TheNorthCydeRises

See ... now I want a t-shirt with Ivan's face on it that says... "Really Motherf**ka?"

Now this is a great idea. Everyone know that Dol does a tremendous job on this site. And the reason the site is set up like this, is to create some sort of order and stability to the site. If Dol and the other mods let people create any thread they wanted and post it anywhere, you'd have threads all over the place. The "order" also keeps topics in view for a decent amount of time. The "foul" idea is a great one. Maybe 3 fouls and you lose thread creation rights for a certain amount of time. I'd even go to say if you posted a thread that is totally non-forum related, that would be like a technical foul, and you'd immediately lose thread creation rights.

Can't have it both ways Soth. You know this team needs a talent upgrade. Lance represents that talent upgrade. Regardless of the stupid things he does on the court, or the problem he has with teammates, the Hawks are really in no position to try to pick and choose what type of stars they bring in. We're not going anywhere as a franchise, if we don't get YOUNG players here who can possibly outplay their contracts. The great thing about JR Rider, is that the Hawks almost immediately got rid of the guy when he became a big problem. With Lance, if he did become a JR Rider, there will always be some team who will take him off of our hands, because they'd feel that they could control them. When you can't attract big time free agents. And our GM doesn't have a good enough eye for talent to DRAFT big time players . . you have to take risks. We struck out on Al Jefferson . . by not going after him. We get MIllsap. Good player . . but not Al Jefferson from an impact standpoint. Now we struck out on Lance . . . by not going after him. He goes to a division rival, possibly makes them stronger, and we're left scratching our heads with Thabo Sefolosha and Kent Bazemore. That is a losing strategy from a management standpoint. How crazy is it that CHARLOTTE will be the favorite to win the division now?

You keep saying that he's not a fit . . . despite Lance possessing EVERYTHING this team needs in a wing player - Can create his own offense - Can be a facilitator in the offense - Can play defense on both SGs and SFs I have no idea why you keep saying that he wouldn't be a good fit on the court, when he has the all-around game that this team needed.

Newsflash . . . the reason why Indy couldn't retain him is 1) he's an unrestricted free agent 2) Indiana flat out has said that they will NOT pay the Luxury Tax 3) Bird is not GOD . . especially as a front office person That Pacers front office is nothing special. Overpaid Hibbert. Overpaid Hill. Got rid of Granger, who was willing to take a secondary role on the team, and was one of the veteran leaders on the team. Brought in Evan Turner, which started the chemistry breakup. Brought in Andrew Bynum, which was catastrophic to the psyche of Hibbert. They're nothing special as a front office. You got the Charlotte fan base acting like they signed Jordan. You got the Pacers fan base mad as hell at Lance and at the front office And you got our fan base asking . . WTF . . 3 years - 27 million . . and we couldn't match that? Watch that kid next year Dol. Watch how he develops into a damn good player . . a possible All-Star one.

Why wouldn't they? Hell, they have enough money to even throw out a decent bid for Boozer, now, if they haven't done it already.

I'm not even mad. It's just disappointing. When I saw that Charlotte was meeting with him last night, I thought they might get him with a 3 - 30 or overpay for a 3 - 36 deal. But to get him a 3 - 27 . . with a player option in Year 3? Wow. Incredible. And people wonder why I will NOT mention our GM by name, until he actually does something here. LOL . . now I'm starting to get mad. You got the damn CHARLOTTE BOBCATS making major moves over us, simply because they have a GM that knows what the hell he's doing. CHARLOTTE . . . . FRIGGIN CHARLOTTE !!! AND they could outbid everyone for Boozer. If they knew they could sign Lance for 9 million, they had the room to bid 4 or 5 million for Boozer. If they get him too . . . PG - Kemba G - Stephenson F - MKG ( or Marvin ) PF - Boozer C - Jefferson With a plethora of young guys coming off the bench. Talk about a franchise that seems to have everything going right for them. Yet, all fans around here can say is . . . "Oh . . . we're the Spurs East. We're doing things like the Spurs. We have the Spurs system, so everything will be alright." Like I've been saying for over a year now, the rest of the NBA is NOT going to wait around for us to be good. They're going to make moves and put themselves in positions to become a better team. 3 years - 27 million huh? Wow.

