thecampster

This is a really accurate assessment I believe. I'm going to tweak it and I'll give criteria but this is pretty close I think. PG: Jeff Teague: 13 PPG, 3 RPG and 4 APG on 45% shooting SG: Devin Harris: 15 PPG, 6 APG on 44% shooting SF:Josh Smith: 19 PPG, 7 RPG, 4.5 APG on 47% shooting PF:Al Horford: 18 PPG, 9RPG, 3 APG on 52% shooting C:ZaZa: 8.5 PPG, 9 RPG Notice I dropped Josh's rebound totals and up'd his scoring a bit. I think with JJ gone, more outside shooting, I think Josh feasts against SF moving without the ball. He is just too big. I think Harris presence allows Jeff to be more of an off the ball PG so he gets similar assists to last year. At this point in their careers, Harris is more reliable as a facilitator. Zaza starting and getting 30 minutes means a little more production but overall I think your predictions are highly credible. Not much different than mine. If your numbers pan out, the hawks top 8 score 93.5 ppg. I think most people would take that. If mine do...we run people off the court most nights. I really do think that highly of Harris being paired with Smith/Horford. oh and I really think 2nd/3rd seed is in reach. One thing people forget. Miami's roster is so top heavy...Lebron, Wade, Bosh must stay healthy. losing one for a significant stretch could hurt them deeply. I believe our team strengths made losing Horford much easier to absorb than if Miami lost one of their big three for that long.

I didn't bother quoting the post. Northcyde..you made 2 posts. One I'm shaking my head at. One made perfect sense. You can't put Jenkins on the floor in significant minutes without benching either Teague or Harris. 30 minutes a game you have Teague, Harris, Joe, Horford, Gasol. Suspect outside shooting. You have 4 players that play completely different styles. Teague, Harris want to penetrate. Harris can/will play pick and roll. Joe wants to go one on one, Al wants to pick n pop, pick and roll. Gasol wants to post and pass and shoot jumpers when ever he can. This team completely doesn't fit. Who in that offense rebounds and outlets? Horf? But Horf needs to run the floor because JJ and Gasol don't. It is just a literal mess.

Horford, Zaza, Smith, Johnson, Petro I count 5 rebounders and 3 will be in the game together nearly at all times.

Disagree all you want. This is America after all. I can disagree with my woman all I want, but that doesn't mean in the end I'll like the result. Think of Lewis being moved. If he was moved, there was a reason. The team with the big contract said, "boy..that was a mistake". But millionaire ego kicks in and the new team says, but I can make that work. They never do. There are maybe 10 players in the league worth max contracts. They're easy to recognize because most of them are in the conference finals pretty often.

You see..this is why Mace criticized your knowledge of the salary cap. This ridiculous post right here. You put Harris and Gasol on the same team with Joe, Horford. Let's assume for a brief second you got your wish. Marvin for Harris went down. Josh for Gasol went down. No other changes were made. 2012/2013 salaries Johnson - 19.75 million Gasol - 19.0 million Horford - 12 million Harris - 8.5 million Zaza -5.23 million Teague - 2.4 6 players - 66.88 million. Can you do this? Sure you can Diesel. You can do this, but you are playing with monopoly money at this point. You need 7 more players, you are 7 million from the hard cap., 3.2 million from the luxury tax. You have mismatched parts. 2 fast guards, an iso SF, 2 F/C's of which only Horford isn't soft. Your 2 players you are counting on are 31 and 32 and have a lot of miles on them. You have no bench whatsoever. There is no Korver, no Lou Williams, no Morrow, no Stephenson. Your only remaining asset is a good backup center in Zaza Pachulia. Your only players who can run are Horford and the 2 PG's. Your only good outside threat is JJ. You can't move JJ until the last year of his contract. Gasol is only signed 1 year longer than Smith and is 5 years older. Summary: Your team is at the hard cap with rising salaries for 4 years. You can't keep Gasol after 2 seasons, can't afford to keep one of Harris, Teague, Horford. Won't be able to sign a free agent to replace them and have 2 aging stars who are pissed because they are in the lottery the following year. It's not monopoly money.

Try to remember this is a 4 year decision. We found a buyer today. Because of that we don't have JJ in 4 years when his knees are shot, his defense will be suspect and his cost will be 25 million.

THIS!

Rebounds and turnovers start fast breaks. You have to get those first.

This was the one Dolf and I argued about last year. The 3 second call could be called 20 times a game if adhered to properly. Pierce spent so much time in the key during our series he was granted squatter's rights.

