thecampster

I'm not so sure "unsafe" but we have had numerous discussions on this board that have talked about the downtown area being really far and inconvenient for most of the fans north of town. Specifically that getting in and out of Philips is harder than leaving a Braves game. Because Philips is located farther from I75/85 and I20, there is too much stop and go getting away from the stadium. That no matter how much the city tries, northside whites will not embrace MARTA. The discussions weren't about Philips being unsafe or the downtown being unsafe but about MARTA being unsafe. Once on MARTA, you are trapped on the train till it stops. That's a bit creepier than walking around Centennial.

And now for the good news. Less than 1 month until training camp, when we can all stop caring what color people are and focus on Al's health, Teague's progression and whether or not Payne will be groomed to contribute at center. Oh and I guess I'll need a local bodyguard to go to games now since I'm obviously too scared to go.

Over the last 2 seasons, Chris Bosh has averaged 16.4 ppg, 52.5% FG% and 6.7 rpg. Bosh has not scored 20ppg since the 2009-2010 season. Last season before getting injured, Al Horford was averaging 18.6 ppg (+2.2), 56.8 % FG% (+4.3) and 8.4 rpg (+1.7). He was also better in Assists, 3pt% and blocks. The only category Bosh won is steals by 0.1 per game. It is not a stretch or opinion that Horford is better than Bosh at this point in his career, it is a statistical fact.

Over the last 3 season, Wade has missed 74 games due to injury or sore knees. This is despite his minutes going down from 37 to 32:51 per game last year. In his best season, Wade attempted 10.7 Free Throw Attempts per game. Last year, 4.8 per game. Wade is by no means dead in the water, but his production and especially his defense has suffered greatly in the last 3 years. In the 2008-2009 season, Wade average 30.2 ppg, 5 rpg and 7.5 apg. He has showed steady decline in every year since. Last season he was 19.0, 4.5 and 4.7. He is an unreliable 3pt shooter at just 28%. His 54.5% FG% and inflated PPG is largely due to open looks created by Lebron's presence and fast break opportunities. Without Lebron, it is safe to assume that Wade's FG% returns to his career average of 49% and his ppg drop to about 16. Korver's overall impact is actually greater based on health (ie not missing 30 games a year), 3pt shooting (and its effect on spacing) and effort.

Okay let me see if I can revise that list. Also, without Paul George or Lance Stephenson, Indiana is at best a 30 win team. They're in real trouble. Cleveland - 65 Chicago - 55 Washington - 52 Atlanta - 50 Charlotte - 50 Toronto - 44 Detroit - 42 (I expect them to make moves and Van Gundy to right the ship). New York 41 The Hawks, Wizards and Bobcats will fight for the top spot all year, I just think the Wizards are too talented. Probably a little homerism in my ATL expectations. But the Bobcats are young and scary. They can score the ball from all 5 positions consistently and are now made up of players at all 5 positions that play unselfishly. They effectively exchanged Stephenson for Ben Gordon (a joke) and Marvin for Josh McRoberts. Marvin is no world beater but he is better in every facet of the game. Charlotte's average point differential last year was a -0.2 and they won 43 games. Saying that Stephenson and Williams = 7 games is not a stretch. Scary version, they still have cap room.

Let's just try an eye test comparison PG Teague v Chalmers - This is laughable. Teague by a mile. SG Korver v Wade - Five years ago, this was no contest. But Wade is no longer Wade. This is at worst a tie and probably a win. SF Carroll v Deng - Last year, Deng shot 41.7% at 14.3 and 5.1 for Cleveland. His Chicago numbers are inflated due to having no other real options. Last year, Carroll shot 47% at 11.1 and 5.5. Carroll is a better defender but a 5th option on this team. Deng is only a minor win for Miami here. PF/C Al Horford, Paul Milsap, Antić, Muscala, v. Josh McRoberts, Chris Bosh and Chris Anderson Horford v Bosh is a win for Atlanta. Sap v either of McRoberts/Anderson is a major win. Our bench is once again superior. Bazemore, Sefolosha, Muscala, Antić', Mack, Scott are superior to anything Miami trots out there. There is a real possibility Miami wins less than 40 games and misses the playoffs. They only won 54 games with the best player on the planet on the roster last year. Bosh and Wade are another year older. 40 wins might be their ceiling. Honestly, Charlotte scares the crap out of me. I am no Al Jefferson fan, but he is the perfect compliment to Marvin Williams and Lance Stephenson. One of the few bigs that draws a double down low that can kick to a shooter/slasher. Charlotte is the team nobody is pointing at that got miles better in the offseason. Lance Stephenson will be on a mission, Kidd-Gilchrist is maturing. They are a solid 8 NBA players deep, with a good inside out game.

In what universe is Miami a 50 win team without Lebron?

You said your office is in Atlanta, can you be more specific? Do you mean inside the perimeter, midtown, Buckhead etc or maybe by Atlanta you meant a suburb? Okay so anyway, as far as outside the perimeter goes Northside is best but getting pretty crowded. West lacks a bit of infrastructure (all roads lead in loops) but is improving quickly, Southern suburbs are cheapest but are changing to rapidly crime wise.

You see, this is why I used to love Josh so much. Even with all of his flaws, Josh had that unique ability to will his team to win and / or inspire them out of a funk through emotion. I thought when Josh and Zaza left, Al might take that role but the injury took a real toll on the whole team mentally. Their team defense really hit the skids at one point. The next step for Al is not to improve his on court game, but to improve his on court presence. People need to look at Al and believe he won't let them lose. Al needs to get control of his emotions and channel them. He is too passive, too melancholy. He needs some behavioral spikes to become the boss.

