Grading the GM's of the Hawks... (last 20+ Years)

[KB21]

The only positive to drafting Rumeal was the fact that he was traded for Mookie Blaylock. That's it.

Rumeal was nothing but a slow, fat point guard that didn't have neither the speed nor explosiveness to play in the NBA.

[Diesel]

All I'm saying is that a good PG or a Good C has more value than a good Sf. IF we had Jameer Nelson and Chris Paul on our team... breaking knees and playing strong, do you know how much we could get in trade for Nelson??

For a moment, let's just do the draft of 2004 and 2005 over.

Say we got in 2004:

Josh Smith and Jameer Nelson.

Say in 2005:

We got Chris Paul.

In 2006, let's say we took Shelden...

Ok, it's now. We want to trade one of our players... Let's say Nelson...

I'm sure we could shop Nelson and probably get a damn fine big for him...

I don't think we can get as much for Chillz as we could for Nelson... simple because everybody has a Sf somewhere. I mean, Phoenix came off the bench with James Jones or whatever that guys name was. LAC came off their bench with Quinton Ross. You can always find a Sf. Finding a PG or a C however.. is hard.

[Diesel]

I was thinking about it the other day.

Rumeal was before his time. He was 6'2 195... I don't think that's fat...

The problem is this.. In his best year with us.. He was a 13 ppg, 5.2 apg PG. The problem was his FG%.. Somewhere in the 30's. In that best year, Dominique went down and he had to work with Ferrell, Augmon, and Willis. Well, Rumeal was not the kind of PG who could make others better. He was the type of PG who could feed the right guy and play some defense. He was supposed to have it easy like Doc Rivers did... but he didn't have that luxury.

Plus Bob Weiss didn't know what he was doing as a coach. Couldn't coach PGs and couldn't find people who could coach Pgs and neither one of our SGs (Augmon/Snoop Graham) were good enough to help Rumeal with his court duties. He was used to playing with Rice, Mills, and not having to be responsible for scoring...

[Diesel]

You know this is funny (Ironic).

The funny part of this is that the trade itself wasn't bad... if you really listen to what you said. Getting Pryz for Nazr was a great move. It's the fact that we didn't keep Pryz and I gather that Nazr going on to win a ring didn't help either. IF it's any consolation, Big Dog can come over and flash his championship ring at BK anytime he feels like it...

[Dejay]

KB, the sky must be falling because we are in agreement with yet another topic. Rumeal was complete GARBAGE when he was drafted; his claim to fame was hitting two free throws in the national championship game against Seton Hall. For his college success, he had plenty of help; I could've looked like the next Isiah (the guy Babs actually compared Rumeal to) if I had Glen Rice, Sean Higgins, Loy Vaught, and Terry Mills riding shotgun with me on the court. Its pretty telling when then-Nets coach Chuck Daly once said if they had one more guard, Rumeal would've still been in Atlanta (while Rumeal was still in NJ no less). I'd think he'd be a more reliable source in regard to NBA talent than any of us.

As for the rest of his picks, there wasn't one that could not be at least second-guessed. When Alan Henderson is considered to be one of your better selections, there is a major problem with your drafting process. You're telling me that Michael Finley couldn't have helped Lenny and Co. out when they were dying for a small forward who could chew gum and dribble the ball?

[Diesel]

Quote:

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Its pretty telling when then-Nets coach Chuck Daly once said if they had one more guard, Rumeal would've still been in Atlanta (while Rumeal was still in NJ no less). I'd think he'd be a more reliable source in regard to NBA talent than any of us.

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I think you totally misunderstand the context of this particular quote.

The reason why NJ moved Mookie had nothing to do with what they were getting back per se. They were a pretty good team top to bottom. The problem was that Mookie was beating the breaks off of top draft pick Kenny Anderson. So because they couldn't just bench Mookie, they decided to trade Mookie. I'm sure if Daly had his druthers, he would have gotten a backup C for Mookie.. But because there were no backups for Kenny Anderson once Mookie was traded, NJ had to go looking for a PG.

BTW, Rumeal wasn't that bad as a BU PG for NJ? He was definitely suitable. He was with their playoff team and he was traded the year after. He wasn't a playmaker.. That's Robinson problem. He was more a guy who could handle the ball and get it to the high scorer.