Hope You're All Happy Now!!

[gohawks11]

the babcock years are better than now. we still wont be a playoff team next year. or the next.

[Wretch]

I actually enjoy watching Chill and Smoove develop as much as I liked watching Mookie, Smitty, and Deke shut people down. Though, the real treat is knowing that one day...we'll have a real team.

Right now, it's like we don't even exist. It's like...the Hawks? Who the hell are the Hawks? Who they got?

But in a few years, we'll have nationally televised games...players that everybody recongnizes. Free agents will take paycuts to sign with us (maybe )...and we'll be able to lure the Kobe's, TMacs, and Shaqs of tommorrow.

The route we're taking is the surest way to get there. I'm patient and I can wait.

[Nicholasp27]

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the babcock years are better than now. we still wont be a playoff team next year. or the next.

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well if u are happy with just barely making the playoffs and losing in the first round year after year, then follow toronto if they keep the other babcock around for awhile...

if u wanna watch a team get deep into the playoffs in a few years, then watch the hawks

[gohawks11]

wretch i agree with you, but we will proboaly trade our players when they finally get good for draft picks. in 2 years if we dont make the playoffs the organization will clear everyone.

[unknownjdb]

You know, I don't neccessarily root for the Hawks to lose, but then again, I don't expect them to win either. This is what keeps me sain when the Hawks do lose. When the Hawks win, I'm over-joyed and psyched. It's awesome, but then again it's rare. We are a losing team right now.

That's what rebuilding is all about. You have to hit bottom before you can rise to the top.

What we had when Knight took over the team didn't work. What is the best thing to do when something doesn't work? If everything is set up wrong and there's a lot of negative energy running through it, why would you try to save it? You scrap it! You start fresh with a good foundation.

This year was about getting a that good foundation. This coming year will be about building upon that already established foundation, re-enforcing it and making it stronger. The following year will be about smoothing out the edges and finally the fourth year is when some major noise should happen.

Again, that's another year of mediocrity, a year of good play and finally, in the fourth year, we should have the pay-off. I can live with that.

Now, does that mean I won't root for the Hawks when they are playing next year? Hell no! I'll root for them, but I won't get too overly frustrated if they lose either. Sure, there will be moments when emotions overflow and tempers will flare, but hopefully not too often. That's just the life of a Hawks fan.

Then again, I might just be too used to losing. I'm a Cubs fan as well.

[CrawDaddy]

I think we'll be better sooner than most people think. That being said though, I think a lot of that depends on free agency this summer and the next. It's easy to say you want to build your team through the draft, but you HAVE to compliment those draft picks with some established NBA talent.

What's going to have to happen in the beginning is we are going to overpay for FA's. Larry Hughes, Stromile Swift--we are going to have to throw huge money at those guys to convince them to come play here. And that's okay, because as soon as you build a base of players like that, other players will follow.

[Peoriabird]

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wretch i agree with you, but we will proboaly trade our players when they finally get good for draft picks. in 2 years if we dont make the playoffs the organization will clear everyone.

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Sounds like you think that BK listens to Diesel's crazy fantasy trade proposals. I guarantee you that he doesn't. These are BK's picks and he is sticking with them.

[jezmund]

It's almost funny how much I've tried to defend the Hawks the past 4-5 years to people who just pay attention to big names and W/L colums. I'll admit, though, this is the 1st time where I really believe we'll turn it around for the long haul, not the short term. BK/Woody don't want to just make the playoffs next year. They want to build from the ground up and it is obviously going to take time. Now that I've lost all credibility from past arguments with outsiders, all I can say now to them is, "Just wait 2-3 years". It sounds like such an excuse but I don't know what to say. Anyways, Wretch, the point of this post was just to say 'cheers' in watching this promising team grow and hoping for more extremely successful drafts like the one of 2004. Did we really get Josh Childress and Josh Smith in the last draft at #6 and #17?

[Wretch]

We don't just trade players for draft picks. If a guy isn't going to get you to the playoffs, then why pay him 10 to 13 million a year? If 3 or 4 guys making a combined 55+ million can't get you into the playoffs or out of the 1st round, then what is the point?

In 2 years, these guys will still be on rookie contracts. They'll still be cheap. They'll prove thier worth by then and we'll likely resign them. IF we give them all that money and over the course of 3 or 4 years we can't do anything, then they will be traded. Nobody is going to look at trading Chill or Smoove for quite a while - unless we get a can't miss deal.

Right now though, in their rookie seasons, Chill and Smoove are each capable of going out on any given night and getting 15+ points and 10+ rebounds. Give these guys experience, conditioning, and a quality PG and we will likely have a team better than anything the Hawks have seen in a LONG WHILE.

[Nicholasp27]

ok, let's do it ur way

keep al, which means giving him an extension in october at, we'll be generous, 9mil+raises...

and we draft bogut with the 1st pick this summer

and then we sign hughes at 9mil and jaric at 6mil

chill/smoove/bogut all keep improving...chill is an 18/8/4/2 player...smoove is a 19/9/3/3 pf...bogut is a 20/11/5 center...

so all 3 get offers for around 10mil that we have to match

so we have al at around 12mil by then...hughes at around 12 mil, jaric at around 9 mil.....that's already 33 mil

we only have 15ish in cap space...we gotta sign 30 in contracts...so we are not 15 over the cap...plus we have to have depth...so we have to have 2-4 decent 4-6mil/year backups and another 3-5 backups at 2-4mil

that's another 25-36mil...

so now we are 40-51mil over the cap!

we are the LAC all over again...

[Lascar78]

I get the feeling that gohawks11 is not interested in the reality of the NBA and how cap economics work. If you don't want to sign good players here you hate the hawks! At least babcock had big name players here!