BK poll

[Guest Walter]

NM

[gsuteke]

Walter

do you have an agenda?

[Guest Walter]

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Walter

do you have an agenda?

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...was, how much our extensive capitol allowed us in terms of building a contending team, and how we didn't meet our needs but more importantly our moves reflect a definate shift towards mediocrity.

W

[Sothron]

I don't like BK but he does not have the permission of the AS to add salary beyond the minimum NBA payroll until the Belkin situation is taken care of. Unless the AS change their minds and from what I was told that is extremely unlikely. They are not going to put more money into the Hawks just to potentially watch it go down the drain if Belkin steals the team away.

[gsuteke]

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Quote:

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Walter

do you have an agenda?

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...was, how much our extensive capitol allowed us in terms of building a contending team, and how we didn't meet our needs but more importantly our moves reflect a definate shift towards mediocrity.

W

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Walter you have been totally against trading Al to Indy for peanuts just as I have been.

that being said things are looking bright these days

your favorite player Marvin Williams is due for a breakout season!

[DJlaysitup]

I don't think we can really single out BK here. If the question is how the "Hawks" did - I would say somewhat poorly - but BK pretty much did what he had to do within the constraints that were likely put on him.

IMO every year this ownership mess goes on is another year the master plan must be extended. And if it's extended too far it will collapse due to FAcy.

[Lascar78]

I think gsuteke's point is that if you want to make a thread about how you think that we blew it this summer and it will screw us, there was no need to masquerade it as a poll.

[Guest Walter]

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I think gsuteke's point is that if you want to make a thread about how you think that we blew it this summer and it will screw us, there was no need to masquerade it as a poll.

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Did we have a good offseason considering our potential for one or not?

I'm sure my opinion is known but I am asking for other's thus the poll.

I'm curious as to what percent or stake see SW, Speedy, Lo a good offseason considering our opportunity. Simple enough isn't it.

W

[exodus]

If the Hawks goal is to be a average or slightly better than average team long term then this was a good offseason.

If the goal is to build a title contender then this was a poor offseason.

I am not buying this constraint argument. There were legit offers for Al before the deadline that BK didn't take advantage of.

We've been over the draft a million times so my feelings should be well known there.

Last summer BK got the best free agent he could possibly get in JJ. This summer's free agent crop wasn't great but coming away with only Speedy and Lo is a disappointment to me.

The Hawks lacked size this past season and they still do. If you are going to play with a small lineup you need to be able to either

A) effectively guard the opposing bigs.

or

B) score so effectively that the opponent can't keep their bigs in the game.

Are Lo and Zaza going to be able to score so effectively that the other team has to go small to match up? Are Zaza/Lo/Shelden going to be able to guard guys like JO, Big Z, Duncan, Bogut, Howard, Shaq, Sheed...etc?

[Seano]

Wow, talk about a black and white poll. Two pretty stark choices there, he either did 'well' or 'poorly'. Well what if you think the work Billy Knight did this offseason was somewhere in between? Maybe you could put a 'middlin' choice in there as well.

And this poll doesn't (and can't- no poll could) even begin to address the many different variables that could have determined the results of this offseason, such as the Belkin Affair and the circus that is Hawks ownership, their terrible attempts at PR, and how has all of this affected Knight's ability to make moves and directed what moves he *did* make, and has he been hamstrung by the ownership fiasco at the top? Part of me still believes that the whole Shelden Williams thing and his whole approach to the draft was so unlike Billy Knight, that it must have come from someone up top- or been strongly influenced that way. I mean it just went entirely against the MO that Billy Knight had established up to this point in his career, and his philosophy of always taking the 'best player available' that he had espoused as recently as a few months ago.

So there are a million different variables, and none of us on the outside know any of the answers. But it's pretty widely understood that Knight and the Hawks have not exactly been helped by what's happening up top, and really in fact might be badly hampered or harmed by it. It just makes sense on an intuitive level- an organization that unstable at the top is going to create a ripple effect of problems going all the way down. The great unknown question is how much have they already and how much are they now hurting us?

[VarsitySlacker]

While I think this has been a poor offseason, I don't really blame BK for it.

Had this team signed Sam Cassell, I honestly believe that we have a playoff team. However, Sam-I-Am decided to not follow the money, and stayed with LA. What we saved in $$ with Speedy Claxton, we lost (significantly) in talent.