JTB hit the nail on the head. This team relies so heavily on Teague at both ends of the floor. Al is too passive to be the boss and anyone who honestly compares Sap's importance, ability to Al's must be smoking. Sap's numbers are highly inflated due to Al's injury last year. Sap is a good player but there is a reason team USA sent him packing so early. He is not a star caliber player. Specifically, he is subpar overall defensively.

Using Marvin's college stats @ per 40 for his freshman year with an ample 22.2 mpg sample size. 20.3 ppg 50.6 fg% 43.2 3FG% 1.26 APG 11.88 RPG .9 BPG 2 SPG According to your college stats concept. Marvin Williams is a 20 ppg, 12 Reb, 2 spg player...IE Dwight Howard but hits 85% Free Throws. This is why scheme and team > talent in college basketball.

Comparing college stats is just plain ridiculous. Scheme is 50% of the battle in college, not personal ability. Example 1, see Marvin Williams.

Payne brings something to the table the other 3 don't, real shot blocking ability. All 3 of the others can and do block shots, Payne is a bit more of shot blocker than all 3 and by extension a bit more useful in stopping penetration. However, he needs a serious primer in personal and team D. He is a good help defender/shot blocker but not a team concept guy and not big enough to D up one on one. Of all of these guys, only Al fits that model.

Mac, When you sign an asset, you can sign that asset up to the salary cap (with certain exceptions). When you trade an asset, you can trade for up to 150% +100000 of the salary. This allows an established roster to pull in talent they might otherwise not. So in the case of Milsap, you are looking at 9 million in salary. Let's assume the Hawks finish the year at 65 million in salary. Subtract Milsap's salary and you are at 56 million, 7 million under the cap. You can sign a new player for up to 7 million. Now trade Milsap during the season and you can trade for 13.6 million in salary, raising your existing salary number to 69.6 million. Effectively, you create 6.6 million in additional salary for the roster and it is hard to deny you can get a better player at 13.6 million than at 7 million. This is why our current "cap flexibility" is a bold faced lie. The real cap is the luxury tax. Our flexibility ends at 63 million in salary space. At that point, adding salary becomes trickier. However, other teams who have not played the cap game like we did with Smith have additional salary to create players with.

That was a little strong there Hawksfanatic.

Some posts do make me scratch my head, but based on Dolf's other posts recently, I'm thinking we all need to pitch in to get him a day spa day. Dude seems stressed. Love you big guy and hope the doctor's get that colon straightened out asap.

A better question is why isn't Glen Rice Jr. on this team? With Jenkins as an asset and us buying picks in the second round....Rice was sitting there for the taking. Rice is going to be the player in 5 years that ESPN talks about GMs missing on.

Remember we paid a million in waiving Salmons to dump Lou (or sign Thabo) however you want to look at it. So it's 5.25 v (4+1=5) for Thabo

I took a second today to try to discern what in the heck we're doing. In that effort, I realized that Lou Williams deal effectively was used on Sefolosha + 1 million which when paired with the Bebe cap hold is effectively the cost for Payne (give or take a bit). So is Thabo > Lou? Discuss and back up your position.

There will be a salary dump deal today for people making last minute pleas for F/A. Let's hope we take advantage and get a 1 year player on the cheap.

Nailed it.

If Lebron goes back to Cleveland with their roster and without Cleveland giving up much, our only consolation is we might be the best team in the South.

I just performed a generic calculation of the Hawks’ salary obligations. These numbers include trading Lou, waiving Antić, waiving Salmons, keeping Mack, Scott, Muscala. 44.38 mil (give or take). Al – 12 mil Sap – 9.5 Teague – 8.0 Korver – 6.254 Carroll – 2.443 Schröder – 1.69 Payne – 1.546 Jenkins – 1.31 Mack – 1.148 Scott – 1.115 Muscalla - .817 + Salmons buyout 1.0 That is 11 players. Until dealt with we will still have cap holds of 4.8 (Brand), Ayón (2.85), Martin (.915). The current salary cap for 2013/14 was 58.7. Assuming a raise in the cap to 60 million, the Hawks only have 15.6 million in cap space. This is a direct result of last off-season where the Hawks were over the cap and couldn’t sign players beyond the minimum and exemption. The above numbers are estimates only and do not include trades or players lost. Cut it with the pipe dreams. The deal to drop Lou was to clear space to get a wing. Expect Tavares to stay overseas, and Patterson to get the 13th roster spot. Bron and/or Melo can’t come here without a trade or taking 8 million less than they could get elsewhere. The Lou deal was a good one, but it still doesn’t taste right.

She was his archivist. Seems he employed her to make the recordings, making them his property. Therefore it is stolen property and the stations airing it are airing stolen property. It will never get that far but copyright is a nasty business. Technically, those are his private thoughts and only he had authority to air them. Just a strange, odd angle to it.

One additional thought. California is a duel consent state for recording. I'm just waiting for the legal mercenaries trying to turn this into a legal issue related to who taped Sterling. Legally, I'm not sure the replays of the tape are protected or not.....could use a legal opinion on that. This is going to get messy in more ways than one. I hope today's rumors that Magic Johnson would be open to buying the team are true. It would help this go away much faster.