BK's Only Mistakes

[1524]

I am a big time Billy Knight supporter, and I back him 100%. But I do feel he made 2 mistakes so far in the re-building proccess.

1. Childress over Igudala

I dont feel like Chill was a bad pick, but when we have a finished product in Atlanta Josh will come off the bench. A 6th overall pick should be starting. Iggy is coming along real well in Philly, it is a shame we will never get to see him and Josh Smith on the same team(exept for on All-Star weekends)

2. Lue over Calderon

Why did we re-sign Ty Lue for 10 Mill when we could have gotten a better player, with much more potential at a much, much, much cheaper price. I know we went after Jose Manuel Calderon in the offseason as a plan B to T-Lue if he ended up signing with the LAL. But Jose should have been our main option, he brings it hard ON BOTH ENDS OF THE FLOOR each night. We could seriously use that.

[exodus]

The Hawks needed defense in the middle and could have taken a chance on Diop but BK chose not to. Now he is playing very well in Dallas. Hunter was available also.

BK also passed on Duhon TWICE in the second round, taking Ivey and Donta instead.

[Lascar78]

I agree on Childress. As for Lue, he is a good backup PG, he already knows the system, and he wanted to play here. I think it was a no-brainer to bring him back. That doesn't change the fact that BK still should have brought in some other PG too. We have Lue who is a solid backup, and Ivey who is a third stringer, neither one of which is a pure PG / distributor. Lue is a scorer, and Ivey is a defender. No starting caliber PG.

He should have brought in a distributor, even if it isn't a world class one. BK knows basketball and you would think that it has become clear that we need one, so I would hope that he will adress that. If he fails to bring one in later this season or during the offseason, I will consider it a major failure to adress our problems.

Overall, if I were to rate BK's job so far, I would give him a B overall. Good job on having the balls to completely rebuild, and you can't expect wins in year 2. He's found some steals, and he's made some shady decisions. He convinced a top FA to come here, even though he had to overpay for him.

Hell we could easily, and I do mean easily, be 5-11 right now which would look much better. That's not BK's fault

Lue had to be brought back for 2 other reasons too: continuity and leadership. He is really our only vet, and we need more, not less. He also already knew Woody's system (or lack thereof), and you want some continuity

[1524]

Oh yea I forgot BK should have deff thrown more money at Steven Hunter. He would have been a great fit here. Not sure about Diop though, the Mavs threw pretty good money at him.

Calderon

JJ

Iggy

Harrington

Hunter

6. Smoove

7. Salim

8. MWill

That team still would have a long way to go, but may contend for the 8th spot.

[VDiLetto]

The only good thing we have done is bring in Zaza. Thats it. Maybe the trade for Al for Jackson. That was a good move. Those are the only positives from BKs time here.. Hes terrible.

[Packfill]

BK is also the guy who traded Mike Bibby for Jason Williams.

[Wretch]

I'm a BK supporter too. Some people may call it @ss kissing, but to tell the truth...it has more to do with what I've seen other GMs do. GMs like Layden, Babcock, and Baylor... GMs who are afraid to rebuild... GMs who will grossly overpay for marginal talent... I don't think Knight is in the upper echelon of GMS (not until he's finished a project), but the guy knows his stuff and makes some good decisions.

I like how he got Al for Stephen Jackson, who he basically got for peanuts. I didn't support the Theo/SAR/Dickau trade AT ALL, but I'm cool with it because BK got Smoove out of it. I liked the 2nd round signing of Salim. I love the ZaZa signing (how can you NOT like that...). I've got half an opinion on the JJ move. On one hand, I am a bit nervous about the protection on our pick in 07, but I agree that at some point we have to stop looking to get the most ping pong balls...; at the same time, I think JJ will be a MAJOR part of our team when we start winning. He may not be able to carry a team, but with the right support around him...he could be a star.

As far as BKs mistakes...I only have one gripe. Chris Paul. I know Marvin may be very special one day, but Chris Paul will too...and he's a PG. Special PGs are like special big men. You just can't afford to pass on them. I was one of the biggest voices in Paul's corner over the summer (to the point that I had to officially state that I wasn't anti-Bogut, and more than once) and to watch us pass on him just killed me. I was praying that Paul's name would be called #2 for us...but I knew Marvin was the pick.

Which may not turn out so bad in the long run...

Chill over Iggy... To be honest, I knew nothing about either. I was a Deng guy. At the time though, they all seemed to be similar prospects to me. One thing that stood out in Chill's video was his versatility and smoothness. I've seen him at his best though and I'm still pulling for him. I don't think he was a mistake, but the kid has GOT to get more aggressive...and stay aggressive...

Overall, I think BK is doing well. I used to say he was an average GM, but he's pulled off a couple of coups since then. He should have played hardball with Phoenix (especially on those picks), Dickau should have been given an extended look, and I thought we should have drafted Paul...but those are my only complaints.

B-

[mudderfudder77]

Zaza was an absolute steal, and he did a good job bringing in AL for Jackson - but his draft was a little bit questionable.

Childress - High Basketball IQ but limited athleticism and no shot to speak of, chosen ahead of Deng & Igoudala

J. Smith - No Basketball IQ but unlimited athleticism. Defense is nearly non-existent other than the ability to leave his man on the weak side to sky for a block across the lane, chosen ahead of Jameer Nelson & Delonte West (okay so maybe Smith was the best of the third tier)

And I said it when it was made, but giving up the two picks and Diaw for JJ was too much, especially if JJ was going to fail at PG& word was that the Suns were not going to match anyways. (Not that he has failed, but they are asking entirely too much of him if they want him to be the PG, SG, leading scorer, distributor, captain, and all around good guy.)

