Speculation... of Artest to Atlanta.

[Nicholasp27]

not for smoove

but it is nice to dream of an artest for al trade

ivey/jj/artest/smoove would be a nice defensive lineup

[Dragitoff]

Think of the fact we could turn this season around and build a foundation that Free Agents would want to come to. Not just the Joe Johnson's and Tyronne Lue's. They could have the team BK dreamed about, yet 10 times better even w/ JJ running the point.

JJ/Lue/Ivey

Artest/Salim

Harrington/Williams

NENE/Batista

Pachulia/Edwards

[Lascar78]

If the first 5 games of this season should have taught you anything, it is that JJ can not play the point. He can jump in for a few minutes in the same way that Smith can play center, but you don't want him playing that position for any extended period of time.

JJ/Lue/Ivey

Artest/Salim

Harrington/Williams

NENE/Batista

Pachulia/Edwards

There isn't a single distributor in there. Much less the starting lineup. The only way that starting lineup would function is players going at it 1-on-1. Not pretty. We need a distributor in here whether we get artest or not, but until we get a real one, we need Lue or Ivey (or even Salim) at the point.

[swolehawk2]

Is this the same Artest? The one that went into the stands ...the one that asked for a month off so he could promote an album...the guy that is starting on a winning team and is complaing about shots.

This is a young fragile franchise, on and off the court, the last thing we need is Artest.

I can't believe that anybody would consider this, he would eat this young team alive.

If we can't get a good big...there is no need to trade anybody.

[Lascar78]

I just wanted to clarify. I'm not necessarily 100% against shipping Smoove for Artest. But I still don't want JJ at point

??

JJ

Artest

Al

Zaza

would be nasty if we could get a good point guard. Even with Lue or Ivey at point, that team probably is in the playoff race if they were together for the whole year.

[Lascar78]

yes, but if you consider his behavior since the brawl, to me it is quite clear that he has changed. I think he will always be selfish, but he is ready to abide by the rules. He has not had a single tech. He put the label name in his hair, the league asked him to remove it, and he complied immediately. He is asking for a change of scenery because he thinks it will benefit both him and the team after the brawl, and I think he is right. He is supposedly a perfect teammate in the lockerroom. He isn't going to come and piss teammates off.

It is certainly a large risk, because I suppose he could snap, but I really can't see it happening. The point is that the risk might be worth it because he is unbelievably talented. He is the best defensive player in the league, and unlike guys like Wallace and Bowen, he can also put up all-star offense. I mean Rodman was worth the risk back in the day, and all he did was rebound. Artest does it all on the court. Honestly, I am not worried about artest around the young players too much. I would be more worried about how Artest will react to losing. Will he be willing to listen to the coach and do whatever to win, or would he try to do it all himself?

The more I think about this, the more I think it is worth the risk, and we are probably one of the 3 most likely teams to see a trade for him. It should be interesting to see what we hear from Woody/BK (lol) /Owners in the near future.

[swolehawk2]

"He put the label name in his hair, the league asked him to remove it, and he complied immediately"

LOL

"He is supposedly a perfect teammate in the lockerroom. He isn't going to come and piss teammates off."

LOL

"I mean Rodman was worth the risk back in the day, and all he did was rebound"

Rodman was not the leader of any team, he had stong personlaties from Phil to Mike to Pip. In Detroit he had strong vets.

We don't have that, if we trade Al that means that Artest would come here with no vets, Joe does not have strong enough personality and if you think we had the young fellas yapping it up with the coaching staff wait to u get a load of Artest when we are down by 30 to Indiana.

Think we don't share the ball now...think we don't have assists now...wait til Ron comes in and shoots when he feels like it.

I can not believe some of you are so desperate and impatient. We need a BIG and a coach and the Hawks will be fine.

Artest would kill this franchise, would cost people jobs and could be the final straw that breaks the Hawks for a long while.

[Diesel]

Isiah said that Frye is UNTOUCHABLE!

I wonder how far does that go? If the Lakers offered Kobe, would he still be untouchable? I just wonder about GMs who use absolutes like that. However, I think that Isiah is serious about not trading Frye for anybody.

[Plainview1981]

Josh Smith isn't an extremely big piece. He can't shoot,

defend, rebound and has no ball handling ability. Heck,

he's not even at Darius Miles level.

That being said, I don't think the Hawk can trade for

Artest because it's just another thing that could back

fire really badly and the Hawks don't need that at

this point.

[Lascar78]

I am not impatient. I am fine with waiting and drafting a PG and hoping to find a big.

That doesn't mean that I'm going to ignore any other options along the way because it's not what we planned months ago.

You can LOL sarcastically all you want, but go find a teammate badmouthing ron. Even reggie miller has said that he is a great teammate recently.

If Artest comes here, there is a starting 3 of Lue-JJ-Artest ( and possibly Harringon if we get him for Smoove) with experience. He has been an unselfish player throughout his carer, never hesitant about giving the ball up. If he was selfish, he would have started chucking in Indiana. He didn't do that. He asked for a trade like many other stars have (Carter, TMac, Baron...) and stated that he'd like to end up somewhere where he can be a bigger part of the offense. That does not mean that he will chuck shots up no matter where he ends up. There is no reason to doubt that he would be a good teammate here like he always has, and be content within an offense in which he would have a much larger role than in Indy.

All of his offenses have been against his opponents and the crowds. The only time he ever disrespected his team is when he asked for time off to promote his album, and he apologized for that much, much more than he did even for the brawl.

You can be sarcastic all you want, but the fact is that while Ron is probably nuts and has blown a fuse on numerous occasions, he has always done his best to listen to his coach and be an excellent teammate, with one exception. The two are not exclusive.

[Diesel]

Dude, you need to recheck the facts...

Go back to Chicago.. He kept the young Bulls in Fear...

[Plainview1981]

Well, the one thing is that there wouldn't be many fans

for him to attack... Other than Harry The Hawk.

[Lascar78]

haha, I'll take him on.

You know when you consider our record, our attendance isn't bad at all. We have more people than Philly, Orlando, Portland, barely less than Minny, Memphis, Denver...

[Plainview1981]

I'm mainly just having alittle fun. But really, the Hawks have been marked down for good attendance before and it

still look like te place is empty.

Bottomline is a I don't believe the attendance is as high

as they try and claim. But I've been unable tosee a game

for a few weeks so perhaps it has improved this year.

[Duff_Man]

Artest and JJ on the court at the same time would be an awesome amount of defense alone. Would probably help.

But...I HATE the idea of bringing another JR Rider here to rip the heart out of our franchise. Although, I bet if he was traded and getting his shots, etc, he would be a model citizen for at least a year or two.

Interesting to speculate, probably not going to happen. I would venture to guess that Indy will try to put him in the West to get him out of their hair for good.

[Lascar78]

honestly though, in most team's view, a guy is less likely to hurt you if you send him to atlanta than sending him to the other conference. True or not, I don't think that any teams as of today worry that sending a guy to the 3-16 hawks will backfire on them seriously anytime soon

I know what you mean about bringing a potential cancer in and that's why I'd want nothing to do with Patterson for instance (unless we cut him immediately), but Artest's talent makes me think twice ... or more