So what's it gonna be?

[Vol4ever]

Last week or so we have had blowup in the locker room, article stating LP not on the hot seat, article saying we have discussed Steve Adam's, getting blown out bad a few times, and JC coming back.  

No doubt having JC back is a huge improvement for the team.   How much of an improvement?  If we decide to go the trade route what does that mean in terms of a rebuild?  Can Schlenk make a good upgrade trade after taking on expiring contracts and failed trades this summer?  

Lot to ponder here.  Your take?  

[sturt]

Readers Digest version of earlier post today:

Panic buttons won't come out until this time next year.

[JayBirdHawk]

My magic 8ball says........Ask me again after JC plays 11 games, that's half of the 22 games to the trade deadline Feb 6th, 2020.

Even if we make a trade it doesn't change our rebuilding efforts.

From the 'Steven Adams trade article:'

Quote

.....the team’s youngest players — Young, John Collins, Huerter, Reddish, De’Andre Hunter and Fernando — aren’t likely to be moved or given up on just yet. The Hawks gave up on Spellman after his rookie season but only because they grew tired of him not taking his diet seriously enough. The six listed here don’t have off the court issues that have worn on the organization.

The only way I see the team trading any of the rookies or Huerter is if they need to be the centerpiece for a proven star....

The only thing I'm fairly certain of is that the trio of vets Parsons, Turner and Crabbe are most likely to  not be on the roster after the deadline wether by trade, buyout or release.

 

[Spud2nique]

Stand pat and let the rookies grow.

Go hard after less expensive options:

Tristan Thompson at C is my guess.

Also think we make a play for Malik Beasley. 
 

The goal is to grow with the youngsters and remain flexible for Giannis and 2021.

[REHawksFan]

Honestly, I prefer an aggressive approach over the stand pat approach. I think you could still make a splash with the fanbase while getting better on the near-term AND still preserving the long term rebuild. 

For instance:

Trade Parsons + Turner + Jones + Picks to OKC for Adams + DS17 + Roberson's contract

Sheds $46M off OKC's salary after this year while giving ATL a backup PG and starting C

ALSO:

Crabbe + Parker + Heurter to SA for Derozan + Carroll

Give up a young Heurter and have to take on Carroll but get back Derozan who is semi-elite. Don't know if SA would do it, but they would have Parker off the bench (maybe he resigns) and would have long term replacement for Belinelli. 

Hawks would have:

Trae / DS17

Derozan / Reddish

Hunter / Carroll

Bonehead / Bruno

Adams / Len

Other than Carroll, all the additions would be off the books after 20-21 season.  My thoughts are there won't be anyone worth spending on next summer but the Hawks only have 6 guaranteed contracts going into next year. So why not try to set up next years roster with trades this year? 

 

[kg01]

Why spend assets to clear the books when we literally could just wait til the end of this year and have clean books by just doing nothing?

Derozen isnt elite or semielite anymore.  Why spend heurter on him?

[REHawksFan]

51 minutes ago, kg01 said:

Why spend assets to clear the books when we literally could just wait til the end of this year and have clean books by just doing nothing?

Derozen isnt elite or semielite anymore.  Why spend heurter on him?

Not spending assets to clear the books. If that's the objective, then just wait til next summer and the Hawks will have $70M to spend. But on who? There's no one going to be available next summer that is worth a max deal and probably no one worth close to that. Hawks will end up overpaying just to sign someone. 

As for Derozan, I will admit I've always been a fan so I'm probably a little biased. But he's still avg 21/5/5 per game on 50% FG%. He's never been a 3pt guy so I get that's not ideal, but he can certainly score. 

Anyway, my original post was just an example. Doesn't have to be Derozan. The main point is that I'd rather TS be aggressive in making some deals to set the team up for next season rather than minor tweaking and then being left with FA or trying to make trades in the summer just to fill out the roster. Waiting til summer is a recipe for overpaying, imo, because there will be a lot of teams looking for players and few players worth paying. 

