Knight REALLY helped the Mavs...not the Hawks

[TexasPete]

While acquiring our record 4th back-up PG, our wonderful and highly incompetant GM really helped the Mavs. First, he saved then $2.86M in luxury tax this year and saved them a whopping $5.72M in luxury tax NEXT year. Plus, they get what is right now the 37th pick in a deep draft. Oh, and they also get a $2.86M trade exception for next year! Way to go Billy...I'm just happy your working well for somebody!

All this for a 33-year old PG who won't make a dent, the prototype band-aid. We are now officially known as the scrap heap for PG's who either suck or who have seen better days. Dallas must love ole Billy...

[Seano]

Eh, AJ certainly will never be confused with Magic Johnson- but really he's not that bad. The one thing I can say for certain is that he will add a defensive presence at the PG spot, for whatever that's worth. I'm not aware of his contract status though or how long we'll be on the hook for him, so I can't really judge this trade either way.

Would have been nice to do a bigger deal and get Ridnour, would have been very, very nice to somehow dump Speedy's contract, but Anthony Johnson is not the end of the world- especially for a meager 2nd round pick. And I don't care how deep the draft is.... when it comes to 2nd round choices, it's pretty much a total crapshoot.

A boring trade, a possibly pointless one, but nonetheless likely (hopefully) not one that will turn out to be detrimental for us.

[TexasPete]

Great...I feel better the way you describe him as not that bad. Some people collect cars, others stamps, some antiques...Billy Knight collects back-up PG's.

I guess that means his fetish for SF's may be coming to an end. BTW, I wouldn't say the 37th pick is nothing. Some teams actually pluck good players with their second rounders. And, our second rounders tend to be rather high.

We owe this chump 7m thru next year. For crying out loud, we are not going to be able to get a real PG NEXT year. We have 13M tied up in lousy back-up PG's.

And there are a lot of people who fear Belkin? LMAO!!!

[Seano]

We owe him 7 million? Ok, then I can go on record as saying this trade seems borderline retarded.

AJ is not a bad player, but he certainly ain't worth that. And if his contract ends up hindering our flexibility to make further moves that are actually worthwhile and helpful to the team, then I don't know what to say. Just more of the same old, same old. Welcome to Hawksland.

[exodus]

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I'm not aware of his contract status though or how long we'll be on the hook for him, so I can't really judge this trade either way.

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Wassup stranger?

He is signed through next season at less than $3 mill/yr.

[Seano]

Hey, wassup Ex? Nuttin much here, just trying to survive the winter.

[TexasPete]

Your right. I thought he had one more year. Its still stupid. Now we have money for next year tied up in 3 back up PG's. Like 12M in back up PG's for next year.

How does this jackass still have a job? Better question is who would employ a guy like BK?

[Lascar78]

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We owe him 7 million? Ok, then I can go on record as saying this trade seems borderline retarded.

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We owe him about $850,000 this year and about $2.6 million next year. He has a very reasonable contract and is easily tradeable.

[Lascar78]

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Your right. I thought he had one more year. Its still stupid. Now we have money for next year tied up in 3 back up PG's. Like 12M in back up PG's for next year.

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It's not ideal, but this is the NBA. Any team that tries to compete has some bad contracts. And as far as that goes, we are still one of the best in the league in that domain. We don't have guys like Eddie Jones for 16 million, Steve Francis for 15 million.

Take a team like Dallas. JT for 7.5 mil, Croshere for 7.3 mil, Eschmeyer for 3.7 mil, Buckner at 3 mil, George at 2 mil. It happens, this is the NBA. After Cassel passed, we had 2 options, overpay Speedy, or not have a PG once again. I think we did the right thing. We gambled on his health and lost. If we're looking to trade, PG's with good deals and expiring contracts are easy to move. We could trade AJ or Lue any day of the week.

