We could have had Nene

[exodus]

Even KB admits that we could have traded Al for Nene. I wanted this to happen as did many others here.

Some argued against it because Nene was hurt and might not ever play well again.

That argument is getting weaker by the day. So far this month Nene is averaging 19/8 shooting 60%. And he is well known as a tough, physical defender.

The second reason that he would "cost too much to resign". Denver seriously overpaid to resign him. However if we had him only two other teams could have bid on him, Chicago and NOK. It is seriously doubtful that the Bulls would have gone after Nene (coming off an injury) rather than Ben Wallace. And NOK certainly seems happy with their Chandler deal. The odds are the same scenario would have played out with these two teams even if Nene had been available.

I believe Nene would have been in the same situation as Gooden, Wilcox and Al. Gooden and Wilcox didn't get any offers from other teams and ended up signing 4 year deals with the team that held their rights. Al was unrestricted and didn't get any offers either. The only reason he got paid is because we agreed to a SNT deal.

I think we could have easily signed Nene more cheaply than Denver did. It is unlikely that he would have been willing to take a 1 year tender offer after having season ending knee surgery.

I think Nene's agent successfully bluffed Denver's owner. We have seen the same scenario play out repeatedly where GM's overpay. Dunleavy, Diaw, Foyle....etc. I doubt that would have happened with BK.

[TexasPete]

Nene would have been great here. TheNuggets are ridiculous for signing him for that contract. They could have let the market play out and the worst case could have gotten him for about the same deal. There are some really stupid people running teams in the league as we all know.

Nene would have been a great addition if we could get him reasonably.

[TheDude]

i would have liked to have him here too...if anything he could have taken the place of LO and we'd have two young centers with some potential still left.

[TexasPete]

LO is absolutely terrible. If he has a redeeming quality on the court I haven't seen it.

I would give BK a D- for his free agent "crop" this year.

[chillzatl]

it's one of those things, i'm sure of it!

Just as your reasons for wanting him were valid, the reasons others had for not wanting him (injuries, money) were just as valid. Denver gambled and overpaid to keep him, believing he would have no lingering health issues. It was a gamble to be sure, and is one that could still hurt them in the long run. You can't just assume they would have taken Al for him. If they had enough faith in him to pay him what they did, it's safe to assume that trade offers for a tweener pf might not have been enough to make it waver.

Though i'm loathe to use the word, it's not really fair to second guess the decision when few if any teams would have made it differently. He was and likely still is regarded as a gamble by every team in the league outside of Denver. A few good games isn't enough to offset losing nearly 2 of your first 4 years to injury.

[Packfill]

That sucks. If BK had pulled off that deal and drafted either Deron or Paul instead of Marvin this team would be on the fast track to the playoffs.

As it is, I am very curious to see what BK does this off-season to balance off the roster and fill the wholes at center and point guard.

[exodus]

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You can't just assume they would have taken Al for him.

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I am not assuming. BK said Nene was offered when he talked to season ticket holders last year. At least that is what KB21 said and i doubt he was lying.

Sure it would have been a gamble but quality bigs are so hard to get you pretty much have to gamble otherwise you won't get one unless you get lucky in the draft.

And Denver didn't just gamble. What they did was dumb. They didn't give the market a chance to play out. They had his restricted rights so what was the hurry? It wasn't like anyone was going to offer more than they did since they signed him to a max/near max (I am not sure) deal anyway.

[exodus]

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Because it came right out of Bernie Mullin's mouth.

The Denver offer was Voshon Lenard and Nene for Al Harrington. That's it. No draft picks were involved. No Earl Watson was involved.

But we would rather believe someone that has no insight into the situation that to believe the president of the Hawks.

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click

[exodus]

After re-reading this old thread i remembered that Nene's contract with Denver isn't as bad as I thought. Technically it is 6 years at $10 million per year but there are apparently a lot of incentives in there that, if not met, drop the total contract to around $50 million for 6 years.

[mrhonline]

Exodus, a Denver insider claimed that Nene took a discount to re-sign with Denver. He also claimed that teams like Atlanta were prepared to offer more guaranteed $ than Nene ended up taking.

IMO, I don't think you can fault Knight for waiting waiting until the off-season to go after Nene. It's not like he could have imagined the ownership fiasco would worsen to the degree it did...

[exodus]

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IMO, I don't think you can fault Knight for waiting waiting until the off-season to go after Nene.

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Yes i can.

First of all Denver to compete with 3 teams under the cap who potentially could have offered Nene a big deal. If Nene was here we would have only had to compete with 2. And they obviously had other plans that they liked other than just persuing Nene.

