My apology to ALL Hawks fans living in Metro Atlanta

[TheNorthCydeRises]

This thread went a little different from what you planned, but I still agree with your sentiment. A small side-story:

I bought a plane ticket from Raleigh to Atlanta that would be in time for game 6 of the 2nd round Hawks v. Magic. For me, it was a fairly big money purchase but I figured its a better decision because I bought it in advance rather than the week of (so cheaper rate, it would have been 3x as much if it wasn't in advance) and there was a decent chance it goes to 6. Certainly, it goes to at least 5 I mean how could we have been shut out? Wrong. Flat out wrong, this team went to the shitter just so fast it was sick to watch. I mean honestly, it was the most pathetic performance in sports I have ever seen. So by the time my plane ticket rolled around, I had no reason to go to Atlanta (I could have hung out with friends, but I had certain studying to do). I feel like I should bill the ASG for this, but I would get a bounced check. It only feeds on my hatred of the ASG.

At the same time, I am reasonable enough to see that the ASG didn't have them play bad. Sure it could be the coach or players problem. OK, but if you want to fix that you have to change the atmosphere. Flipping Woodson for a cheaper version of him does not count, the ASG has done nothing and I can't believe we have people here who defend them blindly. f*** the ASG, you shouldn't be an owner if you only expect to put half the effort necessary to field a winning team.

It didn't go any differently than what I planned. I simply wanted to apologize for ripping on the fans like I did. My loyalty to the Hawks is still unconditional, even with bad management. But I realize now that this ownership group isn't serious about building a winner, partially because they seem so indecisive about what they want to do and who they want to go after. Too many times, they settle for the absolute bottom of the barrel type player.

[drzachary]

You are seriously awesome for making a post like this. No joke! Huge props.

Now, if you could only convince the media to shut their yap about the "bad fans" .... ;)

[TheNorthCydeRises]

What exactly have they done that suggests they don't want to bring a winner to Atlanta? Is it the fact that they aren't willing to pay Shaq based on what is reputation is and not the player he is now?

I have never seen such handwringing over not signing a guy who would make a minimum impact on this team at best. The guy is barely better than a replacement level player at this point, and this ownership group is getting criticized because they don't feel signing Shaq is worth paying the luxury tax.

In this instance, this group is actually exhibiting a conservativeness with their money that they should have exhibited when they decided to grossly overpay to keep Joe Johnson. Somehow, doing that shows that they aren't committed to winning as well. It's damned if you do, damned if you don't.

There are other things to criticize this team over rather than criticizing them because they would rather sign Shaq at a value he's worth.

For one, they fell into the same trap many Hawks fans fell into with the thought that Joe Johnson means so much to this team that they absolutely had to resign him. As a result, they grossly overpaid for a very good but not true superstar player, and it may ultimately cost them the flexibility to keep the two young guys who do have super star ability on the team together long term.

Second, this group had a flippant outlook on the draft. They have a very good scouting staff who can find talent. The players this scouting staff focused on during the draft all performed very well in summer league action, whether it was Jordan Crawford who they draft, Dominique Jones who they had rated close to even with Jordan Crawford, or Gani Lawal, who looks like he can contribute 10 minutes a game as a rookie on a deep Phoenix Suns team, the players they focused on can all play. The one guy they liked who showed nothing was Daniel Orton, and that's mostly because they fell into another trap many Hawks fans have fallen into. That trap is valuing size over length and athleticism. Rick Sund made a brilliant move in moving down from 24 to 27 to get Jordan Crawford, and picking up the 31st pick was the reason it was brilliant. Trading that pick for nothing ruined the trade. No one can tell me that signing Jason Collins and Josh Powell is more effective on the court and more cost effective than it would have been to just draft Gani Lawal or Jarvis Varnado with the 31st pick.

There are definitely things this group can be criticized on. Not signing Shaq and not spending money they don't have isn't one of them.

KB . . To me, this isn't even about Shaq anymore. It's about looking at this team and seeing where you can upgrade it. If the ASG want to keep JJ, Smoove, Horford, and even Crawford in the mix as our core . . . fine. They all came up big last year. But everybody else is expendable. And to me, if you have to trade fringe guys for another guy that a team doesn't want, then you do that ( like we did by acquiring Jamal Crawford ). Or if you bring in a guy, bring in one who can replace some of our more inconsistent players.

We are a very good team when you look at our top 4 to 5 players. But after that, we have a group of very inconsistent players that don't even do one thing well on a consistent basis.

When this ownership and GM tries to sell the fans garbage like Jason Collins, Joe Smith, Josh Powell, or whatever scrub that they'll bring in will help us, you know that they're not serious. They are much better off going with some young energetic guy, than to bring a jouneyman, non-productive player in here. Even in the case of Flip Murray, you could at least say that he was a productive bench player. Flip wasn't garbage. Nor was Mo Evans.

