I asked Marc Stein the Al Harrington Question ...

[Duff_Man]

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BK had they opportunity to send Al to Indiana and didn't do it. Who do you think Al would rather be playing for this year? Indy is a playoff team and Al is best freinds with their top player and is popular among the other players.

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Indy is clinging on to the 8th seed right now and is 2-8 in their last 10. If they keep playing like that, they will be taken over by Boston or Chicago eventually. They are very much weakened defensively by the loss of Artest and will have to adjust to a different style of play with Peja in order to use his talents. I think Indy's ship may be sinking somewhat.

[exodus]

Remember they just lost JO with a groin injury.

[Diesel]

Yeah...

So talent wise, without JO, they are no better than us.

[exodus]

WTF Tinsley and Foster have missed a ton of games. JO has missed 8 and obviously they missed Artest for most of the season and still are only 1 game under .500.

[Diesel]

You're just arguing to argue right??

[gsuteke]

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The truth of the matter is that many of the Hawks fans on the trade Al bandwagon here are on it to justify us picking Marvin. That's the real truth. They feel that somehow Al is responsible for Marvin not playing even though Marvin is a Sf and Al is a Pf(most of the time). They want to "give the young players a chance". These are the same people who said that Marvin is better than Paul or Deron. Now, instead of eating crow, they want to blame the structure of the Hawks for Marvin's shortcomings.

I was watching Marvin play the other night and this guy is still not in shape. I was wondering How can that BE??

The proof to what I'm saying is in the truth...

The truth is that:

1.

We would get more in trade for Al in a SNT.

Yes, we get more. Teams are less likely to give up a lot for a rental. Would you want the Hawks trading it's lottery pick for a rental? Let's say Kobe was about to be an UFA and the Lakers were willing to trade him to us for 2 1st rounders (including our lottery pick) and JJ; would you do it? I hope the answer is hell no. Because as great as it would be to get Kobe here, if he's a UFA, if he doesn't like our team, he's gone and there's nothing we can do to stop him.

2.

Al and BK has a good working relationship

There have been some who has tried to suggest that Al really wants out of Atlanta and that as soon as FAcy comes, he will walk. I doubt that seriously. The only vet players who walk on their Bird holding team are those who are upset with the front office of that team or those who have no relationship with that team. BK drafted Al. BK knows Al, BK traded for Al. BK will work to get Al the Best SNT deal if we're dealing him. Al is not going to give up his Bird Rights All of the sudden.... Not on his last contract.

3.

None of our young guys are ready to step up and play consistently

I would say of them all Chillz is the most ready. Because Chillz does what he does CONSISTENTLY. Smoove is inconsistent. Marvin is inconsistent.

4.

Many here don't realize the pressure Al takes off of everybody else.

I bet JJ knows. When Al is playing, JJ doesn't have to face double teams. Al and JJ has very good chemistry (inside outside). But if you can't get consistency out of the other guys, then don't expect much.

5.

Other teams work through the weakness of a player

Al's perceived weakness is defense. If all you ever do is look at the stats, it would seem that way. However, these fans of other teams know that if they just plug Al into their situations, that his offense can be a great value and his defense can be covered up by good team defense. We have a bad team defense and we want to blame one guy. The other night I saw that one guy playing fairly good defense on Nash. The other night, I saw that one guy making sure that Gooden didn't get good post position. What the numbers say is that it's guards that are able to put up high scoring nights (mostly from the perimeter) on our defense. Moreover, teams shoot a high percentage against us. That's not one person. That's a bad defensive team.

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wrong, wrong, wrong. my perception has nothing to do with justifying drafting Marvin. it has everything to do with I believe Marvin will be better than Al within 1 to 2 years.

[Diesel]

[exodus]

You are trying to compare us with Indy which is ridiculous.

They have had one starter healthy for the whole season while we have had only one player miss more than two games all year.

[Diesel]

Not by record..

But if you take Indy as they are right now, without JO (gone for 8 weeks) and compare them to us... Who is better??

My prediction is that Indy probably won't win but 5 games while JO is gone.

[exodus]

Why does it even matter?

Because you are trying to portray Indy as a failing team so you can pretend Al didn't want to go there.

If any team loses 4 starters for a significant amount of time they will struggle.

And Al would have fit in well there at the 3 (his preferred position) because they play good team D. In Al's mind that was probably the ideal situation.

JO was trying to talk Walsh into getting Al. he said so publicly.

Put yourself in Al's shoes. Where would you rather be?

[Diesel]

Even with JO, Indy was a failing team.

Didn't we beat them already? Twice!

Both times, Oneal was on the floor playing. Now, you called us a bad team in this very thread. What does that make them?? Our bit$h?

[Lascar78]

that makes them a team that was under the ron artest cloud for the past year and a half. He is gone and they got an all-star

[exodus]

If Indy is our b!tch then we are definitely Toronto's b!tch.