thecampster

This was my very first thought. Before resigning with the Clipps, Chris Paul allegedly made it a requirement that the Clipps hire a black coach, a point discussed thoroughly on this board. Can you imagine Chris Paul's mind exploding after this comment? I signed to play for "who"? Yah...no Melo for them in the off-season....no LeBron...no anybody good until the douchebag is gone.

Sorry but without a doubt, DC has been, BY FAR, the best move Ferry has made. Better than his defense, better than his intensity, DC worked with the coaching staff to improve his offensive game. The guy made bigger strides in 6 months then most NBA players make in 5 years. Commitment to self improvement is the sign of a champion. I think the guy opened up eyes around the league this year.

Hey man, Moose can wear whatever boot shoes for that 1 extra inch he wants as long as somebody around here starts pulling down a few rebounds. If he can help even out the rebounding numbers, I'll call him hot in those if he's only wearing a garter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-6GbSy7x_k

LOL....those are hot.

Okay record was for effect. I'm not claiming there is some kind of official record on this (though I'm sure there is). However consider these two articles. http://blogs.ajc.com/hawks/2012/03/26/atlanta-hawks-how-much-have-injuries-really-hurt-them/ http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=2225 prior to the 11-12 season, the previous 3 years' Hawks teams lost a combined 226 games due to injury (an average of 75 a year). In the 11-12 season per this AJC article, the Hawks had lost 107 games to injury by March 26. in a season shortened by 18 games and with 16 games left in the season. That's right, in the first 50 games of the 11-12 season, the Hawks averaged 2 people a night missing from the lineup due to injury. It was insane. And we aren't talking about Gustavo Ayón or Pero Antić. Horford was out for 55 games, Marvin, Joe, Hinrich all missed substantial time and many players played hurt. Still, that team finished 14 games over .500 a 60.6% winning percentage. This team is 3 under, a 47% winning percentage. Talent....not excuses. We were all excited in a near injury free first 30 games to be a 2 game over .500 club. Our peak this year was 4 over. Ferry has A. stripped the team of star level talent. B. Placed us firmly under the cap making dealing to get up back close to LT spending a very difficult task. It is much harder to maintain $69 million in salary than to climb up to it. Ferry has drafted potential and system, not talent. I've been purposely trying to stay off the boards. Even in wins, I've seen the complete lack of defense and pace designed to simply try to outscore the competition. Come playoff time, assuming we still make it, the game slows to half court, defense tightens and we are in trouble.

Actually, most of the injuries are very recent. For the first 30 games, we were mostly injury free except for Lou rehabbing. A completely healthy roster can be seen for our .500 + start, not our injuries being our demise. The last 3 years we had many more games lost to injury, but won more games. In 2011-2012, only Smith and Teague played all 66 games. Horford missed 55 games and even in the shortened 66 game season, the Hawks neared a team record for player games lost to injury. Yet the team went 40-26, 14 games over .500. 53 games in , the team is currently 3 games under .500. In the 11-12 season, Pachulia missed 8 games, Marvin 9, Hinrich 18, Collins 36, McGrady 14, Johnson 6, Radmonovic 17, Horford 55 etc. The team was so bad, Donald Sloan played in 5 games, Dampier got into 15, Stackhouse played in 30 and Willie Green got 17 minutes a game in 53 games. Blaming injuries is just denying that we degraded the roster 14 million annually in the last 2 years. When you give talent away and don't sign/trade for talent...you go back into the lottery. In any other season, 3 games under .500 doesn't normally make the playoffs. We are only in the chase because the East is so weak right now. If we were in the West, we would be 11th seed right now, 6 games behind the 8th seed. Our draft picks are benched or overseas, only Mike Scott has worked out so far.

That took a really long time to read through all these posts. So my thoughts. In no universe is Shumpert worth Teague straight up. In no universe is Boston doing anything to help NY without getting something better in return. In no plethora of universes is Toronto giving up Lowry without getting back a player and a pick. We do not own Brooklyn's pick as an extra pick. We got rights and 2 2nds. See below. Source: http://basketball.realgm.com/nba/draft/future_drafts/detailed

Cap behavior tends to yield future results because of the problems with raising or lowering salary once you are above the cap or LT. So this recent move to go below the cap the Hawks made now presents them with additional steps they must take again operate near the LT (I know I'm preaching to the choir here). My fear is that because of our issues filling out the building, this is the ASG's answer to profitability and is a sign of their intentions going forward....doing more with less.

