thecampster

Given 1: Salary in the NBA is structured to favor younger rosters. Max contracts at year 5 are much lower than max contracts for year 11. Given 2: The Hawks have significant future assets in 2nd round picks and 2 extra late first rounders. Given 3: The Hawks may not make the playoffs and will either A) be in the lottery or B) pick between 14-18. Assuming Millsap options out, this is what you currently have. Howard - $23.5 Bazemore - $16.9 Schröder - $15.5 Delaney - $2.5 Prince - $2.4 Bembry - 1.567 Total - $62.4 million (approximately) Options Millsap - $21.47 (opting out) Dunleavy - $5.175 (we will pick this up) Hardaway - $3.335 (Qualifying offer - he will get offers to match, we should match up to $18 million as THjr > Baze. My guess THjr will get a 4 year deal starting at $14 mil and going up to $17+ million) So what do I see? Bazemore is severely overpaid. Job 1: Trade Bazemore to one of Phoenix, Philly, LAL, Denver, etc for a high 2nd round pick and filler. What else do I see? Millsap is getting old. I love Sap and if this streak has taught us anything, it is that his production is missed. But it is replaceable with salary and signing Sap will require a 4 year deal and those knees will be shot year 4. Job 2: Let Sap walk for anything over $25 million year 4. Use our assets and or Baze to move into the lottery or up and select the best PF available. Target Lauri Markkanen - Arizona http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/players/playerpage/2354775/lauri-markkanen At this point the roster is : (+ Baze salary filler). Schröder/Delaney THjr/Bembry Prince/Dunleavy Markkanen Howard The salary is around $73 million + Baze trade salary filler. You have 1-2 second round picks. Assuming those 2 2nd rounders make the roster and the Baze trade player/players =$10 million...you are at $85mil and have 11 or more roster spots full. Target 2 vets for the SF/PF spots At $10 million each and then vet min the rest of the roster. Let the core of Schröder, Timmy, Prince, Markkanen and Bembry develop next year. You are playing for 2019. You cannot go into this expecting to win it all next year. You don't have to tank because you have good young players. You just need a youth reset. Then when Dwight comes off the books in 2 years, use his salary to upgrade the roster.

that dream died with Kansas

K I'm in

His decision making is directly related to his approach. 2 seconds before driving, what is he thinking. Is he thinking create or is he thinking score. Penetrate, dish/kick/score...in that order. Once he changes his approach to that, he'll take 3 steps forward.

Just to clarify this. Chris Paul is averaging 2 less shot attempts than Dennis this season and 3.3 more assists. Its a mindset with Dennis, not a talent thing...Dennis needs to get himself under control.

Early in the season, I mentioned how much the season depended on Dennis maturing. IMHO, Bud took way too long in benching Dennis. Individual games in March don't matter. What matters is if Dennis starts to buy in as a member of a team and not believe he is mini Jordan. Dennis needs to start realizing his ability to impact a game, not just shoot the basketball. Dennis has talent, loads of talent but he plays street ball in a professional NBA setting. It takes 5 to win and more importantly, 5 to stop the other team from winning. Currently, Dennis leads the team with 912 shots attempted. 70 more than Millsap (in 136 less minutes) and 447 more than Howard. There is no universe where a 1st time starter at PG should be out attempting an all-star power forward or doubling the attempts of a top 10 center. Dennis is out of control and out of his role. 912 shot attempts and 387 assists from your point guard is insane. A 5 points to 2 assists ratio from a point guard is pretty selfish basketball. Dennis needs to stop chasing endorsements and start chasing team basketball. Bud's discipline is eons behind.

I was never for Ferry's dismissal and this is what happens when you let stories get out of control. Things get said behind closed doors in business, they should stay there. I know the vast majority of us would panic if every sin (real or imagined) was lain bear for everyone else to view. I know my list of regrets when it comes to women are greater than most people's list of bad restaurant choices. I know most people have told jokes in private, or shared opinions with others that they would never want made public. The guy made a mistake. He got caught in a very awkward position reading something out loud that someone else wrote. His dismissal was far greater than what was required and we have not been the same since. Sure we had a great record that year, but it was a team Ferry constructed. Bud has too much power and his insistence on his system over personnel is a greater crime (IMHO).

THj is going to surprise you at point guard.

We can extend the qualifying offer and then match anything he's offered so no, he's a restricted free agent only.

yep, just saw that....guess that means they can't find any other ball-handling help Can you tell I was reading multiple articles while typing this?

I cannot see a world where the Hawks are moving THj at this point in time. Now Timmy, is worth more than 2 of those picks. He is locked up next year at just over $3 million (a pittance) and producing more than $15 million a year Bazemore. THj is currently my favorite Hawk, the closest thing to a clutch player that we have and at $3 million a year, a better value than anyone on the roster. Indy would have been fools not to take a deal with Hardaway involved. Because of how low his salary is, THj was by far our best commodity and was probably the sticking point to a deal. I would bet Indy wanted him + the picks and we said no.