I think Shelden Williams is bound to be a bust, but there is nobody in this draft who would have really fit this team. The player I was clamoring for, Foye, could have worked...Or it could have replicated Joe Johnson in the "I better play SG instead" mold, resulting in more logjam.

I would have loved to have signed-and-traded Harrington for Magloire, but that apparantly wasn't in the cards. Replacing Big Stiff Edwards with Lo-Wright isn't earth-shattering, but it's slight progress. At least Wright knows what he's doing, and we didn't give up two first-rounders this time.

That's four cases, three of which I didn't like, but 2 of which Billy had his hands tied in. As far as Harrington, he should have been traded at midseason. That's Billy's fault, but this post is about "this offseason," not Billy Knight's year in review.

[Final_quest]

I think the most disappointing move was in the draft with Shellhead. It was a big compromise that apparently BK and the FO felt was necessary. When asked about the pick the comments were that Foye and Roy were not PGs, but no comment about Shelden being a better player.

This move says to me that the Hawks wanted to win now, but at a compromise for the future. The Hawks had to tie up loose ends to make a complete team, but this was the compromise. We were taking a player that will almost certainly not be a star, and turn down two players that had that potential. I don't have much problem with the other moves, but to me the damage was mostly done in the draft.

What I submit to the board is what moves do you make if Roy or Foye were drafted in place of Shelden? I make the assumption that Pryz is not an option, and we would not have been able to use more capspace than was spent on Speedy and Lo.

[exodus]

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I make the assumption that Pryz is not an option,

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A UFA with no Bird Rights is not an option. ok

[Diesel]

Your disappointment with picking Shelden is interesting. You're basically saying that we:

1. Ignore Need.

2. Put ourselves in FAs hands.

3. Draft a player type that we don't need.

If BK would have done that by taking Foye... we would be in the Ogden running for sure and we would have pissed off our players who want to win.

Only a handful of people don't want to see the Hawks do better and none of them are players.

Let's talk about Point #2.

Had we not gotten Shelden, we would have probably re-signed Al by now. We would have been forced to deal out a big contract to the first available Big. Weather that be a big contract for Al or a big trade for Tyson Chandler. Point is that we would have had to overpay a free agent.

Moreover, if we would have draft Foye, not only would we need a FA big, we would have still needed to get a FA PG. So I ask... where would Foye have played? Would he have come off the bench with Salim?

Foye was one of the ones who BK looked at and decided no. I'm sure if Foye would have shown more PG ability, he would have gotten more consideration.

As far as Shelden goes... He was the BPA. He was the Best Big man available and the best big in the draft. There will be some crow sandwhiches served up as time goes on.

[Final_quest]

On paper, yes. In reality, no.

We have every reason to believe that BK was in no way going to sign him and Pryz wanted no part of the Hawks.

[Lascar78]

We wouldn't need to go get a PG if we had Foye/Lue at the PG. There's no pure distributor, but that's plenty of talent at the point. Hell it's not like Speedy is John Stockton. Yes we would have depended on FA to get bigs, but I think we could have done ok. We still would not have re-signed Al. We drafted Shelden because it was obvious that we needed interior D and that Al would not provide it. That would not have changed.

[Diesel]

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Yes we would have depended on FA to get bigs, but I think we could have done ok.

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That's the most naive statement you have made in a while Lascar.

You do remember that the court ruling came down right as we had finished dealing with Speedy. Let's go back in time. It's the 2nd day of FAcy. Court ruling goes down. We can only pick up Bigs with 4 years or less on their contract. Supposedly, it's our owners preference not to spend money.

Here's your outcome...

Lo Wright would be our starting PF.

I guess that's OK for you.. So I guess we're doing OK?

[Lascar78]

we went into the offseason needing a PG. Because it was such a big need, BK acted swiftly and got his man, well before restrictions came into play. If our need had instead been a big, he would have gone after bigs as soon as he was allowed to also, well before any restrictions would have come into play. There is absolutely no reason to think that he would have waited around.

[exodus]

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We have every reason to believe that BK was in no way going to sign him and Pryz wanted no part of the Hawks.

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UFA's are looking to get paid, as Prz clearly indicated on july 1. A few million dollars can go a long way towards soothing hard feelings over something that happened two years ago. Remember that Prz has played for relative peanuts the last two years.

And if BK really had no interest in signing the best interior defender the Hawks could possibly get in free agency then that speaks to his competency, or lack thereof, as a GM.

[Nicholasp27]

the problem with this is that the offseason isn't over

how about waiting until October to grade the summer?