance and expect to shoot a high percentage. Even Steph Curry doesn't shoot from that range ALL the time. He needs to get closer to that line and stay within his range, which is about 25 feet. 3) WAY too passive. As the PG, you have to either make the right plays, or assert your presence into the game. I understand him wanting to get others involved first, but if they're giving you the shot, or a possibility to drive into the lane, you have to take that. It also may have been 1st game nerves, even though he'll say that he wasn't nervous. 4) On the ball defense was ATROCIOUS. This can be corrected, but that was by far the most troubling part of the game last night. He looked completely lost on defense. That's the one area in which he's going to have to be really coached up on. On offense, all he needs to add, is a floater in the lane. If he's not comfortable with taking a midrange jumper, the floater is what he needs to develop. He'll learn very quickly that he can't live 28 feet behind the 3 point line in the NBA. As the PG, you have to drive into that paint at some point, even if it's to pass the ball off for someone to get a better shot. I hope Magic holds Ingram out today, and see if Lonzo will be more assertive out on the court without Brandon in the game ( who looked damn good last night ). Lonzo needs to act like the floor leader, instead of a guy waiting on someone to pass him the ball for a long 3 pointer. By the way, you know who else looked good yesterday? Told you this dude could ball. He looked like one of those old heads at the part, schooling all of those young kids who think they can ball. He even guarded Ingram for a while, when he was really cooking. Sindarius slowed him down some. showing his versatility. He and Beverly are going to be HELL on defense for the Clippers. LOL @ us not taking this dude, seeing that they had no intention of matching a huge Hardaway Jr offer.

LOL @ tough it out. We LITERALLY may not be around to see the Hawks get back to winning, with all of the turmoil in the world. I feel bad for our older fans, like Gray Mule, who have waited decades to see the Hawks relevant again. Now you're telling someone like him to be patient? Unless Schröder really breaks out into a legit All-Star talent that can be a difference maker on a nightly basis . . our only hope in the near future may be if the "Banana Boat" crew ( or as I call them . . . the "NBA 4 Horsemen ) want to get together and play in ATL in 2018. I see the OP mentioned this in his original post. Yeah, that's the only shot we got right now, outside of our current guys turning into an All-Star. Otherwise, we have to hope that the guy that we draft in the next 2 - 4 years is not only a Hall of Famer, but a generational talent. Because 2 of those guys in the above pic will be Hall of Famers . . . but only have 1 Conference Finals appearance between them.

Wow... turnover city tonight. They need to start Dorsey next game to see if he can play with Bembry and Prince.

Cordiner . . . . ( -23 ) in 8 minutes. LOL . . didn't know that was possible in a Summer League game.

Review this post in 4 years . .. when we're offering some mid-level starter a 4 year - 139 million dollar deal, because our talent didn't develop into anything.

Bench is horrible.

You see how easy the game comes to Bembry, and you wonder why he couldn't crack the rotation. Forget the fact that he couldn't shoot, the entire team barely could shoot. But he's just smooth with everything,

Edy balling.

- Demarr Johnson - Dion Glover - Josh Childress - Stephen Jackson - Deshawn Stephenson - Janerro Pargo - Al Harrington - Mike Bibby - Mo Evans and Ivan Johnson Mike Bibby, Mo Evans, and Ivan Johnson are on the same team - ( Ghost Ballers ) So are Al Harrington, Janerro Pargo, and Dion Glover - ( Trilogy ) Game play isn't as bad as you would think Baby Al with the game winner. Ivan and Bibby still got it.

In Games 1 and 2, it was Gortat that was killing us by getting point blank shots at the rim via Wall's passes and muscling up Dwight on the boards. Howard and the Hawks adjusted the defense in Games 3 - 6, and effectively took Gortat completely out of the picture. They bet that Wall couldn't consistently make that midrange jumper. He did. We lost. And other guys like Bradley Beal balled out as well. But once again, that's Dennis' man ( Wall ) The Oubre play . . Dwight thought he was going to shoot a 3, as did everyone else. He went to box out Gortat. Oubre saw this, and went in for the dunk. No one else on the team reacted to Oubre. But once again, whose man was that and how did he get that wide open. If Dwight challenges, all Oubre had to do is dump it down to Gortat for the dunk. So you're giving up a dunk regardless. Its funny how very few in this fan base wanted Dwight treated like he was one of the stars of the team . . . but expect him to make star type plays. You say he wasn't trying. I say he was literally being froze out in about 4 of those games, for the sake of "ball movement". It's all good though. Everybody got what they wanted. Dwight is gone . . and now we have Diamond Stone to take his place. He'll be that pick and roll center that everyone wanted.

