Good move by Hawks.

[Diesel]

We got AJ for a 2nd round pick.

Now watch Walter cry and cry about a second rounder. This draft is not so strong going into the second... Unless somehow Hibbert ends up in the second (doubtful)... Plus our track record doesn't speak well.

With our injuries at the PG position, this is a move that had to be done. And a good move. We sure up our unhealthiest position at the same time we pick up a veteran guard.

The one thing I don't like about the move is that AJ makes us more of a halfcourt team. He's a distributor but he's no track star. I think BK is setting up for the departure of Ivey and Lue and maybe Salim? Our draft this year may be a PG.

[bootsybug]

I agree, this is a good move. I'd like fellow fans to wait to see the stability AJ brings before bashing the move. But I guess anything BK does, no matter what it is, will bring the whiners out.

[AtLaS]

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We got AJ for a 2nd round pick.

Now watch Walter cry and cry about a second rounder. This draft is not so strong going into the second... Unless somehow Hibbert ends up in the second (doubtful)... Plus our track record doesn't speak well.

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I'd still rather have a 30 something pick and 3 million in cap rather than a PG averaging 3 ppg on 41% shooting on the season.. Keep in mind he is only getting 5 mpg less than what he has averaged his whole career.

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Our draft this year may be a PG.

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Doubt it, I'm sure BK made this move so he could say we have 4 pg's and don't need another one, that way it will take the flack away when he drafts another 6'9 forward.

We have 12+ million in PG salaries going into next season! That alone will give BK a reason for not wanting to select a pg.

[Blunt91]

Seems like this upcoming draft only has 2PG's who will be worthy of drafting in the 1stround(Law & James). We can't honestly think that where we currently sit with the Indy pick(around #20) that 19 other teams will not need a PG. Heck we could have used our 2ndrounder as collateral to move up 2 or 3spots if let's say James was going to be taken at the 16thpick and we traded our 20th or 21stpick with the 2ndrounder to move up and get him. Please tell me that there are other PG's worthy of picking up in the 1stround? If there are no other quality pg's availabe with the pick I would rather we just drafted a Center (Gray or Gasol).

[bootsybug]

i don't see why anyone is making cap space an issue here. we're never going to approach the cap limit anyway for god knows how long.

I don't think what AJ has done his whole career is relevant. Last year AJ averaged 9.2 points a game and 4.3 assists in 26 minutes a game.

In getting big minutes last year's playoffs, AJ scored: 12, 17, 25, 12, and 40 points. He also had a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio, and is known for good defense. He will help our offense a lot. You're telling me that's not with a 2nd round pick and cap space we'll never need?

[Diesel]

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I'd still rather have a 30 something pick and 3 million in cap rather than a PG averaging 3 ppg on 41% shooting on the season..

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FOR WHAT??

What's your infatuation with a second round pick and money?? There's no FA that we can attract that 2-3 million dollars will stop us from getting.

This draft is GUARDLESS...

So in essence, you're saying that you would rather take what's behind the curtain than what we can use right now.

Speedy is injured. If he goes down, our PG becomes Ivey and probably whatever pG we can pull from the d-League. How is that 2nd rounder going to help us. Crying about a 2nd rounder and money that we can't use right now is simply giving up on the season and hoping for a better future...

That's all you're doing Atlas...

May as well right tank by your name.

[AtLaS]

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This draft is GUARDLESS...

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Law/James/Brown/Steele/Brooks/Gordon/Singletary

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Speedy is injured. If he goes down, our PG becomes Ivey and probably whatever pG we can pull from the d-League. How is that 2nd rounder going to help us. Crying about a 2nd rounder and money that we can't use right now is simply giving up on the season and hoping for a better future...

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Giving up on the season? How is a 33 y.o. PG who is averaging 3 ppg on 41% shooting, and is only getting 5 mpg less than his career average going to help us???? I'd rather play Childress at pg. And I'd MUCH rather take a chance on some1 that could possibly help us HIGH in the 2nd round, which is where we will most likely end up.

Another thing, we now have $12 MILLION dollars invested in pg's for next year, and NONE of them are even AVERAGE! For that reason alone, it seriously makes me doubt that BK will select a pg.

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May as well right tank by your name.

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I hope you're kidding.

Don't get me wrong, I hope AJ comes in here and does great, and we make a playoff run, but I just don't see how it really helps us that much now, and especially not in the future. Speedy at 75% is better than AJ.

[DrReality]

With Speedy and Lue hurt, we do not have any leadership on the floor except for JJ. AJ solves that problem and will help make the younger guys better. Speedy is frail physically and Lue is often shoot first. AJ brings more to the court physically and there are times we need to run the half court game. That offense would be better than what we run a lot of the time. I think his maturity is the silver lining that could make a huge difference.

