TheNorthCydeRises

Exactly. As big of a Law fan I was, I'm completely over that dude now. All he had to do is simply outplay the backup PG on a team, and he'd be getting minutes somewhere. LOL . . and he's not going to get any PT in Chicago either. He's already proven that he can't jump ahead of Flip in a rotation, so he'll be buried on the bench again . . or inactive altogether. He's making over $26,000 a game to sit the bench. So while he may be upset that he's not playing, that's not a bad way to make a living. He's simply going to have to work his arse off during the summer, and make another roster. If he does that, he has to go in with the mentality that he can take someone's spot. First Woody . . the Nellie . . . now Brown. No way you can blame the coaches now. That's all on Acie.

You guys have absolutely lost your minds. Big Z? Really? I know he makes jumpshots . . . against us . . . but this guy isn't nearly the shooter that some of you think he is. Unless we could get him for 2 yrs - 3.5 million, there's no way in the world I'd waste money on that dude. The full MLE? No way. Big Z's shooting this year: at rim: 61.5% FG ( 2.3 attempts/game ) < 10 ft: 40.7% FG ( 0.5 att/gm ) 10 - 15 ft: 36.8% FG ( 0.4 att/gm ) 16 - 23 ft: 35% FG ( 3.2 att/gm ) three pt: 50% FG ( 0.4 att/gm ) In other words . . . he shoots about like Marvin from the perimeter, especially from midrange. And Big Z can't guard Dwight either. No thanks. I'd rather let Al Horford play 36 minutes a game and take 3 - 4 more shots a game, than to waste money on a Big Z contract. Unless you can get him on the extreme cheap, there's no way you overpay for a guy like that.

Somebody should frame this and put it on their wall. Excellent post.

LOL mrH . . that dude was a no-show on both ends of the floor last night. It was a pitiful showing. And the way they lost a 5 point lead at the end of that 4th quarter in about 30 seconds, was just horrible. I thought they would be a team that would've made a play for Marvin last summer, but they opted to sign Hedo to the big bucks. That dude has been flat out awful since January 1st.

Johnny . . who wants our scraps? Our scraps don't even make a lot of money to trade a decent player for. It's not hard to understand why we didn't make a move, or couldn't make a move. This will all be over and done with in about 14 hours . . . I wish it hurries up and comes and pass. Good win tonight by the Hawks. Congrats to Horford, dominating tonight.

I'm not going to say that I'm smarter than you guys. I'll only say that I question critical written articles by "national writers/bloggers" a little more than you guys do. Just like that BS article last week about JJ "not wanting to lead", written by that Chicago writer. Some of you believed that piece of crap . . . like you haven't been watching JJ do his thing all year. Stop believing everything you read. So I googled the name of the author of that RealGM article. Jarrod Rudolph. He's a writer from ORLANDO folks. If he's a legit sportswriter who does his research, he knows good and damn well that we don't have any tradeable assets that people want. And the assets they do want ( Horford, Smith, etc ), we're not giving up. Bringing in "something", as he says, doesn't help this team. We need the RIGHT SOMETHING . . . not just "something". Some of you simply need to get behind your Captain and this Team UNCONDITIONALLY. Barring adding a star level player, we may not have enough to get past the 2nd round anyway. And adding any salary to this roster hinders us from possibly signing JJ in the offseason. The Hawks are playing this exactly right. People don't want our scraps, so why toss their names out there like they're valuable trade pieces? We're rolling with what we have right now, for better or for worse. It's amazing how gullable some of you are, even though we're 16 games above .500 right now. Our focus right now should be winning the division and getting that #2 seed. Worry about the playoffs when they get here, not before.

Yeah it's funny, can't deny that. I also can't deny that it's straight BS. If this guy does leave us, I don't want to see any of the current JJ haters crying about ISO-CRAW or ISO-AL or complaining about how no one outside of Craw can create a quality shot. But the vid was definitely funny, can't deny that.