So you're blaming THJ for getting a big contract? No sir. This was a desperate team in New York ( which we will be in 3 years ) making a power move to bring in young talent, even if they have to overpay. Remember in 2005, when we overpaid to bring in Joe Johnson. Same thing. They're banking that THJ can become at least their version of JJ.

Then in 2019, we can get this guy BALL CONTROL!

Yep. No matter who the GM is, they're always playing that "waiting game" and letting the market set the price, instead of actually negotiating themselves. Dennis must be waking up this morning like . . . WTF? And I bet no one in the organization is even talking to him either, to explain their "game plan". - Demarre gone - Teague gone - Horford gone - Mike Scott gone - Korver gone - Dwight gone - Millsap gone - Hardaway Jr gone - Sefolosha ( should be gone ) - Muscala ( should be gone ) The only ones left,are Dennis . . and . . Bazemore. A 60 WIN BASKETBALL TEAM . .. REDUCED TO (( BLEEPING )) RUBBLES!! LOL . . so much for that A+ grade for Schlenk. This is a classic case of a GM tearing everything down, to build his own vision. At this rate, don't be surprised if Dennis is dealt as well.

In every draft . . . On average, you'll get 1 Hall of Famer in every draft. 4 of those guys will average 15 ppg for their career . . . ( star/all-star talents to hall of fame ) 12 of them will average 10 ppg for their career . . . ( these are your starters/significant role players to hall of famers ) 19 guys will play at least 10 years in the NBA. 29 will make it 5 years 49 will play in the NBA, whether they become Hall of Famers or play 1 minute total. 9 will not play in the league

No . . . but only about 15 of those guys in a draft turn out to be decent players. The Hawks better guess right on the majority of the picks. I was actually going to do a big topic on this a few weeks ago, and even have data I collected in an Excel program. This is what happens when you have too much time on your hands in the hotel, on a work trip. BLACK - Already in Hall of Fame GREEN - Surely a lock to get into the Hall of Fame RED - Future possibility for Hall of fame. NBA Draft.xlsx

So in other words . . . you're nervous as hell.

And if those 1st round picks aren't right outside of the lottery or in the lottery, most of those players will be marginal role players at best. The Hawks better ALWAYS pick the best player available, if they're counting on those late 1st round draft picks.

LOL . .. look at them trying to pull a Billy Knight move.

So if Howard averaged 5 points - 7 rebounds - and 2 blocks, and set screens for our "great shooters" and "slashers". . . he would've made the center position relevant again in Atlanta? What are you dudes missing? There is a disconnect somewhere. If Howard did that ( which is close to what he did in the playoffs ), we win 30 games . . . tops. Here are our "shooters" from last season . . +2% above league average ( 35.8% ) in GREEN . . +2% above to -2% below league average in YELLOW . . 2% - 5% below league average in ORANGE . . . less than 5% league average in RED Arranged according to number of 3 point attempts, to illustrate who were taking the most shots. Hardaway Jr - 417 3 point attempts . . . 35.7% Schröder - 294 att . . . 34% Bazemore - 266 att . . . 34.6% Millsap - 241 att . . . 31.1% Korver - 159 att . . . 40.9% Sefolosha - 120 att . . . 34.2% Delaney - 110 att . . . 23.6% Muscala - 110 att . . . 41.8% Prince - 102 att . . . 32.4% I know it's not cool sometimes to go against the overall popular belief. But sometimes, you have to open your eyes. This wasn't Golden State we had here last year. Hell, it wasn't even Copper State. It was more like Granite State, because they were throwing up a bunch of rocks and bricks . . or triangles, that fell into the lane after hitting the backboard.