The first time in a long while.

[Diesel]

This is the first time in a long while that I can look at our team and not really think of anything we need to trade for.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to get Gasol...

However, it's not a necessity. I really would like to see what this team can do going forward into the season. I don't even have much bad to say about BK. We will see how it turns out.

[coachx]

Good Post. I agree.

It is time we sit back, show some patience, and see what chemistry and growth can come together in the 1st 2 months of the season. Every roster spot is filled by NBA worthy player for 1st time in a long time.

I personally can't wait to see out low post depth and a season of more expierence contribute to more team success.

[AnakinJoe]

Our early schedule (first 30 games) is fairly brutal. I hope the optimism is not quickly tossed aside as we face true title contenders early and often. My fear is that the team may lose confidence in themselves if they jump off to something like a 10-20 start (which seems quite possible).

[coachx]

The Hawks must come out of the gates with a defensive metality and a "I will out hustle you attitude." With our young legs and depth, players should be playing 110 % at all times b/c there are more then competant reserves to give them breathers.

We have to wear down are opponents with this all out effort like the Chicago Bulls are able to do.

That is the identity our young team needs to take to be succesful. Then at the end of the game a fresh JJ and Law bring it on home for us and do something we have struggled with...FINISH !

Woody has to come up with effective player rotations that distribute the minutes and keep JJ fresh to finish off games. I would love to see a fresh Marvin in the game when JJ takes a breather. This is when Marvin's aggressivness on offense is needed most.

I forcast Smoove stepping in and showing real maturity and becoming our emotional leader who shows fire and intensity to pump up the team.

I see Law becoming the field general and technician who can finally give the Hawks well run offense.

I see JJ continueing to be the silent leader by example who simply lets his play do the talking.

I see Chills being the glue that holds it together.

I see Horford and Sheldon doing alot of blue collar dirty work.

I see Horford also showing a more polished offensive post game as the year play out.

I see Marvin's agressivness being more consistent.

I see ZaZa settling into a role allowing him to stop forcing ill advised offensive shots and lowering his turnovers.

I see depth on this team that will allow us to over come any injury (wit hexception only to a injury to JJ).

If 1/2 of these things come true we will show pretty darn good iprovement.

If all of these things come true we will be a sure fire playoff team.

[Zone034life]

Sorry fellows but I beg to differ.This team has nice young pieces but where is the Interior Defense?Mike Woodson prides himself on defense but he doesn't have the talent to play it properly.As for the front court,that is the source of me being unsure of the defense next season.For instance:

Zaza- seems to not be interested in blocking shots

Sheldon- 6'7 and limited athletically.Did not even block shots in summer league!!!!

Lorezen-On team for leadership and to foul the opposing teams big man cause thats all he did last season.

Solomon-Like his length but he still needs to add weight and muscle to hold his own.

Horford-Just a rookie who deserves to have time to go through growing pains...lookout the second half of the season though!!!!

Mr Smith-The one true shot blocker on the team but what if he is in foul trouble?Veterans will attack him like Paul pierce has in the past to frustrate him and get him into foul trouble!

Hope i'm wrong but i doubt it.I know some of you may say team defense will help this problem but who on the perimeter can play adequete defense other than JJ?I think the Hawks are a Marcus Camby or Tyson Chandler type player away from truely contending.

[coachx]

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Sorry fellows but I beg to differ.This team has nice young pieces but where is the Interior Defense?Mike Woodson prides himself on defense but he doesn't have the talent to play it properly.

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Good point. I too feel the key is improved front court play.

1. Horford is a defensive upgrade over ZaZa

2. ZaZa's reduced minutes will allow him to play defense more agressivly while no longer having to worry about foul trouble.

3. Sheldon should have no more rookie jitters or "cheap rookie foul calls."

4. Josh Smith should show improvement with establishing defensive post poistion and more fight to hold that position while still being top 3 in the NBA in blocks.

5. Solo now has expierence under his belt..maybe it will show and he play a little whith his mind instead of relying on his reach and atheltic ability to over come EVERYTHING.

While Sheldon, Horford, and ZaZa will never be elite shot blockers at the NBA level, all 3 have the ability to be very good post defenders and rebounders. They just have to keep the oppositions best offensive scoring threat off the block. They must make these guys work for everything they get. Good position defense is necessary to allow Smith to get the majority of his blocks on "help defense."

Horford, ZaZa, and Sheldon are all high energy post players. They all dive after rebounds and throw their bodies around. The depth of our frontcourt should allow them to go out and play this way without having to burn themselves out playing too many minutes.

