TheNorthCydeRises

Thank you. One thing about me though, I come into any discussion ARMED. Whether you agree or disagree, I'm going to come with enough facts and if possible, video evidence, to let you know what my view of the situation is.

A scoring PG/SG type Before you LOL . . . he's better than Delaney.

Same here. I think I actually made a joke about the Hawks taking him.

Exactly.

Now we're getting into the nitty gritty of the problem. The draft. So let's look at it since the Joe Johnson trade 1st round picks in RED. 2012: - John Jenkins ( 23rd ): ( D ) . . . Drafted to be a sharpshooter in the potential loss of Joe Johnson, Jenkins never materialized in that role. Too small to be a decent defender, and really not a good enough shooter to be allowed on the floor, Jenkins only lasted 3 years in ATL. He's most famous for that black suit he used to wear on the bench, when he wasn't dressed to play. These days, Johnny Cash is doing his thing with the Knicks . . . the Weschester Knicks of the D-League. - Mike Scott ( 43rd ): ( C+ ) . . . Production wise, his career has been equivalent to a low 1st round pick in his first 3 years in the league. The 2016 - 17 campaign, however, has been a disaster for Scott. Injuries kept him out of the lineup at the start of the season, and he hasn't retained his offensive game to be a contributor off the bench. Now he can't even crack the rotation, with the emergence of Mike Muscala assuming his "shooting PF" role. With this being the last year of his deal, his NBA career may be in jeopardy. Possible Misses: Jae Crowder ( 34th ) . . . Draymond Green ( 35th ) . . . Khris Middleton ( 39th ) 2013: - Lucas Noguiera ( 16th ): ( C- ) . . . traded away and really never given a chance to be a contributor. Currently a decent defensive center off the bench in Toronto - Dennis Schroder ( 17th ): ( A- ) . . . quickly established himself by Year 2 as a guy who can contribute in a big way. Became the Hawks starting PG in Year 4, and one of the best young PGs in the league. - Mike Muscala ( 44th ): ( C+ ) . . . a non-factor in his first 3 seasons as a spot role player, he finally became a main contributor off the bench as a stretch 4. Possible Misses: Tim Hardaway ( 24th ) . . Rudy Gobert ( 27th ) 2014: - Adreian Payne ( 15th ): ( F ) . . . drafted to be a stretch 4/5 to bring off the bench. Foot injury and multiple D-League assignments only saw him play 3 games as a Hawk. Management smartly trades him away for value, before the T-Wolves realize that this guy just couldn't cut it. Currently out with a blood condition, and his career is uncertain. - Walter Tavares ( 43rd ): ( F ) . . . After parting ways with Bebe, the Hawks once again looked to bring on a "project" rim protector. Spent his 1st year overseas. While showing a little promise in Summer League and in D-League stints, Edy only plays in 12 games as a Hawk. Waived on Halloween 2016 and is now completely out of the league. Possible Misses: Gary Harris ( 19th ) . . Rodney Hood ( 23rd ) . . Nikola Jokie ( 41st ) . . Jordan Clarkston ( 46th ) 2015: - *** Tim Hardaway Jr. *** - via the Kelly Oubre trade ( 15th ): ( A- ) . . . Hawks said they had Hardaway Jr on their radar for a while, so when they had a chance to trade for him, they did just that. What looked like a very shaky move when made, has turned out to be one of the biggest acquisitions for the Hawks in recent years. Question now is, can they retain him, because he may get big money out on the open market. As for Oubre, he's slowing getting better, but not on the level of Hardaway Jr just yet. - Marcus Erikkson ( 50th ): ( I ) - Dimitrious Agravanis ( 59th ): ( I ) Possible Misses: NONE . . . the Hardaway Jr trade was the best possible outcome for the Hawks. If we lose Hardaway Jr though, this turns into an F draft. 2016: - *** Taurean Prince *** - via Jeff Teague trade - ( 12th ): ( C- ) . . . What looked like a player that could easily crack the rotation and be a contributor off the bench, has quickly turned into a project that can't see the floor. Prince has shown flashes of offensive ability, but looks completely lost on defense, which has kept him off the floor. May have to wait until Year 2 to see if he's a bust or not. - Deandre Bembry ( 21st ): ( C+ ) . . . Bembry's rookie year has gone the opposite of Prince's. He started out buried on the bench, only to see his playing time pick up to the point that he's been in the rotation, especially since Sefolosha's injury. His defense makes him more comfortable for Bud to trust with playing time, while his offense consists of slashing to the basket. - Isaia Cordinier ( 44th ): ( I ) Possible Misses: NONE . . . because the 2016 Draft may turn out to be the weakest draft in NBA history. Currently, no rookies are averaging 10 ppg, and the #1 pick ( Ben Simmons ) hasn't played a game yet. Maybe most of these guys will get a chance in Year 2 of their career, to be major contributors. Right now, the biggest misses of the Hawks look to be ( ironically ) in the Danny Ferry era. I understand WHY Jenkins was drafted, even though the need at that time was ( you guess it . . . at SF ). His teammate, Jeff Taylor, would've been the better pick at the time, but we chose Jenkins. But the good GMs are able to find good talent, no matter where they pick in the draft. So when you see that we missed out on Green, Crowder, and Middleton, you see the talent that we missed out on. While Green gets the headlines because of his role in Golden State, Khris Middleton may be the best player of the 3. Had he not gotten hurt at the beginning of the season, Milwaukee may be in the top 5 of the East. He's on his way back though, so we'll see how that helps the Bucks, especially since they lost Jabari Parker. Choosing Bebe over Gobert, and the horrible pick of choosing Payne over Rodney Hood, were the type of decisions that cripple the depth of a team. Maybe with Gobert, there's no need to spend a ton of money on Dwight Howard, which would give this team a lot more flexibility. Not having Rodney Hood though, is the biggest error. That's the SF the Hawks could've used, instead of another stretch 4 in Payne. He single-handedly could've prevented the Hawks from giving a major contract to Kent Bazemore. And Hood would've still been on his rookie contract this season. At the end of the day, teams can't afford to pick for "need" in the draft, if they don't have star players at other positions. I'm in the midset that a team should ALWAYS draft the best player available, no matter how deep you are at that position. If that player can't crack your rotation, but is still a good player, deal him for a vet that you know can help you. But you should always draft the talented young player of a young need player that may have less talent.