Was Belkin right, not in what he tried to do, but in his message?

[Diesel]

Belkin was wrong.

If you traded places Diaw for JJ right now, JJ would be the man and Diaw would be back in shtsville.

The point, you can't compare two players with different situations. Diaw has not been asked to lead this team and when played last yr, he was a far cry from what JJ is to us now..

Belk was wrong for his sentiment AND his method.

[AHF]

I felt Belkin was right only to the extent that the Hawks gave up a little too much to get JJ but totally wrong in how he went about it by undermining his GM and fellow owners and trying to play god. IMO, the 2007 pick should have had more significant protection and that we should have held that line against Phoenix and taken the risk of signing JJ to a max if they would not relent. I have little doubt they would have agreed to a 2007 top 10 protected and 2008 top 3 protected pick along with Diaw and the LA/Bos 1st if we had really pushed them.

After seeing us deal away future firsts in the past, I am reluctant to do so without significant protection (Babcock dealt picks that could have been used to take Amare Stoudemire, TJ Ford, Quentin Richardson, and Pau Gasol to acquire Lorenzen Wright, Glenn Robinson and Shareef Abdur-Rahim).

[Diesel]

I applaud BK on the deals he haven't done.

Damp, Curry, Kmart... All bust.

I applaud BK on the deals he did do...

AL, JJ, Zaza even Lue for Barry.. All good deals.

My eyebrow raise on these 2 things...

1. Not getting Jameer Nelson.

2. Not getting Paul.

The question of CHillz for Iggy/Deng.

Again, I think that coming out of college, Chillz was better than both guys. Iggy was nothing but an atheletic player with no perimeter game at UA. Deng was mechanical and leaving too early at Duke. Chillz was more mature and had/have a better BBIQ than both... I think Chillz exhibits more leadership than those other guys and if they were here, they wouldn't do well.. Period. Put chills alongside Ai, and he'd look good too.

The book is still out on JSmoove/Marvin..

[mudderfudder77]

I'm not arguing that JJ is a better player than Diaw - thats obvious. But it's also obvious that playing in Pheonix the amount of minutes he did somewhat inflated his stats, and that giving up Diaw, 2 firsts, and a monster contract for JJ was a mistake. Especially with the possibility that the Suns wouldn't match anyways. I don't want to rehash the JJ trade (it been argued enough) but it is just another piece of evidence to be used against Knight.

[AHF]

Diesel - I'll say that I think getting JSmoove at #17 was a fantastic pick for the Hawks given his potential. I'd love to get a player of his potential every few years with the Hawks rather than the line of Ed Grays we've gotten in the past. The %s give him a chance at busting but also a real chance at becoming a superstar. I have no problems with that pick at all.

[exodus]

Quote:

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J. Smith - No Basketball IQ but unlimited athleticism. Defense is nearly non-existent other than the ability to leave his man on the weak side to sky for a block across the lane

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Have to disagree about his D. When he is matched up against bigger players his man D is actually pretty good. Sometimes it seems like guys aren't sure what to do against him. He does bite on pump fakes a little too easily and sometimes forgets to box out, but overall I think he can defend the 4 spot well. Elton Brand's lowest point total of the season was the first game against the Hawks when Josh started against him. He didn't do squat against Josh.

Where he has trouble is guarding quicker 3s.

[Diesel]

The minutes that Diaw play in Phoenix has to be qualified. Remember he's playing with the reigning MVP of the league and other players who are just good. And he's playing for the coach of the year.

When he was here, Diaw played and many nights, the Hawks faithful wonder WHY??

It's wrong to criticize Management for Dealing Diaw NOW when we didn't want him then...

Moreover, Aside from the trade to Phoenix, during draft time, BK had a deal for Diaw + our Second in place with Seattle for their late first round pick. At the last minute, Seattle declined... I don't know how many spots it would have moved us up, somebody can go back and see... BUT I know Seattle got Petro out of the draft...

Point is that Diaw wasn't worth the jump from whatever position Phoenix picked to Salim..

[Packfill]

I don't think diaw's numbers need to be qualified - if they did then you would need to do the same for JJ's numbers last year (in reality this may be appropriate given the dramatic dropoff in his field goal shooting %).

Besides, the Suns are not as good this year due to the absence of Amare - the only legit stars they have left are Nash and Marion, everyone else is filler.

[Diesel]

Look at what JJ is doing here vs what Diaw did here.

Diaw would not be the same player here with more time than he is in Phoenix with more time...

The calibre of player he is playing with should be a qualifier.

[macdaddy]

Actually there are multiple qualifiers. He's playing the 4 or 5 out there which means he's on the floor with a lot of other good playmakers who can get him the ball in scoring position.

Did you see him the other night. He looked great. Better than he EVER looked here in any one game. Its a better system with better players.

[gsuteke]

Quote:

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Actually there are multiple qualifiers. He's playing the 4 or 5 out there which means he's on the floor with a lot of other good playmakers who can get him the ball in scoring position.

Did you see him the other night. He looked great. Better than he EVER looked here in any one game. Its a better system with better players.

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which is why we need a BETTER coach and a better GM

[Diesel]

The Coach doesn't make the system..

The talent makes the system.

We don't have the specification or the talent to make that system.