[JayBirdHawk]

1 hour ago, kg01 said:

Why spend assets to clear the books when we literally could just wait til the end of this year and have clean books by just doing nothing?

Derozen isnt elite or semielite anymore.  Why spend heurter on him?

You don't, and per the article, Hawks aren't looking to move any of the 6 young guys for anybody but a star. DeRozan doesn't qualify.  Add to that he's more than likely to opt out of his contract. That's not a good use of an asset.

[Vol4ever]

1 hour ago, REHawksFan said:

Not spending assets to clear the books. If that's the objective, then just wait til next summer and the Hawks will have $70M to spend. But on who? There's no one going to be available next summer that is worth a max deal and probably no one worth close to that. Hawks will end up overpaying just to sign someone. 

As for Derozan, I will admit I've always been a fan so I'm probably a little biased. But he's still avg 21/5/5 per game on 50% FG%. He's never been a 3pt guy so I get that's not ideal, but he can certainly score. 

Anyway, my original post was just an example. Doesn't have to be Derozan. The main point is that I'd rather TS be aggressive in making some deals to set the team up for next season rather than minor tweaking and then being left with FA or trying to make trades in the summer just to fill out the roster. Waiting til summer is a recipe for overpaying, imo, because there will be a lot of teams looking for players and few players worth paying. 

Good point on the 70 million this summer.  No big time free agent is coming here to a losing situation and you are correct in we would just ending up overpaying some mid level free agent.  The only thing we can do is actually trade for a young player with a contract, but I'm not sure any team with a good young player would be willing to give them up.  

[Vol4ever]

What really bothers me about the rebuild is we got a good player in Trae, but we trashed the rest of the team with low level vets.  We did not get the #1 pick in the last 2 drafts and therefore going with total youth isn't going to get it done.  We have Trae, Huerter, Hunter, Cam and Bruno.  There is one all star in that bunch, the rest are role playing starters at best.  

[REHawksFan]

1 hour ago, Vol4ever said:

What really bothers me about the rebuild is we got a good player in Trae, but we trashed the rest of the team with low level vets.  We did not get the #1 pick in the last 2 drafts and therefore going with total youth isn't going to get it done.  We have Trae, Huerter, Hunter, Cam and Bruno.  There is one all star in that bunch, the rest are role playing starters at best.  

I think it's entirely too early to make any kind of declarations about Hunter, Cam, or Bruno. They've played less than 30 games in the NBA. 

For reference: 

12/23/18:  15.5 pts/gm on 38.3% FG% and 25.0% 3PT% (1.09 pts per shot) - Rookie Trae

12/23/19:  29.0 pts/gm on 44.4% FG% and 36.7% 3PT% (1.35 pts per shot) - Superstar Trae

12/23/19:  12.7 pts/gm on 39.9% FG% and 34.5% 3PT% (1.12 pts per shot) - Hunter

12/23/19:    8.5 pts/gm on 32.5% FG% and 26.4% 3PT% (0.95 pts per shot) - Cam

12/23/19:    3.8 pts/gm on 50.0% FG% and 21.1% 3PT% (1.27 pts per shot) - Bruno

We just don't know what Hunter, Cam, or Bruno will turn into yet. And no, I'm not saying any of them will show an 87% increase in ppg or a 16% improvement in FG% in year 2, but improvement will come and who's to say it won't be dramatic? All of them are sitting around where Trae was on this date 1 year ago. 

 

  

Edited December 23, 2019 by REHawksFan

[Thomas]

Think with the five guys listed that quite possibly we have two All Stars in years ahead (Trae and Cam). Yeah a lot of growing to get through for Cam but he is gifted enough, does have to really master the skill set and gain strength. Hunter and Bruno can be good glue guys plus Bruno will get better and smarter around the paint. Pretty worried about Kevin but even if it is just his three pointer that works that can help. His seemingly consistent injuries are worrisome and am thinking that is definitely bothering his shooting. Hoping that stuff doesn't become chronic. JC was not in the post I saw earlier but see him as a very possible All Star in the future and if not he still will be a double double guy or ever so close to it for us . 