This is once again the classic confusion between cap and luxury tax. Before the season started we had around $30 million in cap space...however part of that money was tied up in cap holds for our 1st rounders, part of that money was tied up in Korver and Teague's cap holds. So when looking at that money. 9.5 Sap 2.5 Carroll 6 Korver 8 Teague 4 Brand there's that 30 million the extra money people were counting was the extra 14 million to the luxury tax. Because we didn't perform any trades to use existing roster value (like sign n trade with Zaza/Josh), our ability to go into the fuzzy area between LT and Cap vanished. In 2012/13 we spent $66.5 million. This year we're on pace to spend $57.5 million. For all the praise Bud and Ferry have gotten. Last year's team won 44 games. This year's team is on pace to win 43. It would be fair to say we're getting similar production on less money but it isn't we the fans saving that 9 million now is it. Its the ASG. Additionally....last year's team suffered tons of injuries (an average of 2+ player games missed per game last season). Before Al got hurt, this team has been mostly injury free. We can still go beyond the cap but it requires taking on unwanted salaries now and playing the 150% game in trades. Our signing over the cap flexibility was hampered some.

SMH on the Josh thread. Even I have to admit his shooting has been mind numbingly bad this year.

It's a little early for that....lets wait until the 1/4 point of the season to see it realistically. (around game 21).

Per Yahoo sports stats, Eastern Conference PG Teague ranks 1st in PPG Assists FGM FGA A/TO ratio Teague ranks 2nd in Mpg FG% He is 3rd in the entire NBA among PG in ppg, 2nd in Assists. Among all players he is 22nd in scoring.

best to breathe before gloating, we are only 7 games into the season

So for a night anyway. Drew's Bucks currently own a half game lead on Smith's Pistons and Ferry's Hawks.

This is not going to be the thread some think it is. It is going to be much worse. What is the point of scoring 105.2 points per game if you are going to give up 105.4. Do not look at the offensive stats people. Offense is for show. There is a real problem on this Hawks team and it is a lack of defense and size. Compare this -.2 differential with the Pacers who have a +11 point differential. The Hawks are being out rebounded 3.4 rebounds per game. The return of Lou Williams is not going to help. Adding an undersized shooting guard to the mix is not how you improve defense and rebounding. Adding Ayón to the mix is not going to help, he is a plodder and his presence means no Al/Sapp or Scott on the floor at that time. The league will catch up to our offense on video and learn better how to exploit our defense. This is going to get worse, not better. Loyalty is a hard thing to maintain.

I remember people on the board suggesting that but no real discussion of it outside the Squawk. It was fan attitudes of "if we could just trade Marvin for Lebron and Cleveland's next 2 firsts" kind of a discussion. At the time, KG/Pierce were not for sale.

I don't understand the people in the Horf or Smith camps. I loved/love both players. I think Al is going to have to self-motivate better and I think last night was an example of it. Being "the man" means just that. You are the man.

Of course its only one game, but he stated Det was at their best with Monroe, not Smith in Wednesday's game....the numbers don't lie. Tonight of course it could be different.

You might want to revise that after looking at this chart showing the +/- while they were alone/grouped in different configs.

I predict Smith will make the Monroe/Drummond combination better and Al will struggle without his alley-oop buddy. Say what you want but those 2 fed off each other and Sap just isn't that type of a player.

Actually no. Josh's +/- for the game 13. Bynum with 9, Monroe with 8. Margin of victory, 11. With the highest +/- stats say they were at their best with Josh on the floor.

Gustavo Ayón is a starter? in what universe? The guy average 13 minutes a game last year will less than 4 points and less than 4 rebounds per game while averaging 2 personal fouls in that same 13 minutes.

Be Be careful. 6 weeks ago you guys vilified me for pointing out the same thing.

They spent 3 straight games without a real PG and Josh handled the ball way too much. He had quite a few turnovers in a short period of time. But no, the honeymoon isn't over.

I also consider that Drummond/Monroe are one year older. They were 20 and 22 last year. 21/23 makes a difference, from body to saavy.