Packfill

Quote: He's a 20/10 player who can score in the post, block shots and put up 20/10 against some of the best players in the NBA. I'm not the hugest Gasol fan in the world but I wouldnt' call him heartless. You also have to remember Knight traded for him once before. Belkin won't agree to that trade so no use talking about it.

The difference is Durant is better then the other two so you make room for him.

Having three rookie first rounders this year makes absolutely no sense. Plus I hope the franchise is not in the lottery again next year.

Quote: Unless their GM completely screws this up, Portland is the next true NBA dynasty. No team has that many great young pieces. Sure, they don't have a real SF, but they realized that the wings are the easiest spots to fill in the NBA, and they built their team correctly, choosing bigmen and PG's heavily. Take notes, BK. Take notes. Agreed. Portland is going to be real strong. This is an example of a team built the right way.

Conley and Noah is best case scenario in my opinion (assuming that Oden and Durant are off the board).

Quote: I dont think 3 teams that werent in the top 3 ever landed the tiop 3 picks. I know two teams have. This means when the envelope for pick 6 gets open its cringe time. Then 5 will really be cringe time. If we make it past 5 and no other teams have moved up then I doubt we get pick 4. Of corse dont forget to cross your fingers before pick 11 cause if the Pacers move up it really sukks for us. Now if pick 11 isnt Indy and they move up and we get pick 4 for Phoenix then its time for this - Look at the bright side, the Hawks would have a shot at O.J. Mayo!

As long as BK is doing the drafting the team would such either with or without JJ. Pretty sad considering the what could have been.

Quote: unless you are a hopeless Marvin hater you'll have to admit the PG situation in Atlanta is atleast somewhat responsible for some of the struggles Marvin has experienced over the past two years. Smoove's 3rd year in the league he really took the next step. Has Marvin been a dissapointment? yes, but only in the respect that two players that are better today were drafted right after him. to suggest though that Marvin isn't worth a top 5 to 8 pick in swap is exhibiting extreme hate IMO. You are right, it is the point guard's fault that Marvin (1) can't create his own shot; (2) lacks aggression; (3) shoots a low percentage from the outside; (4) has a poor handle and (5) was picked second in the draft. If you really want to be honest you have to acknowledge (which you do) that Marvin has not lived up to expectations and that as a result the Hawks would not be able to trade him for an equivalent (i.e., number 2 pick) in the coming draft. You obviously wouldn't be able to trade him for either Oden or Durant. Chances are, because he underachieved for two years, that several NBA teams would rather risk the unknown and go with a draft pick with potential rather then trade their pick for Marvin. Then you need to consider whether teams that are drafting early want a swingman or not. Personally, I do not think they could get a top 5 pick for Marvin.

Quote: Quote: Marvin Williams came into the league with James Worthy upside. [/indent] Where did that upside and athleticism go? we certaintly haven't seen it his first two years in the league.

This is classic BK double talk. Sekou should have grilled him about the whole notion that they only expected 55 games out of Speedy. If you read into it a little, it makes me real nervous that BK thinks the point guard situation is fine the way it is (or even if he doesn't think that way, he may keep the status quo just to spite the naysayers in the unlikely event the collection of castoffs the Hawks have perform adequately). The other major thing is how he describes the teams style of play, or rather lack-there-of. He said the team is built to be versatile. What the heck does that mean? I rather be good then versatile any day of the week.

Outside of getting one of the top two picks, that is best case scenario as far as I am concerned. The team would still lack a true low post scorer so they would have to pick up the pace a lot to be competitive. Probably not a championship team, but at least competitive.

No way.

I think Darko gets more. Someone will take a chance on his potential. Plus the Hawks have some court imposed limitations so they can't sign anyone to a long term deal unless Belkin and the Spirit dudes agree.

It is a lot easier to find a swing man then a center. Plus, I think Smoove can function at small forward just fine.

Quote: A problem we would have if we traded Marvin is that we would instantly become weak in a position where we had youth and depth. We would have to either move Smoove back to SF or find a midlevel player to play behind Chills. What are you talking about. Chill and Smoove could rotate at small forward, with Smith playing additional minutes at power forward. Back-up power forward is ostensibly not a problem since the Hawks spent another high lottery pick on some dude named Sheldon Williams. Solomon could then get some minutes as well. That is a heck of a lot more talent and depth then the Hawks currently have at center.

