The Hawks are not contenders...

[Sothron]

The Hawks haven't been real contenders since the Bird/NIque game seven. That won't change until we get a superstar. Anyone who thinks differently is not watching the NBA. There's only ever at best three or four teams every year that have a real chance of winning.

[ATLSmith]

I think it's a pretty safe call at this point to say the Hawks are not contenders this year. I mean, they are rebuilding and whatnot...

[Guest]

Hahaha diesel said gs warriors and Orlando magic...lol..

[Diesel]

I would bet lots and lots and lots of money against LAL being a top 3 seed in the West or making a championship run this season; against Sacramento making the playoffs; and against Orlando making the playoffs if the odds were anything remotely close to reflecting that these are reasonable possibilities.

I'm sure. Probably the same money you betted against us being a playoff team last year. However, when you look at those teams: Sacramento, LAL, and Orlando... they are just built right. You can't beat a team that is built right. My word on Orlando is if Big Baby comes back from surgery well. He's getting screws put in. That's never good. However, they have a young team that will fight. I like Afflalo and if he's not traded, they will be hard to beat... again, their weakest place is PG. If Jameer gets his shipment of Pimp Juice then they will be a hard team to deny... Tobias Harris and Maurice Harkless provides a good problem for any team to have.

[AHF]

I'm sure. Probably the same money you betted against us being a playoff team last year. However, when you look at those teams: Sacramento, LAL, and Orlando... they are just built right. You can't beat a team that is built right. My word on Orlando is if Big Baby comes back from surgery well. He's getting screws put in. That's never good. However, they have a young team that will fight. I like Afflalo and if he's not traded, they will be hard to beat... again, their weakest place is PG. If Jameer gets his shipment of Pimp Juice then they will be a hard team to deny... Tobias Harris and Maurice Harkless provides a good problem for any team to have.

I predicted we would be in the playoffs last year. I have predicted we will be in the playoffs for quite a few years and am predicting that again.

Sacramento I think is a mess. I am a Cousins fan but he is still a flawed player as long as he is Smooving (i.e., shooting bad jumpers waay too often) and I don't think the rest of the team will be impact players. I expect they will be in the range of a #6-8 team coming into the lottery and hoping the ping pong balls bounce their way.

LA is going to struggle with age and injury. I expect them to have some serious games missed between Kobe, Pau and Nash this year and their bench is still pretty ugly. Dwight being gone won't be a death knell since Pau will be much more effective as the primary interior option on offense than he was as a jump shooter last year but they will miss him on the defensive side of the court. I am very confident these issues will keep them from cracking the top 3.

Orlando wants to tank and has some interesting pieces but no engine. If they want to do well, they should be able to win some games but I don't think they will want to. I am coming into the year expecting them to be in the #3-5 range for the lottery. I agree they could be better than that if they are committed to winning but I don't expect that will be the case. If they want to win as many games as they can, they will be a high lottery team with a peak upside of a first round exit in the playoffs but I don't see that as likely. I don't see any way they can win a playoff series without some major trade(s) or injuries greasing the wheels.

[Diesel]

I'm totally on board with Granger. I think he'd be a perfect fit. Not sure what we'd have to give up to get him.

Where would he fit?

[kerrypack]

I agree that cleveland will surprise people this year. Don't know how they pulled that off, but something will go wrong.

[macdaddy]

Where would he fit?

Let Korver come off the bench. Start Jenkins or someone at the 2. With Granger we mainly need a defensive minded 2 guard at that point. Teague/2/granger/milsap/horford is pretty good. With Lou/ Korver brand coming off the bench.

[Diesel]

Let Korver come off the bench. Start Jenkins or someone at the 2. With Granger we mainly need a defensive minded 2 guard at that point. Teague/2/granger/milsap/horford is pretty good. With Lou/ Korver brand coming off the bench.

The thing is that Granger really plays just like a PF. He's prolly more of an inside player than Horf. I wouldn't call that a perfect fit at the three. As your post shows...we don't have starter talent at the 2. IF we traded for Granger, it would cost us somebody. That same cost could be used on a good 2 guard who can put some points on the board.

[macdaddy]

The thing is that Granger really plays just like a PF. He's prolly more of an inside player than Horf. I wouldn't call that a perfect fit at the three. As your post shows...we don't have starter talent at the 2. IF we traded for Granger, it would cost us somebody. That same cost could be used on a good 2 guard who can put some points on the board.

I agree we are missing a 2. What we are really missing is a scoring wing. Whether its a 2 or 3 I don't really care but out of the wings that seem available on the trade market I think Granger may be the best one.

[cowa]

I agree we are missing a 2. What we are really missing is a scoring wing. Whether its a 2 or 3 I don't really care but out of the wings that seem available on the trade market I think Granger may be the best one.

Guys, Granger makes $14M this season, could barely play any games last season, and when he did, he wasn't close to the old Granger we knew. There just aren't any viable trade possibilities involving Granger, as we don't have cap space anymore. Give this one up and focus on guys that are make much less.

There is no one player available right now at a salary we can afford that will turn us into a "contender" for our conference title much less the league. Ferry is trying to build a core and get cost effective players to play with the same mentality. We have 3 core players (Horford, Teague, Korver), 2 probable core players (Milsap, Williams) and 3 potential core players (Schröder, Nogueira, Jenkins). My feeling is that none of these players will be traded this year (with the exception of Jenkins) for various reasons (Horford - the player we are building around, Teague & Korver - Danny's reputation would be shot after just having signed each to 4 year contracts, Milsap - Great deal on short contract, and if he plays well, he could be traded in the offseason, Williams - still damaged goods for a while, and the young guys are the future and we're not moving them since they are so cheap) unless it's for a top star, which is highly doubtful. So, that leaves you with Brand, Ayón, Antić, Carroll, Cunningham, Jenkins and potentially Scott as trade bait ot get a starting caliber wing. If you are a GM of another team, are you trading anything of value for these guys? Even if you are just trying to reduce your payroll, we don't have cap room to take back salary anymore.

So if you're not including draft picks (1st rounders, which we don't want to do), I just don't see any potential starters coming our way. And it's frustrating, because I think there are two starting caliber players (Ariza & Gortat) who are very available and I don't feel we have the assets to get either of them. I don't see any trades coming until the deadline, and even then they would be minor ones to possibly accumulate more draft picks.

This is our team for the 2013-14 season, and I'm good with that. But next offseason is when Danny will have to find at least one additional core piece to the team.

[Diesel]

If we can get Asik and Gordon by the end of December, I think we would be in fine shape as contenders.

Asik, Horf, DMC, Gordon, Teague.