I would say yes, except because of what I saw in the Boston series. Boston negated what I felt was a better Hawks team by grabbing, holding, moving on screens. The referees have so much power in the NBA, I could see a super fast team being very good in the regular season and not getting out of the first round against a saavy opponent. The amount of uncalled contact in the Boston series and the eastern conference playoffs in general was as bad as I've ever seen it. Go back and watch the Hawks/Boston series objectively after referencing these 2 rules clarifications from NBA.com http://www.nba.com/features/misunderstoodrules_051128.html

Fri 2 HOUSTON 7:30Sun 4 @Oklahoma City 7:00Wed 7 INDIANA 7:30Fri 9 MIAMI 7:30Sun 11 @LA Clippers 3:30That is one brutal opening. 2 of the first 5 games are against the Finals matchup last year. 4 are playoff teams. All 5 had winning records last year and 4 of 5 had winning percentages of .600 or better.combined winning percentage of these teams last year 63.3%.

Anyone not willing to add Blatche to the roster based on "IQ" or "Cancer", hasn't coached much basketball. Last year, Blatche was limited to 24 minutes a game. So to get a real pulse on Blatche, you need to go back one year to the 10-11 season.16.8 ppg8.2 rpg2.3 apg.8 blocks2.7 to33 minutesIt's the turnovers you should focus on. How the heck does a center get 2.7 turnovers a game? He's being asked to be a primary focus. Enter John Wall. In 9 less minutes a game, Blatche's t/o are cut in half due to the addition of John Wall and Blatche being phased out.Honestly, I don't want 16 and 8 from Blatche. He's too involved in my offense if he's getting 16/8. But 10/8, play center, take up space allowing Al to get 20/10 at the PF position. Yep....I'll take that from a not yet 26 year old. I'll take Blatche as the number 5 option here as opposed to the number 1/2 option in Washington. That is how good teams get great. They take other people's problems and turn them into their asset.

See, this is where I scratch my head again. Bulls lose Rose for pretty much the season. These are their other moves Jul 24 Marco Belinelli SG Signed as Free Agent by Chicago Jul 23 Kirk Hinrich G/PG/SG Signed as Free Agent by Chicago J ul 19 Vladimir Radmanovic F Signed as Free Agent by Chicago (One-year contract) Jul 16 Kyle Korver GF Traded from Chicago to Atlanta (For cash) Jul 10 C.J. Watson PG Declined to Pick Up Option by Chicago (Team declined to pick up team option) Jul 10 Ronnie Brewer GF Declined to Pick Up Option by Chicago (Team declined to pick up option) Jul 1 Brian Scalabrine FC Declared Free Agency by Chicago Jul 1 John Lucas PG Declared Free Agency by Chicago Gained in Red, lost in green. Per this post, Chicago minus Rose, Asik, Korver, Watson, Brewer but add Marco, Kirk and Vlad is still 50 wins but Atlanta plays 82 game 50 win ball last year, loses JJ and Marvin but Gets back Horford and adds Lou, Korver, Harris and they're supposed to take a step back?

Actually Josh was very effective last year at posting up and if he drew a double..kicking it back out. Yes, he drew doubles in the post but they usually came late as did his moves to the basket. The article is basically saying what I said in another post. Harris will be mentoring Teague on running the pick n roll. They will run pick n roll, pick n pop with a slasher and a spot up 3 point shooter. This tells me they are definately going to run 2 PGs as starters and start Zaza. Zaza will collect trash. There will be tons of pick n rolls drawing the opposing center to front Josh/Al. Teague and Harris will be free to finish the play themselves if they are open to the rim, fill the roller or hit the cutter/sniper. It's old school Utah basketball with a better 3 and two PG's. Williams will sub in early for either Teague or Harris (probably Harris). Then Harris will come back in to replace Teague. Morrow/Korver will replace Josh. Ivan will sub Al...Petro will sub Zaza. That is unless more players are moved by the deadline.

An update on this. Looks like Darko is looking for playing time and fit over salary. It looks like he can be had for the minimum or near vet minimum. He is a no risk player at that price who plays decent post defense. I say sign him.

No to the Josh question. We should run pick n roll. Harris mentoring Teague, pnr with Horford and Smith. Four man game at all times. Roll, cutter, PG and sniper in the corner. Let Jenkins, Korver feed when they double off the pick. Josh's primary role should be second option cutting to the basket on the Horford pick and roll. His second role should be the pick with pg drive as first option. His 3rd role should be as post up in an in/out game with the snipers. Zaza / Petro should live off of garbage buckets.