People need to keep it real around here. I know it can't possibly happen, but if we were to acquire Amare without losing Smoove, Horford, JJ, or Crawford, people would be screaming NBA Finals around here. Gentry tried to play at a slower tempo, and at times force feed Shaq the ball. The problem with that team, was that they weren't equipped to play that style of basketball. You give Lebron a player like Amare, and that's just another weapon that he can pass the ball to. And with Amare, you now have a legit 2nd option type player who you can run with the bench, while Lebron AND Shaq are out the game. It's not like Shaq is logging a lot of minutes in Cleveland. He played 30 minutes a game in Phoenix, but is only playing 23 minutes a game in Cleveland. Those minutes may even drop a little, if you add Amare to the mix. Come on now. You're adding a legit 2nd option type player to the Cavs . . who rebounds the basketball . . who is one of the best midrange jumpshooting big men in the game . . who also gets to play off the ball with Lebron James. The ONLY question about Amare, is on the defensive end. He may be compelled to raise his defensive game, much like Crawford has done here ( even if he's still below average defensively ). He's not HORRIBLE defensively anymore. Let's just all hope and pray that Cleveland doesn't get a Pau Gasol like gift, in a trade that nets them Amare.

Would we have won the title? NO. But I do think we easily get to the East Finals. We would've disposed of Miami and beat Indiana. Neither of those teams had anyone who could guard Nique. If it would've been us the Knicks in the East final. That would've gone 6 or 7 games easily. And since we'd have home court advantage, I'll give us the edge. An Atlanta - Seattle NBA Final would've been very entertaining. It would've been a good storyline with Lenny ( a Sonics legend ) trying to beat the mighty Sonics for the championship. Sonics A series vs the eventual NBA Champs ( Houston ) would've been interesting. They're essentially what the Magic are today, except Dream was far more skilled of an offensive center than Howard. I don't know if the Hawks with Nique would've beat them

Inferior product? Well damn Johnny, if that's the case, move the Hawks out of Atlanta. If that's the mentality of the casual fan in ATL, move the Hawks to Cincinnati or Kansas City or better yet, move them to Seattle . LOL @ an inferior product. Why? Because we're a bad matchup against two teams? We are a top 7 team in the NBA . . . Top 7. We have one of the best home records in the NBA. We are 52 - 16 in our last 68 home games. ( 76% win percentage ) But because we've struggled against 2 teams, that's reason enough to not pay money to see them at all? Move the team out of Atlanta then. If the casual fan STILL stays away, despite our drastic improvement the past 2 - 3 years, what does that tell management? That they should spend MORE money, in order to put a better product on the floor . . even though the bandwagon fans STILL won't show up on nights in which we don't play a top team? We're lucky the ASG is willing to spend up to the luxury tax threshhold in the first place.

Well said. What JB calls "smart" . . is actually the very definition of being a bandwagon fan base. For the most part, we're a passionless fan base.

That's nonsense. Check out the Celtics' attendance before the KG and Ray Allen trade. Besides Boston and the Lakers have dozens of titles between them so they have some equity to play with with fans. There is no excuse for us to be the only contending team nowhere near the Luxury Tax. Portland is half our market size, Lost 2 of their best players and they still make a move for Marcus Camby. They didn't say, we don't want to hurt chemistry, or that "we don't want to hurt Greg Oden's future development" They even know that there is no way they could beat the Lakers. But they know how to keep their fanbase energized. ASG haven't figured that out yet. They know nothing about the sports fan. They think that folks spend money for unlimited hotdogs and thos stupid dolls they parachute from the rafters. Johnny, people have given you information on our financial situation, so you're simply being stubborn now about what we can and are willing to do. As for Portland making the play for Camby . . . both Blake and Outlaw are expiring contracts ( 9 million dollars worth of expiring contracts ), so the Clippers aren't taking back extended contracts for letting Camby go. Portland is even giving them money to complete the deal. This is not hard to understand how and why the Clippers would accept a deal like that . . but not accept something like Zaza and Evans for Camby. As good as Outlaw has been for Portland over the years, he becomes expendible when you have multiple people who can play his position. Same goes with Blake. So if you can trade those two to get a center ( a position of great need for them right now ), you definitely give those two up. This wasn't a deal to "keep their fanbase energized". They did that deal out of competitive necessity. Oh . . by the way . . Portland is #1 in attendance so far this year. They're half the market size, but have drawn 161,000 more fans than we have. They have played 2 more home games than we have though. What's no excuse, is for the Hawks to still be struggling at the gate, when they have a home winning percentage of 76% over the last 1.5 seasons ( 68 games ). The ownership has put a winning product on the floor at Philips. It's just that the casual Hawks fan isn't committed enough to see the team against the mediocre teams, like they do when the big boys come around.

