LUKE avr .5 more assist than Speedy lol

[NJHAWK]

He avr. the same amount of points a game as Tyrone Lue even though Lue plays less minutes. He only avr. .5 more assist a game than Speedy and Speedy plays less minutes. Thats not an upgrade worth giving up a 1st round pick in a deep draft in my book. I mean Speedy has been playing hurt and still gets as many assist as Luke and Speedy at least can defend. Luke couldnt defend 50% of the people who post on this board and Im being very serious about that. He doesnt even make an effort. Some of you guys mention him in the same breath with Nash or a young Nash in the making. I really doubt that.

[KB21]

I agree. I think defense is too big of a key to make this move. Even if they pull off the deal to get Luke Ridnour, I highly doubt he will be a long term solution. There's a reason Seattle is looking to deal him. If we added Luke Ridnour though, that would give us two turnstiles defensively in Luke and Zaza. We'd instantly give up around 110 points a game.

[HawksFan87]

Dont give me that Speedy has been hurt crap, He still sucks and we need a major upgrade over him....

[DJ_Money]

I'd ask you to look at the shooting percentages, please.

[TexasPete]

DJ, stop confusing them with better info...LOL.

If we make a Ridnour deal KB21 will hail it as BK's finest hour.

[Plainview1981]

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DJ, stop confusing them with better info...LOL.

If we make a Ridnour deal KB21 will hail it as BK's finest hour.

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I think a deal like this proves how much of an idiot Billy would be. It's like.... Well, I got a scoring PG that can defend... That didn't work... so now I'll get a pure PG that can't play defense and try that!

[Lascar78]

First of all I doubt anyone has mentionned him as being as good as Nash or being a Nash in the making.

Secondly, being a good point guard is about a lot more than assists just like being a good defender is about more than blocks or steals. What Ridnour can do is control a game and run an offense, something neither Lue nor Speedy can do. Sending guys in motion, calling smart plays, passing to the right guy even if the guy in question isn't necessarily the shooter. Those are the kind of things that a floor general does.

I wouldn't give too much up to get him here, but I'd like to see Ridnour here so we can have something that starts to vaguely resemble an organized offense.

[vdunkndunk]

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He avr. the same amount of points a game as Tyrone Lue even though Lue plays less minutes. He only avr. .5 more assist a game than Speedy and Speedy plays less minutes.

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Stephon Marbury averages a nice number of assits every year but still has a reputation as a selfish PG. It's not about the number of assits you get, it's about how you run the offense.

Speedy can rack up the assists at times, but the offense can still look terrible. That's because Speedy (like Marbury) will dribble and dribble and dribble until the shotclock is winding down, then he'll drive and kick. If he passes it to Joe and Joe make the shot, it's an assist. But that doesn't mean the offense is looking good. I just see too much of Speedy dominating the ball and dribbling all the time and taking too many shots.

[Diesel]

I would not give up that much for Ridnour. There is a reason why Seattle is willing to trade him and/or move him to the bench.

As far as scoring goes. Do you really need high percentage scoring from every position. I like the fact that Speedy plays quality defense and he can distribute the ball.

I say we bring in a young upstart PG...

Shakur and Brandon Heath will be available in the 2nd round.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

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He avr. the same amount of points a game as Tyrone Lue even though Lue plays less minutes. He only avr. .5 more assist a game than Speedy and Speedy plays less minutes. Thats not an upgrade worth giving up a 1st round pick in a deep draft in my book. I mean Speedy has been playing hurt and still gets as many assist as Luke and Speedy at least can defend. Luke couldnt defend 50% of the people who post on this board and Im being very serious about that. He doesnt even make an effort. Some of you guys mention him in the same breath with Nash or a young Nash in the making. I really doubt that.

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That whole Ridnhour thread is living proof why fans are just fans, and not GMs. LOL @ giving up a defensive PG like Speedy AND a freakin 1st round pick . . for a guy who can't even get the bulk of the minutes over Earl friggin Watson.

If anything, it proves that Luke isn't a leader at the PG position, if he lets Earl take his spot like that. Earl plays less minutes, but averages more assists than Luke. Yet, Luke is supposed to be the "answer" here? LOL.

LOL @ Luke being a "poor man's Steve Nash". Please. Luke is like a "poor man's Jason Williams" ( the White Chocolate version ).

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Having said that, I wouldn't be against bringing Luke here. But it would be a deal like Salim + 2nd round pick for Luke. That's the max I'd do for a PG like that.

Luke is essentially Tyronn Lue, with better passing skills. If you interchange he and Speedy at the PG, that would be a good contrast to bring in and out of a game. Luke could play when we have part of our 2nd unit in, and try to up the tempo a bit. Speedy would start and finish games, to make sure we're sound on defense and get possible stops at the end.

Luke is by far having his best shooting year of his career this year. Speedy is by far having his worst shooting career this year. But when you look at both of these PGs, they both are more likely to shoot in the low 40% range, and get you around 5 - 6 assists a game.

So what is more likely to happen? Luke becoming a better defender . . or Speedy increasing his FG% to where it should be?

Diesel said this a few weeks back, and I'll reinterate it. Once Speedy gets back to his old self, he's going to make everybody forget about needing a PG here . . at least a starting PG. We'll still need a quality backup, but Speedy will be entrenched as our starter.

