I feel guilty for posting: latest from Levenson

[AtLaS]

I'm not sure how to find all of that, but interestingly enough, our 2 winningest lineups are Claxton-J.Johnson-Childress-Smith-Pachulia, and J.Johnson-Childress-Smith-M.Williams-Pachulia.

[Packfill]

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i can understand the complaining about the Marvin pick and even the Shelden pick but the Childress pick is just nitpicking.

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I agree with you. I also wonder why no one ever compares our drafts to other teams? They only compare it to the best possible situation. Chris Paul, Deng and Roy. We could have had that draft, great. Who else could have had them? Why didn't they (perhaps no one else was in a situation to get them)?

I think Levenson has a good point about other teams making mistakes as well. Sure, other teams may have gotten good players, but over the 3 years, do other teams have a better total package than the Hawks from a similar draft position (say the Bucks, Seattle, Toronto, Charlotte, or other teams consistently in the lottery over the past few years). BK may not be perfect, but is anyone perfect? Someone show me! Prove that whatever GM we could get after we fire BK will/can do a better job.

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This is interesting. Is there another team that has had a top 6 pick in each of the past three drafts? Has that every occured? It would interesting to compare to see if those other teams did end up picking a franchise player or missed on all the picks.

[Packfill]

I checked, the Hawks are the only team to pick in the top six in each of the past 3 drafts.

Again, I ask - does anyone know if there is another team in NBA history that has had a top 6 pick in three consecutive seasons? What about four consecutive seasons (the Hawks have likely traded away their pick but it will likely be another top 6 pick this year)?

The Clippers or Bulls must have had a stretch like this?

[AtLaS]

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I checked, the Hawks are the only team to pick in the top six in each of the past 3 drafts.

Again, I ask - does anyone know if there is another team in NBA history that has had a top 6 pick in three consecutive seasons? What about four consecutive seasons (the Hawks have likely traded away their pick but it will likely be another top 6 pick this year)?

The Clippers or Bulls must have had a stretch like this?

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I'm pretty sure there has been. But a better question would be, were the drafts as talented as these last 3 have been? BK has passed 2 soon to be all-star players (Iggy and Deng who were CONSIDERED BPA), and has DIRECTLY passed 2 consecutive ROY's (Roy and Paul).

[AHF]

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I checked, the Hawks are the only team to pick in the top six in each of the past 3 drafts.

Again, I ask - does anyone know if there is another team in NBA history that has had a top 6 pick in three consecutive seasons? What about four consecutive seasons (the Hawks have likely traded away their pick but it will likely be another top 6 pick this year)?

The Clippers or Bulls must have had a stretch like this?

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This has happened plenty of times.

For a couple examples:

Philly:

1993 #2 overall

1994 #6 overall

1995 #3 overall

1996 #1 overall

1997 #2 overall

LAC

1998 #1 overall

1999 #4 overall

2000 #3 overall

2001 #2 overall

Chi

1999 #1 overall

2000 #4 overall

2001 #4 overall

2002 #2 overall

[Diesel]

If I had to guess, I would say the Clipps, the Cavs, and the Warriors.

[Packfill]

Thanks. Seems like the Hawks are in "good" company then.

If you go back to 2000, the Hawks really have an impressive run of futility if you consider they have earned a top 6 pick in 5 of the last 7 lotteries (and it will probably be 6 of 8 after this season).

[Sothron]

The problem with Claxton is that while he does have great hands on defense (I have no problems giving him credit where its due) and he's not bad distributing the ball on a fast break/up tempo team his liabilities as a shooter and as a small point guard are enough to sink his total value as a starter.

When he's on offense our team is essentially short a man because Claxton couldn't hit a barn with an anti-tank projectile. (That's for you Diesel) He is like having Jon Koncrap on offense: put him at the top of the key and ignore him.