Quote: So is Saer Sene and Patrick O'Stiff. And Channing Fries. The league is full of athletic bigs. Don't be ignorant. There are projects and then there are "projects." Sene and O'Bryant are years away from contributing. Bynum has already contributed at least a little. Plus, he is about the youngest guy in the league. And it's not like Marvin has done anything either. Marvin is a project too, but he is a project at a position the Hawks already have some depth at.

Quote: When did Andrew Bynum become such a great player that it would cost the Hawks Marvin Williams, a far better player, AND the #3 pick in the draft to get him? Bynum needs alot of work, but I would trade Marvin for Bynum in a nanosecond. So far both have done nothing in their pro careers but Bynum has the higher ceiling since he is an athletic big who is so very young.

Any offense would be better then what the Hawks had last year!

Quote: For some reason, I think the coach actually likes Marion more than Amare. Plus, I heard the owner is really cheap. Durant is cheaper than Amare. You think the Phoenix owner is cheap? What about our owners? There is no way they would be able to make that trade because of the ownership dispute and the size of Amare's contract.

I don't see why the suns do this. They will look to unload Marion long before they try to unload Amare.

Quote: Minnesota will want more for Garnett and Foye. Agreed. Plus, if they are going to rebuild then they are definitely going to package some of their other bad contracts with Garnett.

The most interesting thing about comparing Atlanta to Utah is not the fact that Atlanta's greatest deficiencies are juxtaposed so starkly by Utah strengths (i.e., Sloan v. Woody; Deron v. Hawks PG mess). Rather, I think it begs the question of what Atlanta's frontline should look like: Should Atlanta go "big" and Start Smoove at SF, Sheldon at PF and Zaza at C or should they continue playing "small" with Marvin/Chill at SF, Smoove at PF and Zaza at C? Obviously, Smoove/Sheldon/Zaza is more comparably to Kirilenko (i.e., Smoove)/Boozer (i.e., Sheldon)/Okur (i.e., Zaza). Of course, both Sheldon and Zaza would need to step their games up in an exponential manner for the comparison to even make sense.

Quote: "So here are the questions: 1. Is Boozer a better acquisition than JJ? 2. Is Mehmet a better acquistion than Zaza?" i do not think Boozer was a better move than us getting joe. boozer is a great player but JJ had his best year of his career and led us to a lot of wins this year. And i think okur is better than zaza. zaza is a decent scoring center but the outside shooting of okur really puts him over the top. Obviously the biggest difference is deron williams. Were you watching the same team that I was? How did JJ lead the Hawks to alot of wins this year? The Hawks had the 4th worse record in the league. Plus, a strong argument can be made that Boozer was by far the "better" acquisition because the Jazz did not give up anything to get him, whereas the Hawks gave up quite a bit to get JJ.

Quote: Quote: Quote: Boris Diaw is an excellent analogy to use for this thread. Boris is averaging 7/3 in the playoffs. He averaged 9/4 during the season. Not impressed. Next year he will be making $9 million. Also, Boris has only excelled playing in the post and that takes a pretty unique team to use him there. Most teams can't afford his weak interior play at the PF or C positions. I think Phoenix overestimated his value to other teams by a long-shot when they resigned him. Can you imagine how much they are going to regret paying Banks and Diaw like $13M/year while they are trying to unload Marion because they don't want to pay the luxury tax? About as much as the Hawks regret paying $13 million to a bunch of back-up point guards?

Quote: One reason, do you want a statistical reason or something else. Statistically... Let's compare both players when they get over 25 mpg? Milsap Shelden Williams First off, comparing 25+ mpg, Milsap: 15 ppg, 10.3 rpg. Shelden: 11 ppg, 10.5 rpg. Second, comparing how each man ended the season: Shelden last 5: 15.6 ppg, 11.2 rpg 36.2 mpg. Milsap last 5: 5.8 ppg, 4.0 rpg. 14.4 mpg. The bottom line is this... If Shelden plays consistent minutes, above 25+, he's better than Milsap. If you play any player in a bad system, where they don't have plays run for them, with bad coaching and you play them 5 mpg for several games... of course they will not produce... BUt as Shelden plays more and consistently, he's more product.. as the end of the year and the beginning of the season shows. If Shelden is riding the bench most of the game and gets the last 3 minutes of the half, don't expect him to produce much. Those statistics show that Milsap is better statistically. And again, do you really think Utah is running plays for Milsap when they have Boozer, Okur, Williams and the like ahead of him?