[TexasPete]

The other route to getting a PG is to approach a team that has some young PG's and has a redundancy in the position. For example, guys like Calderon could have been had for much less than Claxton...no longer as he is now nearly untouchable. Or, Steve Blake, even Boston had a few young PG's. Portland has Jack and Sergio...

What about Brandon Roy or Foye? Those two guys can play. Roy will be an ALL Star. We took Shelden.

I don't buy that Speedy was the only choice. He was a choice. But, if we had dangled Childress what kind of young PG could we attract? I don't know but I bet it would be better than the 4 back ups we currently have. I love Calderon when I saw him last year and felt once he got the kinks worked out he would be good. Why can't BK do a little extrapolation and see the growth that is likely to occur with guys like that? BK just doesn't get it. The AJ move is just filled with nothing. It did help the Mavs quite a bit though.

[Lascar78]

Agreed on the draft, I would have taken Foye. But I'm saying once the draft is over, you can try trade talks, but if you want an FA you have to move fast, which BK did.

I would have liked a young PG also, but who knows what they asked for. If all they'll offer is Blake for Childress, I don't think I'm doing it. It's hard to bargain when you have a real need and the other team is in no rush.

[exodus]

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If all they'll offer is Blake for Childress

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BK could have easily signed Blake two years ago. Portland got him late in the signing period with a 2 year deal at $1 million/yr.

[Lascar78]

Well if we're going to go to the past, he could have gotten Paul or Roy. I'm just saying once you get to last year's FA market, he's sitting there still with no PG, Cassel considers us but turns us down, it's either gamble big on Speedy right away, or hope that he can find a trade somewhere to prevent another year without a PG. I was happy when we signed Speedy, and still think he will help us a lot in the long run. We overpaid, but we had to if we wanted him. Lorenzen on the other hand has turned out to be a total disaster to date.

[jerrywest]

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If all they'll offer is Blake for Childress

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BK could have easily signed Blake two years ago. Portland got him late in the signing period with a 2 year deal at $1 million/yr.

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Too bad. I wish we had him. Every GM in the league is scratching their heads for missing that.

Does anyone remember why we traded away the 27th pick(Tinsley) when 3 allstars (Arenas, Parker and Okur) were available? We skipped Okur with the 34th pick as well. Where is Michel J. Fox when you need him?

[exodus]

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I'm just saying once you get to last year's FA market, he's sitting there still with no PG

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That is the point. BK had many opportunities to fill the pg spot and passed. After several years on the job he still hasn't adequately filled the two most important positions which is why i think he should be let go.

[Lascar78]

I'm not disagreeing. All I was saying is that I understand why we signed Speedy. Given our situation at that point in time, he was the best we could do.

[Packfill]

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I'm not disagreeing. All I was saying is that I understand why we signed Speedy. Given our situation at that point in time, he was the best we could do.

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You are right, it was the best the Hawks could do after BK painted the team into a corner.

[Lascar78]

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You are right, it was the best the Hawks could do after BK painted the team into a corner.

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Exactly.

[Guest Walter]

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I'm not disagreeing. All I was saying is that I understand why we signed Speedy. Given our situation at that point in time, he was the best we could do.

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You support the decision to trade for what will be the 3rd or 4th best BU Pg on our roster when it will:

1) cost us nearly $3 million in cap space nest year reducing øur cap space to the MLE equivalent (meaning we cannot expect to outbid the other 30 teams for a player's services if ownership would or make many trades we otherwise could),

2) bring our BU-Pg role cost to a whopping $12 million, certainly higher than any team in the league.

3) not solve a single problem for the Hawks

4) and insults us fans and players, especially soft-spokent ones like JJ who spoke up in support of a major trade dealine move.

Some people will just support whatever BK does. It's absolutely disgusting.

W

[Packfill]

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You are right, it was the best the Hawks could do after BK painted the team into a corner.

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Exactly.

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Of course, it was his fault the team was in that position in the first place. Lack of vision.