Question 1: What is the goal for the rebuild? People throw this term out there like it is easy to do. It isn't, Because if you can't draft potential All-Star caliber players ( no matter where you're picking ) . . . and you can't attract major free agents to the team, you will constantly be in rebuilding mode anyway. And if you mess up the rebuild, you could be bad for 5 - 10 years If we lose Millsap and Howard, and don't get quality young talent at their respective positions, this franchise is dead in the water for years to come. What the Hawks should do instead, is go ALL OUT to maximize the potential of this roster, before giving up on it. And that's the one thing the Hawks management haven't been willing to do. The Hawks are a lot like the Memphis Grizzlies. They're a solid franchise that is going to at or near one of the top 8 - 10 teams in the league on a yearly basis. And to appease their fan base, they need to put a quality product out on the floor, even if they have no shot at beating the elite teams in the conference. People have said that they should bust it down and rebuild too. But they didn't. Instead, they made Mike Conley one of the highest paid players in the league, even if he's not worth it. They've been bad before. REAL BAD. And they never want to go back to that place again. Question 2: If you're in favor of a rebuild, what team would you emulate, and why?

Actually, he only went out of the game at that point with his 5th foul. But as soon as he went out, that's when they went on the run. Then he comes back in and fouls out on a ticky tack call while defending Cousins.

They went on an 8 - 0 run as soon as Dwight fouled out.

I hate to say it . . . but you know who they're expecting to help them out?

The Thabo Effect. Once he comes back, it will be interesting to see if Bud continues to start Hardaway Jr. He should, along with Thabo. Once Thabo is healthy, the perimeter defense will start to become better. Until then . . . . ugh.

Wow . . . I need to get my mind out of the gutter. For about 2 seconds, I thought you said something else.

Adding Lou means no Delaney. Can't play them both together for an extended period of time, due to defense. Lou is having a tremendous season though. It's between he and Eric Gordon for the 6th man of the year award this season.