This is why I say that Woody is smarter than us fans. Bibby's career was already in decline when he came here. Yeah, he was averaging 18 ppg, but look at his shooting % that year, and in the years previous. Bibby playing the point, but playing off of JJ, stretched out his career. The reason why JJ and Crawford dominiate the ball, is because they have to. They're the only 2 guys on the team who can create AND make shots ( no matter the difficulty ) on the team. Most of your top PGs possess this quality. Bibby can't do it anymore, especially when you're talking about taking the ball to the rim. Nash can. To believe that Woody wouldn't put the ball in Nash's hands, considering how Woody loves guards who can score in ISO situations, is kind of silly. Woody even put the ball in Flip's hands . . even Lue's. So it makes no sense to believe that he wouldn't do the same thing with Nash. He would give Nash "Peyton Manning-like" control over the playcalling at times.

GM . . . I hear ya man. They could definitely promote the team, and its players, a whole lot better than what they currently do. As far as radio goes, I'm a huge fan of sports on radio. Before the Hawks were switched to 790 AM, they were on 750 AM for a while. At night, I can clearly hear 750 AM in northern Middle Tennessee ( 300 miles away ). I think you can hear 750 al throughout the Southeast at night. So if the Hawks were still on a powerful nighttime signal like 750, it would definitely benefit them. That 790 signal sounds like it's powered by a 9 volt battery. Having said that . . . * If a person in GA has cable TV, the Hawks can be seen by everyone in the state either on FSN South or SportSouth. Here in Tennessee, I mainly get the SportSouth games ( which usually number about 40 - 50 a year. On rare occasions, I may get an FSN South game. Combine that with the national TV games, and I get to see the Hawks on TV 50+ times a year. And that's not counting the times you could possibly watch the Hawks online via channelsurfing.net or justin.tv * Traffic sure isn't a deterrent when a big name team or player comes to town. The 7 PM weekday start is no problem, when D-Wade, Lebron, or the Celtics are rolling into town. The reason . . is that they're making it a priority to go to the game. When the Pacers or Bobcats roll into town, the traffic becomes the excuse why not to go to the game. In each case, they're not there to watch the Hawks. It is what it is I guess. Maybe with more national TV exposure via ESPN and TNT next year ( surely we can get 12 - 15 national TV games next year? ), more people around Metro ATL will start viewing the Hawks as a top 10 team, instead of attending home games like they're a mediocre one. The next game I'll get to attend looks like the Milwaukee game 2 Sundays from now. The Dallas game on Friday night is an ESPN game, so of course, it'll be packed or close to capacity. But I bet they don't even draw 12,000 for the Sunday evening Milwaukee game on Sunday.

Wow . . . so we get Harris AND CDR? (( talking like Chris Carter )) . . . . . "come on maaaaan" Devin is their 2nd best player behind Lopez. And we're offering Marvin, Evans, and Collins for Harris and CDR? MVP . . you always have to look at the other side, when making a trade. Seriously, why would Jersey make a deal like that? It's not like Jersey needs to get rid of players to create cap room. They already have it going into this summer. So why would they give up talent, and take less talent back? If they believed that Marvin was better than Harris . . . maybe they do a deal like that. And Marvin's contract is a detriment in itself. We play the Clippers in 48 hrs . . . lol . . . just concentrate on that man.