Do we have great post defense ? NO

Should we have improved post defense from last year ? YES

Will Horford show potential all star ability ? who knows

Will Sheldon be a rebound machine ? who knows

The question is how improved will our post defense be and will it be enough ?

[gsuteke]

I disagree with the notion that shotblocking automatically equates to good interior defense.

IMO Horford will be a better defender than many give him credit for based on his footwork and good size entering the league. He's basically the same build as Shelden except a couple of inches taller.

Josh Smith will become a force inside as he continues to put on more weight. We saw glimpses of what kind of player he will be last year when he went head to head with Amare.

Shelden was a solid player early in the year when the Hawks were winning games. he got hurt, got into Woody's "doghouse" and that was that.

I agree with Diesel in the respect that we should let this team play this year and see what they can do. trading some young pieces for vets would be counterproductive. we have 3 years invested in some of these players, it doesn't make much sense to cut bait now.

this team is very solid outside of the C spot and they are very deep. how many true centers are in the league right now? do we not think Horford can bang with Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh?

[Diesel]

Hold on wait a minute. I do believe we should let them play together, but not the whole year?

Just from a financial point of view, we put ourselves in a bad situation if we don't trade. We want to sign Josh Smith... OK, that's cool. However, either Chillz, Marvin, Horford, or Shelden will have to be traded. We can't afford to keep all those maturing contracts.

I think we should go after Gasol. I think he's a great player.

I think most Hawks fans miss this important point.. All of our players are tradable assets. Many of them are redundant. At some point, something has got to give. Even with those we call "Core".

[exodus]

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All of our players are tradable assets. Many of them are redundant. At some point, something has got to give. Even with those we call "Core".

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Yeah there is no way all those guys will be here past their rookie contracts.

[drzachary]

Only posting to test my new sig

[Dejay]

Good point, D. There's no way that all of these guys are going to stay after their rookie deals run out. That's why it would be a good idea to parlay some of those 'assets' into a veteran commodity like Gasol. He'd look mighty good on this team right now.

[Popeye]

Diesel starts a thread saying:

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This is the first time in a long while that I can look at our team and not really think of anything we need to trade for.

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In the same thread, his very next post:

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I think we should go after Gasol he is a great player.

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So what is it that Diesel wants??

A. Trade

B. No trade

C. ATTENTION

I think i know!

[gsuteke]

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Hold on wait a minute. I do believe we should let them play together, but not the whole year?

Just from a financial point of view, we put ourselves in a bad situation if we don't trade. We want to sign Josh Smith... OK, that's cool. However, either Chillz, Marvin, Horford, or Shelden will have to be traded. We can't afford to keep all those maturing contracts.

I think we should go after Gasol. I think he's a great player.

I think most Hawks fans miss this important point.. All of our players are tradable assets. Many of them are redundant. At some point, something has got to give. Even with those we call "Core".

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"Just from a financial point of view, we put ourselves in a bad situation if we don't trade."

resigning players = paying a high priced vet like Gasol

if we keep our young players we will have a better financial foothold by having 15 million tied up in Chillz and Smoove (5 and 10 per) as opposed to 15 million tied up in Gasol and a veteran body (13 and 2).

The big problem in my eyes is that Shelden, Marvin, and Chillz' trade value is too low right now. if it goes up as next season moves along then fine, however how are you going to make the financials work out? Is Memphis going to be willing to take on comparable salary in the form of extending Chillz or Shelden for Gasol? what do we have to offer?

On the other hand you can wait things out. Someone will make a panic move in time. A Diop or Petro type player will become available and the puzzle will be complete.

[atlien110]

if summer league told us anything it's that solo is still a project and nowhere near being in this upcoming year's rotation.

let's hold our horses here for a 2nd. it's not a given that horford starts over zaza. so i don't know where this zaza's reduced minutes is coming from.

the only way the hawks can stay near five hundred for the first few months is for them to run, run and run some more.

this team is deep and has a lot of athletic guys that can run. i think when you saw the hawks make a concerted effort to push the ball last year they were very successful. marvin has to have a breakout year and josh has to become a household name for the hawks to succeed.

now if only we could get rid of woody... aaaaaah wishful thinking.

[Diesel]

Diesel started off his post saying:

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This is the first time in a long while that I can look at our team and not really think of anything we need to trade for.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to get Gasol...

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But on to the other matter.

