Larry Hughes to Atlanta!!!

[Diesel]

Wouldn't that be special. I think Hughes is a very good SG with ball handling ability and classic defense.

I suppose we can outbid Washington for the services of Hughes.

Hughes/Chillz/Smoove...

The future of Hawks Basketball...

Surround them with Bogut and Paul and you might have some championship contenders in 2 years.

[Nicholasp27]

if we get bogut then i'm going hard after hughes/johnson/redd/ray/jacobsen along with swift...

[TheDude]

dude, can we not post titles like that making me beleive we alraedy go him?

[DominiqueWilkins]

It would be great to add Larry, and he would come cheaper than someone like Ray Allen/Joe Johnson/Redd.

The likely hood of it happening is very slim.

[Diesel]

Well,

we can definitely outbid Washington for Hughes. Since Hughes is unrestricted, its not a case of Washington matching.

Hughes, Chill, Smoove.

That can be the defensive heart of our team.

[Spiral]

Washington definitely has a decision to make. They have Kwame and Larry Hughes to make a decision on. I don't think they can afford both. Well they could by giving Hughes an extension and matching any offers Kwame gets. I think thats unlikely though as that would put Washington in a salary range that they don't want to be in.

[Nicholasp27]

if wash doesn't extend hughes, then all we have to do is offer him $1 more than wash has under the cap and they can't match us...

how much cap space will they have if they renounce both hughes and kwame?

[Spiral]

It's tough to give an exact number because it's damn near next to impossible to find out how much every player on a given team makes. There are some helpful websites, but hardly none of them are completely accurate & up to date. Just looking at it and from what I can tell, they'd be roughly 4-8 million under the cap if they don't re-sign either one.

[Nicholasp27]

Washington has 37.5mil guaranteed for next year...plus draft pick...even without pick they only have 5mil or so...

so they are just like the knicks...mle or less...

that means we can get hughes for only 6-7mil if he wants the money...

basically, it's us and the bobcats that will have more than the MLE to throw around this summer after teams resign their fas...

that means that we can get swift for 6mil/year, since bobcats don't need him...if bobcats want hughes, we'll have to pay big money for him though...or we can offer johnson 8-9mil and see if suns match...

[Diesel]

I say if you really think about it, we should make offers to both Hughes and Kwame and Make Washington choose...

I would say about a 7 yr 50 million dollar deal to Hughes

a 6 yr 44 million dollar deal to Brown.

See if Washington is able to match either or both...

I don't think that they can.

[Nicholasp27]

that was my original plan, but then i found out hughes is UFA

so if he accepts our offer, we have him...washington can't just match our offer...we sign him outright...

but i guess if we tell his agent that we'll give him 5 years starting at 7mil, then his agent will go to washington and ask if they wanna outbid that...

[Final_quest]

What about Bird rights? Wouldn't Washington be able to sign Hughes under a Bird Rights situation, or does that only qualify for max contracts?

[mrhonline]

Quote:

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LARRY BIRD EXCEPTION -- This is the best known one. Players who qualify for this exception are called "Qualifying Veteran Free Agents" in the CBA.

This exception allows teams to exceed the salary cap to re-sign their own free agents, up to the player's maximum salary. The free agent in question must have played for three seasons without being waived or changing teams as a free agent.

This means a player can obtain "Bird rights" by playing under three one-year contracts, a single contract of at least three years, or any combination. It also means that when a player is traded, his Bird rights are traded with him, and his new team can use the Bird exception to re-sign him. These contracts can be up to seven years in length. A player can receive 12.5% raises using this exception. This exception is known as the Larry Bird exception because the Celtics were the first team allowed to exceed the cap to keep their own free agent, and the player happened to be Bird.

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The Wizards can offer Hughes up to his "max" - something that no one will do. It's not a matter of how much the Wizards can offer, it's a matter of how much they want to offer.

And since they really have no backup plan (they won't have the cap space to sign anyone remotely as good as Hughes), the only way for the Hawks to get Hughes is to DRASTICALLY overpay him.

Personally, I would rather overpay Joe Johnson b/c he's the better defender, more versatile, and has more upside.