Spurs Usage % rates last season amongst their main rotation players Regular Season 1) Parker - 26.5 2) Duncan - 25.2 3) Ginobli - 24.7 4) Mills - 22.6 5) Belinelli - 19.0 6) Leonard - 18.3 7) Splitter - 17.7 8) Diaw - 17.0 9) Green - 16.7 Playoffs 1) Parker - 28.3 2) Ginobli - 26.2 3) Duncan - 21.9 4) Mills - 21.3 5) Leonard - 18.9 6) Diaw - 16.2 7) Green - 16.1 8) Belinelli - 15.7 9) Splitter - 13.4 I post this because a lot of people believe that the Spurs don't have a "superstar". People think that everybody on the team just get their share of touches. The true facts are that the Spurs offense basically runs through 3 players. Yes, the ball doesn't stick in their offense, but those 3 main players are going to get the ball back at some point, to either make a play for themselves or make a play for others. Patty Mills, in limited minutes, is maybe the only guy on that team that specifically looks for his own shot. One of the main problems with the Hawks, is that we are still out of balance ( incredibly ). Still no legit center. Still a plethora of PFs on the team. Still no shot creators on the wings ( with JJ gone ). And like Diesel eloquently said . . . when games slow down, and we need a bucket, we have no way to get it, unless we hit a jumper. Can't dump it down to that big man to get the basket. And the only true slasher we have that can get to the line, is Jeff Teague ( when the refs give him a call ). This is definitely the make or break year for the GM, in my opinion. If we show improvement in the win total and during the playoffs ( reach the 2nd round ), that will at least have people believing that we are heading in the right direction. And it may not only generate interest amongst the basketball fans in Atlanta, it may generate interest for potential free agents to come here. But if we stay stagnant or go into decline, the domino effect that could take place could be disasterous. We could lose Millsap for nothing . . . but cap space. It could cause the GM to start to sell off players ( like Teague ). And it could send a clear signal to Al Horford that we're NOT prepared to build a winner in ATL right now, which may cause us to lose him as well. As happy as most of us are with Millsap, I still say that this team royally messed up when we didn't get Jefferson. He was the offensive and rebounding center that the team ( and Horford ) needed. It'll be interesting to see if the supposed bid we put in for Boozer is the high bid, and we get him. That would be the 83rd PF that we have on the team, but at least he'd be the 3rd best big on the squad. And at least he does have some sort of ground and pound low post game that could help us during playoff time. And he can still rebound.

Damn. Should've cut the movie villian.

Per SynergySports Thabo posted a 0.94 points per possession number . . . ranking him 344th in the NBA. Yes, he posted above average numbers when guarding guys in isolation and in the pick and roll. So why were his overall ppp number so bad? They were that bad because his isolation defensive plays only represented 11.7% of his total defensive play types. What was his most used defensive play type? Spot Up defense, which represented 34.9% of his defensive play types. His numbers on that particular play type? 1.19 ppp . . . 353rd in the NBA . . . 48.3% FG . . . 44.6% 3FG If ( per the article ) that the Hawks defensive system opens up opportunities for spot up shooting, Thabo may be a HUGE LIABILITY here, if he played like he did at OKC vs spot up shooting. Normally, when you're giving up those types of high percentages on Spot Ups, it either means that you're constantly out of position on defense and can't get back to your man . . . or you're losing the athletic ability and/or DESIRE to close out on shooters.

Well if we're going to play that game . . . Thabo boosted his 3 point shooting with a 7 game stretch in Feb. in which he shot 45%( 9 - 20 FG ) during that time period. Take away just those 7 games, and Thabo shot 29.6% from 3 for the year in the other 54 games he played in the regular season.

The GM isn't signing a big name. He lost his chance to do that.

PG - Napier G - Wade F - Deng PF - Haslem C - Bosh Still enough firepower on that team to make the playoffs. Probably about even with us. Bosh and Wade will be 20 ppg scorers again next season. I think Miami will go after Bledsoe with a significant deal, to see if Phoenix blinks. And they just might, seeing that they now have 3 PGs on the roster, outside of Bledsoe ( Dragic, Ennis, Thomas ).

An aged Dragic? He's only 27 . . . and made 3rd team All-NBA last season. Matter of fact, they don't have anybody on that team over the age of 30. Deng would be the elder statesman there. That Suns team won 48 games last season. And the only reason why they didn't win more, is because they were somewhat weak on defense. Remember back when we and the Knicks were battling for the 8th seed, but we only had like 33 wins? Why do you think the national media started a conversation about completely doing away with conference seeding and just taking the top 16 teams? It's because at the time, Phoenix had like 43 wins and would've been the #3 seed in the East. Then when the playoffs were about to start, national writers started writing articles like this one: http://www.cbssports.com/nba/writer/ken-berger/24531858/nba-playoff-system-needs-changing-and-silver-is-taking-a-fresh-look It's crazy that Hawks fans think we have a better situation here, than a team who won 48 games in the far tougher Western Conference.

DeMarre was a pretty established role player in both Memphis and Utah.

They wouldn't have traded Smith for Lebron James back in those days. But I definitely approved of Smith for Pau in a trade.

It's just depressing to see other teams target and get good established players ... while we get project role players. It's one thing to settle for these types of players when you're capped out. But when you have 15 million in cap space, and go after these players, it's sickening.

Add Stephenson to this list as well.

Offer him a 3 yr - 45 mill deal ... or a 4 yr - 55 mill deal. Not only would it be great for the team, it would be great for the city. Despite his nagging injuries, he was still the 2nd best SG in the league last season, behind Harden. That would be a risky, but no brainer type of decision.

If he now goes to Miami, how disappointing would that be? Although it would be great for instagram. Gabby and Lala taking numerous playful pics like these. http://www.bet.com/music/photos/2013/12/100-best-instagram-photos-of-2013/_jcr_content/leftcol/flipbook/flipbookimage_25.flipfeature.dimg/052313-music-instagram-photos-of-the-week-Lala-Gabrielle-Union.jpg

Bledsoe possibly too. He or possibly Stephenson.

Not as currently constructed. The GM needs to do his job and bring in more talent.

I'm just glad that Summer League starts this weekend. If the GM does little to nothing, we can at least watch the young guys play ball.

What people need to remember about the start of the season is that we were playing a bottom 5 strength of schedule before Horford went down. Honestly, we should've been more like 19 - 10 when Horford went down, with the schedule we were playing.

I absolutely hate the fact that I agree with about 75% of the posts that Hotlanta makes these days. But he's right on point.