[macdaddy]

This move is very simple. It gives us another legitimate nba player. We had basically 7 guys that Woody was willing to play with the game on the line (or even in the second half):

JJ

chill

Smoove

ZaZa

Marvin

Speedy

Lue

With Lue/Speedy out at any given time that gives you a 6 man team. Now we have another guy who knows what to do with the ball.

Unfortunately for squawkers there wasn't a defensive, pass first, never injured, 6'4", 20/8 point guard available for a 2nd round pick. That would have made everyone happy.

[d2v16DKG]

Excuse me if I don't get excited about AJ. In two previous stints here, he has done nothing special and now we have him for a third time! When will the Hawks get a real point guard instead of retreads and backups. How hurt is T. Lue? Is he out for the season? I vote for BK as the worst GM ever! WE COULD OF HAD CHIS PAUL!!

[Sothron]

We could have had a lineup of Deng, Smoove, Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and ZaZa.

The only thing that bothers me about Johnson is that his contract still has another year left on it. He's a mediocre backup point guard, never has or will be anything beyond that. If that is an improvement over our current point guard situation then that is enough of a statement about Knight that any of us could make here on this board.

[AHF]

I think this move needs to be accompanied by a later trade of Lue this offseason or next year - or one flipping AJ to someone else in the same time frame. Both guys will be vet PGs with reasonable contracts and highly tradeable, IMO. If we simply keep AJ, Speedy, Lue and Ivey that is a problem because it really does bottleneck us at a time when we should be acquiring a young PG to develop.

[drzachary]

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I think this move needs to be accompanied by a later trade of Lue this offseason or next year - or one flipping AJ to someone else in the same time frame. Both guys will be vet PGs with reasonable contracts and highly tradeable, IMO. If we simply keep AJ, Speedy, Lue and Ivey that is a problem because it really does bottleneck us at a time when we should be acquiring a young PG to develop.

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My cynical prediction is that Speedy's injury problem will take care of the bottleneck for us.

[AtLaS]

I'd really rather keep Lue than any of the others, he actually gives us a much needed scoring threat, and we were playing great early in the year when he was healthy, and that was with all of our other injuries. Lue was scoring 15 ppg when healthy.

[AHF]

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I'd really rather keep Lue than any of the others, he actually gives us a much needed scoring threat, and we were playing great early in the year when he was healthy, and that was with all of our other injuries. Lue was scoring 15 ppg when healthy.

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I don't like the lack of ball movement when Lue is on the floor or his defense and I feel he probably has the highest value in a trade so that is why I first propose trading him.

[Vol4ever]

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I agree, this is a good move. I'd like fellow fans to wait to see the stability AJ brings before bashing the move. But I guess anything BK does, no matter what it is, will bring the whiners out.

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Problem is this guy is not really a PG, he is an undersized gunner that keeps bouncing around as a 12th man.

Remember BK stated in the press that we would not make a short term fix. AJ is long term????

[AHF]

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Remember BK stated in the press that we would not make a short term fix. AJ is long term????

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Wasn't his comment that we wouldn't sacrifice the long term for a short term fix? I am pretty sure he would argue that a second round pick is not putting the long term future at risk.

[Vol4ever]

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Remember BK stated in the press that we would not make a short term fix. AJ is long term????

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Wasn't his comment that we wouldn't sacrifice the long term for a short term fix? I am pretty sure he would argue that a second round pick is not putting the long term future at risk.

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Well this move makes it painfully obvious that this franchise cannot make a decent trade. Many can question the draft picks, etc and hindsight is 20/20.

I honestly believe until the ownership thing is solved and ASG is NOT the answer, we will continue to swim in the pits of the NBA standings year after year!

[Sothron]

You know this is a tangent off Vol's post but it really irks me that people are apparently oblivious of the serious discussions on this board and at realgm.com Hawks board about the draft. Every year under Knight there has been rampant discussion and speculation about what to do or who to take and usually it was the same names. And then Knight came out of nowhere with his picks. The people who were rooting for those other players have more than "hindsight is 20/20" for credibility to attack those picks.

[AHF]

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Remember BK stated in the press that we would not make a short term fix. AJ is long term????

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Wasn't his comment that we wouldn't sacrifice the long term for a short term fix? I am pretty sure he would argue that a second round pick is not putting the long term future at risk.

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Well this move makes it painfully obvious that this franchise cannot make a decent trade. Many can question the draft picks, etc and hindsight is 20/20.

I honestly believe until the ownership thing is solved and ASG is NOT the answer, we will continue to swim in the pits of the NBA standings year after year!

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Personally, I think all the hand-wringing over this pick is more frustration with moves not made than with the move actually made. I know that is my frustration. If we dealt Marvin, Shelden, Salim and filler for Gasol no one would have a negative thing to say about this deal, IMO.