We are spending 7 million on the Lo/Zaza combo and they both completely suck. Neither are starting material at center. if we had signed Nene obviously we wouldn't have signed Lo. The extra money to sign nene would have easily been worth it since he can actually play.

Nene > the Indy pick

if we had gotten Nene the only real hole left on the roster would be pg. Instead we have two big holes we have to fill.

So how are we going to get a quality center now?

[DJlaysitup]

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...if we had gotten Nene the only real hole left on the roster would be pg. Instead we have two big holes we have to fill...

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I really think management has to take a shot at filling one of them via trade this year. I'd love to have the center position fixed, but if that's too hard, at least we need to move some pieces and get a guy like Ridnour. Him and Speedy at PG would be an improvement - with Ivey off the bench. I'm not married to Ridnour, but we need to do something. I'd especially love to see a PG with better ability and judgement on the fast break.

If BK can pull off a move for a real big instead - more power to him. Hopefully we won't just stand pat - but I'm afraid we might since ownership will figure they can.

[Diesel]

First off, trading for Nene midseason with no guarantee that he resigns with us would have been foolish.

Secondly, we knew he was seeking 60 million dollars. You say that's nothing but let me remind you of this one thing:

We have JChillz, JSmoove, and Marvin to resign and we have Cheap owners. Do you think that our owners will go over the salary cap for that?

Third... There was NO Guarantee that Nene would ever play last year. His knee was a gamble.

All things considered, I think we made the right choice STILL. Now if the trade was for Camby, I'm on it!

[exodus]

So you would rather have a mid-1st rounder than Nene?

Sure there was no guarantee that he wanted to resign with us but we would have had his restricted rights so he wouldn't have had much choice. And MrH says that BK was actually willing to offer more guaranteed money than Denver did.

Sometimes you have to take a risk to get a big. Otherwise you wind up with a center combo of Zaza/BLO.

We still need a center. We are going to have to pay to get one and we will still have to resign our players.

[Diesel]

There are a whole lot of other things that I would have liked to have in exchange for Al.

Hell, 2 Midround 1st.

Hell, Jeff Foster and a First.

Hell, Ron Artest

Hell Allen Iverson.

Hell, Andre Miller.

I think we discussed all of these along with Nene.

I'm just saying that at the time, Picking Nene was far more risky than the hindsight would lead you to believe... and with that being the fact of the matter, I would rather we save up our money and re-sign Smoove.

Here's my follow up to you.

Would you risk not being able to re-sign Smoove for a chance to get NENE?

[Guest Walter]

That alone should have gotten the deal done. Doesn't BK read Hawksquawk?

Really, BK got too little for Al. We all know it. NeNe was a certainty that would have changed this team's fortunes somewhat and at least solved one problem. With Nene we wouldn't have drafted SW 5th either. Now there is a HUGE positive.

Imagine this lineup:

Nene/ZaZa

JS/FA

MW/JC

JJ/JC

Roy/Lue/waterbug

That is an impressive lineup. Impressive.

Who else is there to blame but BK? He is too chicken to make the bold move when it sits in his lap along with poor drafting and team building. He's well below par in this league.

W

[exodus]

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Doesn't BK read Hawksquawk?

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If he ever did i am sure he stopped quickly after reading our posts.

[TexasPete]

I have to believe that Etan Thomas is on the block in Washington. He and Haywood have fought about 3 or 4 times and I think the club is now blaming Thomas for most of it because he was the one who got suspended.

Is he a great center? No. But there is a dearth of quality big men on the market. Teams just don't want to part with the big guys cause there so hard to get these days. When guys like Tyson Chandler and Sam Daly are getting max deals...there is a shortage of big men. Thomas would help solidify us defensively. He isn't much on offense but he does run the floor well for a big man. I'm not sure who they would want in return...

Z doesn't suck, he just isn't a starter. I think he would do really well coming off the beench playing 22-27 minutes a night. He is not good on defense but he provides some offense and is a solid offensive rebounder. Plus, he is only 23...a lot of teams will bid on Z in a couple of years if nothing else to give them a big man off the bench. Lo, brings nothing to the party. He isn't even D league good.

[AtLaS]

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With Nene we wouldn't have drafted SW 5th either.

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Don't underestimate BK's stupidity..

[Diesel]

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NeNe was a

certainty

that would have changed this team's fortunes somewhat and at least solved one problem.

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Nene was the least certain thing out.

Sure I wish we could have gotten more for Al... talk to the owners about that.

However, If we would have traded for Nene... he would have never suited up as a Hawk and if he didn't like Atlanta or our coaches or Smoove or our youth, he could have just packed up and left to the highest bidder...

On top of that he was injured and was off schedule by several months...

No.. There was no Certainty about Nene.