Just because I don't see a needed position that we ought to trade for... Doesn't mean that we won't have to trade because of our financials. The truth of the matter is that we have a lot of young talent and if we let them end their first contract, it's very possible that we won't be able to resign them. That's just the economics. That being the case, I don't think we absolutely need Gasol, but Gasol is a great veteran who can suck up some of our ending contracts and one of our young core players and give us in return an allstar quality PF/C and a legit 7 footer.

[Diesel]

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resigning players = paying a high priced vet like Gasol

if we keep our young players we will have a better financial foothold by having 15 million tied up in Chillz and Smoove (5 and 10 per) as opposed to 15 million tied up in Gasol and a veteran body (13 and 2).

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This is simply not true. We are right now at the cap... about ~48 million dollars. IF we can sign Smoove we'll be at the cap.

Now, consider this. That's only Smoove resigned. In the next 3 years we have to resign Marvin (#2 pick) and Chillz (#6 pick)... Marvin's qualifying offer is 3 Million more than we're paying him this year and his extension will probably be much more. Chillz qualifyer is 1.2 mill more than he's making today and his extension will be more than 5 million.

Gasol's contract only increases by 1.39 million dollars per year.

So it's a whole lot cheaper to get a Gasol than it is to try to resign a Marvin or a Chillz to an extension....

Now the one thing about signing Gasol is that we will likely give up ending contracts to do it.

However, then you have to really factor... talent wise..

What's better for this team...

Shelden/Marvin or Gasol?

I say Gasol. And if possible I would trade Chillz and take Miller. Player value, Gasol and Miller has gone to the playoffs in the West. Add that to Smoove and JJ and we might be championship calibre.

[gsuteke]

Quote:

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Quote:

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resigning players = paying a high priced vet like Gasol

if we keep our young players we will have a better financial foothold by having 15 million tied up in Chillz and Smoove (5 and 10 per) as opposed to 15 million tied up in Gasol and a veteran body (13 and 2).

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This is simply not true. We are right now at the cap... about ~48 million dollars. IF we can sign Smoove we'll be at the cap.

Now, consider this. That's only Smoove resigned. In the next 3 years we have to resign Marvin (#2 pick) and Chillz (#6 pick)... Marvin's qualifying offer is 3 Million more than we're paying him this year and his extension will probably be much more. Chillz qualifyer is 1.2 mill more than he's making today and his extension will be more than 5 million.

Gasol's contract only increases by 1.39 million dollars per year.

So it's a whole lot cheaper to get a Gasol than it is to try to resign a Marvin or a Chillz to an extension....

Now the one thing about signing Gasol is that we will likely give up ending contracts to do it.

However, then you have to really factor... talent wise..

What's better for this team...

Shelden/Marvin or Gasol?

I say Gasol. And if possible I would trade Chillz and take Miller. Player value, Gasol and Miller has gone to the playoffs in the West. Add that to Smoove and JJ and we might be championship calibre.

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the problem is you can't get Gasol for Marvin or Shelden right now.

[Packfill]

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if summer league told us anything it's that solo is still a project and nowhere near being in this upcoming year's rotation.

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I don't see how Solo gets minutes on this team either as it will take a total crash and burn by either Horford or Sheldon to open up any minutes for Solo (or Lo for that matter).

[Diesel]

Any combination of the four with ending contracts is negotiable.

Horford/Marvin/ECs for Gasol.. I'd do.

Horford/Chillz/ECs for Gasol... I'd do.

I think we just have to be willing to negotiate.

[Traceman]

Unless Marvin blows up, we will be able to sign both Marvin AND Chillz for less than what Gasol will be making when it is time for Marvin's extension. Gasol will be making $16.5M when Marvin is eligible for an extension in 09/10. If Marvin is playing well enough to deserve a contract starting at $10M a season in 09/10 we should ALL be thrilled and I can't imagine the team will offer Chillz a deal starting at more than $6.5M a season under any circumstances.

Unless you are advocating that we INCLUDE Smoove in the deal for Gasol, signing Gasol does not improve our financial situation going forward one bit. If anything, trading for Gasol would RESTRICT our financial flexibility going forward.

In addition, you propose trading Chillz for Miller. How is that supposed to help our financial situation? Miller will make $9M next year versus whatever the team offers Chillz but I can GUARANTEE you we won't be extending Chillz to a deal starting at $9M a season.

Bottom line, I like Gasol and I wouldn't have a problem trading for him with the right package (though I don't think MEM would even CONSIDER trading him to us unless they were getting at least one of JJ, Smoove or Horford - you are dreaming if you think Marvin/Shelden would do it) but I DON'T think trading for him would benefit our financial situation at all.