[GameTime]

4 hours ago, REHawksFan said:

Not spending assets to clear the books. If that's the objective, then just wait til next summer and the Hawks will have $70M to spend. But on who? There's no one going to be available next summer that is worth a max deal and probably no one worth close to that. Hawks will end up overpaying just to sign someone. 

As for Derozan, I will admit I've always been a fan so I'm probably a little biased. But he's still avg 21/5/5 per game on 50% FG%. He's never been a 3pt guy so I get that's not ideal, but he can certainly score. 

Anyway, my original post was just an example. Doesn't have to be Derozan. The main point is that I'd rather TS be aggressive in making some deals to set the team up for next season rather than minor tweaking and then being left with FA or trying to make trades in the summer just to fill out the roster. Waiting til summer is a recipe for overpaying, imo, because there will be a lot of teams looking for players and few players worth paying. 

Derozan is literally one of the worst backcourt runmates for Trae. I think we are rushing this rebuild a bit. I thought the goal was to be elite not patching a pretender playoff team full of overpaid 'stars'. Keep stocking up elite young talent and picks and don't reassess your strategy until ASW 2021 IMO. If we need rebounding and shooting pick up some marginal help on that end to remain fun to watch, but don't risk "The Process".

[NBASupes]

To me, a star is obvious. 

Paul George 

Jimmy Butler

Kawhi Leonard 

You know, guys who are difference makers

 

The guys we need are just productive guys. 

A productive wing off the bench

A productive starting center 

A productive backup PG

We don't need a difference maker and the price for a guy is massively lower than a difference maker

[bleachkit]

9 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

To me, a star is obvious. 

Paul George 

Jimmy Butler

Kawhi Leonard 

You know, guys who are difference makers

 

The guys we need are just productive guys. 

A productive wing off the bench

A productive starting center 

A productive backup PG

We don't need a difference maker and the price for a guy is massively lower than a difference maker

A star would literally refuse to come here. Stars have leverage, they just do. That's not within the realm of possibility.

Upgrading our vets would be nice though. Cant do any worse than the vets we got now.

[NBASupes]

10 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

A star would literally refuse to come here. Stars have leverage, they just do. That's not within the realm of possibility.

Upgrading our vets would be nice though. Cant do any worse than the vets we got now.

We are a rebuilding team so that clearly makes sense. Stars and superstars generally don't go to rebuilding situations. 

LeBron James did a couple of years ago when he joined the Lakers and they got rid of 80% of the squad to this date.

[bleachkit]

1 minute ago, NBASupes said:

We are a rebuilding team so that clearly makes sense. Stars and superstars generally don't go to rebuilding situations. 

LeBron James did a couple of years ago when he joined the Lakers and they got rid of 80% of the squad to this date.

Yea, well that's the Lakers. That's certainly an outlier. 

[Vol4ever]

14 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

A star would literally refuse to come here. Stars have leverage, they just do. That's not within the realm of possibility.

Upgrading our vets would be nice though. Cant do any worse than the vets we got now.

So based on this we are back where we were a few years ago?  One of the issues on the rebuilding is we needed young stars that could attract superstars to come here.  I'm not sure I see a path to this team getting a superstar.  

[bleachkit]

1 minute ago, Vol4ever said:

So based on this we are back where we were a few years ago?  One of the issues on the rebuilding is we needed young stars that could attract superstars to come here.  I'm not sure I see a path to this team getting a superstar.  

We have to get our draft picks right, if not we are screwed. 

[JayBirdHawk]

3 minutes ago, Vol4ever said:

So based on this we are back where we were a few years ago?  One of the issues on the rebuilding is we needed young stars that could attract superstars to come here.  I'm not sure I see a path to this team getting a superstar.  

That's why the draft for us is important. The plan is to draft high enough to get our own superstar, who we hopefully have in Trae. The hope is our 2019 draft picks develop into 'something special' too.