There is no absolute formula to winning guys......

[Final_quest]

Formula for winning. Let's make this simple. Unless you had Jordan, Hakeem the Dream, Tim Duncan, or Shaq on your team in the last 15 years you more than likely weren't going to win a championship. Detroit was the aberration

Indiana has one of the best formulas for winning out of anyone. They have won a lot of games in the past 15 years, but they couldn't compensate for Jordan, Shaq, etc. We have to come up with a formula like Indiana or Detroit and hope for the best.

If Cleveland wins a championship in the next couple of years, would you attribute it to a formula for winning?

[Nicholasp27]

yup, the formula for winning is to get a true superstar

i'm not talking about the 'superstars' like tmac/kobe

but the SUPERSTARS like jordan/hakeem/duncan/shaq...

[emeans]

That was going to be my next point......Lets talk about JT and Dallas. This team was from my estimation a game away from playing in the Western Conference Championship and JT was very instrumental in this teams success.

I think the differences between JT and Salim is that JT is sometimes a head case during important stretches of a game. He would have mental lapses during games that the Hawks couldn't continue to deal with. If you take those mental lapses and bone headed mistakes (dribble the ball of his leg with no pressure, not guarding the best shooter during crunch time, etc.) away from JT, he would be an absolute terror at the PG position because of one thing...he is an excellent shooter.

I would be willing to bet Salim will not have those kind of mental lapses. No two people are exactly the same especially with the approach to the game. I think Salim is similar to JT without the mistakes which would be a good thing for Atlanta. With the 24 second clock you NEED a PG that can shoot, when thing break down. An even JT has played better with talent around him!!

[AHF]

I still expect Atlanta will sign Bell away from Memphis this offseason and he will start at PG for Atlanta. Just a gut expectation though, that isn't based on much more than speculation and comments in the press about Knight's admiration for him since the beginning of last season.

[Plainview1981]

You say that about Mano... But I remember hearing that

he was the euro Kobe Bryant. That comes off to me that

he was a good player long before. The coach just smoothed

his rough edges so to say. That doesn't mean that Mano

didn't have the skills before he was took by SA because

it seems as if he did.

The difference is guys like Lue don't have the talent

and really Ivey doesn't have starter talent either. As

for Parker, he really hasn't improved all that much

the last few years.

"I think Marvin is super versatile and I definitely think he can adjust to being very good at the 3 or 4 position. Al Harrington and JSmooth can play the 3 or 4 and Josh Childress can play the 2 or 3."

The problem is that somebody is going to have to take

a backseat if all three stay. If MW is really a super

star potential, I doubt you want to put him in the

backseat.... Why would you want to use Josh Smith as

a 6th man.. SO that leaves Al... He left Indy( a

better team) so that he could start. Do you really

think he will comeback to Atlanta as a 6th man and

resign? I doubt it.

It's simple... Al needs to go. I would send Diaw off

because I think he has been effected by the losing.

[Lascar78]

Yeah I think most people agree that Al has to go at some point, unless he miraculously agrees to be a 6th man. The question is will we get more for him by trading him now, at the trade deadline, or doing a SNT?

[Plainview1981]

I wonder what it would take to get Nelson from Orlando?

They probably will go with a Nelson/Francis backcourt

though and so they likely wouldn't trade him.

I think Al would have been worth giving up if the Hawks

could have got the 3rd or 4th pick.

I wonder what Dallas is asking for Harris.

It's amazing how few good PG's the league has. No wonder

offenses get more and more dumbed down.

[drzachary]

Quote:

---

Yeah I think most people agree that Al has to go at some point, unless he miraculously agrees to be a 6th man. The question is will we get more for him by trading him now, at the trade deadline, or doing a SNT?

---

Unless he agrees to become a 6th man, or something happens with Smith or Williams.

[Lascar78]

Well Orlando doesn't really like Francis for the long term I believe. Too much ballhogging. I don't know what they think of Nelson, but I doubt they'd give him up at this point in time.

Most believe PG to be the position that takes the most time to develop at so teams usually don't ship PG's that they drafted 1 or 2 years ago.

I wonder if Portland is planning on keeping both Telfair and Jack. Jack is not a pure distributor, but his D would be welcome on this team.

[Plainview1981]

Brevin Knight would be a decent short term option...

[Final_quest]

Knight and Gadzuric might be the best short term options.

I wonder if BK would sign Brevin because of his size?

[drzachary]

Let's get Paul Shirley (back) on board! His blog alone would increase interest in our team!

[Lascar78]

who's the other guy with a funny blog? I'm drawing a blank but I'm sure most know who I'm talking about. short guy

[Plainview1981]

Well, Lue isn't that big.... Paul isn't that big is

he? How big is Jack?

[Lascar78]

6'4"

[drzachary]

Jack is my height (6'3").. met him a few weeks ago in my company's ATL store. However, he is very physically imposing for a point guard, very well-muscled.

[Final_quest]

I think the funny blog guy is Phoenix's 12th man, don't know the name.

Also Peja Drobnjak used to have a funny website.

[Weez]

I think what quest is saying is that if you have a 'scoring' pg then you need to have a good passing team surrounding him (ie Ginobili and Duncan, or most of the pistons) otherwise the TEAM will turn the ball over a great deal...

I agree with this to a large degree...and worry. I'm not concerned with Chill, who has shown to be a heady player, and I don't really know enough about Marvin to say either way, but JSmoove is still learning the game and appeared lost at many many times last year (thus won't be a great passer in the 'flow' of the offense) and Harrington, in his 6th (?) year now is questionable/mediocre in his passing abilities...

[Diesel]

Quote:

---

siah inherited an overpriced mediocre team and has made it an even more overpriced mediocre team with no future anytime soon

---

What?

Isiah is building in NY. I don't like the Rose trade but he is getting absolute Steals out of the draft. Channing Frye, David Lee, Dijon Thompson, and Nate Robinson... Those are absolute steals for NY. Add that to Trevor Ariza...

Look at the draft team he can put on the floor:

Nate Robinson, Dijon Thompson, Trevor Ariza, David Lee, Channing Frye...

Damn. That team can be some real starting 5... Maybe ours... I mean they do have a real PG and C.

Add to that Marbury, Crawford, Sweetney, and even Tim Thomas... and you got the start of something. I think NY needs a few more real Big men and they will be able to compete.

[Lascar78]

Quote:

---

Look at the draft team he can put on the floor:

Nate Robinson, Dijon Thompson, Trevor Ariza, David Lee, Channing Frye...

Damn. That team can be some real starting 5... Maybe ours... I mean they do have a real PG and C.

Add to that Marbury, Crawford, Sweetney, and even Tim Thomas... and you got the start of something. I think NY needs a few more real Big men and they will be able to compete.

---

That's real cute and all for a draft team, but that team is not contending for a championship anytime soon and has the league's highest payroll. What's their lineup that's seriously going to contend in the east, much less in the finals?

They already had Marbury, Crawford, Sweetney and Thomas & Thomas. They didn't sniff the playoffs. Replace KT by Frye, who is the same player without the toughness. The only real game changer they added is Q Richardson, and he's not turning that lottery team into a contender. They went from lottery to a first-round exit in the east type team. They're a deep team (hence the payroll), but they can't put a 5 on the floor that can contend. Not even close. And with their salary mess, people will have to start leaving pretty soon