As usual, JJ sees it right. He wasn't taking a shot at the Hawks organization, he was simply telling it like it is. We're definitely going to have to scrap and claw and fight for everything from here on out. Some of these guys, ( including JJ ) are going to have to play the playoff series of their lives, in order for this team to make a run in the playoffs. JJ knows this. His comments are also an indication that he either knows or believes that we're not doing anything at the trade deadline. That's why the fans should simply ease their minds over the next few days. Personally, I can't wait to see if we can possibly win 3 out of 4 on this mini-West coast trip. Our goal on the road should be to reach that 21 win mark by April. That basically means taking care of these lesser teams in their building. We need to start consistently doing that, ti prepare us mentally for the playoffs.

Who is that one piece? And how do we get him? People on this board have repeatedly said what we don't have as trade pieces. We could trade for a minor piece, but not a major piece. And we probably need a major one to contend for a title. It we still had Speedy's 5 million + Acie's 2 million + if we didn't offer Marvin an extension andlet him play for his 7 million qualifying offer . . . . NOW you're talking about major trade pieces we could dangle at a team that wishes to unload a guy they're trying to get rid of. But we made our move this past summer, when we used Acie and Speedy to get Crawford, and we re-signed Marvin to that multi year deal. So the only thing we can bring in, is a minor piece. And that may not be enought to even get us out of the 2nd round. This is honestly one trade deadline I'm not worried about at all. The only thing I hope, is that Miami gets NO ONE by Thursday.

LOL @ MVP . . . aren't you the same guy who just a few days ago created that Knee Jerk Reaction Post thread? Even if we made a move, it may not put us any closer to a title. What we DO have going for us though, is that we have 2 of the most explosive scorers in the league . . on the same squad. JJ and Jamal will have to play at least at a 3rd team All-NBA level for us to make major noise in the playoffs. They're the two players who combined, can give us "superstar" like production. If everyone else plays CONSISTENT, we have a shot. As for you Johnny, the Lakers were in complete disarray 3 months before that Gasol trade. You had Kobe talking all summer about how disapppointed he was, and how he may opt out of his deal and go somewhere else. But what happened during that season, is that Bynum FINALLY started to show signs of development. That elevated the Lakers to near the top of the West. And because they have a fan base that is willing to pay top dollar to see them, making a big time financial move was NOTHING for them. Basically, Memphis accepted expiring contracts and draft picks to get rid of Gasol. It was a GIFT. Same with Boston. They trade away expiring contracts and most of their young talent, to get Garnett and Allen. Those teams can do those things to win a title, because they have the revenue to do it. We don't. ASG goes out and gets Bibby, which improves us . . the fans show up a little more ASG goes out and gets Crawford, which improves us . . the fans show up just a little more. The Hawks are a ridiculous 52 - 16 at home in the past 1.5 seasons . . . and the fans STILL don't show up like they should. The problem isn't management not committing to win a title. The problem is the city of Atlanta committing to the HAWKS!!

Welcome aboard Nine. When you view the Hawks from this perspective, It makes you appreciate what they're doing even more. It also makes watching these games a little less stressful. It's like I said about a month ago . . all of a sudden, simply winning 50 games and being competitive in the 2nd round isn't good enough anymore. Even getting to the East Final would be looked down upon by some people. In the NBA, there is usually a maturation process that has to take place, before a team can make that jump to "title contender". The one thing the Hawks have going for them, that they haven't had in playoff years past, are 2 potentially explosive scorers. What we're going to need come playoff time, are JJ and Crawford playing at an extremely high level just about every night. At the very least, if one is cold, the other has to be red hot, to compensate for that. From a frontline perspective, we don't need them to be great. We just need them to be CONSISTENT every playoff game. Horford can't disappear when playing Howard. Smoove can't get wild, and have one of those 6 jumpshot games. Marvin needs to make open shots and help on the rebounding. If we can get that from our core, we'll have a shot. That's about all you can ask for. And honestly, until the city of Atlanta starts rooting for the HAWKS, instead of rooting for a WINNER, the city and the fans really can't expect ownership to go all out to win a title. Your life as a Hawk fan will be a little better now, when you look at the Hawks from the perspective you're looking at them now.

