Hawks want cheap big men, Teague looking like Paul and Deron?

[DrReality]

I think the analogy applies to both players and coaching staff, but the time being we are stuck with the latter. Hope there is not too much damage done before (and if) we change coaches. Time will tell. The right big will help prop Woodie up though.

[Admin]

I think the analogy applies to both players and coaching staff, but the time being we are stuck with the latter. Hope there is not too much damage done before (and if) we change coaches. Time will tell. The right big will help prop Woodie up though.

Or maybe the coaching staff (or at least the head coach) is the driver of the car and the GM is the manufacturer?

[TheNorthCydeRises]

@ macdaddy:

Yeah I know man. Who knew that we fans were that important to the revenue stream of a franchise. I mean, because if the Hawks played in front of an empty arena, we would still be able to spend anything we wanted to get whomever we wanted, because ownership could care less about the profit margin of their franchise.

The excuses have to stop for this fan base as a whole, not coming out to support the Hawks like they should on a nightly basis.

We win 70 - 75% of our home games. We're 6 - 3 at home in the playoffs the last 2 years. If the fans don't come NOW, they'll never come. And if the fans don't come, the extra revenue that can be generated, won't come either.

I don't know the correct numbers, but let's go through a hypothetical scenario. Let's say the Hawks took in 475K a game at the gate, and say a team like Chicago took in 675K at the gate. That's a 200K difference a game.

Over the course of a 41 game home season, Chicago would generate 8.2 million dollars more a game than the Hawks, just from ticket sales. And some people don't see the significance in that? People don't think that may be a factor in whether ownership will spend more money or not?

As far as the "if you build it, they will come" concept, that's all well and good. But to me, ownership has already proved that they will spend money to improve the team, starting with the move to get Bibby and by matching Smith's offer sheet from Memphis. But the Atlanta fan base is so fickle, that we still lag behind most other teams, when it comes to generating revenue.

And the one thing they probably could do to rapidly improve the team ( trade Josh Smith for a veteran impact player ), they won't do, because ownership probably knows that they'd lose 25% of their season ticket holders if they traded him for a person that the fans didn't like ( i.e. - Amare ).

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@ the board:

And let's be completely real about some things.

- Joe Smith, or any other scrub big man we add to this team, is NOT keeping us from being contenders in the East. Smith could do nothing with Dwight Howard either.

- For us to contend, we need at least 2 of the 3 youngsters ( Smith, Horford, or Marvin ) to improve significantly. For the team's sake, I hope it's Smoove shooting 50%+ FG, grabbing close to 10 boards a game, and has developed at least one go-to post move.

- Woody wants BIGS, not a backup PF. If a guy like Joe Smith couldn't play the 5, I doubt we'd be going after him. But Woody would prefer a traditional big, at least the size of Zaza.

[macdaddy]

Yeah I have to disagree with the idea that 'if the fans don't come NOW they'll never come' As nice as you have presented our home record and 6 home playoff victories I have to believe that if we put together more than one winning season in a row, acquire some more solid pieces, and are perenial playoff contenders we'll see more fans at the games.

I don't totally disagree with your position. I want there to be more fan support in Atlanta and it kills me to show up and have half the place cheering for the other team. At the end of the day though this is an entertainment product that they are putting out there. You put a good product out and it will make money. That's the business. There aren't many entertainment products where they ask you to pay for a crappy version so they have money to make it better.

Of course this is way off the subject of Joe Smith or Gooden who I don't have an opinion either way on. But if we think we're going to win a championship with a PF/C rotation of Smoove/Horford/Zaza (and sometimes Marv) then I think that's wishful thinking.