The Hawks have lost SEVEN games by 20 or more points. 4 of them coming in the last 3 weeks. We have a deficiency at SF We don't have a bonafide closer to end games And we have very few people who can create their own shot when the offense bogs down And yet, people don't want to bring on THIS? You get one shot at glory sometimes. Never be afraid to take your shot ( talking to you Wilcox and Budenholzer ).

It's almost like fans in Atlanta are afraid to have "nice things". Would you drive a Lamborghini, if it had no seat belts? Think about that for a moment. Most of us will NEVER get a chance to drive, let alone own a Lambo. But if you got a chance to own or drive one, and the only feature you didn't have on it were seat belts, would you decline the drive? That's what Melo is. A sportscar without seat belts. If you wreck, it may kill you. But if you don't wreck, you'll get the thrill of your life. And if you know how to control and maintain a Lambo, you may get the ultimate satisfaction out of it. Melo will have NEVER played with a collection of guys as good as this current Hawk team. It's no way you can judge his past team performances, when he's barely played with a good collection of talent. It's the same situation Ray Allen was in for years. Same with Paul Pierce. They were good to very good players on mediocre teams that didn't have enough talent to beat elite teams. This is Dennis' future car, by the way. Once he gets that big money contract, he'll trade in the Audi for this.

( sigh ) The only thing he didn't do in this game, was make the final shot. He even had a few good defensive plays.

I heard Jalen Rose talk about this today on his Jalen & Jacoby show. He's mentioned it before. People believe that the East is so weak, that the playoffs need to be changed in order to properly represent the true top 16 teams in the playoffs. This year though, it's the West who will have a team that doesn't even win 36 games get into the playoffs. So what would a 1 - 16 seeded NBA playoff look like, if we just did away with the conference playoffs? Would this be a better set up? Current 1st round matchups: ( 2/9 ) 16 ) Charlotte @ 1) Golden St 9) Washington @ 8) Memphis 13) Indiana @ 4) Houston 12) Oklahoma City @ 5) Utah 14) Chicago @ 3) Cleveland 11) Atlanta @ 6) Boston 10) Toronto @ 7) LA Clippers 15) Detroit @ 2) San Antonio 3 games separate the 5th seed - 11th seed

LOL @ Mindfuckus. I like dude too.

Or it could put us a heartbeat away from the NBA Finals.

Dwight did go for 11 pts - 13 rebs tonight. Only 1 assist though.

Don't do this in the playoffs, Kyle. Remember our agreement. You miss these open looks if you play the Hawks in the playoffs.

The alternative is worse. You know it, and I know it. And Melo WILL be the #1 offensive guy. At the end of a game, that's who hands I want the ball in. The difference is that he doesn't have to be a 20 shot taking #1 guy. In this offense, if he can take 15 - 17 shots, and shoot a decent percentage, that would help us tremendously.

That doesn't help the Hawks for the present or the future. So why do a deal like that?

Disagree completely. 1) the fan base in Atlanta would IMMEDIATELY welcome him on. 1/2 of them cheer for him whenever he comes here anyway. 2) a trade almost always reinvigorates a player, even if he loved where he played at. 3) Bud has proven with Dwight Howard, that he can turn a guy who everybody think is worthless, into a viable and integral part of the team 4) Melo has no problem playing "team ball", He looks to take over when his teammates are missing shots. 5) As a spot up shooter, he is tailor made for this offense. At some point, this fan base has to understand what normally are the elements of a championship team, and take their personal emotions out of the equation. 1) A Hall of Fame level player playing at or near the peak of his career . . . ( none ) 2) A definitive All-Star level player . . . ( Millsap ) 3) A 3rd player who is a borderline All-Star, capable of making a major impact on a game . . . ( Howard, Schroder ) 4) A top 10 defensive team . . . ( currently 5th in the NBA ) 5) A top 10 offensive team . . . ( currently 25th in the NBA . . . and lowest amongst ALL current playoff teams ) Without those elements, you're not winning a title in most instances. We have 3 out of the 5. Acquiring Melo gives us a chance to get #1, and dramatically improve #5. Any other move that brings in a middle of the road player, doesn't help us at all. It's that simple.

That quote is exactly why he needs to be traded. He's part of the problem, especially with his streak shooting, wild turnovers, and lackluster defense. He's right about one thing. We DO need a guy who can carry the load every night, if need be. That's why we need the guy in New York, and not the guy who always makes crazy faces at the camera.