[Diesel]

I suppose that Washington will sign Hughes or wants to sign Hughes, however, I say we cause them to spend a lot on Hughes by putting a high offer on his table.

6 yr 47 million should be high enough. It's not a max contract (and he's not a max player) but it's enough that Washington actually has to spend more than they want to to keep him. Especially if the luxury tax remains or gets stricter.

[Admin]

Hughes is........not even close. Hughes averages more than 2 steals per game more than Johnson does. Here are some stats about Hughes from NBA.com

Quote:

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Ranks #1 in the NBA in Steals Per Game(2.82)

Ranks #5 in the NBA in Steals(96.0)

Ranks #2 in the NBA in Steals Per Turnover(1.22)

Ranks #6 in the NBA in Triple-doubles(1.0)

Ranks #18 in the NBA in Field-Goal Attempts Per 48 Minutes(22.19)

Ranks #1 in the NBA in Steals Per 48 Minutes(3.62)

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And here are the same for Johnson

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Ranks #4 in the NBA in Three-Point Field-Goal Percentage(0.455)

Ranks #12 in the NBA in Minutes Per Game(39.6)

Ranks #3 in the NBA in Minutes Played(2138.0)

Ranks #11 in the NBA in Three-Point Field Goals Made(110.0)

Ranks #18 in the NBA in Three-Point Field Goal Attempts(242.0)

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Those are glaring differences between the 2 players. Hughes is a FAR better defender and more of a prototypical SG than Johnson is. Johnson is a much better 3pt shooter, but again he is about 100 points higher this year and if you look over the past few years, they are pretty close to each other in 3pt shooting. Has Johnson really broken out into a great shooter, or is his dramatic improvement in that area correspond directly to playing in a high octane offense as the 5th threat?

For my money, I would take Hughes over Johnson all day long. I like defensive minded players, which Hughes certainly has the huge edge over Johnson is. Scoring wise they are about equal and size wise Johnson is much bigger, but all things considered it would be a no-brainer for me to choose Hughes over Johnson for the same or close to it money.

[Final_quest]

I guess if nothing else the Hawks have the opportunity to put teams in cap hell like they did last year. The fact that we have all this space teams have to spend more than they want to. I think both Hughes and Johnson will resign with their current teams. Doesn't Colangelo own the Suns? He's usually not shy about signing guys to big contracts. How can the Wizards break up a great nucleus now that they are winning?

[mrhonline]

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. "Defense" is such a subjective description - one that there are NO stats to support.

I would love to have Larry Hughes on the Hawks, but Johnson *should* be the better player three years from now. And since the Hawks aren't competing for several years...well...

(BTW, did you bother to look at the rankings you listed at Hughes? He's great at steals, but what else? He scores a lot because he takes a lot of shots. Plus he has one triple-double. Nothing eartshattering).

[Packfill]

Hughes is generally recognized as a good defender. He is also a natural scorer - not a shooter mind you - but a good scorer. He also has good ballhandling skills - he entered the league as a point guard (remember, he was the tall point guard that was supposed to team up with AI in Philly).

Hughes is defintely a better all around player then Johnson right now. Johnson is also a good all around player, and a much better shooter, but not on Hughes level as a defender or all around game.

[Nicholasp27]

here's the rub...

hughes is injured, johnson is not...

however, hughes is an UFA, meaning if he WANTS to be here, he's ours...

johnson can't choose to go with us if the suns match...

[mrhonline]

Quote:

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Hughes is generally recognized as a good defender. He is also a natural scorer - not a shooter mind you - but a good scorer. He also has good ballhandling skills - he entered the league as a point guard (remember, he was the tall point guard that was supposed to team up with AI in Philly).

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Yes, I've seen him play. And what I know is that most Wizard fans (up until this year's success) do not like his style of play. Now, offensively, Hughes is clearly the better player.

Either way, he'd be a major talent upgrade over any backcourt player on the Hawks' roster, so it's all relative.

Quote:

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Hughes is defintely a better all around player then Johnson right now.

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Agree. But by the time the Hawks are contending, I personally don't think that will be the case. I would rather gamble on upside...