I'd much rather use most of the MLE on one guy who can be a good rotational player, than to split it 3 ways on guys who you know won't play at all. Spend your money on a Hakim Warrick type player, if you're going to do something. Don't waste it on Jason Collins and Josh Powell. Seriously?

You know what I think happened?

When everybody in the market started getting overpaid, these guys blinked. They were probably expecting to secure guys like Brad Miller or Big Z for 2 million. But when Z wants to chance a ring, and Brad takes 5 mill per year to play in Houston, these guys were like "whoa . . . I didn't know that these guys would make that much. Oh well, we're not spending that much money on one player. We might as well spend the rest of the money on scrubs."

It's ironic, because it may have been THEY who started the ball rolling with the excessive spending with the JJ contract. I still say we had to do it, but these other teams feel that they had to spend the money that they spent on these other guys to stay competitive.

Seriously . . . if these guys were real about what they say, they would've convinced Chill to sign a deal that he couldn't turn down ( unless he wanted out of Atlanta at all costs ). Does 5 yrs - 30 million right off the bat secure Chill? And then they would've told Chill that he would be given a legit chance to compete for the starting SF job. If we had just found a way to do that, no one would be complaining much, because we all know that Chill is a bonafide rotation type player. And we would still have the MLE to use if we wanted to add 2 more people.

See . . I was duped into believing that these guys were serious about building a winner, or at the very least, upgrading the theam, based on the moves that they themselves made, and the reasons they say they made the move.

- brought in Avery Johnson for 3 INTERVIEWS ( a coach who has led a team to the NBA Finals ), but decided to hire in-house with Larry Drew . . I'm not overly mad at that. It didn't help their perception of cheapness or seriousness about getting to that next level, but let's see what Drew can do with this squad, seeing that he's familiar with them. But still . . why bring in Avery for 3 interviews, and then let him slip away from you?

- made a shrewd draft night deal to get the #27 and #31 pick . . . they use the #27 on Jordan Crawford ( whom we all like now ), but sell the #31 for 3 million cash. . . . OK. . . nice move to trade down and still get the player that you wanted, and we were told that they sold the #31 pick because the player that they wanted ( Daniel Orton ) was off the board, and because they could now go after veteran free agents. OK . . that's cool. As long as you can secure decent free agents, the fans aren't going to be too upset at what you did.

- trade Childress to Phoenix for a 2nd round pick and a 3 mill TPE . . . if that's the best they could get from Chill, and Chill didn't want to play here, OK. But you're now seeing a disturbing pattern developing. They passed on the big name coach that they would have to pay, and went with the cheapest possible option at coach. They trade away what was virtually another late 1st round pick, just to get money. and now they trade Chill for a 2nd round pick that they probably won't use, and a TPE that is so low, that they may not be able to use that either.

- rumors about Shaq swirl constantly about him possibly coming to Atlanta, but the Hawks don't make a move to secure him. . . . If he wants 8 mill per year . . OK. But he does address a need of this team . . a BIG need. Then you hear how they value their team, and especially Marvin Williams, a guy whose been nothing more than mediocre since he's been in ATL. A serviceable player, but nowhere near a guy that you MUST keep.

- reports come out that the Hawks will retain Jason Collins . . which was the last straw for me. If they are REALLY serious about bringing back one of the most non-productive big men of the last 4 years, that means that they aren't serious. They're simply trying to fill roster spots now.

- Jeff Schultz ( who I don't like at all ), gets a direct quote from Sund, saying that they're trying to build an elite team, without going into the Luxury Tax . . . which makes just about everything that I've written before to be a FLAT OUT LIE by the ASG. They knew the minute that they were going to pay JJ a 100+ million contract, that they had no intention of spending money on a rotational player who could help us. Even if JJ signed for less than he did, they still wouldn't spend on that kind of player. And you CAN get a rotational player for the MLE, and he can help your team ( see James Posey @ Boston ).

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Let me clarify. I don't like Jeff Schultz's writings most of the time. Personally, I have nothing against the man. But his article hit it right on the head. The Hawks are way too passive in this free agent period.

I tell you what though. If guy like Jordan Crawford comes out of the gate, and PROVES that he can ball on this level, Drew bet not keep him buried on the bench, in favor of a Mo Evans, especially if Mo played like he did last year. And when I say "ball", I mean that you can see that whenever Jordan comes into a game, he make an immediate impact.

Basically, the ASG is rolling the dice that either our top players are going to get significantly better, or that Teague and Jordan can come right in and make an immediate impact.

Now you have these Chris Paul rumors out again. But the ASG loves their "core" so much, that they wouldn't dare give away one of the core guys to get Paul.

You have to wonder if Jamal Crawford + a 1st round pick . . or Josh Smith + a 1st round pick, would be an offer that New Orleans would seriously look at?