[macdaddy]

Give it up Diesel. This is why BK says things like he thinks he knows more than the fans. Because he does. We have Lue at the point and everyone screams he is a shoot first guard who can't play D. We sign Speedy and everyone screams he sux because he can't shoot. Please someone find the great defensive, distributing, shooting, tall, fast, point guard for our team.

Speedy is a very good defensive point who handles the ball well and passes well. He's not a great shooter and he is injury prone, but when he plays he makes us much better.

[TexasPete]

Alright Macdaddy, I'll play so that you don't make BK a victim in all of this.

1. Deron Williams

2. Brandon Roy

3. Randy Foye

because the free agent crop was so bad last year at PG we needed the draft to address the issue. Sam Cassell is an aging chucker who plays zero defense. Why would we even offer that guy? Speedy has been hurt his entire career. He can't shoot. He doesn't pass all that well. The 3 guys above solve our issue at PG for YEARS.

[macdaddy]

If you're going to bring up Deron why not just have CP. We couldn't have gotten either when we got Speedy.

But the point is that some other guys may be better but that doesn't make Speedy bad.

[ATL_BALLER]

Deron - definitely. I don't agree on Roy and Foye, though, because we need a pure distributor (think Jose Calderon) who elevates the games of those around him.

Nevertheless, even just from an asset standpoint, Roy and Foye are light years better than Shelden (I continue to shudder).

[Sothron]

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Give it up Diesel. This is why BK says things like he thinks he knows more than the fans. Because he does. We have Lue at the point and everyone screams he is a shoot first guard who can't play D. We sign Speedy and everyone screams he sux because he can't shoot. Please someone find the great defensive, distributing, shooting, tall, fast, point guard for our team.

Speedy is a very good defensive point who handles the ball well and passes well. He's not a great shooter and he is injury prone, but when he plays he makes us much better.

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Have you heard of Deron Williams? He's this fantastic point guard from UoI that was amazing in college. Some team called the Hawks and some GM named Knight passed on him for a bust at a position we already had 23949080 players at.

Thanks for playing "Ask a stupid question!"

[macdaddy]

Is this another thread that we should have picked Deron (or Paul) instead of Marvin? Wow. What an interesting, topical discussion. I thought the thread was Speedy sucks and we could have signed someone better. I really wish we would have signed Nash. He would be a lot better than Speedy. Boy BK is an idiot.

[Sothron]

Are coming back to play some more? Its just like the NBA, FAN-tastic!

If Knight had drafted Deron or Paul or Felton then we, hold on here for a jump of logic that will leave you blind, would have had NO REASON to WASTE MONEY AND CAP SPACE on Not So Speedy Claxton.

Eureka! If we draft true franchise point guard and leave Lue as the backup then there is no Claxton or AJ on this team. Which leaves us with more cap space and more roster spaces.

[Johnnybravo4]

I still don't understand how 12/4 in your second year as a 20 year old a bust?

[Sothron]

When you are supposed to be the next best thing since sliced bread, as we were promised he would be, then yeah two years in the league and putting up mediocre numbers like that earns you bust status. Two more years of it and he's one of the all time Hawks busts.

[AHF]

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Are coming back to play some more? Its just like the NBA, FAN-tastic!

If Knight had drafted Deron or Paul or Felton then we, hold on here for a jump of logic that will leave you blind, would have had NO REASON to WASTE MONEY AND CAP SPACE on Not So Speedy Claxton.

Eureka! If we draft true franchise point guard and leave Lue as the backup then there is no Claxton or AJ on this team. Which leaves us with more cap space and more roster spaces.

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I think his point is that the Deron/Paul/Marvin draft choice and its ramifications have been discussed ad nauseum - not that he doesn't understand the argument.

[Johnnybravo4]

He was a 6th man college freshman. It was understood that he was a more of a project than say Carmelo or even Durant and Oden. I expect an exponential improvement next season.

[Sothron]

But you can't say "Give BK a break about Speedy" when BK blew chance after chance to get a real point guard in here and not three backup point guards.