Lets just clarify what happened. On Friday, Lamar Patterson's 2nd 10 day runs out. With Patterson, the Hawks have 15 players on the roster. The Hawks removed 2 players who weren't playing from the roster. 1 who is a perpetual injury and 1 who may spend the next couple of years in jail. The replaced them with an extremely hard working, borderline starter, in Ilyasova and Anderson. Their 3 point shooting improved, a sorely lacking need. Their hustle improved....which on some nights has been non-existent. But something much more important happened. In the Ilyasova deal, the Hawks save a prorated 1 million in cap hit (about $300,000 this season) and in the Scott deal (effectively Scott for Anderson), 2.3 million (about $800,000 this season). Over the next weeks, multiple teams are going to waive vet players who have a chance to catch on with a team. I expect the Hawks not to sign Patterson for the rest of the year (though I'm wrong often when it comes to Patterson) and save that roster spot to pick up a waived vet. A few of the known waived players are: Deron Williams (expected to go to the Cavs), Jared Sulliger, Matt Barnes, Derrick Williams, Anderson Varejao, Troy Williams...there will be more but these are the known commodities right now. Pretty much anyone here will be signed for the rest of the season for the vet minimum. The real benefit of these trades comes after the off-season. The moves free up over 3 million in cap space for next season when the Hawks, A) need to resign Paul and B) need to get him some help.

This was not a steep price by any means. The Hawks current 1st round assets are: 2017 – Their own pick (around 24). 2018 – Their own pick (presumed to be 20-30, especially if adding Butler or George), Minnesota’s pick if 15-30. 2019 – Their own pick (presumed to be 20-30). Cleveland’s pick (Top 10 protected, assumed to be 20-30). So what the Hawks offered was 3 1st round picks but at the end of the 1st round. These picks rarely pan out to be more than role playing starters. Their greatest value is that they are a low 4-year salary. They are only of great benefit to a team on a long-term rebuilding plan. Chicago has the financial backing to compete every year. Indiana is not in rebuild mode. Ask yourself, would you trade Paul George at age 26 for the 24, 25, 26th picks in the draft?

No, they really couldn’t. Renouncing the rights to an active player is kind of seen as a d*ck move by the players. A player’s value begins and ends with his last contract. Renouncing those rights to an active player is a direct line to a minimum contract (unless the player is a legit starter who will command a salary). Players really, really don’t like it and it would net the Hawks bad will with future free agents or players wanting to sign. Trading Mike, allows Mike to retain his stature and is a sign of good will. If the Hawks were going to release him, they would have done it before this season (as I openly campaigned for). Had the Hawks done this type of a deal at the start of free agency, they would have had 3.3 million more under the cap and could have signed both Howard and Horford. Don’t question the trade to Phoenix, it was the right deal. It just happened 8 months too late.

Just to clarify for some why this deal is brilliant and not just a salary dump. If Scott stayed on the roster all year, 150% of his salary would count against the cap for next season. By dumping Scott now, he doesn't count against the cap for the purposes of signing someone in the off-season.

Testing the waters, Supes tell your "friend" about that option and see what he says.

Sorry missing Dunleavy. Accidently wrote Prince.

Yep...Al next to a real rebounder was always the goal.

Defensively, definitely although he may struggle with a stretch 4 some. Offensively, he's shooting 34% from 3 this year and can post up centers so yes. The biggest issue isn't him at the 4 its Paul at the 3 because Paul has been reluctant to be a 3 in the past.

Just to throw crazy at you on the Lopez thing http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=goqlxyv You play Lopez at the 4 to start, Paul at the 3 to start, early sub out Dwight and bump them to natural positions while Dwight is out. Dennis/Timmy/Paul/Lopez/Dwight is a very scary starting 5, very very big and very skilled offensively. Bench goes Delaney/Bembrey/Thabo/Scola/ and whichever of Dwight/Lopez is in. You would have to include Cleveland's first and maybe one of Atlanta's. But its doable. Still have Prince/Scott/Muscala/Hump on the bench.

Because Atlanta's trade assets are so underpriced (Tiago being highest), more reasonable trade partners include (but are not limited to) Philly, Phoenix, Portland and maybe Orlando.

If you were Indy, would you want Prince, THj, Splitter for Paul George and waiving 2 of your own...regardless of picks coming back....there are less than 15 players in the league worth Paul George.

Oh it could work logistically but not logically. George + whatever players they waive....doesn't sound like equal value to me. The picks received won't be too high (maybe the Minny pick will be) and won't have tons of value.

To be clear, preseason you could do this to get to 18 then waive Scott/Splitter but not during the season.

No they can't release Tiago and Scott.....they would have to release from their own squad before the trade because they can't go over the max number of rostered players. This is to keep teams like Denver from signing 5 players at vet minimum to get their over the team minimum salary threshold. You must have 13 on your roster at all times and no more than 15. So a 4-1 trade puts the Hawks at 11 (we will have 14 as of Friday) Pacers at 18.