Prediction: In the 2nd half of this season, Speedy will shoot between 43 - 45% FG and average around 6 assists or more.

By the way, you can tell that a player isn't right, by looking at something like FT%. Good FT shooters just don't all of a sudden forget how to shoot FTs. Coming into this season, Speedy was close to a 78% FT shooter. This season, he's shooting 55% FT. When I see something like that, that lets me know that a guy isn't quite right.

When he does get right, you'll see all of his numbers rise, and the Hawks will be a better team because of it.

[vdunkndunk]

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Prediction: In the 2nd half of this season, Speedy will shoot between 43 - 45% FG and average around 6 assists or more.

By the way, you can tell that a player isn't right, by looking at something like FT%. Good FT shooters just don't all of a sudden forget how to shoot FTs.

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It's also fairly rare that a bad shooter becomes a good shooter in the middle of his career.

Speedy's career FG% is .411%; he's only broken the .430% mark twice and only once has he shot above .440%. Last season was one of the best of his career and he only shot .413%.

Basically, I'm not too optimistic about seeing Speedy raise his FG% all that high.

[TexasPete]

Agreed on Speedy. That 28 year old tiger isn't likely to change his shooting stripes despite the prediction above.

We would do well to move Claxtons contract because we may be stuck for awhile. We will need his space in short order and his play doesn't match his money. Not to mention the wussy factor. Craig needs to learn the difference between being injured and nicked. Smoove came back from surgery in his stomach like 3 weeks ahead of schedule. Speedy would have milked that for all its worth.

Move him.

[bfwolf]

I agree that Claxton's contract is an albatross, but now is probably not the time to trade him. We'll get royally screwed. We need to wait for the inevitable 2 month period where he is healthy and plays great and then dump him.

[vdunkndunk]

And as long as we're basing future predictions on the past, there's almost no chance that Speedy will play over 60 games a season while he's under contract with the Hawks. I say move him now before we're stuck.

[Guest Walter]

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And as long as we're basing future predictions on the past, there's almost no chance that Speedy will play over 60 games a season while he's under contract with the Hawks. I say move him now before we're stuck.

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BK has simply put us in such desperate straights for a Pg we all clamour madly for just about anyone he sends our way (and in Speedy's case got burned). Speedy's knee injury I now know is a chronic, progressive one. No surgeon, even the great Houston clinic or wherever in Alabama he went, can fix this (and he still play ball).

His poor shooting is not going to change for the better. His knees are only going to get worse. And his high "wuss-factor" as another poster put it isn't going to change.

I'm not sure whether Ridnour is just another Pg-bone being thrown into the fan frenzy begging for a Pg for the last 4 years. If we can get rid of Speedy's contract it's all worth it to me to find out.

W

[TroyMcClure]

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I agree that Claxton's contract is an albatross, but now is probably not the time to trade him. We'll get royally screwed. We need to wait for the inevitable 2 month period where he is healthy and plays great and then dump him.

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Albatross? When exactly was a deal worth roughly the MLE an albatross? That is reserved for something like Penny Hardaway's old deal. Is it a bad deal? Certainly, but it is still tradeable.

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Who cares about the MLE? I don't. We are not owned by Mark Cuban. With our ownership situation, paying a guy 25 million dollars to do virtually nothing, is incredible. Anything that you can't get away from and hangs over your head, is an albatross, one would think.

[AHF]

I agree Speedy's deal is not an albatross. He is well worth the money when healthy and it is a bad deal when he is not healthy but still not a deal that cripples the franchise by any means. His deal hasn't prevented this team from doing anything it wanted to do and likely will never do so.

[BusBoyIsBack]

There was a point when I wanted Ridnour but then I realized he's severely overrated.

His numbers aren't that great and his defense isn't anything to write home about either.

I'd much rather get a guy from the draft.

[TroyMcClure]

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Who cares about the MLE? I don't. We are not owned by Mark Cuban. With our ownership situation, paying a guy 25 million dollars to do virtually nothing, is incredible. Anything that you can't get away from and hangs over your head, is an albatross, one would think.

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Well then I guess Esteban Batista's contract is an albatross because we pay him about a million dollars and he contributes nothing. Give me a break, Speedy's deal isn't hindering us from doing day-to-day basketball operations and it doesn't hinder us for future transactions. It isn't going to be that hard to move some contracts (Lue being the easiest) before this summer if we want to offer someone a max deal.

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You are missing the point. There is a huge difference between 25 and 1. Talk about trying to misconstrue the facts. lol!

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Give me a break, Speedy's deal isn't hindering us from doing day-to-day basketball operations and it doesn't hinder us for future transactions.

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They are too broke to fire BK or Woody, right? Especially Wooody. If they are scraping change to pay the coach, how can you say they are not hindered? We are under the cap. Have been all year. If 25 million wasn't important, we would be paying a luxury tax right now, don't you think?

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it doesn't hinder us for future transactions.

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He is on the roster. We are losing games because of it. He is terrible. They can't dump him. We are paying for something we don't need and could do without. We still have to pay him!

You can get better production from a number of guys at the minimum. If we had done that, we would have the money to make a move.