You know, this reminds me a lot of the year David Robinson got hurt and they drafted Duncan afterwards. No one understood just how valuable the loss of Robinson was. Then they brought both players in and bam they were better. Well, Al is back and will play much more to his position. Harris is the best PG we've had here since Mookie. On my "in" I left out Korver...I keep doing that. Korver in changes floor spacing a great deal. I just don't see the roster hate except from a JJ loyalist point of view.

I'm not sure I can say this enough. Al only played 11 games last year. If you are doing an in/out it looks like this.InHorfordLouHarrisPetroMorrowStephensonJenkinsOutJJMarvinMcGradyCollinsPargoGreenHinrichI would have to think if you were building a team and offered JJ, Marvin, McGrady vs Horford, Harris, Lou Williams you would have to take Horford's group every time. JJ is nice but Horford = JJ, Harris > Marvin, Williams > McGrady. I just don't understand how we are supposed to be markedly worse. We were 40-26 last year and decimated by injury. Pargo out with Appendicitis, Marvin stepping on Zaza's foot. JJ out for 6. The only 2 hawks to play every game were Teague, Smith. I just don't see the step back everyone else is seeing. Our record in an 82 game season = 50 wins. 50 wins will be good enough for 4th seed again this year. I just don't see us losing more with Al back, Teague older and vastly improved outside shooting and a quicker pace. I just don't see it.

Joe does not fight through screens, play's ole' against smaller quicker guards and does not leave his man to double team period. His extremely low assist and rebound percentages tell you all you need to know.

No argument there. For his Career, Josh's points per possession are almost the same. But no one is saying give Josh the max either. Josh is a superior defender/team defender but not as good offensively...no argument. And he is not worthy of the max either. My favorite player, yes...max...no.

This is you seeing what you want to see. I see a guy who took 17.6 shots a game. turned it over 2.5 times a game. Dribbled out the shot clock and passed to a bail out another couple of times a game. 17.6 shots +2.5 T/O = 19.9 possessions ending with Joe Johnson. 20.9 points / 19.9 shots = 1.05 points per possession that ended with him. Let me give you a comparison on the Hawks. Marvin Williams who we all love to hate. career 11.5 ppg. on 9.1 shots with 1.2 turnovers. 1.12 points per possession ending with Marvin. Marvin doesn't have to create his own shot you say. Okay...let's try new Hawk Devin Harris. He's a point guard, shorter than Joe, turns the ball over more per 36...lets see what his says. 13.1 ppg for his career - 9.8 attempts, 2.2 turnovers. 1.09 points per possession. How about another 18 ppg SG Eric Gordon 18.2 ppg for his career on 13.5 attempts, 2.4 turnovers 1.14 points per possession. It's simple. JJ wouldn't draw fouls so his scoring was inefficient. The numbers bear that out over and over again. Double teams you say....Lebron is doubled, Durant gets doubled, Wade got doubled. Those are excuses. I know what we had in JJ....a very good one on one offensive player. But not someone you build a team around. Not someone worth 20 million dollars a year. Ferry is doing the right thing right now. Committee is better with this group than relying on Joe Freaking Johnson and his inefficiencies. Who was Joe Johnson. 60 regular season games last year. He shot under 40% 18 times. 30% of the time you could count on your 20 million dollar man to shoot under 40%. Playoffs last year...37.3% from the field. 25% from 3. Career playoffs. 62 games. 41% shooter, 16.9 ppg on 15.4 attempts and 2.3 turnovers for .955 points per possession that ended with Joe Freaking Johnson. That's who Joe Johnson is. Just wait till NY fans start asking these same questions.

http://www.peachtree...ty-doggone-good Inspired by this article, I did a little data mining on Devin Harris from New Jersey. What follows is the composite of Harris' time in NJ. Games - 212 PPG - 17.67 Assists - 6.94 RPG - 3.0 I think if we got that out of Devin, everyone would be pretty happy. When is the last time we had a point guard here that could average 17 points and 7 assists a game?

Yes and no. We would have to renounce all of our other free agents first. Meaning...renounce Josh, renounce Morrow. Which are 2 of the reasons we would think Howard might choose Atlanta. So Horford, CP3, Howard, Lou Williams, Jenkins, Teague. That would be assuming Howard would sign if you send Josh and Morrow packing.

But I rounded on salaries...it's a bit less...closer to 36 I believe.

No we aren't. Horford - 12 million Williams - 5 million Jenkins - 1 million Teague is on his option - 3 million. Stephenson (not guaranteed) 2.5 million not nitpicking but we have about 23.5 million committed next year....just count Teague's he isn't going anywhere unless it's part of a trade. So we are 34.5 under the cap...not 48 million.