Dear Mark Bradley

[niremetal]

http://blogs.ajc.com/mark-bradley-blog/2010/05/28/tamper-with-this-lebron-might-well-win-a-title-as-a-hawk/

:angry22:

Now let’s try this: Take Joe away and plug LeBron into the Hawks’ starting five. (And if the Hawks are to have any chance of landing James, they’d have to let Johnson leave. They can’t afford both. They’re not far enough under the salary cap.)

How many times will it take before he and Schultz understand that we won't have the cap space to sign LeBron even if we let JJ walk?

:help wanted3:

Edited May 28, 2010 by niremetal

[NineOhTheRino]

http://blogs.ajc.com/mark-bradley-blog/2010/05/28/tamper-with-this-lebron-might-well-win-a-title-as-a-hawk/

:angry22:

How many times will it take before he and Schultz understand that we won't have the cap space to sign LeBron even if we let JJ walk?

:help wanted3:

why are you concerned about cap space. MGJ said he'd be willing to pay the luxury tax if he could sign LeBron. Are you saying that's not possible as well?

[niremetal]

why are you concerned about cap space. MGJ said he'd be willing to pay the luxury tax if he could sign LeBron. Are you saying that's not possible as well?

Dude, Bradley is bringing it up as if it's a serious option. Gearon wasn't. Quite a difference there.

Edited May 28, 2010 by niremetal

[NineOhTheRino]

Dude, Bradley is bringing it up as if it's a serious option. Gearon wasn't. Quite a difference there.

LBJ could add up to $200M in value to the Hawks. Highly unlikely to happen but it could happen and I think that's were Bradley is coming from.

1000 to 1 odds but...

Edited May 28, 2010 by NineOhTheRino

[gtmike]

Dude, Bradley is bringing it up as if it's a serious option. Gearon wasn't. Quite a difference there.

I know — Atlanta is never mentioned as an LBJ landing zone. But let’s pretend.

I’m not saying LeBron is going to sign here — it’d be the longest of long shots if he did.

I think he gets it.

[niremetal]

I think he gets it.

He gets that it's unlikely LeBron will sign here. He doesn't get why.

It's amazing that there are people on this board who still don't get it...

Edited May 28, 2010 by niremetal

[Joker]

He gets that it's unlikely LeBron will sign here. He doesn't get why.

It's amazing that there are people on this board who still don't get it...

Well we would have better roster that can play around Lebron than any other team in the NBA. That's something to consider.

[Guest]

You want to know the real sad thing about the article?

They’ve got Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, but they might have to shed Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich in a sign-and-trade for James.

Uhhh...the Bulls actually have cap space where they don't need to do a sign and trade. Bradley is just throwing out CBA terms left and right with NO KNOWLEDGE of them whatsoever. The AJC needs to fire him, and I'm serious. This is piss-poor job performance.

[jhay610]

I wrote on his blog under a different hanlde. Dude is off the deep end -- no excuse especially considering MC just blogged on this. He looks worse with every post. Unreal.

Also sad that there are prolific posters on the Board who still don't have a clue despite the literally 100's of threads on the issue.

Bradley is a paid journalist (loose usage of the term) and he is spreading ignorance like wildfire.

Edited May 28, 2010 by jhay610

[lethalweapon3]

Do the AJC sportswriters even talk to each other? I'm serious. I get the feeling they write in their own telework bubbles. Just 15 minutes of casual convo with Michael Cunningham would've avoided these blunders.

~lw3

[Admin]

I'd hope that he understands we'd have to sign and trade for Lebron and that we couldn't just sign him outright but you never know. That doesn't really matter though for the premise of the article since it is possible that we could get Lebron as we do have enough pieces to make it happen, however the issue that I have with the article is that (assuming he realizes that we'd have to trade for him) he doesn't realize that we'd likely not have Josh Smith and Joe Johnson and possibly one of Marvin or Crawford as well. The article makes it seem like we'd be able to have our current team sans Joe and that's just not possible unless Joe and Lebron signed contracts that are very similar and someone forced the Cavs to make a straight up trade. Regardless though it doesn't matter as it will never happen ... and I'm thankful for that as I cannot stand Lebron and would never want him on the Hawks.

[Atlantaholic]

We would have to give up our entire core AND get rid of Joe Johnson to be able to acquire Lebron, So, pretty much, there is an absolutely 0% chance it happens. Lebron James can choose any team in the NBA to play for and we are not even close to the most attractive option no matter how you want to slice it. All these articles and posts are pointless.

[thecampster]

Alright, let's just play Devil's advocate if we can. Let's assume that Bradley was speaking in hypotheticals and he really wants this question answered. The only way to bring Lebron is to first get Cleveland to accept JJ in return and not let JJ walk. Second will be to send an additional player Cleveland's way because they are not going to give Joe the Max and build around him. They would be starting over. Third, we'd have to assume Joe agreed to go to Cleveland as a part of said sign and trade. Fourth, let's also agree that they will demand a draft pick compensation since we are not in a position to just sign him outright.

Even in this scenario, this couldn't be completed until Chillz was signed and or signed and traded as Chillz has a ridiculous cap hold on his contract as long as he isn't signed. So let's 5. also assume Chillz sign's for the exemption for the privilege of playing with Lebron.

Assuming all those things happen and it fits in the cap / trade rules of the NBA.

Bradley is still wrong to assume the lineups he did. I would have to guess the player that goes with JJ to Cleveland would be Teague. I can't see any other scenario they do it in. That means the starting lineup is something like.

Crawford/Lebron/Marvin/Josh/Al

With a backup lineup of

Bibby/Chillz/Insert SF here/Some PF/Zaza

I suppose we could go 8 man lineup and rotate James to the 3, marvin out, chillz at the 2 when Marvin is out...Marvin back in when Josh is out, and do something like that.

I would call that the best starting 5 in the league and would then call that the worst scoring bench in the league. Remembering Mo opted out. It sounds to me like Bradley was trying this out on NBA LIVE's trade.

[DrReality]

Billion to one odds.

[Dragitoff]

I think there's still folks on here who don't realize that we could actually add LeBron and keep Joe without completely blowing up our team. Crawford and Smoove + picks equals LeBron and a lesser player (to make salaries match) Because of Smoove's kicker, maybe we can take bake Gibson's bad contract for them. That would still give you a starting lineup of Bibby, Johnson, LeBron, ???, Horford. Is that better than what we've got? Who knows, but it is a deal that financially works. Will it happen? Probably not, but it is a deal that financially works?