Diesel . . . you're way out in left field with this one. Nash SHOULD be averaging at least 23 ppg right now. Instead, he wastes possessions tossing the ball out to guys who don't shoot at good as he does. Phoenix would be an EXTREMELY dangerous team if he were taking 18 shots a game, instead of 13. Of course, he makes guys like Frye, Amare, and especially Jared Dudley, better players. But you're talking about a guy who can basically get his own shot anytime he wants . . . even at his age. Nash's shooting vs Bibby shooting: at rim: 72.7% FG on 2.1 shot attempts per game ( 6.5% of makes assisted ) . . . Bibby: 53.1% FG on 0.6 att/g ( 70.6% assisted ) < 10 ft: 47.5% FG on 1.1 att/g ( 3.6% assisted ) . . . Bibby: 72.7% FG on 0.2 att/g ( 25% assisted ) 10 - 15 ft: 57.6% FG on 1.7 att/g ( none assisted ) . . . Bibby: 21.1% FG on 0.4 att/g ( none assisted ) 16 - 23 ft: 48% FG on 4.1 att/g ( 7.7% assisted ) . . . Bibby: 43% FG on 2.8 att/g ( 66.1 assisted ) Three Pt: 43.7% FG on 4.1 att/g ( 23% assisted ) . . . Bibby: 36.9% FG on 4.0 att/g ( 96% assisted ) While the shooting percentages are off the charts, the real incredible thing about Nash is that he's shooting this well WITHOUT anybody setting him up for wide open looks. The ONLY guy in the league that comes close to doing what Nash does from a "self-creation of shot standpoint", is Chris Paul. We could go ISO-Nash . . or play Nash off the ball while JJ dribbled and passed out to him . . and Nash would FLAT OUT KILL PEOPLE. As good as he makes that Phoenix team with his playmaking, if that dude averaged 23 - 25 ppg ( which he could easily do ) . . Phoenix would be battling the Lakers for the #1 spot, instead of trying to just keep pace with the rest of the West just to stay in the playoff hunt. You swap Nash for Crawford and Bibby, and as long as Nash stayed healthy, the Hawks would be an NBA Title contender. Everyone's play would elevate with Nash in the mix. Hell, Nash could even make Marvin look like a very good player.

Horford with 6 .. JJ with 7 . . good half for them. Representing the Hawks well.

The thing about the Hawks, ( and I think the organization and everyone else around the league knows this ), is that we have guys who haven't peaked as players yet. Smoove hasn't peaked. Horford hasn't peaked. People say JJ has peaked, but he's enjoying his best efficient season in a while. Crawford is enjoying his most efficient season ever. Bibby is in decline. Marvin may have peaked. So even if the Hawks stood pat and did very little to change things up, they could get better because of the improvement that Smoove and Horford could possibly undergo. Sund may find a journeyman that no one wants, and add him to the roster. ( ala Flip, Mo ). But yeah, they could trade anybody on the roster to improve the overall product. But you have to identify the defensive big or the PG that you want to add. Just adding a "big" or a "PG" won't necessarily improve us. Adding Joe Smith and Jason Collins to this roster did virtually nothing. So you have to add the right player. But with us not having expiring contracts, adding the "right" player may mean adding a guy who may be a need, but has a horrible contract or is a guy that the other team is simply sick of. Charlotte took advantage of that, when they acquired Stephen Jackson. Warriors wanted him gone, and Cleveland had expirings to trade for him. Shoot . . adding Childress to this team, could improve it. It's just so many things that would be in our favor, as long as we kept the team basically in tact, that could improve us even if we didn't do anything major.

No . . . because he can't shoot and can't make lay-ups in traffic. People try to make a conspiracy theory on why the kid doesn't play. It's obvious why he doesn't play.

I hadn't checked the status of this until now. Definitely congrats to JJ. He definitely deserved it.

Essentially, Van Gundy could go with a super big lineup, and start out the game with Lebron playing point forward G - Wade G - JJ Point F - Lebron F - KG C - Howard